mercenaries, henchmen and cohorts

[Tonguez]

Here's something I forgot about, and I think most people wouldn't occur to use it. Aid Another, all you need to do is make an attack to hit AC:10, and your buddy who's attacking that baddie gets a +2 to hit or +2 to AC. If the warriors work together they could be quite fearsome.

I use hireling warriors as Stat modifiers to the main PCs at a rate of numberx0.5xlevel.
So if I have 10 L1 Warriors thats a
+5 to Attack and +5 AC and HP 45
If your Warriors are level 3 Att +15, AC +15, HP 135

Of course 10 Warriors imc is a army squadron most adventurers wouldn't have more than 3 or 4

(3 level 2 warriors) 3x0.5x2 = +3 Attack and AC HP 13

PC Bob the Fighter goes into battle supported by the wariors and gains the mods...

 

[abri]

Here's something I forgot about, and I think most people wouldn't occur to use it. Aid Another, all you need to do is make an attack to hit AC:10, and your buddy who's attacking that baddie gets a +2 to hit or +2 to AC. If the warriors work together they could be quite fearsome.

Yes, thanks.
I forgot about this: this potential +2 bonus is quite important considering their low attack bonus and low AC.
Well I guess this might help them survive.

 

[Mark]

Aid Another, keeping watch so you and the spellcasters can sleep at night, skills that the party doesn't have, carrying all that extra crap so your movement is not reduced to a crawl on the way out of a dungeon, etc...

 

[Damon Griffin]

Due to a house rule in a newly started campaign, I've been wondering: what help can 5-10 L1 warriors bring to a group of L3-4 players?

Anyone got any experience in using low level mercenaries efficiently?

In the last two campaigns I've played (one 2e Forgotten Realms, one 3e homebrew, under the same DM) by the time our characters were getting to be mid- to high-level (say 8th level in the 2e game, 11th level in the 3e game) two things had become true: (1) we were loaded down with redundant protective magic items -- more rings of protection and such than the party members could wear; (2) we were increasingly finding ourselves faced with larger *numbers* of opponents, instead of just big single monsters.

Solution: hire/attract the service of low level warrior types and equip them using the overflow rings of protection and such. Right now, due to an unexpected reversal of fortune (unexpected by the DM, that is) our overflow pile actually includes a half dozen shortspears +3, plus as many keen shortswords +2, two rings of protection +1, some mighty[+4] composite shortbows +2, several sets of gauntlets of ogre power (see, there were these six REALLY well equipped foes we were not supposed to be able to beat...)

The survival rate of your mercs/followers should increase dramatically if you find yourself able to equip them as lavishly as we've been able to...but you have to get lucky in some unusual situations (or just have a REALLY generous DM) for that to happen.

In any case, they can be very useful, just on the basis of the extra number of attacks per round they can provide, and in some cases they can improve the party's overland movement rate, by carrying more than their own meager equipment, allowing the whole party to move at the Light encumbrance speed.

 

[Mark]

Alternately, just making sure to buff the henchmen most likely to see combat is not a bad plan...

 

[JoeGKushner]

A no-brainer to add to the post but Thunderhead Games Mercenaries of Bluffside provides a couple different groups for examples and a Mercenary Leader PrC that's pretty cool. Of course you have to own Bluffsides to access it but...