Xanos as a henchman

[Cloudbringer]

Anyone played with Xanos for a henchman? I'm starting over with him and my cleric and wondered how he is. I'm also going to go through with a Bard and Dorna, since my ranger/arcane archer finished with Deekin.

[Chewbacca]

He's an alright tank if you tell him only to progress as a barbarian, but he has an annoying tendency to cast his lame cantrips instead of rushing into to tank. A fault of the AI that BioWare has promised to fix for HotU.

I haven't tried him as a strict sorcerer yet, so I really can't comment as far as that goes.

I found his personality both kinda funny and kinda annoying myself.

[Cloudbringer]

I was going to have him just do barbarian...so I hope he isn't too bad about the not rushing in! [img]graemlins/biglaugh.gif[/img] Although I thought of letting him have a few levels in sorcerer first, but my cleric may also take on levels of wizard, so I need the tank.

There really is slim pickings for henchmen in this one!

[robertthebard]

that's true, but deekin is worth the wait.

[SpiritWarrior]

Take Dorna till you get Deekin. She has a terrible emotional AI issue though . I do wish they implemented Mishka as a henchman, something about those female Paladins [img]smile.gif[/img] .

Do you know that the AI in NWN's was actually dumbed down on release? Beforehand a henchman would actually check an enemies' CR rating and then choose the approriate action/spell, instead of casting Wail of the Banshee on a goblin.

[Heatmiser]

Xanos is fair at best. My Rogue6/Ranger2/Shadowdancer5 has had him the whole time now (into Chapter 2). I had him level up almost entirely as a Barbarian (he has 2 levels of Sorceror, I think) and he is fair as a barbarian. I have some decent armor on him and he has high hit points, but his strength is not too great. I am thinking of having him get a few more levels of Sorc, but I don't know- not much game left.
Probably with some better items he would improve - although he has pretty decent stuff already. I'm open to suggestions on improving him- I just needed somewhat of a tank since my PC can't go toe to toe with any of the more powerful bosses- Xanos mainly serves to distract them so that I can hide and Sneak Attack.

I do think Xanos' personality is pretty funny most of the time - he's very full of himself and grandiose!

[ 09-29-2003, 06:13 PM: Message edited by: Heatmiser ]

[Cloudbringer]

I went through the game with Dorna til I got Deekin already and I loved Deekin! But I thought it would be neat to try using different pc classes and the other two so I've got a bard going in with Dorna and a cleric with Xanos.

Thanks for the info on Xanos!

[Evil Intentions]

I have a thief/assasin and am using Xanos as my henchman. Seems how I can pretty much hide and kill almost everything I had him level up wholly as a Sorcerer. It works rather well for me except when we fight things that are damn close to immune to fire and he keeps casting fireball. Otherwise he is good at clearing or at least damaging large groups.

[Cloudbringer]

I've told him to level as a barbarian, but he had two levels of sorcerer and insists on tossing little piddly spells BEFORE fighting...sigh... hope I survive this time through!

His comments about power and greatness are amusing, if nothing else!

[vesselle]

Originally posted by SpiritWarrior: Take Dorna till you get Deekin. She has a terrible emotional AI issue though . I do wish they implemented Mishka as a henchman, something about those female Paladins [img]smile.gif[/img] . Do you know that the AI in NWN's was actually dumbed down on release? Beforehand a henchman would actually check an enemies' CR rating and then choose the approriate action/spell, instead of casting Wail of the Banshee on a goblin.

that's been improved vastly in the AI Improvement mod. i've had so much more fun since i installed it. if you're interested, this bioware official forum sticky has that mod listed along with quite a few others.

[img]smile.gif[/img]

V***V