Companions

The three characters we cover pay out in three different currencies. One of them is not a recruit at all on our pages, and what he hands over is a mythic path. One joins whatever you do, and the only question is how many levels she has when she arrives. The third is a straightforward recruit, and what our page gives you is not how to reach him but what to do with him once he is yours. Sorting Thall, Arueshalae and Lann by what they actually give you is more useful than sorting them by class.

One Act 1 quest sits under two of these

Starward Gaze is the thread. The quest itself is the one that sends you looking for two NPCs hiding behind Crusader clothing, and finishing it is also what opens the Azata Mystic Path, which is the option you need in a conversation an act later. Both payoffs hang off it. Thall's mythic road runs through that quest, and the early route to the succubus needs the path it unlocks, without which she turns up in Act 3 instead of Act 2.

Thall, and why Aranka has to come first

Thall is a Desnan mage and neither he nor Aranka is walking around looking like one, since both are dressed as Crusaders. The order is fixed. Aranka is at the Arendae Party House, over with the musicians at the edge of the stage and wearing blue, and the conversation with her produces the Sash. Thall the Wallflower is then alone in a corner of the Market Square, and the Sash is what makes him recognise you as someone worth speaking to. Ask him to meet at the Temple of Desna, sing with him there, and the Mythic path to Elysium opens. Approach him first and you have a man who will not talk to you and no obvious reason why.

Arueshalae, at level 8 or at level 10

She is central enough to the story that she joins either way, so the early route is about the two levels and the timing rather than about whether you get her. Taking it means an Act 2 trip to the lost chapel: out of the starting point and left, down to a ledge that wants an Athletics check, then a crowd of Gargoyles. Desna's Altar sits by a pair of trees to the left of that fight and wants two objects before it wants anything else. Wolves to the north drop the Small Sextant. The Small Harp is in a chest in a nearby cave behind a Gargoyle Chieftain.

Place both on the altar and three hand icons appear, to be pressed middle, right, left, middle, middle. Her spirit then sends you on to the prison in Drezen, where she is in the middle cell during the siege, and Nurah's plan is the gentler way to get that far. The dialogue option to pick is the Azata Mystic Path one. Leave all of that undone and she comes to you in a dream during Act 3 and tells you where to go, two levels higher and with none of the work. Her sheet opens as a Ranger and Espionage Expert, Succubus, Chaotic Neutral, and the two highest numbers on it are Dexterity 22 and Intelligence 18.

Lann, where the decision is a class and not a conversation

Lann arrives as a Zen Archer and stays on a longbow in both of our plans, so the fork is what you stack on top of three levels of monk. The Sacred Huntsmaster route takes Deadly Aim and Point Blank Master with the bow at Zen Archer 3, then spends sixteen levels on the prestige class: the War domain and a Leopard companion at the first of them, Boon Companion at the second, Outflank at the third, and the Snap Shot chain filled in at 4, 12 and 14. Three Favored Enemy picks land at 5, 10 and 15, all of them demons, and the plan closes on a single Fighter level for Critical Focus.

The Judge route is drier and pours points into Use Magic Device instead. It opens with Precise Shot and Way of the Bow, moves Deadly Aim to the first Judge level, and then runs eighteen of them, adding Improved Initiative, Rapid Shot at 5, Manyshot at 8, Skill Focus in Use Magic Device at 9 and Clustered Shots at 13. The skill columns are the giveaway for which one suits your party: the Huntsmaster pours everything into Lore, Perception and Mobility, while the Judge builds Use Magic Device, Trickery, Stealth and two Knowledge lines, which is the spread you want if nobody else in the party is carrying them.

Neither plan is a commitment you are stuck with. Retraining rolls a companion's skill set back to its state at recruitment, and the option only exists if you switched it on before the campaign started, which is the first thing explained in our mechanics guide. If you are working out a spread for your own commander rather than for a companion, the fourteen worked examples in the best builds guide are the place to start, and our Wrath of the Righteous hub page indexes everything else.