Hirelings, Servants & Services

This page includes includes servants and hirelings (trained and untrained) as well as various services such as passage on ships and such that may be obtained in settled areas.

Fees, Tariffs and Tolls
Fees, Tariffs and Tolls Price Weight Source
Road or gate toll 1 cp n/a PZO1110
Inn stay, good (per night) 2 gp PZO1110
Inn stay, common (per night) 5 sp PZO1110
Inn stay, poor (per night) 2 sp PZO1110
Inn suite, small 4 gp PZO1123
Inn suite, average 16 gp PZO1123
Inn suite, luxurious 32 gp+ PZO1123
Bath, cold 2 cp n/a PZO1123
Bath, hot 6 cp n/a PZO1123
Bath, public 2 sp – 1 gp n/a PZO1123
Chronicler 5 gp/day n/a DHB
Companion 5 cp – 10 gp n/a PZO1123
Contingency Service, harmless risk level 3 sp/day n/a PPC:C&C
Contingency Service, questionable risk level 6 sp/day n/a PPC:C&C
Contingency Service, hazardous risk level 1 gp/day n/a PPC:C&C
Contingency Service, deadly risk level 3 gp/day n/a PPC:C&C
Contingency Service, suicidal risk level 3 pp/day n/a PPC:C&C
Doctor 1 gp n/a PZO1123
Fence 10% n/a DHB
Footman 5 sp n/a PZO1123
Hireling, trained 3 sp / day n/a PZO1110
Hireling, untrained 1 sp / day n/a PZO1110
Laundry 1 sp n/a PZO1123
Laundry, magic 1 gp n/a PZO1123
Lawyer, novice 5 sp n/a PZO1123
Lawyer, competent 3 gp n/a PZO1123
Lawyer, experienced 10 gp n/a PZO1123
Messenger 2 cp / mile n/a PZO1110
Nurse 7 sp n/a PZO1123
Sage 15 gp/day n/a DHB
Scribe, text 1 gp n/a PZO1123
Scribe, map 10 gp n/a PZO1123
Spellcasting Caster level × spell level × 10 gp
See spell description for additional costs.  If the additional costs put the spell’s
total cost above 3,000 gp, that spell is not generally available.
Use a spell level of 1/2 for 0-level spells to calculate the cost.
n/a PZO1110

1 Rafts, barges, keelboats, and rowboats are most often used on lakes and rivers. If going downstream, add the speed of the current (typically 3 miles / hour) to the speed of the vehicle. In addition to 10 hours of being rowed, the vehicle can also float an additional 14 hours, if someone can guide it, adding an additional 42 miles to the daily distance traveled. These vehicles can’t be rowed against any significant current, but they can be pulled upstream by draft animals on the shores.

Fees and Tolls

Road or Gate Toll

This is a toll commonly assessed to travelers either on a road or seeking entry into a city or town.

Cities and towns often use gate tolls to generate additional income, to favor local sellers over visiting merchants, to discourage heavy traffic in congested areas, or to recoup the cost of constructing and maintaining the road or gate. Bridge tolls are also popular, as most travelers have no easy way to circumvent them. Price 1 cp

Hirelings and Other Services

New hirelings and servants can be paid on a regular basis to take care of things back home while adventurers are out and about, and the Torchbearer feat allows characters to bring along a novice cohort into the dungeon with them. Outfitting these amateur accomplices with a torchbearer archetype can increase their life expectancies and make them even greater boons in certain dungeon situations.

Even though diligent adventurers spend most of their time in dungeons and other dangerous environs, there’s still other work to be done. In most cases, it’s easier to simply delegate menial tasks and day-to-day chores to paid servants, partners, and allies. These NPCs are collectively known as hirelings.

The following new types of hirelings perform a variety of functions in the relatively safe confines of civilization, and provide useful information, goods, or services upon their employers’ return for a modest sum (noted in parentheses following the hireling’s name).

Hirelings

Trained Hirelings The amount shown is the typical daily wage for mercenary warriors, masons, craftsmen, cooks, scribes, teamsters, and other trained hirelings. This value represents a minimum wage; many such hirelings require significantly higher pay. Typical equipment for a guard or mercenary warrior is studded leather armor and a club, shortsword, or shortspear. Most guards are off-duty soldiers or city watchmen, though some are unskilled laborers with a talent for fighting.

Untrained Hirelings (1–3 sp/day) The amount shown is the typical daily wage for general, or unskilled laborers, maids, and other menial workers. This listing includes any sort of typical employment not covered by another service or job in this section. Examples of untrained hirelings include a town crier, general laborer, maid, mourner, porter, or other menial worker. A trained hireling is a mason, mercenary warrior, carpenter, blacksmith, cook, scribe, painter, teamster, and so on. The listed price represents a minimum wage for an adequately skilled worker, and an expert hireling usually requires significantly higher pay. The listed price is a day’s wages (generally 7–10 hours of work per day).

Specific types of hirelings:

  • Chronicler (5 gp/day): A chronicler records the party’s glorious deeds. He may compose songs or heroic poems, or write epic histories of their accomplishments to bolster the party’s reputation. Fame has its benefits—a well-known adventuring party usually attracts additional patrons and allies.
  • Companion (5 cp–10 gp/evening): Whether a brazen strumpet, gigolo, saucy tart, escort, or expensive doxy, this person is available for an adventurer who needs intimacy. An hour’s diversion typically costs a few silver pieces plus the price of a room.
  • Doctor (1 gp/day): A doctor is a person skilled in non-magical healing and medicine. A typical doctor is a 3rd-level expert with 3 ranks in Heal, the Skill Focus (Heal) feat, and ranks in other valuable skills such as Knowledge (nature) and Knowledge (religion). An experienced doctor is up to 5th level, has additional ranks in appropriate skills, and is paid five to 10 times as much; however, these doctors are in high demand and are usually employed full-time by royalty. A doctor generally knows a little bit about what local magical healing can do and where to find it.
  • Fence (10% of value of fenced goods): With connections to the local thieves’ guild as well as honest merchants and antiquarians, a fence can sell non-magical treasures such as art or jewelry and be trusted to give the proceeds back to the adventurers—minus a reasonable fee, of course. A particularly talented (and expensive) fence can also safely ship loot to a large metropolis, allowing the PCs to ignore the purchase limits of nearby settlements when selling their treasure.
  • Footman (5 sp/day): A footman is a house servant in good physical shape, who is dressed in his employer’s livery and capable of running ahead of his employer to make arrangements at a destination (such as an inn or a noble’s mansion). This is a position of lesser rank than a valet, and is often a status symbol for the employer, with taller or better-looking employees earning higher wages as footmen. A skilled and personable footman can hope to eventually become a valet.
  • Lawyer (5 sp–10 gp/day): A lawyer is a person who knows and practices law. A lawyer writes and interprets contracts, represents clients or the government in civil and criminal trials, gives legal advice, or presides over cases as a judge. An experienced lawyer with a successful history can charge higher fees than a novice or competent but unremarkable one.
  • Messenger (2 cp/mile the message is carried): A messenger carries a written or verbal message to its intended target. Verbal messages must be short enough for the messenger to memorize (typically about 25 words). A few messengers have exceptional memories and charge 5 sp to relay a verbal message of up to 300 words. Most messengers are only willing to travel to locations within the current city or outlying areas. You can pay a messenger the return fee if you want her to wait for the message recipient to reply, just in case the recipient is too miserly or poor to pay for a return message. Depending on the location and the overall wealth in a settlement, a messenger may be a runner or ride a horse. If you can find someone already traveling to a place, she may only charge you half as much to carry your message.
  • Nurse (7 sp/day): A nurse is a person familiar with healing and medicine. A typical nurse is a 1st-level expert with 1 rank in Heal and the Skill Focus (Heal) feat. An experienced nurse is 3rd or 4th level, has additional ranks in Heal, and is paid two to three times as much; however, these nurses are in high demand and are normally employed full-time by wealthy merchants or nobles to look after children and elderly family members. A nurse generally knows a little bit about what local magical healing can do and where to find it.
  • Sage (15 gp/day): A sage is a master of learning. She has studied musty books of lore and memorized rhymes, sagas, and histories. Different sages specialize in different fields. Given time, a sage can puzzle out the answer to almost any question or riddle relating to her area of expertise.
  • Scribe (1 gp/10 gp/day): A scribe is a literate person with clear handwriting who can take dictation or transcribe text documents. You must provide ink and writing materials, though the scribe can acquire these for you at half price. Scribes cannot copy magical writing. A scribe who can accurately copy a map is rare and demands a higher wage.

Contingency Services

Source PPC:C&C

Contingency services are similar to contacts, but represent paying hirelings in advance for future services that begin after a specified signal or time limit. Unlike contacts, most contingency services are arranged as a single transaction, buying one service performed in case of a specific event.

The first step to arranging for such services is finding appropriate hirelings to pay for the job. With a successful DC 15 Diplomacy check, a character locates 1st-level commoners, experts, or warriors in a small town or larger settlement. At the GM’s discretion, you can recruit higher-level hirelings by increasing the DC by 5 per level above 1st. Enlisting hirelings with PC classes or rare skills increases the DC by 5. The highest-level hireling you can find in a settlement is at most twice the level of spellcasting available in that settlement. The modifiers for settlement size also apply on Diplomacy checks to hire contingency services. A successful check locates 1d6 skeptical or 2d6 wary hirelings. Exceeding the DC by 5 allows you to add 1d6 hirelings or increase the Trust of your hirelings by 1.

Characters with Leadership can use followers to perform contingency services. Though followers wish to help their leader, they can still decide a specific task is too dangerous or questionable for them, and refuse to undertake it. Followers have a base Trust of 4 and charge one-tenth the normal wages.

Negotiation: When hiring contingency services, you need to outline what you want your hirelings to do, and under what circumstances you want them to do it. Examples include watching over an ally (or animal companion or mount) or business and defending it if attacked, attempting to recover your body from a dungeon and have you raised from the dead if you don’t return to town in 2 weeks, paying your fines to get you out of jail if you send word you’ve been arrested, or sending reinforcements to a specified location if contacted by carrier pigeon.

Negotiation checks work as for contacts, though the Risk of contingency services comes from the danger involved in performing the task (should it prove necessary), even if the task is perfectly legal and moral.

While you can arrange for illegal contingency services (such as paying an assassin to murder anyone who kills you), the risk of the task is more important than the legality. If Risk exceeds a hireling’s Trust, a hireling will not automatically refuse the job, but this adds 5 to the result of her opposed Diplomacy check per category of difference. Tasks generally have a Risk of 1, adjusted as follows.

Danger Modifier Condition
+1 Challenging wilderness terrain (coastal waters, hills, plains, forests)
+1 Hostile nonsentient inhabitants (CR equal to or less than hireling’s level)
+1 Unfriendly sentient inhabitants (CR exceeding hireling’s level)
+2 Harsh climate/terrain (arctic, cavern, deep water, desert, mountain, swamp)
+2 Hostile sentient inhabitants (CR exceeding hireling’s level)

Cost: You must pay hirelings up front for all the work you expect them to do. Hireling wages are based on the most dangerous work they perform each day— if you arrange for a group of mercenaries to watch over your horses and defend the horses if attacked, you must pay them both for the amount of time you wish them to watch over the stable, and for engaging in a fight. Securing service requires at least one week’s wages paid in advance, though you can put more into this retainer fund. Once service begins, hirelings deduct their wages from the fund automatically.

Risk Level Category Base Cost per Hireling*
1 Harmless 3 sp/day
2 Questionable 6 sp/day
3 Hazardous 1 gp/day
4 Deadly 3 gp/day
5 Suicidal 3 pp/day

* Multiply cost by the level of each hireling squared.

When funds run out, hirelings may remain on duty.

Attempt a new negotiation check (even if you are not physically present) each day or your hirelings abandon their task. Hirelings who remain expect double pay for unpaid days worked. Failure to pay immediately reduces the hirelings’ Trust to 1.

Trust Modifier Condition
+1 Retainer exceeds one month’s wages
–1 You are absent over a month
–1 Retainer runs out of money

Emergency Funds: You may entrust emergency funds to your hirelings for spellcasting, bribes, etc. If their Trust is below 4, make an opposed Diplomacy check each month with a –5 penalty per Trust level below 3. Failure results in embezzlement squandering 1d10×10% of your emergency funds.

Success: Determining if hirelings can successfully carry out the contingency service you pay them for is handled with a skill or ability check, as it is with contacts. A failed check can be retried 1d6 hours later, with a –1 penalty per failed check that day. Failure by 5 or more typically results in a failure so severe the hirelings give up or are incapable of trying again. The GM is the ultimate arbiter of what skill checks are appropriate, with a few examples given below as guidance.

Relevant Check Task
Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidate Negotiate ransom for hostages or corpses
Disable Device or Strength check Break into locked building
Perception Guard against ambush or theft
Disguise or Stealth Sneak into or out of enemy camp or lair
Survival Find creature or body in wilderness, move safely through wilderness
Strength check (+BAB) Fight past enemy guards to reach PCs

Lodging

Inn Stay

The listed price is for a single night’s stay at an inn.

  • Poor accommodations at an inn amount to a place on the floor near the hearth.
  • Common accommodations consist of a place on a raised, heated floor, the use of a blanket and a pillow.
  • Good accommodations consist of a small, private room with one bed, some amenities, and a covered chamber pot in the corner.
  • Suite A suite can be arranged in some larger buildings, allowing multiple rooms to connect but are usually only available in larger and more expensive inns, a suite is a rented bedroom and an attached private room. A small suite includes a fireplace and good lock on the outer door. An average suite includes a fireplace, a superior lock on the door, and either two bedrooms or one larger bedroom. A luxurious suite includes a fireplace, a superior lock on the outer door, and two large or three or four smaller bedrooms, plus servants on call to clean, cook, help with dressing, or send messages.

Price 2 gp–32 gp

Services

Bath

A cold bath usually involves someone else’s used soapy bath water. A hot bath is a one-person washtub filled with hot water one pot at a time. A public bath is a bath facility (such as a bath house or resort) that provides hot water, soap, and cologne or perfume, and may also offer wading pools, massages, or other services for an additional cost. Some public baths require membership or a minimum social status. Price 2 cp–1 gp

Laundry

The listed price is for up to four items (such as trousers, an undergarment, shirt, and jacket or vest). Additional items may be washed for 3cp each. Laundry is finished the next day unless you bring it to the washer early. Magical laundry service is a mage (typically an apprentice wizard) magically and instantly cleaning your clothes with prestidigitation. Price 1 sp–1 gp

Messenger

Source Core Rulebook

This includes horse-riding messengers and runners. Those willing to carry a message to a place they were going anyway may ask for only half the indicated amount.

Spellcasting

The indicated amount is how much it costs to get a spellcaster to cast a spell for you. This price assumes that you can go to the spellcaster and have the spell cast at her convenience (generally at least 24 hours later, so that the spellcaster has time to prepare the spell in question, though you may be lucky enough to find someone who has it prepared that day or a spontaneous caster who knows it). If you want to bring the spellcaster somewhere to cast a spell (for example, to cast dispel magic on a magical seal in a dungeon) you need to negotiate with her; the default answer to such requests is typically no, since most people don’t actually like to go on unexpected life-threatening adventures.

The price given is for any spell that does not require a costly material component. If the spell includes a material component, add the cost of that component to the cost of the spell. If the spell has a focus component (other than a divine focus), add 1/10 the cost of that focus to the cost of the spell.

If a spell has dangerous consequences (such as contact other plane, which has a risk of decreasing the caster’s Intelligence and Charisma), the spellcaster will certainly require proof that you can and will pay for dealing with any such consequences (that is, assuming that the spellcaster even agrees to cast such a spell, which isn’t certain). If these additional costs put the total spellcasting price above 3,000 gp, the spell is not generally available.

In the case of spells that transport the caster and characters over a distance, you will likely have to pay for two castings of the spell (one for the caster to take you there and one for the caster to return), even if you aren’t returning with the caster.

Not every town or village has a spellcaster of sufficient level to cast any spell. In general, you must travel to a small town (or larger settlement) to be reasonably assured of finding a spellcaster capable of casting 1st-level spells, a large town for 2nd-level spells, a small city for 3rd- or 4th-level spells, a large city for 5th- or 6th-level spells, and a metropolis for 7th- or 8th-level spells. Even a metropolis isn’t guaranteed to have a local spellcaster able to cast 9th-level spells.

Valet

This title includes valets, butlers, lady’s maids, ladies-in-waiting, secretaries, stewards, concierges, majordomos, manservants, bodyservants, and other skilled, trusted servants and employees who work closely with an employer or run a household or business, sometimes without direct supervision. The listed price is per day. Price 1 gp

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