Henchmen
A henchman follows you, levels with you, and can be equipped. You may have two at a time.
How far they level
A henchman levels itself to your level, up to a ceiling:
| Ceiling | |
|---|---|
| To begin with | 10 |
| After the first part of the main quest | 20 |
| After the third part | 30 |
| A pure Fighter's or Rogue's henchman | ten more, to 40 |
Looking after them
- Their gear can be replaced. What they start with is good enough early and is not later.
- They benefit from item set bonuses like anyone else.
- Hand them a stack of healing potions and they will drink one when they need to; a potion dragged onto their portrait works too.
- They can be buffed, by casting on them or by dragging a potion onto them.
When they die
They come back after 30 seconds, or at once if you raise them. Inside a dungeon that wait is five minutes instead, unless you raise them yourself.
Associates Control
One ability on your quickbar commands everything travelling with you at once - hired henchmen, spell summons, an animal companion or familiar, a dominated creature, the epic summons (the Mummy Dust warrior and the Dragon Knight), and any sub-summon one of them called up.
Use it and a targeting cursor appears. What you click decides the order:
| You click | They do |
|---|---|
| an enemy | all of them converge on it, and the order clears when it dies |
| yourself | they gather and guard you - anyone far away or in another area teleports to you first |
| a friendly or neutral creature | they move to protect it |
| the ground | that associate goes there and holds |
| Escape | nothing; the order is cancelled |
It says who and where, never how. A spellcaster still opens with spells, an archer still shoots from range, a fighter still closes - and all their healing and self-preservation behaviour carries on. The AI keeps making its own decisions each round; it just keeps the target you gave it.
The old party-bar voice commands - Follow Me, Attack Nearest, Guard Me, Stand Ground - all still work, and any of them clears the override and hands your associates back to their own judgement.