Your Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord character isn’t just a representation of you in-game, it’s an expression of who you want to be in this medieval simulation and who you want to roleplay as. Creating your character will define how you approach Bannerlord, so it’s important you understand how character creation works so your character is perfectly customised for you.

Character Creation

There are three main areas to understand when looking at your Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord character. Those are Attributes, Skills, and Focus Points. In addition you will choose your character’s Culture and Background, which add flavour to your character as well as give certain benefits.

Attributes

If you’ve played other roleplaying games you may be familiar with the concept of attributes. In Bannerlord you have six stats, each of which have an effect on your skills. The attributes in Bannerlord are:

• Vigor (VIG) - Influences the melee skills of One-Handed, Two-Handed, and Polearms.
• Control (CTR) - Similar to Vigor, this attribute governs the Bow, Crossbow, and Throwing skills.
• Endurance (END) - Focuses on the Riding, Athletics, and Smithing skills.
• Cunning (CNG) - If you’re looking to outsmart your foes with Scouting, Tactics, and Roguery, this attribute is for you.
• Social (SOC) - Diplomacy and your ability to influence others comes from this stat, with Charm, Leadership, and Trade being the focus.
• Intelligence (INT) - Steward, Medicine, and Engineering all benefit from a high Intelligence stat.

Skills

There are multiple skills in the game which are all tied to their associated attribute. A higher skill improves your chances of successfully using said skill as well as the efficacy of the skill. Here’s the full Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord skill list, along with the actions you can take to improve your skills.

• One-Handed - Attack with one handed weapons.
• Two-Handed - Attack with two-handed weapons
• Polearms - Attack with polearms
• Bow - Shoot enemies with bow and arrow - longer distance shots give bonus experience
• Crossbow - Firing bolts with crossbows - longer distance shots give bonus experience
• Throwing - Hit enemies with thrown weapons - longer distance shots give bonus experience
• Riding - Ride your horse wherever you can
• Athletics - Run on foot to boost this skill
• Smithing - Craft gear, refine materials, and smelt equipment
• Scouting - Find tracks, find hideouts, and travel on difficult terrain
• Tactics - Ordering your troops in battle as well as winning when the odds aren’t in your favour
• Roguery - Bribery, raiding enemy towns and castles, leading bandit troops, or escaping from captivity
• Charm - Increase your standing with companions, perform social actions with nobles
• Leadership - Maintain troop morale and maintain a large army
• Trade - Operate caravans and generate profit in trades
• Steward - Increase food variety for your troops, increase morale, increase settlement prosperity
• Medicine - Heal your troops
• Engineering - Build and use siege weapons

Focus Points

When you level your character you will be granted focus points. These allow you to increase your proficiency in a skill, which in turn increases the rate at which that skill increases through use. These can be used to a maximum threshold at which they stop giving a bonus to the skill.

Culture

An additional stat to investigate is your culture when creating your character. Each faction has their own bonus depending on which region you grew up in. You can read more about these in our Factions guide.

Background

When creating your character you will be asked to choose your character’s background, these influence your skills and attribute points as a reflection of how your character has grown up. You will be asked to choose their Family, Early Childhood, Adolescence, Youth, Young Adulthood, as well as a Story Background. There’s no real wrong answers here, just make sure you know what kind of character you want to play and what role you want to perform in the world and select accordingly. You’ll soon have a character loaded with all the flavour you need to then step out into the world.

Now you should have an idea of what character creation looks like and how it behaves in Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord. For more information and articles, invest some time in the rest of our game hub and get all the knowledge you need.