Companion Stats

[Bravado]

So I was crunching the companion stats, normalizing them for levels, and Ediz just screams OP, especially compared to Kassim who has a similar role and is usually in the same party:
Ediz is lvl 12 with 20, 18, 15, 15
Kassim is lvl 5 with 9, 9, 12, 7 and by lvl 12 can get 16, 9, 12, 7 which still falls way short from a starter Ediz. 

Don't feel too bad for Kassim because he isn't the weakest companion normalized by level, because he has really low Charisma.

Surprisingly, the two weakest normalized heroes (ignoring int and cha) are Boadice and Donavan.  18str 16agi and 13str 13agi is just underwhelming for a lvl 30 and lvl 20 companion.  Ansen can match lvl 30 Boadice's str/agi by lvl 20 and Donavan's by lvl 12.

The strongest heroes (str and agi only), ignoring the lvl 38+ ones, are Ediz, Freddy & Siggy (close), Kaverra & Adonja (close) and then Julia

I haven't studied skill points, but I have been taken to giving most companions trainer and bumping up their int... like Ediz with 18 int and 6 trainer.

 

[Shingen]

Why do you ignore INT and CHR? Those are two of the most important attributes. INT for party skills, and CHR for persuasion and leadership.

 

[placenik]

Why do you ignore INT and CHR? Those are two of the most important attributes. INT for party skills, and CHR for persuasion and leadership.

You can easily cover all important party  skills. And do you really need them to be lord or diplomat?

Trainer is needed INT skill.

 

[Shingen]

You can easily cover all important party skills.

I'd rather train in STR, AGI, & CHR skills. I let the compansies handle the party skills.

And do you really need them to be lord or diplomat?

A few. You bet your ass I do. Compansy lords and diplomats are integral to my overall strategy.

Trainer is needed INT skill.

Yup.

 

[Alavaria]

Sadly companions cannot get you the amazing 10+4 surgery ridiculousness. Or the less obvious but still handy Pathfinding 10+4

 

[Bravado]

I'd rather train in STR, AGI, & CHR skills. I let the compansies handle the party skills.

I'm currently lvl 33 with 19 str, 22 agi, 28 int and 18 cha (I cashed in 3 gems for 6 str, agi and cha)
You can get str, agi & chr from elixers, but not int or skill points.

So I have 10 training (book), 9+3 pathfinding and 10+4 surgery (book)
80xp/day is pretty amazing

 

[Bravado]

Sadly companions cannot get you the amazing 10+4 surgery ridiculousness. Or the less obvious but still handy Pathfinding 10+4

I agree - those 2 and trainer are the best 3 INT skills.

 

[Bravado]

Why do you ignore INT and CHR? Those are two of the most important attributes. INT for party skills, and CHR for persuasion and leadership.

Sara the Fox is going to be my persuasion companion.
As for leadership, it's only for companion lords and most companions aren't cut out for lordship in my book because they're commoners.  Most of the noble companions, especially those with household troops, already start off with high levels and good chr.

 

[Bravado]

Sadly companions cannot get you the amazing 10+4 surgery ridiculousness. Or the less obvious but still handy Pathfinding 10+4

I was wondering - how useful is 10+4 Spotting? Anyone have it?

 

[GimliTheDwarf]

Sadly companions cannot get you the amazing 10+4 surgery ridiculousness. Or the less obvious but still handy Pathfinding 10+4

I was wondering - how useful is 10+4 Spotting? Anyone have it?

I've been on 10+4 spotting for quite some time now, and I find it pretty damn useful especially in this mod. It's great for things like hunting down Unique Spawns and avoiding enemy parties when quick traveling (Ctrl+Space). I think Spotting's 10% sight increase refers to an increase in radius, which means that the total area of sight scales exceptionally well with investment in Spotting. However, I would still prioritize Pathfinding, Surgery, and maybe Training over it depending on how you choose to play the game.

 

[Shingen]

Sadly companions cannot get you the amazing 10+4 surgery ridiculousness. Or the less obvious but still handy Pathfinding 10+4

The beauty of this game is that everyone plays it different.

 

[placenik]

You can easily cover all important party skills.

I'd rather train in STR, AGI, & CHR skills. I let the compansies handle the party skills.

So different play-style. I prefer mighty +4 leader bonus. Only skill I would delegate to companion is engineering.

10+4 spotting is anti-frustration skill, not necessary, but thamn convenient.

 

[azxcvbnm321]

What I do is just let Ansen cover everything.  He's healer, tactician, engineer, surgeon, trainer, pathfinder, and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few other roles.  I only increase intelligence for Ansen and he gets a lot of skill points because of that.  Ansen is the only indispensable companion and MVP of the group.  As for other party members, I boost training then combat skills and occasionally something like looting or trading, but that's low on the priority list.  When not at war, I'll go hunting with just my companions, it's funny to see 50 D'Shar raiders chase me thinking they can win the battle. 

 

[Bravado]

That's very useful.  He can get 30 int by lvl 18, but he's going to be stuck with crappy gear and level up slowly.

My Ansen is already stronger than Donavan.

 

[Shingen]

I don't play this game to min-max stats. I play it to have fun.

 

[noosers]

And?
Where´s the point of having 20 companions all beeing equal?

People aren´t picking companions for personal preference and flavour, not normalized might. I´m usually always picking the same setup of companions, and nothing else.

Far more important is how effective are your companions and their loadout? As far as Ediz goes, he´s a skilled horsearcher, and as such needs a certain amount of both strength and agility to hit his high PD/HA level and a relatively poor setup of secondary skills.

That´s the whole reason why he´s having such high stats for a relatively low level. And you can trust me on that, after all, I had quite some trouble outfitting and balancing the 6 newest compansies back when they were invented and if I had my laptop around, I could give you a more detailed response.

The by far more important trait to notice is the amount of weapon skills a companion has because - at least from my observations - is the key factor to a NPC´s effectivity in combat. And those are usually about level*10 plus a tad more for variation.

As far as might goes, the low level companions are usually the mightiest ones as you can make anything out of a NPC <10. The lower, the better. Call it customization.

If you play a game for minimizing/maximizing only, you should stick with something more number crunching, enjoying fielding an army of clone troopers on stereoids or starting burning money on the stock exchange.

But whatever else you conclude, please take the time to read and understand the various NPC´s background stories.

 

[wookdaddy]

For being a Barclay trainer Donovan kind of sucks anyway, his attitude sucks too.

 

[Bravado]

There's a bunch of horsearcher companions. Ediz is one.  I believe I mentioned Kassim as well.  Adonja, Riva and Julia are also horse archers, at least for me.  Kassim might have a better story, but the rankings based on  brawny stats are: Ediz, Adonja, Julia, Riva then finally Kassim.  In defense of Riva and Kassim - they're quite "smart" while Adonja and Julia aren't. 

Ediz is just a superstar that can do anything that he wants.  And I agree that Donovan sucks

And speaking of leading an army of clone troopers on steroids - that's why we have the CKO.  For flavor and steroids.

 

[placenik]

And you can always try no-companions playthrough 

 

[Bravado]

And you can always try no-companions playthrough 

That's actually an interesting idea, and I could do it because I don't level up my companions' party skills, but I'm a min-maxer, so I'll have to pass. 
I'm probably going to promote Boadice, Donavan, Sir Alistair,  Sir Rayne and Sir Roland into lords, so I want to level them up a little.