Investigating companion stats.....Calradia is full of stupid people.

[Old-Bull]

Due to the leveling system of Bannerlord, it is vital to have good attributes in order for your skills to progress. If you're trying to progress Steward with an intelligence of zero or one, it's going to be a struggle.

Bannerlord has a bunch of companions that don't have attributes that fit their job descriptions.

In my current play through I'm in the mid-game. There are over 100 available companions to chose from. I struggled to find someone to employ as an engineer, a surgeon, and a quarter master as the prime attribute requisite for those positions is intelligence. So, what did I do? I save loaded, hired every individual companion available, and determined exactly how many companions have attributes that fit their job requirement.

What I figured out:

1. It's rare to find companions with an attribute of 3 or above for the essential attribute to perform their job. There were only about 10 companions out of 100 that had an intelligence score of 3. That's 10 percent of the population with average intelligence, when surgeon, quartermaster, engineer, governor, and caravan all require high intelligence. The same thing applied to cunning for people with scouting potential. The percentage of companions with DECENT attributes is very low.

2. The Bannerlord leveling system for companions makes terrible random choices and leaves companions useless. Not only are companion attributes leveled without a purpose, the skill points they pick up along the way are completely random. Since most companions start at level 7 at a minimum, many of them higher: it's essential that skill point and attribute allocation has a focus on a specific task. They don't need to be min-maxed, but they should at least apply attribute points and skill points in a way that would make GOOD companions. A level 10 character with 7 skill points in skills they won't use is already broken. Wasted skill points and wasted attributes makes companions useless.

Usually the skill points or the attributes for Bannerlord companions are poorly chosen. Why give someone scouting of 120 when their cunning is 1? How do you even grind to 120 in a skill with an attribute of 1? That would take forever. You would be 50 years old by the time you were a below average scout. Most of the time, Bannerlord companions have a bunch of wasted skill points and terrible attributes to go with them.

Either Bannerlord needs to let players level up companions from level one, or they need to level companions in a way that results in highly specialized, well trained companions.

Right now, Calradia is full of stupid people.

 

[Lord Irontoe]

The whole companion system needs a major overhaul, along with the skill system. In my latest playthrough I haven't even bothered to hire any, unless I need someone to run a caravan or lead a party because they don't have much use for anything else. Every once in a while I'll find a companion who's attributes and focus points are unassigned and those guys are fantastic since you can actually make them useful, but its very rare to find them like that. It used to be fun leveling up your companions, but now its just a chore.

 

[Mr.Kebab]

The whole companion system needs a major overhaul, along with the skill system. In my latest playthrough I haven't even bothered to hire any, unless I need someone to run a caravan or lead a party because they don't have much use for anything else. Every once in a while I'll find a companion who's attributes and focus points are unassigned and those guys are fantastic since you can actually make them useful, but its very rare to find them like that. It used to be fun leveling up your companions, but now its just a chore.

Im arming my companions and kind of creating "general's bodyguard" unit. Whatever their stats are they know how to use a lance, for previous versions they were also free(0 wage/daily) but after this update im not sure i keep them in my army tho

 

[Lord Irontoe]

Im arming my companions and kind of creating "general's bodyguard" unit. Whatever their stats are they know how to use a lance, for previous versions they were also free(0 wage/daily) but after this update im not sure i keep them in my army tho

Yeah, you can just give them the weapons they're already good at and they'll be competent soldiers. They just won't ever get any better because they're usually way over their learning limit in their specialties. So they're just frozen in place at the level you hired them unless you want to give them the weapons that they have no skill in just so that they can gain a couple levels.

 

[Solomani]

The Old Sumpter Horse and Worn Rugged Saddle was the inside joke for my clan. Every companion started out on the sumpter just so they could ride a horse.

 

[Mr.Kebab]

Yeah, you can just give them the weapons they're already good at and they'll be competent soldiers. They just won't ever get any better because they're usually way over their learning limit in their specialties. So they're just frozen in place at the level you hired them unless you want to give them the weapons that they have no skill in just so that they can gain a couple levels.

Just a small tip: im using my companions for smithing, by that way they level up too fast after some time and hopefully i spend half of earned att.point for one handed or related fighting skills and wait them to gain more experince in fights. Still better than regular troops. At least after you lose a war and lose them you can find them and add to your party "this cost no money" and lets say you have 10 companions=you have 11 heavily armed elite troop everytime you lost a battle and try to recover

Also i like to give them weapons that i crafted. Some javelins and if you are lucky -2 handed axes really could be devastating for the enemy

 

[Bob Gnarly]

Yeah companions need a lot of work.

As the OP says, it can be difficult to find a companion that specialises in a role you'd like, then when you do they're not very specialised at all. Their attribute point allocation needs tweaking.

It's also a slow process leveling up companions which just compounds the problem further.

I'm finding the Surgery and Engineering roles especially difficult to level up on my companions.

 

[Maahes]

I would treat companions right now as a placeholder system--there's no relationship with them and their skills are pretty much baked in so there's no growth with them. If you do want to level them up a bit easily, though, the smithing skill should help a bit with that.

 

[paladinx333]

The random companion system looks as if it was thrown into the game at the last minute. Companion attributes are simply random and have nothing to do with the companions skills. That why there are so many skilled companions with only 1 int and 0 focus points in the important skill.

Even the dialog tree for companions makes no sense.
1. You say hello
2. They say something in response.
3. You ask them about themselves.
4. The give out three lines of exposition, unless the companion is bugged.
5. You say something negative after hearing their story or you say something positive. Neither choice matters!
6. The companion says only one line in response. There is only ONE line in the tree to answer the TWO choices you had above. That does not even make sense and it really limits the dialog you can use.

The whole dialog tree is irrelevant and I think it's just a placeholder.

The companion system is just one more item on a very long list of things that needs fixing/replacing.

 

[Blovis]

The Old Sumpter Horse and Worn Rugged Saddle was the inside joke for my clan. Every companion started out on the sumpter just so they could ride a horse.

mine go on donkeys till skill level 50, 6 armored donkeys do look awesome

 

[geala]

I like the random companion system, to a certain degree. I don't want to have the same companions in every campaign. Their stats however need a huge overhaul, indeed.

Till this will happen I use Character Trainer mod to form companions to my wishes. I usually see them as core group of the first mercenary band, someone to fight with (and sleep with in some cases), and as puppies to decorate with armor/stuff, so I focus more on combat abilities.

 

[DrDragonlance]

I like the companions and their random skills.

I just think they all need to be adjusted to level 3 or 7 to allow them to be easier to develop.

 

[hruza]

They are not that hard to develop and their skills need just moderate balancing. Bringing perks and in some cases attributes in line with what they are specializing (after perks are actually properly working) and may be adding bit more variety in to companion starting levels so that player can choose if to hire companion that is already leveled or less experienced one that he can "develop" himself if he is willing to invest time and energy in to it.

Generally speaking, companions come with already good combat skills and it's not all that difficult to gain them two or three levels to get attribute and focus points in to what ever specialty you want to get it going. You just need to decide what you want your companion to specialize in and not spread attribute a focus points all over their skills.

If you hired companion that is a good archer, you are unlikely to turn him in to a knight on horse that is at the same time scouting for you. Either keep him as an archer or find somebody with good riding and polearm skills instead to begin with. Turning him in to competent scout is not that difficult then. Or find a Batanian horse thief and he comes already with high scouting, riding and polearm.

 

[Maximum997]

Due to the leveling system of Bannerlord, it is vital to have good attributes in order for your skills to progress. If you're trying to progress Steward with an intelligence of zero or one, it's going to be a struggle.

Bannerlord has a bunch of companions that don't have attributes that fit their job descriptions.

Respec Companions v1.6

Adds various console commands that can respec or reset companions, family members or the player character.

www.nexusmods.com

Here you go.

 

[Lord Irontoe]

They are not that hard to develop and their skills need just moderate balancing. Bringing perks and in some cases attributes in line with what they are specializing (after perks are actually properly working) and may be adding bit more variety in to companion starting levels so that player can choose if to hire companion that is already leveled or less experienced one that he can "develop" himself if he is willing to invest time and energy in to it.

Generally speaking, companions come with already good combat skills and it's not all that difficult to gain them two or three levels to get attribute and focus points in to what ever specialty you want to get it going. You just need to decide what you want your companion to specialize in and not spread attribute a focus points all over their skills.

If you hired companion that is a good archer, you are unlikely to turn him in to a knight on horse that is at the same time scouting for you. Either keep him as an archer or find somebody with good riding and polearm skills instead to begin with. Turning him in to competent scout is not that difficult then. Or find a Batanian horse thief and he comes already with high scouting, riding and polearm.

You must be playing with an XP booster or something. In my experience the companions are VERY slow to level, even when they have enough attributes and focus points. But they usually don't and are stuck with 0.00 learning rates. You shouldn't have to turn your expert horse archer into an infantry javelineer or a blacksmith apprentice just so that he can eventually become a better horse archer.

 

[Maximum997]

You must be playing with an XP booster or something. In my experience the companions are VERY slow to level, even when they have enough attributes and focus points.

Yep. My scout:
5 focus point and 10 ctr. Learning rate 7.36
87 bow. Day 1300.

You shouldn't have to turn your expert horse archer into an infantry javelineer or a blacksmith apprentice just so that he can eventually become a better horse archer.

It is so realistic! You should throw javelines or do smithy to became better horse archer! Praise new skill system.

 

[hruza]

You must be playing with an XP booster or something. In my experience the companions are VERY slow to level, even when they have enough attributes and focus points. But they usually don't and are stuck with 0.00 learning rates. You shouldn't have to turn your expert horse archer into an infantry javelineer or a blacksmith apprentice just so that he can eventually become a better horse archer.

What skill are you having problem to level? Archery skill is extremely easy to level, just put your companion on a horse, give him any bow he can use from horseback 3 stacks of arrows and release him on group of looters. Or find a forest bandit hideout and let him have a field day while bandits are busy to shoot shields of the infantry that you have placed in front of him in a shield wall formation. Once he runs out of arrows, let him pick up new ones from a dead bandits.

 

[Lord Irontoe]

What skill are you having problem to level? Archery skill is extremely easy to level, just put your companion on a horse, give him any bow he can use from horseback 3 stacks of arrows and release him on group of looters. Or find a forest bandit hideout and let him have a field day while bandits are busy to shoot shields of the infantry that you have placed in front of him in a shield wall formation. Once he runs out of arrows, let him pick up new ones from a dead bandits.

He can shoot looters all day long for the rest of his life, but how is he supposed to gain skill points if he has a 0.00% learning rate?

 

[hruza]

He can shoot looters all day long for the rest of his life, but how is he supposed to gain skill points if he has a 0.00% learning rate?

The same way as the player. You need to put a focus point or two in it and preferably attribute point if you can spare them. As I said before, it's not that difficult to level your companion few times using skills that he can learn and then invest focus and attribute points where you want him to specialize.

 

[Lord Irontoe]

The same way as the player. You need to put a focus point or two in it and preferably attribute point if you can spare them. As I said before, it's not that difficult to level your companion few times using skills that he can learn and then invest focus and attribute points where you want him to specialize.

You shouldn't have to do that is the point. You have to give them a weapon that they have no skills in just to get a couple focus points to spend, but then they become worse than recruits because they're already level 14 or 15, so they'll level slower than a recruit would. Its a terrible system. I have no idea why you're defending it.