Friends, Hirelings, and Side-Kicks

[Rolando]

Originally Posted by restlessgriffin

How do I do this while delving? Let's say I have 2 players each with a PC. The first is a Knight and the second is a Wizard. I suggest they need at least a party of 4 to tackle the adventure. I also recommend they have a healer. So the Knight wants a Squire but suggests maybe a Palladin. So he gets a Squire who's a Holy Warrior. The Wizard figures she wants a side kick thats flamboyant and free wheelig so she selects a Swashbuckler.

The PCs are full 250 point characters, but I want the side kicks to be lesser characters so they'll be built on 150 points. So if I forget about the side kicks, how do they show up when the PCs are miles away from town and have descended t the third level of the dungeon?

What I do, but admittedly I don't really play classic dungeon crawls, is to give NPCs personality, names, appearance (things to differentiate them and remember them) and some core abilities.

In your example your players need or want a healer and maybe a squire, they don't have to be player character "classes", so they are not paladins, druids, etc, they are hirelings. NPC Nº1 is a fighter/healer (squire), in background may be paladin aspirant or just squire, in game terms it have healing skills at 12 to 14 and maybe some healing magic, also professional skills to do the job (tending horses, weapons and armors), maybe also some knowledge skills about religion and high society (all of them at 12).

NPC Nº2 is a swashbuckler, so besides the flamboyant personality and garish clothes it is good with some social interaction skills, have seafaring skills, maybe appraisal and low and high society skills (all at 12 to 14), also good with the sword and evading getting hit by way of acrobatics or parry.

you don't care about detailed stats, just the capabilities and everything else is narration and description.

Game effect of these supporting characters is:
In combat both NPCs will take some of the baddies with them, so 8 orcs attack the party, 2 orcs will be trying to kill each character, but only the players will be actively rolling skills and defenses, the NPCs will only be narrated, NPC1 will be surviving by shield and armor while the NPC2 by dodging, parrying and laying insults to the orcs, the players must do the actual fighting and maybe when they go to help the hirelings there is one orc down and maybe the hireling have a cut or bruise, but you don't bother rolling attacks, defenses and damage for a fight between NPCs, just narrate some reasonable outcome.

Outside combat these NPCs will add some commentary in their expertise, or help making some interaction smoother, or even stealing something from someone (if the hireling have the skills), in those occasions you do roll for the NPC skill.

in this way the NPCs are great color and are there for all the narrative and roleplaying experience but are not cumbersome to play, and do add some skills and needed support.

If the hirelings know magic you do have to list their spell list and energy availability and take acute account of energy, also use the personality of the NPC, so the NPC may hold unto some energy or sacrifice more energy that what is healthy if that is what this particular NPC would do.

Also in a fight against a big baddie the NPCs will help distract and annoy the enemy, or even add some damage but it is all narrated not rolled and played, when the turn to act come for an N?C you narrate the outcome right away, you may roll if you want and make something special if a critical success or failure is rolled though, some players like to know the dice and not the GM is in command, but otherwise only the actual player characters are the ones doing the fight.

you add interesting situations and make the players appreciate their hirelings as characters and not as tools, but they are tools to make the game easier to game master and play.