|
The below is taken from the message boards I use for my own Kingmaker campaign. As such, some of it is phrased as directed to my players. I decided to, after some thought and comments from others, share this with the boards. I'd love to hear any feedback you all might have. Thanks!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Hirelings have taken on a new light in Kingmaker, and proven to be quite useful. With the addition of a second hireling to the pack, I decided that I needed to settle on some better rules then the Core book could provide. All that they give is that it's "1 SP/day for untrained, 3 SP/day for trained". Great.
I also had to wonder about things like classes, loyalty, jobs, and a whole lot of other things. Of course, despite all that, I wanted to keep things simple. You guys will have enough to manage without worrying about hirelings and the like.
So, here is my system. It may take some revisions as we experiment with it in play, but I am pretty content with how it turned out (for the most part).
If it hasn't become immediately obvious already, I am referring to these people as "Hirelings". "Hirelings" are essentially paid "Followers" (acquired through Leadership for free). And you all know what a "Cohort" is.
Now, the question is what you want the hireling for. The one core rule is that no hireling will accompany you in dungeon delving or actively assist in combats (except when fighting for their own life). That is what Leadership is for. No, these are for more menial tasks. Carrying your loot, keeping watch, managing finances, basic medical needs, and more. If you can think of a role that I think a hireling would be happy to do for money, then I'm sure we can come to an agreement.
Once you've decided what you want your hireling for, you tell me. You do not get to name a specific class, rather just what you want the guy to do. I am not going to screw anyone over by providing an Adept when you wanted a mercenary guard or anything, but I am keeping the class decision to my own for a few reasons.
After figuring out what you want them to do, you decide how much you are willing to pay. How much you pay will determine what you get.
Alignment
On the Law to Chaos scale, the amount you pay will determine the alignment and general loyalty the hireling will have. The baseline will get a Neutral hireling. More will get a Lawful one. Less will get a Chaotic one. The Good to Evil axis will be based off of who is doing the hiring. Assuming the Hireling is treated well, his or her alignment will gradually shift to mimic the alignment of their employer.
Class
The baseline will allow for a Hireling of any NPC class, with one level in that class. All hirelings will, however, also have interest in a PC class that I keep secret. If you 'upgrade' them enough (available at certain levels) then they'll eventually become that class.
Ability Scores
The baseline will give you a Hireling for 3 point buy (scores of 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8 in most cases). If you pay more, you can get a Hireling with 15 point buy (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8 in most cases). Pretty simple.
Rates
This is the most important part. The rates that hirelings cost in the core is... very basic. I needed a more flexible system, so I came up with a pay scale. You'll notice the ranks can go pretty high, and that is for a specific reason that I'll get into later. I also have these grouped into monthly pay, as daily or weekly pay can just get annoying to manage.
Rank and Monthly Cost
Rank 1: 1.5 gp (5 cp/day)
Rank 2: 3 gp (1 sp/day)
Rank 3: 4.5 gp (1.5 sp/day)
Rank 4: 6 gp (2 sp/day)
Rank 5: 9 gp (3 sp/day)
Rank 6: 13.5 gp (4.5 sp/day)
Rank 7: 21 gp (7 sp/day)
Rank 8: 30 gp (1 gp/day)
Rank 9: 45 gp (1.5 gp/day)
Rank 10: 60 gp (2 gp/day)
Rank 11: 90 gp (3 gp/day)
Rank 12: 135 gp (4.5 gp/day)
Rank 13: 210 gp (7 gp/day)
Rank 14: 300 gp (10 gp/day)
Rank 15: 450 gp (15 gp/day)
Rank 16: 600 gp (20 gp/day)
Rank 17: 900 gp (30 gp/day)
These rates are for a full month of 'active duty' and expected to be paid on the 1st of the month (though the first month's pay may be slightly different if you hire them on a different day then the 1st). If you only need the hireling for a week AND there is a city nearby he can do more work when he's not needed, then you only need pay the daily amount. If you only need them for a week but you require them to come with you to a place where they can't get easy access to a city or town once done, well, you need to pay them for however long it takes you to get them back to town, though they will be happy to continue work during that time. I've left this at monthly rates for simplicity's sake.
Determining the Rate
All of the sections above come together when you get your Hireling. You need to determine what Rank you seek *before* you get your Hireling (and yes, current ones can be adjusted retroactively since these are new rules). Here is how it works.
Untrained Hireling: The starting rank for untrained laborers, maids, and other menial workers is Rank 2. They will be Neutral and have a 3 point buy, along with one level in Commoner.
Trained Hireling: The starting rank for mercenaries, masons, craftsmen, cooks, scribes, teamsters, etc. is Rank 5. They will be Neutral and have a 3 point buy along with one level in Adept, Aristocrat, Expert, or Warrior.
Lawful Alignment: Makes the hireling less likely to suddenly abandon your service or disobey orders. Increase the rank by 1.
Chaotic Alignment: Makes the hireling more likely to suddenly abandon your service or disobey orders. Decrease the rank by 1.
15 Point Buy (Advanced): Starts the hireling with better stats, hire an exceptional Hireling. Increase the rank by 2.
Alternate Methods of Pay
While most Hirelings will want coin, there are sometimes other acceptable things. If the Hireling is comfortable in appraise (has ranks and can make the DC 20) then giving him some piece of jewelry, gem, what have you will satisfy them. If you really have no money but need to pay the hireling, they might also accept a piece of gear they want that is worth *at least* as much as their monthly pay. You could never get more than one month of their service this way (giving a mercenary a +1 sword will not put them in your dept for life, nor will they give you 'change'.
How many Hirelings can I have?
I thought about this for a while. While yes, hirelings come to you because of money, they need to know that you can protect them against the harshness of the wilderness. The more hirelings there are, the more difficult it is to protect them. So there will be a hard limit on how many hirelings you can have at a time, though this can be increased.
The number of Hirelings you can have at any given time is equal to the bonus you have in your highest stat plus one per 5 levels. If you have a 16 Dexterity at level 1, you could have 3 Hirelings. If you are level 5, it'd be 4.
You can increase this limit by offering more money to everyone. If you increase the Pay Rate of every Hireling you have by 1, then you can increase your limit by 2. This can only be done once.
Take care of your Hirelings too! Every Hireling that dies will reduce the maximum number of Hirelings you can have by 1. Word spreads, after all. If you leave with 3 lovely little hirelings and come back with 1, you *might* be able to get some people to buy the story that they found a lovely cottage in the wilderness and decided to settle down... but not many.
Now you don't want your hireling to stay at level 1 forever, and it doesn't make a lot of sense. Even if they're staying in camp or just guarding the horses, there's still a minuscule amount of experience to be gained. They will never gain experience like you do, that's a PC special thing. However, they can still go up in level. Their ability to do so is dependent on two things. How much you pay them, and your own level.
Upgrading a Hireling is simple. First, you check your level to see if they qualify for an upgrade. Then, you increase their Pay Rank by 1. The next day, upgrade! Below are the required levels for upgrades.
1st: No upgrades allowed, only one level in an NPC class allowed.
3rd: May upgrade current NPC class level to their favored PC class level. Note: Only Trained Hirelings may take levels in their favored PC class. If you wish an Untrained Hireling to be upgraded in this fashion their rate must immediately be increased as if they were calculated as a Trained Hireling.
5th: May add a 2nd level in an NPC class (+1 NPC)
7th: May change the 2nd NPC level to their favored PC class (-1 NPC/+1 PC).
9th: +1 NPC
11th: -1 NPC/+1 PC
13th: +1 NPC
15th: -1 NPC/+1 PC
17th: +1 NPC
19th: -1 NPC/+1 PC
Yes, this means that the highest your Hireling can be (at 19th level) is 5th level. This is by design, and kind of works like Leadership does (with a Leadership score of 19, you can get up to 5th level followers).
That's how upgrading works. Pure and simple.
I'm going to keep this short and simple. No, this isn't a generic contract that all Hirelings somehow know innately, it's more of me, as a GM, saying: this is what the hirelings will do. This may make them a little less realistic, but I don't want you to be worried about being screwed over by your hirelings or worry about managing all their income
- Hirelings are paid the way they are paid because they expect to be in dangerous situations. That said, they will not accompany you into dungeons, stand in the front when trekking through the wilderness, or put themselves in any more danger then absolutely necessary. They will be happy to stand watch, guard other hirelings, what have you. Danger within reason.
- Hirelings will, more often then not, stay with you the whole month you paid them and not run off. If they are treated particularly horrible (a lot for a Lawful hireling or a little for a Chaotic one) then they may just say 'f$+@ you' and take off.
- If a Hireling does need to leave, they will likely give some kind of notice. Lawful ones will give the most, Chaotic ones the least.
- Hirelings will usually follow your orders, though Chaotic ones will take the most liberties with them, Lawful ones will follow them as they think you intended them to be followed.
- The money you pay your hirelings does not disappear. A certain portion of it is allocated to 'upkeep' and they will handle their own inn stay, food, etc. Although if you offered them a free tent in the wilderness, they would definitely not turn it down. The rest of their money will go towards two things, savings and upgrades. Part of their money will be used to buy better supplies that they would use back in a town. The rest they will store someplace as 'savings', as all Hirelings ultimately want to settle down someday, the adventuring life is dangerous after all!
|
|
I have 5 players in my group and, at the moment, it seems very easy to integrate hirelings. They only have 2 right now, but they mostly stay out of combat and I rarely need to worry about what they are doing. One adds X amount to their carrying capacity, the other guards that guy. Though the rules in the background may seem like a lot, my ultimate goal is that the implementation in the actual game is extremely simple and easy. :)
Very well done, and it looks very fair. In the near future I am quite possibly going to steal your hard work, verbatim.
But I will say thank you.
I have already faced the horror of my players wanting to hire lots of minions. If I'd had the OP's rules ahead of time I definitely would have used them. Now I have to work out whether it'll be too much of a shock to change to this system, or go with the bigger headache of my own.
SIGH
There is a free PDF in the downloads section of the store about taking hirelings into the wilderness that is simpler so might work better for you. Obviously it wont scale as well as the OP as it seems more designed for just hiring some people to carry your stuff as opposed to finding a life long servant but there is certainly some potential in it.
Yeah, I have that already. the main problem is that I have allowed the PCs to hire rangers and clerics and now they want to take them adventuring/into battle. Of course, as leaders of a kingdom, they can do that, but it's just a horrible headache for me having all these NPCs running around cluttering up the place.
How can I make it awkward or unhelpful for them to bring their hirelings along? Should I?
There is a free PDF in the downloads section of the store about taking hirelings into the wilderness that is simpler so might work better for you. Obviously it wont scale as well as the OP as it seems more designed for just hiring some people to carry your stuff as opposed to finding a life long servant but there is certainly some potential in it.Yeah, I have that already. the main problem is that I have allowed the PCs to hire rangers and clerics and now they want to take them adventuring/into battle. Of course, as leaders of a kingdom, they can do that, but it's just a horrible headache for me having all these NPCs running around cluttering up the place.
How can I make it awkward or unhelpful for them to bring their hirelings along? Should I?
I don't think there is much you can do about it until/unless they treat these hirelings poorly and or start getting them killed by throwing them into combat over their head or using them as meat shields. I think then you would be totally justified in giving them an Unrest penalty or a Loyalty penalty, adjusting the size of it depending on the severity and frequency of what happens. That should cool their jets a bit. On the other hand, if they are really generous to them in terms of pay and loot and shield them from serious harm, I could even see a Loyalty bonus happening.
Also, frankly, higher level hirelings who would really be helpful in combat should be very rare out in their fledgling kingdom. Anybody of reasonably high level is probably going to have better things to do than hire themselves out.
|
|
Basically what Brian said. My countermeasure to dying hirelings was less available 'slots' to put them in (though honestly, that may be a bit harsh, 1st level hirelings could die very easy in later levels. Maybe I'd allow a Charisma check to prevent the slot 'closing', with the DC increasing with every death).
I do definitely agree that high level hirelings should be very rare. I limited the ones you could get through my own system to level 5, and even then, only at higher levels for the PCs (scaling much as a person with +0 Charisma and Leadership would). My theory was that paying for hirelings should, essentially, allow you to get the same kind of classes/levels you would get by taking Leadership with Followers.
I might suggest just explaining to the PCs your error in judgment, and presenting them the system above (or your own change).
Otherwise, I agree, taking along hirelings and having them die too much (which really should occur unless you made them far too high of a level) should start hurting Loyalty. Not sure about Unrest, but I can imagine citizens would be less loyal to leaders that couldn't keep them safe. :)
How can I make it awkward or unhelpful for them to bring their hirelings along? Should I?
My campaign world has a simple breakpoint - no hireling agrees to engage in combat regularly unless they are receiving a share of the treasure. Salaried employees (the 'X silver pieces a day' crowd) will run in the face of any combat - the best you can get them to do is guard something (such as 'guard the horses' by riding them away from danger when a wandering monster attacks, or 'guard the camp' by awakening the PCs before withdrawing from the wandering monster). Very few players are willing to fork over a full share of the loot (or even a half share, if they're particularly good at negotiating) in exchange for a PC-equivalent party member.
The 'no fighting without a share of the loot' rule is so thoroughly ingrained in the culture of the campaign world that not even charm monster or similar magics can overcome it - suggestions to do so trigger an additional saving throw.