In the games decription it says  :   "Solo or Group Play | Neverwinter will allow players to go it alone, with AI-controlled henchmen, or with a group of other players."

Is this like Star Trek online were you choose permanent team members and they come with you on all your journeys ?

How much control do you have over them ?

Can you gear them out ?

 

I burned out quik on STO but I always loved the away team aspect of the game and lvling / gearing them out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjfeRn1WznY

Ahh. Thanks,  I did some snooping but missed that vid.

The link given is a good video so I will agree that you should watch it..

 

You will not have a team of hinchmen.. its 1 active at a time, however you will be able to have 3 to pull from.

 

Overall you will have a collection of hinchmen but only 1 can be active at a time. The amount of control you have over them is: NONE.

 

The hinchmen do have equipment slots but its not the same equipment as the players use, I think they use the runes in the open equipment slots on the hinchmen.

 

They have thier own minds and act independently of you and not like a pet. They do tend to stay very close as far as I could tell and my dog did attack fairly quickly when I agroed stuff. Overall it seemed to work well for me and I am hopeful that it continues to work like this.

I was hoping the companion system was going to be like STO but looks like thats not the case.

There are limited henchman slots and you can have one active at time.  They have rune slots and jewelry slots I believe (at least my mage henchman did).  As you go along, they level like you do.  You must send them away to "train" for a time that increases proportionally to their level to improve their stats.  Didn't get the henchman beyond level 9 I believe and at that point the help they provide seems pretty minimal.  I felt most of the time, I could have dismissed him with little slow down.

Originally posted by tagtarsis

 

The hinchmen do have equipment slots but its not the same equipment as the players use, I think they use the runes in the open equipment slots on the hinchmen.

 

To be specific. 3 runestone slots, 2 accesory slots (think it was ring and belt) and 1 offhand slot that's specific to henchmen class. The fun thing, at least last beta, was that the class restriction on accesory didn't seem to apply to henchmen so I was able to put a "class: wizard" ring on my warrior henchmen. 

Originally posted by Redcor
I was hoping the companion system was going to be like STO but looks like thats not the case.

Nope, it's much more like LotRO's skirmish soldiers. I wouldn't say 1:1 copy, but very similar :)