GameBanshee Forums

Strictly by your invocation.

I was wondering...

Do henchmen/familiars/summoned creatures take up experience points when using them? I'm just wondering because I've started a wizard (soon to become Pale Master) and my experience isn't the same as one of my other fighters.

I assumed henchmen would take experience, of course, but do summoned creatures and familiars do the same?

It'll be awful if they do!

Yes they do (at least in HotU).

There was a thread somewhere on this forum where it was calculated a bit, but I can't find it just now.

But basically - the henchmen/familiars/summons dosen't take XP as such. (they level based on your own level, and dosen't have XP scores as you do)

They do however increase your partys "challenge rating" which is used to calculate how much XP you get for a monster, and thus when kiling you will get lower XP because your rating is higher. This is in the rules of D&D 3rd edtion.

My own expereince (which I've not really tested seriouly) is something like that each aditional creature you have in your party decrease the XP per kill as if you were 1 level higher then you are.
So if you have a henchman, familiar and a summon, the game treats you as if you were 3 levels higher in challenge rating and thus you get only the XP as somebody 3 levels higher at kills (again - in my own experience).

If this is the case, then Summons have a much worse effect on your combat XP than Henchmen and familiars/companions would have, since they are often a few levels above your own when you gain access to them. For example: Giant Spider (10) can besummoned at clvl 7 (not counting animal domain).

So would it be better not to summon the best Monsters you can?

Personally - I always try and keep to as little "help" as possible.

As an arcane caster - I only summon my familiar if I have something specific to do with it. For instance the Pixie if I need to open something I can't blast down (rarely ).

I almost never used summoned creaters, other then Morderkins Sword and Black Blade of Disaster on occasions. (Not sure the latter counts as summoned?)

I often solo, when playing a warrior type (ranger, paladin, Fighter, barbarian). (although I always have Deekin with me )

I generally find the game easy enough, withouth needing large parties.

That's right, you don't really need summons, familiars or Henchmen, but having a sidekick around does speed up combat quite a bit, if only for the bonus of distraction. So I usually keep one around for convenience, even if i lose XP that way.

A henchman is more then enough (most people solo). If you spam metamagic area offence spells you should complete the game no problems. And BBoD counts as a summoned creature, though I'd expect the CR to be lower as it is merely an invisible ghost with a very good sword. Throughou thte game beside BBoD and Mord's there are no really good summons unless you invest in Palemaster.

you maay use henchemen w/o losing xp

I found that if I dismiseed my hencheman inside a dungeon . using hit and run tactic monster may attack your henchmen and the henchemen soften them a little .
Question : if henchmen and summon die before I kill monster ,do i get xp like solo or like party ?
if enemy dismised summoned creature , before dyung ?
eli the lich