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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Weisshaupt" data-source="post: 4787028" data-attributes="member: 76368">I GM for a small group of three players. A rogue, a paladin and a fighter.They're all second level, but as I'm running the first Scales of War adventure - Rivenroar - I'm noticing they're really struggling with the encounters.We've concluded that the issue lies with the encounter scaling. I'm pulling back on monsters in the encounters so they lie in the proper XP allotment ranges but they're still pulling by the skin of their teeth.So we've decided to create a fourth character, an NPC mercenary that'll join the party for a fee. I've created him and will characterize him out of combat, but they'll control him in encounters.The question I wanted to pose the larger community is how to deal with this character's pay.I'm thinking that all experience from encounters are divided evenly over all four characters. This tithe will however be offset by the fact that the group can take on more difficult encounters.When it comes to treasure I'm not really sure. My first idea was to look at the treasure parcels for a three-character group and let the characters have the two magical items due them, and then give a quarter of the remaining monetary treasure to the mercenary. This will make the player characters considerably less wealthy as time goes by, but I don't think the mercenary will be able to keep up with purchasing magical items with his quarter-of-the-money pay.The other alternative which struck me was to simply look at the list of four-player treasure parcels. That would probably allow the mercenary to stay as well equipped as the PCs. But then I'm afraid the player's might consider the NPC as one of their own. I want this character presence to be a detriment to the character's progress in a way, and not let him count as just another PC.On the other hand, there's a reason the treasure allotment exists, and I'm hesitant to reduce the actual money each character receives per level.</blockquote>

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