These rules are meant to supplement my hireling and henchmen generators.
Parties can hire retainers and specialists to assist them. Retainers consist of hirelings and henchmen, whereas specialists are skilled professionals, such as alchemists, armorers, sages, spies, and so on. Since the availability and cost of specialists vary considerably, this document focuses on retainers.
This document builds upon Old School Essentials’ rules for hired help, adding my own spin on wages, resource die benefits for hirelings, and guidelines for when and why retainers may desert the party.
Hirelings perform basic duties like carrying supplies, torches, and treasure. Parties with a hireling can use the d12 ration/torch resource die—otherwise, the highest resource die they may use is a d8.† Hirelings are level 0 characters who lack professional combat equipment and only fight if directly attacked. They do not gain experience, but loyal hirelings might one day become henchmen. Hirelings cost 10 sp per week.
† Whenever a character uses a consumable item, they roll the resource die. Upon rolling 1-2, the resource die’s value decreases by one increment on the dice chain (d12→d10→d8→d6). Rolling 1-2 with a d6 resource die depletes that item entirely.
Henchmen are generic fighters who lack class abilities, but come equipped with their own weapons and armor. Dwarves, elves, halflings, and humans may all work as henchmen. Parties cannot hire henchmen who are a higher level than their lowest player character. Henchmen receive experience at ½ the speed as player characters. Each henchman costs X gp per week and X gp per encounter, where X = henchman’s level.
Hiring Process
Each day, the party can readily find 1d4 prospective hirelings. Henchmen are solicited through job postings, which cost 5 gp and draw 1d6 interested henchmen in 1d4 days. Players may choose which henchmen they’d like to offer a job. The number of retainers that a player character can hire depends on their personality ability score, as well as each retainer’s reaction to the job offer. Repeat as necessary until satisfied with the roster.
I use Old School Essentials’ rules for determining the number of retainers, their loyalty, as well as hiring reactions:
Personality
3
4-5
6-8
9-12
13-15
16-17
18
Retainer Reaction
-3
-2
-1
None
+1
+2
+3
Max # of Retainers
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Retainer Loyalty
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
2d6
2 or less
3-5
6-8
9-11
12 or more
Result
Ill will (-1 to further recruitment rolls in the area)
Offer refused
Negotiate/roll again
Offer accepted
Offer accepted, +1 loyalty
Loyalty
Retainers perform a loyalty check when the party returns to town to determine whether to continue working with the party. Their baseline loyalty depends on the personality score of the player who hired them, but players may permanently increase the loyalty of retainers by paying more than the going rate. Gifting henchmen better armor and weapons may also increase their loyalty. Modify loyalty from -2 to +2 based on wounds, treatment, share of treasure, and party’s success.
Desertion
In combat, retainers may desert the party if certain needs are not met. Hirelings who are directly threatened by traps or combat encounters will flee if they fail their loyalty check. Henchmen almost never flee from such dangers unless they feel completely outmatched.
In the wilderness, lack of a ration resource die never causes hirelings to abandon the party. Henchmen, however, perform a loyalty check whenever they enter a new hex without food (roll for each henchman individually). They desert on a failed loyalty check unless the party can bribe them to stay longer.
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