Annoying henchman...

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I like NWN...but the one thing they really messed up has to be the henchman.
Yes, they have their little story and a quest that un-ravels with it, but they really don't interact much with you or your other quest.You never really learn what they're alignment might be based on input and advice.
Thats just a minor promblem though compared to the fact that you can't open their inventory and you can't get them to carry things for you. This would be extremely useful, especially if you're a mage with 9str. and you want to carry more than five pieces of loot.
Finally, they'll be half dead and go running off to fight enemies I don't even see on my screen. Often, they're dead or seriously wounded before I can run after them, heal them, or tell them to stand their ground. Either that or my horribly wounded character is dragged into another battle because my henchman is already running after an enemy miles away.

In short, I don't like henchman. Does anyone?

 

Bags of Holding help amazingly with carrying your own gear. Also, like Tal said, with either or both of the expansions the henchman's inventory is accessible.

As far as the henchman running off to be killed...let 'em, I say. If they get themselves killed, you don't have to worry about them anymore for a while. When you have need of them again, they are always available when you go back using the recall stone, so what's the big deal?

If you don't want or are not ready for a particular battle yet and the henchman goes tearing off, just turn around and go back the other way. Either the henchie will buy the farm or will follow you. They generally (maybe always) follow you if you go through an area transition.

 

Thats strange...I have SoU and I still can't see my henchmans inventory. Maybe its a bug(I updated a week ago...) or I'm missing something big here.

 

You can always input the commands that make the henchman stick with you and not run away with 'guard me' and 'follow' commands. Are you sure you know where the commands are to look at and control your henchman's inventory?

If you know all this stuff then disregard this post, i'm not trying to insult your intellect or anything.

 

Hmmm...I've never had those problems. I've never been in a situation where i had to ditch my henchy to a corner. Lucky, maybe. HotU uses the Relic/Rogue Stone thingy. You use a room with different doorways going to places you've plotted as "points" using one stone for each plot.

 

Yes, but like with the rings in sou, you don't keep it the entire game.

 

I appreciate the tips...but I'm familiar with the radial menu, and I've seen the option to open my henchmans inventory, it says I'm not allowed to view thier inventory...
Besides, its the least of my promblems with NWN so I'm not about to get an aneurysm trying to figure out how to open my henchmans invenory

 

It sounds like you're playing the original campaign and that may be why you can't view the henchmen's inventory. That campaign was designed before the ability was there. Assuming that you are indeed playing that campaign, then the Stone of Recall will work just fine for you.

The SoU campaign will allow you to open their inventory, but, IIRC, does not automatically upgrade the NPC's gear when they (you) level like is done in the first OC. This means that not only can you check on their gear, but you must, so that you can equip them and keep their gear up to snuff.

I've never found that it's a problem in any of the campaigns that it's difficult to retrieve a "lost" henchman. Time consuming perhaps, frequently a pain in the butt, but never difficult, and always possible.

 

Just kick the brat out via the dialog options and recollect her after you won the fight gloriously.

However, the most annoying thing is when you tell your magic using henchman to stop using magic and the idiot stops fighting altogether, although you want him to kick ass.

 

Heh heh, yeah, that's my promblem...now I'm all embarrassed I should have thought of that sooner.
In other news, my henchman got himself killed twice today. I don't understand how the command "Follow" makes him assume he should turn back into the midst of battle every five seconds.

 

It really would be a simple programming flaw that the developers would need to fix. The in-game AI just overides your commands every round... You would have thought that that would have been a simple fix in a patch or something... Its a damn shame that it's needed of the player to micro manage thier henchmen every round like this...