Companion Builds

If only the level 35+ companions could level at a reasonable pace. Sir Roland is the only companion that I like making into a Lord since his stat spread is actually good (and he starts out stronger than a Knight of the Dawn at Level 40?!) AND he's an upstanding lord. Plus he's a pretty cool guy.

I've seen that level actually affects what Renown your companion lords start with. I cheated Roland to Level 60 to see if Level did affect renown and autocalc and he started out with 1500, for example.

Or I guess you could always meddle with the occult or whatever you people call TweakMB around here.

I thought he was martial, but both are good.  Roland isn't a very powerful or useful companion come mid-late game, so it's good to make him into a lord.

Another reason why builds are somewhat important in PoP is that you can't really "reset" skills like you can with your own character (thanks to import/export). It's even more frustrating when you set damage on 100% on yourself anything better than faction units can easily one shot you despite your armor, its much safer to relegate yourself to support.

Speaking of which, I've come back with a couple more builds.

Frederick of Mettenheim

Forlorn Hope Build (Level 30)
STR 34 / AGI 18 / INT 12 / CHA 15
OR
STR 30 / AGI 18 / INT 16 / CHA 15
Power Strike 10

I think the greatest surprise for me is that Frederick is many levels weaker than an actual Forlorn Hope unit, despite him being the last survivor. Regardless, he starts out ripe and ready to being an unkillable 2h user that will strike fear into the hearts of your enemies. It's unfortunate that he starts out with such little skill points compared to his Crossbow-wielding brother Sigismund, but he can still wield a Crossbow himself and easily become proficient with it should you choose. He could also become a bow user, but he needs a lot of skill points in order to become a proficient bow-wielder in comparison. Generally, I just give him a Siege Crossbow and be done with it.

Mettenheim Inhaber Build (Level 30)
STR 22 / AGI 18 / INT 12 / CHA 27
Leadership 9

Forlorn Fred is one of the most valuable calculating (iirc) lords you will ever have the chance of having in your kingdom (along with Lethaldiran), sporting Mettenheim household troops along with Pendor units. By Level 30 he'll start with a healthy 1000 renown along with 27 CHA AND 9 Leadership, you should definitely consider giving him the lion's share of walled fiefs.

Also, before anyone asks, yes Inhaber. Especially since there are Mettenheim troops with the rank of Hauptmann. 

And it sounds weird as hell to any native german speaker.

Because the Inhaber is someone who owns non-portable property. Like the owner of a factory or a house. It´s a rather old fashioned word and not commonly  used and totally inapprobiate and wrongly used for a military term. At least as far as my grasp of german is concerned.

Whereas Hauptmann is a totally correct and precise old fashioned military term.

but that´s just my 2cts. Pointless and acrid, as usual.

Soldier: Sir, the men are routing! What do we do?

Commander: Soldier, we have no choice... send in... the non-portable property owners

Send in the real estate warriors! Make sure those with mortgages are in the first wave! Move up the mortgage lawyer archers in support! Take no collaterals!

noosers said:

And it sounds weird as hell to any native german speaker.

Because the Inhaber is someone who owns non-portable property. Like the owner of a factory or a house. It´s a rather old fashioned word and not commonly  used and totally inapprobiate and wrongly used for a military term. At least as far as my grasp of german is concerned.

Whereas Hauptmann is a totally correct and precise old fashioned military term.

but that´s just my 2cts. Pointless and acrid, as usual.

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Well he would own some walled fiefs with that build...

MadVader said:

Send in the real estate warriors! Make sure those with mortgages are in the first wave! Move up the mortgage lawyer archers in support! Take no collaterals!

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Send the time-share deals around the flanks! Don't let them get away!

The other day, they were selling time shares on ebay for $1 or less.

Wanna be an Inhaber for $1?

I don't "build" companions, I level them up, put points in wherever I feel like and role with it. Why play game with precise math.

The same reason I do it in Perisno.

For those wondering why I tend to pump more STR rather than adding more AGI is because the benefit of AGI (and related skills) diminish pretty badly (unless you're leveling Looting), so generally either putting a point into STR or INT will do more for you (ideally INT, but I generally use CKOs so one of my companions I pump STR to around 40 before adding any points in INT). Or CHA, I guess, but you only really need one companion if any at all for CHA skills.

Here's some supplemental content in regards to that for those tryharding:

Companions @ 30 STR
Sigismund Sinclair (Level 22)
Leslie (Level 24)
Ansen (Level 25)
Riva (Level 25)
Frederick of Mettenheim (Level 26)
Kaverra (Level 26)
Ediz (Level 26)
Adonja (Level 26)
Kassim (Level 26)
Julia (Level 26)
Alyssa (Level 30)
--
Sir Rayne (Level 32)
Sara the Fox (Level 33)
Diev (Level 34)
Donavan (Level 37)
Sir Alistair (Level 40)
Sir Jocelyn (Level 40)
Sir Roland (Level 42)
Lethaldiran (starts w/ 30 @ Level 45)

Characters below the line will probably never reach 30 STR in a normal PoP game, which is interesting. Also why does Sir Alistair start at Level 38? Heresy! Sir Roland needs a reroll.

Aithere said:

(unless you're leveling Looting)

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Sir Alistair probably represents a man past his peak. His lvl vs. stats and looks might indicate something like that.

Do you really need INT skills that much - at the price of keeping AGI at starting levels (weapon master generally very low)? Maxing STR/INT and disregarding AGI? I expect balanced STR/AGI be better.
Certainly nothing like beelining STR to 40. How does the companion work before it's time to pump INT? Is it very late as one should expect? Happy with most companions not being to ride anything proper?

While cha is close to useless for companions, the other 3 are all quite important.  Int for training and 2 skill points, agi for riding and weapon master, so going past 30 str is a waste - it's only 1hp per point, and is the 1hp worth gimping your companion?

magitsu said:

Aithere said:

(unless you're leveling Looting)

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Sir Alistair probably represents a man past his peak. His lvl vs. stats and looks might indicate something like that.

Do you really need INT skills that much - at the price of keeping AGI at starting levels (weapon master generally very low)? Maxing STR/INT and disregarding AGI? I expect balanced STR/AGI be better.
Certainly nothing like beelining STR to 40. How does the companion work before it's time to pump INT? Is it very late as one should expect? Happy with most companions not being to ride anything proper?

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I guess I wasn't clear, but it means that I keep AGI at 18 (for 6 WM, Riding and HA) and level either STR or INT instead afterwards. I generally have Sigismund pumped to 40 (around Level 32) then begin levelling his INT for Trainer. I've also done it with Frederick and Ediz to similar effect. I usually have an archery and cavalry line so Sigismund is usually lined up with my archers (either with a Masterwork Siege Crossbow, or a Mettenheim Arbalest if I'm lucky to find one in a playthrough), and he's damn good at his job.

Also Sir Alistair has the same stats as Sir Roland, I think. He just starts at a lower level, so he levels before Sir Roland does. But Sir Roland is supposed to be the chosen one, and the Knight of Eventide is basically stronger than him 

Bravado said:

While cha is close to useless for companions, the other 3 are all quite important.  Int for training and 2 skill points, agi for riding and weapon master, so going past 30 str is a waste - it's only 1hp per point, and is the 1hp worth gimping your companion?

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The pumping of STR is mainly for training CKOs. I usually designate only one companion (usually Sigismund) to do this. Frederick and Ediz are also good candidates, doubly so since they don't need anymore AGI.

Of course if you're playing without CKOs, you just cap STR at 30 and run around with your horse archery companions with Shadow Legion/Immortals.

Aithere said:

The pumping of STR is mainly for training CKOs. I usually designate only one companion (usually Sigismund) to do this. Frederick and Ediz are also good candidates, doubly so since they don't need anymore AGI.

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Yeah, I get that, but you're gimping one of your best companions for a measly few points of hp.

There's no other advantages of getting str above 30 AFAIK.

Bravado said:

Aithere said:

The pumping of STR is mainly for training CKOs. I usually designate only one companion (usually Sigismund) to do this. Frederick and Ediz are also good candidates, doubly so since they don't need anymore AGI.

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Yeah, I get that, but you're gimping one of your best companions for a measly few points of hp.

There's no other advantages of getting str above 30 AFAIK.

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It's about a hit or a few for CKOs, since I basically play on 1hp (111% difficulty) mode where top tier Ravenstern archers and above just one shot me in the head anyway for most of the playthrough. Having 40 STR plus the bonuses you can buy, you pretty much have renewable Noldor troops which is more important in that difficulty setup IMO. So my CKO Knights would have around 52 STR and 42 AGI thanks to Sigismund and Sara with bonuses in the ultra lategame.

I like giving the companions I train to be lords the skills that gives them bonuses when they're a lord.

Bravado said:

Aithere said:

The pumping of STR is mainly for training CKOs. I usually designate only one companion (usually Sigismund) to do this. Frederick and Ediz are also good candidates, doubly so since they don't need anymore AGI.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I get that, but you're gimping one of your best companions for a measly few points of hp.

There's no other advantages of getting str above 30 AFAIK.

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Each point in STR also increases melee damage a little. 
But I feel the benefits of AGI are better if your STR is already at 30 while AGI is not: raise more combat skills that are not at 10, the overall increase in speed, and the extra WP points.

Hitting harder is nice, but hitting first is even better.