Best henchman?

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OK, my character is a fighter and I still mostly use Daelan as a henchman. I used Tomi for a while but I came to realise that he's quite unuseful in one-on-one fights, and I don't really want to control him all the time I get into fights. I think they shoud have put at least three or four more in the game, but anyway I do think that Daelan is the best.

 

I use tomi and he's great. I just have him switch to ranged attacks and set the distance to far away. He can then just sit back and do sneak attack dmg with his ranged weapon... hmm... maybe a good theme for a ranged char.

 

I've only used Daelan Red Tiger so far and that's because my rogue/wizard needed an upfront tank. He's great. Between him and my summoned pet, they take care of all the fighting. So much so that I feel comfortable enough to ignore the battle and continue to open chests and crates. Daelan activates his own power attack and goes into his Uthgart rage by himself. He even drinks his own potions when his health is low. I only had to change one of his tactics and that is not to bash every chest/crate I can't open using my rogue skills - I found that his bashing interrupts my rogue's concentration to open locks so that instead of an automatic "Take 20", there was a roll made resulting in failure.

The only frustration I face is the pathfinding. I don't know about other's experience but I get irritated when I run ahead and Daelan got stuck behind someplace. When I get peppered with shots, I had to run back to get him. On the same subject, my PC gets stuck too - BG2's and IWD's engine was much better at pathfinding. Anyone else have problems with this?

 

I swear Daelan is retarded when i use him. every time no matter what he will follow me when i tell him not too and get stuck places when i need him and not come.
I gave up using him.
i like Tomi for alot of things as for him fighting i set it for him to stay a med distance from me and only use ranged. seems to keep him out of trouble.
Linu i find to be useless she can't fight and she doesn't heel me when i want her too.
Sharwin is good but i hate it when she turns me invisable! I know it's a good thing as it adds to my AC but i just don't like my char being faded out all the time.
Sharwin also doesn't follow directions very well i think all the henchmen are damn retarded. like one time i'm disarming a trap and Sharwin just walks over and steps on it! it was in front of me and she was behind with no monsters around so there was no reason to do so!
and if you use stealth mode the henchman doesn't go stealth which is annoying at least Tomi should go stealth he has enough skill points in it

for the most part i just don't use henchmen cause it seems far easier to go solo except at a cpl parts where i need fodder to distract monters

 

I've found Sharwyn to be quite useful for my ranger/fighter. While she tended to exhaust her spells rather quickly, she was an effective archer and decent in melee. Her lock picking was also handy.

I'm using Linu with my druid/necromancer and she seems to be very effective. She seems to do some serious damage in melee, has good healing abilities, and is really bad news for undead.

Daelan kicked a lot of butt, but I stopped using him since he pretty much duplicated what my fighter/ranger could do.

I haven't used any of the others. I suspect that Tomi would be very handy given the very large number of traps and locks around and the monk is probably pretty effective as a combatant. I'd hazard a guess that the sorceror isn't very useful, only because he'll likely dump all his spells in the first few combats rather than being efficient with them. Leastwise, that's what Linu and Sharwyn do. Also, I play on 'core rules', so I'm afraid he'll fireball me or something unpleasant like that.

Aloha
Vormaerin

 

Hmm, I've only used Tomi and and Sharwyn so far, but I think Sharwyn could very well be the 'best' henchperson.

She really helps me in battle with her songs and spells, plus she's a good shot with the bow. And what's great is when she runs out of arrows, she uses a double-bladed sword that simply whups anybody's butt.

She can also pick locks (another plus) and for those that can't be picked, I destroy them (spell or bash). I also put points in Disarm Traps so I'm pretty equipped for adventuring.

 

I have Tomi, I'm almost done with chapter one. As Ranger, I can handle the fights, so I think Tomi is good for his disarming of traps and open locks. And his sneak-attacks do some good damage.

 

I have Tomi, even though my character is a fighter, he's very handy for going round and picking locks. Seeing that my character isn't much good at thievery. Most of the time i have him set for his ranged attacks as well.

But I have only had the game for a few days, and he's the only hench man that I've had for a long amount of time.

 

Henchmen are driving me insane! Tomi especially – I have now told him to use ranged weapons and stay in a long distance. When engaging heavy enemies like skeletons (he can’t fight them effectively anyway – with a shortbow) I usually tell him to hold ground in a distance since I need his talents later – to harvest the loot.

Anyway, that doesn’t hinder him from regularly running into melee, fighting with a bow, provoking attacks of opportunity from his meleeing enemies who tend to beat him up then. He is generally pretty keen on testing his damage tolerance and to evaluate the limits of damage he is able to take – using a healing potion or be smart and to run away from a tank’s field of work would be cowardice.
When fighting Brother Toras (at level 10) I had to reload about 15 times, 5 times only because Tomi fell back in his old habits as sketched above, never even considering to have a healing potion in time ...

Worst of all – you find rogue-loot like a cool armor, cool thief tools and such – and can’t give it to them. You can tell a henchman: “Heal me!” but not “Heal yourself!”. You can’t replenish your henchman’s healing potions. You can’t tell them to switch to a melee weapon once in melee or just to run away then. Neither can you ask your henchman to scout ahead on stealth, searching and disarming traps – no way ...

The henchman AI is really crap – clearly proving NWN was designed as a multiplayer game – where henchmen will be much less needed. I only have a henchman because I need one – otherwise I wouldn’t be able to open locks and disarm traps. So I have to suffer from the AI till I finished the game

[This message has been edited by Ragusa (edited July 01, 2002).]

 

Well, now...I was going to post a "best henchman" thread but I've been beaten to the punch!!

So far I've tried Red Tiger, Sharwyn, Tomi, and Boddynock Glinckle as my henchpeople: I have a little to say about each one before I tell you my favorite!!

Daelen Red Tiger - He's okay, but coupled with my paladin, we overmatch most opponents easily, but there's no sorcery...Very boring.

Sharwyn - She's hot! Has a sexy voice, and I love having her in my party...But overall, she's ineffective. A mediocre mage, mediocre fighter, the song skill is cool, and she's piss poor for detecting and removing traps. So I've left her behind...But I pick her up from time to time, just to check out her portrait!

Tomi - He was my mainstay! He could detect/remove traps well, and could open locks...But I've grown bored with him, especially since I've attained a high enough level to withstand most trapped chests, and I bash 'em pretty good!
So he's out too!

Boddynock Glinckle!!!! He rocks! Yes the gnome sorcerer!!! I LOVE having him as my henchman!!! He has very effective spells, and can open locked chests!!! He's no help with traps, but like I said, it doesn't bother me anymore. He tends to rush into melee impulsively - But otherwise, he is my favorite henchperson!!!

But I do agree with Ragusa's comments on the AI in general!!!



[This message has been edited by Sir Belisarius (edited July 01, 2002).]

 

I agree, the henchmen could have used some more work on them. The only good thing is that I can go smash locks and walk right into traps without fear as a 19 lvl fighter so I can use Daelan.

Note: My main character is always a fighter (or a fighter/thief); in BG1 and BG2, IWD1, and also in NWN. But because I don't have any NPC's I cant have a mage and cast spells. Now I finished the game (cool ending btw) and have no idea what certain spells look like.

 

I've only used one hench "woman" so far: Linu. She's actually pretty good in a fight, does quite a bit of damage, and seems to make good use of her spells. The only problem is that she tends to use up her healing spells *very* quickly, either on me or herself, rather than mixing them up more with potions.

I have to agree with the AI comments though. The most annoying part is walking into a large area, and suddenly Linu is running around killing everyone - I've lost sight of her several times that way! The worst part is that you can't tell them to stop, or back-off while they're in combat mode, and (of course) as soon as I get close to her, she'll run off down an alleyway after another pack of evil-bad guys. As a result, I find I'm issuing commands to her every few minutes because she tends to forget them.

 

I agree that Linu's AI is a bit bad. I've never seen her use a potion, and when she cast harm on the Lich...(negative spells like harm heal undead, so he went from almost dead to undamaged.) But, that all said...a rested Linu rocks. She casts Holy Smite, Holy Word and Flamestrike, as well as Harm! I fought one boss with 200+ HP. She cast harm and he was dead in one hit from me. And she casts divine power and endurance on herself, combined with her Power Attack and Cleave, making her fight like a fighter when she's out of spells. I'm telling you, at high levels Linu has no peers.

 

OMG Tomi can be retarded!
during a battle i told Tomi to stay put a fair ways away in another room down the hall..
then i was in a room fighting and one of the chests turned red as i have a decent detect skill on my ranger.
Tomi then stoped staying put and came from that room and walked right into the battle. walked up to the chest stoped and started attacking and ofcourse got killed.
I've given up on Henchman i'm going solo now

 

I play a sorcerer and have Linu as henchwoman. She really does good work. She packs quite a punch and the spells are very good as well.

I use a pixie as familiar, since it's a rogue and can detect traps and pick locks.

And a summoned dire creature to take the blows while I spray around Ice Storms, Maximized Fireballs and Empowered Lightning Bolts .

 

My main character is a mage, conjurer, and I use the Pixie for my familier most of the time. And i have Dealan (sp?) for my henchman, as he totally kicks ass, and he can break down doors and chests when needed.

I also have a fighter character,and he uses Tomi for his henchman, because he can't pick locks very well.

 

I have to agree, Daelan is probably the best henchman (the only one i havent used is grimgaw)he can bash open chests and doors, and he has tons of HP compared to the other henchmen. And, he uses that cool looking double axe.

 

Where might I find this Linu? I need someone to heal my fighter/rogue 2/2. I find that prison quest neigh impossible without a henchman. The only one I have met is Tomi. Any tips for the prison quest? Either I get swarmed by normal escapees or I get my arse kicked in one and one against a gangleader. I can usually survive one such fight but then my health is so low that I have to portal my self back to the temple to get healing. Help anyone? Is the prison quest the first quest you are supposed to do? I would just like to comment on it being constant night in Neverwinter, it annoys me. I cant see shit, I should have done with an elf or something to get darkvision, if the game stays as dark as this I will get very irritated it is so hard to navigate. And as a rogue I dont want to use torches too much as I cant be in stealth then.