Hiring Help

Dungeons are deadly. Smart adventurers bring backup.

Why Hire?

  • Carry loot — more hands means more treasure
  • Hold torches — someone needs to light the way
  • Watch the rear — ambushes happen
  • Fight alongside you — extra swords matter when HP is low
  • Replace the fallen — if your character dies, a loyal retainer might step up

Who Can You Hire?

Retainers are the most common hirelings:

  • Commoners, mercenaries, would-be adventurers
  • Found in taverns, guilds, or through notices
  • Expect payment (2–5 gp/day) plus a share of treasure

Specialists handle specific jobs:

  • Torchbearers (cheap, fragile)
  • Porters (carry gear, won’t fight)
  • Men-at-arms (trained fighters, cost more)
  • Guides (know the terrain)

How Many?

Your Charisma determines how many retainers will follow you:

Maximum retainers = PB + CHA (minimum 0)

High Charisma means more followers and better loyalty. Low Charisma means they’re harder to keep.

What Do They Expect?

  • Fair pay — daily wages, paid on time
  • Fair share — lower-level retainers want half a share; equals want a full share
  • Fair treatment — don’t use them as trap-finders or meat shields
  • Survival — they’ll leave if you get too many of them killed

Treat them well and they’ll stay. Mistreat them and they’ll desert — or worse.

Loyalty & Morale

Retainers are not heroes. They have their own survival instincts.

Loyalty is how much they trust you. It starts neutral and changes based on how you treat them:

  • Builds loyalty: Fair pay, bonus treasure, saving their life, giving them good gear
  • Damages loyalty: Stingy pay, needless risk, using them as trap-finders, getting their friends killed

Morale is whether they hold in combat. When the fight turns ugly—allies falling, overwhelming odds—the Referee checks their morale. Loyal retainers hold longer. Mistreated ones break and run.

The takeaway: Treat them like valuable allies, not expendable resources, and they’ll follow you into the dark. Treat them like meat shields, and they’ll abandon you when you need them most.

For full hiring and loyalty rules, see the Referee section on Retainers.