Hello and welcome to the last entry in my Companion Builds series, featuring the 4 companions from act 2 and 3.

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!

For our pretty artsy boy, we'll do a regular Cleric build as a full support, and another one going all-out on melee damage as a Champion of the Faith - Warpriest (respec mod required). It's your call if you want him to be pure or to let him indulge his aggressive side.

This build will go heavy on the support side, so keep him at the middle of your formation to make good use of his spells and domain abilities. Give him a weapon and shield to help with his survivability, just don't expect him to be a tank. He's there to strengthen and heal his friends, summon distractions, and stop enemies on their tracks with spells, not to get his hands (and armor) dirty.

If you already have an enchantment caster in your party and don't want another one, switch the Enchantment feats and spells with Evocation for some damage and crowd control (Blade Barrier is awesome).

Skills: Religion, Perception, Persuasion.
Take all levels into Cleric.

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Only listing the most important to have first. The rest is situational and you should pick according to your needs. Remember that you do not need to prepare any "cure" spell, because you can convert any prepared spell to a cure wounds spell. Use your spare slots for summons or damage as needed.

Sosiel is no stranger to war; he understands that sometimes you cannot convince your enemies by your voice alone, or expect them to have mercy.

We'll keep his base stats and most of his original feat choices for flavour, like his Luck domain as a Blessing and the Toughness feat. The Warpriest has baseline heavy armor proficiency already, but we don't need the channeling feats since the The Champion of The Faith cannot channel energy. We'll use those extra feats to enhance Sosiel's melee prowess, wielding Shelyn's favored weapon to crush down our enemies directly, and there are plenty of good Glaives to be found.

This build requires that you use the respec mod,[github.com] because the respec option of the base game does not allow for a full respec. If you need any help with the mod, let me know!

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Skills: Persuasion, Religion, Perception.
Take all levels into Warpriest (Champion of The Faith).

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Only listing the most important to have first. The rest is situational and you should pick according to your needs. Remember that you do not need to prepare any "cure" spell, because you can convert any prepared spell to a cure wounds spell.

Regill is a tough case. He's a Hellknight to the very core, so that is not changing. We cannot change his choice of weapon or fighting style either without hurting his damage potential quite a bit, and he's not exactly the strongest martial companion to begin with. Sure, giving him full Armiger-Hellknight progression and all two-weapon fighting feats would be strong enough on its own, but you're here for something different, right?

So, I'll focus on his battlefield commander persona to give him a different subclass fit for a leader. I'm still finishing up a second build for him, so come back soon for it!

There's at least one unique Hammer to be found in each act, and another one coming from his personal quest in act 5.

We'll give our dark leader a dark mount, so he can charge into the battlefield and lead his allies to victory, striking fear into his enemies. I mean, the subclass is literally called Fearsome Leader... it doesn't get any more fitting to his personality than that. Sadly, it won't offer many extra feats to get his damage so high, but that's fine. We want him charging first and holding the line. Either keep him in his adamantine heavy armor for the cool factor, or use medium armor if you find a good one that you like.

He will have extra attack bonus against enemies under fear effects, so if you have someone in your party that can do that (all caster companions can) it's extra sauce. If not, you can always use your Dazzling Display ability, which also dispels fear effects from your allies! At level 15, your Dazzing Display will also apply the effects of the Good Hope spell on your allies, for a number of rounds equal to Regill's CHA. Use a CHA headband and any item that boosts persuasion or intimidate checks (there are several of them) to help with those effects.

The mount will be 2 levels behind, so it's important that you keep it well-buffed and with good equipment. If you have someone who can cast Animal Growth, use that. Legendary Proportions also works, and it's quite funny and intimidating seeing little Regill on top of a huge horse coming at you full speed.

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Skills: take 2 points into Mobility and 1 into Persuasion every level until you get Mobility high enough that you can only put 1 point per level; then, get Persuasion to the same level, and use spare points into anything else you need, always taking Mobility and Persuasion.

There are a few mobility-boosting items out there, with the most notable being a +10 belt that you can buy from the vendor at the Hellknights' Outpost in Act 3, and +5 boots from Areelu's Lab if you want to keep using a dex/str belt (the bonuses don't stack).

Take Cavalier - Fearsome Leader on every level.

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Class: Bulwark
Skills: Mobility, Athletics

All builds listed here will assume that you recruit her at level 8 for maximum benefits (guide for that coming soon!).

If you don't recruit her early, she will only join your party at level 10. You can still follow the same builds if you get her at 10 by picking the same feats and choices in order; it just won't be as effective.

In case you need an extra bit of combat support, she can offer you bard songs without really sacrificing too much of her damage potential. The song + her Ranger's Bond ability will greatly enhance your party combat capabilities, and she can activate both in her first round of combat.

You then have two options: you can either go with regular Bard, or lean into her dark succubus origins a bit more by picking Dirge Bard. This is just a roleplaying choice for extra flavour that doesn't change anything in the build.

Skills: Mobility, Trickery, Stealth, Perception, Persuasion.

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Only listing the most important to have first. The rest is situational and you should pick according to your needs. Spells with an asterisk * are taken from the bard spellbook.

It takes one to beat one. This build will turn her into a weapon of Desna, fighting back against the demonic threat while dealing with the shadows of her past.

We take 2 extra Ranger levels to grab level 3 spells (Instant Enemy for the win) and another favored enemy choice.

Skills: Mobility, Trickery, Stealth, Perception, Persuasion.

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Only listing the most important to have first. The rest is situational and you should pick according to your needs.

This build is intended to be used with corrupted Arue. It's just a bonus for you monsters out there who lead her directly back into her dark past self. Compared to her normal self, her corrupted build is... terrible, but hey, it's not like we care. She's still competent at being a regular archer, so that's all we need.

To corrupt her, follow her quest normally and support her just so you can advance her quests. In Act 4, after you've dealt with her old friend and return to her dream world, you have to pick the evil option, as shown here:
. That will make her leave the party immediately (remove her equipment before that!). Later, in Act 5, you can find her in Place of Execution (requires a perception check to find the place; it is close to Pulura's Fall), and then recruit her back in her new self as long as you are a demon or non-lawful Trickster or Lich. And not good, obviously.

If you are playing Demon and planning on keeping her, remember that it is mandatory that you corrupt her in Act 4 by following the method above, otherwise she leaves the party for good when you confirm the Demon path in Act 5 and you won't be able to get her back.

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Skills: All class skills other than Use Magic Device.





Only listing the most important to have first. The rest is situational and you should pick according to your needs.

Well... this is awkward.

Let's get something out of the way first: Greybor is not even remotely comparable to most companions with a regular martial build, or even a fully-built mercenary. His stats are not particularly great to start with, and he has the added downside of being a fragile, slow-moving character. Since he comes to us already at level 9, and our focus here is to keep companions lore-friendly, we can't remedy those issues completely.

Of course, this does not mean that he's terrible and not viable. For Core difficulty, which is the recommended for this build, he's able to perform his duty just fine with just enough power. Just don't expect him to reach the damage potential of Lann, Arue, or Wendu, at least not without sacrificing his whole personality for min-maxing.

Finally, Greybor can take levels of his most fitting class. Sadly, his stats are definitely not great to use the Assassination ability effectively, so don't bother trying it against anything other than trash mobs. Remember that you have to be invisible to even try it, so give the poor guy an INT headband to help.

Going full level 20 Slayer would be a lot stronger? Yes. But where's the fun in that?

If you want a different choice of weapon, there's an unique one tailored for an Assassin:

You can buy it from the Skeletal Salesman in act 3. You have to ask him to bring exotic wares, so you might need to encounter him twice if you're unlucky. Use this along with any other good one (act 4 has a few unique ones).

Again, even with this, the DC of the ability will still be quite low, so you can ignore it and keep using his waraxes if you wish. Totally optional.

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Skills: Stealth and Persuasion max. Spare points to Athletics, Mobility, and/or Perception.

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The Dark Lurker subclass would be my first pick if I wanted to do a full rework of his build. Since we're not doing that here, I'll give him just 4 levels of this class. This brings Blind Fight, Uncanny Dodge, Debilitating Injury, and a cool teleport ability to help with his mobility issues. I think that's a fair trade. He will be able to use Studied Target and then teleport right next to his prey in the same round, as long as he's close to a character who's bigger than he is. Use this combo to focus down priority targets, especially if they are flat-footed.

The Lord of Nothing DLC required!

Here's an example of how to use the Blade from the Shadows ability. Greybor needs to be close to a creature larger than him to be able to teleport to an enemy, as long as that enemy is also larger than Greybor.

In this example, Ulbrig is obviously larger because he's on Griffon form, but Greybor would not be able to use the ability if close to any other companion.

To help with that, you'll probably need to use the Reduce Person spell on Greybor; making Greybor smaller would make sure he's always able to teleport to any regular-sized enemy, regardless of who is he next to. The only downside is that Reduce Person applies a -1 STR penalty, but it's no biggie.

A cool trick you can do, when you have access to the Legendary Proportions spell, is to use that on Greybor for the STR bonus, and then cast Reduce Person on him right after. This will set him back to small size while keeping most of the STR bonus. Does not work with Enlarge Person.

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Skills: Stealth, Athletics, Mobility. Spare points to Perception.

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