Couple noob questions re: Artificer and Hirelings

BlueProteus

Was thinking about checking out DDO, but wasn't sure about a couple things.

The Artificer class sounds like something I'd like, but I'm not sure I can even access it as a free player. If I were to sub, would I be able to choose that class? I thought I saw something about it being a "favored" class. Not sure what that is.

Hirelings look like they last for one hour, then expire. Is there a way to have a hireling that's permanent, whenever you want to call them?

thanks

mawgren

Artificer is a "favor" class meaning it can be unlocked by gaining favor with one of the games patrons / factions. This will take a new player a long time so if you want to start with one the other option would be to skip that step and purchase the class from the DDO store.

Hirelings are not permanent. They last for 1 hour and pause while not in quest zones. You can purchase them from in game vendors for a small amount of in game currency and can have 1 at a time. The DDO store has a different set of hireling you can purchase with DDO store cash and these will stack with the ones you purchase from in game vendors meaning you can use both at the same time. These are called "gold seal" hirelings i think and you can have basically a whole party of these if you want. From my experience most quests do a good job of scaling if you are a solo player and can be done by yourself or with just a healer type hireling as back up. 

Personally I think DDO is a good game worth checking out. You can definately get a good idea of what to expect before even spending a penny. Hope that helps.