They do gain talents upon leveling... ?
Sounds pretty stupid... "if you want to be weaker, use henchmen instead of companions"
What? Why would anyone want that? If henchmen and companion are mutually exclusive why pick the weaker one AND less content? That... makes no sense.
I don't recall having to add any ability points, they were pre-designed. Of course once I leveled I could give the additional ones to the points I prefered. And again; they gain talents too.
We just seem to see things different. You want 4 heroes (you can't, as mentioned, it's just the 2). I see it more *indeed* as 2 heroes having 2 less powerful people to assist them in their quest, supplement them. But not being there complete and utter equals (and nowhere in the game does it act like they are, "let me speak to your leader!" having no input in quest choices and similar.
Ok, there's a bit of confusion here. Let me see if I can clear that up.
1) Companions are *supposed* to have talents. At least, that's how things stood with the last video update on the difference between Henchmen and Companions.
2) Henchmen are inferior to Companions, but there are supposed to be far more Henchmen available for hire in the game than Companions. That makes Henchmen attractive in that you can easily find exactly the kind of help you're looking for when struggling with a particular scenario, where as that might not be the case with the more rare Companions and their limited selection.
3) This comment:
However, what Madora and Jahan actually have (at level 3) is:
6 points to add to stats (same as the main characters)
3-4 points to add to abilities (Madora has more than Jahan, for some odd reason)
0 points to add to talents (yet we were told companions had talents)
..is attached to the understanding that all characters start with 30 points in stats (5 in each score) and then a total of 5 additional stat points to assign during character creation. By level 3, you have a total of 36 stat points spread amongst 5 stats. Madora and Jahan do as well, so everything is working as expected there.
When it comes to abilities, you start with 5 ability points in character creation that you can reassign while designing your character. By the time you're level 3, you've assigned 7 ability points in total. For some reason, at level 3 Madora only has 5 ability points assigned, and Jahan has even less (4 ability points assigned). Stabby mentioned Jahan needing 1 ability point placed in Air Elementalist - there is certainly room for that since he's already short on ability points compared to Madora, and both of them are short on ability points compared to the main characters
(4 vs 3 vs 7) (5 vs 4 vs 7). edit: updated with correct numbers
As for talents, at character creation you get 2 points to assign to talents. By level 3 you've assigned a total of 3 points to talents. According to the last Companion video update we received, Companions are supposed to have talents as well, but Madora and Jahan have none.
Here's some more info on Henchmen (not Companions), if you're interested:
"It also gives us an opportunity to add a bit more information about the "Design A Henchman" tier. Many people have asked us what happens to the henchmen they design if the "henchmen become companions" stretch goal is reached.
The way it is going to work is that the henchmen designed by backers will receive a background from the pool of available backgrounds. And they will have dialogues which correspond to those backgrounds. Additionally there will be companions that we will add to the game and these will be treated differently from the henchmen.
You may wonder why you would still want to hire henchmen if there are companions available. And the answer is that different henchmen will have different strengths and weaknesses as well as different abilities. It is very likely that while playing, you might swap henchmen in and out depending on the challenges you are facing. For instance, when dealing with fire creatures, fire spells actually heal them instead of damaging them. If you happen to have a companion that is specialized in fire spells, he will therefore be of little use. At such a moment it would be very handy to hire a henchman specialized in water spells.
Luckily you also have a homestead at The Shelter Plane At The End of Time where you can ask henchmen you encountered and hired, to wait for you.
You should also be aware that henchmen talk to each other so if you treat them badly, that might have repercussions in your dealing with other henchmen. Likewise, treat them well and you might find unexpected benefits."
