hiring NPCs with PC class levels

[big teej]

hey playgrounders,

I'm playing a Knight.

and my knight has decided he needs a herald (bard) and a standard bearer (bard? fighter? porter?)


after perusing my rather modest collection of books, I've come up nothing for how to do this.


so I'm asking
if it's written down somewhere, how much does it cost to hire such a minion. one with class levels that is.
and what book is it in.

failing that it being published somewhere.
what's a fair price?


and yes I am contemplating taking leadership so I can get this whole entorouge thing going proper..

entrouge...
entoroge
on-tor-odge
....
somebody spell that for me please.



thanks in advance.

[RndmNumGen]

Hirelings typically cost 3sp per day per level, but those are for NPC classes. PC classes would generally be a lot more, since people with PC classes tend to be adventurers and everyone knows adventurers get laden with treasure.

Otherwise, you could take the Leadership feat and get a cohort for free(Herald?) Then hire a normal NPC as a standard bearer.

[big teej]

Hirelings typically cost 3sp per day per level, but those are for NPC classes. PC classes would generally be a lot more, since people with PC classes tend to be adventurers and everyone knows adventurers get laden with treasure.

Otherwise, you could take the Leadership feat and get a cohort for free(Herald?) Then hire a normal NPC as a standard bearer.

and that's what I may do long term, but without abusing leadership I think I'm going to have to hire at least a few people on.

unless leadership is one of those things you can abuse by accident.

[Aharon]

Leadership is very very strong, but abuse doesn't happen without accident. It will be extraordinarily useful if your cohort is just a (your level -2) bard. It will be abusive if your cohort is an optimized bard (War Weaver or Words of Creation, for example).

[Serpentine]

It's entourage.

[big teej]

Leadership is very very strong, but abuse doesn't happen without accident. It will be extraordinarily useful if your cohort is just a (your level -2) bard. It will be abusive if your cohort is an optimized bard (War Weaver or Words of Creation, for example).

well, we don't have either of those, so I think I'm in the clear.

It's entourage.

thanks serpentine.

[bokodasu]

There are some rules in the DMGII, if you want them, around p154.

“Typically, an adventurer’s daily fee in gold pieces equals her character level squared, plus a split of any treasure gained – usually a half share of the total loot. However, she charges ten times the normal asking price and demands a full share of treasure if her character level is equal to or greater than the average party character level.”

(By "adventurer" here they mean "NPC with PC levels", but go read the whole thing if it sounds like something you want to do, there's more in the book.)

[big teej]

There are some rules in the DMGII, if you want them, around p154.

“Typically, an adventurer’s daily fee in gold pieces equals her character level squared, plus a split of any treasure gained – usually a half share of the total loot. However, she charges ten times the normal asking price and demands a full share of treasure if her character level is equal to or greater than the average party character level.”

(By "adventurer" here they mean "NPC with PC levels", but go read the whole thing if it sounds like something you want to do, there's more in the book.)

that is extra helpful, it sounds like it might be what I'm lookin for, but at the same time it sounds like that might put the hireling a little to high up in matter of importance than i'm after.

but I'll certainly take a look at that and weigh it against leadership.

[LibraryOgre]

hey playgrounders,

I'm playing a Knight.

and my knight has decided he needs a herald (bard) and a standard bearer (bard? fighter? porter?)

Do they actually need to be of that class, or is that an example?

If you're considering treating them simply as hirelings with one job (i.e. the herald isn't supposed to fight or cast spells, just announce you when appropriate), you can also look at simply hiring them based on their level, as if they had a maxed out Profession skill appropriate to their level and took 10.

So, if you have a 5th level Profession: Herald, then you're looking at a 9+ GP per week (18 average check with no stat modifier). That should be a very base for skilled hirelings.

[true_shinken]

DMG II has rules for this.
It costs something like the NPC's level squared x10 in gp/a day, IIRC

[big teej]

Do they actually need to be of that class, or is that an example?

If you're considering treating them simply as hirelings with one job (i.e. the herald isn't supposed to fight or cast spells, just announce you when appropriate), you can also look at simply hiring them based on their level, as if they had a maxed out Profession skill appropriate to their level and took 10.

So, if you have a 5th level Profession: Herald, then you're looking at a 9+ GP per week (18 average check with no stat modifier). That should be a very base for skilled hirelings.

just tacked on as examples.

the thing about hirelings (in the section in the DMG, which I've taken a look at)
is it has a little clause tacked on to the effect of "these guys will not follow you into danger"

meanwhile, something obtained with Leadership or with PC class levels will likely be more than happy to wade into the fray.

[LibraryOgre]

DMG II has rules for this.
It costs something like the NPC's level squared x10 in gp/a day, IIRC

Given the income of others, those kinda become ridiculous.

Consider: A 1st level merc makes 300gp/month (1^2*10 per day, average 30 day month). A 1st level Professional or Crafts-person makes about 28gp a month (average die roll of 10, beginning bonus of +4, divided by 2, per week, calculating at 4 weeks per month). A top of the line 1st level craftsman (+5 stat bonus, +4 from skills, +5 from skill focus and another skill-booster feat, and +2 from masterwork tools) is making 60gp a month.

When the merc become 2nd level, he gets to 400gp a month. The craftsman gets to... 30gp.

No wonder everyone runs off to be adventurers. At 2nd level, a month's salary for a merc is a craftsman's salary for a year. If you survive an entire year of mercenary work, you're looking at 4800gp.

[Shadowleaf]

Given the income of others, those kinda become ridiculous.

Consider: A 1st level merc makes 300gp/month (1^2*10 per day, average 30 day month). A 1st level Professional or Crafts-person makes about 28gp a month (average die roll of 10, beginning bonus of +4, divided by 2, per week, calculating at 4 weeks per month). A top of the line 1st level craftsman (+5 stat bonus, +4 from skills, +5 from skill focus and another skill-booster feat, and +2 from masterwork tools) is making 60gp a month.

When the merc become 2nd level, he gets to 400gp a month. The craftsman gets to... 30gp.

No wonder everyone runs off to be adventurers. At 2nd level, a month's salary for a merc is a craftsman's salary for a year. If you survive an entire year of mercenary work, you're looking at 4800gp.

But how often does a hired level 1 or 2 Fighter survive a full year working?

[LibraryOgre]

But how often does a hired level 1 or 2 Fighter survive a full year working?

Depends on where he's being used. Consider that these numbers would apply to various retainers of a lord... his skilled (PC-class) footmen and his sergeants and the like.