You wouldn’t travel into the primeval forest without a tent and trusty hatchet; why go without a wily scout? Hirelings: Into the Wild is a free supplement to round out any wilderness-oriented Pathfinder Roleplaying Game campaign. Inside are full write-ups for four different hirelings: the camp follower, the guide, the porter, and the steward. This fully illustrated PDF also includes rules and helpful hints for using hirelings in your campaign.
The write up of the hirelings and the ideas for using are tremendous and a potential time saver for me as a GM. It's a free download but if I saw this in print as a pamphlet for $5 I would gladly pick it up.
I enjoyed this. I laughed out loud enough to get curious looks from my wife when I read the Camp Followers skills: Profession (Oldest). Very funny. I was glad to see the character filled out in a more practical and useful manner than the simple expression of that one profession might show. The porter and steward are going to become regualr features in some of my games, specifically one that has a mid-level party that has already come into a working estate (now the wizard doesn't have to pay the taxes and the fighter isn't always carrying in the luggage). Guides are always useful and seldom ever carrying ranger levels, so this one fits the bill just fine.
These four NPCs are easily adaptable to most any campaign. If you characters aren't high enough levels to afford hirelings yet, each one comes with several other suggested NPC roles as well!
The Good: The NPCs were creative, and I can see uses for all of them in my current campaign. Overall quite useful, and the additions of the new feat and spell are great bonuses.
The Bad: I would liked to have seen actual play rules for the King of the Stump game, in addition to the abstraction for in game play. But as I said in the title, this is a minor quibble.
The Ugly: The art while not bad in any sense, is not really to my taste. (Not ugly, but the term is part of the set. :D )
Overall, I give it 4 stars, only because I couldn't give it 4.5.
First, you get 4 pre-generated Hirelings: "Camp Follower", Guide, Porter, and Steward. They have full stat blocks, background, and a detailed description of their role in a party.
You also get other suggested roles for the same characters. Need a bartender, use the porter. Party encounters an apothecary, use the Camp Follower. Etc.
There are also RULES for using and implementing Hirelings in Pathfinder, including rates and how to imporve the morale/ attitude of your hirelings.
And you get a new feat and a new spell. (A VERY useful spell...) And additional special abilites/ rules for each hireling type.
And now for the best two things:
First, its FREE! So get it now.
Second, Crystal has included the Hirelings in her Kingmaker #1 Pathfinder Minis! So you can mix and match with the paper minis and the hirelings!
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