tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2657266526705426756.post3386481826607414532..comments2024-03-26T04:58:54.326-04:00Comments on The Wandering Gamist: A Mistreatment of Mercenariesjedavishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08586249502818922886noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2657266526705426756.post-18932467334112228772013-11-26T20:26:17.605-05:002013-11-26T20:26:17.605-05:00(Also we should consider the mercenary-turned-henc...(Also we should consider the mercenary-turned-henchman case, or the employ of subhenches in similar numbers and function. With a F1 mercenary veteran sergeant in command of a 4-5 man squad of L0s, the expectation of the sergeant would be that his employers pay the wages of the whole unit, since the whole unit is ultimately in their service, not his)jedavishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08586249502818922886noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2657266526705426756.post-20675667606186331072013-11-26T20:22:50.517-05:002013-11-26T20:22:50.517-05:00I do need to be better about requiring loyalty rol...I do need to be better about requiring loyalty rolls on both levelling and calamities. Since subhenches will level occasionally, that might provide for the infrequent desertions. And yeah, if a tier 1 hench fails loyalty, his subhenches should probably check their loyalty to him to see if they go with. Morale not so much; that's temporary (though an employer failing morale might certainly be cause for a subhench to also check morale an extra time, or count as a calamity).<br /><br />Also concerning on the "henches pay" side, though, is the "what if their wages are less than those required to pay their subhenches?" Having players pay subhench wages strictly avoids this situation while also avoiding the paperwork that checking wage sums at each level of a hench-tree would entail. The trade-off with hench trees in exchange for more points of failure is that 1) you can have more total henchmen, 2) subhenches get smaller XP shares, so you can maintain the same number of low-level henches at a smaller PC-share XP cost, and 3) points of failure can also be points of strength, like a charmed bard or other high-cha henchman as the root of a tree in the service of (say) an uncharismatic necromancer PC.jedavishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08586249502818922886noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2657266526705426756.post-16637357720146305952013-11-26T16:37:16.327-05:002013-11-26T16:37:16.327-05:00Haha, actually you could roll randomly to occasion...Haha, actually you could roll randomly to occasionally have henchmen mistreat their henchmen (modified by alignment, charisma) and have uprisings and desertions occur that you had nothing to do with, since you weren't managing them directly.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13159737770614165905noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2657266526705426756.post-43077184299301449972013-11-26T16:09:12.569-05:002013-11-26T16:09:12.569-05:00I'd say the trade-off is that if a tier 1 henc...I'd say the trade-off is that if a tier 1 henchman dies or fails morale, the tier 2 henchmen underneath him leave unless you make a successful hiring role (+ modifiers for being in the dungeon / imminent danger / them wanting to get paid for coming in here).<br /><br />You have more points of weakness. And if one of your henchman decides to betray you (perhaps hench-tree > PC party members == hench level > PC level), then you have to deal with all of those guys, not just him.<br /><br />So, cheaper, yes, but I can definitely see some places a clever judge could make it a solid trade-off, mostly by strict enforcement of morale rolls, etc.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13159737770614165905noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2657266526705426756.post-8906274171377847492013-11-26T15:27:51.933-05:002013-11-26T15:27:51.933-05:00Hench-hench monthly wages are a topic of some disc...Hench-hench monthly wages are a topic of some discussion on the boards; the argument that "henches should pay" is supported by "because then your PCs will have more cash to save towards realms", while "PCs should pay" is supported by "because otherwise it's cheaper to field hench-trees than normal henches for basically the same effect". I'm open to discussion on this.jedavishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08586249502818922886noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2657266526705426756.post-9324689769695489552013-11-26T15:24:28.803-05:002013-11-26T15:24:28.803-05:00Mercs who level up become L1 "veteran mercena...Mercs who level up become L1 "veteran mercenaries", typically fighters but sometimes explorers. They gain +1 morale, +to-hit and saves, and d8 HP instead of d8-1 or so. Since they're better, presumably they will cost more; will look up later.<br /><br />L0 henchmen are normal folks who are desperate or crazy enough to be willing to follow you all into dungeons for money. You can attempt to hire normal, non-crazy folks (including mercs) as henchmen, but will probably take a -4 to -6 modifier on the hiring roll (slander may be ameliorated in this case, but possibly not).jedavishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08586249502818922886noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2657266526705426756.post-59779506625571148942013-11-26T13:49:46.207-05:002013-11-26T13:49:46.207-05:00And one last question; who pays hench-hench monthl...And one last question; who pays hench-hench monthly wages? Is that considered paid for by your henchman? Is it a little weird that we'd be ordering our henchmen to take on henchmen even though that's something a character usually does themselves?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13159737770614165905noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2657266526705426756.post-50876885261277008422013-11-26T13:39:36.441-05:002013-11-26T13:39:36.441-05:00Fair enough. What happens when mercenaries level u...Fair enough. What happens when mercenaries level up though? Do level 1 mercs have to become henchmen, or can they just be higher level troops? How much more do you have to pay them?<br /><br />Also, doesn't that mean that the list of level 0 henchmen for hire includes any standard mercenaries that are available (possibly at a penalty to leave their current line of work)? And if so, I think that makes it much easier to hench people with specific general proficiencies (like mariners, etc.)...<br /><br />Thoughts?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13159737770614165905noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2657266526705426756.post-14992548729436413572013-11-26T12:10:06.558-05:002013-11-26T12:10:06.558-05:00Yep, mercenaries are for tackling humanoid wildern...Yep, mercenaries are for tackling humanoid wilderness lairs/villages/forts as well as rival Human barons. They should work as in D@W. They're regular soldiers - they don't do commando stuff. PCs and henchmen do commando stuff.Omer Golan-Joelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09242085820257230639noreply@blogger.com