Henchmen as Heir

One of my players wants to create a XP reserve fund, but not for a future heir he will play if his character dies, but for his current henchmen. The RP is that, as his henchmen saved the lives of the party many many incredible times, he wants to pays for a huge celebration on a tavern or something like that, and revel with his friend, telling everyone that this henchmen is now, for all matters, his brother. In game mechanics he wants to burn almost all his current money to raise the Henchmen Thief 1 to Thief 2.

I'm very inclined to allow that, but appreciate any insight on the matter!

Mm... I'm not an autarch, but allowing a PC to raise the level of a henchman just by spending gold seems a bit iffy, to me. After all, the henchman is going to continue following the player character on adventures, providing the full benefit of his level to his employer. A henchman acts a lot like a second PC, so allowing a player to increase the level of a henchman by spending gold is barely different from allowing a PC to increase their own level by spending gold.

Were a player to try this in my campaign, I'd allow them to bank experience points in their experience point reserve with such a party - but the henchman in question wouldn't actually get the experience points unless the PC permanently died or retired and the player started using their henchman as their new PC.

I personally don't see much of an issue.  While henchman fit the role of a secondry character, a player can bank their wealth for xp and retire a PC for a new one, thus starting at level 2 or even 3 if they bank enough.  The situation in this case has a better story arch to it than is often the case with simply banking it.

Likewise a 1st level henchman for a group that is a few levels higher will likely level and potentially hit their cap from just the next adventure (making the expenditure potentially meaningless).

As it goes henchman have the limit of needing to not be of higher level than the PC.  Also a henchman has the posibility of death before they can become a PC, unlike the heir rules that makes the potential new character essentially totally safe.

I think you could safely allow it for now, since he's low level and it's all pretty lethal, but I'd DEFINITELY limit it to one-time only per henchmen. Otherwise you will get very strange outcomes of young apprentices becoming wizards by virtue of partying a lot. That sounds like a fun 1980s movie with Val Kilmer but is probably not good gameplay.

 

Hahaha! Yes, I agree! Thank you all!