How do i distinguish a good and a bad brother?

[mans got drip✅]

title

[suejak]

If you read their background descriptions, some of those guys have literally murdered babies or chopped down their allies in bloodlust without batting an eye. These are bad brothers (aka "bad mothers" if women existed). You can hire them, but you'll have to read that description every time you look at him and it will probably make you feel guilty, unless you are an illiterate Google Docs or Excel user as many of us are.

On the other hand, some of your men are driven to adventure out of a desire to help others or avenge villagers slain by some spiders, or to protect the world from the spooky octopus god or from invading greenskins. These are good brothers.

[Scathe]

while I agree with suejak's response, perhaps you mean, how to distinguish more useful brothers from less useful brothers? stars in melee defense and melee attack help... but it is quite complicated.

in general, however, look at their melee attack, melee defense, and health... 54+ melee attack, 4+ melee defense, and 55+ health are generally good scores to consider him someone to protect, especially if he has stars in those areas.

for ranged attack brothers, anything with 47+ ranged attack and 2 stars or 42+ ranged attack with 3 stars, or 52+ ranged attack and 1 star will do well, protect them

you'll also need a sergeant, someone with 50+ resolve and 2 stars or 45+ resolve and 3 stars or 55+ resolve and 1 star is what you're looking for, or better.

in general, you want to limit your brothers that don't play offense, whittling out the guys that started with less than 54 melee attack from your front line, but some people do make use a few tanks, low melee attack brothers that score well in melee defense, resolve, and health, preferrably with stars in those areas. limit the numbers of these bros though. taunt is good for them.

[Whatever100500]

Calculate expected stats by lvl11 by 3 main stats, prioritizing talented ones. You don't have to level exactly like that, but this gives good estimate of bro's stat ceiling.
In mid-late game, it's better to keep a spreadsheet with every bro, but early I limit this approach to non-fodder bros only.

[Cat®]

I agree with suejak that ethics are largely the defining trait here. A person is defined by their morals and if they are lacking then surely the person is lacking too. Aside from that more stars good, less stars bad. The rest is largely irrelevant unless you're obsessed with minmaxing in which case go to the wiki to look at the stat distribution of individual backgrounds and be prepared to restart a lot more than you intend to play.

Oh, and professional soldiers are usually more competent at murdering than shepherds and servants. Try to get as few bad traits as possible.

[DankDansk]

Originally posted by Scathe:

while I agree with suejak's response, perhaps you mean, how to distinguish more useful brothers from less useful brothers? stars in melee defense and melee attack help... but it is quite complicated.

in general, however, look at their melee attack, melee defense, and health... 54+ melee attack, 4+ melee defense, and 55+ health are generally good scores to consider him someone to protect, especially if he has stars in those areas.

for ranged attack brothers, anything with 47+ ranged attack and 2 stars or 42+ ranged attack with 3 stars, or 52+ ranged attack and 1 star will do well, protect them

you'll also need a sergeant, someone with 50+ resolve and 2 stars or 45+ resolve and 3 stars or 55+ resolve and 1 star is what you're looking for, or better.

in general, you want to limit your brothers that don't play offense, whittling out the guys that started with less than 54 melee attack from your front line, but some people do make use a few tanks, low melee attack brothers that score well in melee defense, resolve, and health, preferrably with stars in those areas. limit the numbers of these bros though. taunt is good for them.

Look for stars. 3 stars = kickass brotha.

Also, when I look, the most important traits are fatigue, melee/ranged and resolve. I have a 100 resolve standard boi.

[EagleWiz]

Stats, stars, and where the stars are - Iniative and Mdef are not entirely useless, but not what you care about - melee defense, melee attack, and fatigue are all very important, and a good base health/resolve is also important.