Permanent hirelings acquisition methods

[wraxzz]

Hi Everyone,

I've been wanting to get back into the game recently, but due to my permanently poor connection, I always play alone. This means that quests like the necro quest with 4 platforms are extremely difficult (have to use a lot of gimmicks or luck and often still fails).

What I'm wondering is what all the sources for permanent hirelings are. Specifically ones that can be summoned in conjunction with others, like I believe the onyx panther and owlbear does.
I've acquired most packs so far up to around beginning 2017, so no ravenloft yet. The $130 for the ultimate bundle is impossible thanks to the pathetic ZAR currency. The $10 catacombs starter pack for the lvl 3 hireling doesn't hurt as much, but kind of find it redundant buying the pack for a weak hireling just to pull levers.

Besides those two options, are there any other sources of permanent-only hirelings that can be acquired in the game? Like the MotU expansion pre order bonuses, can that somehow still be purchased even if the motu collectors edition is owned? Any other sources that I am missing?

PS: I'm specifically only asking about permanent hirelings, not magic summons, druid/mage/class specific pets or skills. Only permanent hirelings that can be summoned in conjunction with standard platinum hirelings.

Thanks :)

[Hobgoblin]

Hi Everyone,

I've been wanting to get back into the game recently, but due to my permanently poor connection, I always play alone. This means that quests like the necro quest with 4 platforms are extremely difficult (have to use a lot of gimmicks or luck and often still fails).

What I'm wondering is what all the sources for permanent hirelings are. Specifically ones that can be summoned in conjunction with others, like I believe the onyx panther and owlbear does.
I've acquired most packs so far up to around beginning 2017, so no ravenloft yet. The $130 for the ultimate bundle is impossible thanks to the pathetic ZAR currency. The $10 catacombs starter pack for the lvl 3 hireling doesn't hurt as much, but kind of find it redundant buying the pack for a weak hireling just to pull levers.

Besides those two options, are there any other sources of permanent-only hirelings that can be acquired in the game? Like the MotU expansion pre order bonuses, can that somehow still be purchased even if the motu collectors edition is owned? Any other sources that I am missing?

PS: I'm specifically only asking about permanent hirelings, not magic summons, druid/mage/class specific pets or skills. Only permanent hirelings that can be summoned in conjunction with standard platinum hirelings.

Thanks :)
OFF THE top of my head - onyx panther, owlbear 17, owlbear 25, cleric 3, white lion, scarecrow 10, scarecrow 30

and you can plat hire as well

and dont knock eleri

i used her to solo things even at 30. summon, dv unsummon

unfortunately the white lion is impossible to get as you had to be vip at a certain time. just mentioning it for completions sake

[cru121]

Buy the starter pack, ideally in discount (black friday coming soon?).
It's super useful in my experience.

[wraxzz]

OFF THE top of my head - onyx panther, owlbear 17, owlbear 25, cleric 3, white lion, scarecrow 10, scarecrow 30

and you can plat hire as well

and dont knock eleri

i used her to solo things even at 30. summon, dv unsummon

unfortunately the white lion is impossible to get as you had to be vip at a certain time. just mentioning it for completions sake
I'm looking for hires that can still be bought to use in addition to the plat hires. Besides the lvl 3 cleric hireling, the white lion and $80/$130 ravenloft packs, is it possible to still obtain any of the others?



Buy the starter pack, ideally in discount (black friday coming soon?).
It's super useful in my experience.
Hmm, didn't know there may be a discount on starter pack- thanks for the insight! I'll definitely look at getting that pack.
$10 for 250 points and a permanent lever puller vs $20 for 1550 points, makes for a very expensive lever puller. It may work out cheaper in the long run to simply buy 5 tp hires instead each time? Just did a quick calc and for the $10 difference to the pack, the $20 is worth 775 per $10, equal to 155 times to purchase a cheap lever puller. I haven't thought of that before, thanks for opening up this new avenue!

[Xgya]

Don't you DARE diss on mah girl Elieri!

I've had her for years now, and bought one for 4 different accounts when the last 75% off sale happened.

Best decision ever.

I have fond memories of a bug in a quest where me and a friend tried to summon ours at the same time because our wizard was missing mana.
Summoned two hires with the same name.
We both discovered that we could re-click the contract again, summoning another pair.
Made the whole quest lag and had to log because we had 30 Elieris following us around :P (yeah, the game ALSO forgot to check for party size)

Count that hire as a free 100-200 mana (depending on Druid lives/feats) you can spawn every 5 minutes. At a shrine you already used? No problem, the hire you just re-summoned hasn't, so that's another 100-200 mana to help you complete that quest!

[wraxzz]

Don't you DARE diss on mah girl Elieri!

I've had her for years now, and bought one for 4 different accounts when the last 75% off sale happened.

Best decision ever.

I have fond memories of a bug in a quest where me and a friend tried to summon ours at the same time because our wizard was missing mana.
Summoned two hires with the same name.
We both discovered that we could re-click the contract again, summoning another pair.
Made the whole quest lag and had to log because we had 30 Elieris following us around :P (yeah, the game ALSO forgot to check for party size)

Count that hire as a free 100-200 mana (depending on Druid lives/feats) you can spawn every 5 minutes. At a shrine you already used? No problem, the hire you just re-summoned hasn't, so that's another 100-200 mana to help you complete that quest!

Great response:cool: That bug sounds very amusing!

The level 3 cleric seems like a no brainer then. So Elieri sounds a good investment now, in spite of my tp breakdown. Besides her, can anyone confirm which other permanent hires are still accessible outside of ravenloft packs?

[Xgya]

Great response:cool: That bug sounds very amusing!

The level 3 cleric seems like a no brainer then. So Elieri sounds a good investment now, in spite of my tp breakdown. Besides her, can anyone confirm which other permanent hires are still accessible outside of ravenloft packs?

Oh, of note, those permanent hirelings count as "Gold Seal", which means they can be summoned from anywhere within the quest, which is what makes that level 3 Cleric such a nice mana battery - you don't have to run back to the entrance to summon a new one when you need her.

As for that last question, there's the owlbears, the onyx panther and that is it.

There's also the alabaster lioness, but that one's no longer available, as it was part of a short term VIP promotion effort.

[wraxzz]

Oh, of note, those permanent hirelings count as "Gold Seal", which means they can be summoned from anywhere within the quest, which is what makes that level 3 Cleric such a nice mana battery - you don't have to run back to the entrance to summon a new one when you need her.

As for that last question, there's the owlbears, the onyx panther and that is it.

There's also the alabaster lioness, but that one's no longer available, as it was part of a short term VIP promotion effort.

Ah, I didn't actually understand when you said you can summon her again at a shrine, thinking that could be a heck of a run- little did I know!

Do you know how the owlbears and onyx panther can still be bought/earned? I already have the MotU collectors edition from years ago, but without the pre-order bonuses.

[Annex]

To my knowledge, 5 permanent Gold Seal Hires remain available.

Eleri Thistledown, as others mentioned, comes with the Starter Pack. That goes on sale every year over the Thanksgiving holiday for 50% off (or more).

An L10 Scarecrow comes with the second tier Ravenloft package.

An L30 Scarecrow comes with the third tier Ravenloft Package.

Two Owlbears, L17 and L25, come with the Shadowfell Conspiracy bonus package.

That's it. The Onyx Panther was a pre-purchase item and long gone. The Alabaster Lioness was a Subscriber reward and also long gone.

[Aelonwy]

The Alabaster Lioness was a Subscriber reward and also long gone.

IIRC when the Alabaster Lioness VIP promotional was happening Cordovan talked about how many people complained about never getting the opportunity to have the panther because it was a Pre-Purchase exclusive. He said something about not offering such as "exclusives" again. The gist being that they were leaving it open that they might possibly have the lioness promotional again someday maybe time period entirely undetermined.

Also they received some flak from people complaining that they felt cheated out of the "exclusivity" of their black panther by the re-colored lioness. I on the other hand have both, am happy to have both, do NOT feel cheated and think less than positive thoughts about those that did.

[wraxzz]

To my knowledge, 5 permanent Gold Seal Hires remain available.

Eleri Thistledown, as others mentioned, comes with the Starter Pack. That goes on sale every year over the Thanksgiving holiday for 50% off (or more).

An L10 Scarecrow comes with the second tier Ravenloft package.

An L30 Scarecrow comes with the third tier Ravenloft Package.

Two Owlbears, L17 and L25, come with the Shadowfell Conspiracy bonus package.

That's it. The Onyx Panther was a pre-purchase item and long gone. The Alabaster Lioness was a Subscriber reward and also long gone.

I looked at the Shadowfell Conspiracy hirelings- the owlbears are part of the "legendary upgrade" option when purchasing the Shadowfell Conspiracy. If I already have the Shadowfell Conspiracy Collector's Ed. (purchased for the iconics and epic tome), is the only way to get the "legendary upgrade" bonuses by re-purchasing the Shadowfell Conspiracy pack? That would suck bat guano!

I had a look at the scarecrow's and they seem like nice meat shields, but lowest entry point is $80, which unfortunately is extremely expensive when converting currencies. Good to know about them, but have to exclude them at that price.

[Xgya]

I looked at the Shadowfell Conspiracy hirelings- the owlbears are part of the "legendary upgrade" option when purchasing the Shadowfell Conspiracy. If I already have the Shadowfell Conspiracy Collector's Ed. (purchased for the iconics and epic tome), is the only way to get the "legendary upgrade" bonuses by re-purchasing the Shadowfell Conspiracy pack? That would suck bat guano!

I had a look at the scarecrow's and they seem like nice meat shields, but lowest entry point is $80, which unfortunately is extremely expensive when converting currencies. Good to know about them, but have to exclude them at that price.

To be fair, the one with the most value remains Elieri.

The big cats can be useful from time to time, the heroic scarecrow could show promise, but the owlbears are unwieldly and tend to get stuck in terrain easily.

The hefty price tag on the scarecrows meant I didn't try to get them.

If completing those few quests where you need an extra body on the switch (like the first chain of the Necropolis you mentioned), there's a few options open still. Druids, Wizards and Artificers get pets that can step on those.
Barring that, there's an option that takes some level of skill - you can use either a mob's body by having them die on the switch, or use a summoned monster, though you have to be very, very quick about stepping the second switch while the monster takes the first.
Matter of fact, Artificers get the best of the best in tile-stepping technology. A single artificer with a normal hireling can do four switches at once, reliably, and quickly. Hireling, Dog, Player, Flame Turret.

[Katalissa]

We both discovered that we could re-click the contract again, summoning another pair ... we had 30 Elieris following us around :P

Sounds like Jeets's ultimate fantasy! ;)

But yeah, Elieri is useful far beyond what her level 3 status might indicate. You just have to be careful and creative with your use - obviously you can't set her to autopilot and expect her to keep up in a level 15-20 quest.

Apart from the lever pulling, free extra mana from divine vitality, and a few extra heals, she can also be an emergency stone grabber! Park her near the quest entrance and if you die you can still summon her, have her grab your stone, and run like the wind to the nearest shrine. Of course, you need to hope there's not too many enemies still hanging around your stone, and the way has to be clear, but she can save a total party kill with a bit of luck.

Also, remember she can use divine vitality on another higher level hire, so if your main healer is out of mana, you can get a few hundred points back, which might in turn let the main heal you.

So Elieri plus standard hire gives you a party of three, plus wiz with skeleton or artificer with robot dog brings you up to 4. :cool:

[Annex]

IIRC when the Alabaster Lioness VIP promotional was happening Cordovan talked about how many people complained about never getting the opportunity to have the panther because it was a Pre-Purchase exclusive. He said something about not offering such as "exclusives" again. The gist being that they were leaving it open that they might possibly have the lioness promotional again someday maybe time period entirely undetermined.

Also they received some flak from people complaining that they felt cheated out of the "exclusivity" of their black panther by the re-colored lioness. I on the other hand have both, am happy to have both, do NOT feel cheated and think less than positive thoughts about those that did.

*jealous*

I really hope you are right and bubbleheads like myself get another chance. I extremely stupidly made the decision not to get the Alabaster Lioness because, at the time, I felt it would not help my Avatar. Instead, I purchased an Expansion and some points. *grumbles* Later, when the Ravenloft Scarecrows came out, I realized an L20 Gold Seal Hire was the best possible option since that bridges late Heroic and all Epic levels.

Come to think of it, I am a bit surprised the developers never offered another Subscriber perk like that. My impression was that it gained them a bunch of subscriptions but maybe not.

[Annex]

I looked at the Shadowfell Conspiracy hirelings- the owlbears are part of the "legendary upgrade" option when purchasing the Shadowfell Conspiracy. If I already have the Shadowfell Conspiracy Collector's Ed. (purchased for the iconics and epic tome), is the only way to get the "legendary upgrade" bonuses by re-purchasing the Shadowfell Conspiracy pack? That would suck bat guano!

Back in the day, it was possible to call Customer Service and ask to add the Upgrade. They would charge the $60 US and manually update the account. If you decide you want the Owlbears I suggest contacting Customer Service.


I had a look at the scarecrow's and they seem like nice meat shields, but lowest entry point is $80, which unfortunately is extremely expensive when converting currencies. Good to know about them, but have to exclude them at that price.

Yea. I want the bigger packages on three accounts and have patiently waited for a sale. If that does not happen in November, I will put the biggest package on one account and waffle some more on the others.

[wraxzz]

To be fair, the one with the most value remains Elieri.

The big cats can be useful from time to time, the heroic scarecrow could show promise, but the owlbears are unwieldly and tend to get stuck in terrain easily.

The hefty price tag on the scarecrows meant I didn't try to get them.

If completing those few quests where you need an extra body on the switch (like the first chain of the Necropolis you mentioned), there's a few options open still. Druids, Wizards and Artificers get pets that can step on those.
Barring that, there's an option that takes some level of skill - you can use either a mob's body by having them die on the switch, or use a summoned monster, though you have to be very, very quick about stepping the second switch while the monster takes the first.
Matter of fact, Artificers get the best of the best in tile-stepping technology. A single artificer with a normal hireling can do four switches at once, reliably, and quickly. Hireling, Dog, Player, Flame Turret.


PS: I'm specifically only asking about permanent hirelings, not magic summons, druid/mage/class specific pets or skills. Only permanent hirelings that can be summoned in conjunction with standard platinum hirelings.
Thanks :)
In the OP I did ask to exclude any and all options that would fall in the "other" category, because someone has informed me about those in a different thread already. The goal is to determine the maximum amount and combination of hires a single class without any summon abilities can procure, without the use of gold seals, so this thread is exclusively about permanent hirelings. Thanks though Xgya, I know you're trying to help :) thank you for the bit of insight on the erratic owlbear glitches, I haven't seen that mentioned anywhere before.

[wraxzz]

Sounds like Jeets's ultimate fantasy! ;)

But yeah, Elieri is useful far beyond what her level 3 status might indicate. You just have to be careful and creative with your use - obviously you can't set her to autopilot and expect her to keep up in a level 15-20 quest.

Apart from the lever pulling, free extra mana from divine vitality, and a few extra heals, she can also be an emergency stone grabber! Park her near the quest entrance and if you die you can still summon her, have her grab your stone, and run like the wind to the nearest shrine. Of course, you need to hope there's not too many enemies still hanging around your stone, and the way has to be clear, but she can save a total party kill with a bit of luck.

Also, remember she can use divine vitality on another higher level hire, so if your main healer is out of mana, you can get a few hundred points back, which might in turn let the main heal you.

So Elieri plus standard hire gives you a party of three, plus wiz with skeleton or artificer with robot dog brings you up to 4. :cool:

I'm very impressed and pleased to see all the positive feedback on Elieri. The quest mobs wouldn't be a problem in my case, as there will always be a cleric hireling summoned too, assuming Elieri can be summoned in conjunction with plat hires! That would make a mighty fine double contingency plan- should the one hireling die along with me, the other hireling can pretend to be a ninja and grab both stones! Do you know if Elieri counts as a gold seal summon?


Back in the day, it was possible to call Customer Service and ask to add the Upgrade. They would charge the $60 US and manually update the account. If you decide you want the Owlbears I suggest contacting Customer Service.

Yea. I want the bigger packages on three accounts and have patiently waited for a sale. If that does not happen in November, I will put the biggest package on one account and waffle some more on the others.

Thank you for the suggestion, I didn't know that and will keep it in mind! At $60 just for the upgrade alone, the $80 for an expansion and hireling sounds like better value? Was the $60 you heard of pro rata or a flat rate?

I never expected the catacombs pack to be on sale, so I'll also keep my trigger finger at the ready and hope the coming black friday sales will be good value! That's the only "justification" left for the weak local currency, a huge sale!

[Katalissa]

... assuming Elieri can be summoned in conjunction with plat hires! That would make a mighty fine double contingency plan...

Yes, the Elieri that comes with the starter/Catacombs pack IS a permanent gold seal, so you CAN summon her in addition to a 'normal' hireling.

[Annex]

Thank you for the suggestion, I didn't know that and will keep it in mind! At $60 just for the upgrade alone, the $80 for an expansion and hireling sounds like better value? Was the $60 you heard of pro rata or a flat rate?

I highly suggest waiting for Thanksgiving in the United States and the Black Friday sales before purchasing any expansion. Historically, all Expansions go on sale for 50% off (or more). Patience may save you some money though I personally doubt Ravenloft will go on sale.

If you already own Shadowfell Conspiracy, Customer Service may allow you buy the $60 Bonus Bundle as a separate item. I presume they will charge the full $60. You will need to contact them and ask.

You will need to review the items that come with each bundle and decide on the value for yourself. :) Players often report the Owlbears are 'squishy' and get stuck. The Scarecrow was designed as a 'tank' with good defenses and an Intimidate skill. Usefulness really depends on the strength of your character and how you play. No Hire will hold up in Reaper Mode. :eek:

[Aelonwy]

The Owlbears only use is to block doors, stand on floor plates, and otherwise occupy space. They look neat but are generally not useful. The cats on the other hand are awesome from level 18 (the earliest they can be summoned even though they are lvl 20) until about level 23 on EH, and still situationally okay up to lvl 25 on EH if you are say a druid or arty with some augments summons or feats/enhancements to bring them up a little. I can't say they are useful on EE... I'm not even useful on EE unless nothing whatsoever looks in my direction.

[spyder7723]

My observations about the hirelings: As said above, the cats are fantastic till about level 23. they kill well and hold up to incoming damageBoth owlbears are complete garbage with the only situational use being to stand on pressure plates or block doorways if playing a ranged character, but they die quick even on normal level appropriate quests. The level 30 scarecrow is a relatively sturdy tank with a good intimidate. The level 10 is useless, and dies almost immediately to any incoming damage. Seriously first life con dumped no fort drow wizards played by clueless newbies are more survivable. You can't even use it to pull levers and switches, it constantly bugs out and runs in random directions even when put on "do nothing but what i tell you" mode and parked right next to the lever.