How to make the companions kick a**!

[Frog Man]

Let’s do this. We know we can all play with Custom parties, but there’s a large contingent who play this game to enjoy the companions and sidekicks.

 

Post your best builds for the companions and side kicks here to help forum goers fill out their teams for POTD runthroughs! Hoping this thread will be especially useful as POTD gets its difficulty tuned up, making it more challenging to design viable/strong builds for the companions.

 

I’ll throw one out:

 

Eder - swashbuckler- dual wield sabers. Used tactical barrage, then charge and/or escape to get to the back line mages, then locked them down with crippling/arterial strike to interrupt their casts and destroy them. After the back line is done he’d walk up to the front and flank any heavies leftover. Maxed alchemy which worked well with drugs and potions of relentless striking, but worked incredibly well with potions of healing. Had several tough fights where Eder was the last one standing and his potions allowed him to finish the fight off for the win.

Edited May 21, 2018 by Frog Man

[mazeltov]

Completed PotD with Eder, Maia, Tekehu, and Shorty. Did a number of optional bosses but not all of them.

 

Eder - Swashbuckler. Heaviest armor, transitioning to DoC breastplate when able. Aggressive auto attack. Dual damage weapon type. Set up AI to always have Disciplined Strikes up and to use Gouging Strike on the nearest target. By the time he runs out of Guile fights will be almost over and he will AA the rest of the mobs down. May wish to manually target spellcasters in some fights.

 

Maia - Pure Ranger. Her signature armor, upgraded. Aggressive AA on her and Ishiza. Rifle or other powerful long range weapon. Set up AI to cast Marked for the Hunt on enemy >90% Health, prioritizing lowest Pierce armor, then to spam Accurate Wounding Shot, prioritizing Marked enemy. May wish to manually target spellcasters in some fights.

 

Tekehu - Pure Druid. Upgraded Leather. Passive AA. Set AI to cast foe only AoE attack spells (e.g. Chill Fog) on enemies targeting anyone in melee, prioritzing greatest # of enemies. Manually move behind friendly frontline at the start of combat and cast Returning/Relentless Storm with several enemies in range, AI package handles the rest. Can set up Moonwell to be cast on greatest # of Bloodied allies, if you get attrited often.

 

Shorty - Pure Cleric (lol first playthrough). Upgraded Leather. Passive AA. Set AI to cast .5 second healing spells on Bloodied allies, prioritizing lowest Health. Manually cast Suppress Affliction as needed. Manually cast Devotions on a mixture of yours and the enemy's frontline shortly after combat begins.

 

Personally I focus on tankiness and healing redundancy, so having AoE regen from Endurance aura and Lethandria's shield (sp), in addition to Constant Recovery and three healers made most combats smooth sailing.

[aweigh0101]

Easy! Download UnityConsole mod from Nexus and change them to whatever set of classes you want, along with changing their attributes!

And it doesn't disable achivements! Whoa, awesome.

[Cutlass Jack]

Oddly, the companion build I'm having the most fun with so far is Aloth. For RP reasons, I went battlemage (Wizard/Fighter) with him. Every odd level I make choices Aloth would make. Every even level I make choices Iselmyr would make. I kept him with Sceptre but also had him learn mace for Iselmyr since the two weapons look visually similar but function differently. Aloth still handles ranged magical damage, but Iselmyr provides a nasty surprise for anyone that tries to lay a hand on him in melee.

 

Its also somewhat funny to me to have Aloth, of all people, handling intimidation support in conversations.

[BalkothTheFeared]

I've gone to make Eder a dual pistol Rogue, Aloth a bow-using Spellblade, Pallegina a 2 cannon-bluss wielding Crusader, and Maia a rifle-scout.

 

I have set their AI to always use Escape when enemies get close to them (or Charge in Pallegina's case). While I am a frontliner. 

 

It works out pretty well. Pallegina is my only "healer" but that's not really her main role. It's more that Charge will always do the AOE blasts from the unique cannon-like blunderbusses and her Sacred Flames and Penetrating shot means she'll be firing for days. 

[Clerith]

The best classes for companions imo:

 

Eder - Fighter/Rogue

Xoti - Priest

Aloth - Wizard

Serafen - Barbarian/Cipher (this is the most arguable one imo)

Tekehu - Druid

Maia - Ranger

Pallegina - Paladin/Chanter

[Sanctuary]

The best classes for companions imo:

 

Eder - Fighter/Rogue

Xoti - Priest

Aloth - Wizard

Serafen - Barbarian/Cipher (this is the most arguable one imo)

Tekehu - Druid

Maia - Ranger

Pallegina - Paladin/Chanter

 

I didn't realize how much of an absolute beast Tekehu was.  Didn't use him on my first playthrough, but I've been using him as a pure Druid on PotD (I think Druid/Chanter would be better late game, but for most of the game, having that early foe only Chill Fog and other water/ice spells is almost game breaking).  I would actually say that he's better than Aloth until Aloth hits around level 10, and only if you also give him the Vaporous grimoire.  If nothing else, I'd say that they are about tied.

 

For Serafen, I went Barbarian/Cipher as well, and it was overall mediocre.  The Cipher spells don't have the power to work that well for manipulation (Ringleader is OK) on Veteran+, and nowhere near enough for damage, and the most benefit mine got was the 20% bonus from the whip.  If I were to use him again, I would conole (or Unity) his stats and play him as a pure Cipher.

 

After a few restarts, I finally finished with Pallegina as my "tank", as a Fighter/Paladin and the only thing she really brought that Eder didn't get was the aura, and a rez that I ended up using once for a freaking pet.  I figured that the Swashbuckler Eder would trump her, but I prefered keeping him with a shield, instead of going the damage route.  Turns out, you don't really need it in PotD either.

Edited May 22, 2018 by Sanctuary

[Belegc]

I usually take the following companions:

 

Eder - I followed the excellent suggestion of someone in the forum (I am sorry can't find it now) and made him a Swashbuckler (Rogue/Fighter) Persistent Distraction Tank. with Guardian Stance (+3 Engagement), a Shield (+1, Shining Bulwark), Last Word (can be upgraded to +1 Engagement iirc), Blackened Plate Armor (can be upgraded to +2 Engagement iirc), Blackened Plate Helm (+1), Hold the line (+1) = 9 enemies engaged, flanked and distracted. combined with Riposte its not bad .

 

Pallegina - i've noticed she has some survivability issues so i made her Paladin/Fighter. mainly taking all the auras and buffs i am not taking on my MC (Paladin/Chanter passive healer tank) with scion of flame to enhance her wrath of the five suns. gave her Magran's Favor , Cadhu Scalth (Athletics and Metaphysics are the skills it needs) and Ring of Focused Flame, to go with the fire theme.

 

Xoti - tried her in one walkthrough as a pure priest but found it quite lackluster. trying now as a priest/monk. main goal is to cast Prayer for the Body on my Nature Godlike in order to activate his racial bonus in the beginning of each fight. religion all the way.

 

Tekehu -  Druid/Chanter to support my MC. I am focusing on Freeze/water and healing as well as all the chants my MC isn't taking such as the defensive ones and healing invocations  as well as the "Set to Their Purpose, They All Knew Their Part invocation"

 

haven't tried the rest.

 

 

[Katalmach]

I run Eder as a lock down character. I'm running through the game on POTD with story companions only. His defenses are so high he can hardly be touched, and once he engages, nobody can leave combat without getting thwaked real good

 

I've got him as a Swashbuckler, heavy shield you get from the Rathun bounty that increases his deflection by up to 20 as he loses health. He's got the upgraded fighter stance that lets him engage +3 enemies and if they leave, they got hit with a prone attack of opportunity. He's got the defensive buff that gives +15 all defenses, persistent distraction, and deep wounds. When he runs into combat, he can engage up to 4 enemies, all of them are considered flanked and distracted, queuing his sneak attacks, and anytime they miss him against deflection, they take a hit that causes raw bleed over time

 

Also, he's got that weird paddle looking sword that gives him bonus deflection for every enemy engaged. I think once he's stuck in, his deflection is like 110 at level 12. Pretty nasty. That frees the rest of my party to alpha strike the enemy real good

 

Maia: Ranger/Rogue running a pretty rogue oriented party. Her shooting is very accurate and queues sneak attacks because I have so many rogues in the party. The bird also has plenty of viable targets thanks to 4 characters running deep wounds 

 

Aloth: Wizard/Rogue I found his stats to be pure ****e and his spells too inaccurate to be a high damage dealing wizard, so I made him a duel wand/scepter wielder. Coupled with sneak attack and spells like chill fog and combusting wounds, he can churn out a considerable amount of damage and debuff from range

 

I use some other companions but I couldn't tell you how they fit into my party. They're just kind of there

[Abbzug]

I have Eder set up as a dual wield swashbuckler. He's set up to charge spellcasters, use escape if he's bloodied, and throw out some other stuff. He has a lot of engagement slots, and is using Duskfall with the acc/dmg buff on first attack (charge) with the soulbound dagger in the off.

 

Aloth as a fighter/wizard. He throws on his buffs, throws out a missile spell and then uses charge to rush in. The missile spell is just so he arrives at the frontline after my protagonist character and Eder have locked down the front. He's dual wielding but unarmored.

 

Xoti as a monk/priest. Kind of similar to Aloth in that she casts devotions of the faithful before heading in. She's set up to do a lot of healing, withdraw, and the blessed harvest nuke. I use her starting weapons. I don't use her as much as Aloth and Eder as a frontliner though now.

 

Pallegina as chanter/paladin. Just ultimate buff bot. Summons a creature then throws out paralyzes. Plus heals as needed. She just dual wields melee weapons, but I think blunderbusses or pistols might be better since she can hit my ranged member with auras a bit better.

 

Maia as ranger/rogue. Nothing that special here. I'm not even sure you need ranged party members in Deadfire, which is weird because in PoE I found the front line got too crowded with more than like 3-4 melee (at least until the WM zones). But she does perform well, and I never really need to pay attention to her unless I need to evasive roll away.

 

Tekehu as chanter/druid. Just a mid range (using scepter) nuker and support. Throws out nukes from his invocations and druid casts. Heals from his druid casting. And runs ancient memory mostly. I let the AI decide on nuke placement even if it means friendly fire. I feel like avoiding friendly fire is a lot less important than the first game since there's no endurance.

 

Fassina (sidekick but I liked her personality) as a pure conjurer. The only single class character I use. I like to swap her with Maia at times. Summons her highest level phantom, then throws out nukes and casts arcane veil if she gets in trouble. As with Tekehu I let the AI decide on where to place her spells. The good thing about conjuration nukes is that if you get hit by one you can just walk out of it.

 

Not much to say about Serafen (though I have him as barb/cipher). I'm not a big fan of ciphers in their current state. And barbarians seem less fun than they were in the last game. So I rarely use him.

Edited May 22, 2018 by Abbzug

[Frog Man]

Not much to say about Serafen (though I have him as barb/cipher). I'm not a big fan of ciphers in their current state. And barbarians seem less fun than they were in the last game. So I rarely use him.

 

Totally with you on both classes, which is a shame because Serafen seems to have a delightful and unique personality. I suppose the foul-mouthed little bugger will have to wait until Ciphers get a buff before I can tolerate him on my team for a full run-through.

 

Suggestions have been awesome so far - anyone have any luck making an effective build with Serafen? Assuming hand mortar and pistol and you just throw out charms all day. 

[Yenkaz]

Not much to say about Serafen (though I have him as barb/cipher). I'm not a big fan of ciphers in their current state. And barbarians seem less fun than they were in the last game. So I rarely use him.

 

Yeah he's stayed in the cargo for a long time for me. Like, I can imagine it being a decent combo but... Cipher spells are so bad they might as well just keep hitting things with the damage bonus?

 

Having Pallegina as a Herald is more fun. Having Xoti hold a lantern, cast some buffs, then do Kong-fu one-handed is more fun. having Maia snipe everything with sneak attacks is more fun. Edér isn't more fun in terms of gameplay, but he's a beast in terms of damage as a swashbuckler and he's also my main bro who I'd never leave behind.

Edited May 22, 2018 by Yenkaz

[rheingold]

I found Serafen as a barb/cipher to be a beast. Does some serious damage. But it does take time, you have to level him. And he was fragile.

Edited May 22, 2018 by rheingold