Companion builds

[Ikarius]

Folks, I'm curious to know what builds folks are doing with their companions. I'm running with Valerie, Amiri, Harrim (for now), Linzi (for now), and Octavia (for now).

Looking at Amiri... I'm really curious about splashing in one level of vivisectionist.... pair up mutagen + rage and add a sneak attack die to her attacks? Seems pretty juicy to me. Any other ideas about making Amiri more powerful?

Valerie seems like she'll probably do best if I take her down the combat expertise->trip route, give her a 1h flail, and start buffing her with enlarge to get a sort-of reasonable CMB for trips- make her a battlefield controller. Any thoughts on particularly juicy defensive bits for her?

Octavia seems to be suited to be built as an arcane trickster. On the other hand, 8 con? WTF devs.... you NEVER EVER go neg con on ANY build. I might just build a companion to be an arcane trickster... or I might build a pure caster, as I don't have a full-progression caster at the moment. I'm actually pretty shocked at the lack of a full straight caster amongst the companions.

Harrim... well, he's a cleric. Channel positive energy is invaluable, but it's been a long time since I looked at good cleric builds for PF. I'm pretty confident he could be better built, but not sure what that should look like.


Linzi - Bard song is obviously fantastic for the lower levels, but bards don't tend to scale well for the later levels. Not sure whether I'll eventually dump her in favor of a custom built or try and find a way to keep her. Dragon disciple is the obvious alternate, but I don't think she's well statted to go that route.


Any particularly juicy companion builds you've figured out? Please share them!

[Marcos_DS]

Originally posted by Ikarius:

Looking at Amiri... I'm really curious about splashing in one level of vivisectionist.... pair up mutagen + rage and add a sneak attack die to her attacks? Seems pretty juicy to me. Any other ideas about making Amiri more powerful?

I multiclassed her to two-handed-fighter. Adding 2x str bonus to her weapon (and later improving power attack multiplier) lets her deal obscene amounts of damage, esp. with a enlarge person from octavia and rage. But if the Vivisectionist strength bonus stacks, i might add that later too.

Valerie seems like she'll probably do best if I take her down the combat expertise->trip route, give her a 1h flail, and start buffing her with enlarge to get a sort-of reasonable CMB for trips- make her a battlefield controller. Any thoughts on particularly juicy defensive bits for her?

I really need a good defender in my difficulty setting, so i gave her armor and shield feats -> AC31 at start of act 2 (or AC 35 if fighting defensively and in shield wall with off-tank). With buffs even better.

Octavia seems to be suited to be built as an arcane trickster. On the other hand, 8 con? WTF devs.... you NEVER EVER go neg con on ANY build. I might just build a companion to be an arcane trickster... or I might build a pure caster, as I don't have a full-progression caster at the moment. I'm actually pretty shocked at the lack of a full straight caster amongst the companions.

Since you can gain +1d6 sneak attack from a feat, you can qualify with rog1/wiz3 and only loose a single caster level with her anyways (or 2 if you fill up the rest with Eldrich Knight). But yeah, she is my arcane caster too.

Harrim... well, he's a cleric. Channel positive energy is invaluable, but it's been a long time since I looked at good cleric builds for PF. I'm pretty confident he could be better built, but not sure what that should look like.

His lack of charisma is a bit problematic, he has only 3 channel energy per day. Pure cleric so far for me.

Linzi - Bard song is obviously fantastic for the lower levels, but bards don't tend to scale well for the later levels. Not sure whether I'll eventually dump her in favor of a custom built or try and find a way to keep her. Dragon disciple is the obvious alternate, but I don't think she's well statted to go that route.

I mainly use her to disable enemies (hideous laughter). Gave her a single level of rogue so she can use her short bow to deal 3d6 damage (1d6 normal + 2d6 sneak). Essential girl to make my party hit, both with disable/debuffs and with her songs... Her song also makes everyone do better at camp...

Any particularly juicy companion builds you've figured out? Please share them!

I have an undead inquisitor1/druidx companion in my party, and she rocks the house with her summons...^^ (animal domain, boon companion)

[Ikarius]

Vivisectionist mutagen str bonus is alchemical. It stacks. That's why it looked so awesome to me.

[Marcos_DS]

Originally posted by Ikarius:

Vivisectionist mutagen str bonus is alchemical. It stacks. That's why it looked so awesome to me.

Nice! Will definitely add a Vivisectionist level. + 8 Str here i come :)

[Ikarius]

Oh btw- care to go into more detail what feats you threw @ valerie? Also, once you splash in vivisectionist, you can add the "accomplished sneak attacker" feat to get 2D6 sneak attacks..... Yummy.

[Marcos_DS]

Originally posted by Ikarius:

Oh btw- care to go into more detail what feats you threw @ valerie?

Currently cannot open game due to update download. But its the feat that increases heavy armor AC by 1, and another that increases shield AC by 1. Finally the Shield Wall teamwork feat.

Also, once you splash in vivisectionist, you can add the "accomplished sneak attacker" feat to get 2D6 sneak attacks..... Yummy.

That, and i also give everyone in melee the precision teamwork feat for another 1d6 if attacking the same enemy...

[mogwen]

Your build with Amiri is cool! She will become a fearsome damage dealer!!!

I haven't yet bought the game (I promise I will in a few days!😉) but for valerie I think I will take another road.
She will become my verdant knight (Fighter 1/Druid Feyspeaker for the rest), with hide armor, a large wooden shield (for shield focus) and a longsword or whatever weapon I fancy since she has the fighter weapon proficiencies.

Tanking would be, for me, more efficient if you had a way to reliabily taunt, but since it's not the case (we're not in a MMORPG) it's a little underwhelming.

With my build, Valerie will have far less AC but far more utility.
First she will have a lovely pet able to dish a fair deal of damage, I think I will take a Leopard (high Dex= High AC, Attack, damage!).

Second, the spells! Summons, battlefield control, buffs, the druid spell list is amazing, barkskin for exemple will help her keep a good AC. But with her base 15 charisma, I think I will stay away from the save or suck spells which work better with Tristian or Octavia. She will be able to cast a few enchantment and illusion spells adding a little more versatility, I already think of mirror image or blur to help her in fight.
Of course she will always be a level behind but I think that's a small price to pay!

[Balkoth]

Animal companion Mastadon party.

[mogwen]

For Jaethal, I would give her one level of fighter for the proficiencies, Heavy armour and any good two-handed weapon will help here preach death efficiently. I think one of her main troubles is her AC so let's take armor focus and I think she will be fine.

[Marcos_DS]

Originally posted by mogwen:

I haven't yet bought the game (I promise I will in a few days!😉) but for valerie I think I will take another road.
She will become my verdant knight (Fighter 1/Druid Feyspeaker for the rest), with hide armor, a large wooden shield (for shield focus) and a longsword or whatever weapon I fancy since she has the fighter weapon proficiencies.

Tanking would be, for me, more efficient if you had a way to reliabily taunt, but since it's not the case (we're not in a MMORPG) it's a little underwhelming.

Well if you want to play any difficulty above normal you really need a dedicated tank badly. Specifically a tank with extremely high defenses. Its not so much about holding aggro but about staying alive long enough for your team to deal enough damage. Whether your main fills that role or a mercenary or you respec another char oesn't matter, but you need at least one (or better two) to hold the frontline on challenging+

Second, the spells! Summons, battlefield control, buffs, the druid spell list is amazing, barkskin for exemple will help her keep a good AC. But with her base 15 charisma, I think I will stay away from the save or suck spells which work better with Tristian or Octavia. She will be able to cast a few enchantment and illusion spells adding a little more versatility, I already think of mirror image or blur to help her in fight.

Druid are indeed great. I would recommend the animal domain. You get +1 spellslot/level and a companion at lvl-3. With the feat boon companion, your pet lvl is +4 (up to max character level). With lvl-3 and one non-druid level, thats exactly your character level... :)

Of course she will always be a level behind but I think that's a small price to pay!

One level isn't much, i agree.

[Karjus]

So how are you going with Amiri?

Do I get it right that you'll go Visc 1/Two-handed 7/Barbarian 12?

Get the double strength bonus to all attacks, get as much rage abilities as you can, and get the mutagen bonus for the extra 4 strength (4 damage) for the occasional fight along with getting to enlarge herself.

Or would you go Two-Hand 8/Barbarian 11, so you pick up the extra fighter specialization?

It seems a tall order to go further into Alchemist for another 2 strength,and I can imagine the basic two-handed double damage bonus being mostly useless later on when you have multiple attacks.

Reckless or Lethal?

The amount of options is just crazy, just recently beaten the Prologue and considering restarting because I honestly have no idea what I'm doing for companion builds.

Could you go Crusader with Valerie? Maybe do 7-8 levels (depends whether you want the no-flanking possible?)

[Ikarius]

Probably Barb 12/2h 7. Lethal stance, and the complete beast totem series (greater gets "pounce", which means I can charge into a full attack!). Still working on ordering, and I'm not 100% sure how the full attack cycle will look and how power attack will interact. But she'll have her sword (2d8, 3d8 if enlarged), two claw attacks (1d8 ea) from beast totem, 34 strength (20 base, 4 enhance, 2 size, 4 morale from rage, 4 alch from mutagen)! 2d6 sneak damage if target is flat-footed or flanked, and double strength damage on the sword attacks (either first from overhand chop or all subsequent from backswing)...

On Valerie, probably going to move into the stalwart defender prestige class rather than crusader. Stalwart defender also gains ability to ignore flanking.

[Omega13]

Sadly Valerie's intelligence is way too low to get into the Combat Expertise chain, which I agree would otherwise be great for her. With her low strength and the constant hit debuff from her dumb barndoor of a shield, she's the companion I've had the most difficulty trying to find a good use for. Generally speaking, in PF tabletop (and this has translated very well to the game) tanks that cannot also do significant damage or control are extremely useless, and that's what Valerie is. I've experimented with multiclassing her into bard (with that big shield she can afford to wear lighter armor) or just leaving her a fighter/stalward defender and picking up Dazzling Display, Power Attack/Cornugon Smash and skill focus Persuade to make her a demoralizing machine. Not that demoralizing is that great, but hey, it's something she can do pretty well.

[Omega13]

My current weird build suggestion - and I'm guessing I'm not the first - is to take Tristian into Empyreal Sorceror (using wisdom instead of charisma to cast) and steering him into mystic theurge for versatility. The other nice benefit of this is that he gets access to Mage Armor, since the silly kid won't put armor on.

[Rinane]

I've done:
Valerie gets to keep her Tower shield class, fixed the stats with an editor just so I could bring her instead of a custom companion that would do almost the same.

Amiri all levels past the first into Sacred Huntsman with a Smilodon, mostly because the Mastodon (Makes sense lore wise for her) makes so much damn noise.

Linzi all levels past the first into Vivisectionist, grabbing the feat that allows you to buff your group, to provide the normal self only "Shield" and "Expeditious Retreat" spells to the pets and Amiri. Then focus the massive amount of feats Vivisectionist gets into ranged damage for those sweet sweet ranged sneak attacks.

Octavia gets the standard Wizard levels until Arcane Trickster (Grab Accomplished Sneak Attacker at level 3)

Took a custom cleric with me because I really hate the provided ones, Community(lvl 8 ability is sadly broken) for the sweet CLW with no level cap + fatigue cure and and Animal domain for a Leopard to dps and trip things.


I'm currently planning a 3 or 4 character run:
A split 5 sacred hunts / 15 druid PC
Amiri again with Sacred Huntsman (This time with a Mastodon, since I fixed the sound files)
A custom cleric with the same domains
I'm on the fence to bring Linzi. I really like her character. I might go Sylvan Sorc on her for "Mage Armor" and you know MOAR PETS!

[corisai]

Originally posted by Rinane:

Linzi all levels past the first into Vivisectionist, grabbing the feat that allows you to buff your group, to provide the normal self only "Shield" and "Expeditious Retreat" spells to the pets and Amiri. Then focus the massive amount of feats Vivisectionist gets into ranged damage for those sweet sweet ranged sneak attacks.

Stupid move. Bard performance is awesome (hard to get +competence bonus) and became even more awesome if you're using pets.

Mass +attack (= more crits too), damage and saves far better then a bit of sneak damage to single char.