Best Backgrounds

[CyrusDaVirus]

I know to start off with, farmhands and brawlers are best but after the gold starts rolling in, what are the 2nd and 3rd tiers that are best?

[MerlinCross]

Best are probably the guys sitting at 2k to buy. However most backgrounds can help with events or proc them. Or have other ways of helping.

Jesters and Killers have better aim at hitting the head. And Houndmasters can send out dogs at confident morale making them bigger(Still small) threat vs targets.

[WastedTrojan]

Sellswords are best recruits in the game imo. Swordmasters and hedge knights are the other top tier recruits.

[Biggus_Dikkus]

i got brittle and unsure apprentice for free from the event . I will name him Croaker if he makes it to level 5

[Meeky]

Personally, Wildmen are really fun to have. Their main problem is being, uhhh... prone to causing trouble for you in events. "Here, have some shrooms, they're great I promise." "Hey, I'm a bull in a china shop and the townsfolk are mad." But in return they've got high fatigue/HP and can usually be made into solid warriors of some sort. They're also really cheap.

Raiders are generally pretty wimpy for their cost. Adventurous Nobles feel hit or miss, as do Bastards; I haven't had much experience with Disowned Nobles since the full release.

Sellswords and Hedge Knights tend to have GREAT stats. The problem with Sellswords is they demand raises and sometimes cause trouble, but Hedge Knights are REALLY bad about causing trouble. Slapping peasants around is one thing, but if you have two Hedge Knights in the same band they'll sometimes try to FREAKING MURDER EACH OTHER. But Hedge Knights make great frontliners with high HP and Fatigue, and Sellswords typically have a really high attack rating for both ranged and melee, making them useful in a variety of roles.

For archers, I honestly like using Hunters or Sellswords (and the starting archer Companion). Poachers, Fletchers, and Witch Hunters can also roll up some nice archery stats - and on occasion you'll find someone who's unexpectedly a natural at archery (+1 vision, 3 stars in ranged skill, etc).

Swordmasters... I used to adore them, but I kind of don't like them anymore. The old trait nerfs them way too harshly right now, since not only does it reduce their visible stats but also makes them 20% less likely to use the Nimble trait. In other words, they're statted up in such a way that you'd expect them to make high melee defense specialists, but once the Old trait hits they lose too much fatigue to wear heavy armor properly, they lose too vision and so can't use a bow, and they actually become one of the worst characters to use the Nimble trait because even stark naked they'd have an 80% chance of using the trait at most (whereas other characters would have a 100% chance). Swordmasters got screwed over.

[Saint Scylla]

Let's not forget Lumberjacks and Squires at Tier 2.

[See you Space Cowboy...]

Definitely agree that the nerfs to swordmasters pretty much ruined them. Yes they're still viable but the low fatigue and HP, though mostly just fatigue, is really gonna make you cry even at max level even BEFORE old trait :(

[gazomierz]

Swordmasters aren't really about being good combatants tho. As they always sucked in that role. Ok, not always. Since PF was removed.

For me they're about events that come with them. Granted, I rarely hire them as I prefer to spend my cash on hedge knights and sellswords and those don't really require extra training to be viable. But I think event-wise swordmasters are still useful. Especially on long runs and seeing how ppl generally think high cost backgrounds suck and you can do just as well with band of masons and fishermen ;)

[See you Space Cowboy...]

Swordmasters used to be AMAZING with the old version of nimble. They were the dream basically.

Do you find it's worth it to hire and pay someone for events only? Also btw what are the events?

[Whatever100500]

Originally posted by See you Space Cowboy...:

Do you find it's worth it to hire and pay someone for events only? Also btw what are the events?

Random + Melee or + Mdef on other bros. But these events are super rare. I had only one training event in 100+ days of having a swordmaster.

So probably not worth it, unless you are already swimming in crowns.

[Meeky]

Originally posted by See you Space Cowboy...:

Swordmasters used to be AMAZING with the old version of nimble. They were the dream basically.

Do you find it's worth it to hire and pay someone for events only? Also btw what are the events?

Right. Back in the day, they were really good at their one job: being hard to hit. They were so good that good Swordmasters could basically be immune to Orcish antics and could keep several orcs busy while you focused down other orcs.

Right now, though, there's plenty of starter backgrounds (farmer, wildman, brawler all being prime examples) that end up being better combatants than the typical Swordmaster. You'd expect the most expensive characters to be, y'know, worth the gold you paid for 'em. A rare +2-3 melee defense/attack event (which has far less value now that we have infinite levels) doesn't strike me as worth it.

Now, there ARE some characters that people DO hire for their events specifically. Bowyers can make kickass bows if you carry wood around all the time. Cultists can lead to really good armor and a helmet. Tailors can make direwolf armor, which I think is highly overrated (looks kickass though). But Swordmasters... Again, their event has diminished in value thanks to there being infinite levels.