What do YOU do with your companions?

[SAUS]

From what I have read, a lot of people specialise their companions, using the skills they start with and adding to them. I have also heard that people like to turn their companions into vassals.
From my own experiences, I have not enjoyed having them as vassals (I find them to be too powerful to give from my party) and specialising them did not suit my desires.

Whenever I play now, I always make them into the same thing. I get them to 10ish strength and 12 agility so they can use the equipment I want them to (charger - 4 riding, 12 agility for the riding skill, and whatever armour/weapons, namely the siege crossbow which requires 10 strength). After that, I level their intelligence up to 18 (it's a nice sweetspot, I find). This way, they can all have 6 trainer (trainer is the only party skill that stacks, and boy is it useful) and the extra skill points allows me to flatten out their differences. After that, I only level their strength. Characters that fit the mold better will have extra skill points, so some other party skills can be taken with them.

In the end, they always end up with heavy armour (same as mine), a shield, a 1-handed weapon, and a siege crossbow with its bolts. They always ride a heavily armour horse. With this setup, I waste no skill points for their ranged weapon (crossbow takes no skills to use), and they don't turn into horse archers during all the battles (siege crossbow can't be reloaded on horses). They are essentially knights, but if they dismount, they are sharpshooters, and if I tell them to dismount and hold fire, they are sergeants. They fit all the roles I need them to be. To top this all off, they can never die. They are unkillable super soldiers.

TL;DR
Instead of making them into vassals and/or specialising them based on their skills, I give them intelligence to get trainer and flatten their differences. I turn them into knights with crossbows. They are my unkillable super soldiers.


This is what I do with my companions. What do you do with yours?

 

[Asulador]

Well I usually give them specific roles in the early game as I see that as the easiest and most efficient course, this in turn leaves more room for your main character to focus on Leadership, Persuasion and combat related skills.

This are my core companions, giving them long ranged weapons give them a higher chance of surviving a battle especially the medic as this gives a significant boost in health after battles.

Scout -> Deshavi - Pathfinder, Spotter (Archer)
Medic -> Ymira - Medic (Archer)
Engineer -> Artimenner - Tactics, Engineering (Xbow)

 

[Kharille]

I think I get two medics, two engineers and Borcha, Deshavi and Klethi specialize in pathfinding spotting and tracking.  I'm starting to make Klethi specialize in looting. 

 

[Ivan Khan]

I like to train up one companion for medic, and one for pathfinding/spotting. Everyone else is trained for combat with training built up after they are 12/12 in strength and agility. I make fighters horse archers with heavy armor, armored horse and one hand weapons. I have found this the best build to get them experience. They also can clear Rhodok walls of crossbowmen.

The latest native version makes it much easier to keep all 16 companions, so I do not miss making a few lords. I like Rolf as my Marshal, he does a good job of it. Fireintis I like because he stays loyal. Bash is good at defending my kingdom if l give him a town.

As for bows over crossbows, I never miss the skill points since I up intelligence for the training.

As for other skills I never found them as important. I build them up though in companions with spare points.

 

[AWdeV]

I tend to mostly specialise them, based on the stats they had when I hired them.

Baheshtur is heavy cavalry/horse archer.
Firentis is heavy infantry, I've given him power throw to be of greater use in the grand scheme of things.
Klethi is part of my "support" group. She's a competent fighter and has a lot of throwing weapons but her main stat is intelligence for pathfinding, tracking and spotting.
Deshavi is an archer with some tracking skills, should Klethi get knocked out.
Jeremus is also part of the "support" group and is well equipped to defend himself on the battlefield but he's mostly there for his healing magic.
Bunduk is a heavy archer (currently wielding a masterwork heavy xbow) who is a skilled trainer outside the battlefield.

The trainer skill seems to stack and that's why most, if not all, my companions have at least a few levels of trainer. They also all have one or two levels of wound treatment in case Jeremus gets knocked out.

 

[Cheezeninja]

I always get the free companions. Although they are not the best, they can become that.

Firentis: I gave Firentis the equipment it takes to be a full Swadian knight, with an awesome winged great helmet to top it off. He is a tank and just can't be stopped!

Marnid: Marnid has become basically what Firentis is, except he is a full Sarranid Mamluke.

Ymira: Has the Swadian knight armor, but is a foot soldier, and has a crossbow. Ymira is actually a really good crossbowman.

Deshavi: Deshavi is very unique. She has 7 ironflesh and has a masterwork LongBow. She also has Swadian night armor.

Jeremus: Jeremus has become my main foot soldier. He is basically a Vaegir guard.

Bunduk: Bunduk doesn't do much, he is the my emissary to other factions so he has high persuasion.

 

[JosieJ]

I tend to mostly specialise them, based on the stats they had when I hired them.

Baheshtur is heavy cavalry/horse archer.
Firentis is heavy infantry, I've given him power throw to be of greater use in the grand scheme of things.
Klethi is part of my "support" group. She's a competent fighter and has a lot of throwing weapons but her main stat is intelligence for pathfinding, tracking and spotting.
Deshavi is an archer with some tracking skills, should Klethi get knocked out.
Jeremus is also part of the "support" group and is well equipped to defend himself on the battlefield but he's mostly there for his healing magic.
Bunduk is a heavy archer (currently wielding a masterwork heavy xbow) who is a skilled trainer outside the battlefield.

The trainer skill seems to stack and that's why most, if not all, my companions have at least a few levels of trainer. They also all have one or two levels of wound treatment in case Jeremus gets knocked out.

I usually do something similar, and I tend to use the same companions from game to game.  Alayen and Firentis I make mounted knights, based on their origins: Alayen a Vaegir knight and Firentis a Swadian knight, and they both get high Strength and Agility, lances, 1-handed weapons, and shields.  Klethi will sometimes be mounted and sometimes on foot (depending on what faction I'm in), but she usually gets a lot of Agility for looting; often I'll make her a huscarl-type soldier, with throwing axes or, if she's mounted, more of a Skirmisher, with jarids or javelins, since she starts out with high Power Throw.  Baheshtur is either a light cavalry Lancer or a Horse Archer; he also gets high Agility.  Deshavi and Jeremus are my scout and medic, respectively, so they focus on Intelligence, and I tend to keep them out of the fray.  Ymira is my emissary and back-up medic, and also focuses on Intelligence; she also can either be mounted or a foot soldier, depending.  Bunduk is sometimes my engineer, and always the companion I have the most Training on, although they all get at least 4 points in Training; he is always a sharpshooter and usually on foot--it just seems to fit him!  He also gets high Intelligence.

Right now, I'm trying to finish my personal challenge of winning Calradia as a loyal vassal of every faction, using only faction troops in my field armies.  So currently, I'm a Rhodok vassal, and I'm using the same group of companions, but instead of varying their roles according to their origins, they're all foot soldiers, since I'm not using any cavalry at all.  I've divided up the party skills as I usually do, and Alayen and Firentis still get high STR and AGI, Baheshtur and Klethi still get high AGI, and the rest still get high INT, but they all got crossbows, board shields and 1-handed weapons save for Klethi (throwing axes, board shield & 1-handed axe), Baheshtur (bow & 1 stack of arrows, round shield & 1-handed weapon), and Deshavi (bow, 2 stacks of arrows, and a 2-handed polearm). 

Up till now, I haven't usually liked to make my companions vassals.  I didn't know until I read it just now that it's easier to keep all 16 companions in your party, so I may try that when I finish my personal challenge (after this, only one more faction--the Swadians--to go!) and decide to conquer Calradia on my own behalf.  That way, I can make the "noble" companions vassals and keep the "commoner" companions in my party and I'll be able to level them all at the same time, instead of having to start from scratch leveling the "commoners."

 

[HenryUnderborn]

I used to always make them into cavalry guards . Now I tend to specialize them as commanders depending on their classification

Lezalit is my battle commander
Firentis heads up my cavalry or slavers
Pathfinder gets archers
Engineers medics either go special teams with recruits or archers

 

[sandoval]

I always play with the Firentis & Jeremus sets, I just like them more.

Jeremus and Deshavi are my specialists (medic/scout). All other party skills are spread among the rest.
All of them become heavy cavalry at the end.
I try to stick with the weapon category they come with (Deshavi: horse archer/polearm; Bahestur: horse archer/sword+shield; Klethi: throwing weapons/sword + shield), all others sword/shield/lance/crossbow bolts. During sieges I exchange lances with crossbows.

A special case is Jeremus: to keep him out of harm I have come up with the following solution: I put him on a good horse and give him one of the crossbows which can be used on horseback + 3 sets of bolts. This way he just rides around and stays out of melee (mostly it works, but sometimes he just starts using his fists. I haven't figured out why).

When I have high leadership, I usually add Matheld + Nizar to the group.

 

[Phalnax811]

I steal Nizar's scimitar and Courser early game. Teehee.

 

[zajuts149]

I usually try to build up a set of 8 non-conflict companions, but often I start with just a few. Firentis I take because he's free. Most importantly I want guys that increase the teams abilities, so I get Lezalit for training, Jeremus for healing, and Borcha for scouting/tracking. At some point I want Artimenner and Matheld too, but then I'll have to train a new healer becaue both conflict with Jeremus. A trick I often use in the transition is to send Jeremus on missions a lot, so I get him healing, but without so much fuss. I also do this with Artimenner in the beginning to have him available for building, but keep Jeremus close for healing.

 

[bakters]

I do powergaming all the time, and I found out that an INT based build ends up overpowering AI very quickly, so that's what I was playing for quite some time.  Since I take all crucial party skills on myself, I do not really need companions for non-stackable party skills.  The only one which stacks is Trainer, and that's their primary stat.  Whatever points are left I put into medicals skills and some fringe stuff I don't care for.

But it does work.  All of them carry the same gear (sword,shield, siege crossbow, bolts) and ride chargers.  If a few of them go to the sick bay, no problem, I still have a functional party. No dead weight, everybody can fight and gain levels.

To level them up I gather them all in a few days, give them all good kit which I saved in Rivacheg chest from Sea Raider grind and put them all on horses if they can use them, otherwise they can use a crossbow until they learn to ride.  This way they level up quite quickly.  Surprisingly quickly.  They don't suck near as much as I used to believe. 

Then I raise their combat stats and switch to pumping INT as soon as they get where I want them to be. 

I'm not sure what exactly I would do if I wanted to play a combat oriented character, but I strongly suspect that I'd still keep my INT focused companions.