Permanent companion party skills builds

[houndog]

Hi everyone,

I've been doing a lot of research and decided it was time to start my own thread.

Which companions do you use for party skills?

So far I have been building Ansen into an intelligence slave focusing on medic and Leslie as my second medic. And Sara as my path finder. What would a good alternative to Sara be? I'm thinking maybe Diev as my pathfinder alternative.

I'm thinking now I might change this plan to start building Ansen into the perfect vassal lord focusing on leadership and charisma (for late game) and use Leslie for as a medic.

Also what is your permanent companion party build?

 

[voronius]

I start Ansen toward medic and Leslie on pathfinding/tracking/spotting.
So we get a decent score in those asap. Then ...
Ansen can master all inteligence party skills with decent amount of qgems. Leslie gets some intelligence party skills and at 30 int she goes more charisma for some more trade.
Sara handles looting and gets agilty always because she's also CKO agility trainer.

 

[Gorvex]

The other good Agility and related skill trainer for your CKO - and my preferred one - can be Frederick, because he starts off with enough STR and power skills to be a competent soldier. So you can start pumping AGI with him asap. Sara needs some power skill investment to be able to score enough kills later on as well for a potentially higher level after all.

Other than that, I prefer to leave companions for more of a secondary skiller (which won't be needed 95% of times), as I tend to spec into Wound Treatment, Surgery, First Aid, Looting, Trade, Engineer, Path-finding and Tactics (only of I don't intend to spec into throwing weapons or bows) myself, so that we get the +4 bonus for these party skills. And of course, I also max Inventory Management, Trainer, Persuasion, Prisoner Management and Leadership at the end of the day, as well as the required power skills and get 6+ AGI skills at least. Achievements and bonuses from books are taken into account as well of course in terms of maxing skills.

All of this is mostly possible with the proper character start for optimal and maximized skill layout (male -> a respectable physician -> apprentice of a local craftsman -> self-employed merchant -> series of unfortunate events), by pumping only for INT from level-ups and leaving STR, AGI and CHA to Elixirs of Arkon. By level 49, I can reach 63 INT this way. Further info for this character progression setup can be read here and at further posts above/below: https://pop3.fandom.com/wiki/Talk:C...901-20190420094003?permalink=24421#comm-24421

And then Tracking and Spotting can be left to companions...

 

[superres]

I often see people leaving spotting... isn't it the most important thing to be able to find the right fights you can participate in ?
Is the game even playable with very low spotting ?

 

[Gorvex]

I often see people leaving spotting... isn't it the most important thing to be able to find the right fights you can participate in ?
Is the game even playable with very low spotting ?

I didn't say that I wouldn't have it maxed for my party in the end, it's just that 10 is enough already as opposed to 10+4 imo, so can be left to a companion. Likewise, tracking & hunting is an important skill as well to be taken care of by a companion at least, but not worth to waste 10 points in it for your own character. Whereas the trio of First Aid, Wound Treatment and Surgery makes for a durably party, 10+4 Engineer allows lightning fast sieges, Path finding allows to travel faster and catch enemies or ongoing battles in time, and looting plus trade increases profit. Tactics is only for leftover points, since you start with +1 with the above setup, and then you can get +1 from book and +3 from achievements, so you could as well just put 5 points in it for the 10+4 effect. But usually it can be left to companions, I forgot to add that.

 

[voronius]

Tracking is good to track uniques or finding big armies to lead uniques too. Especially if you don't wanna pay 2k fee for info and get some random info. And for food.
Spotting can help finding things as well. But you don't have to max it if you have tracking. Tracking helps with food too a lot.

 

[JohnnyZhu]

How does tracking ever help with food?/do you mean the hunt and track skill?

 

[voronius]

"Additionnally, each 3 point invested in the skill reduce food consumption by 15%. "
That's massive in campaigns i think. Where you have to move fast from castle to castle to conquer.
With 300+ army. I personally think that's a very good aspect of it. With maxed tracking i don't run out of food.
Even with 360 army. You prolly need 12 only ( that would proly mean 60% less food consumed ).

 

[Turean]

The other good Agility and related skill trainer for your CKO - and my preferred one - can be Frederick, because he starts off with enough STR and power skills to be a competent soldier. So you can start pumping AGI with him asap. Sara needs some power skill investment to be able to score enough kills later on as well for a potentially higher level after all.

Other than that, I prefer to leave companions for more of a secondary skiller (which won't be needed 95% of times), as I tend to spec into Wound Treatment, Surgery, First Aid, Looting, Trade, Engineer, Path-finding and Tactics (only of I don't intend to spec into throwing weapons or bows) myself, so that we get the +4 bonus for these party skills. And of course, I also max Inventory Management, Trainer, Persuasion, Prisoner Management and Leadership at the end of the day, as well as the required power skills and get 6+ AGI skills at least. Achievements and bonuses from books are taken into account as well of course in terms of maxing skills.

All of this is mostly possible with the proper character start for optimal and maximized skill layout (male -> a respectable physician -> apprentice of a local craftsman -> self-employed merchant -> series of unfortunate events), by pumping only for INT from level-ups and leaving STR, AGI and CHA to Elixirs of Arkon. By level 49, I can reach 63 INT this way. Further info for this character progression setup can be read here and at further posts above/below: https://pop3.fandom.com/wiki/Talk:C...901-20190420094003?permalink=24421#comm-24421

And then Tracking and Spotting can be left to companions...

I agree as far as using the main character for most party skills, as that +4 bonus is simply too juicy. But lvl 49? How many in-game days does it take to get that high? I think the highest I ever got was 37-38 and even then it took a really long time and eventually felt like a grind. Got any tips for leveling?

 

[Gorvex]

Playing a horse archer is the most reassuring way to reach lvl 50. Solo a lot on battlefields, and participate in prolonged sieges with a bow and 3 bags of large arrows to usually outlast the 3-min ammo replenishment for your character. There's not much else I can say about this. VMP is a good example (he reaches lvl 50 in this video):

 

[houndog]

I decided to just use Ansen as my medic and engineering intelligence slave. And Leslie as my second path-finding/tracking intelligence slave (perhaps I will increase her trade when she gets a higher level). That way I don't have to worry about companions too much.

I definitely think horse archery is a good way to go. I usually start out as horse archer. It takes quite a long time to solo battlefields early though. I also like to solo battles with bandits using a blunt weapon early for the extra money for selling prisoners to slavers.