Retainers, henchmen, hirelings and redshirts?

[Ziana]

Is there anything covering hiring mercenaries etc. to carry your gear, walk in front, take care of your horses and so on, or is this just something the DM needs to wing/houserule?

 

[Badwe]

I always greatly enjoyed the leadership rules, getting cohorts and followers and building keeps etc. Obviously most of this stuff does not fall within the purview of adventuring and therefore does not presently merit entries in the PHB or DMG. That said, if it was likely to be eventually added, what kind of system do you suppose it would make use of? Would it be a translation of an existing system? a completely new one? Would having the wealth to construct a keep completely unbalance the mechanics of magic items? Perhaps you could measure wealth for nation building in a currency compose purely of other people's desire to build things for you. I suppose at that point you'd make your way over to the house rules forums.

 

[Daniel D. Fox]

While I agree that creating economies and so-such likely are the provision of a world-building guide, I am perplexed as to why WotC excluded "minion" rules for player character's henchmen/redshirts/etc...

 

[lukelightning]

While I agree that creating economies and so-such likely are the provision of a world-building guide, I am perplexed as to why WotC excluded "minion" rules for player character's henchmen/redshirts/etc...

It's no mystery. They took out all those features, such as animal companions and cohorts, that would give a player "two characters", which amounts to a double number of actions. This is generally a good idea, as in some cases (like druids with their animals AND summoned animals...) one player has a lot more actions/round than other players.

It's not difficult to add in minions, though. Just take a minion, and say "here, he's yours!"; I'd restrict this to non-combatants, though (of course, feel free to bring your bag-boy into combat, just don't expect him to live very long).

 

[Tony Vargas]

No, only bad guys get minions.

 

[Byronic]

It's no mystery. They took out all those features, such as animal companions and cohorts, that would give a player "two characters", which amounts to a double number of actions. This is generally a good idea, as in some cases (like druids with their animals AND summoned animals...) one player has a lot more actions/round than other players.

It's not difficult to add in minions, though. Just take a minion, and say "here, he's yours!"; I'd restrict this to non-combatants, though (of course, feel free to bring your bag-boy into combat, just don't expect him to live very long).

I believe the martial power sourcebook is giving Rangers their pets back.

In anycase if you want to use mercenaries then think how much exp they would be worth if they were enemies. Then add this amount to the monster Encounter (allowing you to buy more monsters) but don't let the PC's get experience for killing these extra monsters.

Balance restored. Just figure out what the going rate is for mercenaries in gold and loot.

 

[Mort_Q]

It's an Economy of Actions thing.

There was a blog or something about this somewhere over on Gleemax... I'll see if I can find it again.

 

[Roger]

To the extent that it's covered, it's in the DMG on pages 116 and 117.


Cheers,
Roger

 

[Hella_Tellah]

For a start on house-ruling it, look at the rules on mounts. Basically, mounts are an extra creature, so the DM should add extra baddies to each combat without giving extra experience. If you've got a warhorse (175XP, I believe), the DM should add 175 XP worth of bonus creatures on top of the combat to even it out, or subtract 175 from the experience reward.

 

[frankthedm]

While I agree that creating economies and so-such likely are the provision of a world-building guide, I am perplexed as to why WotC excluded "minion" rules for player character's henchmen/redshirts/etc...

They are extra HP. Any attck not directed at a PC is like a free allotment of HP.

It is even worse with big hungry monsters. BHM does not care if it eats a PC or a redshirt. If it goes after a PC, the PC will put up a fight and the group will try and stop it. The redshirt on the other hand will be dead on the first chomp and the BHM will likely be able to leave with it's meal, ruining the encounter that was supposed to go on for 4-10 rounds.

Cheap mounts cause the same problem. And it is even more likely an encounter will be ruined since the party can offer up the horses as a snackrifice when dealing with sentient carnivores rather than having a bloody battle.