I got a hard time deciding between these two...

Are Animal Companions as good in WotR as in Kingmaker?
Would a Javelin-ranged Hunter work?

What's the best option for a melee-Skald? Twohander with a Fauchard, or Sword & Board as a tank? Or a TWF Sword and boarder?

Thanks in advance!

Animal Companions are extremely good. If you want in depth talk about builds cRPGBro on youtube has a lot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV4AlviTC9M&pp=ygUOY3JwZyBicm8gc2thbGQ%3D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks-fYmtgSAg

Thanks, but I prefer written guides. Videos are a pain to reference to later on.

Time coded videos are a pain to reference?

If you're too lazy to take notes don't even play the game. It's too hard for you.

Animal companions are good, provided you actually level then up.

Thing is, when you start the game, your animal companion will be level 0, with 1 hit point and will be essentially useless. You need to actually go into the animal companion's level up screen and press the level up button for them to be of any use at all. (Apparently, newer versions of the game collapse the pet's portrait on the main screen so you may need to expand it.)

Sort of, but not quite true. If your class gets an animal companion from the start you will be level 1 and the animal companion will be level 0. This is because there is no interface to setup the animal companion at character creation, just to select an animal companion.

So yeah, anytime a character gains a new animal companion they need to be setup and leveled like any other party member. But the 1/1 HP is just so a level 0 character is not dead. Once you make your selections for the animal's level 1 even the triceratops (lowest const) has 8HP at the start of the game.

Fixed my post. (Minor error; I said the companion started at level 1; the starting level is 0.)

I mention this because, in Kingmaker, you don't have to do this.

One build option to watch out for: One of the animal archetypes (I think "deathtouched" or something like that) is considered undead for many purposes, meaning, among other things, that healing magic will damage it, so don't choose it unless you know what you're doing. (The same can be said of the Dhampir race.)

Fixed my post. (Minor error; I said the companion started at level 1; the starting level is 0.)

I mention this because, in Kingmaker, you don't have to do this.

One build option to watch out for: One of the animal archetypes (I think "deathtouched" or something like that) is considered undead for many purposes, meaning, among other things, that healing magic will damage it, so don't choose it unless you know what you're doing. (The same can be said of the Dhampir race.)

Thanks. Very good call about the animal companion starting at lvl 0. In KM the Animal Companion just leveled along with you, without any choices of its own. Or at least the NPC ones did.

So far, it seems like Skald is better at support and force-multiplying the rest of the party, while Hunter seems to be bring more pure damage.

Another question about Skald: The wiki says that Inspirated Rage adds +X to hit & damage. Is that to everything? Because in P&P, it's +X STR, which results in (generally), only +X/2 to melee hit & damage.

Thanks!