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Message: <blockquote data-quote="candidus_cogitens" data-source="post: 245140" data-attributes="member: 770">I think you are right, McMurray, to remind us that there is a supply and demand effect to be considered.  (We're assuming, of course, that there are no special conditions, such as a particularly generous cleric who doesnt care about making profit for his services--which is a possibility, but its a separate consideration.)It is not realistic that a cleric who stays in town would be able to cast his full repertoire of spells every day, one spell at a time.  If he were, then market forces would encourage other spellcasters to come in to snatch up a share of the market.  In other words, there would be competition.  The only reason there would NOT be competition would be if other suppliers found it more profitable to go adventuring as hirelings.  But that would not be the case, because if it were so profitable to go out as a hireling, this would eventually drive up the price for buying spellcasting services in town as well.  That is, the market would have to make it profitable for a cleric to cast spells in town, or else he would pack up and move off.  So normal market forces would probably make it equally profitable to stay in town and to go out as a hireling. In other words, if a cleric wants to be hired to accompany adventurers, it is because he is NOT able to earn his full potential if he stays in town selling his services one spell at a time.  The profitability of working as a hireling will be in direct correspondence to the profitability of adventuring with a hireling.  In other words, adventurers will not hire hirelings unless it is going to turn out to be profitable for them to do so.As a rule of thumb then, a hireling should generally be compensated in an amount reflecting a roughly equal portion of the net treasure that the party gains adventuring.  If he wants to be paid  at a flat rate, rather than by percentage, then as a DM I'd estimate how much you expect the party to gain, divide it by the total number of adventurers and hirelings, and use that quotient as your basic guideline, to be adjusted by circumstances such as his attitude toward the PCs, his attitude toward risk, etc.</blockquote>

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