newbie has questions on henchmen

[Luther]

Sorry, I did a "henchmen" search and didn't find what I was looking for.

I got NWN a long time ago but am just now playing it (long story.) It seems that henchmen are not very versatile. All they do is fight, cast spells, heal, and perform thief skills, correct? You can't give them new items or spell scrolls? Is there anything else you can do with henchmen that I should know about? I know about the quests they give and the items too.

-Luther-

[The Great Hairy]

The henchmen in the original scenario are pretty one-dimensional. In SoU and HotU the henchies become a little more expanded, and you'll be able to access their inventories and give them more complex commands.

Several player-made modules have excellent henchie interactions - check out NWN vault on IGN, and read some of the comments on the higher ranked modules. Also, I think that there was a mod which did allow some more control over the original scenario henchies... It will be on NWN vault (but I think it is incompatible with later NWN patches).

Cheers,
TGHO

[Luther]

Sweet. Good info. From the threads I've read it seems the official campaign is lacking in some aspects but attempts were made to enhance these faults in the expansions and mods. I always like to play the official release first before adding on mods and other things. My character is a ranger-thief and is doing pretty good on her own. I don't even really need a henchmen except for Tomi to get the harder locks and traps. It is pretty cool to have Grimgnaw around though to take out herds of bad guys on his own.

-Luther-

[Xandax]

If you think of getting them - then I'd recommend adding the expansions (Shadows of Undretide and Hordes of the Underdark) before playing (all the way) through the original NwN, because of the added classes, feats and skills.