HYPERBOREA / Mercenaries: Death and Dying

**Posted by Smart** 4/18/2021 12:18 am

I've been running an AS&SH rules megadungeon-centered sandbox for over a year and a half now. A question came up last session: when a hired mercenary goes below 0 HP, are they dead, or do the death and dying rules for characters (page 261 in the hardcover rules) apply?

If a "character" (PC?) was "reduced to a range of from −1 to −3 hp, the character is seriously injured...At a total of from −4 to −9 hp, he is in critical condition... If reduced to −10 hp, he is dead." So do these rules apply to combatants that aren't PCs, such as mercenaries hired by the party, or are these other combatants simply dead at 0 HP, not being PCs? Thanks for any help / insights you can give me.

Last edited by Smart (4/18/2021 12:19 am)

**Posted by rhialto** 4/18/2021 5:52 am

In AS&SH 2E Compleat, p.293, under Hit Dice:
"When a monster’s hit points reach 0, it is dead, but humanoids may be reduced to as low as −3 and remain
unconscious; anything lower results in death."

I treat all "monsters" (party adversaries) as dead at 0, to simplify things.

**Posted by gizmomathboy** 4/18/2021 10:02 am

I have given human hirelings the -10 limits, but...now, I guess they only get -3 :-)

For the most part though...if a hireling gets below -3, it's unlikely the party will do much to heal them.

**Posted by Blackadder23** 4/18/2021 3:35 pm

I usually treat mercenaries and the like working for the party as if they were PCs. I usually don't bother keeping track of this for other NPCs.

**Posted by rhialto** 4/18/2021 5:12 pm

And now I see I didn't answer the specific question asked...for hirelings/henchman I'd still stick to the "anything but a PC is dead at 0 HP" rule, because I like my PCs to have that advantage over non-PCs. Just another way to differentiate the adventurers from the hoi polloi.

**Posted by Smart** 4/19/2021 2:45 pm

You guys don't know my players. They name their hirelings, and then get ridiculously attached. The merc in question is Griselda, a heavy crossbow woman. Reduced to -2 by enemy ranged fire last session. The only other merc death they've had was Nails, a heavy infantryman, when a gelatinous cube engulfed him by surprise. Anyhow, they have already said they'd use spells to heal Griselda if she was still alive, but I wasn't sure based on the rules as written. Looks like it's the -3 rule per RAW unless I say otherwise. Thanks for the help.

**Posted by BlackKnight** 4/19/2021 4:27 pm

LOL, In a game I'm playing on Thursdays, Our hirelings:

Meatshield 1-4 (4 Heavy Infantry)
Redshirt 1-4 (4 medium Infantry)
No Shirts 1-4 (4 light Infantry)
Long Pokey 1-2 (2 longbowmen)

We have them split up between the adventuring group (Meat and Redshirts 1-2), and the forward base of operations (Meat and Redshirt 3-4) / Permanent base (No Shirts 1-4 and the Long Pokeys)...

We are currently using ASSH rules with the StoneHell Megadungeon. so the Main base is a set of Orc caves we cleared and cleaned up about 5 miles from both StoneHell and the local town. The forward base is in the Chapel on the surface after clearing most of the surface areas, and we are cleared 1a, heading into quadrants 1b,1c as we speak (We as players have heard that each floor has 4 quads, based on past expeditions and hearsay).

**Posted by Smart** 4/19/2021 5:17 pm

BlackKnight wrote:
We are currently using ASSH rules with the StoneHell Megadungeon. so the Main base is a set of Orc caves we cleared and cleaned up about 5 miles from both StoneHell and the local town. The forward base is in the Chapel on the surface after clearing most of the surface areas, and we are cleared 1a, heading into quadrants 1b,1c as we speak (We as players have heard that each floor has 4 quads, based on past expeditions and hearsay).

Nice! We are using Stonehell in our campaign too! But my campaign is about 1.5 years in, and they've just dipped into the fifth level below. They've got a set of nearby caves they use as an HQ, but there is a nearby city where they go to trade. Good stuff!

**Posted by gizmomathboy** 4/19/2021 6:58 pm

Ha! In my one campaign the hirelings were named by their main weapon and given a number.

That is until they lost too many and couldn't hire any more, even at better rates.

**Posted by BlackKnight** 4/19/2021 7:17 pm

gizmomathboy wrote:
Ha! In my one campaign, the hirelings were named by their main weapon and given a number.

That is until they lost too many and couldn't hire any more, even at better rates.

LOL, We may get there soon...

Our only saving grace is that working things through with the GM, we are giving the hirelings a small % of XP each session (the ones actively adventuring). If/Once they reach the = XP to go from 1st level to second (they are actually 0 level fighters, but needed a threshold). they get promoted from Hirelings to Henchmen, which in the rules is something like 10X the price/month of non-professional Hirelings. So that means we are a rotating training camp for the Sons/Daughters of the local populace. Dropping them as they advance (until we are a hell of a lot richer at least).

Last edited by BlackKnight (4/19/2021 7:18 pm)

**Posted by gizmomathboy** 4/20/2021 8:19 am

BK, expecting some kinda mass invasion for the local area? The local militia/lord can't be too happy with the peasants getting "better" than their folks :-)

**Posted by BlackKnight** 4/21/2021 7:40 am

gizmomathboy wrote:
BK, expecting some kinda mass invasion for the local area? The local militia/lord can't be too happy with the peasants getting "better" than their folks :-)

We haven't met the "Govna" of the area yet (the town and surroundings are not Feudal, but more like a republic). but several of the 1st level guys have gone on to become town guard, so the Captain of the guard has actually thanked us...

**Posted by gizmomathboy** 4/22/2021 2:19 pm

doesn't hurt to have the law on your side