My group consists of this crew
-A Thief 3 with a Fighter 2 as henchmen
-A Shaman 3 with his wolf companion
-A Fighter 3, no followers
-A Mage 2 with a Thief 1 as henchmen
-Another Mage 2 with a Warrior 1 as henchmen
-A Barbarian 2 with three Barbarians 1 as henchmen
So it is a pretty big group even without the henchmen. We love the idea of having the followers and I think they are very useful, but until now I was treating them NPCs as having 0 as ability modifiers for everything. Last session the players asked if they could roll their ability scores and allowed.
The Barbarian player, for instance, is already gleaming with excitement because now he can customize his little band, with one being a bit more stealthy, other being more melee heavy, etc. And I think that's positive, it shows that people are invested.
But I answered too soon because now I'm starting to think that this may slow down our already crowded combat with so many specializations. Or maybe rolling scores is the default and I'm wrong, so what you guys think? How this usually works for you?
I usually roll ability scores for potential henchmen before introducing them.
I usually roll ability scores for potential henchmen before introducing them.
All my players henchmen have rolled ability scores. Even the guy who was originally a bandit and who they recruited by force has ability scores that I rolled up as soon as they hired him.
The way I see it, the bonuses granted by ability scores are small enough that they can be safely ignored for any character who'll only be around for a single combat, but if a character is going to stick around and go adventuring with the PCs on a regular basis, it's important to have a more accurate measure of their strengths and weaknesses.
Our GM rolls them up and if I recall right gives us a bit of a hint as to thier stats (though to be honest I have been paying more attention to the class). Typically the Henchman's stats determine their class, thus what becomes available to us.
I have a generator script that produces all the henchmen for hire in the settlement. The players tell me what they are looking for and I tell them what’s available.
Oh! I forgot to mention: In my campaign, PCs usually lean the would-be-henchan's stats as part of the job interview. Assuming they actually hold a job interview, anyway. There's this one mercenary they hired in a hurry because they met her in a dungeon and didn't want to attract random encounters... I'm looking forward to their discovering she's a werewolf.
I roll them up before the henchman joins the team and try to give clues about them in role-play. For instance a low DEX character might stumble or trip on the way to meet the hero, or knock over a drink; a low CHA henchman candidate might be described as having a bad body odor, or just act like an ass; and so on.
I really enjoyed that. I asked if my players wanted to roll or keep stats 9 for every henchmen. They all decided to roll.
ALL henchmen from my barbarian player rolled high INT. One rolled a 17, another a 15 and another a 14. So they all are very insightfull and intelligent, and we decided that their tribe was actually a pacifist and contemplative one.
The Thief henchment of our Mage rolled pretty bad atributes, which actually make sense because the NPC is a wretched old man, his main stat is WISDOM, though. He is very perceptive and cautious... cowardly so.
And the arrogant fighter henchment rolled 16 on Strength, becoming the strongest member of the party! He was played as if he was more agile than strong, never relying on brute force, but now the players are considering that he was being just lazy, letting others do the hard work when he was actually the toughest of them all.
So all in all rolling their attributes enriched my game! I'm all in favor of this now!
I love the tribe of contemplative barbarians... "What is the riddle of steel?" "First we must ask...what is, is? Being or nonbeing." "Nay, by Crom, if you guide this conversation into ontology I shall smite you with my axe!"