drop rate/hero out of range?

hello

i have a question regarding the drop rate

i'm farming the uw with my e/me and recently i had big problems with 2 nightmares poping up at the entrance to chamber 2
so i decided to bring 1 of my heros, and let him run to this special place and let him die then...which works wonders actually

so now to my question ,i know that the chance of getting drops is minimized because of the heros/henchies BUT also if they are out of range???? for instance when i am farming the smites and my hero lies dead in chamber 1?

does he also 'get' half of drops then?

i saw that i still share half of the gold with him, but whats with the items?

i did some research here, but all i found were general answers when heroes/henchies are in the party

sry for my english

i'd appreciate any help

If hero is dead and in-range then he gets his half share anyway, if out of range (name grayed out), then it is all yours

if their name is greyed out on the party window, they will still take half of the gold but no longer receive any item drops so the drops will all be your's

thats all i wanted to know

thank you