I play using a sword, shield, bow, and arrows(and a horse of course). I know intelligence isn't incredibly important because I can just let my companions have the party skills, but what Strength/Agility/Charisma ratio should I get for my build?
What are the optimal attributes for the build
mount-and-blade-warband
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Best Answer
As the commenters have pointed out there is really no right answer to this! It will be very dependant on what you want to do with your character. However, I'll share my experiences of horse archer builds with you in the hope that they help.
A horse archer is a very skill points intensive build. Not only do you need high power draw but you'll need high riding and horse archery plus you will want some ironskin and power strike. These require you to have high strength and agility. For these reasons you will need to rely on your companion's skills a lot more than you do with other builds.
My objective in character creation is to maximise strength and power draw. In the Floris mod I go for hunter -> steppe child -> mercenary -> personal revenge. I then put my 4 attribute points into strength, maximise power draw, put 1 into weapons master and the rest into iron skin.
In early game I focus on creating a purely fighting oriented character. I keep putting points into strength and agility and increasing power draw, ironskin and horse archery. Secondarily I will put points into weapons master, riding and power strike. I might also put a point or 2 into looting, prisoner management and inventory management. I don't bother with raising shield above 1. You should be relying on movement to avoid getting hit and it allows me to carry more arrows. I'll use a shield only for sieges and assaults on bandit camps.
Early game I enjoy running around alone hunting bandits and, once I've levelled up a bit, becoming a professional tourney fighter. I think the horse archer build suits this role very well. Its possible to kill a lot of bandits without any trouble and you generally don't need to buy equipment because you get it from loot. High level deserters without bows are easy prey provide great loot for selling and upgrading your own equipment.
Whilst I might put a couple of points towards intelligence, this will just be for the extra skill point and I will only put those skill points towards the priorities I've outlined above. When I get to the point where I want to start acquiring companions and an army I'm usually about level 30 with enough renown for a party of about 100. This should be more than enough at this stage and you can always up your leadership later in the game. I find slave hunters and mamelukes compliment the horse archer builds of myself and my companions well. Slave hunters are easy to get from bandit prisoner stacks.
I will dedicate 1 companion (usually Jeremus) to first aid, surgery and wound treatment, 1 to spotting, path finding and tracking, 1 to engineering, tactics and training and 1 to trade and persuasion with a bit of looting too. The rest of my companions will become horse archers like me with skill points towards training when I can.
I find horse archer to be the most engaging build to play. Its definitely tougher and more skillful but that's part of why its enjoyable. Any monkey can be a boss with full plate and a big sword. With experimentation and practice your horse archer can be more than a match for any other troop type. Enjoy!