Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cruentus" data-source="post: 9415187" data-attributes="member: 7034645">I do both.  If there are NPCs that the party interacts with, and the player wants to invite them to be a henchman, then I roll with that.  If I’m playing 5e, I might have the player make a charisma check or persuasion or something.  In my OSE games, the henchman signing on is handled through reaction rolls.  PC’s can invite them, or PCs can advertise for their services in town or with a guild, or whatever.  This takes time and resources.  Then they negotiate the terms of service - how much per day they receive, what share of the treasure.  For hirelings, it’s usually a set amount of coin per day, and they don’t fight.  They hold torches, mind carts and horses, carry spears, etc.  If they’re a henchmen, they adventure with the party, then they get a negotiated cut of the earnings of the adventure, and a cut of the xp.   These are more specific to OSE or BX, but can be used in 5e.  And they have to be lower level than the PC who hired them.  If the PC is level 9, and the henchman becomes level 9, the henchman goes off to establish their own career/stronghold.  1e PHB, I think, or was it the DMG, had tables to roll on for followers that showed up at ‘name level’ once you established a stronghold.  They also had costs.  In the past, we’ve done ‘guards and general soldiery’ to be 0 level fighters and paid them a salary.  Henchmen who did fighting or went on lower level adventures, they got the treasure cut, magic items, etc., and became a “stable” of characters for the players to use either in the main party, or on their own lower level excursions.  It all falls to the level of time and management you want to take on.  I usually left the players to manage their hirelings and henchmen, and I helped track the coin being spent for the stronghold.</blockquote>

Verification