D&D 5E Hireling Costs

[designbot]

Don't forget, per page 92 of the DMG:

Any NPC that accompanies the adventurers acts as a party member and earns a full share of experience points.

A hireling might also expect a share of any treasure earned.

 

[designbot]

I would argue that a guard or a bandit are what you become when you're NOT a skilled hireling but also not a peasant farmer, either.

PHB page 159: Skilled hirelings include anyone hired to perform a service that involves a proficiency (including weapon, tool, or skill): a mercenary, artisan, scribe, and so on.

 

[pukunui]

^ What they said.
[MENTION=6777589]designbot[/MENTION]: I'm not using XP for this adventure, but I certainly will have any hirelings demand a share of the spoils as part of their contract.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

PHB page 159: Skilled hirelings include anyone hired to perform a service that involves a proficiency (including weapon, tool, or skill): a mercenary, artisan, scribe, and so on.

A mercenary != a guard or bandit. A mercenary is typically a trained and experienced soldier able to command a goodly fee for his services. A bandit is an opportunist who bashes people with a club for their purses and usually ends up at the end of a rope. Your not going to find a guard with the same skill depth as a scribe or artisan, either.

 

[designbot]

Yes, but in game terms, a bandit, a guard, and even a commoner are proficient in the use of their default weapons. (MM page 9: "Assume that a creature is proficient with its armor, weapons, and tools.")

 

[Jaelommiss]

Based on the table in the adventurer's league rules, spellcasting costs (spell level^2)x10 if you want to hire an NPC for it, plus doubled consumed materials cost and 10% for reusable, expensive materials. The cost to hire a spellcaster could then be the cumulative amount that it would cost for them to cast every available spell. I'd then double this for danger pay (why should the wizard leave his tower if he can earn as much in town?), and half it as a standby wage since most days you will not use all of those spell slots. Cantrips are assumed to be free in this situation.

Using that formula an acolyte will cost 30gp daily, a priest will cost 330gp, a mage will cost 1160gp, and an archmage will cost 3960gp. Of course, once you get beyond CR 2 spellcasters you are really looking at NPCs that will need more than mere gold to hire.

 

[pukunui]

A mercenary != a guard or bandit. A mercenary is typically a trained and experienced soldier able to command a goodly fee for his services. A bandit is an opportunist who bashes people with a club for their purses and usually ends up at the end of a rope. Your not going to find a guard with the same skill depth as a scribe or artisan, either.

I think you're getting too caught up on the vocations of "bandit" and "guard". I'm just talking about using those stats as basic hirelings.

According to the rules in the PHB, someone who is proficient with a weapon counts as a skilled hireling, and as designbot points out, anyone who is listed with a weapon attack in their stats is assumed to be proficient with that weapon. Therefore, mechanically speaking, an NPC with the stats of either a bandit or a guard (regardless of their actual vocation in-game) would be considered a skilled hireling, even if only just.

 

[Minigiant]

A skilled hireling is pretty much anyone you plan to have make checks or action.

Unskilled hirelings pretty much do nonactions like hauling and couriering items through safe areas and thus get a few silvers.

 

[Quickleaf]

I think [MENTION=63508]Minigiant[/MENTION] hit the nail on the head with pricing, though I think the 2 gp/day hireling cost already *is* hazard pay.

I base that assertion off the BD&D retainer pricing.

One of the things I miss (and often still refer to) from the BD&D Rules Cyclopedia is the section on Hiring Retainers. Very worth reading [MENTION=54629]pukunui[/MENTION] if you have that book or a pdf.

Directly from that book, here are some cost comparisons...

Mercenaries: Individually, they cost 2-30 gp/month. For example, costs per month: footman 2 gp, heavy footman 3 gp, archer 5 gp, light cavalry 10 gp, dwarven mounted crossbowman 15 gp, elven longbowman 20 gp, heavy cavalryman 20 gp, elven mounted bowmen 30 gp.
However, in order to maintain your mercenaries' arms & armor in working repair you would also need to hire an armorer for 100 gp/month who could tend to all your mercenaries' gear.

Specialists: Specialists were significantly more costly. For example, costs per month: alchemist 1,000 gp, animal trainer 500 gp, armorer 100 gp, engineer 750 gp, magic-user 3,000+ gp, sage 2,000 gp, spy 500 gp (per mission, not per month), seaman - rower 2 gp, seaman - sailor 10 gp, navigator 150 gp, captain 250 gp.

It's clear the 5e hireling cost of 2 gp / day (60 gp / month) is extremely inflated compared to the BD&D costs.

Without knowing the expected wealth per level of either edition, it's hard to make any kind of mathematical inference about what the 5e cost *should* be, but treating the 5e PHB cost as the cost for hiring retainers for short deadly ventures of less than a week might make sense, whereas a lower cost might make sense if they're just there to keep watch, keep their armor polished, and fight in traditional armies for their feudal lord.

 

[pukunui]

Thanks [MENTION=20323]Quickleaf[/MENTION]. The mercenaries were asking for 4 gp/day (or 40 gp for a tenday), but the half-elf arcane trickster / courtesan managed to persuade them to accept only 2 gp/day (or 20 gp for a tenday) plus a share of the spoils. The PCs had 100 gp, so that bought them 5 mercenaries with guard stats for a tenday.