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Henchmen/Retainers as Items or Encounter Powers

   
Henchmen/Retainers as Items or Encounter Powers

Was watching a video and I see the Mandalorian and then the Twilek assisting her Sith Lord @ 2:19. Rather than henchmen simply be a schmuck torchbearers or another NPC, maybe they can become well items or a set of bonus encounter powers when next to their lord.

Why?

#1 They are not the heroes, they are heroes helpers.
#2 They are not really the front liners.
#3 They do not become targets on the battlefield - more hassle, more time in combat which is already long, not another character sheet. Maybe they can level up into one ?
#4 To create those awesome synergistic battle moments. Or to add yet another dash of cinema to the battle. Example: Graf Thuryar Shieldbearer of Kozuel Lytharandreer leaps to his lords side shield in hand as the Medusa's poisoned arrows are about the strike. He rolls to block and misses, so he uses his own body as a shield. His lord is safe, but he is sadly gone.

Kozuel turns, fury in his eyes, " Damn you Despaira, Damn you and your kind to HELL!!!!!"

#5 It adds a little old school flavor to the modern game. Heroes and their attendants, squires, torch and loot bearers, hired mercenaries all delve into the dungeon.

If items they could be used as at will or encounter powers sort of attached or equipped by the hero.
If they are an extra set of powers - maybe there can be a few sets of them depending on how close they are to the lord, or their role. Maybe they have multiple roles and can be chosen - Flankers, Artillery, Scout, Protectors, Combat Assistants.

Another thing they could add, is to allow smaller groups of folks < 2 or 3 man parties > maybe lacking X Y or Z Class the ability to fight on like a well rounded party.

Thoughts?

How about something like this? Haven't played much 4th so I'm working mainly from what I remember here. I'm also going to make no claims about power level or fairness, just went with what seemed cool.

Contract Pendant of Tal'Voleth the Longest Sight - 5 "Charges" - A small brass tube to be worn round the neck of the client of the Longest Sight. The tube is stamped with an eye at its base and spiral engravings pattern the length of the tube. Within is the contract for a great archer, whose skill with stealth and range are almost unsurpassed. (Tal'Voleth's Dexterity is considered to be 10 + player character's level.)
The Longest Sight - Utility
Daily
Minor Action
The player may call on the talents of Tal'Voleth in the current or upcoming battle. Grants access to the encounter powers Drop His Arms, Bind His Feet, Pierce His Heart.

Drop His Arms - Attack
Encounter
Minor Action
Tal'Voleth takes careful aim from a hidden position and uses a blunted crossbow bolt to force an opponent to drop their weapon.
Target: One armed opponent
Attack: Dex +2 vs Con
Hit: 1d10 + Dex mod.
Effect: Target is disarmed and must spend a standard action to reclaim their weapon, which is shifted two squares away from them.

Bind His Feet - Attack
Encounter
Minor Action
Tal'Voleth draws close enough to be seen but remains hidden, launching a pair of bolas that bind the legs of one foe.
Target: One opponent
Attack: Dex + 2 vs Ref
Hit: 1d6
Effect: Target is knocked prone. Target's move is reduced to 0 and they cannot shift as a result of their own or allies' abilities.
Miss: Target is knocked prone.

Pierce His Heart - Attack
Encounter
Standard Action
The Contract must be held high for Tal'Voleth to take a life for the player, each use of this ability that kills a target reduces the number of charges in the Pendant by 1.
Target: One Bloodied or Prone Opponent
Attack: 2 x Dex vs Con
Hit: 2d10+4 Poison
Effect: 1d10 Cumulative Poison over 5 turns.
Special: Use of Pierce His Heart may be forfeited for an additional use of Drop His Arms or Bind His Feet.

hate to have to be the one to say it, but GURPS has a really well defined idea for this, and I'm sure you can translate the concept over.

GURPS is on a point buy, allowing that certain types of advantages can be had. One such type of thing is allies, minions, patrons, etc.

Depending on what it does it's worth a certain value. For example, a favor from the king, a religous cult and a live in butler/secretary are different types of allies.

Take a look at the GURPS system to gauge roughly what is equivalent to what, which will make sure you keep the game roughly balanced.

You don't have to be the one to say it, World. Not every thread needs to have an endorsement of GURPS in it.

The balancing of GURPS will be inherently different from 4ed DnD, and converting back and forth between the two systems is not the easiest way to go about achieving balance. If I remember correctly there are already items that grant uses of encounter powers, this idea would just need to be balanced by using those as a guide.

@ DarkAbyssKeeper and WoLT

WoLT is a bud and likes to stir shit with his GURPS goodness in this case. Purchasing henchmen/retainers in 4e would fit the existing item mechanic very well without need to adjusting point buy costs at creation, or adding yet another mechanic just for the introduction/use of them. I propose you save this old man much trouble and post some items you feel would equate and then I will steal liberally from them

Advantages as you suggest and as DarkAK points out are inherent in items as At Will, Encounter and Daily Powers. Give me a list of advantages to steal from

@ DarkAbyssKeeper

Brilliant work! and certainly has a foremost place in this concept though not as I intended. In this case does the item summon the helper, pokeball style or is the necklace a symbol of the bond/contract between the retainer and the hero?

I like the limiting power of it as "charges" but also do not like it. Is not a loyal henchmen there to help in every conflict until he is dead? As for a hireling until the terms of his contract are served? If the contract was magic and the guy summoned then yes the charges make great sense. Maybe hireling wont throw themselves in harms way much - hence you can only get a little mileage from their help.

I was thinking the item/contract would last for 1 nebulous adventure or for life until dead. That they could be called upon in every encounter, but you can lose the item - it dies. Maybe we should start two types of contracts - one with charges and more with a nebulous time frame and with life somehow.

I would like to add that we must define some terms to clear things up.

Retainer
Henchman
and Hireling

Each are part of the party but each is only soooo invested in its success.

Henchman - Loyal buddy like Moonglum.
Retainer - Fairly Loyal hired Merc
Hireling - I want to get paid but I do not want to die type.

This was posted on thew BX Blackrazor Blog - not me but great minds think alike or love White Plume Mountain!

Well, that's not entirely true. "Henchman" is the term used in the older AD&D books. However, by 1981 (I am guessing) many kids picking up the Basic rules may very well have associated "henchmen" with the helpers/cronies of super-villains and such. The concept of the "evil henchman;" or as wikipedia so succinctly puts it (under the topic of "henchmen in popular culture"):

Henchmen (occasionally henchlings) are common in mystery, fantasy, adventure comic books, and adventure novels and movies. They are the expendable adherents of the main villain, always ready to do the master's bidding, to kill or be killed, kidnap, or threaten, as needed. Often, they are killed by the hero before the master villain is reached, by the hero's sidekick in a dramatic battle, or even by the master villain as punishment for failure to comply with orders.

What heroic adventurer wants toadies and minions? Who wants their PC associated with someone who (in fiction) is inevitably going to get their ass kicked by the "real" hero?

Which is sad, really, because "henchman" used to be a term of respect for a loyal aid or attendant (look it up).

Anyway, Moldvay never uses the term henchman to describe hirelings; throughout the Basic rules, the term Retainer is used exclusively. The Cook/Marsh Expert set continues this practice in the two or three places it is mentioned at all. When we speak of a retainer, we often consider the idea of a counselor or consultant (like a retained attorney) or the "loyal servant" that has been with a family for years.

The origin of the term retainer comes from the English feudalism (such as it was) during the late middle ages, at a point when the traditional "vassal-swears-to-provide-military-service-to-lord-when-called" had been replaced with "vassal-gives-money-to-lord-in-lieu-of-military-service." The lord would take this money to "retain" hired mercenaries year-round (a private army of sorts). Later, any crony in the pay and/or favor of a noble might be called a "retainer."

[this is, of course, a gross simplification but I'm not a medieval history scholar and this isn't a blog about old European governance systems. You can research the English War of Roses more info on this period]

For the purpose of B/X, Moldvay defines retainers as follows:
A retainer (or hireling) is a person hired by a player character (PC) to aid that character on an adventure. ...Retainers are more than just men-at-arms, soldiers hired to fight and protect their employer but only expected to take reasonable risks. Retainers are lieutenants and assistants to a PC and are expected to lend their skills and knowledge to the benefit of the party and to take the same risks the characters expect to face.
Wow. The parenthetical note ("or hireling") is problematic as it implies an equal relationship between the term "hireling" and "retainers." Which is not the case: all retainers may be hirelings (i.e. hired individuals) but not all hirelings are retainers. Expert hirelings (called specialists in the Expert set) are explicitly stated to NOT be retainers.

Nor would it appear (from Moldvay's description) are men-at-arms...what many of us in the RPG biz commonly refer to as "meat shields." Retainers are "more than just men-at-arms," the latter being defined as:
"...soldiers hired to fight and protect their employer but only expected to take reasonable risks."
No, no, not meat shields at all. Retainers are "expected" to "take the same risks the characters expect to face" (and if the PCs are unwilling to risk, well...). AND they are likewise expected to contribute their "skills and knowledge" to the success of the dungeon endeavor, not just step forward and eat the first orc arrow or goblin spear.

Retainers are fellow adventurers in other words. Albeit NPC adventurers and thus controlled by the DM.


Food for thought. I look forward to your reply.

The thought with that particular example is that the charges represent him doing something that stretches his loyalty. Killing is not something he likes to do. As long as the player gets him to do non-lethal moves the charges don't diminish.

And yeah, the item represents the link rather than directly summoning the mercenary.

You could use charges to represent the mortality of hirelings as well, by adding a Special to certain powers.

Special: When this attack misses, the item loses a charge.

Actually, that could pretty much model Loyalty, Courage, Mortality or any other way in which you might lose the companion.

For Tal'Voleth its loyalty, he's good enough not to be seen or caught while attacking, but making him do things he doesn't approve of strains his Loyalty (hence the charges). Another person might be unflinchingly loyal, but lose charges of Life/Mortality if he misses during an attack because he gets attacked back.

You could probably do one where the henchman leaps in front of an attack to protect a character. On the dark side, the character would actually grab his henchman and use him as a meat shield for the attack.

For a 4E game, you'll need to make sure you're still observing action economy. Using your "hench item" in this way should require the PC to burn an action on their turn.

Further, you need to watch for power creep. Pay attention to the power's level, and keep in mind that increasing the number of available encounter powers does increase a PC's overall power. Are these flat-out encounter powers you can use each and every encounter, or are they daily magic item powers (which, if I recall, were removed from the Essentials rules)?

Not sure yet as it is a work in progress Doc. I think DarkAK is onto something with the charges equating to life or loyalty - very neat take. As an item it would adhere to item use as per the rules, if it is an encounter power - the power would require an action to activate or maybe a trigger.

I see the powers being at will or encounter or daily. I think a retainer has a set of differing powers that the hero can activate akin to what DarkAK posted.

One idea here Doc is the fact that these may boost the party's power - if the party is undermanned or small. They would allowtwo and three man parties to survive where 5 man parties would.

Food for thought that is for sure.




 

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