Essential skills?

[Giga Gilgamesh]

What should i invest in? I know for Attributes i should balance between STR and INT (My playstyle is slowly raising an army and then trying to conquer.) But what about skills? Persuasion, Trainer? Please let me know some essential skills to invest in.

[Meadows]

Trick is.. Never invest in trade/trainer/other non party skills and instead get companions who have high trade/trainer/party skills..

Indiviual skills like Persuasion are good late game. But mostly focus on leadership, persuasion, and combat skills. I say this is the best method because if you die.. well.. Nothing else matters.

[Aqu]

I suppose it depends bit on how you play. I think it this way...

You are the commander and so your 1st task is to command and do so effectively.
- Tactics. High level on this allows you to take bigger enemies in 1 to 1
- Leadership. High value gives bigger party, better morale and lower wages (supports having bigger party without burning a hole in your pocket)
- Pathfinding. Makes your party faster on the big map. Quicker to reach places where your help is needed or run away if hugely overnumbered.

The fighting skills I find bit less important for a leader. Of course some improvement but you can get armour by buying too. My dude is on level 40 and I think it has 9 tactics and 5 strength related fighting skills

Most of the other tasks can be delegated to your friends (those you can find in taverns). For example engineering can be left to one companion. Healthcare atributes (three in total) I find so important that I try to increase them bit on three persons. The reason is that if the person is so badly wounded that his/her health drops to red, he/she cannot provide any help. That's why I improved my pathfinding skill even I have a scout expert too (she works normally as my scout).

Trainer is not so important for me. Me and some of my mates have 1 to 3 (mostly 0). It is easy enough to get upgrades by fighting

Persuation I need rarely. Only if I really want some captured town I could talk to all the lords and try to persuade them to support me. Or sometimes persuade a party member to stay in my group even if he doesn't like some other party member so much. Oh and this probably has effect how well you can 'capture' a girl ;) Some of these situations can be helped by having a good relations with the person.

[NixBoxDone]

In my opinion? Don't invest in anything that says "party skill", except for trainer. The party skills don't stack except for trainer, so only one of your dudes need it. Since you can have 6 or more companions with you at any one time, I would suggest giving none of them more than 2 party skills and focusing the rest on combat skills.

Try to give similar attribute based skills to the same guy where possible, meaning give two AGI based party skills to the same companion, two INT based ones to the next, and give the CHA based Trading or Persuasion skills to a companion you plan becoming a Lord later, as those will need Charisma for Leadership anyways.

For yourself: Inventory Managment, Prisoner Managment, Leadership, Persuasion, Trainer and whatever combat skills you like to use. I usually put a few points in Surgeon in case my dedicated Medic kicks the bucket. (Surgeon and any other party skill becomes inactive while your companions are not battle ready, so having your Surgeon knocked out and then having to fight can cost you a bunch of units fast, especially in multi stage field battles or sieges)

I always get trainer up to the maximum any of my companions can achieve on level up, as anybody who isn't playing on 1/2 damage setting will lose units eventually, and trainer skills allow me to raise a new round of elite units every week or so. I might not skill intelligence FOR Trainer, but I make damn sure I get however many levels the companion can reach. Trainer only applies to units lower than the level of the person having the skill, so don't worry if you see little effect once your units approach maximum levels.

Train Leadership only on Companions you plan granting fiefs to later, as it has influence on how many warriors they will then travel around with, otherwise it is completely useless to them. If you want your guys to be good horse warriors, invest in riding and give them a lance, otherwise just 1 or 2 points to get a horse on them for the speed boost on the map. For the same token don't give your companions any skills in archery or thrown weapons at all unless you plan giving them a bow at some point, otherwise you will hate yourself later. Even without archery they can still be decently usefull as ranged support with a good crossbow, so keep that in mind.

I personally use my companions mostly as riding blunt weapon prisoner escorts. Heavy emblazoned armor, winged helmets in matching collar, two Huscarl Shields (one on the back for arrow protection from behind during sieges or daring charges) and the best battle hammer I can find for each of them.

Helps you earn quite a bit of dosh in bashed in skulls on people you can sell to pursue a happy career as Galley Slave somewhere Far Far Away.

[Morkonan]

Strength only up to 14, max, so you can wear the heaviest armor. (I think that's what is required for the heaviest vanilla armor.) It's the only Stat that is directly reflected in requirements for game items. (Weapons) Everything else goes off of Skills, IIRC.

Leadership as high as you can get it. More troops = More Victories

Pursuasion as high as you want it. (Helps when talking to Lords/Kings/Companions)

Trainer, unless you have a dependable companion that you want to max it out with. However, you should always put points in Trainer for everyone, including yourself - It's the only Party Skill that "Stacks." (It only stacks a percentage of each, after the highest. I think it's something like 17% to 20+% percent, can't remember.)

Riding - To at least 4. I think that's when you start getting standard heavy warhorses available in vanilla.

Shield - Comes in very handy during tournaments and when you get dumped from your horse in a battle. You'll also need a Shield skill of 4, I think, to use the best shields.

Prisoner Management - Your score is the only one that matters, here, since it's a "Leaderhip" Skill and you're the Leader. A Prisoner Management score of between 2 and 4 is probably what you want to shoot for, unless you're really making a living off of prisoners, then you'll certainly want it higher.

Power Strike - At least a 2, if you're going to be meleeing much. It helps in Tournaments, too.

Power Draw - If you're a missile weapon user.

Power Throw - Uh... Why? :) Only invest in this for funsies.

Horse Archery - Only if you don't plan on meleeing much. Lots of people love to play as Horse Archers. To me, it seems one can do more damage swiing big sharp things at other people, rather than plinking away at them from a distance and risking hitting your own troops. But, to each their own - Put points in this to improve your accuracy from horseback. Helps alot if you're running around on horse in a battle.

Weapon Master - Keep putting points in this, on occassion. Don't worry about maxing it, but do be sure to put points in it as you start gaining weapon points and max them out.

Athletics - Often overlooked. But, this can mean the difference between victory and unconsciousness. (It's called "Running Away From the Guy With the Big Axe.") It also certainly makes a difference in tournaments when you're on foot.

Inventory Management - Another Leadership Skill and nothing you Companions can help you with, so you'll probably want at least 3 points in this when you hit mid-game. (Armies eat lots and collect a lot of loot.)

Iron Flesh - Are you going to get hit? It's worth a couple of points, certainly. But, if you're pushing up your strength every so often, you'll have better armor and those hits will be mitigated a bit. But, it's nice to have some Iron Flesh - Getting one-shotted by a crossbow isn't fun. Two points, minimum, is what I would recommend, more as you can add them.

For everything else, get companions with good "Party" skills to fill in the gaps. The most important of all of these is "Surgery." You want to find a companion with very high Surgery skill. If you can't find one quickly, then start putting points into it if you're finding yourself involved in a lot of fighting and are losing too many troops. But, you should find a companion with that Skill before you dump 4 pts in it, yourself.

A list of the Skills and what they do: http://mountandblade.wikia.com/wiki/Skills

[Giga Gilgamesh]

Originally posted by PonySlaystation:

In my opinion? Don't invest in anything that says "party skill", except for trainer. The party skills don't stack except for trainer, so only one of your dudes need it. Since you can have 6 or more companions with you at any one time, I would suggest giving none of them more than 2 party skills and focusing the rest on combat skills.

Try to give similar attribute based skills to the same guy where possible, meaning give two AGI based party skills to the same companion, two INT based ones to the next, and give the CHA based Trading or Persuasion skills to a companion you plan becoming a Lord later, as those will need Charisma for Leadership anyways.

For yourself: Inventory Managment, Prisoner Managment, Leadership, Persuasion, Trainer and whatever combat skills you like to use. I usually put a few points in Surgeon in case my dedicated Medic kicks the bucket. (Surgeon and any other party skill becomes inactive while your companions are not battle ready, so having your Surgeon knocked out and then having to fight can cost you a bunch of units fast, especially in multi stage field battles or sieges)

I always get trainer up to the maximum any of my companions can achieve on level up, as anybody who isn't playing on 1/2 damage setting will lose units eventually, and trainer skills allow me to raise a new round of elite units every week or so. I might not skill intelligence FOR Trainer, but I make damn sure I get however many levels the companion can reach. Trainer only applies to units lower than the level of the person having the skill, so don't worry if you see little effect once your units approach maximum levels.

Train Leadership only on Companions you plan granting fiefs to later, as it has influence on how many warriors they will then travel around with, otherwise it is completely useless to them. If you want your guys to be good horse warriors, invest in riding and give them a lance, otherwise just 1 or 2 points to get a horse on them for the speed boost on the map. For the same token don't give your companions any skills in archery or thrown weapons at all unless you plan giving them a bow at some point, otherwise you will hate yourself later. Even without archery they can still be decently usefull as ranged support with a good crossbow, so keep that in mind.

I personally use my companions mostly as riding blunt weapon prisoner escorts. Heavy emblazoned armor, winged helmets in matching collar, two Huscarl Shields (one on the back for arrow protection from behind during sieges or daring charges) and the best battle hammer I can find for each of them.

Helps you earn quite a bit of dosh in bashed in skulls on people you can sell to pursue a happy career as Galley Slave somewhere Far Far Away.

Out of the "for yourself" skills, which should i focus on first?

[Sohei]

Trainer is a personal skill, not a party skill. For your own skills focus on Power Strike first and then the other combat skills and some leader skills. Focus on strength first but don't neglect agility - you need it for athletics, shield, and riding at least.

[NixBoxDone]

Depends on what you like to do most, in fighting. The safest pursuit for your commander would be to either stay the heck out of the battle altogether or go with archers from behind your own ranged lines. I personally go with axe and shield though, to break through enemy shield walls and because a shield is very handy in sieges, ambushes and when you are generally outnumbered.

So I usually invest 2 to 3 points in iron skin and either the melee skill or archery, depending on what I feel like that game. I make sure to have 2 points in leadership and prisoner managment, max out trainer and go from there. The next level or two after game start usually go towards at least 2 points in surgeon, but my game starts out with me trading and scouring the taverns for companions anyhow, so it's not vital, just good backup.

As stated by Aqu, fighting skills aren't the only deciding factor in battle by a long shot, but duels, ambushes, the arena, and the occasional SNAFU mean that if you don't have battle skills when you need em, it can become very expensive or angering very fast. Since getting them is also pretty easy as a natural result of just playing and investing points now and then, I see no reason not to get them.

[Scrogdog]

Don't forget also that, depending on your battle size limit, you can 'hide' key companions (such as your medic) by dropping them down to the bottom of your party screen. Then they will either be the last to appear, or won't appear at all depending on how large your warband is.

Unfortunately that will mean that they level much slower, but it's an option. What I sometimes do is bring all my companions to the top of the list if fighting bandits, but down to the bottom when fighting professional troops.

[Asphe]

Originally posted by Jeb Kerman:

What should i invest in? I know for Attributes i should balance between STR and INT (My playstyle is slowly raising an army and then trying to conquer.) But what about skills? Persuasion, Trainer? Please let me know some essential skills to invest in.

Depends on what part you'll play in battles. If you're just going to stay out of danger and command troops via the map, put everything in the 'party skills' lke the medico aka Wound Treatment / First Aid / Surgery and Engineering. Spare points in Pathfinding/Spotting/Tracking. Points in STR merely to get better armor.

Don't waste points in anything that you can compensate for, i.e. Leadership (kill more, get more Renown. Win battles) or Persuasion (more RTR, better relaionship score and fitting the NPC's 'honour' profile). Or Trainer. If you can easily find a way to accomplish what all those skills do, spend the points elsewhere.

At times, they call this method the 'Commander' style? i.e. no personal combat. It extends the game length by three or four times as much. Some players find it rather boring to spend that much time on a playthrough. Some enjoy the challenge of it.

-----

What do you mean 'slowly raising an army'? That's terrible from a financial point of view. Best to raise it quickly, use it then get rid of it quickly. Travelling around with a large 'entourage' just wastes time and money.

-----

A quicker route to victory might be to make yourself (and companions) into 'horse archers'. High STR/AGI for good weapons, armor and horses. Set yourself and companions as a small company of mounted snipers. When it's time to recruit a warband, get the numbers and types to complement your 'snipers'. They'll easily do half the killing.

Plus like yourself, the companions are undead. They can't be killed.

Horse Archer: Enough STR/AGI to get maximum Power Strike/Draw, Riding/Horse Archery 6.

Yourself can invest in the medico skills plus Engineering. A point or two in Tracking. That's pretty much it until you're level 30+ and have more points to spare. You get up to a +4 bonus to party skills that you have yourself. Getting level 10 in the medico skills cuts your casualty rate by 7/8. You also regenerate 50% health in a matter of hours (undead....) Look around for books that you can keep that add +1 to various skills.

Aim to get around 2000 Renown, 65 RTR, 100~200k denars cash before you embark on your Rule the World tour. You'll be around level 20ish with a small half-squad of mounted snipers.

Play a female... get the marriage discount for troop costs (it's 100% by the way. 100% discount.)

[Squidy The Cowboy Catgirl]

Personaly, only skills I got for are Personal skills and Leader skills. Companions do the rest just as good.

[Giga Gilgamesh]

Originally posted by Asphe:

Originally posted by Jeb Kerman:

What should i invest in? I know for Attributes i should balance between STR and INT (My playstyle is slowly raising an army and then trying to conquer.) But what about skills? Persuasion, Trainer? Please let me know some essential skills to invest in.

Depends on what part you'll play in battles. If you're just going to stay out of danger and command troops via the map, put everything in the 'party skills' lke the medico aka Wound Treatment / First Aid / Surgery and Engineering. Spare points in Pathfinding/Spotting/Tracking. Points in STR merely to get better armor.

Don't waste points in anything that you can compensate for, i.e. Leadership (kill more, get more Renown. Win battles) or Persuasion (more RTR, better relaionship score and fitting the NPC's 'honour' profile). Or Trainer. If you can easily find a way to accomplish what all those skills do, spend the points elsewhere.

At times, they call this method the 'Commander' style? i.e. no personal combat. It extends the game length by three or four times as much. Some players find it rather boring to spend that much time on a playthrough. Some enjoy the challenge of it.

-----

What do you mean 'slowly raising an army'? That's terrible from a financial point of view. Best to raise it quickly, use it then get rid of it quickly. Travelling around with a large 'entourage' just wastes time and money.

-----

A quicker route to victory might be to make yourself (and companions) into 'horse archers'. High STR/AGI for good weapons, armor and horses. Set yourself and companions as a small company of mounted snipers. When it's time to recruit a warband, get the numbers and types to complement your 'snipers'. They'll easily do half the killing.

Plus like yourself, the companions are undead. They can't be killed.

Horse Archer: Enough STR/AGI to get maximum Power Strike/Draw, Riding/Horse Archery 6.

Yourself can invest in the medico skills plus Engineering. A point or two in Tracking. That's pretty much it until you're level 30+ and have more points to spare. You get up to a +4 bonus to party skills that you have yourself. Getting level 10 in the medico skills cuts your casualty rate by 7/8. You also regenerate 50% health in a matter of hours (undead....) Look around for books that you can keep that add +1 to various skills.

Aim to get around 2000 Renown, 65 RTR, 100~200k denars cash before you embark on your Rule the World tour. You'll be around level 20ish with a small half-squad of mounted snipers.

Play a female... get the marriage discount for troop costs (it's 100% by the way. 100% discount.)

FYI playstyles like Horse Archer are unplayable for me due to a laggy computer. The most i can do is the "run-up-and-bash-axe-in-man's-face" playstyle.