Best hireling to go with the Druid Army (Self, summons, pet)

[GrantAnderson]

I'm playing a pure caster Druid (solo) and wondering which hireling goes best with a Druid + wolf + summons group. I got all excited for a moment when I thought maybe I could get a Rogue to handle the traps, but then I discovered that a) Rogue hirelings cost shards/TP and b) they can only open locks and not deal with traps.

My next thought was a Bard. Would a Bard hireling and their buffs be better than another meat shield Barbarian or Fighter?

[cru121]

FYI
epic rogue hirelings can be purchased with platinum
rogue hirelings CAN handle traps

[GrantAnderson]

FYI
epic rogue hirelings can be purchased with platinum
rogue hirelings CAN handle traps
I did see the first of those; that'll be handy when I get to Epic (not all that close yet!).

For the second, I read the Turbine FAQ on hirelings which said "Hirelings are great at springing traps, but aren't so good at seeing the trap before it's sprung; nor can they disarm it." From what you've said, and from checking ddowiki, I suspect that the FAQ is a bit out of date! Thanks for the correction. I'd still prefer not to spend TP/shards on hirelings, if I can help it, though.

[Red_Knight]

Do you have the collectors edition of Menace of the Underdark? If so, once you get to level 18 you can use the figurine to spawn a fighter type black panther. And since a caster druid does decent as a healer for their private army, maybe bard hirelings for the buffs? Or a wizard/sorcerer hireling? Not sure.

[katz]

Klin. have him summon hezrou.

MOAR SUMMONS!!!!!!!

[Red_Knight]

So, let's get a count of how many combatants this one player army has. The player, 1 hireling, 1 pet, 1 summons from player, 1 figurine of wondrous power, possibly 1 summons from the hireling, plus any animals you manage to charm with Wild Empathy? You almost don't need a group... You ARE a group. Course, some quests need 2 or more actual players for stuff like passing the key needed back and forth.

[Adelair]

With any druid past lives and/or Augment summoning, you want hires that can summon things.


As for your own summons, some of them can be helpful. Early on you want cats to trip things. Earth elementals are good for grabbing things. Later on the Djinni is very* good because he goes into that mode where he's untouchable while still retaining some enemy aggro, and occasionally he'll also cast Blur on you or your wolf. That Djinni helped a lot the first time I solo'd GH Tor in that first fight. Half the room was trying to kill him and couldn't hit him. Great decoy.

Then the elder fire elemental is nice for the ranged attacks, the constant fireball spam. I'm not sure the Dryad does anything helpful, but it can be useful if you wish to annoy people. :)

Get a Shard of Xoriat if you don't have one already, it comes in handy.


Were you aware you can convert any handwraps into a companion collar at a device workstation? Just throw it in there and the list changes, gives you some possible recipes to convert it. Either it wants mechanical trap parts or greater elemental essences. There's lots of useful collar types you can have. Paralysis is nice for a while on a collar. Also keep an eye out for collars that have 2 damage types like flaming and natural bane plus a red augment slot. Cursespewing is also very nice, in my opinion. Your wolf bites so much that eventually you'll curse bosses. Improved Roaring on a collar will give enemies the shaken effect and also lower saves. Just some ideas.

[Red_Knight]

Yeah, I know I'm personally not a fan of the earth elemental summons. Nor am I a fan of the spider type summons. I'll use a lower tier summon spell if the current tier seems less useful. Love the razor cat so far. And why on earth wouldn't a druid take Augment Summons? Or artificers for that matter. If you're already gonna be a one player army, why not improve said army?

[GrantAnderson]

Thanks for the advice, everyone!

Per the wiki, Augment Summoning doesn't affect hireling summons - is that wrong?

I'd forgotten to spruce up the wolf collar; I should get onto that.

No figurine for me, sadly - I missed the pre-order, and picked MotU up when I got back to the game. Still, a party of four-plus-any-hireling-summons isn't awful.

I might interview a few hirelings, and see whether a buffer or another dps/tanking type works better.

[Red_Knight]

Thanks for the advice, everyone!

Per the wiki, Augment Summoning doesn't affect hireling summons - is that wrong?


It gives a +4 to all stats for any combat pet, summons, hireling, and charmed mob you control. Or at least, that's what the feat it's self says it does. In fact the exact wording is "Your summoned creature, charmed minions, and hirelings have a +4 to all ability scores, increased health, and increased fortification". Combat pets like the figurine or a druid's wolf are treated as a hireling by the system. Don't think it would affect a summons spawned by a hireling. Might, but might not. On the other hand, one more for the army?

And can't you still buy the collectors edition version? Or was that only a pre-order thing?

[GrantAnderson]

I think it might have been pre-order only. (And I'm not overly keen on paying the full price of the Collector's Edition just for the panther :) )

I've taken the Druid+wolf+razorcat+Bard hireling team out for a few quests now, and it seems to be working pretty well. As far as buffs go, the hireling can cast Inspire Courage, Haste and Ironskin Chant. Sometimes I felt a bit superfluous, with the other guys tearing things up!

[Certon]

I pick up the Favored Soul hirelings as the healer so I can dedicate my focus to melee in winter wolf form. That, the panther, the owlbear, a summoned elder fire elemental, and my puppy are my army! I cast all the pet buffs druids get, even the stat boost (+6 CON is great, along with mass bears endurance) helps make my pets very durable.

My dog is wearing mummy wrappings with a heavy fort gem inserted, so that he doesn't get overwhelmed by incoming melee damage, and I converted vampiric stonedust handwraps into a collar for his melee weapon.

I wade into melee in Winter Wolf form, and every time I vorpal with my Draining III weapon, I have 26 temporary spell points to spend on SLA's, Mass Lesser Vigor's, or a free Snowslide, or really any under 26 sp spell. On a non-vorpal critical hit, I get 20sp to spend instead, usually on a greater vigor on myself or a couple of my SLA abilities.