Yeh, I only found out very recently that u can give'em weapons n stuff, i dont think that was possible in D2, but they drag me in lots of 'uneeded fights' espcially when i need to recover n runaway from a monster they pick on'im, die, n lead'im to me >.<
the ones using ice r the best coz they slow/stop most monsters, but downside is that they explode when killed the monsters leave no body to mangle with