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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Chaosmancer" data-source="post: 8261058" data-attributes="member: 6801228">I've consistently said 30 mercs. At 6 gold per day that is 180 per day, not 300. Also, shocker, if we decimate a dungeon we likely get more money. So not only was I not in the hole (180*14 = 2,520 leaving me nearly 500 gold left) but I probably have a surplus at the end. And, the point is that player don't do this. They never have. And it isn't because it can't be effective.Except for Giants, Dragons, anything humanoid like drow, duergar, ect, Beholders, Genies, Aboleths, Hydra, Mindflayers, Purple Worms, Remorhaz's, quite a few undead, Slaad, Trolls, Wyverns...It is a decently substantial list. Sure, Fiends, constructs, powerful undead all of these have resistance, but a lot of things don't.Nothing in the rules about that. That is just you making up things. Sure, a DM might play it that way. Or they might play it like "hey, they took us to get wealthy beyond our wildest dreams, and sure, five of us died, but you think you'd do better solo?" and you might get more people. Adventuring is a dangerous profession. And again, the entire point is that players don't even try this. Because they don't want mercenary armies fighting their battles for them. Not because it isn't effective, but because it is BORING for most players.And yet, again, we had no AC numbers to compare it too. Like I said.I'm point out "Hey, this works. If this is something that players wanted to do, they would do it. Therefor saying the only thing holding them back is a lack of gold isn't right" I don't need to prove anything beyond the basicsGreat, you can show me where in the book it says that? Quoting the actual rules in the PHB or DMG? Because, that again sounds like you are making a call that isn't yours to make. Nothing says how powerful a "skilled" hireling is. Scouts are CR 1/2. A player character is considered to be CR = Level. So, these guys aren't even level 1 equivalents according to most spells in the game. So, again, I'm not trying to argue this point. I'm showing that this is effective enough that if the only limitation was players getting money, players would be doing this. A lot. All the time. THEY AREN'T DOING THIS, BECAUSE IT IS BORING. THEREFORE MORE MONEY WON'T CAUSE THEM TO SUDDENLY DO THIS.I thing maybe in another four or five posts you might get my actual point. Instead of trying to argue this.30 individuals. 2500 gold. And it is obviously going to be more than one encounter. Good lord, I said that the worse case scenario was this single CR appropriate devil took out 3 or 4 scouts. But, you know, a CR 9 devil isn't just chilling alone in a room. Bet he might have, say, a cult? A cult of humans. They don't have damage resistance, so that is the full (potential because accuracy is a thing, but I'm not doing the full math here to make a single point ) 360 damage. Cult Fanatics have about 33 hp, so lets say that is 10 of them of killed in the first round. The players go and charge the Bone Devil, and what in one world was a 4 vs 11 brawl with multiple spellcasters and a terrible devil becomes a 34 vs 1 fight that is a guaranteed win for the party. I mean, sure, it can try and run. Longbows have a reach of 600 ft, the scouts can move 30. So... 60 turns for a devil with 40 ft of movement to get out of there? It has 3. And, AGAIN, my point isn't to argue the semantics of exactly how effective this is or isn't. Maybe you only hire 15 mercs so you can get a bunch of silvered arrows for cutting through devil resistance. Or maybe not, since I had 500 gold left, I could get 50 silver arrows, that is plenty. We could go back and forth on the exact details all day. BUT PLAYERS AREN'T DOING THIS. THEY FIND OTHER PEOPLE DOING THE FIGHTING AND HAVING CAKEWALK GUARANTEED VICTORIES BORING. That's why I don't buy the argument that, "If you give players too much gold, they will hire a mercenary army to win all battles for you." If that was what players wanted to do, they would do it. But they don't, because they don't want to do that.</blockquote>

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