Hiring NPC's

[Ranting Fool]

I was wondering where the best place to look when trying to find out how much NPC's of different levels/skills should cost to be hired by the PC's. Are there any good handbooks out there or is page 105 in the DMG the only real place to look?

[Coidzor]

I must admit, this is relevant to my interests. The only other thing I can think of are the prices for slaves from Lords of Madness where it deals with the Neogi.

[watchwood]

There aren't any hard and fast rules that I know of.

You could use either their level or their level squared in gp, for mercenaries and such. I lean more towards the level squared, since it scales better to higher levels.

[Shining Wrath]

The rule of thumb is one SP per day hires a common laborer to do common laboring things. And then you start scaling up with expertise and danger.

Per SRD (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/goodsAndServices.htm#hirelingTrained) a trained hireling costs 3 SP / day. It specifically mentions mercenary warriors at that price.

[NoACWarrior]

DMG II page 154 has a few rules about skill usage and NPC hiring costs.

For normal adventurers, the daily rate would be level squared gold pieces. Thats essentially no combat (or risky combat) and the NPC's level being less than your level (by around 2 levels).

For specialists, you are paying for stronger, quicker, heartier, wiser, smarter, or more charismatic individuals than the normal. Check the table on page 155 for this and the daily cost.

[Jon_Dahl]

Hiring NPCs is something that always interested me. I like this list here (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Dungeonomicon_%28DnD_Other%29/Economicon#Professions_and_their_Pay_Scale:).

Here's some thoughts:
NPCs are usually meaningfully employed or they have their own business. Such employment rarely leaves room for doing irregular stuff or leaving to go somewhere. Some NPCs are especialized in doing short gigs for people. Let's take mercenaries for example. For some reason, people think that mercenaries are always sitting in a tavern waiting for a job. Usually they have commitments and you have to wait until they are free for some other job. This is something that you should always remember: the NPCs are not readily available. You have to wait until they are free to work for you.

Another thing:
NPCs work to gain profit, right? Therefore the basic rule is that all expenses must be on the employer. Mercenaries are aware of such things as sundering and rust monsters, so the employer is always required to pay for any lost equipment, unless it was lost due neglicence on the mercenary's part. Some mercenaries want the employer to equip them and the equipment is returned after the contract is done.

DMG does a great job explaining that short-term contracts and dangerous jobs are vastly different from long-term contracts and easy jobs. Hiring a mercenary for one day to carry out a dangerous mission costs four times the salary he would ask for a day of bodyguarding within the city.

A standard mercenary contract term will be the following:
- Standard pay for jobs requiring at least one week and little to moderate danger. Paid in advance.
- Double pay for days involving lethal combat
- Double pay for dangerous jobs
- Double pay for jobs that last less than one week
- Quadruple pay for jobs that are dangerous and short-term
- One-month salary paid to the widow/spouse if the mercenary is killed or crippled
- All expenses are to be paid by the employer
- The contract will start on some day in the future, not right away. If the mercenary is willing to abandon his current contract, he will most likely betray the PC employer too
- Employer must produce the written contract with an official scribe who will hold the contract.

[Ranting Fool]

Well mostly I just want to get a good idea of what price to charge the Players for the Ship's crew and Captain but having a good baseline in general is very handy.

[Shining Wrath]

Well mostly I just want to get a good idea of what price to charge the Players for the Ship's crew and Captain but having a good baseline in general is very handy.

Check Stormwrack, there may be prices for hiring ships, crew included.