Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Agback" data-source="post: 244615" data-attributes="member: 5328">At minimum, the hireling is going to want as much for casting spells on adventure as he or she would be able to get casting them in a nice safe hospital. And even if he or she doesn't use them all on the adventure, he or she still loses the opportunity to cast an equivalent number of equivalent-level non-adventure spells the day he or she has to prepare the spells you want. So you are going to have to pay for the whole slate whether you use them or not.Then there is danger money. Figure this as at least equal to the probability of the NPC being killed times the cost of a True Resurrection. And if the NPC doesn't have access to anyone who can cast True Resurrection it will be more: perhaps up to the cost a Raise Dead plus the cost of enough stat-raising magic to compensate for a loss of level; or the cost of Raise Dead plus 5 gp per experience point the NPC stands to lose if Raised .Add to this insurance for the cleric's personal gear. Start with the probability that the whole party will be wiped out times the value of the gear, and add the probability that any given item will be lost, stolen, or used up times the value of that item.Then add the NPC's wages for a day.Let's work this out for a 7th-level cleric with typical gear from the DMG. And for the purposes of illustration, let's suppose that he or she figures a 10% chance of being killed and a 1% chance that (because the party will be wiped out or for some other reason) that his body and gear won't be retrieved, a 25% chance that any consumable item will be used, and a 5% chance that any particular piece of his gear will be ruined, lost, or stolen by the party's rogue.An NPC 7th-level cleric has Wis 16. So he or she can cast 6, 6, 5, 4, 2 0th, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th level spells. Those slots are worth 210 + 420 + 700 + 840 + 560 = 2,760 gp. (One of the things that worries me about 3E is the collossal incomes that it implies are available to spellcasters.)A True Resurrection costs 6,730 gp if available So danger money is at least 673 gp and very probably more. If True Resurrection is not available (as seems likely) Raise Dead costs 950, and the cleric stands to lose on average 6,500 experience points worth 5 gp each, for a total of 35,450 gp. 10% of that is 3,545. And you ought to add a an allowance for the 1% chance that the NPC will be killed and his or her remains lost.Insurance against theft and loss is 6% on 7,200 gp worth of gear, or 432 gp.Insurance against using up the two scrolls and one potion that a 7th-level cleric has is 144 gp.Finally, add in 1gp for the cleric's time.Total: 2,760 + 673 + 432 + 144 + 1 = 4,010 gp. If 17th-level backup is available.Total: 2,760 + 3,545 + 432 + 144 + 1 = 6,882 gp. If 17th-level backup is not available.And it will be more if the NPC has to face insidious threats such as level-draining undead, etc.Note that his answer depends critically on the NPC's assumptions about how dangerous the job is. If you can con him or her into assuming that it will be perfectly safe, that no items or charges will be used up or lost, etc., then the price might come down as far as 2,761 gp.Regards,Agback</blockquote>

Verification