Good rule of thumb for speccing companions?

[burdfishdemon]

I'm in my first playthrough and I've read that most skills don't stack. My character is INT/CHA but I notice many of my companions are too. It seems like we're stepping over each others' toes with regards to skills.

Should I let my character handle all/most of the party skills and spec most companions for random weapon skills? I'm already level 10 or so... I'm asking this question a little late, I know.

Any help would be much appreciated!

[Chikuwu]

The type of the skill can be seen on the skill menus.

if its a LEADER skill, ONLY the one leading the party will take use of it (as in you, or a companion appointed as a lord)

If its a PARTY skill, everyone having that skill can add into the TOP skilled characters ability (For example, if one companion has looting skill of 8, and two characters looting skill of 5, it adds 2+ points to the TOP companions 8. (8+2) so it doesnt stack regularly. you can see it on the left on the PARTY menu in ( ) on the right side of the skill lists.

if its a normal skill (power strike, etc) Personal skill, it only is used by that character.

SOME party skills cant be used, while the companion with the skill is wounded. (If your medic companion gets knocked out, his surgery skill, wound treatment, etc skills) he wont be able to use the skills, resulting in more dead people than with him being alive the whole battle.

So thats why Leader skills should always be taken care of by the leader of the party (you) if you are thinking of making a specific companion a lord later game, then add some leadership points to him too.

[burdfishdemon]

Thank you very much for that info! I will take it into consideration! Sounds like I should keep upping my leadership skill then.

I guess my only concern then is whether to trust my companions with important skills will stay. I've had 2 people leave on me.

[John Red]

thats good beacuse some skills especially the medical aspects are stackable but when it comes to ledership, prisoner management and invent management then there is no point.

[Sirius]

You can look up the "relations" of the companions on the Wiki.
There's also a chart about who's getting along, so you can have 5 (I think it was) companions that won't leave due to their issues with other companions.

Some may still leave if they don't like your style - for example, often taking heavy losses.
You can read their general opinion on stuff by talking to them via the party menu.

I suggest checking back with them after fights frequently. That way you can see if someone has issues. If they are happy with all three factors, you can trust them to stay.
Even when it happens that someone becomes "upset" because of one of your actions or army losses - If you then avoid doong that thing repeatedly, they will still stay.

Concerning what to spec them in, as the others said.
If you plan on using them as a Lord / Lady, make the focus leadership skils, and some goodish battle skills.

If you want them to be permanent soldiers for your army, well, spec them to what you want of them. Pretty self-explanatory in that case.

Edit: Though it can't hurt to have specialists that complete your own skills. Having one companion heavy in sieging and maybe training and one focused on healer skills is quite useful, not to mention other non-Leader skills like trading etc.
Most NPC's actually have sort of a predisposition in the way they are set up in native.
For example, Jeremus is obviously the scholar type and already has minor skills in healing.
You can still spec them any way you want, but those characters have a head start in those skills, so to speak

The upside is that you can now focus on other skills that are important to you, but couldn't otherwise, because you obviously need some pathfinding or surgeon skills.
Well, not need as such, but they make the game easier.

You can even think about a dedicated doctor, for example, giving only healing skills and neglecting everything else as far as you can - You would then try to keep them out of the fights by setting that character very low in your party list, and / or making a "custom" troop type to order them to keep back in battle.

There's a lot you can tweak that way that isn't immediately obvious :)
Hope that helped a bit.

[burdfishdemon]

This all helps me a lot! Jeremus was my first companion and I was upset because I was being a medic up until that point. But since it's a party skill, I guess there's no problem.

I think a couple people left after I helped assault a castle (I was helping the Noyans I think). I didn't have many archers and so until the siege machine got to the castle we were being picked off. I didn't really know how to command them well in that situation. I tried saying spread out, but then I said said close in hopes the siege machine itself would protect us. Even when the siege machine funneled us (the 35 out of 45 of us who were left) onto the castle walls, we were outarmored and outmanned. I had tried to upgrade my crew to that point, but just to give you an idea, my weekly cost was still only 250 denars. So I told them to stand close in an attempt to 300 that ****. Unfortunately as I had gone toward the castle walls on the siege machine, my men had pushed me off into the frame of the siege machine, leaving me immobile and worthless. Granted I'm a controller player, so some would say I'm worthless in battle already, but I don't think that's generally the case.

Anyways, I lost over half my group in two battles but helped take the castle. Still, was not given the fief or whatever. I'm still trying to figure out a lot of this game. It seems crazy fun at times, but often I wonder if I'm an awful commander. Mostly I just tell people to follow me or spread out. Then again, I'm working with a d-pad on a controller. Still that doesn't seem like much of a disadvantage.

Sorry for getting off-topic there. I just really like this game but have a few concerns about what I do haha.

[Tuidjy]

A couple of things above need clarifying, I think.

(1) When it comes to party skills, only two characters matter - the leader, and the character with the highest rank in the skill, whether or not the two are actually the same. There is a player bonus: 1 for rank 2-4 , 2 for rank 5-7, 3 for rank 8-9, and 4 for rank 10. This bonus is added to the rank of the character with the highest rank.

So if the player has rank 10, the effective party skill rank is 10 plus 4, or 14.
If the player has rank 5, and another character has rank 7, the effective party rank is 7+2, or 9.

If your character has the highest rank, it does not matter who else has what. The bonus always comes from the player.

(2) Bonuses and penalties to companion morale are two kinds: temporary and recurring. Examples of temporary ones are: running out of food or cash, sending a hated companion on a right to rule mission, robbing civilians, failing a quest, running from battle. The companion will complain about a temporary penalty, but if everything is fine for a while, they will get over it.

Recurring bonuses and penalties are much more important. If a companion hates another AND you have failed to take their side, there will a morale penalty recurring as long as they are both in the party. In the same way, when a companion likes another, the morale will be improved as long as both remain.

The problem is that all companions like one, and hate two others. If you have a companion who hates two party members, his morale keeps decreasing, no matter what you do. Some mods give you option to raise his morale, but if you have a recurring penalty, this is only temporary. It is possible, but frankly, not worth the bother, to prevent a miserable companion from leaving. You can check the morale, and shuffle companions by sending them on missions, lending them to lords, and when all else fails, using your persuasion to make them stay. If you are checking the morale all the time, and obsessing over it, up to the point of shooting them in the back during a fight to make them unconscious, you can keep them around forever.

Doing the above is really, really inefficient. Instead, you should take care to select a group of companions that do not dislike each other. Here is the best such group. Some people disagree. They are wrong!

Jeremus (int) - medic with training, surgery, wound treatment, first aid
Klethi (int) - scout with training, path-finding, spotting, and tracking if you can stand the clutter
Deshavi (int) - strategist with training, tactics, and engineering
Ymira (chr) - trader with trading and some training
Alayan, Firentis, Bunduk (str/agi) - combat beasts
Bahestur - horse archer

---

If you do not want a trader, make Ymira your strategist, and have Deshavi as a second horse archer. That's the way I play - trading mostly saves you money, and money is easy to come by when you know what you are doing.

---

You can make companions into lords. In my opinion, it is a waste to promote a companion whom you have trained for a long time. If you start a kingdom without having befriended martial and cunning lords, it may be worth promoting a companion, but only because you screwed up.

[burdfishdemon]

Sounds like I should forget about speccing medical skills any further. I should let Jeremus handle it. I'll spec leadership I guess.

[Fumbles]

only has 6 members. you can have 8. the companions are pretty similar in stats already; they all start at low levels and cant reallly fight. The main exception is jeremus; he has surgery and you need someone with surgery and fast. as for what companions you have you have a choice of a group of 5 and a group of 3 the groups of 5 are:
Artimenner
Borcha
Matheld *
Lezalit *
Rolf *

or

Bunduk
Deshavi
Klethi
Jeremus
Ymira

the groups of 3 are

Alayen *
Baheshtur *
Firentis *

or

Katrin
Marnid
Nizar

[Gespenst Gaming]

Companions comeback as well, so even if they leave your party, you can make your other companions into lords, and then go find the ones who left and continue to develop them and make them lords as well, and they won't throw a huge fit beucase the people they hate aren't around anymore.

[Tuidjy]

The companions are not created equal. Here are the fighting aptitudes for all of them:
17: Alayan
16: Firentis, Klethi
15: Deshavi
14: Ymira
13: Baheshtur, Marnid
12: Borcha, Lezalit, Matheld
11: Artimenner, Bunduk, Jeremus, Katrin, Nizar
10:
9: Rolf

Here are the specialist aptitudes. The first number is for Int based specialists (strategist, medic, scout) and the second for Chr based specialists, i.e. traders.

Ymira: 10/5
Marnid: 10/5
Jeremus: 9/3
Nizar: 9/5
Borcha: 9/4
Deshavi: 8/4
Baheshtur: 7/2
Klethi: 6/5
Alayan: 5/6
Lezalit: 6/3
Artimenner: 5/1
Firentis: 4/-1
Rolf: 3/0
Matheld: 2/3
Katrin: 2/2
Bunduk: 0/2

What do aptitudes tell us? They tell us how good the stats are for the level at which the companions start. As you level them up, all your warriors will end up at pretty much the same level as all your other warriors, with those with better aptitudes pulling a few levels ahead. Same for your specialists. So the starting stats matter a lot.

If you were to have Alayan and Rolf as warriors in the same party, by the time that they are around level 25, Rolf will be trailing Alayan with 8 stats. This is huge.

Same for specialists. Ymira and Marnid will be perfect Int based specialists when they hit level 20. Katrin would need to be level 28. This is, once again, huge.

If you choose the group I recommended, you will have six of the top seven fighters, and enough specialists to max out all three int categories by level 22. As an added bonus, many of my group's specialists have good fighting aptitudes, which means that once they max out their specialties, you could start leveling their fighting stats, and they will be pulling their weight on the battlefield. Except for the medic. He needs to stay conscious. But Jeremus has a bad fighting aptitude anyway.

Anyone telling you that there is another group that comes close has not done the math. And frankly, I am tired of this topic. As far as I am concerned, I've said all I need to say.

[burdfishdemon]

^ Yes you have; I'll be finding and taking the group y---
Jeremus (int) - medic with training, surgery, wound treatment, first aid
Klethi (int) - scout with training, path-finding, spotting, and tracking if you can stand the clutter
Deshavi (int) - strategist with training, tactics, and engineering
Ymira (chr) - trader with trading and some training
Alayan, Firentis, Bunduk (str/agi) - combat beasts
Bahestur - horse archer
---
And I'll be moving on and not stressing about this.

[Melty⑨⑨⑨]

You guys making this far to complex just to beat vanilla. just do what works and be a good commander