ripple
Knight
I've divided my companions into 3 categories:
1) Meleers
NPCs like Alayen and Firentis. I put all stat points into strength and agility and give them the best armour possible, at least 4 in riding so they can mount warhorses. All have shields, lances, and one handed weapons, except Matheld, to whom I give a 2-handed war sword because I read on these forums that some companions perform well with them--and indeed she has outpaced everyone else in the number of kills. All skill points are devoted to power strike, iron skin, shield, and weapon master. Extra points go into trainer.
Question: Is there a point in splitting their weapon points between polearm and 1-handed melee? I am using a mod that has Hatonastick's lancer script, so at least 90 percent of the time, the companions will start the battle using their lances (and will never use lances when on foot or during sieges). But I don't notice an increase in the number of kills with lances/1-handed weapon combo vs. just 1-handed weapon. Matheld is clearly a killing machine with her 2-handed war sword, and if they didn't need shields for siege assaults, I would have turned them all into 2-handed meleers.....
2) Mounted Range
Klethi, Rolf, and Baheshtur. Same as above, except instead of giving them lances, I max out throwing for Klethi and Rolf (because they start with ranks in throwing), and power draw/horse archery for Baheshtur. Klethi and Rolf gets heavy jarids while Baheshtur gets the best bow his power draw rank allows him to use. This category does not seem very effective in comparison to the meleers, at least not in terms of the number of kill. I noticed two interesting things in my testing: Baheshtur is basically useless when I order him to "follow me" on the battle field. Instead, when I order him to "charge", he will ride around the battlefield shooting his bow and get more kills. This is strange because I read some horse archery guide where the player advised putting horse archer companions in "follow me" mode. Klethi and Rolf will sometimes gain points in polearm skills, which is strange because I thought companions with throwing weapons will always exhaust their ammunition rather than use the last one as a melee weapon (I can only imagine they are using the jarids as melee weapons to have gained points in polearm, since their backup weapon are 1-handed swords). A drawback for companions in this category is that their skill points are spread across more skills than the meleers and there is never extra points to point towards anything else (eg. trainer).
Questions: Should I bother with this category or should I just turn them all into meleers?
3) Support
These are the companions I put at the bottom of the troop list, who I never want to send into combat. They each specialize in a set of party skills. Marnid in trading and persuasion, Katrin in looting, Artimenner in siege and tactics, Deshavi in spotting, pathfinding, and tracking, Jeremus and Ymira in healing skills (in case one of them falls in combat). Extra points into trainer. I boost their strength to 9 or 10 and give them the best armour they can use, then pray they last at least more than 30 seconds when one of them suddenly appears during siege battles. I give them crossbows and one-handed weapons + shield on back, except Deshavi, who gets a bow because she starts with ranks in power draw.
Question: bow or crossbow? Since it's unlikely any of them will ever get their power draw past 3 or 4, because I devote all of their stats points towards whatever stat is associated with their specialized party skill (usually intelligence, charisma, or agility), crossbow seems the better choice, no?
1) Meleers
NPCs like Alayen and Firentis. I put all stat points into strength and agility and give them the best armour possible, at least 4 in riding so they can mount warhorses. All have shields, lances, and one handed weapons, except Matheld, to whom I give a 2-handed war sword because I read on these forums that some companions perform well with them--and indeed she has outpaced everyone else in the number of kills. All skill points are devoted to power strike, iron skin, shield, and weapon master. Extra points go into trainer.
Question: Is there a point in splitting their weapon points between polearm and 1-handed melee? I am using a mod that has Hatonastick's lancer script, so at least 90 percent of the time, the companions will start the battle using their lances (and will never use lances when on foot or during sieges). But I don't notice an increase in the number of kills with lances/1-handed weapon combo vs. just 1-handed weapon. Matheld is clearly a killing machine with her 2-handed war sword, and if they didn't need shields for siege assaults, I would have turned them all into 2-handed meleers.....
2) Mounted Range
Klethi, Rolf, and Baheshtur. Same as above, except instead of giving them lances, I max out throwing for Klethi and Rolf (because they start with ranks in throwing), and power draw/horse archery for Baheshtur. Klethi and Rolf gets heavy jarids while Baheshtur gets the best bow his power draw rank allows him to use. This category does not seem very effective in comparison to the meleers, at least not in terms of the number of kill. I noticed two interesting things in my testing: Baheshtur is basically useless when I order him to "follow me" on the battle field. Instead, when I order him to "charge", he will ride around the battlefield shooting his bow and get more kills. This is strange because I read some horse archery guide where the player advised putting horse archer companions in "follow me" mode. Klethi and Rolf will sometimes gain points in polearm skills, which is strange because I thought companions with throwing weapons will always exhaust their ammunition rather than use the last one as a melee weapon (I can only imagine they are using the jarids as melee weapons to have gained points in polearm, since their backup weapon are 1-handed swords). A drawback for companions in this category is that their skill points are spread across more skills than the meleers and there is never extra points to point towards anything else (eg. trainer).
Questions: Should I bother with this category or should I just turn them all into meleers?
3) Support
These are the companions I put at the bottom of the troop list, who I never want to send into combat. They each specialize in a set of party skills. Marnid in trading and persuasion, Katrin in looting, Artimenner in siege and tactics, Deshavi in spotting, pathfinding, and tracking, Jeremus and Ymira in healing skills (in case one of them falls in combat). Extra points into trainer. I boost their strength to 9 or 10 and give them the best armour they can use, then pray they last at least more than 30 seconds when one of them suddenly appears during siege battles. I give them crossbows and one-handed weapons + shield on back, except Deshavi, who gets a bow because she starts with ranks in power draw.
Question: bow or crossbow? Since it's unlikely any of them will ever get their power draw past 3 or 4, because I devote all of their stats points towards whatever stat is associated with their specialized party skill (usually intelligence, charisma, or agility), crossbow seems the better choice, no?
