Hello and welcome to the first entry in my Companion Builds series, featuring the 4 starter companions from the prologue in order of appearance.

This guide was brought to light because I've noticed that it is really hard finding "thematic" builds. Most builds online tend to focus on extreme min-maxing, which sadly don't always take immersion or the character's background into consideration. And while there's nothing wrong with playing like that, it is just not how I like playing. I like some roleplaying in my roleplaying game, you know.

So, I've created some builds that either keep the companions in their base classes (for the roleplay), or switch them into others that make a good fit based on their personality, background, or overall cool factor. I hope you like it!

Our favorite local paladin. Not limited to paladin.

For all builds listed here, you can use any 1h weapon you want, with Longsword being the lore-friendly option because of Radiance. For easy fights where you don't need the shield, you have the option of keeping your off-hand free to enjoy a 50% damage bonus of wielding your weapon with both hands.

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How to upgrade Radiance:

• Prologue: Make sure you find it during the shield maze. It requires solving the color puzzle;
  
• Act 1: talk to Joran outside of the tavern and pick the relevant dialogue option to show him the sword. Later, during the final part of Act 2, you'll meet him again by a forge, where you can ask him to upgrade it for you;
  
• Act 3: find Yaniel while exploring the Midnight Fane, close to the end of act 3, and ask her to empower the weapon for you;
  
• Act 5: you'll get the final upgrade just before a boss fight on Iz.

Attention: always keep the sword in your inventory / unequipped for all those steps.

Her gameplay is quite simple: use a few buffs, heal when needed, smite tough foes, profit. Use a Charisma headband and the best gear you find.

This is not a full tank build, but she will naturally be quite tanky with armor and shield, along with double duration buffs later on. If you want a tankier version with a horse, check my Tank builds guide.

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Skills: Knowledge (World), Use Magic Device for scrolls and wands, and Perception or Persuasion as needed.
Take all 20 levels into Paladin.

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Only listing the most important to have first. The rest is situational according to your needs, like the cure spells.

This build is best suited to go with a caster main character or a party with 2/3 casters. Court Poet brings a buff to INT and CHA, being a nice addition to the group's spellcasting abilities.


Since this subclass favors spellcasting, we'll have Seelah be a full backline support this time. Equip a shield and position her in the middle of your formation, or in front of your squishy mages to deal with any enemies that might want to get close. Give her a CHA headband, a STR belt, the best shield and armor you find along with a few buffs and she can hold her own just fine.

She will have cool buffs, skald song, and dispel magic to help with bosses, while being pretty tanky. Not bad. Also doesn't compete for gear with your mages, so they are free to do their blasting.

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Skills: Knowledge (World), Use Magic Device (to use scrolls and wands), Perception.
Take all levels into Skald - Court Poet.

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Only listing the most important to have first. The rest is situational according to your needs, like the Cure and summon spells.

Seelah is the most selfless person around, always putting the well-being of others before her own. So, we’re taking her personality traits to the next level by making her a Martyr Paladin, a shining beacon of support and protection for her friends. This build will offer great buffs, healing and debuff removal, tankyness, and damage. Honestly, this is my new cannon build for her.

The Martyr’s Mercy ability offers great versatility for your Mercy options. My recommendations will be based on effects that you’ll most likely need to cure in combat; that way, your auras will not get disabled while you still need them. Other effects, like fatigued or exhausted, can safely be cured out of combat. The healing bit of Lay on Hands is nothing to write home about, so use it mostly to cure those negative effects.

Note: the Stigmata passive states that the Paladin can “duplicate” the effects of Bard performances, but don’t think this means “double”. Duplicate in this case means replicate, i.e., produce a similar effect. This is the lore explanation of how the Martyr can use Bard songs. So no, it won’t give you double the bonuses. Booo!

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To respec her with a different subclass, you need to use the Respec Mod[github.com]. If you need help with installing or using the mod, let me know!

Original choices for the respec: Background: Street Urchin (Pickpocket); Deity: Iomedae. Don’t change her base stats.

Skills: Use Magic Device, Persuasion. Spare points to anything else you need.
Take Paladin (Martyr) on every level.

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Only listing the most important to have first. My recommendations will focus on Paladin unique spells and most important personal buffs. The rest is situational and most can also be cast by other companions, so you should pick according to your needs.

Sadly, there's not a lot we can do with Cam in terms of different classes without abandoning her whole story and personality. We can, however, spicy things up a bit.

Since I've already made a tank build for her (which you can find here), we'll focus more on offense this time. I'll give you two build flavours, vanilla and spicy. If you are a new player, stick to vanilla, because spicy might contain spoilers and be too hot for you. IYKYK.

For both builds, equip a WIS headband and make sure to complete her personal quests to get the cool rapiers.

Also make sure to grab this from the Defender's Hearth vendor (can be bought anytime starting from act 1):

Vanilla flavour Shaman Cam, some good damage and some extra spell slots for a bit of magic support on the side. Everything you'd want from a full divine caster. She is helpful, after all.

Skills: Trickery and Perception.
Take all 20 levels into Shaman.

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Only listing the most important to have first. The rest is situational and you should pick according to your needs, like healing spells or remove curse/blindness/disease. Don't forget to prepare a spell in the domain slot of each level! Some of those are pretty important, like Frightful Aspect at spell level 8.

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The first half of the build is mostly the same as in Vanilla Cam. And then, by the time we discover a certain kink peculiarity of hers, we'll let her channel her desires freely. She will have a lot more damage than the previous build, but won't reach 9th level spells or have a lot of spell slots. It's fine. She's still helpful.

For this build, use the best light or medium armor you find (ideally mithral). The list of recommended spells is mostly the same as in the previous build, so check that section for it!

The Lord of Nothing DLC required!

Skills: Trickery and Perception, with spare points to Mobility.

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Sadly, there are very few dragons and magical beasts to be fought during the game, and hardly any fey. However, you'll find plenty of undead and outsiders (demons). Since this build won't have enough levels to get major traits, only minor traits are included.

Lann is a fun case. Deciding on a lore-friendly class for him took me HOURS (not joking).

I decided to go with Divine Hunter. It matches both his mongrel cave-dwelling background and his religious side. However, Hunters are known for their animal companions, so we would have to assume that he got sent an animal companion through his devotion. I'll go with the Riding Dog here, but honestly, it can be anything. At least I can totally picture Lann calling his dog a good boy. Just please don't name it Wendog. Don't do it. Please.

I'll come back to make another build for him eventually. Maybe. I promise. Kinda.

Skills: Mobility, Nature, Religion, Perception.

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Only listing the most important to have. The rest is situational and you should pick according to what you need.

After you get your first mythic ability, make sure to always have any of the Animal Aspect spells up on Lann to benefit from Master Shapeshifter (free +4 to STR, DEX, and CON). There's at least one Aspect spell at each level, but you can also use the Hunter's Animal Aspect ability to save spell slots.

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Class: Agressor. Honestly, can be anything else you want, except for Bully (the dog already has trip), Deathtouched (obvious reasons), or Wrecker (just plain terrible).

Skills: Athletics, Mobility
First leveling point to INT (level 4), rest to STR.

Leave the Bull aspect on at all times for your pet (with your Animal Aspect ability).

For Wenduag, I bring you two builds: the first one is a Ranger, which matches her personality and is closer to her original character in the tabletop game. The second one is a full-flavour pick as a Shifter so she can, you know, actually turn into a spider.

Wenduag is unmatched when it comes to exploring and surviving dire situations. For this build, we'll give her all the means necessary to be the most skilled ranger the Crusade has ever seen. Probably the meaneast, too. I'm quite proud of this one.

Give her a WIS headband so she has access to higher level spells. There are several unique Longbows to be found, so explore and find them! Make sure to use composite longbows for extra damage.

No, this is not an axe-throwing build. I'm tired of that, boss. She does, however, have a lizard pet, as in the original tabletop game.

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Take Ranger (base class) at every level.
Skills: Knowledge (Nature), Stealth, Perception. Spare points to anything else you need. Your pet will handle your mobility and athletics needs.

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Only listing the most important to have.

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Class: Bully
Skills: Athletics, Mobility
First leveling point to INT (level 4), the rest to STR.

Your pet has 2 jobs: biting people to make them fall (so they get attacks of opportunity when getting up), and protecting your backline, either by holding an enemy with the Grabber ability, or bull rushing them away.

The lizard won't get big enough for you to ride it, unless you cast either Reduce Person on Wenduag or Legendary Proportions/Animal Growth on the pet.

Now, for the full cool factor, we'll make Wenduag a true spider. Ungoliant would be proud.

Even though we're building her as a damage dealer, she will naturally be quite tanky due to her high DEX and the spider form giving a bonus to AC. If you are playing with mods, you can also respec her to go full Shifter and remove her ranged feats. This is not mandatory, however.

For equipment, use a WIS headband and the best DEX belt you find. Don't worry about STR. Since you already got the DLC, make sure to complete Ulbrig's personal quests because there are a couple of great items for Shifters available from those areas (assuming you won't give those to Ulbrig lol).

This build requires the Last Sarkorians DLC.

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Skills: Mobility, Stealth, and Lore (Nature).

Take Shifter (base class) on every level. Check down below for an explanation about the feats and class' abilities.

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Shifter Abilities explained.


Here you can see how Wenduag's skill bar is looking at max level.

3 - Greater Chimeric Aspect: toggle 2 or 3 aspects (always take spider) as seen here and then click the ability itself to activate them. Keep in mind that the minor aspects last for 1 minute per charge, so don't forget to uncheck it after combat so it doesn't run out too fast. After you get Extended Aspects, they will last a little bit longer;

5 - Shifter Claws: always on. This will boost your bite attacks with more damage and make them bypass damage reductions, super important when fighting demons;

6 - Shifter's Fury: click it and toggle it on for the Bite, allowing you to perform several attacks in a row with it (without this, you would only be able to do one attack per round);

7 - Piranha Strike: always on, unless you're having trouble to hit.

9 - Major Form: before you get your first mythic ability (at the end of act 1), you'll only be able to shapeshift a few times per day with a duration of 1 hour each time. After you get Master Shapeshifter, you'll be able to stay in spider form permanently.