Best and worst companions?

[Lampros]

Not for role-play purposes but for game-play efficacy purposes. For instance, it looks to me that the Dwarf cleric sucks, because of his domains and his odd melee build without the melee stats to support it. Any others I should go out of my way to avoid or acquire?

[Swordman_Red]

Create a whole group of min-maxed mercenaries and that's it.

[Lampros]

Originally posted by Swordman_Red:

Create a whole group of min-maxed mercenaries and that's it.

I know, but you do need to party with story characters for at least their quests, no? Also, I don't want everyone to be mercenaries, as they are colorless.

[Bishop]

Anything works really, but if you want some concrete data:

Best damagers: Ekundayuo, nok nok. But honestly they all can do adequate damage depending on their builds. For example I use Amiri as a kukri slayer with free shatter defense and dreadful carnage and she is not that much worse damage wise than Nok Nok but can also be enlarged for more reach and provides better utility.

Best tank: Valerie

Best caster/nuker/control: Octavia. Though I think Jubilost is pretty good too, but if you want an actual caster then there's not much choice.

Best healer cleric: Tristian. Harrim and Jaethal (specced into cleric) can be adequate healers too, just more combat oriented.

[Swordman_Red]

Originally posted by Lampros:

Originally posted by Swordman_Red:

Create a whole group of min-maxed mercenaries and that's it.

I know, but you do need to party with story characters for at least their quests, no? Also, I don't want everyone to be mercenaries, as they are colorless.

But for those purposes companion's combat abilities do not matter, does it? You just pick one which quest you need to do and do it, then drop him back on the bench.
If you care about "color"of a characters, why would you care about their efficiency?

[Aria Athena]

Get the respec mod and do whatever you want with them.

[Halfgeek]

Jaethal is really useful due to her immunity. Give her a nice shield + breast plate (mithral), pump her STR + DEX and with some feats she is one of the best tank.

Ekun + Nok Nok + Octavia are all great.

Harrim might not have the best stat, but being a Cleric, he's very powerful once higher spell levels are reached. You can't have an awful Cleric with high WIS stat basically. Give him a reach weapon (Glaive or Fauchard).

[Azunai]

ekun is pretty decent mostly due to a somewhat overpowered longbow you can get early on, though. but also because he brings his animal companion as added bonus.

amiri is ok-ish. i would prefer more strength on a damage oriented melee tbh. i actually switched her over to ranger in my 2nd playthrough (no mods - just left barb at level 1 and all other level ups in ranger). with a mastodon animal companion. the animal is more valuable than its master lol.

the clerics are mostly healbots anyway. harrim can wear plate and a shield and can provide "outflank" to other melees. tristian has decent charisma scores so his channel healing power is better, but he can only wear robes so his armor AC is stuck at 5 or so (from bracers)

linzi is a decent buffbot and healer. bard song, heroism, haste, healing spells. doesn't do any damage but that never really bothered me. also has a useful special skill for camping on overland map (gives a +2 bonus to the tasks of all other party members)

octavia is a pretty decent buffer/debuffer/dps. i think it's pretty obvious that she's meant to be an arcane trickster and you can unlock the PrC at level 5 or so (i think you need 1 rogue/3 wizard for the prerequisites). would kinda suck under normal D&D rules but thanks to the very generous sneak attack rules of this game she can constantly sneak attack. including multi sneak attack hits from stuff like scorching ray (extra rays at higher caster levels). and since she's a transmuation specialist anyway (from her wizard starting class) she also has a decent chance to apply slow (which is basically the crippling evil twin of haste) and make people stuck in obsidian flow or neutralized by baleful polymorph.

valerie kinda sucks. she's ok at soaking hits, but that's about it. way too low strength for a fighter and too much useless charisma. i didn't like her attitude anyway, so no big loss leaving her at home.

reg is a decent fighter with his magic skills. with stuff like shield and mirror image he can be surprisingly tanky. his HP are fairly low, though. i swapped him out for ekun in my 2nd playthrough and never looked back tbh.

jubilost is pretty decent. can learn haste (most OP thing in the game imo, pretty much mandatory) so he can stand in for one of the other casters any time. bomb stuff is about as useful or useless as any offensive spellcasting.

never really used jaethal or nok nok. i think the gobbo would be pretty deadly due to silly sneak attack rules in this game. didn't want to ditch one of the core team for him, though.

[Mork]

Amiri: She is ok and have a lot of multiclass potential due to her 12 wis. Overall, I like her better has a fighter then barbarian.

Valerie: You need a tank and her stats are very good for multiclassing, specially has a tank bard in my opinion.

Linzi: Bard are very good but i prefer to not use Linzi for end game reason...

Harrim: He get better when you don't rely on him to heal to much or at mid level +.
One level of fighter for weapons selections, a enlarge spell and/or reach weapon + divine power and you have very good physical damage dealer cleric.

Jeathal: She can be quite strong but harder to use for beginner.

Regongar: I was quite surprise by him has a pure strength scion magus, he become very good.

Octavia: Arcane trickster are very strong but arcane caster need some time to get going . They are extremely powerful if you know how and when to use them.

Tristan: The safe bet has a party cleric, he heal very well and has some fire power to support the group. He is easier to build then Harrim.

Jubilost: Alchemist are just very powerful, learn why... and be careful to not miss him.

Ekundayo: Ranger in this game are very good and Ekun is definitely powerful. The only negative is his pet choice, but Okbo(the dog) is still quite good at off-tanking when buffed.

Nok-Nok: His stat are quite insane and he is strong.

Kalikke / Kanerah: Kineticist are powerful but kinda broken, i don't like using them...

[Edstyles]

im playing on challenging and im not particularly familiar with the game , but Amiri is carrying the game for me in the early game. She even did a 42 damage attack at level 3...I just make my entire team support her and she wrecks everything .

Worst is hard to say as they all got some sort of utility , but if i had to name one mhm id say Jaethal , not cause she is weak but cause its nice to have a cleric in your team and I just cant fit her in my team which is allready packed.

[peterebbesen]

In order of mechanical effectiveness, I'd rate them like this.


Ekundayo and Nok-Nok both have exceptionally good stat distributions for their roles of master archer and stabby maniac respectively and are, unsurprisingly, very easy to make very effective damage dealers. Ekundayo just by going straight Ranger or, optionally, taking 3 levels of Inquisitor(Sacred Huntsmaster) and the Outflank feat to make Dog even better than it already is (I suggest taking them early on to get it done). Nok-Nok is a bit flimsy unless you add some high hit-dice levels into the mix (fighter or barbarian being obvious candidates).

Valerie makes an exceptional tank if you take at least 9 levels of her Tower Shield Specialist class (to get shield bonus to touch-AC), and if you can fit in 11 (or even 13), it can certainly be worthwhile. Add persuasion and persuasion feats, which you can easily afford due to extra feats, and a level of Rogue(Thug) and you've got a natural for Dazzling Display to make things easier for all your weapon focus-dazzling display-shatter defense physical damage dealers. You can also build her as a so-so damage dealer - in fact, her attributes are good enough that while she isn't optimal for any role, she can easily be made useful for a large number of roles, though tanking in full armour with a tower shield while still benefiting greatly from dexterity due to the Tower Shield Specialist's special armour training is where she shines.

Jubilost is a great alchemist especially once you start stacking up on extra bombs feats allowing you to go all out; Bombs are powerful and they target touch-AC, which means that neither saving throws nor spell resistance helps the target of a bomb. It is very easy to buff Jubilost to practically always hit targets that your other characters have trouble hitting or doing full damage to. Bombs also have an AOE effect, though the AOE does target reflex rather than AC, so some enemies are capable of avoiding it. But just about any dangerous enemy in the game subjected to Jubilost throwing using full attacks throwing bombs at it is in great trouble. Sure, you can min-max a better alchemist as a mercenary, and you'd make him a Grenadier archetype if you wanted an even better bomber, but Jubilost is very, very, powerful mechanically.

Octavia makes a good arcane trickster and does silly damage that way due to how stealth attacks are implemented as well as being a good buff bot. She's also a great skillmonkey.

Linzi makes a good ranged bard and, perhaps surprisingly, an excellent tank too if you build for it, making her a natural choice for a second tank alongside Valerie if your main isn't one. Alongside bard levels throw in a level of Rogue(Thug), a level of Fighter(whatever, since you only take 1 it doesn't really matter), and Eldritch Knight, and she can be Dazzling almost as well as Valerie; Her AC won't be quite as good (as the best armour she can wear without spell failure is mithral medium armour), but it will still be good enough as her size and halfling specific AC talent for defensive fighting helps here. She's also quite useful with skills.

Kanerah/Kalikke; two for the price of one. Kanerah is a great skillmonkey and good enough damage dealer, Kalikke is a great damagedealer. Were I rating them simply on their end-game potential rather than effectiveness throughout the game they'd be MUCH higher up the list; Fact is that Kineticist before Deadly Earth is fine, and after Deadly Earth is broken to the point of hilarity.

Jaethal makes an excellent single-class Inquisitor due to high attributes and undead benefits, but my experience playing with her has been limited as I greatly dislike her personality.

Tristian makes a good buffer and heal-bot and at medium-high levels a decent occasional nuker with an investment of feats in spell focus evocation and fire element etc (starting with spell level 5 this becomes an option - until then nuking options are very, very, limited) or perhaps you'd rather take spell focus: conjuration and the two summoning feats and give him a sideline in summoning.

Regongar makes an acceptable magus with a decent stat distribution, and you can certainly build him into a good enough tank or a good gish damage dealer, but one thing with another he isn't something special and his orc frenzy can lead to unfavourable outcomes where he dies and needs to be resurrected rather than merely being knocked out.

Harrim much the same as Tristian, though for him a spell focus in necromancy would arguably make more sense for the damaging aspect, though Harrim has worse charisma and dexterity which isn't fun. OTOH Harrim can wear armour while Tristian is a bracers + robes sort of guy. Both work well for their role.


Amiri loves charging in with her oversized bastard sword and being cut down due to low AC if you just build her as a standard barbarian, which makes her a nuisance. But she can be built to be a decent tank (my favourite approach includes giving her one level of bard or magus and getting her nine levels of Dragon Disciple for permanent wings and boosted attributes and AC on top of standard tank feats - arguably not the best way of making her a tank compared to just taking fighter or barbarian levels, but it is amusing and it works! Give her exceptional light armour or mithral medium armour and buff with shield and mirror image for everyday use and more buffing for hard fights). She can also be built to be a good damagedealer, but it takes more effort if you don't want to have to babysit her.

[Viper]

There all good in my opinion if you build them right. And if you want to do there quests you will need to adventure with them at some time.

[Dorian Gray]

Originally posted by Bishop:

Anything works really, but if you want some concrete data:

Best damagers: Ekundayuo, nok nok. But honestly they all can do adequate damage depending on their builds. For example I use Amiri as a kukri slayer with free shatter defense and dreadful carnage and she is not that much worse damage wise than Nok Nok but can also be enlarged for more reach and provides better utility.

Best tank: Valerie

Best caster/nuker/control: Octavia. Though I think Jubilost is pretty good too, but if you want an actual caster then there's not much choice.

Best healer cleric: Tristian. Harrim and Jaethal (specced into cleric) can be adequate healers too, just more combat oriented.

After installing and playing with the "turn-based mod", many aspects of combat previously escaped me.

After playing with the mod for a while, one thing that became apparent was just how much of a DPS beast Ekun truly is!

Also, Octavia was pretty good once her sneak-attack dice began to ramp up.

[Babbles]

Val: 4 thug, rest kinetic knight
Amiri: Monster tactician
Harrim: Slayer shield basher
Jae: Sword Saint / Dualist
Octavia - guess
Main: 2 Eldritch Archer, 8 Sacred Huntsmaster, 10 Vivsectionist.

Girl Power :)

[wendigo211]

Most of them can be built into something effective, although that might not be their original class. Amiri and Harrim get worse on higher difficulty levels because they can't really take a hit.

Ekundayo: Except for having a weak animal companion, he's a better archer ranger than you can make due to very generous attributes.

Nok-Nok: Another hyper-optimized companion. Cast Greater Invisibility on him and watch him carve up enemies. It's pretty safe to keep him as a Knife-Master, but you might want to give him a few Fighter or Slayer levels to up his AB a bit.

Octavia: Except for the low constitution, a solidly made Arcane Trickster. Once she's finished with AT, I like to go into Eldritch Knight with her to help her AB (less likely to miss with touch attacks). Sense Vitals stacks with Sneak Attack so she should end up with 12D6 sneak attack on her touch attack spells.

Jubilost: Another good companion, I like to keep him as a pure alchemist. Once he has fast bombs he has pretty good spike damage. Alchemists have a decent mix of healing and buffing spells. Since they do get Heal, I prefer carrying one around to a Cleric.

Kalikke\Kanerah: I like to turn Kalikke into a Freebooter and keep Kanerah as a Kineticist. Since you can swap between them, it lets you choose between the AB buffs of the Freebooter and the damage of a Kineticist.

Linzi: As much as I like keeping Bards pure for the faster song progression, she benefits from three Rogue levels for Finesse Training and some sneak attack in addition to Sense Vitals. She would benefit from Dreadful Carnage, but you would probably have a hard time getting her strength high enough to use it. She can still use Dazzling Display.

Jaethal: Most of the time I keep her as an inquisitor. She has a really high perception which is useful, a bunch of immunities and can't die. With those quirks she can be very useful. An alternative is to make her into something like a Inquisitor 4/Eldritch Scion 4/Dragon Disciple 4/Mystic Theurge 8. She loses 2 BAB (but gets +2 AB from DD) and ends up as an Inquisitor 12/Eldrictch Scion 15 in terms of casting. She gets a lot of defensive buffs from the magus spell list, making her more durable in combat.

Regongar: I generally add 4 Dragon Disciple to him, but put the rest of the levels in Eldritch Scion. I tend to use him mostly as a general (+4 strength from DD is helpful here). The problem is that he has a low dex, so it takes a while to get his Magus armor proficiencies for heavier armor and in the endgame having a low touch AC isn't great. With his good Charisma and Strength, you could also give him some Thug and go for Dreadful Carnage.

Amiri: Useful early on, gets less useful as the game progresses. While she hits hard, it's kind of hard to keep her AC up. I usually take her down the Vivisectionist route. She needs a +Int item to cast spells, but the mutagen helps her quite a bit, and sneak attack damage makes her initial charge attack more lethal. She gets replaced by Jubilost once he's available.

Harrim: It seems a bit weird in a 3.x game to have the clerics at the bottom of the list. I like Harrim a bit better since he can contribute a bit in melee in the early and mid game. Really I only keep a Cleric around for: Shield of Faith, Magic Vestments, Resist Energy, Delay Poison and Restoration. I guess Bless is also useful before you get Heroism from your arcane casters.

Tristian: A useful specialization and a good wisdom and charisma, but his physical attributes and the inability to use armor basically mean he can't do anything in combat. You can have him buff you before combat, and heal you afterwards, but he'll drop if an enemy looks at him funny. I've tried making him an archer but he can't really get any bonus damage with bows. I've tried the Mystic Theurge build with him, which does help him survive, but tanks his Cleric caster level.

Valerie: Using her as a regent, I just turn her into a Feyspeaker Druid. Her pet is a better tank than she can ever be and Druid spells aren't bad. Alternatively you can make her a Kineticist, which is really the only class that benefits from such a high constitution. TSS 1/Eldritch Scion 12/Dragon Disciple 4/Thug 3 could also work if you want a frontliner, but she would just be a worse Regongar.

[CHAO$$$]

S-tier

Ekun
high point buy - good stat spread - great class - comes with enemy hate against the enemies in his chapter+you get a sick bow in that same chapter - no downsides


A-tier

Jubilost
All around great alchemist - could have used 2 more points in dex - one of the best classes in the game and pretty good stat spread

NokNok
Great rogue with nutty racial - rogue is not that great on super high difficulty

Octavia
Good lategame arcane trickster. Could have used a better wizard spec. Pretty good stats.

Kanerah/Kalikke
Very strong in the lategame and earlygame. Class is not great in the midgame. Both have good stats. Could be considered S-tier just because you get 2. Kanerahs subclass is kinda bad.

Regongar
Better at melee dps / off tanking than NokNok because of mirror image.
Great at what he does but difficult to micro and build. Magus is arguably the best tank+dps class in the game but unfortunately Regongars stats dont lend themselves to tanking. The only reason to not have him is because custom magus' are even better.


B-tier

Jaethal
op racial, op bonuses during her questline, 1 level wasted in inquisitor - needs to progress in a different class - stats are unfortunately all over the place.


C-Tier

Both Clerics - subpar class.

Valerie
Good frontliners do damage and dont get hit. She hits like a wet noodle and only doesnt get hit on normal difficulties. Doesnt have mirror image so she is awful for main tanking higher difficulties.


D-Tier

Amiri
very poor stats, poor class, unique weapon is okay early on but falls off


F-Tier

Whatshername Bard
Awful awful bard. extremely poor stats. Loses a ring slot. When she dies in the middle of a dungeon you cant just rezz her like everyone else but shes just gone until you return to a city.
Awful awful awful.
Bard class is very strong until the very lategame but she manages to just be so bad that it doesnt matter.