Looking over the costs of mounts from the 4E PHB and Adventurer's Vault, one finds that all the mounts - with the exception of the level 1 and 2 ones - are priced like magic items. Often items at higher levels than the monster's level.
This is quite understandable, as many of these mounts grant powerful abilities. The Rage Drake, for example, give its rider a +2 to hit and damage, which stacks with every other plus. Neato. A Dire Wolf, on the other hand, is just a dire wolf with no frills, so it costs the same as a magic item of its level (5).
The interesting part is extrapolating this to henchmen. A mount shares its actions with the rider, so it's not an extra set of actions on the field, just a power boost to the rider. Buying a henchman, on the other hand, would mean that there's an extra ally taking actions every round. Which is a huge boost.
But let's pretend for a while that it works. Many mounts cost the same as a magic item of its level+2. Applying the same reasoning to henchmen would let you hire a bandit (Human Bandit, level 2) for 840 gp (a level 4 item). Mind, this is a slavishly loyal bandit. For the cost of Bloodcut Armor +1, you get an ally that flanks with you and can unleash a Dazing Strike once per encounter. That's... a bargain.
Weekly rates make more sense than "buying slaves", since your adventurers will soon outlevel the henchmen. One might want to halve the cost and make that the weekly wage. Or if you find that the Bandit is indeed even better than an equivalent magic item, make the original cost his monthly wage - he'll eventually quit.
Finally, companion characters from the Dungeon Master's Guide II are probably better balanced as PC allies than creatures from the Monster Manual. PC and monster numbers are slightly different, after all.
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4 comments:
What I'd like to see is wotc make a sub system for attracting, hiring and maintaining the employment of the hireling.
The economy in the game is too out of sync with rational sense to come up with a good rate for hirelings.
The game needs a sub system, earning fame or renown to attract and maintain hirelings, some suggestions for possible side quests(hirelings personal goals that increases renown if completed) and upkeep costs(weekly rates, shelter, workspace whatevers etc...).
Which'll never happen.
Managing external resources in that way is not something D&D 4e's about. It's about the 4 or 5-man band. Things like strongholds (which some epic destinies grant) are left entirely up to the DM.
Things like companion characters are left entirely up to the DM. I really doubt a henchman subsystem that is managed by players is ever going to appear.
4e just isn't about putting that kind of abusable resource into a player's hands.
I was actually thinking that it's up to the dm to manage such things. I'd just like to see a standardized system by wotc for a dm to handle such things. The guidelines for companions are good but like alot of the official content thats come out so far I can't wait for it to be expanded upon.
Player decision should be role played out, the actual mechanics being worked out in the background by the DM.
I read the old sys used in 1e but don't think it would translate well to 4e, the mechanics were player centered and I've read alot of accounts of entire sessions being about players doing book keeping.
"The economy in the game is too out of sync with rational sense to come up with a good rate for hirelings."
Yeah. I mean, 840 gp for a level 2 goon? That's literally enough to feed him for a decade (Common meal, 2 sp). And as I wrote, that's probably cheap from a balance standpoint.
"Which'll never happen."
So true. Hiring "monsters" to work for you has so many variables that make it hard to judge what they should cost. A bandit could die in his first fight, or he could be a valuable ally until he's no longer relevant because the party is level 5 and he can't hit anything.
And hiring people and tracking their wages sounds like the kind of stuff that's fun for one session and loses its charm later on.
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