It would be really cool that in nearly every biome except forodwaith there will be a structure called mercenary camp.
This camp would include:
A few (4-6) mercenaries: 20 Hp wearing bad to no armour and knives. These guys fight nearly all the mobs but not the player.
1 Mercenary Captain: From this guy you can recruit mercenaries to fight for you for quite a cheap price (No alignment needed)
With the hired mercenaries it would be cool if you can give them armour and weapons so there actually worth recruiting