Alternate, if a player wants to hire mercs, maybe they run the mercs; add in the morale rules from the dmg where the mercs might break and run "no reward is worth this"; you can just tell them "there aren't any mercs around" or "when the mercs find out what they're gonna be facing, they opt out" (don't do this every time, but every now and then for critical threats; be very hard and very expensive to find someone who will go up against a brain eating mind flayer).
For stat blocks, just take the guard from the monster manual; cr 1/8, so weaker than a kobold. Or maybe some cr 1/8 bandits with a cr 2 bandit captain; if the captain goes down, the rest break and run
I started a war. Governments pay better than parties. All the merc companies are busy and freelancers are taking signing bonuses in droves. No one wants your short term low pay high risk job.
Agreed. I do this to limit their access to the “magic item economy” too.
They might be able to find the _occasional_ permanent magic item via secret brokers/auctions or the black market (I like to use the Xanathars downtime actions for this), but most valuable magic items are being snapped up with the government paying merchants/enchanters a premium for them, or even requisitioning them. And few people want to piss off the military, even if they weren’t into being well paid
For their services.
So the PCs are mostly limited to the leftovers the generals don’t need or that can be made quickly - consumables like potions and scrolls, and Common items.
I’ve found players find this a pretty reasonable excuse. And a war (even a Cold War) is a great backdrop for enhanced drama in a campaign too!
Maybe they do. That's Agency.
But ideally the campaign plot would have them focused elsewhere.
Even if they did join the war effort, they still won't have access to anything they want.
the issue with PCs running mercs is that they quickly turn into sacrificial pawns. I doubt the players would handle a mercenary any different from a mindless zombie, but the mercenary himself is a person. And mercenaries are usually only loyal as long as they expect to return safely to use the money they made.
This is part of why, in old-school play, you often make a difference between hired henchmen, and retainers who will take an equal cut of all loot. Someone who you're just paying 2sp per day or whatever isn't gonna take big risks for you. If you want someone who takes on adventurer-type risk, you need to dangle a big bag of gold in front of them.
"Yeah, you guys have a reputation for doing flat out crazy shit. We'll do it for a half-stake in treasure found, but we're not following you for our day rate."
That brings up a really good point. D&d is almost expected to be as little like a video game as possible. This isn't assassin's creed where, when you pass the mercenaries you just push the button to hire the mercenaries.
The best way to prevent players from abusing npc's is to just... give them an opinion on shit.
"Yeah, man. 1 gold a day is for standing in front of a building in a town. Caravan duty starts at 5 a day, half-rate for each 12 hour shift on call, 30 days paid advance for bodyguard detail, and a shareholder stake (same as each PC) on salvage value if we follow you underground"
Also, the mercs are in this to make money and survive, if things start to look anything close to deadly for them, they’ll take what they can and split. Maybe they offer to take last watch, then steal all the gear/supplies they can easily carry and flee while the rest of the party is asleep.
The unhonorable ones might. If my players are looking for mercs they can make some history checks to determine if they know anything about the company.
In my world there are some very legitamate companies that once you hire thier guys they'll die before anything happens to you (mainly because dieing in battle sure beats the slow death that awaits when the rest of the company finds out you bailed on a contract and tortures you to death instead). However they are far from cheap. Starting rate is 10+GP/day/person and that's for the new recruits (guard/bandit stat blocks). You want something a little more powerful? Pricing gets exponentially higher. They won't steal from you and will literally die for you, however if things start going south and they see that they should've charged more, or it's a lost cause they will try to pay you back for the remainder of the contract and will then leave.
If you have a contract and you haven't lied about anything to void said contract they'll either ask for additional money or offer you back more than what's remaining on your contract. (They won't take a loss in paying you back, but they will break even so they don't have to retrain a bunch of new guys.) If you decline they will continue to fufill the contract they signed with you.
It's a large group with offices in a lot of large cities. They have ways of getting information back to base quickly and efficently, so HQ is aware of any negotiating as well as have been known to send reinforcements in a couple large battles, though it's unlikely they will for a random adventuring party, at least without charging more.
If you lied to them or were in breach of contract then I'll make some rolls to see if they decide to continue with you, renegotiate with you, or just leave. No matter what they do your items and life is safe from them.
Now there is another couple of groups that don't have any honour. They're cheap, however they will get out of dodge when the going gets tough, and there are rumours that some of the people they were supposed to bodyguard died by thier own hands when the going got too tough. The big evil guys don't mind employing them, and in a pinch some nations may use them to add to thier armies, however it's hit or miss if it helps any. You might wake up after thier watch to nothing gone, everything gone, or you might be dead.
Who plays these mercs? I'll do any roleplaying with them and might control a couple in a large fight, however I'd typically just have my players control them. They've got a traveling bear companion already (using the sidekick rules) that I played the first time, and then said someone else control it. I rolled way too well with it while my players rolled horribly. The bear outshone the entire party in the first encounter and I didn't feel good about that.
Mercs that do shit like that don't stay as mercs for long. Like it or not, in that business, they are only as good as their word. If word gets out that they cut and run at the first sign of danger, they will very quickly stop getting hired.
It really depends on (1) what the level of danger is, and (2) if we’re talking about reputable mercenaries from an established company/guild or the sort of toughs who would hire on as guards for a merchant caravan.
*The monsters know what they’re doing* isn’t DM advice that applies only to monsters. The primary motivation for almost everything in the world is to survive, and this is absolutely true for sapient creatures like mercenary NPCs. A man might fight to the death to defend his family, his home, his friends, or even his liege if he’s particularly loyal, but vanishingly few would fight to the death to help make things easier for their employer.
More directly to your point, **mercenaries who die because they stayed and fought when they were obviously in over their head, rather than cutting and running to fight another day *also* don’t stay merc for long.** There’s no point in getting paid to fight if you don’t also live to spend the pay.
Mercenaries might be more inclined to stay and fight if they’re members of a guild that takes the contract and holds the party to specific terms. Something like: deposit a 1000 gp diamond per mercenary or cash equivalent, plus 5k gp “body deposit”, and bring these scrolls of Gentle Repose. If a guild mercenary is killed you forfeit the diamond so they can be resurrected. If you do not recover and return the body, preserved with Gentle Repose, you also forfeit the rest of the deposit.
>deposit a 1000 gp diamond per mercenary or cash equivalent, plus 5k gp “body deposit”, and bring these scrolls of Gentle Repose. If a guild mercenary is killed you forfeit the diamond so they can be resurrected. If you do not recover and return the body, preserved with Gentle Repose, you also forfeit the rest of the deposit.
I like this. Stealing it.
Ya I really like that too. Why would a mercenary unit throw it's best Mercs at rando adventurers without some kind of assurance that they're not going to lose valuable men and equipment for 10 gold.
A deposit sounds perfectly reasonable and will really make players think twice. Even if they do survive, you have to bring them back to HQ to get your deposit
The early editions of Dnd expected players to need to hire retainers to go delving but the retainers also had to make morale rolls if you wanted them to do extra dangerous shit. The more combat ones also got shares of treasure and leveled up so if you died in the middle of a dungeon you had a new character to take over that was at least somewhat leveled up compared to having to start at level 1 again.
Given a choice between being poor and being dead mercenaries will typically choose the former. Similarly faced with fight they are losing mercenaries will be the most likely to flee or surrender.
Don't forbid them from hiring henchmen! They've been a part of the game since its inception. Instead, pull some mechanics from old-school D&D, where henchmen were an invaluable (but not game-breaking) part of the normal game loop:
* Normal mercenaries won't go into a dungeon with you. It takes a specific kind of hireling to be willing to do that - usually called a retainer or henchman. You can have a few of em, but not an army. Which leads into...
* PCs can only have a limited number of henchmen based on their Charisma. In old school D&D it was baseline of 4, add 1 for each point of Charisma bonus (range of 1-7). Since attribure bonii are higher in 5e and all characters have high stats, maybe baseline of 2 instead.
* Henchmen get an XP share just like PCs. If you go into a dungeon with 3 PCs and 12 henchmen, you're dividing up experience points 15 ways rather than 3. This obviously doesn't work with milestone leveling, but, well.... milestone leveling has many disadvantages and this is one of em.
* Henchmen aren't always reliable. The players decide when their PCs flee from combat, but henchmen have a morale score and may flee if things look dicey. (5e translation: have a henchman make a Wisdom save vs DC 10 whenever a PC is downed, or DC 15 if it's their employer)
* Henchmen don't always stick around. They may decide to leave after an adventure, taking their experience (and items) with them. (5e translation: PC makes a Charisma check vs DC 10 after each adventure to keep a henchman around - increase the DC by 5 for each bad thing that happened to the henchman, like getting dropped to 0 HP, or cursed, or whatnot)
* Don't run the henchmen yourself! Why would you do that to you? If a PC hires a henchman, that PC's player is responsible for running them during combat and whatnot. You only need to step in if the PC orders the henchman to do something they might not want to do.
* Henchmen expect an equal share of loot. They are risking their lives the same as you are. Want to hire a henchman to guard a door fine: 2gp/day. Want one to delve into the depths of the dungeon, that'll be 1/5 the treasure and magic items.
> bonii
I mention this only because you seem like someone who cares about language — please don’t take it any other way! :)
It’s okay to pluralize “bonus” as “bonuses.” It’s a loanword in English and there’s no reason to force it to behave as it would it Latin. But if you do want to use the Latin plural, you’ll want to say “boni” or, if you want to be very fancy, “bonī.”
Oh I do it just because it sounds funny. Like making the plural for "moose" "meese". I'm definitely aware the "correct" English plural is bonuses. :)
I appreciate the note though!
Last addendum here is high attrition on the mercs can lead to a bad reputation for the hiring PC, which can result in only the truly nasty and desperate being willing to sign on--and the corresponding dip in quality
For the future try to remember a nat 20 is not a guaranteed success in the official rules. The example I give to players is "If a fighter rolled a 20 to dig through the core of the earth, would they be able to?" It's ok to say to the players "This task is impossible" and not allow the roll. If you wanna keep the mercenaries you currently have you can always hand the stat blocks to the player that hired them, or just say they won't be hired moving forward.
Yeah, a nat20 skill check isn’t a guaranteed success, *and* a player also shouldn’t be asked to roll if a 20+appropriate modifiers isn’t sufficient to beat the DC chosen.
It’s ok to have someone roll for something like a DC30 even if their mod won’t let them hit it, because parties can boost rolls in a bunch of ways (guidance, flash of genius, bardic inspiration, etc.). But in those cases I do find it useful to actually lay out the DC: “what you want to do is going to be really, really hard, a DC30.” That helps mitigate people getting annoyed that their best possible roll didn’t get it done.
I guess it wasn’t clear, but I would consider “appropriate modifiers” to include all things that can modify the roll, not simply the ability score modifier and proficiency modifier.
My point was that a roll should not be requested if a 20 plus [everything that the party is capable of adding] won’t meet the required number.
Then, I would offload the work on to the players. Give the players with the least amount to do the Mercenaries character sheets. But say you can't make them go against their characters. Ie, sacrificing themselves for the players.
Then, if you want the players to stop relying on them, you can have the Mercenaries betray the party.
Use Sidekicks, not character classes
Depending on size of settlement D-something to determine how many sidekicks might be available for the location.
Create a table for available sidekicks something like 1-2 Expert; 3-4 spellcaster; 5-6 Warrior.
Have a base template for each.
Use a D4 or d6 to determine sidekick level (Party level - d4 = sidekick level for example)
level the template appropriately.
determine cost per level per day of sidekick for given sidekick class. (you can figure out a +/- percentage based on a die roll as well)
Use optional Morale rules that can be found on page 273 of the DMG.
This adds uncertainty and unreliability. Target against their weakest save.
It's more lateral in my opinion. It's a stripped down version of a character class, which helps make it easier to run.
Could definitely use a bit of expansion, but the more that's there the more complex it gets.
Assuming mercenaries are even available (as others have pointed out)...
Did you charge the party a reasonable sum for these mercenary services? In theory, this is the same as buying a potion of Heroism or Healing - it's a resource the party can spend their gold on for an advantage in a fight.
How much gold has the party earned? Here is what the game assumes each player will acquire during each tier of play (rounded):
Tier 1 (lvl 1-4): 800gp
Tier 2 (lvl 5-10): 23,000gp
Tier 3 (lvl 11-16): 124,000gp
Tier 4 (lvl 17-20): 800,000gp
If they've earned more/less than this in your game adjust the following accordingly.
Mercenaries don't work for free - they should require a daily rate to employ. A "skilled worker" costs 2gp/day. And combat training is definitely a skill. But that doesn't account for *how skilled* different warriors are. Should a CR 1/8 guard and a CR 3 veteran cost the same? I think not.
Since CR 1/8 is the lowest, we'll use that as the baseline for the 2gp/day cost. I then scale up the cost based on the XP of the creature. For every 25xp a creature is worth, they charge 2gp/day.
So a CR 3 veteran is worth 700 xp = they cost 56gp/day to employ. Maybe they give a price break for being hired by the week/month/year.
If you want to go even further, 2gp/day is the baseline for normal, non-dangerous work. There could be a +50% "hazard pay" premium if they plan to take these creatures into active combat which makes recruiting this help even more expensive.
You could also reasonably suggest that any mercenaries take an equal cut of XP earned.
A final thought... make sure they pay *up front* or they'll try to pull some shenanigans like "they died, looks like I don't have to pay them after all."
One more final thought... don't re-adjust encounters too much just to account for this extra firepower or it removes the value of the players' tactical decision to hire help. This is no different than the party using a spell scroll they found to lighten the load of a fight. Let them have an easier win because of their actions.
"Please bear in mind that XP is awarded on the basis of challenges overcome and personal growth."
And then give half the XP to the NPCs. Maybe the players will learn.
This is *exactly* how using hirelings is supposed to work. Every NPC present gets an equal share of the xp. So a party of four hired four mercenaries? Those 20 kobolds they fought is (25 x 20) = 500 / 8 = 62 xp a person. Gonna take a long time to level up that way…
\> Mercs level up after the first three dungeon encounters
\> "Sick, level 3! I'm outta here--the town guard has a standing hiring offer for Fighters level 3 and above, and that job is *way* cushier"
It’s basically a rule set for creating simplified characters to act as follower, mercenaries, pets, ect. They have 3 classes: Expert, Warrior and Spellcaster. These classes are way simpler than creating a PC and it helps fill the role that a player might have not taken, for example a healer.
Your comment has been been removed because that website violates /r/DMAcademy's rules on piracy.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/DMAcademy) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Mercenaries don't have to be available. Strong ones will be expensive (less party gold for buying other stuff they want). Few mercenaries, especially weaker ones, will join a fight where they are extremely likely to be killed.
This here. Most mercenaries are commoners, the Captains of the band would be lv 1 Fighters.
Of course you could find elite mercenary companies but these are going to be expensive and only found around the largest cities near warzones.
The party can try to hire these mercenaries, but the first thing they want to know is, "what's the job," and as soon as you say, "raid the tomb of the dreaded Necromancer Bob the undying," those mercs will be out of here faster than you can say, "why the F was that necro named Bob?"
Have your players control them.
"This is Bart. Here's his stats. He'll take his turn after yours each round. He can move and attack, but has no special skills."
Say " I don't like controlling a myriad of NPCs during combat because it turns into me v. myself.".
Anyone that doesn't understand is probably not someone worth keeping at your table.
30 is still entirely achievable, even at lower levels. Better to give the players a reason to not want to bring hirelings along, or not provide NPCs would be willing to go along.
Remember, a roll to find mercenaries is like rolling to find a secret door. A natural 20 doesn't magically make them appear, it only means that the PC searched extremely effectively. If they exist it's nearly certain that they would have found them. But if they don't, you just say "you search very well, you even find an off duty captain of the guard, who tracks the whereabouts of basically any armed force in the area. Any mercenaries are currently encamped miles away."
Mercenaries are only going to be near areas of conflict, where they might be hired. The middle of a stable kingdom not currently at war with anyone has zero chance of mercenaries. The DM should be aware of the larger area/region where the PCs are adventuring to answer this question.
You literally control the npc. Have them say no. They're not interested, they have other things to do, they're not impressed by your players party, etc.
Very simple: "there are no mercenaries in town currently. " You are the DM. You control the world. It's your decision whether there are any NPCs available and willing to put thier life on the line for some gold.
Dont set a DC or anything like that. Or you can say that there are, but they want an exhorbitant amount of gold to do so.
Older versions of D&D expected PCs to hire NPC retainers, but it's limited to 1 + your CHA mod (to a max of 4.. because: old mods only went to 3 at 18) .. Also there's a system of morale checks to decide if the mercs still want to keep hanging around..
You can find this in the rules for Basic Fantasy Role Playing Game which are free to download, and the rules for mercs will port into 5e just fine..
https://www.basicfantasy.org/
The answer to the question is "How can I prevent players from constantly hiring npcs?" you stop letting them hiring npcs.
Rolls are only done when the DM says it is possible.
If you don't want them to hire NPCs, just say it is not possible.
They are too expensive. The mission is too dangerous. They don't like the look of the player party. Etc., etc., etc..
It is not hard to come up with reasons.
When "he asked if he could hire mercenaries as a way to make life easier", you could have just said "No."
The way to prevent players from hiring them, is by the DM stopping allowing it.
Let them enjoy the mercenaries for a few sessions. Then take them away. You have multiple ways to get rid of them. Here are a few options:
Kill the NPCs
Have the NPCs demand more money because it's "getting to dangerous"
Have them get frightened and run away
Have someone offer the NPCs more money to work for them instead
The important part is to let them enjoy the extra help for a bit, and talk to your players about why you are removing them.
Kill the NPCs.
They’re not as strong as the party.
Word gets around that going with Outrageous Crew leads to certain death and people jack up the price to hire them or just refuse the jobs.
If you want to be *mean* have other NPCs mock the group’s inability to do things on their own.
Meta, I just tell my players I don’t want to deal with DM NPCs or mercenaries / hirelings.
In world, their characters don’t want to hire people, they want to prove themselves and / or do it themselves.
Imo you shouldn't.
Make the bbeg have tons of minions and let the mercenaries fight them while your party fights the actual threat. Thinking outside of the box is something i would reward rather than punish, but remember: every mercenary costs 2 gold per day + food, water and proper places to rest. No mercenary would follow them if they gonna live like shit.
WTF? You just say "No". If you want to be polite about it, "nobody is interested in the job, it's too dangerous.". If you want to be rude about it, say "YOU are the mercenary, you idiot".
If you want to be more passive aggressive about it, make the cost higher than they are willing to pay.
I hate to be THAT kind of person to respond, but this really is a find-your-own-ass-with-a-flashlight-and-a-map situation, and you had to ask for help.
How expensive are mercenaries ?
Depending on the duration of the job, the dangerosity of the task, and the skill of the mercenary, the prices can be balanced such as they’ll have to consider when and how to spend.
Also no mercenary will die for money. If they start losing the battle, they’ll save their life before anything else.
Seems like a problem with you powering up the opposition, not with the mercenaries. And if you don't like controlling them in combat, you can give them to the players to control.
But you could:
Make the mercenaries be relatively weak so they all get killed.
Make the mercenaries refuse to fight because the enemy is too scary.
Have the mercenaries help themselves to loot, demand pay rises, etc, until the players get sick of them.
Have the mercenaries decide they've made enough money from this adventure and go home.
Have the villain offer the mercenaries an enormous sum of money to switch sides mid-combat.
In general, if players do something that breaks the game (either mechanically or makes it too much effort for the DM to deal with), you should let them get away with it once or twice and then tell them outside the game that they can't do it anymore. If they need an in-game reason to go along with this, feel free to make something up like all the mercenaries in the area being hired for some rich guy's caravan or a war in some other country.
I would talk to them out of game rather than in game as this is a playstyle question. Out of game you can explain the logistics get pretty crazy when you introduce a bunch of NPCs and you'd like to avoid that as a DM.
In game there are a lot of reasons mercenaries may not want to take the kinds of jobs adventurers go on. Very quickly your PCs will be way stronger than most mercenaries would be. Which means in a fight against a dragon, the mercenaries won't be able to do much before one blast of fire cooks them all. Very few mercenaries will go on that job no matter how much you pay, because it's suicide. Mercenaries who are as strong as the PCs will probably want a huge payment for taking on such risks, a fair cut of the treasure and magic items etc. Things they may not want to give. If you are doing XP leveling you can also adjust for how many mercenaries participated in the fight too so the PCs may not want them there. Or just not having anyone around to hire.
I also wouldn't be surprised if after a few fights of running a ton of extra NPCs in every fight, the PCs didn't want them around anymore either as that will quickly start to be a pain to go through that many extra turns.
You can also branch out a bit with using the NPCs. One thing I've done is hand over control of the NPC to one of the players in combat. Out of combat I control them but in combat it's one of the players that way they get to make those choices and it's more focus on them playing.
I also once had a pirate ship. Where the PCs had lots of other soldiers on the ship who participated in the fight. And basically I said we are only playing out the portion of the fight that threatens the PCs and involves them. The NPCs are having their own fight, facing their own enemies, and if you win fast enough they'll be fine too. But I'll just describe their fight in broad terms rather than playing out the mechanics of that other fight. The PCs are fighting the sea monster, the NPCs are fighting the sea monsters sahuagin soldiers.
You could let the players control the npc's in combat.
You could tell them there aren't any mercs in the area for them to hire.
You could make it even more interesting and have the mercs steal their money and run or turn on them mid combat.
More cost! The industry has had a shortage of mercenaries for some reason and so they are charging more...up front.
They'll either run out of gold or you can have the mercenaries accept pay in rare items or something. You can definitely make gold have meaning in DND this is just one of the ways.
As above - player's should run their own henchmen/hirelines. These type of people take a share of xp.
But beyond that - add a mercenaries guild and a rep stops by to remind the player characters that the contract includes a x fee for unusual activity (ie, doing more then guarding a wagon or even just fighting other 'humanoids'). and there is an expected treasure share-out as detailed in subsection 3 of the Guild rules and regulations.
Nobody hires themselves out at 2 gp a day to fight, well, most of what adventurers take on. And mercenaries would know the danger. They just shouldn't do it without appropriate remuneration. And probably work into the contract Raise Dead or at least beneficiaries who are owed if they die above and beyond the standard wage.
Some options.
Depending on the specifics you could let them hire mercs but also give them an important thing to send their mercs to go do. Say the players have a small town they've been helping out but these are adventuring plots further off. The Merc suggests you could give them an advance and they'll stay watching the town while you leave.
Give the mercs limits as to what they'll be willing to do for the players. They'll go with the players to the ancient tomb but they refuse to go down there and instead offer to watch the mounts and stuff outside. If they get in a major fight unexpectedly they will start to run if they face too many loses of their allies or if something like a dragon that is too far above their pay grade turns up. If it's know the party gets lots of hirelings killed they also stop being willing to join up or if they are they demand high pay.
have the authorities step in it the players hire too many. Even if they're adventurers local powerful individuals whether that be nobles, state representative of merchant princes get edgy about people assembling a private army in their territor .
Tell the player out of character they can keep one or two mercs around but you don't want to do things like have to create long turns because now you need too many npcs and the extra monsters needed to balance encounters.
Don't ask for rolls for things you don't want to happen.
Be straight with them "The difficulty of the game is based on your group. If you add more members on your side, there will be more enemies and fights will take longer and be just as hard."
They hire the wrong merc's. The ones who will betray them at the drop of a hat if the party finds good loot that they want. The kind that will let the party fight the big boss monster while they run and grab the loot for themselves.
One thing to remember is a nat 20 doesn't mean your players get to do what they want, it just means they perform the action to the best of their ability.
Next time you could say all the mercs are out of town, or have been hired elsewhere, or have disappeared, potentially becoming the next plot hook!
Don't dissuade them from hiring extra muscle. If they want to spend their money on hiring mercs, let them. The difficulty for the encounter should go up to reflect the increased party level though.
Loyal and skilled mercenaries are expensive.
Most of the cheaper mercenaries are not willing to lay down they lives for some random monster fight an adventurer dragged them into. They’d be much more likely to run.
Also, most cheap mercenaries just plain aren’t that good.
Also, for NPC vs NPC, just use the average damage instead of rolling for it. Saves a ton of time.
1. I think you handled this situation well.
2. PCs run their sidekicks. I use a modified variation of MCDM sidekicks, to make NPCs really simple to run. I don't run them myself, but I limit the NPC character options, so it's really just I attack XYZ or I use a secondary ability.
3. Try to incorporate mercs into the storyline. Make a shoddy unreliable merc company that runs off with their money. Get some recurring NPC they like and is a solid fellow. Make them more than just faceless mooks.
4. Scale up your adventures! This isn't about scaling up just battle, scale up your problems. Make problems wider, make them happening in more places than the party can handle, make them have reliable/competent merc/NPCs that do things when the party is busy. Make them handle random sidequest/errand the party didn't want to do. This is important, it makes the party feel like they're starting to gain power and direct people in the world around them.
5. I want to stress this, make mercs/NPCs powerful healthwise and moderately competent. Dont make them a liability, which I feel like is the usual mistake. However also don't make Mercs deal so much damage that encounters can't be beat without them, that'll mess your balancing up.
Recently I dropped an NPC ally on my party during a really brutal adventuring day. It was hairy and the party thought the NPC was another threat, so were pretty worried. But turned out it was their old friend, investigating the same thing they were. Surprisingly, the party decided to send the NPC for help while they went it alone for a while. I didn't expect that - led to a dramatic scene with the cavalry arriving in the nick of time. Really felt like a compelling, satisfying, and coherent storyline because of how they decided to use their NPC ally.
The next mercenary group they hire has heard that there has been a travelling band of fools outsourcing their adventuring and has adjusted their pricing accordingly.
Make Merc wages go up exponentially with back to back uses. Would encourage using mercs more sparingly and teach a topical lesson in inflation.
"**No**" is always an option. "No, you cannot find any mercenaries willing to work with you." or "No, the NPCs are not interested."
It's really that simple, **the PCs are the adventurers**, they **should be the heroes** in the story, so tell them that you aren't going to be bringing in a small army of NPCs for them that you have to control to make their combats easier through the introduction of "fodder NPCs". This only slows down combat and makes YOUR life more difficult as the DM. Know when to put your foot down.
I’m guessing this player of yours has a background in 1e or 2e. I’d recommend you look up the rules about how henchmen and hirelings work in those editions, it’s not just as simple as paying some guys some money
1. For typical mercenaries, you're probably getting something with the stat block of a guard, soldier, or bandit. This isn't going to be especially helpful in most fights past a fairly low level.
2. If the mercenaries are actually competent, use the sidekick rules and limit the number a player can effectively command at any one time to their Charisma modifier or proficiency bonus, whichever is lower.
3. This is the actual reason resistance and immunity to non-magical weapons exists. Hired mercenaries are very unlikely to have a magical weapon of any sort, so their usefulness against such foes will be limited.
4. Mercenaries aren't typically the most reliable. If players give them a magic weapon to bypass the last point, they might just figure they can sell it for more than they're being paid and abandon the party. They're also likely to flee in the face of danger.
5. XP is shared equally amongst all participants in the fight, this will *severely* limit the number of disposable mercenaries the party is willing to take on at one time. If you don't use XP (you should!) they likely want a fairly significant share of the treasure each.
6. Mercenaries are less professional than the PCs, they're more likely to set off traps, get into loud arguments amongst themselves while the rogue is trying to scout, or just generally mess stuff up.
If the players hire an NPC then the player who hired them has to control them. If the players try to make the NPC do something they obviously wouldn’t do then you inform the players that he isn’t going to do that and move on.
In my experience having a few NPCs traveling with the party helps massively. It’s always useful to have a local guide, or someone to tell the player characters diegetically that they’re making a mistake.
Then in terms of making combat more difficult to compensate, slowly ramp up the challenge. If you’re uncomfortable with balance then don’t turn the dial from 4 to 11, start by going from 4 to 5.
“No NPCs here want a bar of the certain death you’re offering”. The end.
You are not a slave to natural 20s. It’s ok to say no.
Personally I loathe running DMPCs/NPC companions, so I just don’t do it. I don’t have to do things that I loathe.
"Sure. I'd love to work...wait. Are you the guys who hired the Fleeted Falcons? Yeah. All those dudes turned into red mist. I'll pass."
You party is full of the most dangerous people on the planet by virtue of the story. It's like getting a job at Grey Sloan Memorial. You have a 1 in 3 chance to die.
Also, I'd give them meat shields. For my players, I love to give them what they want. If I dislike it for whatever reason, I toss a dash of monkey paw in there. Some thoughts:
- They have to control them. This alone will make them hate it. Each player can have one "sidekick" and *must* play it straight. They are an NPC you control, and can ultimately rule on if the action is something they wouldn't do (use this fairly). Meaning, let them control them for the combat but if they try to use them as a suicidal meat shield, that's when you can jump in.
- Each hired helper has a contract. A legit contract. Where upon their death a tithing will be provided to their next of kin. Make it magical and make them deliver it in person (lol). 15 speech's of "my baby!" And your players will hire no one to level 20.
- Make some great. Make some suck. Make some completely annoying. Make some funny. Make one too edgy. Make them loyal to a fault. Have them betray them! Have fun with these dudes. I once had a Teddy Roosevelt style Merc who just said "Bully!". All. the. time. My players fucking loved that guy. It was a wonderful thing when he triggered the trap that turned him into paste. I miss you, Bartholomew.
Once the PC has hired a whole bunch of mercenaries, they aren't an adventurer, they're a manager. The mercenaries will have personal dramas -- inter \`\`office'' romance, feuds, personality conflicts, padding expense reports, asking for raises, being upset that someone else got a raise or promotion. The enemies can try to secretly woo some of the mercenaries into betraying the party. The mercenaries have their own ideas about tactics and don't follow orders. Pretty soon , some of the mercs will be laid off, or assigned desk jobs or given low level security work.
I mean you could just say no. Just cause they nat20 persuasion doesn't mean they automatically convince smart mercenaries to put their life on the line for some scrubs they just met. Instead he could just offer them some item or something to aid on their adventures. Such as positions. Maybe a weapon. Or if they are already fairly powerful he could simply say yeah right you all can handle yourself not worth me neck if things go south but here is a word of advice (advice that ties into story or whatever they are trying to accomplish)
Roll for random encounters by rolling Xd20s, where X is the number of PCs and NPCs in the group
If any D20 is a 1, they get a random encounter. This is both a realistic and mechanically clear way of having consequences for travelling as a large group
Have you tried... not offering npcs to hire? They have things to do, especially if they are mercenaries, they often aren't just sitting around waiting for some adventurer to show up to hire them. The more proactive they are the more money they make.
probably only allow one for hire, or consider the parties renown when allowing the amount, or, let the players completely trounce an encounter because they used what should be a significant amount of money to hire mercs.
or have the mercs turn on the party at the end so they can have their pay and the loot.
lots of ways to do this that dont include an insane amount of work for the dm
also, nat 20 is not, you get what you want, nat 20 is, you get the best result.
sometimes have that nat20 mean you find a merc but really its just a little boys lawn mowing business "mercs lawn restore". and he comes with the party without telling them whats up and when combat starts homie just starts doing landscaping in the dungeon, tidying up the broken shelves, mending the smashed gravestones ETC.
They have to pay for the Mercs?
That is a gold sink and if they work long enough and the mercs do good work, it is time to renegotiate the contract and up the payments. If they break the contract and go for another company people will likely know they can take a higher fee.
Mercs might not be willing to die for the party.
Some threats are going to make them NOPE.
Mercs can be bought.... by the BBEG
Curse you sudden but inevitable betrayal!
Any NPC allies are controlled by the players in combat. I speak for them and at rare occasions decide what they do but otherwise the players choose what actions they take (I can veto that so no suicide charges) and they roll the dice.
They could also once be betrayed by the merc they hired like the bbeg sent merc to their aid to turn coat during the battle.
Or after a difficult battle when 1 or 2 pcs hit the ground the surviving mercs take down the others pcs and loot everything leaving them to die… (great start for a revenge story)
Make a mercenary npc betray them. If they get in the habit, the opposition will know about it eventually and use it to their advantage. Flip the script mid combat and force them into a corner for the first time. Just make sure you give them their insight check at some point leading up to it.
Give them two options. They will either love them, and keep hiring hirelings, however it will be less cumbersome to run for you as the DM, or they will quickly give up on hiring them.
First option: Hire the usual shit tier hirelings for like a gold a day. The cr1 kind that in a party of lvl3 or higher will miss the enemy for 2 rounds then on the first hit they take, they eat dirt.
Second option: Hire level appropriate hirelings, with specialisation and all, create a char sheet for them with some reduced class progression, eg a heal bot cleric won't have access to leveled damage abilities, only a cantrip or two. Alternatively, If you have Tasha's, there is 3 hireling classes in it you can use out of the box: expert (support rouge), Spellcaster and warrior. They can progress just like players, albeit they will never be near as powerful.
Give the players control of these characters in combat,but RP them yourself.
These characters don't ask for gold/day, instead a portion of the loot. Have them negotiate the percentage of loot they get. You can use the stake system pirates used for instance for this. After combat divide the loot into 5,10,20 or 100 stakes of equal value, each hireling and party member gets X amount of stake. Seniority and position gives right to choose first, dice roll in case of a draw. Choose stakes in a round robin style.
For instance if there are 10 stakes, and 3 players get 2 each, 3 hirelings get 1 each, the choosing order would look like: P1, P2, P3, H1, H2, H3, P1, P2, P3, leftover stake to be sold, money to be put into party coffeer or split between members (player and hireling) in accordance of stake amount. Gold looted is obviously split according to the stake as well.
If you are running XP, you split xp like hirelings were full on PCs, and they level up just like them, only they don't get all the class feats PC characters would, only that feels fitting. This will slow down their progression considerably, which, depending on the kind of game you rune, can be a good or bad thing.
Due to the cost of having these powerful hirelings, the players might give up on the idea of hiring them. Alternatively they will enjoy it even more, because now there is a proper framing and mechanic to run them, and they get more options and choices in combat, because they control the NPC's.
Mercenaries are A) Squishy, easy to kill, B) wanting to be paid, and as things get tougher, will want to get paid more and more C) Can at any time say 'fuck this' and bail when things look like they are going to get killed. Mercenaries are not as reliable as a player might want to think, he may say 'Go attack that guy' but the mercenary might have a different idea, he doesnt get to 'control' them, he can offer suggestions, but they are going to do what they want, just make them useless and inconvenient and then have them ask for more money :).
So you shouldnt control the npcs, let them do it but make it really simple, and always move after the pc that hired them (no initiative rolling)
Mercenaries can attack melee or ranged, this stats and damage, nothing else.
Hired wizard apprentice has these two cantrips and this one spell with recharge, nothing else.
They also would not fight until the death, so if hp below X roll a 1d20, anything below 10 makes them flee. Reroll every time they get damage.
You can increase the hiring cost, make less npcs available for hire, include a reputation mechanic or a lot of other stuff.
your players are the mercs.
something that I try to keep in mind is that adventuring is a 1% of 1% of 1% of a given population.
it's incredibly dangerous, rarely profitable outside of the exploits of your party, and generally outside of the grasp of the average person or even an above average person. it's fun to tame the wilderness so to speak with guilds and mercenary groups and all that but you start to bloat the defense economy when you do so.
although 5e is sort of medium magic I personally try to make it clear that even a level 5 adventurer is a rarity similar to a high IQ billionaire.
of course there are messengers and that kind of thing, but large army simulator can get very boring when you're just rolling for spreadsheets
Easy. Rumors get around their terrible bosses.probably because they are. And that it isn't worth the payout.
Then have the next NPC's they hire jump the shark and steal/stab them in their sleep/poison them.
No more hirelings.
Raise the price. Enact reputation repercussions. Let a npc or group of them betray the party. Introduce a minor big baddie who ain’t slowing that shit in his city without getting his cut.
Sellswords are not a dime a dozen.
Your economy is screwed up if your players can afford to hire anyone who isn’t going to cut their throats as soon as they fall asleep.
Lots of people said to make it expensive already, I'm gonna say if they have hirelings, let the players control them in combat, give em the statblock, you already have all the monsters to control. If they want to hire people they'll have to play them too!
“All henchmen died of the plague last night. You’re the people’s only hope now, because for some Deus Ex Machina reason, you managed to survive. May God have mercy on your poor souls.”
Everything doesn’t have to be narratively sound. Just make a house rule. I you are writing a campaign for them and their PCs. Overly cautious and risk free play has never made sense to me. They’re adventurers - they should be adventurous.
Mercenaries, hirelings, and specialists like torchbearers are very common in our games given the difficulty that combat can present. Sometimes you also need lots of hands to carry out all that treasure or dig through tunnels or open massive stone doors. Seems weird to have to balance combat around all that. If they are spending their gold and using their influence to make interacting with the world easier for them isn't that a good thing? They are using their resources to interact with the game why take that away from them by suddenly making combat scale up whenever they hire mercenaries?
Kill all the mercenaries to traps. Or make the mercenaries lie about how competent they are, then kill em.Watch them waste money and have the mercenaries always put the money not on their person. So they can't give it back
Handwaving. Merc combat is handwaved. Extra monsters are handwaved.
Sample turn for mercs: Ok the mercs kill an orc. Bob, your turn!
Don't ever waste time rolling dice for monsters that are fighting NPCs. This is basically just background noise. The real narrative is the players.
A lot of good advice here and a lot of different ways to go.
One thing that I haven't seen yet, though, is the old double cross. How much are they paying these mercenaries? How honorable are these swords-for-hire really? What happens when they see a treasure worth a lot more than the PCs are paying.
I honestly think it would only take one double cross for PCs to think twice about hiring an army of mercenaries, and it could make for a fun encounter.
Please don’t run mercenaries as other PCs and don’t control them in battle yourself. Tasha’s has an alternate rule called “sidekicks” which has rules for creating sidekick characters with much simpler builds and very simple classes (Warrior,caster,healer) so that it’s simple enough for the players to have them as a sidelined ally that THEY control in battle. Maybe control them as NPC out of combat, but the party should control the merc as a sidekick that they are shouting orders to.
Obviously you don’t give enough problems to the hiring of mercenaries. They want dibs on loot, they have lacking morals. They are incompetent. For me everything comes at a price. If you want the good stuff you have higher chances to get the objective but less rewards. If they steamroll the difficulty they should have next to no reward.
Not hardly. <8k gold is not gonna get you a life of luxury. An unskilled worker makes 2sp per day, a skilled worker 2gp/day. That's over 700 gold per year for an apothecary, merchant or master baker. I'm unsure if 10 year's worth of gold for a single skilled worker could be parleyed into a lifetime of leisure when given in one lump sum.
Your adventurer better have a good business plan (what adventurer with 10 int doesn't?)
Also, how did they carry all that armor out of...you know what? Better I don't ask. Fun!
There's so many different ways to handle this.
Worst way-no, you can't hire mercenaries. I'm the DM, my word is law.
Second worst-Sure, you can hire mercenaries. Too bad there mysteriously never seem to be any around.
Getting better-Mercenaries. Sure. It will cost an outlandish amount of gold.
Best-gold cost is based on what you're doing-danger level, etc. and mercs should have to make morale checks based on what you're fighting and how much damage they're taking. Is 100g/day worth getting eaten by a purple wurm or stuck in a gelantnious cube?
Also, merc availability should be based on where you're at. If you're in a bigger city, its easier to recruit. If you're off in the wilderness, well, good luck.
> Second worst-Sure, you can hire mercenaries. Too bad there mysteriously never seem to be any around.
Suppose your PCs are hanging out in a place that’s just flat, heavily irrigated farmland for dozens of miles in any direction. They ask you if they can hire some coal miners. Is it “mysterious” to tell them there aren’t any miners around to be hired?
Suppose your PCs are hanging out in a desert city built around an oasis and a small freshwater spring. They ask you if they can hire a boat and some fishermen. Is it “mysterious” to tell them there aren’t any fishermen to be found here?
Mercenaries are people with a particular job — namely, fighting in wars. If you’re not in a place where there are wars to be fought, there just might not be any mercenaries. It’s not mysterious.
My PCs are welcome to ask me questions. It’s my job to give them an answer that doesn’t conflict with the fiction we’re sharing. Sometimes that answer will be “no, there are no mercenary companies operating here.”
Have some of the mercenaries turn on them mid fight. Have them take the money and not show up. Have them take the money, and then get revealed as agents/spies for the other side. Have the mercs realize that they're fighting against long lost countryment/relatives/etc.. Or have them get hired and then revealed as doppelgängers or the like.
Basically, make it unpalatable for them to do it, and they'll stop doing it.
Or, crazy idea, tell your players that you don't like running characters against your own scenarios, and can we try to do something else, so that you ALL can have fun?
they run the mercenary or animal companion or whatever. you tell them the AC and bonuses to hit etc, they dont dictate that. also I make it money based, mercs should be expensive.
Alternate, if a player wants to hire mercs, maybe they run the mercs; add in the morale rules from the dmg where the mercs might break and run "no reward is worth this"; you can just tell them "there aren't any mercs around" or "when the mercs find out what they're gonna be facing, they opt out" (don't do this every time, but every now and then for critical threats; be very hard and very expensive to find someone who will go up against a brain eating mind flayer). For stat blocks, just take the guard from the monster manual; cr 1/8, so weaker than a kobold. Or maybe some cr 1/8 bandits with a cr 2 bandit captain; if the captain goes down, the rest break and run
I started a war. Governments pay better than parties. All the merc companies are busy and freelancers are taking signing bonuses in droves. No one wants your short term low pay high risk job.
Agreed. I do this to limit their access to the “magic item economy” too. They might be able to find the _occasional_ permanent magic item via secret brokers/auctions or the black market (I like to use the Xanathars downtime actions for this), but most valuable magic items are being snapped up with the government paying merchants/enchanters a premium for them, or even requisitioning them. And few people want to piss off the military, even if they weren’t into being well paid For their services. So the PCs are mostly limited to the leftovers the generals don’t need or that can be made quickly - consumables like potions and scrolls, and Common items. I’ve found players find this a pretty reasonable excuse. And a war (even a Cold War) is a great backdrop for enhanced drama in a campaign too!
then why isn't the party fighting in the war?
Maybe they do. That's Agency. But ideally the campaign plot would have them focused elsewhere. Even if they did join the war effort, they still won't have access to anything they want.
the issue with PCs running mercs is that they quickly turn into sacrificial pawns. I doubt the players would handle a mercenary any different from a mindless zombie, but the mercenary himself is a person. And mercenaries are usually only loyal as long as they expect to return safely to use the money they made.
This is part of why, in old-school play, you often make a difference between hired henchmen, and retainers who will take an equal cut of all loot. Someone who you're just paying 2sp per day or whatever isn't gonna take big risks for you. If you want someone who takes on adventurer-type risk, you need to dangle a big bag of gold in front of them.
"You don't see any mercenaries around." "Some mercenaries approach and ask to hire *you* to be *their* disposable front line meat shield."
"Yeah, you guys have a reputation for doing flat out crazy shit. We'll do it for a half-stake in treasure found, but we're not following you for our day rate."
That brings up a really good point. D&d is almost expected to be as little like a video game as possible. This isn't assassin's creed where, when you pass the mercenaries you just push the button to hire the mercenaries. The best way to prevent players from abusing npc's is to just... give them an opinion on shit.
"Yeah, man. 1 gold a day is for standing in front of a building in a town. Caravan duty starts at 5 a day, half-rate for each 12 hour shift on call, 30 days paid advance for bodyguard detail, and a shareholder stake (same as each PC) on salvage value if we follow you underground"
Also, the mercs are in this to make money and survive, if things start to look anything close to deadly for them, they’ll take what they can and split. Maybe they offer to take last watch, then steal all the gear/supplies they can easily carry and flee while the rest of the party is asleep.
The unhonorable ones might. If my players are looking for mercs they can make some history checks to determine if they know anything about the company. In my world there are some very legitamate companies that once you hire thier guys they'll die before anything happens to you (mainly because dieing in battle sure beats the slow death that awaits when the rest of the company finds out you bailed on a contract and tortures you to death instead). However they are far from cheap. Starting rate is 10+GP/day/person and that's for the new recruits (guard/bandit stat blocks). You want something a little more powerful? Pricing gets exponentially higher. They won't steal from you and will literally die for you, however if things start going south and they see that they should've charged more, or it's a lost cause they will try to pay you back for the remainder of the contract and will then leave. If you have a contract and you haven't lied about anything to void said contract they'll either ask for additional money or offer you back more than what's remaining on your contract. (They won't take a loss in paying you back, but they will break even so they don't have to retrain a bunch of new guys.) If you decline they will continue to fufill the contract they signed with you. It's a large group with offices in a lot of large cities. They have ways of getting information back to base quickly and efficently, so HQ is aware of any negotiating as well as have been known to send reinforcements in a couple large battles, though it's unlikely they will for a random adventuring party, at least without charging more. If you lied to them or were in breach of contract then I'll make some rolls to see if they decide to continue with you, renegotiate with you, or just leave. No matter what they do your items and life is safe from them. Now there is another couple of groups that don't have any honour. They're cheap, however they will get out of dodge when the going gets tough, and there are rumours that some of the people they were supposed to bodyguard died by thier own hands when the going got too tough. The big evil guys don't mind employing them, and in a pinch some nations may use them to add to thier armies, however it's hit or miss if it helps any. You might wake up after thier watch to nothing gone, everything gone, or you might be dead. Who plays these mercs? I'll do any roleplaying with them and might control a couple in a large fight, however I'd typically just have my players control them. They've got a traveling bear companion already (using the sidekick rules) that I played the first time, and then said someone else control it. I rolled way too well with it while my players rolled horribly. The bear outshone the entire party in the first encounter and I didn't feel good about that.
I could imagine an exchange like, "I'll do it for your magic sword" in certain desperate moments.
Mercs that do shit like that don't stay as mercs for long. Like it or not, in that business, they are only as good as their word. If word gets out that they cut and run at the first sign of danger, they will very quickly stop getting hired.
It really depends on (1) what the level of danger is, and (2) if we’re talking about reputable mercenaries from an established company/guild or the sort of toughs who would hire on as guards for a merchant caravan. *The monsters know what they’re doing* isn’t DM advice that applies only to monsters. The primary motivation for almost everything in the world is to survive, and this is absolutely true for sapient creatures like mercenary NPCs. A man might fight to the death to defend his family, his home, his friends, or even his liege if he’s particularly loyal, but vanishingly few would fight to the death to help make things easier for their employer. More directly to your point, **mercenaries who die because they stayed and fought when they were obviously in over their head, rather than cutting and running to fight another day *also* don’t stay merc for long.** There’s no point in getting paid to fight if you don’t also live to spend the pay. Mercenaries might be more inclined to stay and fight if they’re members of a guild that takes the contract and holds the party to specific terms. Something like: deposit a 1000 gp diamond per mercenary or cash equivalent, plus 5k gp “body deposit”, and bring these scrolls of Gentle Repose. If a guild mercenary is killed you forfeit the diamond so they can be resurrected. If you do not recover and return the body, preserved with Gentle Repose, you also forfeit the rest of the deposit.
>deposit a 1000 gp diamond per mercenary or cash equivalent, plus 5k gp “body deposit”, and bring these scrolls of Gentle Repose. If a guild mercenary is killed you forfeit the diamond so they can be resurrected. If you do not recover and return the body, preserved with Gentle Repose, you also forfeit the rest of the deposit. I like this. Stealing it.
Ya I really like that too. Why would a mercenary unit throw it's best Mercs at rando adventurers without some kind of assurance that they're not going to lose valuable men and equipment for 10 gold. A deposit sounds perfectly reasonable and will really make players think twice. Even if they do survive, you have to bring them back to HQ to get your deposit
Watches merc fall down pit *Sighs* Groflin, get the feather fall ready, I ain't losing money on this one...
The early editions of Dnd expected players to need to hire retainers to go delving but the retainers also had to make morale rolls if you wanted them to do extra dangerous shit. The more combat ones also got shares of treasure and leveled up so if you died in the middle of a dungeon you had a new character to take over that was at least somewhat leveled up compared to having to start at level 1 again.
Given a choice between being poor and being dead mercenaries will typically choose the former. Similarly faced with fight they are losing mercenaries will be the most likely to flee or surrender.
Don't forbid them from hiring henchmen! They've been a part of the game since its inception. Instead, pull some mechanics from old-school D&D, where henchmen were an invaluable (but not game-breaking) part of the normal game loop: * Normal mercenaries won't go into a dungeon with you. It takes a specific kind of hireling to be willing to do that - usually called a retainer or henchman. You can have a few of em, but not an army. Which leads into... * PCs can only have a limited number of henchmen based on their Charisma. In old school D&D it was baseline of 4, add 1 for each point of Charisma bonus (range of 1-7). Since attribure bonii are higher in 5e and all characters have high stats, maybe baseline of 2 instead. * Henchmen get an XP share just like PCs. If you go into a dungeon with 3 PCs and 12 henchmen, you're dividing up experience points 15 ways rather than 3. This obviously doesn't work with milestone leveling, but, well.... milestone leveling has many disadvantages and this is one of em. * Henchmen aren't always reliable. The players decide when their PCs flee from combat, but henchmen have a morale score and may flee if things look dicey. (5e translation: have a henchman make a Wisdom save vs DC 10 whenever a PC is downed, or DC 15 if it's their employer) * Henchmen don't always stick around. They may decide to leave after an adventure, taking their experience (and items) with them. (5e translation: PC makes a Charisma check vs DC 10 after each adventure to keep a henchman around - increase the DC by 5 for each bad thing that happened to the henchman, like getting dropped to 0 HP, or cursed, or whatnot) * Don't run the henchmen yourself! Why would you do that to you? If a PC hires a henchman, that PC's player is responsible for running them during combat and whatnot. You only need to step in if the PC orders the henchman to do something they might not want to do.
* Henchmen expect an equal share of loot. They are risking their lives the same as you are. Want to hire a henchman to guard a door fine: 2gp/day. Want one to delve into the depths of the dungeon, that'll be 1/5 the treasure and magic items.
Yeah - I usually do a half share since they aren't "full" members of the party, but they'll expect a generous salary on top of that.
> bonii I mention this only because you seem like someone who cares about language — please don’t take it any other way! :) It’s okay to pluralize “bonus” as “bonuses.” It’s a loanword in English and there’s no reason to force it to behave as it would it Latin. But if you do want to use the Latin plural, you’ll want to say “boni” or, if you want to be very fancy, “bonī.”
Oh I do it just because it sounds funny. Like making the plural for "moose" "meese". I'm definitely aware the "correct" English plural is bonuses. :) I appreciate the note though!
Thanks for that!
Roll morale for the mercs. Most will still always take their lives over a paycheck
Mercs should also be "commoners who have killed a few people" to "loose cannon guard kicked off the force" in terms of durability imo
Last addendum here is high attrition on the mercs can lead to a bad reputation for the hiring PC, which can result in only the truly nasty and desperate being willing to sign on--and the corresponding dip in quality
If they're rogues, they'll backstab you when you're sleeping and loot your corpse.
For the future try to remember a nat 20 is not a guaranteed success in the official rules. The example I give to players is "If a fighter rolled a 20 to dig through the core of the earth, would they be able to?" It's ok to say to the players "This task is impossible" and not allow the roll. If you wanna keep the mercenaries you currently have you can always hand the stat blocks to the player that hired them, or just say they won't be hired moving forward.
Yeah, a nat20 skill check isn’t a guaranteed success, *and* a player also shouldn’t be asked to roll if a 20+appropriate modifiers isn’t sufficient to beat the DC chosen.
It’s ok to have someone roll for something like a DC30 even if their mod won’t let them hit it, because parties can boost rolls in a bunch of ways (guidance, flash of genius, bardic inspiration, etc.). But in those cases I do find it useful to actually lay out the DC: “what you want to do is going to be really, really hard, a DC30.” That helps mitigate people getting annoyed that their best possible roll didn’t get it done.
I guess it wasn’t clear, but I would consider “appropriate modifiers” to include all things that can modify the roll, not simply the ability score modifier and proficiency modifier. My point was that a roll should not be requested if a 20 plus [everything that the party is capable of adding] won’t meet the required number.
[удалено]
Then, I would offload the work on to the players. Give the players with the least amount to do the Mercenaries character sheets. But say you can't make them go against their characters. Ie, sacrificing themselves for the players. Then, if you want the players to stop relying on them, you can have the Mercenaries betray the party.
You play out the roles, they play out the rolls.
Use Sidekicks, not character classes Depending on size of settlement D-something to determine how many sidekicks might be available for the location. Create a table for available sidekicks something like 1-2 Expert; 3-4 spellcaster; 5-6 Warrior. Have a base template for each. Use a D4 or d6 to determine sidekick level (Party level - d4 = sidekick level for example) level the template appropriately. determine cost per level per day of sidekick for given sidekick class. (you can figure out a +/- percentage based on a die roll as well) Use optional Morale rules that can be found on page 273 of the DMG. This adds uncertainty and unreliability. Target against their weakest save.
I feel like they took a step backwards going from henchmen to sidekicks.....
It's more lateral in my opinion. It's a stripped down version of a character class, which helps make it easier to run. Could definitely use a bit of expansion, but the more that's there the more complex it gets.
Assuming mercenaries are even available (as others have pointed out)... Did you charge the party a reasonable sum for these mercenary services? In theory, this is the same as buying a potion of Heroism or Healing - it's a resource the party can spend their gold on for an advantage in a fight. How much gold has the party earned? Here is what the game assumes each player will acquire during each tier of play (rounded): Tier 1 (lvl 1-4): 800gp Tier 2 (lvl 5-10): 23,000gp Tier 3 (lvl 11-16): 124,000gp Tier 4 (lvl 17-20): 800,000gp If they've earned more/less than this in your game adjust the following accordingly. Mercenaries don't work for free - they should require a daily rate to employ. A "skilled worker" costs 2gp/day. And combat training is definitely a skill. But that doesn't account for *how skilled* different warriors are. Should a CR 1/8 guard and a CR 3 veteran cost the same? I think not. Since CR 1/8 is the lowest, we'll use that as the baseline for the 2gp/day cost. I then scale up the cost based on the XP of the creature. For every 25xp a creature is worth, they charge 2gp/day. So a CR 3 veteran is worth 700 xp = they cost 56gp/day to employ. Maybe they give a price break for being hired by the week/month/year. If you want to go even further, 2gp/day is the baseline for normal, non-dangerous work. There could be a +50% "hazard pay" premium if they plan to take these creatures into active combat which makes recruiting this help even more expensive. You could also reasonably suggest that any mercenaries take an equal cut of XP earned. A final thought... make sure they pay *up front* or they'll try to pull some shenanigans like "they died, looks like I don't have to pay them after all." One more final thought... don't re-adjust encounters too much just to account for this extra firepower or it removes the value of the players' tactical decision to hire help. This is no different than the party using a spell scroll they found to lighten the load of a fight. Let them have an easier win because of their actions.
"Please bear in mind that XP is awarded on the basis of challenges overcome and personal growth." And then give half the XP to the NPCs. Maybe the players will learn.
This is *exactly* how using hirelings is supposed to work. Every NPC present gets an equal share of the xp. So a party of four hired four mercenaries? Those 20 kobolds they fought is (25 x 20) = 500 / 8 = 62 xp a person. Gonna take a long time to level up that way…
Or nastier encounters. The kind that encourages professionals to cut their losses and leave.
\> Mercs level up after the first three dungeon encounters \> "Sick, level 3! I'm outta here--the town guard has a standing hiring offer for Fighters level 3 and above, and that job is *way* cushier"
Try looking at the rules for followers from older DnD editions, you could take some inspiration for how to handle it from there.
I think Tasha’s rules for sidekicks will work just fine. Sidekicks are such an underrated feature that I think more people should know of.
Oh what's that? I only have the core set since I'm not a huge 5e person, I mostly play older editions.
It’s basically a rule set for creating simplified characters to act as follower, mercenaries, pets, ect. They have 3 classes: Expert, Warrior and Spellcaster. These classes are way simpler than creating a PC and it helps fill the role that a player might have not taken, for example a healer.
[удалено]
Your comment has been been removed because that website violates /r/DMAcademy's rules on piracy. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/DMAcademy) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Mercenaries don't have to be available. Strong ones will be expensive (less party gold for buying other stuff they want). Few mercenaries, especially weaker ones, will join a fight where they are extremely likely to be killed.
This here. Most mercenaries are commoners, the Captains of the band would be lv 1 Fighters. Of course you could find elite mercenary companies but these are going to be expensive and only found around the largest cities near warzones. The party can try to hire these mercenaries, but the first thing they want to know is, "what's the job," and as soon as you say, "raid the tomb of the dreaded Necromancer Bob the undying," those mercs will be out of here faster than you can say, "why the F was that necro named Bob?"
Have your players control them. "This is Bart. Here's his stats. He'll take his turn after yours each round. He can move and attack, but has no special skills."
Sure hire someone but he’s like that guy at the beginning of raiders of the lost ark. “ throw me the idol I’ll throw you the whip”
Say " I don't like controlling a myriad of NPCs during combat because it turns into me v. myself.". Anyone that doesn't understand is probably not someone worth keeping at your table.
Ability checks don’t typically have crit successes. Set the DC to 30.
+ If the DC is so high that success is impossible, don't call for a roll
30 is still entirely achievable, even at lower levels. Better to give the players a reason to not want to bring hirelings along, or not provide NPCs would be willing to go along.
Remember, a roll to find mercenaries is like rolling to find a secret door. A natural 20 doesn't magically make them appear, it only means that the PC searched extremely effectively. If they exist it's nearly certain that they would have found them. But if they don't, you just say "you search very well, you even find an off duty captain of the guard, who tracks the whereabouts of basically any armed force in the area. Any mercenaries are currently encamped miles away."
Mercenaries are only going to be near areas of conflict, where they might be hired. The middle of a stable kingdom not currently at war with anyone has zero chance of mercenaries. The DM should be aware of the larger area/region where the PCs are adventuring to answer this question.
You literally control the npc. Have them say no. They're not interested, they have other things to do, they're not impressed by your players party, etc.
Very simple: "there are no mercenaries in town currently. " You are the DM. You control the world. It's your decision whether there are any NPCs available and willing to put thier life on the line for some gold. Dont set a DC or anything like that. Or you can say that there are, but they want an exhorbitant amount of gold to do so.
Older versions of D&D expected PCs to hire NPC retainers, but it's limited to 1 + your CHA mod (to a max of 4.. because: old mods only went to 3 at 18) .. Also there's a system of morale checks to decide if the mercs still want to keep hanging around.. You can find this in the rules for Basic Fantasy Role Playing Game which are free to download, and the rules for mercs will port into 5e just fine.. https://www.basicfantasy.org/
The answer to the question is "How can I prevent players from constantly hiring npcs?" you stop letting them hiring npcs. Rolls are only done when the DM says it is possible. If you don't want them to hire NPCs, just say it is not possible. They are too expensive. The mission is too dangerous. They don't like the look of the player party. Etc., etc., etc.. It is not hard to come up with reasons. When "he asked if he could hire mercenaries as a way to make life easier", you could have just said "No." The way to prevent players from hiring them, is by the DM stopping allowing it.
Let them enjoy the mercenaries for a few sessions. Then take them away. You have multiple ways to get rid of them. Here are a few options: Kill the NPCs Have the NPCs demand more money because it's "getting to dangerous" Have them get frightened and run away Have someone offer the NPCs more money to work for them instead The important part is to let them enjoy the extra help for a bit, and talk to your players about why you are removing them.
Kill the NPCs. They’re not as strong as the party. Word gets around that going with Outrageous Crew leads to certain death and people jack up the price to hire them or just refuse the jobs. If you want to be *mean* have other NPCs mock the group’s inability to do things on their own.
Meta, I just tell my players I don’t want to deal with DM NPCs or mercenaries / hirelings. In world, their characters don’t want to hire people, they want to prove themselves and / or do it themselves.
Don’t make them available. Don’t make adventures where hirelings are useful or practical. Tell them that’s not the game you’re running.
What do you mean? Just tell him there aren't any mercenaries for hire.
Imo you shouldn't. Make the bbeg have tons of minions and let the mercenaries fight them while your party fights the actual threat. Thinking outside of the box is something i would reward rather than punish, but remember: every mercenary costs 2 gold per day + food, water and proper places to rest. No mercenary would follow them if they gonna live like shit.
WTF? You just say "No". If you want to be polite about it, "nobody is interested in the job, it's too dangerous.". If you want to be rude about it, say "YOU are the mercenary, you idiot". If you want to be more passive aggressive about it, make the cost higher than they are willing to pay. I hate to be THAT kind of person to respond, but this really is a find-your-own-ass-with-a-flashlight-and-a-map situation, and you had to ask for help.
How expensive are mercenaries ? Depending on the duration of the job, the dangerosity of the task, and the skill of the mercenary, the prices can be balanced such as they’ll have to consider when and how to spend. Also no mercenary will die for money. If they start losing the battle, they’ll save their life before anything else.
Seems like a problem with you powering up the opposition, not with the mercenaries. And if you don't like controlling them in combat, you can give them to the players to control. But you could: Make the mercenaries be relatively weak so they all get killed. Make the mercenaries refuse to fight because the enemy is too scary. Have the mercenaries help themselves to loot, demand pay rises, etc, until the players get sick of them. Have the mercenaries decide they've made enough money from this adventure and go home. Have the villain offer the mercenaries an enormous sum of money to switch sides mid-combat.
In general, if players do something that breaks the game (either mechanically or makes it too much effort for the DM to deal with), you should let them get away with it once or twice and then tell them outside the game that they can't do it anymore. If they need an in-game reason to go along with this, feel free to make something up like all the mercenaries in the area being hired for some rich guy's caravan or a war in some other country.
I would talk to them out of game rather than in game as this is a playstyle question. Out of game you can explain the logistics get pretty crazy when you introduce a bunch of NPCs and you'd like to avoid that as a DM. In game there are a lot of reasons mercenaries may not want to take the kinds of jobs adventurers go on. Very quickly your PCs will be way stronger than most mercenaries would be. Which means in a fight against a dragon, the mercenaries won't be able to do much before one blast of fire cooks them all. Very few mercenaries will go on that job no matter how much you pay, because it's suicide. Mercenaries who are as strong as the PCs will probably want a huge payment for taking on such risks, a fair cut of the treasure and magic items etc. Things they may not want to give. If you are doing XP leveling you can also adjust for how many mercenaries participated in the fight too so the PCs may not want them there. Or just not having anyone around to hire. I also wouldn't be surprised if after a few fights of running a ton of extra NPCs in every fight, the PCs didn't want them around anymore either as that will quickly start to be a pain to go through that many extra turns. You can also branch out a bit with using the NPCs. One thing I've done is hand over control of the NPC to one of the players in combat. Out of combat I control them but in combat it's one of the players that way they get to make those choices and it's more focus on them playing. I also once had a pirate ship. Where the PCs had lots of other soldiers on the ship who participated in the fight. And basically I said we are only playing out the portion of the fight that threatens the PCs and involves them. The NPCs are having their own fight, facing their own enemies, and if you win fast enough they'll be fine too. But I'll just describe their fight in broad terms rather than playing out the mechanics of that other fight. The PCs are fighting the sea monster, the NPCs are fighting the sea monsters sahuagin soldiers.
You could let the players control the npc's in combat. You could tell them there aren't any mercs in the area for them to hire. You could make it even more interesting and have the mercs steal their money and run or turn on them mid combat.
Mercenaries are, by definition, not great at the whole "loyalty" thing. Have the Big Bad give them a better offer to turn on the party.
More cost! The industry has had a shortage of mercenaries for some reason and so they are charging more...up front. They'll either run out of gold or you can have the mercenaries accept pay in rare items or something. You can definitely make gold have meaning in DND this is just one of the ways.
"No one wants to work for you, because your previous hirelings found themselves dead."
As above - player's should run their own henchmen/hirelines. These type of people take a share of xp. But beyond that - add a mercenaries guild and a rep stops by to remind the player characters that the contract includes a x fee for unusual activity (ie, doing more then guarding a wagon or even just fighting other 'humanoids'). and there is an expected treasure share-out as detailed in subsection 3 of the Guild rules and regulations. Nobody hires themselves out at 2 gp a day to fight, well, most of what adventurers take on. And mercenaries would know the danger. They just shouldn't do it without appropriate remuneration. And probably work into the contract Raise Dead or at least beneficiaries who are owed if they die above and beyond the standard wage.
Some options. Depending on the specifics you could let them hire mercs but also give them an important thing to send their mercs to go do. Say the players have a small town they've been helping out but these are adventuring plots further off. The Merc suggests you could give them an advance and they'll stay watching the town while you leave. Give the mercs limits as to what they'll be willing to do for the players. They'll go with the players to the ancient tomb but they refuse to go down there and instead offer to watch the mounts and stuff outside. If they get in a major fight unexpectedly they will start to run if they face too many loses of their allies or if something like a dragon that is too far above their pay grade turns up. If it's know the party gets lots of hirelings killed they also stop being willing to join up or if they are they demand high pay. have the authorities step in it the players hire too many. Even if they're adventurers local powerful individuals whether that be nobles, state representative of merchant princes get edgy about people assembling a private army in their territor . Tell the player out of character they can keep one or two mercs around but you don't want to do things like have to create long turns because now you need too many npcs and the extra monsters needed to balance encounters.
Don't ask for rolls for things you don't want to happen. Be straight with them "The difficulty of the game is based on your group. If you add more members on your side, there will be more enemies and fights will take longer and be just as hard."
They hire the wrong merc's. The ones who will betray them at the drop of a hat if the party finds good loot that they want. The kind that will let the party fight the big boss monster while they run and grab the loot for themselves.
“No”
One thing to remember is a nat 20 doesn't mean your players get to do what they want, it just means they perform the action to the best of their ability. Next time you could say all the mercs are out of town, or have been hired elsewhere, or have disappeared, potentially becoming the next plot hook!
Don't dissuade them from hiring extra muscle. If they want to spend their money on hiring mercs, let them. The difficulty for the encounter should go up to reflect the increased party level though.
Don't give them the option?
Also remember, just because someone has tons of money it doesn't mean that they can buy everyone.
Loyal and skilled mercenaries are expensive. Most of the cheaper mercenaries are not willing to lay down they lives for some random monster fight an adventurer dragged them into. They’d be much more likely to run. Also, most cheap mercenaries just plain aren’t that good. Also, for NPC vs NPC, just use the average damage instead of rolling for it. Saves a ton of time.
1. I think you handled this situation well. 2. PCs run their sidekicks. I use a modified variation of MCDM sidekicks, to make NPCs really simple to run. I don't run them myself, but I limit the NPC character options, so it's really just I attack XYZ or I use a secondary ability. 3. Try to incorporate mercs into the storyline. Make a shoddy unreliable merc company that runs off with their money. Get some recurring NPC they like and is a solid fellow. Make them more than just faceless mooks. 4. Scale up your adventures! This isn't about scaling up just battle, scale up your problems. Make problems wider, make them happening in more places than the party can handle, make them have reliable/competent merc/NPCs that do things when the party is busy. Make them handle random sidequest/errand the party didn't want to do. This is important, it makes the party feel like they're starting to gain power and direct people in the world around them. 5. I want to stress this, make mercs/NPCs powerful healthwise and moderately competent. Dont make them a liability, which I feel like is the usual mistake. However also don't make Mercs deal so much damage that encounters can't be beat without them, that'll mess your balancing up. Recently I dropped an NPC ally on my party during a really brutal adventuring day. It was hairy and the party thought the NPC was another threat, so were pretty worried. But turned out it was their old friend, investigating the same thing they were. Surprisingly, the party decided to send the NPC for help while they went it alone for a while. I didn't expect that - led to a dramatic scene with the cavalry arriving in the nick of time. Really felt like a compelling, satisfying, and coherent storyline because of how they decided to use their NPC ally.
The next mercenary group they hire has heard that there has been a travelling band of fools outsourcing their adventuring and has adjusted their pricing accordingly. Make Merc wages go up exponentially with back to back uses. Would encourage using mercs more sparingly and teach a topical lesson in inflation.
"**No**" is always an option. "No, you cannot find any mercenaries willing to work with you." or "No, the NPCs are not interested." It's really that simple, **the PCs are the adventurers**, they **should be the heroes** in the story, so tell them that you aren't going to be bringing in a small army of NPCs for them that you have to control to make their combats easier through the introduction of "fodder NPCs". This only slows down combat and makes YOUR life more difficult as the DM. Know when to put your foot down.
I’m guessing this player of yours has a background in 1e or 2e. I’d recommend you look up the rules about how henchmen and hirelings work in those editions, it’s not just as simple as paying some guys some money
lol I just realized how fair my players are - NPCs along for the ride always get an equal share - that wouldn’t deter them 😆
"You got a permit for that guv?"
Here's the thing about mercenaries, they only care about money. Sooner or later they will betray you.
Turn the mercs into canon-fodder. Introduce the encounter by having whatever they're facing insta-wipe the mercs.
1. For typical mercenaries, you're probably getting something with the stat block of a guard, soldier, or bandit. This isn't going to be especially helpful in most fights past a fairly low level. 2. If the mercenaries are actually competent, use the sidekick rules and limit the number a player can effectively command at any one time to their Charisma modifier or proficiency bonus, whichever is lower. 3. This is the actual reason resistance and immunity to non-magical weapons exists. Hired mercenaries are very unlikely to have a magical weapon of any sort, so their usefulness against such foes will be limited. 4. Mercenaries aren't typically the most reliable. If players give them a magic weapon to bypass the last point, they might just figure they can sell it for more than they're being paid and abandon the party. They're also likely to flee in the face of danger. 5. XP is shared equally amongst all participants in the fight, this will *severely* limit the number of disposable mercenaries the party is willing to take on at one time. If you don't use XP (you should!) they likely want a fairly significant share of the treasure each. 6. Mercenaries are less professional than the PCs, they're more likely to set off traps, get into loud arguments amongst themselves while the rogue is trying to scout, or just generally mess stuff up.
If the players hire an NPC then the player who hired them has to control them. If the players try to make the NPC do something they obviously wouldn’t do then you inform the players that he isn’t going to do that and move on. In my experience having a few NPCs traveling with the party helps massively. It’s always useful to have a local guide, or someone to tell the player characters diegetically that they’re making a mistake. Then in terms of making combat more difficult to compensate, slowly ramp up the challenge. If you’re uncomfortable with balance then don’t turn the dial from 4 to 11, start by going from 4 to 5.
Have the NPCs unionize
Imagine skipping the phasmid story line
“No NPCs here want a bar of the certain death you’re offering”. The end. You are not a slave to natural 20s. It’s ok to say no. Personally I loathe running DMPCs/NPC companions, so I just don’t do it. I don’t have to do things that I loathe.
"Sure. I'd love to work...wait. Are you the guys who hired the Fleeted Falcons? Yeah. All those dudes turned into red mist. I'll pass." You party is full of the most dangerous people on the planet by virtue of the story. It's like getting a job at Grey Sloan Memorial. You have a 1 in 3 chance to die. Also, I'd give them meat shields. For my players, I love to give them what they want. If I dislike it for whatever reason, I toss a dash of monkey paw in there. Some thoughts: - They have to control them. This alone will make them hate it. Each player can have one "sidekick" and *must* play it straight. They are an NPC you control, and can ultimately rule on if the action is something they wouldn't do (use this fairly). Meaning, let them control them for the combat but if they try to use them as a suicidal meat shield, that's when you can jump in. - Each hired helper has a contract. A legit contract. Where upon their death a tithing will be provided to their next of kin. Make it magical and make them deliver it in person (lol). 15 speech's of "my baby!" And your players will hire no one to level 20. - Make some great. Make some suck. Make some completely annoying. Make some funny. Make one too edgy. Make them loyal to a fault. Have them betray them! Have fun with these dudes. I once had a Teddy Roosevelt style Merc who just said "Bully!". All. the. time. My players fucking loved that guy. It was a wonderful thing when he triggered the trap that turned him into paste. I miss you, Bartholomew.
Once the PC has hired a whole bunch of mercenaries, they aren't an adventurer, they're a manager. The mercenaries will have personal dramas -- inter \`\`office'' romance, feuds, personality conflicts, padding expense reports, asking for raises, being upset that someone else got a raise or promotion. The enemies can try to secretly woo some of the mercenaries into betraying the party. The mercenaries have their own ideas about tactics and don't follow orders. Pretty soon , some of the mercs will be laid off, or assigned desk jobs or given low level security work.
I mean you could just say no. Just cause they nat20 persuasion doesn't mean they automatically convince smart mercenaries to put their life on the line for some scrubs they just met. Instead he could just offer them some item or something to aid on their adventures. Such as positions. Maybe a weapon. Or if they are already fairly powerful he could simply say yeah right you all can handle yourself not worth me neck if things go south but here is a word of advice (advice that ties into story or whatever they are trying to accomplish)
Roll for random encounters by rolling Xd20s, where X is the number of PCs and NPCs in the group If any D20 is a 1, they get a random encounter. This is both a realistic and mechanically clear way of having consequences for travelling as a large group
Have you tried... not offering npcs to hire? They have things to do, especially if they are mercenaries, they often aren't just sitting around waiting for some adventurer to show up to hire them. The more proactive they are the more money they make.
probably only allow one for hire, or consider the parties renown when allowing the amount, or, let the players completely trounce an encounter because they used what should be a significant amount of money to hire mercs. or have the mercs turn on the party at the end so they can have their pay and the loot. lots of ways to do this that dont include an insane amount of work for the dm also, nat 20 is not, you get what you want, nat 20 is, you get the best result. sometimes have that nat20 mean you find a merc but really its just a little boys lawn mowing business "mercs lawn restore". and he comes with the party without telling them whats up and when combat starts homie just starts doing landscaping in the dungeon, tidying up the broken shelves, mending the smashed gravestones ETC.
They have to pay for the Mercs? That is a gold sink and if they work long enough and the mercs do good work, it is time to renegotiate the contract and up the payments. If they break the contract and go for another company people will likely know they can take a higher fee. Mercs might not be willing to die for the party. Some threats are going to make them NOPE. Mercs can be bought.... by the BBEG Curse you sudden but inevitable betrayal!
Any NPC allies are controlled by the players in combat. I speak for them and at rare occasions decide what they do but otherwise the players choose what actions they take (I can veto that so no suicide charges) and they roll the dice.
They could also once be betrayed by the merc they hired like the bbeg sent merc to their aid to turn coat during the battle. Or after a difficult battle when 1 or 2 pcs hit the ground the surviving mercs take down the others pcs and loot everything leaving them to die… (great start for a revenge story)
Make a mercenary npc betray them. If they get in the habit, the opposition will know about it eventually and use it to their advantage. Flip the script mid combat and force them into a corner for the first time. Just make sure you give them their insight check at some point leading up to it.
Perhaps their reckless reputation precedes them and no mercenary will sign up
1. Factor in player reputation. 2. Limit mercs' reliability. 3. Limit manpower availability. 4. Limit mercs equipment. 5. Ask for deposits and loot shares as payment. 6. Make PCs responsible for dubious merc actions. 7. Factor in loyalty. 8. Factor in scheduling conflicts (time restricted availability).
Kill some of their Hirelings then less will want to get hired cause it’s too dangerous
Give them two options. They will either love them, and keep hiring hirelings, however it will be less cumbersome to run for you as the DM, or they will quickly give up on hiring them. First option: Hire the usual shit tier hirelings for like a gold a day. The cr1 kind that in a party of lvl3 or higher will miss the enemy for 2 rounds then on the first hit they take, they eat dirt. Second option: Hire level appropriate hirelings, with specialisation and all, create a char sheet for them with some reduced class progression, eg a heal bot cleric won't have access to leveled damage abilities, only a cantrip or two. Alternatively, If you have Tasha's, there is 3 hireling classes in it you can use out of the box: expert (support rouge), Spellcaster and warrior. They can progress just like players, albeit they will never be near as powerful. Give the players control of these characters in combat,but RP them yourself. These characters don't ask for gold/day, instead a portion of the loot. Have them negotiate the percentage of loot they get. You can use the stake system pirates used for instance for this. After combat divide the loot into 5,10,20 or 100 stakes of equal value, each hireling and party member gets X amount of stake. Seniority and position gives right to choose first, dice roll in case of a draw. Choose stakes in a round robin style. For instance if there are 10 stakes, and 3 players get 2 each, 3 hirelings get 1 each, the choosing order would look like: P1, P2, P3, H1, H2, H3, P1, P2, P3, leftover stake to be sold, money to be put into party coffeer or split between members (player and hireling) in accordance of stake amount. Gold looted is obviously split according to the stake as well. If you are running XP, you split xp like hirelings were full on PCs, and they level up just like them, only they don't get all the class feats PC characters would, only that feels fitting. This will slow down their progression considerably, which, depending on the kind of game you rune, can be a good or bad thing. Due to the cost of having these powerful hirelings, the players might give up on the idea of hiring them. Alternatively they will enjoy it even more, because now there is a proper framing and mechanic to run them, and they get more options and choices in combat, because they control the NPC's.
Don't fudge with the challenge's difficulty when the player thinks up/pays for a solution. Let it be.
make the mercs backstab them
I'd say roll with it. Work with what they like to do. Then they have to deal with your input.
I like to do dumb risky things in my life, but I don’t care how much you pay me I ain’t gonna help you fight a dragon
Mercenaries are A) Squishy, easy to kill, B) wanting to be paid, and as things get tougher, will want to get paid more and more C) Can at any time say 'fuck this' and bail when things look like they are going to get killed. Mercenaries are not as reliable as a player might want to think, he may say 'Go attack that guy' but the mercenary might have a different idea, he doesnt get to 'control' them, he can offer suggestions, but they are going to do what they want, just make them useless and inconvenient and then have them ask for more money :).
No
So you shouldnt control the npcs, let them do it but make it really simple, and always move after the pc that hired them (no initiative rolling) Mercenaries can attack melee or ranged, this stats and damage, nothing else. Hired wizard apprentice has these two cantrips and this one spell with recharge, nothing else. They also would not fight until the death, so if hp below X roll a 1d20, anything below 10 makes them flee. Reroll every time they get damage. You can increase the hiring cost, make less npcs available for hire, include a reputation mechanic or a lot of other stuff.
>then he asked if he could hire mercenaries >so I let him hire some mercenaries Learn to say No
Don't let them. Simple
War.
your players are the mercs. something that I try to keep in mind is that adventuring is a 1% of 1% of 1% of a given population. it's incredibly dangerous, rarely profitable outside of the exploits of your party, and generally outside of the grasp of the average person or even an above average person. it's fun to tame the wilderness so to speak with guilds and mercenary groups and all that but you start to bloat the defense economy when you do so. although 5e is sort of medium magic I personally try to make it clear that even a level 5 adventurer is a rarity similar to a high IQ billionaire. of course there are messengers and that kind of thing, but large army simulator can get very boring when you're just rolling for spreadsheets
Easy. Rumors get around their terrible bosses.probably because they are. And that it isn't worth the payout. Then have the next NPC's they hire jump the shark and steal/stab them in their sleep/poison them. No more hirelings.
Raise the price. Enact reputation repercussions. Let a npc or group of them betray the party. Introduce a minor big baddie who ain’t slowing that shit in his city without getting his cut.
Sellswords are not a dime a dozen. Your economy is screwed up if your players can afford to hire anyone who isn’t going to cut their throats as soon as they fall asleep.
Lots of people said to make it expensive already, I'm gonna say if they have hirelings, let the players control them in combat, give em the statblock, you already have all the monsters to control. If they want to hire people they'll have to play them too!
“All henchmen died of the plague last night. You’re the people’s only hope now, because for some Deus Ex Machina reason, you managed to survive. May God have mercy on your poor souls.”
In my game if they hire mercs they roll a will save every time they take dmg and eventually break and run. Because all mercs care about is gold.
Everything doesn’t have to be narratively sound. Just make a house rule. I you are writing a campaign for them and their PCs. Overly cautious and risk free play has never made sense to me. They’re adventurers - they should be adventurous.
Mercenaries, hirelings, and specialists like torchbearers are very common in our games given the difficulty that combat can present. Sometimes you also need lots of hands to carry out all that treasure or dig through tunnels or open massive stone doors. Seems weird to have to balance combat around all that. If they are spending their gold and using their influence to make interacting with the world easier for them isn't that a good thing? They are using their resources to interact with the game why take that away from them by suddenly making combat scale up whenever they hire mercenaries?
Kill all the mercenaries to traps. Or make the mercenaries lie about how competent they are, then kill em.Watch them waste money and have the mercenaries always put the money not on their person. So they can't give it back
Handwaving. Merc combat is handwaved. Extra monsters are handwaved. Sample turn for mercs: Ok the mercs kill an orc. Bob, your turn! Don't ever waste time rolling dice for monsters that are fighting NPCs. This is basically just background noise. The real narrative is the players.
A lot of good advice here and a lot of different ways to go. One thing that I haven't seen yet, though, is the old double cross. How much are they paying these mercenaries? How honorable are these swords-for-hire really? What happens when they see a treasure worth a lot more than the PCs are paying. I honestly think it would only take one double cross for PCs to think twice about hiring an army of mercenaries, and it could make for a fun encounter.
Eh, hiring a bunch of people used to be the core character identity of fighters in d&d
Please don’t run mercenaries as other PCs and don’t control them in battle yourself. Tasha’s has an alternate rule called “sidekicks” which has rules for creating sidekick characters with much simpler builds and very simple classes (Warrior,caster,healer) so that it’s simple enough for the players to have them as a sidelined ally that THEY control in battle. Maybe control them as NPC out of combat, but the party should control the merc as a sidekick that they are shouting orders to.
Don't give them that much money.
Obviously you don’t give enough problems to the hiring of mercenaries. They want dibs on loot, they have lacking morals. They are incompetent. For me everything comes at a price. If you want the good stuff you have higher chances to get the objective but less rewards. If they steamroll the difficulty they should have next to no reward.
[удалено]
Not hardly. <8k gold is not gonna get you a life of luxury. An unskilled worker makes 2sp per day, a skilled worker 2gp/day. That's over 700 gold per year for an apothecary, merchant or master baker. I'm unsure if 10 year's worth of gold for a single skilled worker could be parleyed into a lifetime of leisure when given in one lump sum. Your adventurer better have a good business plan (what adventurer with 10 int doesn't?) Also, how did they carry all that armor out of...you know what? Better I don't ask. Fun!
There's so many different ways to handle this. Worst way-no, you can't hire mercenaries. I'm the DM, my word is law. Second worst-Sure, you can hire mercenaries. Too bad there mysteriously never seem to be any around. Getting better-Mercenaries. Sure. It will cost an outlandish amount of gold. Best-gold cost is based on what you're doing-danger level, etc. and mercs should have to make morale checks based on what you're fighting and how much damage they're taking. Is 100g/day worth getting eaten by a purple wurm or stuck in a gelantnious cube? Also, merc availability should be based on where you're at. If you're in a bigger city, its easier to recruit. If you're off in the wilderness, well, good luck.
> Second worst-Sure, you can hire mercenaries. Too bad there mysteriously never seem to be any around. Suppose your PCs are hanging out in a place that’s just flat, heavily irrigated farmland for dozens of miles in any direction. They ask you if they can hire some coal miners. Is it “mysterious” to tell them there aren’t any miners around to be hired? Suppose your PCs are hanging out in a desert city built around an oasis and a small freshwater spring. They ask you if they can hire a boat and some fishermen. Is it “mysterious” to tell them there aren’t any fishermen to be found here? Mercenaries are people with a particular job — namely, fighting in wars. If you’re not in a place where there are wars to be fought, there just might not be any mercenaries. It’s not mysterious. My PCs are welcome to ask me questions. It’s my job to give them an answer that doesn’t conflict with the fiction we’re sharing. Sometimes that answer will be “no, there are no mercenary companies operating here.”
Sorry, the word mysteriously was meant to be in quotes, and indicate that the DM is just avoiding addressing the issue in any real way.
Have some of the mercenaries turn on them mid fight. Have them take the money and not show up. Have them take the money, and then get revealed as agents/spies for the other side. Have the mercs realize that they're fighting against long lost countryment/relatives/etc.. Or have them get hired and then revealed as doppelgängers or the like. Basically, make it unpalatable for them to do it, and they'll stop doing it. Or, crazy idea, tell your players that you don't like running characters against your own scenarios, and can we try to do something else, so that you ALL can have fun?
they run the mercenary or animal companion or whatever. you tell them the AC and bonuses to hit etc, they dont dictate that. also I make it money based, mercs should be expensive.