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<blockquote data-quote="N'raac" data-source="post: 6109162" data-attributes="member: 6681948"><p>Celebrim has provided numerous rule cites that indicate a half dozen mercenaries willing to work for whatever pittance you pick from a price list for a day of risking life and limb to help you kill off a sentient creature they have never even heard of before meeting you would generally fall well short of automatic availability. Show me the rule cites that prove him wrong, please. I to acknowledge his cites are from much earlier editions, so maybe you have a rules cite that clearly states this is a mundane and simple task. Cite a page reference. Link to an SRD. Show everyone how clearly you are right and I am missing the boat.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Yes, you can. It fails. You make no progress up the wall. Unless you take steps to improve your roll. Which is where ropes around that centipede come in if Take 10 doesn’t cut it for the entire party.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>First, show me the cite setting a standard DC for hiring mercenaries. Second, you are the only one who makes this quantum leap from “I hired an unsavoury mercenary” to “everyone’s throats are slit in the night – make new characters”. There is a vast array of possible results falling between “the obedient hireling does exactly what you wish, risking or even losing his own life in the process, and departs happily with his pittance when you dismiss him, assuming he lives that long” and “the mercenary hireling slits all your throats in the night”. The latter, to me, would clearly be bad DMing. But the former strikes me as missing an opportunity to enhance the game.</p><p></p><p>Finally, if you choose to take 10, and that is not sufficient to meet the DC, you fail. You may not know the exact DC, so you make a judgment call about whether to take 10. Or you get paranoid and spend all that extra time, every time, just in case this is that one rare occasion where things go wrong.</p><p></p><p>We all know computers can fail, and we should make backups. Do we ignore that and take our chances? Do we take 10 (back up some stuff, once in a while) or do we take 20, and back up everything on the drive, every hour on the hour, because maybe this is the time we’re going to have a power surge?</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #222222"><span style="font-family: 'Verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #222222"><span style="font-family: 'Verdana'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #222222"><span style="font-family: 'Verdana'">Sums it up nicely</span></span></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Lots of good comments in that post. I could add lots of “things relevant to you that you do not know” possibilities, but those seem to sum it up.</p><p></p><p>What if I make the players believe it is relevant, but it’s not? Rumours of that castle architect who fled to the desert turn out to be just that – rumours? My answer would be that this is certainly plausible – not all rumours turn out to be fact. My judgment on the game would stem from how entertaining the process of discovering the rumours were false – all that gameplay in the desert – was, not that the players/characters were chasing a dead end.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="N'raac, post: 6109162, member: 6681948"] Celebrim has provided numerous rule cites that indicate a half dozen mercenaries willing to work for whatever pittance you pick from a price list for a day of risking life and limb to help you kill off a sentient creature they have never even heard of before meeting you would generally fall well short of automatic availability. Show me the rule cites that prove him wrong, please. I to acknowledge his cites are from much earlier editions, so maybe you have a rules cite that clearly states this is a mundane and simple task. Cite a page reference. Link to an SRD. Show everyone how clearly you are right and I am missing the boat. Yes, you can. It fails. You make no progress up the wall. Unless you take steps to improve your roll. Which is where ropes around that centipede come in if Take 10 doesn’t cut it for the entire party. First, show me the cite setting a standard DC for hiring mercenaries. Second, you are the only one who makes this quantum leap from “I hired an unsavoury mercenary” to “everyone’s throats are slit in the night – make new characters”. There is a vast array of possible results falling between “the obedient hireling does exactly what you wish, risking or even losing his own life in the process, and departs happily with his pittance when you dismiss him, assuming he lives that long” and “the mercenary hireling slits all your throats in the night”. The latter, to me, would clearly be bad DMing. But the former strikes me as missing an opportunity to enhance the game. Finally, if you choose to take 10, and that is not sufficient to meet the DC, you fail. You may not know the exact DC, so you make a judgment call about whether to take 10. Or you get paranoid and spend all that extra time, every time, just in case this is that one rare occasion where things go wrong. We all know computers can fail, and we should make backups. Do we ignore that and take our chances? Do we take 10 (back up some stuff, once in a while) or do we take 20, and back up everything on the drive, every hour on the hour, because maybe this is the time we’re going to have a power surge? [COLOR=#222222][FONT="Verdana"] Sums it up nicely[/FONT][/COLOR] Lots of good comments in that post. I could add lots of “things relevant to you that you do not know” possibilities, but those seem to sum it up. What if I make the players believe it is relevant, but it’s not? Rumours of that castle architect who fled to the desert turn out to be just that – rumours? My answer would be that this is certainly plausible – not all rumours turn out to be fact. My judgment on the game would stem from how entertaining the process of discovering the rumours were false – all that gameplay in the desert – was, not that the players/characters were chasing a dead end. [/QUOTE]
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