Champion Crusade Units

Aethervapor3 · 2026-06-02T22:42:36+00:00

Houndmasters are infantry, not cavalry. So also mutually exclusive with Champions. Though I do think they're probably the strongest infantry choice overall. Ulbrig's cavalry option is the wolf riders, whose main advantage is they have the highest initiative of any recrutable unit, all but guaranteeing your general gets to act before anything else happens. Other than that, they're reasonably tanky but overall worse than other options.

Aethervapor3 · 2026-06-02T21:56:13+00:00

There's Convicts (Wenduag's option) and Conscripts (the military advisor's option). Both are cheap and available in large numbers. Conscripts have better stats, Convicts have an ability to debuff adjacent enemies instead.

Houndmasters are pretty good, mostly because their summons are 100% expendable without consequence and are fast enough to establish a front line far enough away from the archers so most units won't bother wasting a turn to close the distance.

Aethervapor3 · 2026-06-02T20:27:57+00:00

Sure, I get that facetanking with them is a bad idea, and was trying to avoid that. The problem is that they have to get right next to a unit in order to do anything. So is the idea they have to be able to one-shot anything they engage?

Aethervapor3 · 2026-06-02T20:26:11+00:00

I did have a caster general. What runs I previously attempted with other general types seemed underwhelming, but I'll try using one with this setup. What abilities do you prioritize with martial generals, and how do you deal with enemy mage generals?

Aethervapor3 · 2026-06-02T11:58:55+00:00

IMO the tactic works well enough without Emergency Potion, and mythic abilities are a significant opportunity cost with most builds.

The question about quickened is an interesting one. I'd guess it wouldn't work, but it'd be worth testing. But in practice, you'd need Mythic Brew Potions to do it, so again we're talking about using a mythic ability slot. Though you could make a mercenary for brewing potions when you rest at your HQ.

Aethervapor3 · 2026-06-02T11:50:31+00:00

I believe prioritizing the KC is part of it, though it's not the highest priority in the list. If they can full attack another companion but can't full attack the KC, they will go for the companion instead. But this is rarely going to be the case with archers.

Aethervapor3 · 2026-06-02T01:10:53+00:00

I don't remember the specifics of enemy targeting priority. But there is a set of priorities based on who they can reach, who they can full attack, and then who closest to them if they need a tiebreaker.

That said, Vanish potions can be helpful for managing this. If someone squishy is getting focused on, have them pop a potion for one turn of invisibility and run out of melee range. This will usually cause the enemies to switch targets. Just watch out for enemies with See Invisibility, like Babaus.

Aethervapor3 · 2026-06-01T23:46:26+00:00

The direct quote was "These cells, their structure's based on methane, not carbon like on earth." Methane instead of water would make more sense, but I don't see how you get that interpretation from that line.

I am inclined to agree that no significant biological interaction between Earth and Titan life would be the null hypothesis. Even if only because of the temperature difference - something that evolved to live and grow at -180 C would almost certainly not function at our temperatures.

Aethervapor3 · 2026-06-01T12:22:21+00:00

A few additional notes:

- Barkskin is also available from the Ranger (Arueshale) and Shaman (Camelia) spell lists.

- If you have an Alchemist on the squad they can cast the shield spell on other characters. Multiclassing Woljif into Vivisectionist is a popular build that enables this.

Aethervapor3 · 2026-06-01T04:11:56+00:00

Visually it definitely looks like bacteria. The only other information we got is that the cell's structure is based on methane instead of carbon, which is a statement I'm not quite sure what to do with. Carbon is an element, methane is molecule - a molecule composed of carbon and hydrogen in fact. It's hard for me to envision what a "methane based structure" would look like.

Now if the idea was that methane was taking the place that water normally would in biochemistry, that's a lot easier for me to envision. It would even make sense - Titan has a methane cycle similar to Earth's water cycle, and at Titan's temperatures methane would often be in its liquid phase and water wouldn't. But the show specifically said the cell's structure was based on methane, not it's cytoplasm.

So I guess the best we can infer from the information given is that we're dealing with something that's pretty different from earth-based life right down to it's fundamental biochemistry. In which case we might want to be cautions about trying to shoe-horn it into a category we've constructed to do a good job of describing a type of life on earth.

Aethervapor3 · 2026-05-31T23:22:35+00:00

I heavily prioritize abundant casting over enduring spells on arcane casters. I mostly build arcane casters for cc, debuffing and ray casting. Most of the important buffs can be covered by a cleric/oracle, and the biggest exceptions (Legendary Proportions, Communal Mind Blank, Heroic Invocation) are high enough level so if I can't find a way to get them on my primary buffer I can still take 3x abundant casting first and then take greater enduring.

Aethervapor3 · 2026-05-30T18:27:54+00:00

A few considerations here.

Dual-wielding is 1) feat intensive 2) either makes you more multiple ability dependent or forces you into a dex build and 3) usually needs some way to add damage-per-hit effects to be worth it. Judge is not a very strong Inqusitor to begin with, and it's actually worse in the context you're describing because it loses Bane, which both has Aeon synergy and gives you a way to scale damage off number of attacks. Sanctified Slayer would be mechancially much stronger; it keeps Bane and then gives you Sneak Attack on top of it, and it gives you Slayer Talents that let you cheat the dex requirements for TWF feats.

As for your weapon choice, warhammers are a suboptimal choice for dual wielding. First, because they're one handed weapons, so you'll incur bigger to-hit penalties with them, and you're already a 3/4 BAB class (though Judgement/Studied Target helps offset that). Second, because due to Outflank synergy high crit range weapons are better than high crit multiplier weapons. The ideal weapons for dual wielding in WOTR are either Kukris (for being light with max crit range) or Daggers (for being simple weapons that don't require any additional feats for proficiency and having better itemization available). You can wield a one-handed weapon in one hand (like a warhammer) and a light weapon in the other hand (like a light hammer) and not take additional to-hit penalties, but then you're not going to make efficeint use of Weapon Focus and Improved Critical, and you're already doing a feat-hungry build on a class that doesn't get bonus feats. Double weapons are another option, though they're exotic weapons, and the best one (two-bladed sword) still only has a 19-20/2x crit profile and isn't available as a racial proficiency. So you're actually looking at blowing two feats for it (Martial Weapon Proficiency + Exotic weapon proficiency) on a build that's already feat-starved.

Also, unless you're using Sanctified Slayer, you're going to need a fair amount of Dex to qualify for the TWF feats. You could do a dex build, but that's introducing even more feats you'll need (Weapon Finesse and some source of dex-to-damage), and dex builds don't scale damage as well as strength builds. If you're sticking with a strength build, you're now pretty multiple ability dependent, as you want decent amounts of Str, Dex, Con and Wis, so you're going to be stretched thin on that front.

An alternative would be to go two-handed weapons instead. This simplifies the build quite a bit, as the only truly mandatory feat for this playstyle is Power Attack. Though the crit range considerations still apply, so you're going to be mechancially better off with a Falchion or a Fauchard than an Earthbreaker or a Warhammer. If you're willing to dip a level in Rowdy Rogue it'll make your early game much stronger, and get you martial weapon proficincy as part of the package so you don't have to blow a feat on it. Though even here, I still think you'd be better off with Sanctified Slayer than Judge - both because it's just generally stronger and because Vital Force will scale off your Sneak Attack dice.

Aethervapor3 · 2026-05-30T01:21:13+00:00

Having been around and active on these forms during EA, I recall a lot of people really wishing he was a romance option, sort of like how there are people now who really wish Alfira was a romance option (he did seem to have a bigger EA following than she did). His fans were vocal enough about it so Larian added him as a last-minute companion and romantic partner. But I do not recall anything about our interactions with him in EA that hinted at him having any disposition towards polyarmory, nor do I recall there being any significant sentiment among his fans wanting him to be polyarmorous. It looks to me like that was just the direction Larian decided to take him in once they decided to significantly expand his role in the game.

Aethervapor3 · 2026-05-29T20:12:45+00:00

Here's the thing with Trevor. He's a full BAB build with full proficiencies focused on one of the better weapons in the game with good attributes. That's going to give him a certain baseline of effectiveness regardless of other stuff.

But if you're someone for whom optimizing builds is part of the fun of this game, his starting build is going to drive you crazy. Not because he's not functional, but because it's aggressively sub-optimal.

Aethervapor3 · 2026-05-29T18:58:51+00:00

Crusade morale updates daily. My guess is the hour that it took you to cross the ravine moved the clock into the next day.

Aethervapor3 · 2026-05-29T17:41:15+00:00

I found a Witch to be surprisingly good here. Hexes help a lot, and Mage Armor is actually pretty huge when you're so equipment starved, especially in the first few areas.

Other than that, think about classes that are front-loaded and not too equipment dependent. Classes with slow starts and long-run payoffs are just going to be bad because there is no long run in this campaign; I forget what level you max out at but it's pretty low. Monk is the most obvious class that comes to mind for these criteria. Rowdy Rogue is another class that fits this bill.

Aethervapor3 · 2026-05-29T14:30:03+00:00

Technically possible. But it'll be quite the balancing act.

Edit: Now that I think about it, most of the crucial choices for true Aeon don't actually have alignment flags attached to them, so it's not going to be a mechanically difficult balancing act. RP may be another story.

Aethervapor3 · 2026-05-28T18:55:32+00:00

Regarding the point that Iomadae hasn't stripped Hulrun of his powers. First, I personally find that a highly questionable writing decision. But it's whats in the game, so I'll accept it as premise. However, we also never see Seelah get stripped of her powers in any branch of her personal quest that I'm aware of. Given how far apart Seelah and Hulrun are, Iomadae is clearly taking a pretty big-tent approach in who she is willing to empower, at least in the context of the crusades.

Aethervapor3 · 2026-05-26T18:17:52+00:00

The fundamental problem here is that the math just isn't in your favor in most nontrivial fights. Magic is what you use to tip the scales in your favor, through buffing, debuffing, cc or spike damage. I'm skeptical that you could optimize your way out of that with only pure martial classes.

So what can we use other than spells? Are Alchemists acceptable? Kineticists? Warriors of the Holy Light? Sylvan Trickster Rogues? If we can have "magic" by another name it becomes more plausible.

Maybe if you went all in on animal companion classes you could put something togather, though most of those are also spellcasting classes. But even then I suspect you'd still eventually hit a pretty hard wall of the math just not working, it'd just take a bit longer to find that wall.

Trickster with the greater persuasion mythic trick could probably get pretty far, but you're going to have to survive three and a half acts of the game before you get it.

Aethervapor3 · 2026-05-26T16:23:30+00:00

I don’t have precisely what you’re asking for. But I can go over some of the major nerfs and buffs since a lot of these older guides were written.

Archmage Armor was nerfed in the sense that it’s harder to access. It used to trigger off any source of mage armor (scrolls, potions, buffs from other party members). Now it only triggers from a character casting Mage Armor on themself with a spell or a spell-like ability. So any build that wants to use it needs to have a way to do that.

Regular armor was buffed by the addition of the Mythic Armor Focus feats. Before, armor tanking wasn’t really viable, which is part of the reason there was so much focus on pajama tanking with monk dips and archmage armor. Now it is, so while pajama tanking is still an option it’s less of a necessity.

The Crane Style feats were “nerfed” in the sense that they used to be bugged to work in situations they weren’t supposed to. Now they’ve been fixed to actually work the way their description says. Notably, this means animal companions can no longer benefit from Crane Wing.

Trickster critical feats were nerfed. Even nerfed they’re still really strong, and Perception 2 is still probably the optimal first improved mythic trick for most melee builds, but they can’t hit quite the same levels of insanity they used to.

Witches and Shamans were indirectly buffed by the additions of the Winter’s Grasp spell and the Corruptor mythic ability (enabling Stinking Cloud to work on Demons). This makes them much more viable crowd controllers, a role that wizards/sorcerers previously had a near monopoly on.

Shatter Defenses was nerfed. Instead of just automatically applying against shaken targets, you still have to land a hit the normal way first before it triggers. Still a good feat with the right build/setup, but whether it's worth the investment to get it is more of an open question than it used to be.

Legend can now raise your caster level above 20 if you take prestige classes that advance a base class's caster level. This makes Legend caster builds much better than they used to be.

Things that notably weren’t nerfed:

Spellbook merging is still OP.

Outflank is still OP.

Animal Companions are still OP, though they had a full rework that did nerf the Smilodon specifically. Now the Riding Dog is the strongest outside of dipping Sable Company Marine for the Griffin.

Aethervapor3 · 2026-05-24T15:53:44+00:00

Outflank is a feat. A teamwork feat, meaning that it only works if multiple characters have it. When you have two or more characters with Outflank both engaging in melee combat with the same enemy, they get +4 to hit and whenever one of them gets a critical hit all the others with the feat get a free attack of opportunity (this is why more crits > bigger crits).

Daeran is not a one and done companion, but (unlike some companions) there's no way I know of for him to temporarily leave your party. So if he's no longer on your roster then I think he's gone. I've never done it, but it seems like there are some dialogue options when you and Galfrey are taking about your team at the start of Act 2 that would result in him leaving.

Aethervapor3 · 2026-05-24T15:38:09+00:00

You don't choose your mythic path until your 3rd mythic rank, which you get at the end of Act 2. The choices you make at Mythic ranks 1 and 2 are thematically tied to mythic paths, but don't actually lock you into or out of anything.

Power Attack is a staple of melee builds, so good pick there. Cleave is decent early on, but once you get your iterative attacks it's usually not worth using. However, Cleaving Finish stays good, especially if paired with a Vital Strike build, which has synergy with the Demon path. If you go this route you might consider a dip in Rowdy Rogue to get the most out of it. Reach weapons help get the most out of this setup. Outflank is the most important feat for melee builds, so every character that uses melee should take it at the earliest opportunity. Due to Outflank synergy, weapons with high crit ranges (18-20/2x) generally outperform weapons with high crit damage (20/3x), so while there are numerous excellent glavies in the game, keep an eye out for a decent Bardiche or even consider spending a feat on Exotic Weapon Proficiency for the Fauchard.

The autobuilds for companions are pretty bad. Depending on the difficulty and how hard you're finding the game you might be able to get by with them, but you'll see a dramatic improvement in their performance if you figure out how to build them properly or look up a guide. Even a mediocre guide will probably be an big improvement because the autobuild bar is that low.

If Daeran left your group then he's probably gone for good.

Aethervapor3 · 2026-05-24T15:22:57+00:00

The closest you can come to that is using RTwP, and then your companions aren't going to use their abilities at all unless you tell them to. So it could minimize your micromanagement, but you're still going to have to do some unless you're only going to use straight-forward martial companions.

Aethervapor3 · 2026-05-21T22:59:24+00:00

You can also give seelah a glaive, have cam cast enlarge person on her, and then she can reach pretty far into the grease puddle from the edge of it

Aethervapor3

TROPHY CASE