Companion Builds

Hello,

I've been lurking around here for a while, enjoying this mod. I've done a bit of searching and found that no one really talks about the ways they build their companions to complement their players and party. I'd like to start a guide/discussion on them.

I'll start it off by throwing out some builds I've used so far.

Ansen

Pure Support Build (Level 1
6 STR / 9 AGI / 30 INT / 6 CHA
10 First Aid, 10 Wound Treatment, 10 Engineering/Tactics, 10 Surgery/Pathfinding/Spotting/Tracking

By level 18, he can get to 30 INT along with 17 extra skill points, allowing you to max out First Aid, Wound Treatment and Surgery and get a good amount of points in other INT skill(s) of your choosing.  However, this leaves him essentially useless for upper-tier combat slowing his level gain relying on higher levelled character's Training to gain experience and/or his other party members doing the killing in a smaller party. If he continues to level, then I start pumping his STR from there so that he can use heavier/better armor and weapons.

Siege Crossbow Doctor Build (Level 20)
18 STR / 9 AGI / 18 INT / 6 CHA
6 Wound Treatment, 6 First Aid, 6 Engineering

With 18 STR, Ansen can use the Siege Crossbow along with various sets of Heavy Armor and his healthy amount of INT allows him to still be a potent support. For his alternate equipment, give him a 1h weapon (maybe blunt) and a shield (his starting AGI allows him to get Shield 3). This way, Ansen can hold his own in most fights - of course keep him out of the way of things like Demonic Magni and Noldor. Should you level Ansen further from here, pump his INT as he can reach Level 9 skills within 10 levels. You may want to assign your leftover points in Power Strike, but personally I make him more of a tank that can kills with the Crossbow.

Squire Build (Level 30)
26 STR / 18 AGI / 13 INT / 6 CHA
8 Power Strike, 6 Riding

This is for the people who want to fulfill Ansen's dream of becoming a knight. Unfortunately, by Level 30 he still pales in comparison to the likes of companions such as Sigismund, Kaverra, and Julia. Funnily enough, his stat spread still allows him to be better than Sir Rayne and Kassim (they get 1 less stat point in a similar build). Give him armor from your Knight Order for extra flavor. 18 AGI with Riding 6 allows him to ride a Netherworld Charger, making him a formidable Squire himself. Should he continue levelling, he would definitely be a Knight on par with (or better than) the likes of Sir Roland. 

Leslie

INT Support Build (Level 20)
7 STR / 7 AGI / 30 INT / 12 CHA
10 First Aid, 10 Wound Treatment, 10 Engineer/Tactics, 10 Surgery/Pathfinding/Spotting/Tracking

Even though you can build her pure CHA, it seems like a massive waste in my opinion. Level 5 Trade is already solid, but keep in mind she also has a point in both Wound Treatment and First Aid, which you can easily max with this build along with some points left over. She is, in my opinion, superior to Sara (because of her Level 1 start) and Ansen (more skill points when she reaches 30 INT). Of course, we run into the same problem with Ansen's pure support build in that she's extremely useless in a proper fight but don't let that stop you from using this great build. Should she continue levelling, you can finish topping her off at 30 INT or start building up her STR for combat prowess.

Lady Knight Build (Level 30)
28 STR / 18 AGI / 11 INT / 12 CHA
9 Power Strike, 6 Riding

She's better than Ansen. Of course, she's still weaker than the top combat companions, but she definitely holds her own here despite her lower starting weapon proficiencies. This build, like Ansen's Squire build, allows her to rip up the battlefield on a Netherworld Charger herself making her a worthy Lady Knight. It's just a shame she doesn't get those extra 2 points in STR before Level 30 where levelling slows down quite a bit, but 30 STR by Level 32 is still nothing to sneeze at.

Sigismund Sinclair

Knight Build (Level 30)
35 STR / 18 AGI / 12 INT / 9 CHA
or
30 STR / 18 AGI / 17 INT / 9 CHA
10 Power Strike, 6 Riding

Thanks to his stat spread, Sigismund is the most fearsome Knight character you can have. Even Sir Jocelyn would have trouble fighting against such a character despite the level difference. He can wear all of the legitimately obtainable equipment and ride all of the legitimately obtainable horses. Starting with 7 in Power Strike, 7 in Ironflesh, 5 in Shield, 5 in Athletics and 5 in Riding doesn't hurt either. 

STR Trainer Build (Level 30)
38 STR / 15 AGI / 12 INT / 9 CHA
or
30 STR / 15 AGI / 20 INT / 9 CHA
10 Power Strike, 4(6) Trainer

Within 10 levels, you can have your own CKO Knights and Sergeants begin to reach Noldor levels. In 10 more you would pretty much rival the Noldor Nobles in ferocity thanks to your friend, Sigismund. Despite not being able to ride the fearsome Netherworld Chargers, he still becomes a terrifying force. The Knights of the Ebony Gauntlet take lessons from this guy, so if you ever get your hands on a Mettenheim Arbalest, don't poke your own eye out and give it to Sigismund instead. Don't forget to put points into Trainer to smooth out training your CKOs, as he starts with a respectable 12 INT. Or just use him as your personal bodyguard.

Sara the Fox

The AGI Trainer Support Build (Level 22)
7 STR / 30 AGI / 16 INT / 16 CHA
10 Riding, 10 Looting, 5 Trainer

Making her a pure CHA/INT support seems like really wasting her talents. People forget that Looting is a party skill, and she can easily max it out. She can easily train your CKO troops to have 30 AGI. Have you seen Noldor-armored Knights riding Netherworld Chargers with 30 AGI and 10 Riding? It's pretty great. She can reach 30 AGI within 12 levels, which is easy to reach. Should you manage to continue levelling, I prefer pumping up her INT since it improve Trainer level and gives her more Skill Points, though she can easily be built as a CHA support as well should you need her to be. Despite Ediz having the same starting AGI himself, Sara makes a better trainer due to her higher starting INT and start at a lower level (Sara's 10 to Ediz's 12). The main challenge of this build is actually levelling it because, like all support builds, she's not very good in a fight so remember to keep her out of harms way.

The Not-A-Singalian Temptress (Level 30)
27 STR / 18 AGI / 16 INT / 16 CHA
9 Power Strike, 6 Riding

Despite not being able to reach 30 STR at Level 30, she's still better than Ansen in that she reaches the 27 point threshold for STR while being able to ride Netherworld Chargers, making her stronger than him. Still, she's not as good as Ediz, Sigismund, Frederick, Julia, and even Leslie. It's a build I've played around with to some success, and it's pretty funny to see.

That's all I've got so far, hopefully it wasn't too long of a read. Please let me know what you think. Also please let me know if the stat spreads are wrong for their level.

Nicely done, though I usually get pretty upset by min/maxing attempts and people dictating how others how they need to play a singleplayer or multiplayer game.

One of the niceties of PoP is it´s huge freedom and little restraints to use certain builds or items to succeed. It´s all about choices and personal fun.
The goal isn´t important but how you achieve it. Keep that in mind and use your brain 1.0 for personal conclusions after you read a bit up, asked a few questions and looked up some information on the wiki or through the search function.

Consider  me a traditionalist there. I use the same set of 9 or 10 companions ever since they came along and I usually develop them the same each game I play. STR/AGI till they hit 15/18 tresholds for decent armour and weapons, fighting skills accordingly, thereafter INT/CHA for supportive skills.

And that´s it. I´ve never seen the point of using min/maxing approach as I prefer the fun to be had till achieving a certain goal far more than beeing dragged to levels/abuse game systems only for a supreme feeling of pwning anything and the developers grandmother at HolyMolyLevel149 with a maxed out monster.

But that´s just my personal opinion. The vast majority of players is spoiled by WoW like MMRPG´s and the resuming attitude.

Experimenting is usually how I got most of these builds, but PoP reminds me a bit of Demon Souls/Dark Souls (in terms of the beginning is always rough) so it kinda makes me want to tryhard a bit anyway I can.

I think the "most fun" builds are the "put all your points into STR YOLO!" builds. They're pretty funny to see on the field.

Aithere said:

Experimenting is usually how I got most of these builds, but PoP reminds me a bit of Demon Souls/Dark Souls (in terms of the beginning is always rough) so it kinda makes me want to tryhard a bit anyway I can.

I think the "most fun" builds are the "put all your points into STR YOLO!" builds. They're pretty funny to see on the field.

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When I first tried darksouls, I thought "**** this, I'm going to play something easier".

I went and booted up PoP.

**** all this. Give them da mighty pointy shooter

I usually just pump my companions with heavy armour + good weapons so they don't die straight away.

Carlos Danger said:

I usually just pump my companions with heavy armour + good weapons so they don't die straight away.

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It pretty much boils down to this for most of the under-30 companions, but your own character can only do so much by him/herself (unless you cheat). I went first with the characters that have the most utility -- you could win an Independent Kingdom PoP game quite handily with just those four characters + Sir Jocelyn and/or Lethaldiran.

There are companions where I am disappointed in how underwhelming they are, though.

Apolo said:

**** all this. Give them da mighty pointy shooter

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Nah, I'd rather pump everyone's AGI and have them just follow me on Netherworld Chargers and just run around the battlefield.

fidoman1272 said:

When I first tried darksouls, I thought "**** this, I'm going to play something easier".

I went and booted up PoP.

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In retrospect, the two games are more similar than I originally thought. They both have an easy way to win the early game (Lethaldiran/Noldor for PoP, Drake Sword for Dark Souls) but they also make players develop bad habits while playing the game. They also have a fairly easy endgame (you can steamroll everyone at the end of PoP just with your own troop, Dark Souls has an easy final boss).

I min max, so my Ansen, Leslie, Siggy, Sara, etc. are all horse archers (and everyone else except those below) 

Probably the hardest to turn into a horse archer is Sir Rayne or Alyssa, but it might be possible, if barely (I didn't in my game).  Donovan I don't think it's possible because he's just weak.  The higher level ones aren't possible like Boadice, Alistair, Jocelyn and Roland

More please!!

I've updated my original post to also include recommended skills with each build, so please check them out!

Ediz

Horse Archer Build (Level 30)
STR 32 / AGI 18 / INT 14 / CHA 12
or
STR 30 / AGI 18 / INT 16 / CHA 12
Power Draw 10, Riding 6, Horse Archery 6

Ediz is probably the best horse archer character you can have, given that he starts with Power Draw 5 and Horse Archery 5 and has a very solid stat spread. I've seen arguments that Ediz is an all-around better companion than Sigismund because of stats or something, but Sigismund has a superior stat spread (Ediz can get 22 STR/18 AGI at Level 20, Sigismund starts with 28/15). The only thing he has over Sigismund is that Ediz is an archer out of the box, everything else goes to Sigismund. He also conflicts with Lethaldiran, the best early game companion because he's a weaker Noldor Archer that can't die with the best Weapon Proficiencies in the game and Kaverra who is also a very solid companion.

Semi-Support Build (Level 24)
STR 14 / AGI 30 / INT 14 / CHA 12
Looting 10, Trainer 4

While not as good as an AGI support as Sara the Fox, he has the benefit of being able to actually fight. 14 STR, Power Draw 5 and Horse Archer 5 allows him to use decent horse archery equipment while supporting your party with AGI skills. Given his 14 INT, you can put points into Trainer to train your CKO and troops.

What good is 32 strength to anyone?

How do you manage to get 10 Horse Archery with Ediz while he only has 18 in Agility?

Filou said:

How do you manage to get 10 Horse Archery with Ediz while he only has 18 in Agility?

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That's what happens when I don't double check what I type (I type pretty quickly). It's been fixed.

noosers said:

What good is 32 strength to anyone?

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What good is 20 AGI to anyone? 

My Ediz has 21 agi, 7 weapon master and 7 HA.  He also has 10 PD and a ruby bow.  He's my strongest and deadliest companion.

Bravado said:

My Ediz has 21 agi, 7 weapon master and 7 HA.  He also has 10 PD and a ruby bow.  He's my strongest and deadliest companion.

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To be fair it's a Ruby Bow...

I've tried levelling Weapon Master before. I'm not exactly sure if it's worth it, since weapon proficiency through WM caps out at 420, right? But you can only really level one weapon mastery anywhere close to there from what I've seen. Though I guess you can just have Ediz with the bow and 3 sets of Noldor/Meltine Arrows...

Nope, my Ediz has 427 skill in archery.  Each point in weaponmaster raises the soft cap of all your weapon skill by I think 40 or 60
His other 2 weapon slots are a Ruby runed axe and a reinforced falcon shield.  With 10 IF and PS, I think he's as strong as it gets at both ranged and melee

I consider Weapon Master as one of the musthaves. I like that skill because it actually helps greatly to advance your and your NPC´s wp.
It´s not only the actualy soft cap raised so you can spend skillpoints on that proficiency it speeds up training through action as well since the higher the skill, the higher the soft cap.

The lower the actual weapon skill and the higher your soft cap, the faster and more regular are you or your NPC companion getting wp increasements upon scoring non-critical hits. And that´s the huge sideeffect of that skill which makes it so juicy.

Not to mention I usually never hit max stats for anyone but those already close to 30 STR, like Sigismund Sinclair.

noosers said:

Not to mention I usually never hit max stats for anyone but those already close to 30 STR, like Sigismund Sinclair.

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Really? I always only pump into Strength, then Agility once they're maxed out; I only ever use put in charisma and intelligence for Kaverra, who is my bottom ***** diplomat.

I find that 6 WM can comfortably get them to 400 weapon skill in the weapons that they use.  It's also the same agility level that lets them hop onto a Noldor spirit horse.  I find that investing 3 stat points is too much for another point in WM and HA.  (riding provides weak returns after 6)

I would rather pump points into str until 24 for ruby bow, then agi to 18 for horse, then str to 30 for more IF, PD and PS and noldor armor.  Once you get 30 str, you can continue with agi, but your companion at that point, with a few exceptions, will be in the mid 30s at the very least.

Which means they should be useful.