Finally got around to playing this game after owning it for several years, and have a few questions that I haven't been able to answer on my own yet.

1 - Shortly after picking up my first "henchman" in the original NWN, my character became encumbered from carrying too much gear. I thought "no problem", and went to transfer my excess gear to my henchman, but . . . there doesn't seem to be anyway to do this, nor to access the henchman's inventory. Is this by design, or am I doing something wrong?

2 - The training seemed to indicate that henchman are supposed to level up with you, but after achieving my first level up, my henchman is still at level 1. I see no way to compel him to level up. What, if anything, am I doing wrong?

Thanks in advance.

Unfortunately, henchmen don't have individual inventories; you alone carry everything. And it's really easy to pick up a lot of stuff you don't need, especially if you've been taking all the books you find. Go ahead and drop them off on a nearby bookshelf; you don't need them, and they'll only weigh you down.

As for henchmen leveling, they'll always be one level below you, so if you're level 2, he'll remain level 1.

Much appreciated.

Tony K's AI and henchman override will give your henchies useable inventories. (As well as a whole lot more including a much better AI if you want. Very configurable during installation.)

Have fun :)

EDIT: I wouldn't use the stackable everything option, nor the wandering monsters will breask down doors looking for you. They have both been known to cause problems in some modules.

Usable inventories weren't officially implemented in NWN until the Hordes of the Underdark expansion, you can use a hak pack/override to get it working though.

Sometimes the auto-level will not kick in (at least for me) - if you talk to your henchman (in the event they are more than 1 level below you) you will see a dialogue option telling them to level up. Haven't figured out what makes the auto-level not work but it is very rare that it doesn't.

[Note: at certain level benchmarks your henchman will automatically upgrade his/her weapon and change in appearance to have better armor as well - might be every 5 or 10 levels, I don't remember]