Good Henchmen are Hard to Find

Apparently my special interest now is writing about the annoying mundanities of AD&D city/town life - taxes, tolls, intentionally misleading encounters, and irritating and expensive NPCs. To this end, I've been reading all about henchmen in the DMG. Boy, it is a lot more difficult to recruit these people than I gave it credit for!

Henchmen are not to be confused with standard hirelings like porters, teamsters, and torchbearers, nor with expert hirelings like mercenaries. Henchmen are character-type NPCs - that is, those with at least (and often only, at least when initially recruited - more on that later) one level in a class who directly strengthen the party by (mostly) loyally serving under the direct supervision of a specific player character.

Not only do they serve as another character-type "body" in the party. They can also strengthen the player character's stronghold, serve as a backup character to adventure when the player character is unable to (including when the player character is dead), and, perhaps most interestingly, be used "as a safety measure against the machinations of rival player characters":

It's no surprise that in modern editions of D&D - where player characters are independently strong, strongholds are non-existent or capriciously handwaved, character death is rare and easily recovered from, and player characters are generally assumed to be working together amicably - henchmen are more or less a thing of the past. But in AD&D, henchmen are explicitly "so useful" and "so devoted" that a player character's Charisma score imposes a limit on the number they can have in service at any given time:

This assertion that henchmen are incredibly useful is important to keep in mind, as it provides justification for just how hard it is to recruit them.

I'll provide a bit of perspective as to where it is I'm coming from. Typically in my games, when the player characters are looking for henchmen, they go to a nearby settlement, spend a week of downtime searching for candidates, I tell them who is available, and they pick who they want. I have a list of available henchmen in each settlement. Simple as that. I never considered that finding and recruiting henchman could be a challenge in and of itself, involving the expenditure of time and money and the use of social acumen. 

Whether it should be such a challenge will depend on the individual DM's taste. Since I am recently enamored with Gygax's assertion that dealing with NPCs "should be expensive and irritating", I am currently of the opinion that jumping through hoops to recruit henchmen is similarly a somewhat charming artifact of Gygaxian design sensibilities. That being said, let's get into the nitty gritty.

To begin with, newly recruited henchmen are typically 1st-level:

Player characters above 6th-level might get a 2nd-level recruit, and characters above 11th-level might get a 3rd-level recruit at best. The parenthetical justification suggests that while player characters seek out henchmen for all of the reasons I've already mentioned, henchmen seek out player characters for protection ("the aegis of a PC") - higher-level character-types need no such protection and so do not seek out such work.

What follows are a few paragraphs about the race of potential henchmen:

The race of the player character somehow affects which henchmen will seek them out. This isn't expanded upon here, but I imagine that the DM is meant to reference the racism table RACIAL PREFERENCES TABLE in the PHB:

For example, dwarf player characters probably won't attract elf or half-orc henchmen and vice versa.

Racial distribution of the recruitment area is up to the DM's discretion. I personally use this bit from APPENDIX C:

I assume that my settlements are largely human. Dwarves, elves, gnomes, and halflings don't have their own "settlements" per se, they have "lairs" (small-scale ethnocentric communities) as determined by stocking the campaign area using the wilderness encounter tables (for example, a few demihuman/humanoid lairs pop up in the second part of my series on using the DMG to stock a sandbox). You can assign your own bespoke racial distributions to each of your settlements as you like, but that sounds to me like more trouble than its worth, so I use this blanket distribution.

Yes, you can racially profile when recruiting henchmen. You can put up posters all over the city that say "HENCHMEN WANTED: Half-Orcs Need Not Apply!":

Very cool!

Now that we've covered the fun issue of race, let's find out how many henchmen are in a given settlement:

In my post on settlements, and again in the first part of my series on stocking a sandbox with the AD&D DMG, without ever reading this section, I suggested that probably 1 in 100 people in a settlement would be character-type NPCs. I was pretty close! I just didn't account for the possibility that non-humans (and non-half-orcs) would be twice as likely to be character-types. Why half-elves are twice as likely as half-orcs to be "suitable for level advancement" is beyond me (it's racism again, I guess).

Of those 1 in 100 humans and half-orcs, one-tenth are recruitable as henchmen (the rest are either higher-level or "already in a situation they are satisfied with" - perhaps already in another character-type's employ or otherwise adventuring on their own). I'm going to assume then that one-tenth of non-human non-half-orcs are also recruitable (so 1 in 500 of the non-human non-half-orc population, compared to 1 in 1,000 of the human and half-orc population).

As an example, let's crunch the numbers for the average city. I'll refer to APPENDIX B's INHABITATION table:

Typically we would roll 1d6 and multiply the result by 10,000. The average of 1d6 is 3.5, so let's say our population is 35,000 (even though you can't actually roll 3.5 on the die, this is a hypothetical exercise). Our racial distribution is:

• 28,000 humans (80%)
• 1,750 dwarves (5%)
• 1,750 elves (5%)
• 700 gnomes (2%)
• 1,750 half-elves (5%)
• 700 halflings (2%)
• 350 half-orcs (1%)

Here's how many character-types there will be:

• 280 humans
• 35 dwarves
• 35 elves
• 14 gnomes
• 35 half-elves
• 14 halflings
• 3 or 4 half-orcs (50/50 chance)

Here's how many recruitable henchmen there will be:

• 28 humans
• 3 or 4 dwarves (50/50 chance)
• 3 or 4 elves (50/50 chance)
• 1 or 2 gnomes (60/40 chance)
• 3 or 4 half-elves (50/50 chance)
• 1 or 2 halflings (60/40 chance)
• At most 1 half-orc (30 or 40% chance)

Since the highest-level a newly-recruited henchmen can be is 3, I would roll d3 to assign a level to each or else divide by 3 and roll for the remainder. For example:

• 15 1st-level (9 humans, 1 dwarf, 1 elf, 1 gnome, 2 half-elves, 1 halfling)
• 14 2nd-level (10 humans, 1 dwarf, 1 elf, 1 half-elf, 1 halfling)
• 14 3rd-level (9 humans, 2 dwarves, 2 elves, 1 half-elf)

This is actually kind of useful. Until the player characters attain 7th-level, in the average city you need only prep 15 character-type NPCs to be potential henchmen. At 7th-level they might attract a 2nd-level henchmen, but even then it's only a 10% chance, so you could prep just one for every nine 1st-levels. At 12th-level you could prep one 2nd-level and one 3rd-level for every two 1st-levels (since the distribution is 25/25/50, respectively). 

Furthermore, if only 1 in 500 to 1 in 1,000 people are recruitable as henchmen (and the 1 in 500 applies only to 20% of the population), the smallest settlement which will definitely be home to recruitable henchmen is a town (the average of which will only have 3 to 5). In smaller settlements, you could determine the number of character types and then dice to determine if any henchmen are available. For example, the average village will have 750 people - that's 6 human or half-orc character-types and 1 or 2 others, so a 60% and 10 or 20% chance of a recruitable henchmen, respectively.

You still might want to find out who the other character-types in the settlement are (I recommend fleshing out the most powerful people in the settlement - those of the highest level in a small settlement and any who might rule strongholds in larger settlements), but this has already greatly reduced the amount of character-types we need to prep in our settlements.

So, math-y diatribe aside, how do you actually recruit these people? Surely you just go to a tavern and they're all hanging out there, waiting for you, right? ...Right?

Wrong! You need to do more math:

If you somehow fail to recruit henchmen (or fail to find the henchmen you want), you have to wait a month before trying the same method again. You can combine methods for a better chance at recruiting, but it has diminishing returns. All of this is expensive. In the example provided, the player character spends 860 gold and attracts 65% of available henchmen.

Let's assume that this is done in our example "average city" with 43 recruitable henchmen levels 1 to 3. If the player character is below 7th-level, let's say they attract 65% of the 15 1st-level henchmen (9 or 10 recruits). If the character is 7th- to 11th-level, they can attract 65% of the 15 1st-level and 14 2nd-level henchmen (18 or 19 recruits, with 1 or 2 - 10% - of those being of 2nd-level). If the character is above 11th-level, they can attract 65% of all 43 available henchmen (27 or 28 recruits, with 6 to 7 each - 25% - of those being of 2nd- and 3rd-level).

Let's say 9 1st-level recruits are attracted by a relatively low-level player character. Using our example demographics from above, let's say 7 are human, 1 is a half-elf, and 1 is a halfling.

Of course, you have to wait around for a few days for all the recruits to show up. If you're a no-show, they leave:

I determined it will take six days for all recruits in our example to show up - one on each day plus three on the second day. That's almost a week where the player character can't get much of anything done because they're just waiting around.

Whatever they do, our example player character had better not ensorcell the recruits or ask them about topics which are not polite conversation (alignment and religion):

I hope our example player character isn't expecting anything fancy like a monk, assassin, druid, or illusionist:

The percentages break down like this:

• 16.67% cleric
• 3.33% druid
• 35.2% fighter
• 4.4% ranger
• 4.4% paladin
• 16.67% magic-user
• 3.33% illusionist
• 12.5% thief
• 2.5% assassin
• 1% monk

Which is only slightly different than the Character Subtable used for dungeon encounters in APPENDIX C:

Clerics, fighters, and magic-users are slightly less common, but everyone else is more common. I appreciate that the two tables are pretty consistent, although I don't really see the need for two in the first place.

I feel similarly about the note on multiclassed henchmen:

The section on Race and Multi-Class in APPENDIX C (scroll up a bit for the screenshot, since I used it earlier) provides a totally different method for determining if a character-type NPC has two or even three professions. Why are there two slightly different methods for generating character-type NPCs on the fly - one for those in dungeons and one for henchmen recruits? I do not know.

Here are the nine recruits who shows up while our example player character is waiting around:

• Day 1: LE human assassin
• Day 2: N human druid, CG human fighter, CE human fighter, CN human illusionist
• Day 3: NE human magic-user
• Day 4: CG half-elf cleric/magic-user
• Day 5: LG halfling fighter
• Day 6: CE human fighter

Our example player character got lucky, managing to attract an assassin, a druid, and and illusionist in addition to the more common types.

Let's say that the player character has advertised, the recruits have arrived, and it's time to make an offer:

You have to offer at least 100 gold per level of the henchman (300 gold max for a 3rd-level henchman) for them to even consider the offer, and that only gets you a 25% chance that the henchman will accept! You can get that all the way up to 55% for 300 gold more. That's right - the best you can do is offer a 400 to 600 gold signing bonus, and the henchman basically flips a coin to decide if they accept or not!

You can increase the henchman's interest by offering magic items:

You also have to provide all of their equipment! Why don't they have equipment? Well, they're wretches. That's part of the reason why they're seeking employment:

Pity the wretched henchmen of the AD&D world!

This section seems to suggest that 3rd-level henchmen (not 2nd-level henchmen) will come with equipment:

This also suggests that player characters can have henchmen (or rather, "associates") of a level higher than 3rd (and even of a level higher than the player characters themselves), but only temporarily in most cases. This seems to be describing the acquisition of henchmen/associates by means other than the standard recruitment process, as the NPC will become a regular (non-temporary) henchmen only if they are three or more levels under the level of the player character, which is a requirement unique to this situation.

Interestingly, this means that, for example, an 11th-level player character could potentially acquire an 8th-level henchmen through this route. I imagine this "exceptional henchmen" rule is used if, for example, the player characters topple a bandit stronghold and wish to recruit the captured character-type bandits to their cause.

Be sure to offer your henchmen housing, food, and clothing! Doing so only adds 5% to their interest level, but if you neglect to offer such support (or simply don't know that you're expected to), the recruit's interest level drops by 25%:

With the bare necessities like the signing bonus, equipment, and other support out of the way, the recruit will want to know what exactly their duties will entail and what their share of treasure will be:

Here I wish there was a little more detail. Is it not assumed that the henchman's position will be subordinate to the player character and that their duties will involve going into dungeons and braving traps and monsters? Is the henchman more or less likely to accept if they're given command of other henchmen? What about if they will be garrisoning a stronghold rather than adventuring? What is the expected share of treasure? What if less or more is offered? With such thorough percentage breakdowns elsewhere in this section, why not here as well?

I have similar thoughts about the provision of equipment. "The prospective henchman must be provided with complete equipment according to his or her class or classes." Will a fighter simply accept leather armor? Will they expect at least chain mail? Will plate armor sweeten the deal? It's easy enough for the DM to simply use their own discretion here, but it is odd that the guidance is less concrete in some areas than others.

The DM should also use the section on NPCs to determine henchmen characteristics. Hopefully the player characters don't try too hard to get to know their henchmen before they're hired, as this would be considered a faux pas:

Whatever the henchman's characteristics and alignment, remember that dealing with them should always be expensive and irritating!

Let's say our example player character is a CG human fighter. They meet with the LE assassin on day one and it's clear that the two don't get along. They wait an additional day and meet with the four recruits who arrive on day two. They get along best with the other CG human fighter, but the druid and illusionist fill roles that aren't already represented in the party at large (and they're harder to find), so the fighter wishes to recruit them.

Finally, with all else being known, the DM tallies up the henchman's interest level, adds the player character's Charisma reaction adjustment, and rolls to determine if the henchman accepts employment:

Let's say money isn't an issue, so the fighter offers the druid and illusionist each 400 gold as a signing bonus. They don't have any magic items to offer, but they're wise enough to offer to pay for food, clothing, and lodgings, making the chance of acceptance 60%. Their Charisma score is 13, which adds 5% for a total of 65%. For whatever reason, the druid balks (I rolled an 81 on d100, so perhaps negotiations over a couple of magic items was the point of contention), but the illusionist accepts. The fighter could stick around to see if more recruits come in, but they're satisfied with the hire and want to get on with adventuring.

But that's not all! Once a henchman is successfully recruited, the player character must keep the henchman. This is where loyalty comes into play:

The henchman's loyalty is tested in certain situations. If they fail their loyalty test, the henchman might co-operate with or surrender to an enemy, testify against their liege (suggesting that yes, the DM should put their player characters on trial for their crimes), steal, desert, refuse orders, or run away:

The loyalty score is 50% plus or minus the player character's Charisma adjustment:

For context, here is the CHARISMA TABLE from the PHB:

The reaction adjustment is used when recruiting henchmen, but the loyalty base is used when determining, well, base loyalty of henchmen. With the fighter's 13 Charisma, the newly-recruited illusionist's loyalty base is a flat 50%.

There are tons of modifiers to a henchman/hireling's loyalty base. Henchman are actually the most loyal of all NPC followers, and even they only have +5% loyalty:

However, henchmen are also treated as having the highest level of training (comparable to officers or major officials), granting another +30%:

The illusionist's loyalty to the fighter is now up to 85%!

The longer a player character knows a henchman (and thus keeps them comfortable, fed, equipped, and of course, alive), the greater their loyalty:

This brings the illusionist's loyalty down to 80%, since they've only just now been recruited.

This is also where shares of treasure come into play:

I assume that an equal share of treasure is "average". Would it be fair for shares of treasure to be weighted based on relative level? That is, would it be acceptable for the 1st-level henchman of a 4th-level player character to receive a 20% share of the character's treasure? I'm not sure. Whatever it is, player characters must also pay their henchmen 100 gold pieces per level per month, as described under PLAYER CHARACTER EXPENSES:

Let's say the fighter is 1st-level and offers the illusionist an equal share of treasure. Loyalty is unchanged.

As the two adventure together, discipline, activity, and general treatment will come into play:

Being cruel and domineering towards your henchmen is actually a bonus - so long as you are present, alive, and conscious!

As the fighter is CG, let's say discipline is lax, but treatment is just, kind, and invariable. The illusionist's loyalty is now 90%.

Racism, of course, must be a factor:

I've determined that the fighter is in a party with three other humans, who are all "preferred" by the human illusionist. I'm not sure how to interpret the bit about adjustments being cumulative. Since both the fighter and their allies are all human, do I add 20% or 35%? It seems a bit much to count both hefty bonuses, so let's just count the 20%. The illusionist's loyalty is up to 110%.

Next we consider alignment:

The fighter is CG, which is -5%, but only one place removed from the illusionist (CN), which has no effect. The fighter's allies are CN, N, and N, which likewise has no effect. The illusionist's loyalty is at 105%. That's really good! It means the illusionist will not betray the fighter...unless the fighter breaks oaths, is reputed to have tortured, killed, or left henchmen to die, or actually tortures or kills them:

This is really interesting to me because it provides a means by which adversarial NPCs can spread rumors about the player characters which actually affect their henchmen's loyalty. On the flip side, the fighter can further improve the illusionist's loyalty by giving them gifts, rescuing them, or raising them from the dead. "Yeah, I know there's that insidious rumor going around that I tortured and killed my last henchman. Here, have some healing potions to make up for it."

Of course, there are situational modifiers to be used in combat as well:

Let's say the party encounters eight orcs on the first level of the dungeon. The fighter has been incapacitated due to damage but is still alive (hors de combat, -15%). The party has four 1st-level henchmen besides the illusionist, and two are dead or incapacitated (-10%). Additionally, one of the 1st-level player character is dead (-9%, counting the two dead henchmen). Six of the orcs are alive (-6%) and two are dead (+2%). The two remaining henchmen are alive and still engaged in combat (+10%). While the fighter is still technically alive and in sight, I'm not sure the 15% bonus would apply. That modifies the illusionist's loyalty by -28%, setting it at 77%. On d100, they roll 27, which keeps them in combat for now.

It wasn't easy, but it seems our fighter found a good henchman after all!

Hopefully in this post I have illustrated a few things. First, good henchmen are hard to find. It is both expensive and time consuming to do so, and they are in relatively short supply in all but the largest settlements. There is no telling who will show up and whether they will accept the player character's offer of employment. Because it is considered bad form to try too hard to get to know your henchmen before you hire them, the actual quality and compatibility of the henchmen is difficult to discern.

Second, good henchmen are hard to keep. Not only do they have to be paid well according to their level, but they must also be given their fare share of treasure, disciplined firmly but fairly, and treated justly, kindly, and invariably. You can improve your henchmen's loyalty by keeping them alive (and raising them from the dead) and by gifting them magic items, or damage it severely by breaking oaths or, well, torturing and killing them. Even then, there are factors that are outside of your control, such as personality, alignment, and uh...what race you are. Your enemies can spread rumors about you which will sully your reputation in your henchmen's eyes.

Of course, even if you do everything right, there is still a chance that your henchmen's loyalty will falter in a life-threatening situation. When your allies are dead and you're surrounded by enemies, even the most loyal henchmen might abandon you to your fate.

All that being considered, is it worth it? Is it fair to describe henchmen as "so useful" and "so devoted" as to require all this effortful recruitment and maintenance? That is for you to decide. Henchmen are a force multiplier. They are, in essence, akin to an additional player character in the party, and player characters are powerful. They become more powerful with the accumulation of levels and magic items. They can command a stronghold in your stead, fill in on adventures when your character is unavailable (or even replace the character if they die), and protect you against the "machinations" of other player characters (who are, of course, your rivals).

While I've demonstrated that henchmen can be disloyal based on a variety of factors, it is important to note that of all the followers you might recruit, henchmen's +35% loyalty base is the highest. While they're loyalty will vary in other ways depending on circumstances, they are otherwise "so devoted" in comparison to the other options available.

Perhaps this loyalty is born out of dependence. Henchmen are, after all, the wretches of the adventuring profession. While 90% of character-types found in settlements are of a higher level or "already in a situation they are satisfied with", henchmen are the bottom 10% who are destitute to the extent that they have no equipment and must seek employment, food, lodging, and protection from those more successful than themselves. It would make sense not to trust such individuals fully, but it also makes sense that they would recognize, when paid and treated well, that they have a good thing going and that they should cling to it with all their might.

Dealing with NPCs Should Be Expensive and Irritating

Look at this guy's face:

He's mad!

Why? Probably because, per the AD&D DMG, dealing with NPCs "should be expensive and irritating":

The example that follows is very funny and very Appendix N:

Poor Celowin Silvershield first visits a local tavern to learn of the location of a high-level magic-user. The people there are vague and unhelpful until plied with several rounds of drinks (the bartender, of course, must also be taken care of). In the streets Celowin is "pestered unendingly" by a beggar until he either pays (attracting "a swarm of other beggars") or calls the watch, who may in turn take offense to Celowin's lack of generosity. 

Upon reaching the magic-user's tower, Celowin must pay off a petty henchman or risk having the door slammed in his face. When he finally gets an audience with Llewellyn ap-Owen, the wizard immediately takes umbrage with his presence and demands substantial payment before granting any request. If Celowin does not have what the wizard wants, a geas will be laid upon him to force him to go acquire it.

The section preceding this one, PERSONAE OF NON-PLAYER CHARACTERS contains a variety of "FACTS TABLES" for determining NPCs' alignment, possessions/wealth, appearance, and sanity, as well as "TRAITS TABLES" for determining general tendencies, personality, disposition, intellect, nature, materialism, honesty, bravery, energy, thrift, "morals" (which Gygax clarifies means "sexual tendencies" - cool!), piety, interests, and, if their interests include collecting, what it is they collect. 

These traits somehow affect reaction rolls, as suggested by this almost entirely unhelpful section:

While the usage of the term is an oft-discoursed topic these days, the bit about sanity is amusing, as less-sane NPCs have more variable reaction adjustments which can go in either direction, ensuring that dealing with these individuals is particularly irritating.

While "NPCs will have some alignment", as well as varying levels of sanity and other traits which may affect their reactions, they are nonetheless, apparently, universally greedy and avaricious (and, presumably, annoying). 

Gygax uses the same general tone when discussing the recruitment of NPC spellcasters:

The prices that follow are pretty hefty (and these are just the prices if the player characters are of a similar alignment/religion as the NPC):

(As an aside, there is something very funny about paying an NPC 10,000 gold to cause a magical earthquake.)

Of course, the fees can be much greater:

(This bit about traveling "any distance" makes the fee for an earthquake spell even more amusing. I can imagine a situation where you might want a cleric to travel to a dungeon or enemy stronghold and cause an earthquake there, but 10,000 gold is the fee to cast earthquake without traveling, suggesting that for some reason adventurers are going to the temple in the city or wherever and paying the cleric to cause an earthquake there. Why?)

If the players complain about the cost of spellcasting services, Gygax for some reason recommends quoting scripture at them:

Oh, but that's nice. If the task would further the cleric's own agenda, they'll accept an IOU - it will just be more expensive in the long run.

And don't try getting cute with enchantments, or else the stone to flesh spell intended for your petrified fellow might instead become a flesh to stone spell targeting you:

If the players think they've found an NPC spellcaster to rely on for the foreseeable future, they're out of luck:

There's no such thing as valued repeat customers when those customers are stupid, filthy, meddlesome adventurers. Every request made by such ilk is nothing less than an insulting intrusion!

Between expensive and irritating NPC dealings, taxes, tolls, and encounters disguised "using vagueness and similarity", Gygax paints a portrait of urban life in AD&D which stands in stark contrast to dungeon and wilderness play. Dungeons are deadly labyrinths of monsters, tricks, traps, and treasure, and the wilderness in between is dotted with strongholds (both those ruled by powerful character-type NPCs and those totally deserted for one reason or another), monster lairs, and highly variable random encounters with gangs of teenaged dragons. 

Settlements by comparison will appear tame and safe. For the most part, they are. The player characters might run into the occasional group of assassins, bandits, ruffians, rakes, thieves, a press gang, or even a demon, devil, doppelganger, or undead creature, but they will mostly just wander around interacting with NPCs. They don't have to poke every section of the cobblestone path with a ten-foot pole to check for traps, and they won't run into an orc warband 300 strong.

However, the AD&D city or town is not a friendly and welcoming cosmopolitan metropolis - even those NPCs who do not wish to do harm (that is, the ones that don't plan to deceive, tax, indenture, rob, or kill the player characters) will still be resistant to helping and will demand exorbitant compensation in exchange for their aid. Every interaction is a challenge of wealth and patience. The settlement is not a place where the player characters earn their fortune or assert their power over a domain - it is a place that drains their coffers, where more powerful individuals lord over them. The settlement is an adversary of a different kind.

That is all to say, while dungeons and the wilderness are sites of adventure, the city stands in contrast as a site of misadventure, hijinks, and shenanigans, where the Picaresque adventures of Appendix N are painstakingly played out, very rarely to the player characters' gain.