Best attributes / skills at character creation

[Flip]

Since attributes are so limited, any advice on which ones to focus on at level up? I was thinking social since that's a pain to level up and Leadership should be useful. Charm in theory although I read this doesn't work properly but not sure if that's been fixed.

Not sure about Vigour, seems like getting better gear will improve damage sufficiently.

[Pistachio]

I've been prioritizing Steward and Medicine at all points of the game including character creation. I don't see much point in leveling leadership and charm early on.

Having a large army helps win battles and get the clan into orbit quickly, so those two get the highest priority, even above combat skills.

[Flip]

Does Leadership increase party size or is that stewardship? Re: Medicine can you npc's handle that or is it something PC must handle?

[Pistachio]

Originally posted by Flip:

Does Leadership increase party size or is that stewardship? Re: Medicine can you npc's handle that or is it something PC must handle?

Stewardship increases party size, not Leadership. I know it is confusing and not quite intuitive.

As for the medicine, you can assign a party doctor that is an NPC companion, or you as the party leader can do it yourself. As for this, I have "character death" disabled and take on the party doctor role with the PC. In this case, you can eventually near max out the stats for medicine, which keeps lots of units alive.

On the other hand, if you assign an NPC companion as the party doctor, the upside is that they come with medicine skill at ~80, which is enough to hit the ground running. So you don't have to wait for your PC to get good at the skill. However, companions are not great at improving their skill level, so they struggle to get their medicine skill past what they started with, so there is a long term limit.

If you create a clan party besides your own, their group size is again limited by the Steward level of the party leader. Plus the unit survival rate is influenced by the companion's medicine skill.

[Flip]

Thanks for that, I had been operating under the misconception that leadership increased party size! Thanks for that, will focus more in int then, getting those up!

What would be a good aim level for attributes do you reckon?

I am thinking the following priority
Int - For steward & Med
End - Mainly for horsing and later on smithing (maybe)
Social - Charm & Leadership
Vigor - Weapon
Cunning - don't plan on doing much here

[Pistachio]

Trying to remember things off the top of my head here, but after Steward and Medicine, leadership and charm is what I tend to go after.

Those are easy to level since leadership increase passively as soon as you form your own army, which you can combine with farming influence by making army only consisting of your own clan parties. Charm, goes up whenever you let go of a captured noble or vote for something. They have decent buffs, so they do become useful. I think the Leadership tree having perk that lets you convert bandits to noble units still has some merit. It used to be that converting forest bandits to regular units was the best way to get Fians, but that since has changed. However, it is still nice to have. But the fact that they are easy to grind helps with overall level progression, so I do it mainly for that.

Riding has some passive skills that lets your party and the army move faster, which matters a lot when you start getting involved in wars. So I level up riding just enough to get enough movement bonuses. Scouting is similar in this regard, also worth looking into along with the adjacent Tactics. All in all, some degree very essential, but not worth maxing out.

I also don't use Cunning that much, since I don't know what crime rating really does in this game still. Nothing in the tree really enticing either. Maybe there is one or two nice ones, but not enough to invest points into.

Smiting, I get it just enough to let my characters get good at making coal, anything beyond is extra for me.

Weapons related skills, they do have party/army buffs that makes your units stronger, so there is a point. So I do go after them eventually, but I don't think I've ever leveled them up as much as I do with party/army focused skills. Horse archery skills that increase accuracy is really nice though.

Some people based on what I've read here seem to really invest a lot in Trading skills, but I personally don't. It usually stops somewhere middle of the progress bar and I find that sufficient for the overall gameplay.

[Sabaithal]

I'd try to get up the skills that are hardest to get in gameplay.

Mainly leadership, since it takes FOREVER to level that up even a little bit. Tactics and medicine are also on the list, though they can level a bit quicker once you put all your points into them.

Weapon skills are easy to level in gameplay, so I'd avoid them.

[Voncrow]

Originally posted by Pistachio SAC:

Originally posted by Flip:

Does Leadership increase party size or is that stewardship? Re: Medicine can you npc's handle that or is it something PC must handle?

Stewardship increases party size, not Leadership. I know it is confusing and not quite intuitive.

Stewardship increases your party size up to a max of +75. While the leadership perk at 275 give you +1 party size for every point after 250, which can go above the stewardship bonus in the late game. Plus, one of leadership's 250 perks give you an additional clan party slot. Which is much more than 75 if you can form an army. Leadership perk 125 gives you +5 party size for each town you control, situational but can stack if you cheese it.

So, stewardship gives you more immediate bonus to party size, but leadership overtakes stewardship's party size bonuses in the late game by a significant margin. Not that it really matters since stewardship is basically necessary for any playthrough because of the xp discard perks. Plus, stewardship and leadership arguably have the best synergy of any perks, especially if you throw medicine in there too, so you probably want both.

[Hasbulat]

Some perks increase your party size as well -
- 250th skill in 1 H increases your party size by 15 . 1H is most comon and safe skill in the game, so main main hero trains normally 1H weapon high.

- 150 th scouting increases party size by 5 (I dont take them, due to I use companion scout)

- 75 Leadership and Athletics and 125 Leadership increaseing party size limit by 5 each,

- 175 Leadership Increase party size by +5 for each town you control.

- 250 Leadership increases party size by 1 for each skill point after 250. You could come on significant number in late game with. if the player has the perk. and has a Leadership level of 300, all parties in his clan will have +50 party size limit.

- Every point in Stewrd increases your party size and size of all clan partys in case of the dedicated clan stweard

Normally I use to concentrate my main hero in

- 1 melee weapon - I take 1H (without skill it is just a pain to use them, with skill its funny)

- 1 ranged weapon - bow or crossbow , I use to take a bow and boost my throwing troops with a bit in throwing weapon

- horse riding

- athletics

All skills above give my army a boost in a fight and ensure the fact I can active fight and very offen bring the battle to my victory thanks vigor of my hero mainly.

Then - socal and leader skills:

- leadership and charm
- Steward

Have not much points for any other skills.

[Lord Savage]

For now got 280 athletic and 275 2H. Increase movement speed with every perk possible. Using armour to max 20 kilos. Take 2h axe (bardiche) and cut everything in front of you. (VIG 8, END 8) In athletic is perk + 1vig and +1 end. When i reach walls during siege i can cut 120 troops by myself. Smashing like mad man. I love splash attack
VIG 8
CTR 5
END 8
CNG 2
SOC 2
INT 6