[andrewas]

Each henchman has one quest for each chapter, but if you miss a henchmans chapter1 quest you can't do his chapter 2 quest.

You have to recruit a henchman to give him the item, but you don't have to travel with him for any length of time.

2) Each chapter is a seperate module, you cannot return to a previous chapter. Consider each chapter as a completely seperate, self contained mini-game.

3) I would take Sharwyn as hench, bard song gives some useful buffs and the AI can ususaly figure out how to use it. Or one of the damage dealers - Gringnaw or Daelan.

I would avoid Tomi - you can use the Find Traps spell, and any lock that Tomi could pick can be bashed by any weapon with elemental damage, and the easier ones can be done by pure physical damage. I would also avoid mage henchmen - the AI on spellcasters is not good. Whaever henchman you take, search the vault for the hakpak which gives them improved AI and inventory control, the out of the box AI is abysmal.