D&D General Henchmen watching your stuff?

[Seramus]

Mounts/Henchmen dying when you walk away from them is certainly a famous trope, but I avoid doing it unless it really REALLY makes sense for the story. Otherwise your players are more likely to just go without, and that's a lot of roleplaying hooks lost for little gain. And it can even push your players towards the classic murderhobo-who-won't-form-emotional-ties playstyle.

 

[Richards]

We usually have at least one NPC in charge of watching the draft/riding animals while the PCs are off doing their adventuring thing.

In my first campaign, it was Old Clem, a 60-something fisherman who figured out watching a band of PCs' animals was a lot more lucrative than fishing for a living. He used to send letters back to his fishing village detailing the PCs' adventures, yet somehow giving the appearance that he was their leader, not their hireling.

In my next campaign we ended up with the NPC little brother of one of our elven PCs. As he had a thing for our female elven ranger, we didn't ever have to worry about him leaving with the PCs' mounts. (They even got married at the end of the campaign.)

In our current campaign, the PCs just hired on a half-orc commoner NPC to look after their animals. Since he's a bit of a drunkard, he's the most sketchy of the bunch but so far he's been on his best behavior, also realizing this is a much better gig than he had before. (He was serving a jail sentence for a crime he didn't commit, so he's pretty predisposed to loyalty toward the PCs.)

Johnathan

 

[GMMichael]

When you dungeon hack, you need somebody to watch the horses, cart, etc.

Usually that is henchmen of hirelings.

I've been planning on henchmen acting like squires and bearers...

Will the stuff be there? Yes.

Will the GM mess with it? Maybe a little. It depends on the adventure. But if the henchmen need protecting, it draws attention away from the meat (and mead) of the game. I'd like to see henchmen provide combat support too, but guess what? If you draw your henchman (or woman) into battle, you can expect to lose a henchman if things go poorly. (That's the twist for those Meaningful Decision peeps out there.)

Under no circumstances am I allowing henchmen of hirelings, though. Too many players on the field.

 

[J.Quondam]

In my first campaign, it was Old Clem, a 60-something fisherman who figured out watching a band of PCs' animals was a lot more lucrative than fishing for a living. He used to send letters back to his fishing village detailing the PCs' adventures, yet somehow giving the appearance that he was their leader, not their hireling.

This is pure gold!
I've always done session/campaign recaps in a neutral "dispassionate observer" voice, but doing them through a colorful NPC like this would be so much better.

 

[Richards]

Old Clem was quite a character.

• He once invented "tree fishing," in which he sat perched on a high branch and tried catching squirrels on the ground on a fishing rod and line.
• He had to fess up about his letters to the PCs when the fishing village wrote him back, asking for him and his "band of followers" to help them with a string of kidnappings by a band of bullywugs (who were sacrificing them to an intelligent sword allied with a black dragon in the swamps).
• He was once kidnapped by a racist, human-hating elf as a means of getting a half-elf PC out in the open, who happened to own a magic bow the elf coveted for his own.
• I once ran an adventure in that campaign where the PCs had all been turned to stone and Old Clem and the PCs' animals (a pet dire wolf, a wolf animal companion, a raven familiar, an eagle animal companion, and eventually a fire elemental familiar) had to fight off the ones who had done so and find a way to return them to life. For that adventure, the players ran Old Clem and the animals instead of their normal PCs.
• Old Clem's final adventure was helping the PCs fight off an older, more powerful black dragon related to the one they'd slain in the swamps near Old Clem's fishing village, where the dragon had taken Old Clem's grand-niece hostage to bring the "dragonslayer and his band" out into the open, after having razed their headquarters in retaliation. Old Clem saw his grand-niece saved, but the excitement was too much for his old heart and he passed on from this mortal coil.

Here's the image we used for him:

In addition, my current campaign is set in the universe formed from the "universe seed" the PCs from that earlier campaign gathered, and the deific pantheon in that world is patterned after the PCs and prominent NPCs of the earlier campaign. In that pantheon, Clem is the God of Fishing and Bluffing. I've got an adventure coming up in that campaign where a Temple of Clem is one of the adventuring locales.

Johnathan

 

[Tonguez]

Etymology nerdism

The word Henchman is derived from Olde English Hengest+Man meaning Horse-Man, and originally referred to the Men who went riding with the King and served under the Master of the King's Horses. Sometimes confused with Groomsman who looked after the Horses. The title of Royal Henchman was abolished by Elizabeth I after which the term took on its more pejorative meaning of a close confident willing to do violence on ones behalf.

As an aside Minion is derived from the french Mignon "darling"

So Henchman staying with the horses is historically correct, them surviving really depends on story purpose and how much the PCs have invested in keeping them loyal and protected.
Various special rules invoked here...

 

[Lanefan]

Each hench will have its own personality etc., and some henches may be more trustworthy than others. I even once had henches fighting henches (offscreen) when one tried to steal the party's horses and gear and the others stopped him; party returned to a dead hench and a long story.

That said, and to be picky, in my eyes "henches" come into the adventure with you to carry gear etc. and to get involved in the goings-on e.g. when a wizard's fighter hench covers her while she casts spells. "Hirelings" don't adventure at all, but instead stay back to guard the horses and-or outdoor campsite on the assumption that because the PCs have been through there's no danger here anymore.

 

[Unwise]

As a GM I don't mess with PCs stuff. If I do, they will take precautions that slow down the game and make me RP a bunch of sidekicks. Also, when they don't need those sidekicks to guard the wagon, they use them for lots of other things that always end up turning the party evil. If my players think a room is trapped, they will always find a way to get a sidekick spring it. Or if they think a local lord might be a vampire, they send a sidekick in as bait. It is like a compulsive behaviour, sidekicks turn them evil in no time.

 

[Audiomancer]

I believe it's intended in the 1e/2e sense, where a player character could have a certain number of henchmen and hirelings (determined by their Charisma score). Henchmen were kind of like sidekicks, while hirelings were basically paid mercs.

To quote a recent episode of She-Hulk:

“Henchmen believe in the cause. Goons [Hirelings] are just there for the paycheck.”

 

[Ancalagon]

In my games it's very common that the party has a follower or two - they usually aren't as competent as the PCs, but I find that having them be relatively capable can expand the possibilities. For example "oh we can't go in there and leave the mounts alone" is avoided if you have a dependable follower or three.

If there is a combat I used them to slightly "fudge" - if the PCs are doing well they don't intervene, but if the fight is going poorly because of bad luck the henchmen start shooting.