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I just finished painting Reaper’s Henchmen & Hirelings boxed set, and it has the topic of hirelings on my mind more generally, and I was thinking about a Cleric hiring out of the Henchman’s and Hireling’s Guild.
But since my knowledge of the Golarion deities is a little sketchy, I decided to see who folks thought would fit that bill.
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Abadar. "doing it for the money" is very nearly a religious act.
Asmodeus. All about creating and then following contracts. Just be careful of the fine print.
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Abadar views fair pay for work as a holy virtue.
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If you're into being decked out in all manner of high-fashion clothes, jewelry, and play a Cleric who finds self-expression to be a virtue you can always also go with The Resplendent Court Pantheon as well.
That has the benefit of giving you five Deities you worship, avoiding some of the more do-gooder anathema that Abadar has as well as dodging the whole weird bank/financial institutionalism and bureaucracy involved with his church alone. Since it's something you're pairing with a miniature you could doll it up pretty well and actually go ham on it with all manner of rings, maybe even get some actual tiny metal chains to put around their neck and so forth as a project to transform it into something special.
You're going to have to try your best at all times to shine like a diamond, ditch any notion of being "low key" (even for the purposes of survival), and abandon any hope of joining an organization that has a uniform code but that's not too bad. These types of Clerics would also be a perfect fit for someone looking to take the best Archetype printed to-date for PF2 (Objective fact, not sorry), the Dandy.
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Fellow members of the Pathfinder Society, before we begin Phase One of our Project, I would like to ensure you understand the Scope of Work based on our anticipated Level of Effort. Please review the Medical Services Agreement and negotiate any points you see fit so that we can, together, maximize that holiest of sacraments, Earned Value. After all, what is a little contract law between friends?
Profit Humble Measure’s golden halo glitters as he hands you a contract in a white-gloved hand.
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I just finished painting Reaper’s Henchmen & Hirelings boxed set, and it has the topic of hirelings on my mind more generally, and I was thinking about a Cleric hiring out of the Henchman’s and Hireling’s Guild.
But since my knowledge of the Golarion deities is a little sketchy, I decided to see who folks thought would fit that bill.
As others have said, Abadar is a solid choice since it's literally a God of money and cities and stuff. Granted, their weapon of choice isn't the greatest (Crossbow), but it is still something.
Asmodeus is up there, though is more about sticking it to them with the fine print than being an actual adventurer. Still, if you dot your eyes and cross your tees, it can be functional.
Cayden Cailean might be interested as well, even if the payment is free room and board and all the booze you can drink.
Heck, even Gorum might work if killing is involved; they aren't ones to shy away from a fight.
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Abadar or the less known Demi-God called Spencer.
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Abadar or the less known Demi-God called Spencer.
Remember Luke & Danny too. Of the three, Danny's the only healer.
(Also it's Spenser, and he's the only one I recall with that spelling.)
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Besides the obvious and excellent choices of Abadar and Asmodeus...
Calistria. Offering professional revenge services seems... apt.
Besmara. Pirates do it for the money.
Mammon. Avarice is squarely in his wheelhouse.
Dranngvit. Debt, pursuit, and vengeance? Sounds like a bail bondsman.
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Abadar or the less known Demi-God called Spencer.Remember Luke & Danny too. Of the three, Danny's the only healer.
(Also it's Spenser, and he's the only one I recall with that spelling.)
I was going off knowledge when I could still count my age on two hands.
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Calistria for sure. Her clerics offer all kinds of Lustful, Trickery, and Vengeful services for a price. They may also decide to do it for free if they like you or feel the task benefits them or is just worth it to them. There was a fun little bit I read about them doing lawyer services in more good aligned churches for financial compensation. Which I find is funny.
Abadar. God of money and what not. In some of the novels his clerics almost come off as sourly motivated by money.
Cayden. Though they do it for the adventure, I'm sure a few would do it for the reward as well.
Asmodeous. Contracts and such defiantly makes me think so.
Urgathoa. If money is something you take to excess, I could see a few clerics taking any job as long as they get paid.
Torag. Maaaaaaaaybe? They know the value of gold and hard work.
I am sure there are more but, these where just a few off the top of my head.
Doing the cleric-for-hire thing can be a decent way to support local businesses directly, too. Like... who do you think is going to be hiring you, most of the time?
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Abadar and Asmodeus were the obvious
Cayden Cailean, he was a sword for hire in his mortal life, so his clerics doing similar makes sense.
"Non-judgemental healer? Oh, we can absolutely find you a good rate" and if the cause is just, they may waive their fee. However, if the mission is agaisnt their morals, you may have an enemy in your ranks serving you drinks.
Calistria: ABSOLUTELY! "tend your own wounds first" is one of her mantras.
"yes, we have several clerics who can help keep you vertical on your revenge quest. We have some wonderful payment plans for if you would like them to help you get horizontal too." They would be great in that they would also be counseling you when you're going to far. "Sweetie, he deserves to die, absolutely, but not his husband, that's too far."
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I could imagine a cleric of Erastil sending a chunk of their money back to family and community back home and charging strangers fair rates without much shame.
"Yes sir, I do believe we should help those in need. Mama lives in Sandpoint, and she needs a new fence put up after the last incident, so about that agreed upon price? AHEM."
Anyone paying money to a Cleric devoted to a Deity that represents the domain of Trickery is a fool who deserves to be parted from their coin and left penniless in a ditch.
Then again, you can't be a TRICKSTER if you have a reputation for INEVITABLY screwing people over, so there's two options I can trace. One, the cleric pretends to worship another deity. Two, the cleric only SOMETIMES screws people over, and potential customers know that; they go into it thinking "no, I'm not going to be one of the unlucky ones", and sometimes they're correct.
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the "Domain" is really a meta concept that we know about, but in universe they probably wouldn't have a concept of. Because you worship a god, and revere specific traits, but which traits you specifically revere wouldn't really be common knowledge. You yourself might get a reputation of "don't throw away money hiring them" but not your god.
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Every church of Calistra is encouraged to create and celebrate local holidays that commemorate grand acts of trickery, the only thing/trait that is more well-known about that church it would be their role in supporting and building the sex work industry.
Given the abandonment of alignments in the system and the push to judge acts and people exclusively on their actions and behavior I don't really think there is any reasonable justification on hiring any open worshipper of any Deity whose main areas of concern involve deception, lying, trickery, and to a lesser degree being beholden to your emotions and primal uges. If the entire group/organization would hire such a Cleric are also adherents to Calistra it could be justified but otherwise, that would simply be inviting trouble.
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I thought her main area of concern is vengence and lust? And don't most houses of worship run a brothel? Meaning they are already known for renting their bodies and time for gold.
also, are you saying no one would hire a worshiper of Odin, or of Athena? Both hire highly praised and well known for their cunning and trickery.
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Every church of Calistra is encouraged to create and celebrate local holidays that commemorate grand acts of trickery, the only thing/trait that is more well-known about that church it would be their role in supporting and building the sex work industry.
Given the abandonment of alignments in the system and the push to judge acts and people exclusively on their actions and behavior I don't really think there is any reasonable justification on hiring any open worshipper of any Deity whose main areas of concern involve deception, lying, trickery, and to a lesser degree being beholden to your emotions and primal uges. If the entire group/organization would hire such a Cleric are also adherents to Calistra it could be justified but otherwise, that would simply be inviting trouble.
That's... really kind of extreme as a take.
I mean, I'm sure that there are people out there with that take. In particular, it seems like a really convenient take for Asmodeans to have, as they point the "untrustworthy" finger in order to make themselves look more trustworthy. I expect that some of the followers of Abadar or Erastil (for example) might well have that take by natural inclination.
...but there are lots of reasons why people might follow different gods. Like, sure, if you're hiring an accountant, you expect one of a small number of deities, and a Callistran accountant is going to draw quite a few dubious questions. If you're hiring a whore, though, then there's nothing particularly wrong with Callistran whores as long as you're careful about things and don't piss them off. If you want someone to help you craft an appropriate response to being slighted, or to put together a certain kind of date for a paramour who you expect would appreciate it, then followers of Callistra are the ones with the subject matter expertise... as long as you haven't particularly offended them yourself. Dealing with Callistrans may not ever be entirely safe, but there are ways that you can reduce that risk, and there are situations that can make it worthwhile.
...and, simply, "judge acts and people exclusively on their actions and behavior" is not the same thing as "judge people on their declared faith."
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Paizo is extremely cagey about the term "brothel" and the lore abjectly rejects that any official Church of Calistra runs as one for reasons that I assume are related to how people carry negative connotations of the term, instead, they employ "sacred prostitutes" which, from my perspective is splitting hairs by saying they operate pay-for-sex operations on the grounds of it being important to their faith first rather than it being something done to generate income. In other words, the difference between a "run of the mill" brothel and nearly identical services provided by the church is that they don't "do it for the money" but instead they're motivated by filling the role of providing an affordable lay as a sacred act except that those who are part of the church who are motivated to do that work are also similarly encouraged to lie, deceive, and cheat in order to benefit themselves.
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Paizo is extremely cagey about the term "brothel" and the lore abjectly rejects that any official Church of Calistra runs as one for reasons that I assume are related to how people carry negative connotations of the term, instead, they employ "sacred prostitutes" which, from my perspective is splitting hairs by saying they operate pay-for-sex operations on the grounds of it being important to their faith first rather than it being something done to generate income. In other words, the difference between a "run of the mill" brothel and nearly identical services provided by the church is that they don't "do it for the money" but instead they're motivated by filling the role of providing an affordable lay as a sacred act except that those who are part of the church who are motivated to do that work are also similarly encouraged to lie, deceive, and cheat in order to benefit themselves.
Sacred prostitution is something that was a big thing back in the day, and there are some serious differences between that and the forms of prostitution that we know. In particular, modern brothels tend to be run primarily as brothels, with side gigs offering food/booze/etc. Still, the prostitution is the primary draw, and it's the thing that the endeavor is built around. Now, things like "vacation resort, where prostitution happens to be discreetly available on the side" definitely exist, but they're not generally referred to as brothels.
In the case of Callistra, the sacred prostitutes are offered under the auspices of the church, as part of a larger organization that is not mostly about prostitution. This helps avoid some of the potential failure states of standard brothels, as the larger organization knows that if things get bad enough, it'll reflect poorly on them and/or offend their goddess. They have both the means and motivation to keep it from going that far. Consider, for example, the difference in attitude and focus between a bakery and a church bake sale.
Of course, there's also going to be non-sacred prostitutes out there, following Callistra. Like, if you walk the streets or work the docks, then Callistra is an obvious default goddess for you to follow, for a few different reasons. Still... I'm not sure I'd expect most of them to be in brothels, either? If anything, I'd expect the sex trade to be more generally integrated, like an inn where one or two of the wait staff might consider negotiating affections at the end of their shift, or a theater where a few of the actors and actresses might supplement income in that way. Prostitution tends to look a lot different when it isn't illegal and doesn't face severe societal disapproval, and part of that is that there isn't such a drive to put it all in one box to keep the "ill repute" all together in the same place.
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Anyone paying money to a Cleric devoted to a Deity that represents the domain of Trickery is a fool who deserves to be parted from their coin and left penniless in a ditch.
The domain is much much less important than the edicts and, above all, anathema of the deity.
Urgathoa. As long as you’re not smashing undead, anyway. Plus they’d plan the victory party!
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I mean, as far as it goes hiring a Calistrian, you will be fine as long as you don’t piss them off. I think a lot of people think they are “Chaotic Stupid”. When a lot of her text leans to taking risks, but being careful. It’s not just trickery, but guile.
As others have mentioned, they have a ton of services in tons of temples. Most of them holding some amount of political power in the areas they have set up. If the church and followers were actively screwing people over for the fun of it… they wouldn’t last.
Hell, no one wants to do deals with Asmodeous but they still have clerics for hire. Considering Calistria’s faith is all about individualism, it really just depends on how you treat them. I think it came from one of the Kingmaker books but the saying “You can never find a greater friend or a more deadly rival, than a Calistrian. It is best to stay on their good side.”
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Calistria's the one who stepped in to head off a deific war when Desna killed Aolar.
Safe to say she's entirely capable of advocating for responsible courses of action.
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"Hi, I'm part of an adventuring group, and we were wanting to hire a a team member who has some divine power?"
"Sure thing kid, group name?" She asks.
"The Southern Fang," he answered.
the woman behind the desk checked a book briefly. "Okay, you're not on the black list, so what sort of service are you looking for from your holy person?"
"Black list? Service"? He asked.
"Service," she reiterated. "Are you looking for someone to heal you up, and keep you vertical, or are you looking for someone who's more on the wrath side of things? Are you needing someone with expertise in rituals, or with undead either destroy or controlling, what are you looking for. Divine power's a tool, we need to know what use so we can match you with the right tool."
"Er... um... healer, I guess he stammered. "I don't expect to encounter undead, but if we do, most likely we'll be on the destroys side of things."
"Okay, now we're talking," she replied. She copied some information down to a list, and presented it to the young man.
"These are the holy people who hire out through us that meet your criteria, along with their deity or pantheon of worship, their expected rate. You'll pay a retainer up front that we split with the holy person, and then the rest to them on completion. The god is listed because if you or your party tries to get them to do something that violates their sacred oathes, the contract is voided, you owe them their pay on the spot, and if you don't pay you are black listed, and we send both Asmodeans and Calistrians after you, and you don't want to find out what happens when those two agree on something."
"Hi, I'm part of an adventuring group, and we were wanting to hire a a team member who has some divine power?"
"Sure thing kid, group name?" She asks.
"The Southern Fang," he answered.
the woman behind the desk checked a book briefly. "Okay, you're not on the black list, so what sort of service are you looking for from your holy person?"
"Black list? Service"? He asked.
"Service," she reiterated. "Are you looking for someone to heal you up, and keep you vertical, or are you looking for someone who's more on the wrath side of things? Are you needing someone with expertise in rituals, or with undead either destroy or controlling, what are you looking for. Divine power's a tool, we need to know what use so we can match you with the right tool."
"Er... um... healer, I guess he stammered. "I don't expect to encounter undead, but if we do, most likely we'll be on the destroys side of things."
"Okay, now we're talking," she replied. She copied some information down to a list, and presented it to the young man.
"These are the holy people who hire out through us that meet your criteria, along with their deity or pantheon of worship, their expected rate. You'll pay a retainer up front that we split with the holy person, and then the rest to them on completion. The god is listed because if you or your party tries to get them to do something that violates their sacred oathes, the contract is voided, you owe them their pay on the spot, and if you don't pay you are black listed, and we send both Asmodeans and Calistrians after you, and you don't want to find out what happens when those two agree on something."
"I hope you've enjoyed your visit to this Church of Abadar and I wish you success and profit on your future endeavors."
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Data security is also a big concern with dealing with Calistria since I kinda remember that they get some blackmail using that--loose lips sink ships, though in this case it's a different pair of lips.
But otherwise I agree, if you're just Joe Schmoe(or jane schmoe) then dealing with them is less likely to f$@$ you over than the asmodeans
Honestly that is my favourite part whenever my players interact with her church. Seeing what little bits of information they give out without realizing it.