That said, I haven't seen a benefit to manhunter faction gratitude for joining them in a fight. Some mods (e.g., Floris) enable a party skill bonus system to boost prisoner management depending on the number of manhunters (and higher tiers) that are in your party. You can't sell dead enemies to the brokers.
They're not required, but the benefits they bring to your party are that they're fast (cavalry) and they use blunt weapons which tends to knock enemies unconscious rather than kill them.
If you want to make money hunting bandits and selling them to the slave brokers (very lucrative, btw), then you may want to keep Manhunters in your party and level them up to higher tiers. Is there any advantage to keeping them on my payroll? I know when I recued the farmer and woman, then released them, they said thank you and that my reputation would increase. Alsal3: I rescued some folks called manhunters.
