Hireling, henchmen, extras and redshirts.

[Voadam]

Even in 1e I never really liked having more than just the PCs. Though one character of mine who became a merchant prince wizard went around with his familiar and two high level NPC fighter bodyguards.

 

[WhimsyTheFae]

It varies and there is no standard.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Cohorts are sidekicks, not disposable mooks! And the rest guard the castle, not coming on adventures to be slaughtered!

If any of this was ordinary, there wouldn't be armies or castles.

This seems like an exaggeration. Castles are still useful against the Com1 rabble that 90% of the world is, and a standing army of War1's seems like a good idea.

His strategy sounds like a strategy for the PC party, which *isn't* among the 90% of rabble, and often has better access to things like low-level magic.

I think you are quite wrong to think what you suggest is normal. If it was in the remotest bit normal in a campaign world, it would be perfectly normal to a) build all fortresses underground, b) have magical defenses that countered invisibility, illusions, and such on the approaches to the fortress.

You mean "dungeons"? You know, things that PC parties (which have resources like that) face all the time? The core rules suggest that, indeed, these things are quite common. Not as common as castles, but Com1's are vastly more common than adventurers, anyway.

The very fact that there is a castle barbican suggests that spider climb potions are considered rare and wonderful and not ordinary equipment.

Or that they were expecting an army of War1's, and not the elite and powerful Heroes of Destiny that they ended up facing. Elite and Powerful Heroes of Destiny are going to require a bit more than a barbican.

And Elite and Powerful Heroes of Destiny may only be 10% of the population, but most folks are aware of these "adventurer types" because of the power and influence they wield.

It would definitely be an unusual world where a group lead by PC's with access to these powers simply didn't use them.

It varies and there is no standard.

True, but there is a baseline that the rules suggest, which includes a world in which spider climb potions are rare for NPC's, but not for PC's.

 

[DonTadow]

I like to think of the game as a television show and the pcs as the main characters. My pcs have hired hirlings before, but they are always in the background.

 

[Piratecat]

Thanks for steering away from what was clearly a brewing argument. It's appreciated.

 

[Lanefan]

I didn't vote here, as there's no option for "a few animals and hirelings who the party protect as well, but no better, than they protect themselves".

Animals in general have an awful record in our 3e game...I swear that world is slowly running out of warhorses, thanks to us! Hirelings tend to die about as often as full PC's do, which is often...hence my non-vote above.

In my 1e games, animals (other than the occasional familiar) are almost a non-starter, but henches and hirelings tend to drop like flies - sometimes by sheer bad luck (random roll for who the Giant's boulder lands on), sometimes simply because they're weaker (12 h.p. hirelings don't survive 10-dice fireballs as well as 60 h.p. PCs), and sometimes because the party fails to protect them. But that's a different system.

Lanefan

 

[drothgery]

I picked this one ...

>> Animal companions, mounts and such but no hirelings. Party won’t risk others on deadly journeys. <<

... but sometimes an NPC or cohort will come along with us. It's just not a hireling; we'll sometimes have a low-level hireling (but not a 1st level commoner) watch the horses while we're in the dungeon at higher levels because otherwise they'll get eaten, but that's not normal. And one time my PC (a bard with some tricked out social skills, a +6 Cha cloak, and a circlet of Persuasion) conned a lower-level party after the same thing into helping us out until we ran off with the treasure.

 

[Kelek72]

Love the Sig

I didn't post it in that thread but your Stunning Snatch was hilarious, obviously I mean...

Anyone remember the Southpark with the red shirt kid getting eaten on the school bus?
NPC's should be treated this way when they get named "Bob" or "Sam the Barkeep".

Hey, where'd my Sig go?

 

[Wycen]

With the advent of Leadership as a feat in 3E, I'd say I've noticed a drop in party members who aren't player characters. In 1E/2E once you reached name level most classes would gain followers and even if I didn't use them for anything, I'd at least be interested in seeing what I was getting.

Now simple redshirts, hirelings, lantern bearers and the like never really got abused in our DnD games. Runequest on the other hand, crap they must be a staple or something. Granted, I've only ever played RQ with one group, always the same GM and I can only think of 2 combats that had less than 12 characters involved, but peon NPCs come by the dozens when we play that.

I've never abused henchmen or followers in DnD because we actually used the loyalty rules and I just usually play a good or neutral character.

However, the DM in our current Ptolus campaign isn't a fan of any sort of follower. Even when we took Leadership our cohort would not go adventuring with us. I didn't like this, but last week both our cleric players couldn't make it, so he allowed me to drag along an adept follower, (gave her a wand of CLW) so we actually had some healing ability. I do wonder if he plans to "teach me a lesson" and kill the NPC off, which is why I've been super protective in our combat.

 

[rgard]

In previous editions, it seemed common enough that the players brought hirelings, pack animals, torch bearers and other types of extras with them. Some might not go into “the dungeon”, but having NPCs with had some uses. Hackmaster, in a bit of gallows humor even expects the players to have these red shirts with so that when a deadly monster shows up, the players can see they are in over their heads by how fast the NPCs get cleaved trough.

But how often in 3E does this happen? Is the party just the PCs or do they hire a torchbearer [Commoner 1] with more GP than he makes in a year? Maybe a mercenary or two. A spear carrier here and there. I doubt [m]any parties would take this to the Zapp Brannigan level of sending wave after wave of NPCs at the monsters until they reached their stomach limit. But if they did, do tell.

In 1e we had one player who hired a boatload of NPCs (henchmen and hirelings) to keep his characters from getting whacked by higher level PCs. Worked pretty good.

In 3.5e I haven't seen too much of the NPC extras...I'm probably the only player with some henchmen in the recent campaign. We generally had alot of people at the gaming table and unfortunately some of the less experienced players usually filled the role of 'red shirt'. I say unfortunately, but everyone had fun and there were some glorious PC deaths.

My PC (wiz/ur-priest/mt) does have a couple of former PCs (dead) animated and placed in the portable hole to act as body guards when needed. Also have a couple of rangers under the effects of Utter Thrall (Monte Cook's Complete Book of Eldritch Might.) None of the above have died...or died again.

My Swashbucker/Battle Sorcerer (same campaign, but generally not played at the same time as the Theurge) has an orc follower named 'Patsy' (yes, he has two coconut halves). Never got Patsy killed and in fact, my character has chosen to save Patsy before making an effort to save a party member. This character is a bit more noble than the Theurge and views loyalty as a two-way street.

Thanks,
Rich