At any time, a character may attempt to hire various different sorts of
workers, servants, or guards. The success of such hiring is entirely
dependent upon availability of the type desired, wage and bonus offers,
and to some extent the character’s charisma. Typical hirelings are:

Alchemist	Blacksmith	Linkboy	Teamster
Armorer <>	Crossbowman	Man-at-arms	Valet
Bearer	Engineer	Steward	-

Your character will have to locate the whereabouts of whatever type of
hirelings he or she desires to take into service, and it will be up to your
character to determine wages and salaries in the area he or she is in.

Employment can be by the hour, day, week, month, or year according to
the desires of the character and agreeability of the persons to be hired.
Your referee will handle all such matters as they occur.

Note that the number of hirelings is in no way limited by charisma, and
hirelings differ considerably from henchmen who are discussed
immediately hereafter. The loyalty of hirelings is quite similar to that of
henchmen, though, and the discussion of the loyalty of henchmen can be
applied to hirelings of all sorts. (See HENCHMEN hereafter.)

ScottyG wrote:
Do men-at-arms count when figuring out how much experience points are awarded?,
For example, if a party of 4 PCs has 4 0-level men-at-arms with them, would you divide experience earned by 4 or by 8?
Scott
 

Hirelings of any sort usually work for a daily fee plus a share of loot.
In that regard they do detract from XPs by lowering the amount of gps gained, but not otherwise.

Cheers,
Gary
 

Elfdart wrote:
For me it depends on how many henchmen and hirelings accompany the PCs and whether (in the case of the hirelings) they are hired by the party as a whole or by an individual PC. What I decided to do about #3 was to set aside one full share of XP for all henchmen if they were all working for one PC. He is also expected to pay for their upkeep. However, in that case they answer to him and not the party as a whole.

I give men-at-arms who accompany their masters XPs for the money their employers pay them, as well as for equipment and other expenses the employer pays for. They get two XPs for every gp they earn to reflect not only treasure they've earned, but what they have learned while adventuring. This comes out of the gold and XP of whoever hires them. If the group hires, the group pays. So a light footman (1 gp per day while adventuring) armed with leather, wooden shield, spear, hand axe and dagger (10 gp) will get 80 XPs if he goes on a one month expedition with his boss. A 0-level hireling who earns 500 XPs can become a 1st level NPC.
 

Elfdart,

Quite so. the matter is actually one best left to the DM based on the manner in which he manages the campaign.

Cheerio,
Gary

garhkal wrote:
I was always under the understanding that henchmen and hirelings count for half value. So the 4 pcs and 4 hirelings would be 6 xp shares.
 

That isn't a rule to fllow. If you like it, then use it, but I never did, I simply negotiated for hirelings so as to get as much in the way of remuneration as I could for them.
Usually that was more like one share per two men-at-arms or four torch bearers porters.

Cheers,
Gary