Diablo III Followers Officially Revealed, New Images and FAQ
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Who are the followers?
You will encounter three followers on your journey in Sanctuary; the Templar, the Enchantress, and the Scoundrel. The Templar is a heavily armored, tough character that can be specced into a very aggressive damage absorption role or into a supportive healing role. The Enchantress tends to be focused on ranged DPS but can also be specced into a player enhancement role. The Scoundrel is a throwback to the rogue of the original Diablo -- a conventional ranged character who uses crossbows but also has more damage options and some light crowd control.
How do the followers differ from the hirelings we saw in Diablo II?
In Diablo II, the hirelings were fairly generic, but the followers are specific characters with their own storylines, their own personalities, and their own place within the world. Overall, the followers are also more customizable; you can itemize them and choose from a variety of skills to augment your playstyle.
What do the followers have to do with the story of Diablo III?
The followers act as your companions in the world, rather than as pets. While the followers are not core story characters, they enhance the story elements of the game. They give us opportunities to have a character provide background about the world flavored with his or her own personality.
How will the game be balanced around the followers?
The followers won't be a massive part of game balance. They're there to make the single-player, normal difficulty experience feel more cooperative and to aid in enhancing the story. These factors lose some importance in multiplayer and in the higher difficulty settings of the game, and as such, the followers won't be as relevant there.
How will you find the followers?
Players will encounter the followers in the world during their journey through Sanctuary. Each follower is a part of the main story arc and has a different story and background. Players will feel that followers have a role in the world; that they're in Sanctuary fighting evil alongside the heroes.
Each follower has his or her own introductory quest where players learn a little bit about who each one is and where they come from. We don't want players to encounter them and feel obligated to do some task for them so they like you -- it's more that you'll encounter them and they fight alongside you and you gain each other's trust. They're on the same path that you are; they're other adventurers that you encounter as you battle through Sanctuary. Followers don't divert from the main story path, they're an integral part of it.
What are some follower characteristics?
Our goal was to make each follower distinct from the others. We've put in hours of voice work with individual casting for them, giving each Follower a unique personality. The Templar order is a new group that we're introducing as part of the Diablo universe; they have their own agenda, they're not paladins, and they have a different belief system and code of ethics that they follow. The Scoundrel is called a Scoundrel for a reason, he's a bit of a lighter character with a humorous but dark side and he emits a feel that is very different from the Templar who is more of a pure and good character. The Scoundrel resembles more of an underhanded rogue. We want people to choose their follower as often based on personality as they do based on which abilities they like the most -- if people do that then we'll feel like we were successful in building them.
How can you customize your followers?
Each follower will have 12 total skills, and players will have to choose which 4 skills from that pool to use, with new skills unlocking at levels 5, 10, 15, and 20. Players will also be able to equip various items to their followers -- there are two weapon slots, rings, amulets, and a unique class item available for each one. As followers level up, they'll also advance visually, becoming more powerful looking.
What can you say about the follower skills?
The skills are awesome, and they make for really great choices. Each of the skills that players have to choose from are competitive at their level. The goal was to make the followers' skills, in normal difficulty, enhance the player's choices about his or her playstyle. If you're playing a barbarian and you've got the Templar, you don't need him to absorb physical damage for you -- you won't need a charge ability, you'll want the Templar to take an ability that's more healing based. We want to make sure that each follower has a few different things that they can offer each class so you can customize each follower to match and augment your playstyle.
What happens when your follower dies?
When your follower loses too much health, they will go out of commission for a brief period of time. When they are out of commission, you'll lose their benefits temporarily, and then they'll rejoin the battle with you. You won't need to go back to town to have them rejoin you.
How do you access the followers once they've joined you on your journey?
The followers will stay with you as long as you want or until you dismiss them. Currently you'll need to head into town to change them or pick them up.
How do you level up a follower?
We don't consider the level up process for followers to be part of what you do with them. The followers will stay within your level range whether you quest with them or not. We don't want you to have to go back to a low-level area to let your followers catch up to your level.
Will you be able to control the followers?
No, we've avoided pet and follower commands as they added unnecessary micromanagement to the game.
