Exploratory Thread: Mercenaries (3.5e)

[Carrikature]

That's an interesting option, but it's going to cost us money rather than making it on a quest, isnt it? It's kind of hard to imagine what to prioritise without some numbers to play with (how much does finding a new recruit cost, once we recruit them, are we paying them wages or just allowign them a percentage of quest income, etc.)

It shouldn't cost you anything to find a new recruit. With a little prestige, I'd expect them to come to you willingly. Once you recruit them, the idea is to allow them a percentage of quest income. You wouldn't need to pay wages. Yes, it will probably cost you money rather than making it on a quest since they'd not get a quest reward. There shouldn't be any training fee unless you hire someone to train them beyond normal limits. Say normal training would be level 3 while paid trainers could take them to level 5 (or something).

You could send out all new recruits on quests right away, but the attrition rate will be higher and that could lower the number of people willing to join you. Too many deaths might incur the wrath of local government. You could have certain members act as party leaders which serve as escorts for the first few quests. That could be a good option for the Level 7 characters until you are better established. That is, a level 7 leader accompanies a group of level 1 characters and only fights when things look bad. The tradeoff is that the level 7 would not be earning rewards appropriate to their ability. For that matter, you could do the reverse (e.g., send a level 5 along on a level 7 quest). It would look pretty similar to the cohort from leadership feat. It's more dangerous for the lower level character, and it's an extra concern for the quest completion, but the xp rewards would be higher.

No matter what, I think level 0's would need at least a month to become acquainted with their new class. In practice, they just wouldn't be available for questing until a month after their recruitment. It's up to you, though. It's your guild, and your choices will have impacts one way or another. You could live in a city that gets angry at you and mounts an attack, but you could succeed and basically own the city. They might sabotage you while you're gone, or they might not even care. You could try paying off the officials, though you'd get into alignment and deity issues. Knowing what to prioritize is one of the bigger issues in this game. You have limited knowledge on which to base your actions, and that won't change any time soon. You're supposed to take wrong turns; that's part of the adventure. Do what you think is best or makes the most sense in character and don't worry about it too much.



ETA:
I thought I'd point out that training for recruits could possibly involve community service of sorts. By that I mean unpaid labor cleaning out pests (which are generally low CR anyway). You could also negotiate with the city guard to train your recruits in exchange for letting recruits serve as guards in times of need.

[Carrikature]

And...just because you don't have enough to think about....


Do you want to do guild ranks? You're starting with 20s and 7s. You'll get raw recruits fairly soon. You'd need to decide how recruits advance, and how many levels there are. We could look at allowing some skills based on guild rank that would go into effect once the guild is big enough.

Sample ranking:
Trainee
Member
Unit Leader (Leads a single party)
Squad Leader (Distributes quests to different parties)
Generals (Distributes quests to different squads)
Owners


Once the guild is bigger, you could conceivably have quests requiring squads or more to complete.

[Ben Zwycky]

[Spartacus]

That's an interesting option, but it's going to cost us money rather than making it on a quest, isnt it? It's kind of hard to imagine what to prioritise without some numbers to play with (how much does finding a new recruit cost, once we recruit them, are we paying them wages or just allowign them a percentage of quest income, etc.)

If we play our cards right, recruiting will be a buyers' market, and all we have to do is buy them food, clothing, and equipment for a level 1.

[Ben Zwycky]

If we play our cards right, recruiting will be a buyers' market, and all we have to do is buy them food, clothing, and equipment for a level 1.

Yep, that should be fairly cheap. So, I think we're ready to buy our first bit of property. Do we have a choice of building sizes and layouts, or is that not relevant? We'll just do our first mission or two with our current characters and then new recruits will come knocking, right? Spart, Pinoy, CV Chrs? You ok with the ranks I suggested above (not that we'll need them right away, we can finalise that later)

[Carrikature]

Yep, that should be fairly cheap. So, I think we're ready to buy our first bit of property. Do we have a choice of building sizes and layouts, or is that not relevant? We'll just do our first mission or two with our current characters and then new recruits will come knocking, right? Spart, Pinoy, CV Chrs? You ok with the ranks I suggested above (not that we'll need them right away, we can finalise that later)

You'll be given a few options for property purchase. You won't be building your own facility yet, so choice of building size and layout will be limited.

We're just about ready to begin I think. Go ahead and post dropbox links here for review. Irate Canadian is going to be playing too it seems, so we'll need to get him sorted out a bit. I don't know where chrs is either...

[Ben Zwycky]

Just waiting for an answer to this question:

Could I go for a celestial breastplate +5 without the fly ability, can't be worn undetected under clothing, but grants +2 to hide and move silent (costing 31550 gp: Celestial armor minus cost of chainmail (150) plus cost of breastplate (200), minus 1.5 times cost of fly once/day CL5 (8,100), plus 16,000 for the increase in enhancement from +3 to +5, plus 1200 for the skill boosts) The only positive difference it would make to me now would be a reduced arcane failure chance (10% instead of 15%), but it would be a very nice base to build on in the future if I can ever boost my dex higher once we're past level 20.

I'll be happy to help you with your character, IC. What's it to be? We only have one lvl 20 caster and could do with a level 20 cleric...

[One Bad Pig]

I have a 20-ish level cleric somewhere, and I probably have a 7th level character too. I'd have to convert them from AD&D 2 though. If I want to get in on this, how far back should I start reading?

[Spartacus]

I have a 20-ish level cleric somewhere, and I probably have a 7th level character too. I'd have to convert them from AD&D 2 though. If I want to get in on this, how far back should I start reading?

Read the Reference thread and probably the first 2-3 pages of this thread. That should give you a general sense of what we're doing.

[Carrikature]

I have a 20-ish level cleric somewhere, and I probably have a 7th level character too. I'd have to convert them from AD&D 2 though. If I want to get in on this, how far back should I start reading?

Read Post #1, #18, and then start again around Post #258 and read from there (though you could probably skip to Post #322).


For IC and OBP's benefit, current classes are as follows:

Chrs: Druid - 7; Wizard - 20
Spartacus: Barbarian/Bard - 7; Ranger/Horizon Walker - 20
Ben Zwycky: Rogue - 7; Ranger/Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple - 20
Pinoy: Ranger/Wizard - 7; Fighter/Barbarian - 20
Chaotic Void: Cleric - 7; Paladin/Grey Guard - 20

[Carrikature]

Read the Reference thread and probably the first 2-3 pages of this thread. That should give you a general sense of what we're doing.

Oh yeah, and the Reference thread...

[Chaotic Void]

Read Post #1, #18, and then start again around Post #258 and read from there (though you could probably skip to Post #322).


For IC and OBP's benefit, current classes are as follows:

Chrs: Druid - 7; Wizard - 20
Spartacus: Barbarian/Bard - 7; Ranger/Horizon Walker - 20
Ben Zwycky: Rogue - 7; Ranger/Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple - 20
Pinoy: Ranger/Wizard - 7; Fighter/Barbarian - 20
Chaotic Void: Rogue - 7; Paladin/Grey Guard - 20

Last I checked, I was running a L7 Cleric...

[Carrikature]

Last I checked, I was running a L7 Cleric...

Fixed.

[Carrikature]

Could I go for a celestial breastplate +5 without the fly ability, can't be worn undetected under clothing, but grants +2 to hide and move silent (costing 31550 gp: Celestial armor minus cost of chainmail (150) plus cost of breastplate (200), minus 1.5 times cost of fly once/day CL5 (8,100), plus 16,000 for the increase in enhancement from +3 to +5, plus 1200 for the skill boosts) The only positive difference it would make to me now would be a reduced arcane failure chance (10% instead of 15%), but it would be a very nice base to build on in the future if I can ever boost my dex higher once we're past level 20.

I'm going to go with no. One of the things I find frustrating in this game is the random wondrous items with no explanation of how they achieved pricing and benefits. There's no rhyme or reason why celestial armor should have a +8 max dex, and trying to pluck that bonus out to determine cost isn't even possible. Regardless, the description is very specific that it's +3 chainmail. A mithral breastplate would achieve almost the same thing with those bonuses, just at a lower max dex.

[Spartacus]

OBP, my bard is headed in the Eldritch Knight direction, if that affects your level 7 build at all.