Well since you can always put the experience of your henchmen & women up, it suits me to take different ones to different areas. My favorite so is Linu

Short version: NO henchman for me thanks.

Long version:

Just finished chapter one, with two different characters a Fighter/Druid 6/3 and a Mage/Fighter 8/1

I did not take any henchmen during the course of the game, mainly because they seem to STEAL part of the experience points. But at the end of chapter one i took each of them in turn for just a couple of minutes just to hear their stories, finish their quests and receiving the reward!

I had no problem with chests (bashing them with an astral blade or the "Knock" spell), trapped chests (bashing them with flame arrows) nor with trapped floors (Disarming them by sommoning dire badgers on them, I wonder if I should patent this technique... [img]smile.gif[/img] )

Tomi rules! not only is he adorable but he deals a LOT of damage! I am 15 and he is 14, I am a cleric, we are unstoppable! I cant imagine another NPC. He has upgraded to a +3 weapon and his DEXt is so high, he gets his sneak attack in almost every time. Now, there is another kind of attack he does, it says "coup de grace" in white, floating words..

BTW do NPC clerics summon undead pets? do NPC wizards summon badgers, boars, etc? Do NPC clerics turn undead?

According to my very little experience in the field of henchmen:
NPCs do _not_ sommon anything at all, including familiars, badgers, undead...

but they do indeed turn undead.

im playing as a sorceror. im currently level 7, and i have daelen red tiger. i use him because i need a warrior until i cant get good summons and tensers transformation. of course, at this point, he will be just as strong as me, (well, almost)so i will just keep him. my panther familiar is powerful in his own right. i just send them in, with a dire badger, and let the enemy focus on them. then i pound away with spells. for traps, im an elf, so i find traps without needing the search skill one, and i do it at normal speed. i cast knock to unlock the locked chests and doors, and i possess my familiar and have it attack the traped box, door, etc. sometimes it dies, but i bring it right back, pet it, play with it, and feed it, so it doesnt get mad at me for useing it as a tool. then, whatever isnt unlocked afterwards, red tiger can useually smash open. or just cast magic missles, acid arrows, flame arrows, etc. until it is destroyed, then rest to get them back of course. Sorcerors, the ONLY way to play, heh.

<font color="#ff55cc"> I prefer Tommi the thief because I get way more loot from him disarming the traps than I do when I destroy the chests from a distance. Linu is also good when facing massive undead armies.....however since I am a Ranger, have Undead as a prefered Enemy AND Duel Wield a Mace of Disruption +2 and a Flail that is +4 vs Undead [img]smile.gif[/img] I don't fear the walking dead too much.
Not to mention they have to survive my deadly accurate Flame Arrows to get to me.</font>

<font color="#ff55cc"> Ohh man, you are so mean to your familiar [img]smile.gif[/img] Ya know, I never considered using my animal companion that way...but hey..I play a good alignment so it would just feel wrong [img]smile.gif[/img] </font>

Pixie Familiar. Is a Rogue at the same level you are a mage. Tha darn little thing can open EVERYTHING that can be opened. AND disarm traps to boot.

<font color="#ff55cc"> Ohh man, you are so mean to your familiar [img]smile.gif[/img] Ya know, I never considered using my animal companion that way...but hey..I play a good alignment so it would just feel wrong [img]smile.gif[/img] </font>[/QB]</font>[/QUOTE]I feel sad when my familiar dies....

But what is worse is that I lie to my littlest child. I tell my little girl that the "other fairies" watch over her and when she gets hurt they call her back to the fairy grove. Then I press my hot-key and "bring her back now that she's done visiting."

::whew:: So far she's bought it...

I gotta go with Tomi... his trap removal skills are invaluable. When fighting against "boss creatures" I've noticed that his sneaks attacks often do as much damage as my STR 25, level 15, Gruumsh Hand wielding Half Orc Barbarian.

and I can't get enough of "prepare for halfling death!"