Hirelings
Hirelings are individuals you have in your service or employ and are capable of assisting with all manner of tasks … except combat, that is. There are some that can help in a fight, but these are generally skilled hirelings and require more than the standard fare to maintain their services.
In play, we permit players to roleplay the hirelings in their service as supporting or background characters. This extends to combat-capable hirelings in combat unless otherwise noted, including taking the hireling's actions as if it were your turn. For the purposes of attuned items, incidentally, a hireling's attuned items count against your own limit (in other words, between the two of you, you still can only have three attuned magic items).
As a rule, hirelings in your service do not participate in combat unless explicitly noted otherwise. They avoid obviously dangerous areas, and if for some reason they’re around when combat breaks out, except in exceptional circumstances, they prioritize their own life first, taking the dash, dodge, or disengage actions as needed until they’ve either escaped combat or the encounter is finished. At the end of the day, most hirelings are not adventurers, and are consequently ill-prepared for the stress of adventure. Those hirelings that can participate in combat do so as an extension of yourself – you are permitted to roleplay their actions in combat, as long as it’s clear you’re not meta gaming or power playing.
Hirelings fall into one of two categories:
- Untrained (2 SP). Untrained hirelings refer to general folks hired for menial work that requires no particular skill, and can include anything from laborers, porters, maids, and similar workers. As a rule, unskilled hirelings do not participate in combat unless explicitly noted otherwise. They avoid obviously dangerous areas and if for some reason they’re around when combat breaks out, except in exceptional circumstances, they prioritize their own life first by taking the dash, disengage, or dodge actions as needed until they’ve either escaped combat or the encounter is finished. At the end of the day, these folk are not adventurers, and are consequently ill-prepared for the stress of adventure.
- Skilled (2 GP). Skilled hirelings have proficiency with a weapon, tool, or skill, accounting for merchants, scribes, mercenaries, artisans, and so on. The pay shown is minimum, with expert hirelings (generally those capable of participating in combat, using magic, or other exceptional circumstances) sometimes requiring higher pay at staff’s discretion.