Hirelings/Cohorts? Does any every hire them?

[Starbuck_II]

I was thinking of the under used rules for Cohort/hireling.
A Hireling bought gets no XP/treasure, but a daily pay (more if going into extra dangerous areas).
A Cohort bought gets 1/2 share treasure, 1/2 XP.
Cohorts can also be obtained with Leadership, but that costs a feat.

DMG has rules for hiring both, but you rarely hear people buying them.

Has your party every bought Hireling/Cohorts?

 

[erealspiller84]

I once played an elven cleric, probably around 15th level though paid hirelings to drive a caravan of about 3 covered wagons and one stage coach that carried just about every piece of adventuring equiptment from the phb. Didn't last too long. DM rolled a "random encounter" of boulder chucking hill giants that thrashed the whole thing. About 30 minutes wasted... haven't had much reason to after that.

I once tried playing a legendary leader from Heroes of Battle that would have like 10 level 1 phalanx fighters with tower sheilds... I think the ac was close to 25/Full Cover. But anything I would have fought could easily rip them to shreds.

 

[DumbPaladin]

I got my cohort via Leadership. I also picked up 18 followers. They've been handy for a siege upon a town overrun by an evil guy, and for general clean-up at home.

The cohort's level 10, and very, very helpful. It was a worthwhile feat for sure.

 

[HoboGod]

Uhhh... sorta! I was playing a necromancer and needed a victim with 5 class levels for my Create Undead spell (yayzor for intelligent undead retaining class levels!). Unfortunately, it's ridiculously uncommon to just stumble into somebody with class levels. So rather, I casted Disguise Self and shopped around for a cohort that would be willing to fight CR 5 monsters. Once I found somebody, I payed WHATEVER he was asking, brought them out in the middle of nowhere, and butchered him. I looted his corpse for my money back, of course.

 

[Gilladian]

Let's see, in my current city-based campaign, my pcs own a large house, a warehouse, and a tavern-supply company. They're building a museum. They also have a secret laboratory, and a magic/mechanical loom that weaves tapestries.

They have 4-5 guards, two spies-in-training, a cleric (cohort), an artist, a bookbinder, a secretary/lab assistant, and 3 other servants all in full-time hire. They constantly talk about hiring more. Oh, and they have a bard/storyteller on retainer. They are about to have to hire employees (and a manager) for their new tavern-supply business.

They dream of owning the other 4-5 buildings in their block as well. I swear, they're more business entrepreneurs than adventurers at this point!

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

DMG has rules for hiring both, but you rarely hear people buying them.

Has your party every bought Hireling/Cohorts?

Nope, never.

Very briefly in a game of Warhammer RPG this happened, I believe, and in a game of WH 40K we temporarily took over a planetary government and once took control of a squad of soldiers.

It's too much work, though. Look at all the horrors wizards with familiars have to face. Now picture paying said familiar.

Hirelings and other such creatures (non-enhanced mounts, for instance, familiars, for another) tend to be far weaker than the PCs. A surprise area-of-effect trap could wipe a bunch out. Realistically they're going to want to stay outside the dungeon. You're better off using them (with some backup, maybe a secondary "adventuring party") to take care of things back home. And even then, they're prone to getting kidnapped for ransom, murdered, interrogated by mind-readers to expose your secrets, etc. The lack of a good cell phone system means you either have to use up spell slots, magic items or rely on carrier pigeons to communicate with them. The life of an adventurer makes hanging out with such folk difficult. If you're running an army campaign (eg you're the "superstars" of said army) it's do-able though, since you can have your soldier minions take care of them. But that doesn't work in a lot of campaigns.

It's difficult to keep track of them, needing to know where they are at all times, and this goes doubly in combat!

They all need food and water and most need pay, too, and never mind the money that won't be going into magic items, just keep tracking of their comestibles is a pain. (It's a lot easier to take care of just your own, plus maybe an animal companion's.)

 

[erealspiller84]

Let's see, in my current city-based campaign, my pcs own a large house, a warehouse, and a tavern-supply company. They're building a museum. They also have a secret laboratory, and a magic/mechanical loom that weaves tapestries.

They have 4-5 guards, two spies-in-training, a cleric (cohort), an artist, a bookbinder, a secretary/lab assistant, and 3 other servants all in full-time hire. They constantly talk about hiring more. Oh, and they have a bard/storyteller on retainer. They are about to have to hire employees (and a manager) for their new tavern-supply business.

They dream of owning the other 4-5 buildings in their block as well. I swear, they're more business entrepreneurs than adventurers at this point!

That actually sounds like a fun setting, making and managing investments and earning profits. It's good to see ingesting things for players to do in down times, ofcourse that doesn't sound like down time play in your game. Most of the games I've been in, no ones ever bothered with down time crafting and item creations.

I've always wanted to be in a game where the players have a hand in town development.

 

[jefgorbach]

generally hirelings are decent investments for lower level PCs augment their ranks withnear-equals, but quickly become of less and less value in the field. However hirelings remain good for overseeing things around home-base while the PCs are away.

Cohorts otoh remain semi-valuable since they gradually level with the rest of the party, although again their slower advancement means they can quickly become involved in matters over their head.

 

[radmod]

I'll say no. IME, players have enough trouble keeping their own characters straight let alone any hirelings or cohorts. It really depends on the setting. For example, in one world, we are playing scoundrels who are taking over the crime orgs in the city so we have all kinds of cohorts/hirelings. In other worlds, no one has any or only one person is wants them or is competent enough to have them. (I've killed off many hirelings as a DM.)

 

[Jhaelen]

I'll say no. IME, players have enough trouble keeping their own characters straight let alone any hirelings or cohorts.

Agreed. I also don't allow the 'leadership' feat in my 3e games. I want the game to center on the pcs, not their hordes of hirelings.

We also don't have a history of using them. I.e. in 1e and 2e we also never used them.