Thanks, I just learned that there are hirelings. Of course that doesn't help for anyone who doesn't explore every inch of town, find them, talk to them, hire them. This is just another example of work needed. Starting out while people lean what's what and where's where there always needs to be a little hand-holding. And it most definitely should never be dependent on creating the "right" builds to start off.
This is very funny, but not for the reasons you think.
Let me see, let's take the example
Ultima V (working purely from 20+ yr old memory here, so...)
Shamino - start the game with him on 5hp
Iolo - at the start?
Gwenno - Iolo's shop in Britain
Julia - under Yew [requires Resistance password]
Mariah - Lyceum [requires ship or Moongate]
Dupre + Sentri - Bordermarch [requires grappling hook, special item]
Sajud - LB's Castle [would attack you in next combat if not member of Oppression / required Oppression password]
Julia + Toshi - Empath Abbey
Katrina - New Magincia [requires ship or moongate]
Geoffry - Buc's Den [requires ship]
Maxwell - Serpent's Hold [requires ship]
Captain John - Underworld [requires high level to reach]
Gorn - Blackthorn's Castle [requires ship + high level + potentially losing a companion permanently]
There's 8 cities, 10+ towns and so on, with 300+ NPCs for you to manually type keywords & make notes on before you find all of those. Still, going to the nearest inn / center of civilian life in D:OS requires a "lot of exploration".
One of the issues atm is that there's not
enough choice in companions! I shudder to think of how difficult you'd have found getting the stone of valor in Ultima VI, when you needed to recruit a mouse who was the only NPC who could enter the holes!
TL;DR
Obviously never played any of the 'golden age' RPGs - I'd suggest the remakes of U5 - Lazarus (
http://www.u5lazarus.com/) and Ultima VI (
http://u6project.com/) for an education. Both run on the Dungeon Siege I engine. Obviously, do not expect the graphical candyland that is D:OS, but do expect large, well built, hugely immersive worlds with thousands of NPCs / quests etc.
Hint: both are about x4-6 times the size of D:OS, and require a lot of time / effort. Well worth it though.