Curious about Skill checks and companions

[Coyote_Black]

I'm completely new to the game, about to start my first playthrough. I'm curious about how Skill Checks work with companions. Could I like build a character just to complete skill checks? Like maybe a companion who is really good at "Speech" or something like that?

[Chip56]

as long as anyone in your party has the necassary skills that char will disarm the bomb, haggle for better prices, talk in conversation and so on.

So yes you can a make any ranger or companion an expert for a certain skill.
The only two cave eats:
Companions can leave your party if you really piss them off so you might lose your expert.
Some skills it might make sense to have multiple characters with at least some points: first aid for example. If your healer goes down it might be good if someone else knows what a med kit is.

[rhony2]

Like Chip56 said, its good to make specialists who are really good at a particular skill. In fact the game encourages this in the gameplay hints it gives you on the load-up screens. If you look at the skill list the game shows, it lists 6 combat skills and 16 non-combat skills. Of the 6 combat skills, 4 are ranged and 2 are up-close. Given that you start with 2 initial characters that you can either choose or custom build, and then after the intro scenario you have the option of getting 2 more custom built or pre-made characters, you can have 4 custom built characters. With 16 non-combat skills and 4 custom built characters you can give each of the 4 characters you custom make 4 of the 16 skills. However, 2 of the non-combat skills, Explosives and Weird Science are necessary to use certain weapons (such as rocket launchers). As there are certain battles in the game where you are going to be heavily outnumbered, you might want more than one person with an AOE weapon. While Flamethrowers (Heavy weapon skill) and Shotguns (Small Arms skill) are also AOE, they have limited range.
Now you say "companion" but that term basically does not refer to your two initial characters and 2 more you can custom make. With your two initial and any custom made character, you don't have to worry about ticking them off and then them leaving. It's only others that you meet during gameplay and add to your party that are considered companions. Those are the ones you have to worry about your actions ticking off.
At the start of the game with just one weapon each and very little ammo and no money, having enough ammo might be a problem so the game also encourages you to have no more than two characters use weapons that use the same ammo type. And outside of buying ammo, which is expensive, the ammo you find is completely random. So all the more reason for having different kinds of weapon skills. However, if you don't mind save-scumming, you really don't have to worry about this too much. Save before you open an ammo box and reload until you get the kind of ammo you want. Also, you can get ammo at random from junk piles, buried locations, and most containers that just say container (as opposed to grenade box, weapon crate, armor crate, etc). You just need to save scum a lot. I never buy ammo - I save scum a lot.
Oh yeah, in addition to giving First Aid to multiple characters, as well as Explosives and Weird Science, Sneaky ♥♥♥♥ is also good to give to multiple characters as well, especially if you are going to use ambush a lot.

[Radiac]

Here below is my usual copypasta response to queries like this. TL;DR I would make 4 main rangers that travel with the main tream, plus a 5th person who stays at the HQ for the most part, just for certain skills that aren't terribly useful in the field, plus also recruit any two NPCs you like. I take Lucia and Jodie Bell because I can build around their inherent skills easily and they show up relatively early.

I assume I'm going to use the two NPCs I like (Jodie and Lucia) for the whole game and build around that, giving each of the 4 main people on the "travel team" primary responsibility for two non-combat skills and one gun skill each. I do not build anyone for Melee Weapons or Brawling at all. I've heard those skills can be fun, I don't generally do them, that's purely out of personal preference. I tend to stay at range and snipe/shoot stuff until it's dead and I'm not. I don't ever run up to disable a generator or hack a robot. I just shoot the turrets and robots instead. Whoever has Mechanics (which is usually Jodie Bell in my case) will stay near the kodiak to repair it with repair kits when necessary, and will use Mech skill on the generators AFTER the fight is over, just to get XP from that. Jodie uses a sniper rifle and Lucy uses pistol/shotgun combo, all of which fire one bullet at a time, and as such don't use much ammo, so having them as second copies of those gun skills is fine. This is mostly pre-Steeltown, so take that for what it's worth:

Guy 1: Leadership, Lock Picking, Several ranks in First Aid and Mechanics, and full ranks in a gun skill, usually Automatic Weapons, but could use Small Arms if you prefer (I prefer Automatics because you get better range out of the guns). The combat skills we choose here use fewer Action Points than the other ranged options, and with Leadership, you're going to be using 4 AP to pop Rally at the beginning of the fight, almost every time. Starting C.L.A.S.S.I.C. scores: 4.1.1.1.1.3.10 We want high Charisma for two reasons: 1 to allow us to power level the other characters, and 2 to give us the highest Strike Recharge Rate we can get. Starting Background/Quirk suggestions: Raider Hater or Sex Machine / Prospector or Serial Killer (you can pick other ones tho, not terribly crucial to the build, Serial Killer is good if you want him to get the AP spent on Rally back and do more shooting). Wears the Leader's Banner Utility item in combat, once we find it. Takes one rank in First Aid at creation, as you'll want it for the first mission.

Guy 2: Sniper, Sneaky ♥♥♥♥, Hard Ass, and eventually the hidden secret skill, Combat Shooting. takes exactly 1 rank in First Aid, at creation, and no more ranks in anything else after that. We need to conserve skill points to use on Combat Shooting (spoiler, its a hidden secret skill you can unlock), once we get it. Starting C.L.A.S.S.I.C. scores: 4.1.2.1.1.2.10. Again here we want to give our first two guys 10 Cha to give them max Strike Rate and also max bonus XP, for power leveling the others. B/Q: Goat Killer and Two-Pump Chump. This guy wears the Star of Bravery in combat, but he could also wear the Anabolic Injector instead, if you prefer. Before we get that, he probably wears whatever you have that gives +1 Hard Ass. This guy takes his one and only rank in First Aid at creation, so he can also heal himself and others in the first mission.

Guy 3: Big Guns, Nerd Stuff, Weird Science, and like 3 ranks in First Aid and then later maybe some Leadership when you have points to spare. Starting C.L.A.S.S.I.C. scores: 6.1.2.5.1.2.4. I don't play melee so I decided to make this guy my "high strength" guy. That's not critically important, but there are some decent heavy armors you can wear with a Str of like 6+, and the added hit points help ameliorate the Quirk I chose. Q/B is Vicious Avenger / Sadomasochist. Wears the Anabolic Injector or the Star of Bravery.

Guy 4: Automatic Weapons, Explosives, Kiss Ass, and however much First Aid you can afford. Starting C.L.A.S.S.I.C. scores: 8.1.4.2.1.3.2, B/Q: Explodomaniac or Sex Machine, Serial Killer or Prosepctor. No particularly crucial Utility item, I use the Rabbit's Foot or the craftable wallet for the extra quick slot. I try to eventually get this guy's Str to 4 so he can wear the Chemtek armor chest piece once Guy 3 get's better heavier armor and is done with it.

NPC1 (Lucia Wesson): Small Arms, Barter, Survival, Weapon Modding (take it to exactly 6), First Aid, and exactly 1 rank in Brawling, so she can use the Foam Finger. Level up her Attributes as you like. I kept her speed high so she could run around applying First Aid to others. Binoculars, Monocle, Modder's Kit. You'd be surprised how much good stuff you can mod and or craft with Weapon Modding 7 (6 ranks plus the kit). I try to get her Barter to 7 to get Antiques Appraiser about as fast as I can, though that's less effective now that all of the expensive Junk items are no longer classified as Junk, but rather "Crafting Components" now. That said I still eventually max out Barter and Survival.

NPC2 (Jodie Bell): Sniper, Mechanics, First Aid, Animal Whisperer. Again, level her Attributes any way you want. I mostly use her as a second sniper/second healer and primary Mechanics check maker, when that's needed. That said, you can't get her right at the beginning, so I would give someone else like 5 ranks in Mechanics in the early game (either Guy 1 or Guy 3, or the benchwarmer guy you're going to make). I'd tell you why we want exactly 5 ranks in Mech here, but that would be spoilers. Stethoscope, Mech Tools, Grooming Brush

Bench Player: Make a guy with whatever Attributes, Background, and Quirk you want and then level him up in Toaster Repair, Armor Modding, and Weapon Modding. If you make this guy early enough you can give him the 5 ranks in Mechanics you need to do spoiler things early on. You generally leave this guy on the bench until you need his skills, such as opening a toaster, making a Mechanics check somewhere in the Sans Luxe Apartments, modding a gun/armor etc. You don't absolutely have to open any toasters at all in the game if you don't want to, but there are some decent things you can get out of them if you do.

Kwon: Before Jodie becomes available, I use Kwon as a 6th man and generalist. No big strategies for him, he shoots, he heals, that's about it.

A note on power leveling:

When you promote a ranger from inactive roster to active roster, they get auto-leveled to the average level of the active team you're adding them to. This means that if you have 2 high Charisma guys, who will probably out-level everyone else, you can just demote everyone except the two high-Cha guys to the bench, then bring them back one at a time and they all get auto-leveled to the lowest level among the two fast levelers. This is how you level up the Bench guy that does all the modding and toaster stuff for you. You can always clear out an area, then go back just to open the toaster. You won't miss out on anything that way.

[Radiac]

Oh, and without going into the specific spoiler reasons for this, I should warn you not to relegate the Kiss Ass skill to one of the NPCs. You should make one of your main 4 responsible for that skill, based on end-game interactions that come up.