Rules companions

[Quickleaf]

Has anyone developed rules for henchmen? I've taken a look at the beastmaster ranger, and have tried to come up with a way to include henchmen without jeopardizing 4e's economy of actions.

I used the mount/mounted combat idea and carried it over to the companion/leadership. Here's what I came up with...

Gaining a Companion
Friendship: During the course of your adventures you might forge a strong bond of friendship with an NPC who later joins you on your adventures. Such companions are very loyal, often to the death.
Professional: Sometimes you can hire a companion, whether through a traditional contract, or in exchange for other services or goods. A professional keeps to the terms of the contract and won’t put their lives on the line (unless you’re paying extra). Generally a professional costs 50 gold per level per month, though they often negotiate for longer or shorter contracts, and many choose to take a cut of whatever treasure the PC finds. The downside to hiring a mercenary is that gold speaks louder than love, so keep an eye out for treachery.
Quest: The success of a quest may earn you a companion. Perhaps you free the captured prince but he is under an enchantment causing him to fall in love with one of the PCs who he dotes upon and follows everywhere. Or perhaps driving off the trolls earns you the respect of the crippled sergeant who asks you to train his daughter to become a warrior. Generally such companions stay with the PC for a couple levels in order to accomplish a specific quest – soon after this, they part ways.

Companion [Keyword]: This keyword is applied only to creatures with special companion rules, such as an ability gained when fighting alongside your companion. In order to benefit from a companion a character must both have the Leadership feat. The total levels of all companions may not exceed the character’s level, and the maximum level of a single companion is half the character's level.

Leadership (new feat)
Prerequisite: Charisma 12+
Benefit: When you fight alongside a creature with the companion keyword who serves you, you gain access to any special companion abilities they have. Not every creature possesses these abilities.
In addition, you may spend an action point to grant one companion a full turn (see below).
You may have a number of companions in battle equal to your Charisma modifier.

Companions in Combat
During battle, move your companions on your initiative; they provide flanking (and whatever companion benefits they offer) but may not attack or take standard actions. You may spend a minor action to direct a companion in line of sight to take a standard action; thus if you have three minions fighting alongside you, you could spend three minor actions to command them all to attack (assuming your Charisma was 16 or higher), forfeiting your turn in the process.

[Quickleaf]

Making a companion creature would be as simple as adding a companion feature to a level appropriate creature. Some ideas for companion features:

You may add one of the following features to any creature to make it a companion.

Arming Squire
When adjacent to you, the arming squire allows you to equip a weapon as a free action or shield as a minor action, and halves the time it takes for you to don or remove armor. When you drop an item or are disarmed while the arming squire is adjacent to you, the squire may take possession of the item.

Knight Hospitaler
When adjacent to you, the knight hospitaler automatically stabilizes you when you are dying, and can also administer Heal check (+your level). In addition, while tending you during a rest the knight hospitaler provides you with a +1 bonus to all recovery checks.

Shield Bearer
When adjacent to you the shield bearer negates any flanking bonus enemies adjacent to it have against you, and allows you to equip or stow a shield as a minor action. In addition, when you are forced to move, the shield bearer can move in your stead provided they are adjacent to both you and the attacker.

[DanmarLOK]

It does break the action economy. I hire three minions and gain three attacks per round at the expense of my own. A better value would be two minions and I get to use my normal attack and get at least 2 basic attacks (if not better than basic) per round.

To keep things in balance, unless you want all your players to run around with two minions in tow is to make minions exactly like ranger beast companions. If you want the companion to attack it costs you your attack. Want the comapnion to move, it costs you a move action, etc.

[Roger]

I took a swing at reskinning the beastmaster into a henchman-hiring leader a little while ago:

Beastmaster, Meet the Henchmaster « Stirges Suck

I'm currently running this sort of ranger in a PbP game; seems to be working out well so far.



Cheers,
Roger

[77IM]

I agree that action economy is important, but a strict one-for-one trade is a bit weird and can actually slow you down (for example, you and your henchman can't both chase someone at the same time...). Here's how I'd do it:

1. When you use a move action to move, all of your henchmen can move too. That way you can all get into position at once (and I don't think extra moves really hurts action economy much).

2. Commanding the henchman to attack requires you to spend a standard action. This way you don't get extra attacks. In return, though, the henchman's attacks should be roughly as useful as a PC's attack, since that is what you are giving up to use it. This way having a henchman gives you another attack option, not just more attacks or better attacks.

3. All henchmen would have small auras. Enemies in the aura would take some sort of penalty (the henchman is distracting them), and allies would get some sort of bonus (the henchman is aiding them). This way, the henchmen function more as terrain elements -- the simple act of positioning them is tactically interesting and beneficial, even if they aren't getting explicit attacks. It serves to highlight the PC abilities more, and aids your party instead of stealing their thunder.

-- 77IM

[Quickleaf]

That's what I came to too 771M. I like your idea about auras... here's my first shot at a companion "template":

Arming Squire Companion
Arming aura 1; allies may equip a weapon as a free action and a shield as a minor action.
Burden Bearer: Treat the arming squire’s strength as 2 points higher for the purposes of carrying loads.
Lessons of the Knight: The arming squire’s PC can spend an action point to give the arming squire access to one of his encounter powers or feats until the end of the PC’s next turn.
Speedy Armiger: When aided by the arming squire, halve the time it takes an ally to don or remove armor.