Perma Hirelings

[Baloc]

I'd like the DDO store to offer Hirelings you can purchase "permanently". They stay
1 lvl behind your toon and progress as your toon lvl's. You can equip and arm him/her.

[Falco_Easts]

I kinda like the idea.

Maybe even instead of the TP/cost have an option for hiring one for 20% less XP in quests. And more then one available to you.

+1 rep for suggesting it but cue the "it's a grouping game" comments. Grouping can be a bit hard when a 8 month old bub can interupt gameplay at any time though.

[Uska]

Fine for NWN but I dont like it here as it will decrease people's grouping and for ddo I am against anything that does that.

[darkdawn1]

Fine for NWN but I dont like it here as it will decrease people's grouping and for ddo I am against anything that does that.

I personally like the idea, but that is the soloist in me. However, I must concede that you are correct in that it could hurt grouping.

I wonder what the long term effect would be if they offered perma hirelings? Would the game fail? Would it grow but be mostly soloers? Would more coming in mean enough soloers who like some party interaction would still keep the multi-player populace happy? I know they offered this in Guild Wars. I enjoyed the henchmen there, but it did get kinda lonely at times. Just curious.

[Shamurai]

This might hinder grouping a smidge... I was a soloist for the first few levels on my first character and thought it would be just fine with hirelings all the way. Then I grouped with my son and his friends and realized how much better Clerics and Tanks work when run by actual people. THEN I grouped with people that actually KNEW how to be a cleric and tank and became totally CONVINCED that Grouping is the way to go. Sure I still keep a handy lvl appropriate hireling along for those times when we can't "find a sixth" person.. or just to an extra dude to draw aggro from my squishy. But serioulsy GROUPING is waaaay better then hirelings no matter how much they tweak the AI.

[stalfa]

I'd like the DDO store to offer Hirelings you can purchase "permanently". They stay
1 lvl behind your toon and progress as your toon lvl's. You can equip and arm him/her.

Is it just me? I'm not able to find it in the DDO-store.

[lizardo666]

Sounds a lot like the Leadership feat. I think it would stop it from being commonplace if it cost a feat. Think they are supposed to get a 1/2 share of xp / gold as well

[Borathan]

Sounds a lot like the Leadership feat. I think it would stop it from being commonplace if it cost a feat. Think they are supposed to get a 1/2 share of xp / gold as well

In 3.5 they were treated as a party member for party xp if you followed the written rules for it. Meaning that if it was just you and the cohort it would be 1/2 the experience, but it shifted by how many people were in the party. DDO doesn't seem to have the division of experience that way.

[mystoryflavor]

Is it just me? I'm not able to find it in the DDO-store.

it's just a suggestion that's why

[Stealthdog]

If they install a perma hireling, it should be several thousand TPs to buy. If you calculate how much a hireling costs (per hour based on level), having a permanent hireling that always remains within one level of the character is huge. The value of it would be at least 2000-3000 tps.

[Killer_Rabbit]

I'd like the DDO store to offer Hirelings you can purchase "permanently". They stay
1 lvl behind your toon and progress as your toon lvl's. You can equip and arm him/her.

Nice idea, although I'd like a boot camp to retrain the dopey lump.

[Mhykke]

I'd like the DDO store to offer Hirelings you can purchase "permanently". They stay
1 lvl behind your toon and progress as your toon lvl's. You can equip and arm him/her.

I call mine Blah.

[KaldainDDO]

It could work for those that like soloing and for those that have a group that they play with regularly that may be missing something, say a group of a fighter, a wizard, a ranger and a cleric, who maybe need a thief or a paladin once and a while. Yeah you could just have a backup character who is any of the classes which you don't already have in the party, but having a hireling that you can take with the group that can be commanded would be handy sometimes.

Also, it would be nice if the Hireling vendors mixed up their rosters once in a while so they aren't always the same bunch of hirelings, Stormreach is supposed to be attracting all kinds of adventures and sell swords looking for work. And how come no Rangers or Thieves in the mix?

[techwench]

What about level range hirelings?

Hirelings are grouped by level ranges (like they are in the DDO store) from 1-4, 5-8, 9-12, 13-16, 17-18. That way, they could go a little lower on the TP, but you still get a pretty good bang for the buck.

If making them one level lower than you and leveling up as you go, they could do something like:

Level 1-3 Hireling (ML:2)
Level 4-7 Hireling (ML:5)
Level 8-11 Hireling (ML:9)
and so on...

I dunno, maybe I'm just rambling now.

Anyway, interesting idea. I don't really think it'll hurt grouping, though...especially not in mid-high level content. Lower level stuff, you don't really need people to split up and do different things separately, so I can see use of hirelings more often (although, I hardly ever grouped @ really low levels, anyway).