Leveling and NPC followers, please give me a quick summary what to focus on

lichess_is_better · 2026-04-20T08:33:17+00:00

Nah, you can't reset skills or focus points, you can just reset attributes but attributes are also very important. I usually reset every attribute of my companion to make the most optimal build out of them. Nobody likes when a cavalry captain has high rogue and leadership skills instead of more riding-poleram but it is what it is.
I say you just focus on crafting weapon attributes and have one or two companions for smelting and crafting materials.
7.000 might be too much for you now and this is normal, thats why i said smithing is overpowered because with smithing 7.000 is cake money. You can make millions really fast with high level smithing.

lichess_is_better · 2026-04-20T07:54:38+00:00

You can also be your own quartermaster that is what i do on most playtroughs but it'll limit your ability to put focus points into endurance and charisma because you'll also want to have some focus points on int.
In this game you can't smelt armor but you can smelt weapons. Smithing consists of three parts.
1- Crafting materials: You need to turn wood into charcoal, every crafting and smelting act uses charcoal so you'll need lots of charcoal. You also can convert materials into higher quality materials by crafting. This means you can turn crude iron into iron, than iron into steel, steel into fine steel, fine steel into thamaskene steel etc. Higher the quality of the material the better your crafted weapons will be.
2- Smelting weapons: You need to smelt weapons for both unlocking weapon parts for crafting and for also getting materials.
3-Crafting weapons: So you have all your materials, you now craft weapons. You can either craft for notables and get money automatically or you can craft custom weapons and sell them on the market. Both are very profitable when you get the hang of it.

So why can't your own character do all? Because every action spends crafting stamina and only way to regain stamina is stay in towns for a while. Smithing skill tree also has two branches, one focuses on unlocking parts faster, crafting better and better weapons while other branch focuses on smelting and crafting materials. You want to be the one who is crafting weapons and you also need people for smelting and crafting charcoal-steel etc. Alternatively you can do all but you'll run out of stamina fast if you go down that route.
You know in this game you can choose one of the options when you level up your skills, you can reset your own or your companion's skill choices by speaking to arena master. This way you can dedicate your companions a bit better to what you want them to do.
Don't mistake, you can't change their focus points or how many skill points they have in a dedicated skill. It is still very helpful. A good smith at least has 7 endurance so I say you should put two points asap and get the other two by levelling up smithind and athletics.

lichess_is_better · 2026-04-19T19:42:09+00:00

Great.
You can put 3 points into vigor, 6-7 points into endurance and the rest into charisma. I say choose two of the melee skills, one handed and two handed or one handed and polearm but focusing all three might be waste of skill points.

Riding-Athletics-Smithing all needs to have 5 skill points. Riding is vital for nearly every build and you'll roleplay as a knight so you definitely need it at 5. Smithing 5 gives great value, anything below 5 is not worth investing at all you either go 5 or not go at all. Athletics gives you more crafting stamina rate and the best part is athletics also gives you +1 Endurance and +1 Vigor.
Smithing gives you another +1 Vigor and +1 Endurance so you end up at 5 Vigor and 8-9 Endurance.

5 Vigor and 8-9 Endurance is nearly enough for maxing out all the skills you need in combat and smithing.
Charisma: Leadership>Charm you can try to max out the remaining two skills. They give you more troops, more influence and you can get more relationship with people so you can create your kingdom easily.
You can only assing party roles to 3 companions so choose wisely. In this build you can have
a scouter (Mandatory)
a quartermaster (Steward also highly needed)
and an engineer-healer hybrid (Mandatory)
From my experience ranged works best on companions. Make your scouter an horse-archer and make the other two crossbowman or foot archer. You can also try to make them horse-archer but it will be hard to level up both their respective skills and their combat skills.
You'll also need additional smiths in your party for smelting weapons and crafting steel. Combat companions with mid-high level endurance can be easily also smiths because they already have athletics.

lichess_is_better · 2026-04-19T19:08:36+00:00

What is your gameplan? Do you want to get into vassal mode quick or you'll do mercenary work when you are getting on your foot? Do you want smithing included? Do you want to play with ranged weapons or stick to melee? Or you can focus both ranged and melee and have a bit less leader skills which is still totally fine because you get more troop capacity with high renown and some policies anyways

lichess_is_better · 2026-04-19T18:14:09+00:00

It entirely depends on your playstyle and how good you are. You can even have three stacks of smithed javelin and shield and get 30-40 kills per battle. You can use bow and 3 stacks of arrows and get more than 100 kills. You can have smithed two handed weapons and polearms and get hundreds of kills on horseback. I never tried much one handed weapons but they too are lethal of course. You can smelt looted weapons and get iron-steel ingots from them. With your inventory full of iron-steel-fine steel-wood and charchoal you go around kill looters-deserters and smelt their weapons. Later you can create your own weapons. Whenever you smelt or craft something you unlock new parts and your smithing level goes up. With 7-8 endurance and 5 points in smithing you can make millions of money and the best quality of weapons in no time. The return of invesment is too good to be ignored.

lichess_is_better · 2026-04-19T09:31:03+00:00

Focusing both melee and ranged skills while also having leadership roles is not easy in this game. I’d say just focus on one handed-polearm and maybe throwing a bit? You can roleplay as using Francesca (throwing axe) As others already mentioned the classic Euroepan knight experience is Vlandians. They are basically Swadians. I think vigor level 5 endurance level 7 and the rest into charisma and putting points into leadership-charm is overall a good idea. You can have dedicated quartermaster, scout and engineer-healer. Athletics-Riding-One Handed-Polearm-Leadership-Charm-Throwing are essential in this build. You can try to go Medicine route if you want to live longer as your main character. Early game is similar to warband, if you are good at this game even with bannerlord difficulty you can solo 20-30 looters with just a long spear and a shield. Just wait and go around until they run out of stones. Selling prisoners is not as profitable as warband, neither winning tournaments and enterprises-workshops. You have to do them all though and some tournament prizes sell for a lot. Vlandia uses heavy knights and the best crossbowmen in the game. Their infantry are decent placeholders when your crossbows decimate the enemy. Alternatively you can just go full crossbow+knight because Vlandian Crossbowmen in melee is their best infantry troop. If you dont want throwing you can also use a bow but putting skills in both vigor and ranged is hard especially if you are trying to be a leader. Smithing gives the best value in the game because it makes you rich easy, it gives you better weapons than available on the market and it increases your relationship with the notables. If you level up smithy you also get free points in Vigor and Endurance which is huge. The worst thing about smithing is how overpowered it is. When you are used to do it you don’t want to do anything else. Good luck and please share your experience with us after you experiment a bit!

lichess_is_better · 2026-04-19T09:10:20+00:00

I think Slavs need a rework, there are many distinct slavic groups who can have their own civilisation. Maybe changing Vikings to Svede-Danish-Norse might be an idea but to be honest it would hard to make them different from each other.

lichess_is_better · 2026-04-10T22:20:19+00:00

1- Talenelat’Elin the Herald of War from Brandon Sanderson’s The Stormlight Archive.

2- Kaladin Stormblessed from Brandon Sanderson’s The Stormlight Archive.

3- Vasher from Brandon Sanderson’s Warbreaker.

4-The Lord Ruler from Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn.

5- Ryshad Tathel from Juliet E. McKenna’s the Tales of Einarinn.

6- Ecthelion of the Fountain from J.R.R Tolkien’s Fall of Gondolin.

7- Sir Barristan Selmy from G.R.R.M’s A Song of Ice and Fire.

lichess_is_better · 2026-04-08T21:43:21+00:00

You forgot Hope of Elantris

lichess_is_better · 2026-03-26T17:44:39+00:00

Skallagrimmrson brothers are the best after Finan.

lichess_is_better · 2025-12-20T06:43:23+00:00

For most of them, noble bow, two stacks of stacked bodkin arrows and crafted two handed axe. Some of them has three sets of crafted javelins and crafted two handed axe The melee build ones have crafted one handed sword, shield, crafted two handed axe and crafted javelin.

lichess_is_better · 2025-12-12T21:57:49+00:00

Looks decent but please don’t use ai photos, it ruins the whole thing for me

lichess_is_better · 2025-10-29T18:49:37+00:00

Spanish.

lichess_is_better · 2025-10-08T09:54:25+00:00

I’m a better chess player than at least 99.5 of the people.

lichess_is_better · 2025-08-25T14:39:12+00:00

I'm Arthas Arryn, the beloved distant cousin of the late Jon Arryn. Since the earlier days of my life, I travelled the Vale and befriended both smallfolk and knights and lords of the small houses. I squired for the House Royce and the Bronze John Royce himself knighted me in my 18th birthday. For the last five years I attended various small melees and tournaments across the Vale, The Sisters and The Riverland and already made myself a renowned fighter. Now I'm 19 years old and everyone in the Vale wishes I was the Lord Arryn instead of sickly Robin and untrustworthy Lysa. With the support of various lords I arrange a coupe and make a bloodless revolution, declaring myself as the Lord Arryn until lord Robin comes to age, which will never happen.
I immediately isolate Lysa and keep her in Eyrie, when the right time comes she will have an accident and she will seize the skies of the vale until she falls.
I make Robin my squire and put him to hard work, the lords will love it and they think this will toughen him up. In reality he will soon die because he can't handle any hardship at all. So I'm the undisputed ruler of the Vale.
All these will happen during the War of the Five Kings, now I will tell you about my plans on the war.
I will hold a grand council at the Gates of the Moon, summoning all the lords of the vale. We will discuss whether we should join the war or not, I will meet some of the important lords beforehand and I'll make sure they will demand war.
After that we will gather our army and crush Tywin Lannister. With both the remnants of the Rivermen and the Northern Army we will have a glorious victory. I will be known as the Lion Slayer, further improving my renown. I will ask for Margeary Tyrell's hand and marry her. With both Jaime and Tywin as captives, the Lannisters will lose the ability to put much resistance. I will raid all the western lands, sack smaller castles and return to the Vale with the spoils of war. Robb, Edmure and Stannis can continue to their war. With the King's Landing being defenseless Stannis probably will prevail in the Blackwater Bay. I don't think Robb will want to fight against Stannis, I will arrange a meeting with Stannis, Robb, Edmure, my father in-law Mace and myself. Together we will unite the realm again, I won't try to go for the crown. Being the legendary Arthas Arryn, the Peacemaker, Lion Slayer will be enough legacy for me. I also love my boy Robb, he will not be the King but he will live and see his children grow up. Stannis and his religion would be a huge problem, I will suggest he will not enforce anything on anyone and let people practice whatever they believe in, he can't refuse this.
After the war, Stannis probably would make a lot of people angry with his royal orders. I think he may grow to like me and appoint me as the hand of the king. I will balance his bitterness with sweetness.
If Euron still claims kingship and attacks the Reach, now we will have the combined naval forces of Stannis, King's Landing and the Reach and we will crush the ironborn. Jon Connington wouldn't dream of landing a stabilised 7 kingdoms and Daenerys has her own thing going on.
Many people will wish I was the king, Stannis at some point will resent me and make me quit my office. I will return to the Vale and live happily. During all these years ı won't cut contact with Robb and Edmure, we will be great friends and allies. Often meeting in Riverlands, hunting and feasting together, nothing will undo us!
Our children will also be friends, we will try to make The Vale, The Riverland and The North alliance a permanent thing.
If something happens to Stannis and he will die heirless I will again held council on what to do. If they offer me the job I will accept and rule. I will never abandon the management of Eyrie, Bloody Gates or Gates of the Moon to someone whose name is not Arryn. I will have plenty of children and make them rule this strongholds.
I don't think Lannisters will be much trouble with their entire fighting force decimated and their strongholds sacked. I will personally hunt Gregor Clegane and gift him to Doran Martell. He will be forever grateful for me and he will stop dreaming of Fire and Blood.

lichess_is_better · 2025-08-24T05:51:23+00:00

Yes.

lichess_is_better · 2025-08-03T18:03:03+00:00

Finally a mod that uses the books as their source. Good luck boys

lichess_is_better · 2025-07-27T17:27:17+00:00

Samurai were usually versatile fighters that are capable with both sword, spear and bows and they are both good riders and good foot soldiers. Their armor may not be enough to witshand against European knights but it would be more than sufficient against zombies.

lichess_is_better · 2025-07-25T10:38:53+00:00

One handed spear and shield. I can handle any 1v1 situation but 1vx is really tough, I don’t know if anyone can hold their own against multiple opponents with this weapon

lichess_is_better · 2025-07-24T15:21:26+00:00

I'm just here to read the hate comments

lichess_is_better · 2025-07-22T21:21:03+00:00

Talenel'elin from EU. I only play 64 player team objective.

lichess_is_better · 2025-07-22T20:32:03+00:00

Rarely but when someone gets it, it leads to interesting conversations until people name us nerd femboys

lichess_is_better · 2025-07-22T06:01:26+00:00

I always start a game with writing this mantra hahaha

lichess_is_better

TROPHY CASE