Specialists

Specialists are NPCs who may be hired by player characters to perform various tasks. Specialists do not go on adventures or otherwise risk their lives fighting monsters, disarming traps, or any of the other dangerous things player characters and retainers may do. Rather, specialists perform services the player characters usually can't perform for themselves, like designing and erecting castles, training animals, or operating ships. A player character is limited in the number of specialists they can hire only by the amount of money they cost; Charisma does not affect this. Alchemist: 1,000 gp per month. These characters are generally hired for one of two reasons: to make potions, or to assist a Magic-User with magical research. An alchemist can produce a potion, given the required materials and a sample or a written formula for the potion, in the same time and for the same cost as a Magic-User. They may also research new potions, but at twice the cost in time and materials as a Magic-User. Review the rules for Magical Research starting on page 191 for details. Alternately, a Magic-User seeking to create certain magic items may employ an alchemist as an assistant. In this case, the alchemist adds 15% to the Magic-User's chance of success. Animal Trainer: 250 to 750 gp per month. Characters wishing to ride hippogriffs or employ carnivorous apes as guards will need the assistance of an animal trainer. The lowest cost above is for an average animal trainer, able to train one type of "normal" animal such as carnivorous apes; those able to train more than one sort of animal, or to train monstrous creatures such as hippogriffs, are more expensive to hire. The Game Master must decide how long it takes to train an animal; in some cases, animal training may take years, a fact the player characters may find inconvenient as well as expensive. A single animal trainer can train and manage no more than 5 animals at a time, though in most cases once an animal is fully trained, if it is put into service right away the animal trainer won't be needed to handle it any longer. Armorer (or Weaponsmith): 100 to 500 gp per month. Characters hiring mercenaries, or having armed and armored followers to take care of, will need the services of an armorer. In general, for every 50 Fighters employed, one armorer is required to care for their gear. The armorer's equipment is not included in the costs given above, but the cost to maintain his apprentices is included; most such characters will have 1d4 apprentices assisting. Higher priced armorers or weaponsmiths may be hired to assist in making magic weapons or armor; in this case, the character hired will be a specialist, an expert in making one particular type of armor or weapon, and will command a higher price (as shown above). Such characters will rarely agree to do the mundane work of maintaining weapons and armor for a military unit. Engineer: 750 gp per month. Any player character wishing to build a fortress, a ship, or any other mundane construction will need an engineer. Large projects may require several engineers, at the GM's option. Savant: 1,500 gp per month. Savants are experts in ancient and obscure knowledge. Many savants have particular interests in very limited or focused areas (for example, "Elven migrations of the 2nd age"), but even these will know or have access to a lot of facts. The listed cost is the minimum required to maintain a savant with his library, collections, etc. If the savant's patron asks a difficult question, there may be additional costs for materials or research to answer it. Ship's Crew: Special. A crew for a waterborne vessel involves several types of characters. At the very least, a complement of sailors and a Captain are needed; rowers will be needed aboard galleys, and a Navigator is required aboard ships going out of sight of land. Costs per month for each sort of character are given below: Seaman Type Cost Captain 300 gp Navigator 200 gp Sailor 10 gp Rower 3 gp In general, all such characters are normal men, and are not armored; they will usually be armed with clubs, daggers, or shortswords. Player characters with appropriate backgrounds may act as Captain, but unless experienced as a ship's captain, they will have difficulty commanding respect from the regular sailors (lower the Morale of such regular sailors by -2 if led by an inexperienced Captain).