Hiring NPCs

[I'm A Banana]

Well, I'll answer my questions.

I don't have problems with PC's hiring themselves out because they're making better pay going into dungeons themselves than getting paid a flat rate to risk their lives to do it. Going by the recommendations in the DMG, a party of about 6th level is going to have quite a bit more than 6,000 gp...it's a drop in the bucket.

Plus, there's story considerations. The PC's have better things to do than hire themselves out....save/condemn the world, run from local law enforcement, etc. KFQ is what adventurers do on their off days.

Plus, coming up with a quest isn't a real problem for me. I've got a host of little "Minor Excuses To Dungeon Crawl" laying around. If they do hire themselves out, I send 'em on the quest, and bring 'em back, rope 'em back into the story, no probs.

 

[James McMurray]

Agback, while I appreciate your input, I really don't hae the time or inclination to rework the entire D&D economy. Its a game, and the economy works in the game, so I'm happy with it. That being said, and the D&D eceonomy being what it is in the books, do you agree with candidus_cogiten's chart and my extension to it?

Again, as I said before, I'm looking for a simple method of calculating a flat fee for those times when it is necessary. This would be based off of 25 point buy NPCs with gear equivelent to their level, as per the charts in the DMG.

The problem with your method is: where do you set the prices for spells being cast? If you make them as chep as they can be to sell them all, then you have to rework the entire economy or PCs fresh from an adventure are able to afford so many spells to prepare for their next adventre that balance will be thrown out of whack.

Again, thanks for your input, but I think everyone already agrees that the D&D economy is messed up. However, my game uses that economy, and thus my hired NPCs should fit into it as well.

 

[Agback]

Agback, while I appreciate your input, I really don't hae the time or inclination to rework the entire D&D economy. Its a game, and the economy works in the game, so I'm happy with it. That being said, and the D&D eceonomy being what it is in the books, do you agree with candidus_cogiten's chart and my extension to it?

Well, actually I thought mine was better. And it really isn't all that complicated, though I guess a table of the total value of a dya's spellcasting by class and level would come in handy. It ought to take only a few minutes to knock up with a spreadsheet.

Isn't it a pity that backwards compatibility would not allow the writers of 3e to correct the absurdities of the 3E pricelists?

Regards,


Agback

 

[James McMurray]

Its a bit too complicated for my tastes. Also, it means that a 7th level fighter would earn far less being hired for a day's work than a 5th level cleric. I don't really see that, given that 3E's classes are supposed to be balanced.

 

[I'm A Banana]

So.....1,000 GP per level doesn't work? Or does?

 

[James McMurray]

1,000gp per level is way too much. I'd never let my PCs demand 1,000gp per level for a single day's work, and if the NPCs can do it, you can be sure the PCs will want to as well.

 

[Nvvyn]

Some of you seem to forget the value of a gold piece! your saying 1,000gp per level, like its nothing. Do you honestly think a 1st level character could hire himself out for 1,000 gold on a mission. Thats enough money for a villager to live on for months maybe even a year. I know I'd never let my pc's hire themselves out for 1kgp per mission per level! To hire a guard for a caravan you gonna spend way less than 100gp (forget the actual numbers) maybe a lil' more if its over a month trip. caravan guards risk their lives just like a cleric would if he were hired out. Granted it is more unusual to hire a cleric for this type of mission, however the concept is still there.
My advice is this, the church leader is going to handle the transaction with the clerics consent. A payment of about 100gp/level for the cleric, then about 10-15% of that to be paid to the church as an offering. (60-80gp) I assume a 6th lvl cleric will already have necassary gear, so dismiss this entirely. If the cleric wishes to protect himself better, its his duty to invest in gear, NOT the pc's. Your total will be roughly 700gp for a short 6 hour mission.

 

[Agback]

Value of a gold piece

Some of you seem to forget the value of a gold piece!

There is no consistent value of a gold piece. The D&D price list is totally unresearched and wildly inconsistent. With the effect that a gold piece seems like a lot of money when hiring a labourer and nothing much when buying a sword.

Late mediaeval metallurgy could in fact produce a perfectly good sword (though not decorated with gold chasing and gems) at the price of about five times the daily wage for an unskilled labourer. In D&D a sword costs about 150 days' wages. That is a thirty-fold discrepancy in the value of a gold piece.

Regards,


Agback

 

[James McMurray]

The D&D economy is not supposed to be a realistic representation of midieval (sp?) money values. It is supposed to be a game's economy, focused on the adventurers. As such, items that adventurers use will be much more expensive. No one I've ever met has tried to claim that it is realistic, and very few people care to go through the effort to make it so.

 

[Agback]

The D&D economy is not supposed to be a realistic representation of midieval (sp?) money values. It is supposed to be a game's economy, focused on the adventurers. As such, items that adventurers use will be much more expensive. No one I've ever met has tried to claim that it is realistic, and very few people care to go through the effort to make it so.

The problem with that approach is that it makes it very difficult to give a reasonable answer to a reasonable question such as the one we are discussing. If the economic system is inconsistent it become impossible to work out what the cost of items or services not included on the list ought to be. Also, we are prone to find our players driving a gold-plated Roll-Royce through one of the loopholes in the economic system.

Stick to the PHB ans DMG pricelists if you want. But be aware that if you do there is no reasonable answer, let alone no right answer, to such a question as this one.

Regards,


Agback