Wasteland 2 DC - Share Your Squads

[SagaDC]

Been working on trying to put together a satisfactory starting squad all morning. I'm not too worried about min-maxing my squad, but I am trying to keep it at least a little balanced. I love sticking with themes when I make my squads (I did the Three Amigos for my pre-DC squad).

This time around, I'm running with a squad of morally questionable Rangers, based loosely on some classic Stephen King properties.

The Brawler: William "Mad Dog" Wolfe
Based (very) loosely on the classic novel, "Cujo", and the kidnapper who inspired the name. Mad Dog is a former pit fighter who spent his formative years learning to beat people into a bloody pulp for the amusement of others. He's indisputably the muscle of Echo Squad, and only signed up with the Rangers because he had literally nowhere else to go after they shut down the bloodsports arena that he used to fight in.

He's hyperfocused on doing one thing - beating or scaring various bodily fluids out of people. All his skill points go towards Brawling, Brute Force, and Hard Ass. In combat, he moves straight toward the enemy as quickly as possible and then takes them down in a flurry of attacks. He is, of course, Psychotic.

The Leader: Robert "Pennywise" Gray
Obviously loosely inspired by the titular character from Stephen King's "It", Robert was always great at pissing people off with his barbed tongue, but not so great at fighting them off when they inevitably lost their temper. It was only natural for him to gravitate toward a job where he could flex his sharp wit while also manipulating a bunch of people to act as his impromptu bodyguards. Thus, he became the ringmaster at a bloodsports arena, where he acted as the announcer and promoter for many of the more popular (ie, deadly) fighters. When the Rangers shut the place down, Robert quickly signed up with them instead, sensing that they were an even bigger, badder organization that could keep him from the beatings he so richly deserved. He even managed to convince one of his fighters (Wolfe) to come along.

Robert's not much of a fighter, but he keeps a handgun on him for self-defense. Otherwise, his skill points all get dumped into Leadership (ie, manipulation) and Smart Ass. He'll be taking all of the "Taunting" perks. In combat, he'll move close to the enemy so he can keep both them and his allies inside of his leadership aura, talking up his "friends" while tearing down his foes. He's got the "Raised in the Circus" quirk, since it's pretty close to being the ringmaster at an arena (just, y'know, a little less bloody).

The Techie: Roberta "Bobby" Anderson
Based loosely on the gal from "Tommyknockers" who unleashed an intelligence-boosting plague in "Tommyknockers". Bobby is more attuned to tech than to people, and tends to carry on animated discussions with the devices in her care. Granted, those devices can't generally care for themselves, so she does everything in her power to keep them in good shape, fixing them up and fine tuning them to the bleeding edge of wasteland tech. She was recruited into the rangers for work in the armory, and while she doesn't much care for them, she jumped at the chance to work with new tech. It wasn't until Robert managed to rig up an old helmet with a functional HUD that she became viable for fieldwork. While she rarely acknowledges her squadmates directly, she cheerfully responds to any messages that Robert sends to her HUD.

Bobby's a tricky one to build, because she's pretty much the dedicated "Skill" character in my motley band of misfits. Her IQ is maxed out, and she has the Delayed Gratification quirk to max out her possible Skill Point yield. She uses Energy Weapons in combat, but her primary focus is on boosting her many, many skills (pretty much all the tech-based ones).

The Medic: Annie Wilkes
This one was pretty easy, honestly. Based on the main antagonist from "Misery", Annie was picked on mercilessly during her youth for her shy nature and less-than-stellar looks. She eventually latched onto the Death Games that were run out of a nearby settlement, where she obsessed over her favorite fighters, creating elaborate stories in her mind about who they were and what they might someday do. She even forced herself to learn a trade as a sawbones, so she'd have an excuse to meet them in person, patching up their wounds after each hard-won fight. Her favor was fickle, though, and more than one down-on-his-luck fighter died after a match, when she purposefully neglected their injuries while focusing on the winner's shallow wounds instead. When the Rangers rolled along and shut the arena down she was heartbroken, but she quickly bounced back when she found out that one of her most favorite fighters was joining up - and she immediately followed him. As long as he keeps winning, she'll always, always, always be his biggest fan.

Annie is easy to build. She's smart and mildly charismatic, but more reliant on manic bursts of energy than any raw physical ability. Her skill points all get dumped into First Aid and Surgery, with a bit of Shotgun (used to kill the Sheriff in the movie) and Blades (used to kill the Sheriff in the books) on the side. I was really tempted to give her "Mysophobia" as her quirk of choice, just because it's the ideal medic quirk, but I ended up going with "Thick Skinned" instead - she was picked on as a youth, so she's learned not to let all those pointed comments get to her (plus she's kind of a thick gal, physically speaking, so it's a bit harder to get to her vital organs with all those knives and bullets).

Beyond that, I'll probably stick to the more dubious and easily manipulated recruitable companions. Scotchmo is a given, since he's a drunk slob who also just happens to fill my need for a dedicated lockpicker. Chisel is a likely candidate, too, since his desperate need to prove his abilities would make him an easy mark for Robert to manipulate. Beyond that, I'll probably go with Gary Wolfe (Mad Dog's long-lost brother?) from the Diamondbacks as my third. He's probably too smart to fall for Robert's manipulations, but he's also morally flexible enough to not care as long as he benefits from the arrangement - plus he just so happens to fill the needed role of rifleman.

EDIT - Might actually go with Vulture's Cry instead of Gary. She fills the role of sniper and outdoorsman, which I don't have in my current lineup. She's also available much faster.

[Wastebot]

I have a core group of characters that change somewhat every playthrough as I rebuild them for better optimization and skill condensation. My goal is to eventually have 4 ultimate characters I run through new game plus multiple times for bonus skill points. I'm already very interested in how I'll rework them with all the new changes.

Graves "I'll be the axe that clears the forest"
Character focus: Brawing with a broad cross section of supplementary skills
smokes: Bones
Age:26
Race: Asian(supposed to be sorta a mut/multiracial, but eh)

The bastard son of Father Enola, who got more than he bargained for from the "tribute" of a Joygirl, Graves was raised and trained in martial arts and a number of technical disciplines by the mad monks of titan canyon first to be one of them, and later part of their raider protection racket when he questioned the teachings of Titan. He took well to the various life and death lessons he picked up in these environments, but didn't take well to the religious dogma of Titan, and managed to depart with a passing caravan.

After this he spent his time as a caravan guard and bar room vagabond, drowning his desire for a higher meaning in life in various chemical substances and violence. He was taken in by the rangers after one of his more typical bar room disturbances and was offered a chance to turn things around. Generally nihilistic and violent, he harbors some small hope that he may have finally found a productive outlet for the death dealing skills he has honed.

Under the hood:
Graves is my ultimate melee character, and I tend to build his other skills up to complement that. He may be a violent martial artist but he's not just a big dumb brute. He has in different playthroughs had such varied skills as hard ass, smart ass, brute force, science, and medicine. he's generaly my most twinkiest character, I'll bend over backwards to maximize his close combat efficiency. Looking over the perks and quirks right now I'm eyeballing things like twitchy(and especially twitchy + psychopath which have some nice synergy if you believe that mobility is critical for a good melee character)) as well as Disparnumerophobia and way of the squeezins, both of which are just really strong if you're willing to jump through the hoops required to use them. Unless mechanics have radically changed he should ideally be able to flat out kill with unarmed attacks so the current plan is to actually forgo a lot of the current brawler perks as well as the stun effect brute force perks and instead focus on things that increase mobility, survivability, and raw damage, and ap like bloodthirsty(hardass), Charge!(blunt weapons based but might be universal) Glancing strike (but I'm not sure how good the diminishing returns upgraded versions are) Tactical positioning

Hardened, Healthy, Ghost(might be very powerful for melee, especially when paired with brawlings rush n attack) stimpacks(if this is perma-regen... whoah) roboticist, and tinkerer are also all on my radar. I know this will stretch skillpoints pretty thin, and I'm fine with that. If I can manage all those and still have skillpoints and perks to spare weathered along with various science, medical and/or explosives skills being next on the list

Walker Clastion
character focus: close range jack of all trades/leader
smokes: no
Age: 25
race: African American

A warrior-pilgrim of The Order of The Anvil based in new mexico, Walker Clastion preaches of hardening oneself to survive in the wastes and eschewing the luxuries of technology. Shifting radiation has made it impossible for him to return home and so he has joined up with the Rangers in the meantime to spread the word.

A resourceful and dedicated scavenger and healer, in spite of his normally jovial zeal he can become like the anvil when faced with adversity.

Under the hood:
Clastion is my newest fourth "iconic" character after various builds of another character who shifted names between Tycho and Cassidy and was basically an ultimate boyscout sort of perfect ranger that never sat well with me. The Order of The Anvil is almost an inverted Brotherhood of Steel in my new Mexico headcannon, they have their own forges and manufacture low tech mechanisms and ammunition, but believe that advanced technology was the downfall of man, that like Icarus we flew too high and got burned for it. The "walkers" are champions of the order that go out into the waste to convert people to the faith by performing tasks as simple as unjamming a stubborn lock, and refurbishing local citizens weaponry, to picking ancient pre-apoc safes and plundering their loots and crushing the ugly head of ancient technological horrors wherever they awaken. This all just sorta came to me, but it all fits seamlessly into the game and would probably forge an official alliance with the rangers at some point in the future. Clastion formerly used blunt weapons and shotguns and was my primary combat shooting candidate. None of the shotguns specific perks appeal to me though and Graves might pick up a side of blunt weapons to round out his skillset so I have no idea what sort of weapons Clastion will embrace this time. I'm torn between making him close range again or just making him a veritable tank with a sniper rifle and embracing heavy armor and poor movement. His faith in his religion is an infectious confidence that spills into the most mundane interactions with others, he's the dedicated leader and usually picks up a dialogue skill along with lockpicking/safecracking/mechanical repair and some weaponsmithing. If I do the sniper tank thing I might have to dump leadership off onto another character though.


I'll type up the rest of the team later, no time atm

[Drool]

They're probably gonna die horribly:

[AyeBraine]

I've done two playthroughs with WL2 release version, so I'm long past default characters. Here's my new squad for getting all that perk goodness and basking in sleek bump maps all around. Sorry, I didn't screenshot the creating screen, and they haven't patched in choosing saved custom rangers yet (seems it's gonna be fixed). Excited to try out a shotgunner and a brawler. And everybody wears big, big backpacks (not visible in pictures). So, here goes.

EDIT: I realized now that I can just screenshot the character screen. I'm stupid.


Rorschach
45 yo (old photo)

NOTES: No, not the Watchmen one. The real one. It's his nickname because he's a psychologist and because he makes Rorschach tests in the sand with his rifle. The loss of an eye makes him a poor close range combatant, but doesn't preclude him from being a sharpshooter, obviously. And depth perception is useless at ranges more than 20 m, so he's using that intellect to rangefind stadiametrically. Rorschach is an uncharismatic (in the usual sense), but very smart gentleman with Smarta**, computers, mechanical and weaponsmithing. Not the Leader though. Brittle-boned (he's a sniper, whatever).



Bronson
32 yo

NOTES: an NCO to Rorschach. Leadership, decent rifleman, demoman, nice boisterous guy who taunts enemies (obviously, new Leadership perks). Keeps the team in check, drills them on tactics.



Gant
27 yo

NOTE: a very small woman with a rather large shotgun. Very quick, reasonably smart (lockpicking, safecracking, toasters). Might transfer to Energy Weapons later on, but hey, she doesn't even know they exist yet!



Sister Isobel
35 yo

NOTE: a BRAWLING NUN. Clad in her traditional habit with a punky touch. Always carries a porno magazine with her. Actual Combat Speed is 2.4. Ascetic. Animal whisperer, main field medic, Shovel Knight (TM), can use a handgun in a pinch, but mainly just emulsifies enemies with her fists. Oh, and she's bigger than her NCO Bronson. So yeah, caution advised.

Personally, I like the squad makeup so much that I'm hesitant to even pick up CNPCs. They'll just double what my guys already can do (and those perks, how exciting!). And I finally made a squad with high combat initiative - 13-15! Works very well so far. Oh well, mules don't hurt.

THE RIGHTS TO ALL PICTURES BELONG TO THEIR AUTHORS. I'm using them for personal entertainment, got them from some WL2 avatar pack. Except for Rorschach, of course - that's sir Hermann Rorschach himself.

[Zombra]

The current version. Probably going to end up restarting again once I understand how all the Perks & Quirks actually work

[Blind Ryan]

I could use some help with my squad, actually.

[MrMoe]

@Ryan
Your party is ofc totally viable to make a playthru BUT
I would make some changes. Charisma is really only needed if you want to recruit certain NPCs and/or on your leader character, for greater skill range.
It doesnt influence the ASS skills

Depending on how much skillpoints you get per level, I would roughly plan one skill to max out.
Int 10 get 5 skills to choose from, Int8 4 and so on.
You will have some spare points though, a 10point investment in some secondary skill wont hurt your build.
Weapons are fairly decently spread over your rangers, maybe exchange one AR with SMG. Your heavy machinegun will eat thru your 5.56mm supply.

If you know what NPC shall join, you could pick your ranger's skills so they supplement each other.

[Blind Ryan]

I have zero idea who will join. I've been kind of blind this whole time... no pun intended. I wanted to experience the game but I've been waiting a whole damn year for the balance pass.

Also, I really hate min/maxing. It tends to bite me in the ass. My wife's and my luck scores are tanked because we are, in fact, hilariously unlucky people (her moreso than me hence the quirk.)

[PizzaSHARK]

The Rangers have had to dig really deep lately...

[MathieuG89]

Here goes my squad:

Name: Thomas "Bishop" West
Role: Assault


Name: Dominic "Sarge" Smith
Role: Heavy Weapon Specialist


Name: Nikolai "Doc" Lebedev
Role: Squad Medic & Surgeon


Name: William "Dozer" Price
Role: Squad Sharpshooter

[Nohar]

Here is my squad. This is my first real playthrough, and there is quite a lot of min-maxing (right-click -> show image for better view):



Sierra is acting as the leader, in order to keep companions in line. The main objective with her is to reach Smart Ass (level 5) quickly, in order to take the "Radiant Personality" perk. That way, she effectively has 16 Charisma when recruiting new companions. Thus my team has a bare minimum of 19 charisma, and with just two new companions with an average Charisma of 3 I can reach 25 Charisma, meaning I can recruit every companion in the game (unless they changed the requirements of course).
Aside from that, she isn't very useful in my playthrough so far. Handguns are so-so, though at least I don't have to worry about ammunition. I plan to invest a few points in Energy Weapons for her. I have to completly forgo Toaster Repair though, that skill isn't really worth the investment at the moment...
Sadly, no one who joins early has the Mechanical Repair skill, so Sierra had to take that skill in order to solve a few situations.
Combat stats: 8 Action Points, 10 Combat initiative, 2.1 Combat Speed.

Dying Wolf is your usual sniper. His high Intelligence allows him to pick quite a few skills, and his balanced stats make him fantastic at his job. Still unsure about the perks I am going to pick for him.
Combat stats: 10 Action Points, 11 Combat Initiative, 2.2 Combat Speed.

Milda (named after one Grandia's character) is my close-combat fighter. Her impressive stats make her very, very powerful, allowing her to act often, quickly, and to cross distances easily.
Combat stats: 9 Action Points, 13 Combat Initiative, 2.6 Combat Speed.

Minwu Gray (named after a famous White Mage and... well, no need to really explain Gray I think; you know, the one who wrote that book?) is, obviously, the team's medic, and my skill mule. His incredible intelligence allows him to stay ahead and to compensate for his mediocre stats. He won't be as deadly as Angela with an Assault Rifle, but he can carry his own weight in battle, and quickly heal wounded units.
Important note: if one intends to permanently add Rose to their party, it is best to switch Computer Science for something else, such as Mechanical Repair for example, and keep Surgeon at level 1 (that way he can save Rose if she is severily wounded).
Combat stats: 9 Action Points, 12 Combat Initiative, 2.0 Combat Speed.

[Fugazi70]

Solo - SJ difficulty

Starting stats
Sniper - 1/1/1/6/8/10/1
Trait Disparnumberophobia

Current stats level 8
3/4/4/8/10/10/3
Perks tinkerer


Sniper rifle 5
Weaponsmithing 4
Lock picking 3
Field medic 3
Computer science 1
Safe cracking 1
Perception(put one point by accident)
8 free skill points

Pet goat

Current status
Made it past Ag center quest con

[Frank Jaeger]

[vyvexthorne]

I made a high intelligence party this time around... kind of pretending they're all doctors/scientists. I had this idea in the first game and made the characters (gave them all lab coats) but never played it through. Now I'm playing on the ps4 so I can't give them labcoats.

Dr. Acula
2,1,3,4,4,8,6
Leader, Perception, Smart Ass, Demolitions, Assault Rifles
quirk: Opportunist

Marie Curie
2,1,4,2,6,10,3
Kiss Ass, Energy Weapons, Computer Science, Field Medic, Surgeon.
quirk: Delayed Gratification

Honey Dew
6,1,4,2,6,8,1
Lockpick, Safecracker, Hard Ass, Sniper
quirk: Twitchy

Beaker
2,1,4,8,3,8,2
Weaponsmith, Alarm, Mechanical, Toaster, Assault Rifles.
quirk: Thick Skinned. (honey dew was really abusive towards beaker so this seems to make sense.)

(They are all very unlucky but I needed a stat to skimp on... since I won't actually be putting many points in weapons it kind of makes sense that they'll all be bad warriors anyway.)

[Ormly]

Min-Max ahoy!
Wanted to include a melee guy (maybe the leader), but couldn't fit the stats. All ranged it is!

[Stuurminator]

Whipped these up for my "Ride of the Valkyries" run, wherein I run an all-female squad.


Jackie
Sierra
Liz (ignore the name "Beth" in the bio; I had originally gone with that until I realized I'd get it confused with Ber)
Ber Surcker

They're a lot of fun to play! But oh, man. They are so fucking bad.

[Zombra]

I don't recognize any of that art, Stuurm. You have a secret source?

[Stuurminator]

I don't recognize any of that art, Stuurm. You have a secret source?

Nothing special. Ber's a default female portrait, you could start up a new game and pick it right now if you'd wanted. Sierra and Liz both have (infrequently used) NPC portraits I pulled off the wiki here and here.

Jackie's the only "foreign" portrait, and I got it from the Rogues Gallery thread in the Community Content section. For convenience's sake, I'll post it again here:



The original image is located here.

[_RANG3R_]

My Squad...



My Plans..

1] My Leader guy - As he is with leadership I am keeping him back so that everyone will get leadership bonus as much as possible & for that I equipped him with shotgun & may be later in game I will give him Energy weapon. As well for leadership radius he is having 6 charisma so indirectly he is my sweet talk guy so Kick ass for him as well later in game I will going to add hard ass on him. Toaster repair is another thing not goes with other tech & he is having 10INT so why not

2] My Technician girl - Most of tech skills with perception. I am going to keep her safe & with 9AP she can get 3 shots with 3AP pistol & as handguns having good critical chance she is doing just fine. If I get more points then may be I will give her computer science too for safety purpose

3] My Doc - With high speed for healing buddies & to hack robots. I know may be he can sometimes going to face close range due to this skills but still I am going to use -35% close range penalty perk on him so I hope its going to help him in close combat.

4] And finally my Sniper girl - With 12Ap she will get 2 shots with 6AP sniper gun. I just added 1 point in Animal Whisperer just to take advantage of animals so no more points in that. I really thought that mechanical repair is not related to any other tech like alarm/lock Demo/safe etc. so Added that on him. With weapon smiting I am going to take advantage of tinker perk for 1 more AP so that head shot or other things going to be little easy for my sniper. May be later in game if I am having more skill points then I will add energy weapon on her.

My Followers...
1] Vulture's Cry - One more sniper is good as well she is having AW & Outdoorsman which is helpful too & May be I am going to give her Energy weapon too so that finally I am going to have 4 characters with Energy weapons for better robot killing.
2] Chisel - My Another Assault + Melee guy. He is having low INT so I am only giving him Assault gun + Brute Force
3] Pizepi Loren - Energy weapon + Smart Ass + One More Perception is very handy.
So with this three characters I am almost having every good skill I think.

I hope you like my characters & find them useful. If you have any suggestion feel free to post it.. Thanks

[The_Don]