Henchmen and party

Are henchmen and players just as good. Is a level 13 henchmen as good as a 13 player. or are the hecnhmen worse or better. I am about to buy the game so i want to get a good start on my character with as lil mistakes as possible. Also Do you get a pet from the start if not where do you get one.

I generally think henchmen suck when you are traveling with a full group of them... (as in a healer, a fighter, and a mage) because the healer will concentrate on the other two, which sometimes leaves you dead, and when you're dead, they seem to kinda lose intellegence majorly... When you're traveling with only one, its a different story. I normally travel with only a healer because then all of her attention is focused on you, not other bots. So, in my opinion, a lvl 13 henchman will be stupider than a normal person... but less likely to make a mistake (when traveling with only one) A lvl 13 player would PROBABLY be more smart than the hench (I would hope) To answer your other question, no you do not get a pet from the start, but (if you are a ranger) you will get a quest to find Master Ranger Nente (I believe) who will give you a quest that gives you the skills to coax a Malandru's Stalker (I probably spelled that wrong...) ALAS: You only can get a pet if you are a primary or secondary ranger.

henches normaly have better skills than a player would and always follow you around. In some missions henchmen are horrible to have in others its better to have henchies than other players.

Think of it this way Henchmen are dumb brutes that need a leader while players are much smarter and dont necesarialy need to be lead everywhere

If you find good players they are undoubtedly better than henchmen. The trick is finding good players who will stick with you. One advantage of finding a good guild. Henchmen are usually preferable to a quick pickup group, though there are good pickup groups on occasion as well . Let me put it this way:

You can do every quest in the game with only henchmen and yourself. You can do almost every mission (some would say all) with only henchmen as well. They focus fire well and the AI is smart most of the time.

henchman are bots...they don't have intelligence so they can't think. The henchmen will only be as good as you are. They follow your lead and do what you tell them to(for the most part)...the Stats on a lvl13 henchman are the same as a lvl13 Player Controlled character...but you're always better off with human players(as long as they aren't morons)...the one nice thing about henchman is that, as far as I can tell, the don't have mana pools...they have an infinite supply of energy.

You know I have to say I do a lot better w/the henchies, esp if you use a pickup group. At least with them you get to stop and heal. Many times using "real" people, other players give no thought as to what's going on or aniticpating the next move. They barge ahead being macho, leaving other members of your team vulnerable.

IMO, this game should be about "thinking" and figuring out what to do next and taking your time while doing so. So while a lot of people bash the "henchies" I think they are quite helpful if you have no guild mates around.

Both npcs and real people can be a double edged sword to play with. Expereinces in my last few missions has led me to favour henchmen for most things, and I generally only play with other real people when my friend is online.

Henchmen can be unbeleivebly annoying sometimes (Alesia I'm looking at you here) but it's nice to be able to let life intervene sometimes when playing them and go make a cup of coffee or go chat to someone for half an hour or so then come back and finish whatever you were doing. This is impossible when playing with real people as they will expect your full attention for the duration.

The advantage of playing with real people is that you can make new friends and actually devise more complex strategies then when playing by yourself. If you get a good group.

At the start of the game you'll gernally find that the henchies are a few levels below you, so you may wish to take hooman beans along instead.

last ive noticed, which was quite a while ago, drops seem to go way down when you bring henches

Drops only seem to go way down as the henchmen are taking their share and you don't see it fall. Otherwise you'ld probably dump a load in your pants when you saw them get runes, gold weapons, etc, while you only get white and blue items