MERCENARY GUILDS

Like an adventurers guild, a mercenary guild is a place of safety and camaraderie for those who live lives of great danger. The guild provides a centralized location to procure employment, receiving contracts from those who need hired swords and passing them along to its members. In most cases, the reputation of the guild as a whole attracts more (and wealthier) clients than any individual might on his own. Some guilds provide healing for their members; this is not free, or even discounted, but at least the individual always knows where to find an available cleric. Similarly, the guildhouse is considered a place of safety, where a member can go to avoid enemies or simply leave the combat and carnage behind for a short while. In an urban environment, the guild serves to legitimize its members: City governments tolerate members of recognized guilds far more readily than they would independent swords-for-hire wandering around their streets.

Examples: District/neighborhood watch, mercenary company.

Associated Classes: Barbarian, fighter, hexblade (Complete Warrior), monk, ranger, soulknife (Expanded Psionics Handbook), warrior.

Associated Skills: Climb, Handle Animal, Intimidate, Jump, Ride, Use Rope.

Duties: A mercenary guild requires its members to spend no fewer than 20 hours a week on missions and patrols. Generally, such duties are fairly safe and do not require much combat. In times of war or danger, however, members must support whatever cause the guild does. With a successful DC 25 Diplomacy check, a member can have an adventure with her companions registered as a “patrol,” if the adventure somehow advances the cause of the guild or its employer, or is intended to pacify an area of the guild employer’s territory. This counts toward the guild’s required weekly duty. Each additional attempt to register an adventure as a “patrol” increases the Diplomacy check DC by 2.

Favored Benefits: Members of the same mercenary guild learn complementary combat tactics. Whenever a member is adjacent to another member, each of them gains a +1 competence bonus to Armor Class.

Sample Contact: Oriak Soulburn (human hexblade 6). Oriak will accompany the PC on an adventure up to one day in length. Once only.