companion weapon selection

[SharpFish]

I've had a search but cannot see much specific on this question.  Does anyone know anything concrete about the way that companions select weapons?

I have noticed that it appears that companions will spawn equipped with the weapon in the top slot, like you do. I do not recall this being the case in previous versions, or at least not reliably.  Can anyone else confirm this is the case?

In past threads I see speculation that companions will select from weapons depending on their proficiencies, does anyone know if this is the case and if it can produce problems if they are most proficient with a weapon that is in the 2nd slot, for example?

 

[Lord Mur]

I'm not completely sure, but I believe the A.I responds to the state of the character, e.g if Marnid is on a horse, he has a lance equipped but when his horse is taken down, he gets out his 2h axe. Contrary to this, however, was an example when I ordered him to dismount. In this case he stood there with his lance out and wouldn't get rid of it.

 

[SharpFish]

Yes I have taken to removing their lances for seige assaults and the like.  Using the lance on the ground is the one think that really really irks me.

 

[Lamjose]

Generally they use the weapon the are more proficent with. Persoanlly I give them the weapon I want them to use. Why would you give them anything else?

 

[Lord Mur]

Generally they use the weapon the are more proficent with. Persoanlly I give them the weapon I want them to use. Why would you give them anything else?

Well Rolf has about equal proficency with everything (or most things) so why not give him a polearm for the horses and a sword of war for the grunts?

 

[Eldrace]

What's usually a good idea is to give them a good selection, i usually use, a sword, a blunt weapon, a lance then either a thrown weapon or a shield.

 

[SharpFish]

Well the reason the question arose is that I have been running around persecuting river pirates with just the companions, no actual troops.  Seeing as the loot is pretty poor, it took a while to even get a spread of clubs.  But then I noticed that the companions who had clubs already, but who now inherited my rusty arming sword or whatever, were not using them.  They were still spawning with their clubs.  So I moved the weaps such that the swords were topmost weapon, and lo and behold they all spawned with swords.

Now the swords and clubs of course are all 1-handed weapons so proficiencies did not distinguish between them.  It seems that everything being equal, they use weaps in order from the top down.

 

[Scorch!]

generally they will use whatever weapon that is in their first slot, unless they are on a horse, in which case polearms take priority.

I've got Borcha and Marnid both with a 1h sword in the first, a lance in the second and a shield in the third and it works perfectly as they use the lance on a horse, but during sieges and whenever they're on foot they will use the sword and shield, no switching required!

 

[Yeyinde]

I had the annoying little thing with the lances too. They just stood there with lances in hand, breathing on each other. That's when I decided they need REAL weapons.