Venturing with retainers and chocobos

I think it would be interesting if there were instances you could do with your retainers and maybe your chocobo.

The thing is though, retainers are not actually adventurer material - that's why they're retainers in the first place, they lack the sheer determination and, some might say, intelligence, that adventuring requires and thus find employment in more mundane and dull areas. The retainer vocate in 1.0 actually all but stated this blatantly to the player when signing up a retainer in 1.0:

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Originally Posted by version 1.0 Gridanian retainer vocate NPC Gyles

"Retainers are men and women who offer their services in exchange for coin."
"Though they're seldom as sharp as adventurers such as yourself, they're no strangers to life's more menial tasks. Tasks which your lot might not think worth your time."
"Better still, because they tend to rely on the gil they earn from the jobs you put their way, they're always keen to keep you happy."

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So yeah, retainers are not the brightest candles in the chandelier, and are definitely not the sort of people I want watching my back in a dangerous battle. Instead, I would love SE to bring back 1.0's Path Companions, as they really were actual trained adventurers (they even had the Echo and were fellow members of Minfilia's predecessor organization to the Scions!) who actually even had dialogue in the storyline, and were not dogsbodies playing hero.

They have talked about a system like this they are looking to release some soon call the GC Platoon. While it doesn't use your retainers or chocobo, the general idea is you get a group of NPCs from your GC that you train up and do instances with.

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

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I'm skeptical on that now. I mean, I have two retainers a level 60 Paladin and a level 60 dragoon, according to the hunting list if I pay them a venture they are able to slay chimera, dragons, griffons, amphiteres, drakes, dhalmels, and all sorts of creatures and securing whatever pieces of those creatures I want all by themselves.

Source: http://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/Hunting_Exploration

So while that may have been true back in 1.0, I do believe the modern retainers are quite capable of watching our backs now. Especially when I imagine my adorable au ra female retainer murdering a griffin and skinning it or ripping the fangs out of a dragon's mouth or carving up a dhalmel for it's meat.

Well it does certainly seem that with all the gear you can outfit your retainers with and the fact that they can now have a job up to level 60, it might not be too farfetched to think they could accompany you on a quest or at the very least you could help them or something .

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Originally Posted by Khalithar

I'm skeptical on that now. I mean, I have two retainers a level 60 Paladin and a level 60 dragoon, according to the hunting list if I pay them a venture they are able to slay chimera, dragons, griffons, amphiteres, drakes, dhalmels, and all sorts of creatures and securing whatever pieces of those creatures I want all by themselves.

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Given that they also come back with gear and all sorts of housing items, I've imagined that they just stalk other adventurers and opportunistically raid corpses. Retainers have no shame!

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Originally Posted by raela

Given that they also come back with gear and all sorts of housing items, I've imagined that they just stalk other adventurers and opportunistically raid corpses. Retainers have no shame!

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I dunno, I've never closely examined what the rest of those items are made out of. Presumably the retainer makes them using the rest of the corpse!

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

I would love SE to bring back 1.0's Path Companions, as they really were actual trained adventurers

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I'm also eagerly awaiting the Echo Companion.

My bird's at r20. I'm ready for a new companion grind. The Echo Companion would be great. But a more sophisticated companion AI may be necessary.

In 1.0 there was Escort-type quests that involved the companion, would love to see that as a sort of Leve or Quest option for leveling the new companions.