Rolling with a Big Crew - On the Use of Henchmen in D&D

One of the features that marks off old-school fantasy gaming from newer games is the use of henchmen. 1e included henchmen loyalty rules, an extensive list of henchmen, and rules for finding them, hiring them, etc.

The use of henchmen in earlier editions represents a sophisticated take on gaming, henchmen represent resource planning, tactical awareness and engage mechanics often forgotten at the game table.

Here are my top 10 reasons to consider having henchmen in your game.

1. Tactical Advantages

The most immediately useful aspect of henchmen is that henchmen in the party give you tactical advantages.The most obvious advantage is they represent another possible target in the party. When engaged in combat the more people in the party the more targets for your enemies. In a game where attrition is a real concern, if ALL henchmen did was add another body to the group they would be useful.

But beyond that they give the party the advantage of numbers. As anyone who has run a large party will know, the more characters in the party the more attacks per round, and the more likely your group can take on harder targets. Most of the groups I run are 7-8 players, and if you add henchmen to that you can get up to 16 characters in a party. 16 attacks per round is nothing to sneeze at.

Another tactical advantage of henchmen for the party is protection of spell casters. Magic-users in 1e AD&D are very vulnerable, having henchmen to protect them means they are much more likely to get spells cast successfully, which is a huge contributing factor to their survival.

2. Excitement

Many refs are hesitant to let PCs die as players can become attached to their characters. I have no such reservations! But some do, and henchmen are a great way to restore some of the excitement of potential death to the game without losing PCs. Nothing brings you back into the moment as fast as someone dying right in front of you. Losing a henchman reminds the players that adventuring is a dangerous business!

3. Variety of Play

Particularly at low levels, D&D characters can find themselves at loose ends. Spell casters are a great example of this. If you are running a low level magic-user with terrible HP and lousy AC and you are out of spells, you can frequently find yourself stuck. Melee would be deadly, so you should really hang back. But that means that players of magic-users can feel “useless” in the game.

The solution that is used by many refs is to ensure that “everyone has a chance to shine”, so for example, the party needs to be able to read ogre magi to solve the puzzle, and lo and behold the party magic-user speaks ogre magi! That sort of thing can work, but after a while it feels forced.

Henchmen are an outlet for players who are at loose ends. Your magic-user has no spells left? Act for your henchmen this round for “something to do”. To that degree having henchmen gives players more agency as they have more vectors for action in the game. In addition, D&D has a lot of “neutralizing effects” that take PCs out of play, e.g. paralyzation, unconsciousness, charm, etc. When a PC is out of play like this it can be very frustrating for the player, but having henchmen means they can still have something to do while waiting for their PC to be brought back into play.

I have also seen players who run magic-users take henchmen and over time come to realize that they like the martial characters more than they knew.

4. Investment/Immersion

I’ve seen many players become attached to their PC, but I have also seen many players become attached to their henchmen. Perhaps because henchmen are so vulnerable (most henchmen are 0-levels, which means 1-6 hp) players can become protective of them, and go to some pretty impressive lengths to take care of them. I’ve seen players give up magical healing, magic items, loot, and risk significant personal harm to protect a henchman.

In short, henchmen can create investment and immersion in the game.

5. Collaboration

There are no rules governing cooperation between PCs, whether the party chooses to work together or not work together, the rules don’t shape that process. However, there are rules for “working together” with henchmen, the loyalty rules.

The loyalty rules ensure that employers who reward their henchmen, provide them with healing, give them a share of the loot, those employers will have loyal henchmen. Over the years I’ve seen a few players take on henchmen for their PCs and either ignore them or treat them badly. The rules are such that those henchmen eventually fail a loyalty roll and leave their employers in the lurch, or worse yet betray them at an inopportune moment.

Because the loyalty rules support cooperation and punish bad treatment, the rules help teach/reinforce the value of cooperation in the game. I’m a big fan of positive feedback mechanics, rules that reward good play. The loyalty rules do this very well.

They also make charisma important, charisma increases the number of henchmen you can have and adds to loyalty rolls. I love game components that magnify the importance of less used stats.

A final, oft missed side benefit of henchmen is they give individual players someone to collaborate with if the rest of the players aren’t feeling it. I can’t tell you the number of times that a player in one of my regular games was unable to get any of the other players to go along with him when he had an idea. Once we added henchmen to the game he had a built in group of 4 that could be directed towards goals that the rest of the party was reluctant to support.

Any long time ref will tell you that “analysis paralysis” is a real problem in D&D, sometimes the group can’t come to a decision when an individual within that group can. Having henchmen means that you can act with support even if the rest of the party isn’t interested. This means the group can take chances that they would otherwise ignore.

6. Replacement

Many people find it hard to get a game together, real life commitments can drag people away from the game, so it is important to minimize the time spent doing procedural work, like rolling up new PCs! When you have henchmen in the game then the player of a slain PC has an immediate option: play your henchman until you finish the session and roll up a new PC later.

Truth to be told this is my preferred mode of play, multiple characters for single players means that you don’t have to lose table time when a PC dies, and everyone gets to stay in the game.

We have had many fatalities in our game, and in more than half of the cases the player has used their PC’s henchman as the replacement in the session when they died, and then kept playing that henchman as the main PC afterwards. Once a player takes over the henchman as their main PC that henchman starts gaining XP and levelling. As it happens, in 1e the experience tables are set up such that a low level PC running around with higher level PCs levels up very quickly, which makes for very exciting gaming!

Between the fact that henchmen provide alternative targets in combat and the fact that they can be replacement PCs when needed, the ref is empowered to run a much deadlier game. If you know you won’t have to interrupt play when PCs die you are free to run a deadlier game with less hesitation.

7. Creativity and Risk

One feature I have noted about players who take on henchmen is that they are much more likely to take risks. If you have one PC then, all other things being equal, you will be more precious about them as they are your only link to the game world. If you die, then another character has to be rolled up, which is at least an inconvenience, and at most upsetting.

Having henchmen makes players more creative, they take chances and do things they might otherwise be hesitant to try as their main PC isn’t their only role-playing investment.

8. Resource Use

Henchmen require the player to plan their actions and use their resources. Not only do they have to pay for henchman services, but they have to plan their adventuring around their henchmen’s limitations.

As AD&D characters level magic and class abilities make it harder to challenge them. Henchmen in the party however are not that powerful, so the players have to make resource management decisions and risk decisions to address their vulnerabilities. So for example, if your party is mounted then all the henchmen need horses too, otherwise the party is restricted to moving the speeds and distances associated with moving around on foot.

That water breathing spell you want to use to infiltrate the bandit’s sea cave lair? It can’t cover all the henchmen and the party members. That ring of fire resistance that makes you safe as the dragon breathes on you? It won’t help your henchmen.

Henchmen keep the party grounded as the “inconsequential” threats that aren’t a big deal to a mid-level party, or even low to mid level, are still deadly to henchmen. Including them in the party can necessitate a whole different level of resource management to keep them alive.

And henchmen solve one of the problems that many people I know have with D&D - magic item inflation. Mid level D&D characters can end up with a lot of magic items, many of them minor magical weapons or limited magic (e.g. potions). Henchmen are a great drain on these resources, rather than throwing away that +1 spear as none of the PCs have a spear proficiency, you can give it to the henchman, increasing their loyalty significantly, and making them more useful in combat.

9. Lore/Skills

AD&D is light on skills, and has no formal mechanism for a “lore check”, so henchmen represent a possible vector for skills the party can have available to them and for information you want to give them. In a previous campaign the henchman with the bowyer/fletcher skill became the de facto “bow and arrow repair guy” for the party. In another one of the henchmen had a crucial language the party needed in an adventure.

I find that players love to give their henchmen small character traits that add a lot to the flavor of the game. One of my players asked if their henchman could be good at cards, and gambling became a great vector to introduce NPCs and gain information.

And of course you can use henchmen to introduce plot points to your game, e.g. an old enemy of your henchman shows up demanding restitution for a past act, an old employer shows up claiming that the henchmen was never discharged from their service, etc.

10. FUN!

This may go without saying, but rolling up a henchman can be big fun. Because they are relatively simple it takes about 5 min to roll up a henchman, and picking equipment and weapons and naming a henchman is a ton of fun. I’ve seen players equip their henchmen with weapons they would never have used with their main PC, or try out new armor, equipment, etc.

The lower stakes (“it isn’t my PC”!) mean that the player can try out new things rather than falling back into the same patterns with every new PC. I would also recommend that you name henchmen rather than just treating them like nameless meat shields. It makes them easier to tell apart for one thing, but it also encourages the players to be invested in them.

My Wednesday AD&D campaign players recently decided to hire henchmen, 4 of the 7 party members hired them, and this added 14 new characters to the party, bringing the total group size to 21! This changes the nature of adventuring! If you are used to parties of 3-5 PCs a group of 21 can be… disorienting. It certainly ups the power of your group, and requires you to work harder to challenge them. But there are pluses and minuses, for example, your party may be more powerful with 21 members, but any chance of stealth is tossed out the window, travelling becomes more complicated, and in small dungeon spaces creativity is required.

However, with the addition of henchmen they are far more engaged as they have multiple characters to direct, they know they have an on-the-spot backup PC if their main PC is killed, and they enjoy the role-playing variety.