Your henchman will stay with you as long as you need them. (They will die occasionally but you can easily retrieve them
). I played a wizard and I used the monk henchman. He was very effective. All henchmen are available straight off. I also had a pixie companion, though with both of them they sucked up more xp. If you don't try to do too much too soon, and (in the single player campaign), follow the suggested order of doing stuff you shouldn't find it too difficult with a wizard. I also played a ranger in another game, was also successful. Actually I found that a little more satisfying because with my wizard, I found my henchman would sometimes finish off all the enemies before I had a chance to do spells and such
Hope that helps [img]smile.gif[/img]