best noble companions?

[gar3bear]

I use diplomacy.
the 6 noble companions are matheld, alayen, firentis, rolf, lezalit, baheshtur
every playthrough i do matheld alayen firentis
firtenis gets 100 relation practically instantly even if you only give him a town
alayen needs a extra fief or two but also seems to become a 100 pretty fast
matheld seems to always stay 20-40 and constantly needs fiefs, i lost her a few times
the rest seem useless and quickly fall into -relation

what are yall experiences?

[Tuidjy]

Alayan, Firentis and Matheld are the best, indeed.

I only use Matheld, the worst of the three, though.

Why?

Because Firentis and Alayan are worth ten times as much as combat beast companions, allowing you to win lopsided battles for great experience and loot. As companions, they are two of the best five troops in the game after your primary companion. As lords, they are nowhere near the top. Most of the upstanding/good-natured/martial lords are better, once you have drawn them to your side.

[Myll]

Originally posted by Garrow:

I use diplomacy.
the 6 noble companions are matheld, alayen, firentis, rolf, lezalit, baheshtur
every playthrough i do matheld alayen firentis
firtenis gets 100 relation practically instantly even if you only give him a town
alayen needs a extra fief or two but also seems to become a 100 pretty fast
matheld seems to always stay 20-40 and constantly needs fiefs, i lost her a few times
the rest seem useless and quickly fall into -relation

what are yall experiences?

Never, ever give away villages and towns to your Companion NPCs. They're best employed in your group, purpose-built and stat-improved to make a play-through near bullet proof. You will have plenty of "lords" defect other kingdoms and eligible to serve you later. If you raise Persuasion a bit, you get many simply by talking to them and getting "success" for convincing them to join your kingdom.

Let me explain more about the Companion NPCs though, and "why" the strategy is better to never give them land.
- No matter how loyal you thought they were, they will lose interest over time, especially if any events are counter to their personality types, and it's bound to happen. You can't please everyone, and that is true of land-holders.
- You are giving away a permanent NPC in your group when you give them land, and your group is more powerful with each NPC that you raise up in a role. For this, there's a deeper dive discussion that I've built before, but a simple way to say it is this - you want a "bodyguard" group, a Swadian Knight wannabe group, and then there are the niche Buffer NPCs. Klethi, Deshavi, and Bunduk are the bodyguard beasts, never ever to be given horses. If you don't know this technique, you just don't know....but you should experience this in game, because they each become extremely valuable as your companions and guards in sieges especially (Klethi is the best fighting NPC in game if built max/min for Throwing and 1H Melee w/Shield). Min/Max Deshavi for Bow, and Bunduk for Crossbow (gotta see him operate at 200+ Crossbow skill with a Masterwork Siege Crossbow, and still kill it w/a Military Pick and Board Shield and 150+ 1H skill). In your group's order, just below your Main Character should be Klethi, Deshavi, and Bunduk in that order. So then whenever you do a mission at Bandit Camps, or you Siege -- they're always first in line with you to be part of the event, and thus your "bodyguard" up front.

You may want Swadian Knights or other Tier 1 troops next (Huscarl, other Knight equivalents), then put your Companion NPCs that are Swadian Knight copies into that order, and then Niche Builds Jeremus and Artimmer are unique to keep -- Jeremus (all 3x Medical) should be placed at "end of the line" bottom of entire group, so he is last and never likely to show up in battle, because you only want him to use his medical skills post-battle, Artimmer should be at least 6 Engineer but make him Cavalry and placed bottom 1/3 of group otherwise. For the Swadian Knight copy NPCs, they become immortal Knights, to include even Ymira, as even she can meet/exceed Swadian Knight capability by end game. Just look at what a Swadian Knight's gear and stats are, and copy/paste for all other NPCs, it's that simple.

For a Deeper Dive on this topic, see this thread I created from a copy/paste of a very old post of mine in the forum:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/48700/discussions/0/3471738893376578538/

And with Diplomacy Mod on, enable Lords to return to the game (plenty to go around, no need to waste your Companions as land-holding nobles).

Now, to address your question more directly - the best Nobles to give land to, are those with either "Good-Natured" or "Martial" personalities. Pay attention to this, as you don't want the Sadistic or Bad-Tempered nobles getting ANY land from you, even if they're the first to arrive, get out there and "talk to people" in game and get NPCs that are worthwhile to have in your kingdom.