Build Me a Cohort!

hello folks.

in the game i am running one of the players recently took leadership for his elven abjurer4/paladin5. because of charisma and all her cohort can be up to 8th level.

i just have no idea what to make this cohort. none at all.

please give me some to pick from. you know you all want to.

it is a forgotten realms setting and all splatbooks are in play.

make me proud!

ah yes, ability scores to work with are: 14, 16, 15, 15, 10, 14. mind you these are not in any particular order and have no level bonuses added to them.

go to it, heroes!

When we're done with this do you have any other chores for us to do?

Well, with a fairly even set of scores like that, the minion will be more or less par at about anything, although there's no exceptional points.

Not quite sure how an Abjurer/Paladin of that sort of split would play. With lackluster casting ability and a lagging combat option, I'm not quite sure what weakness or strength you'd want to play to, or what the rest of your group's composition is. Is there some sort of niche role that your group is lacking in? If so, filling in that niche would be doable. If not, you can never have too many rogues. Sneak attacks all around. An extra offensive caster wouldn't be a really stunning choice, since with only a 16 for a primary stat, save DCs will suffer slightly. All or nothing, there.

You've got a fairly homogenous round of stats. A 16, bunch of 14/15s, and a 10. Stick one of the odd 15 in something like strength, if you haven't already used the 16 on it, where it has a slight effect on the character's carrying capacity. Otherwise, just treat them as large values of 14, and put them anywhere. Drop the 10 in the dump-stat of choice for that class.

eXodus said:

hello folks.

in the game i am running one of the players recently took leadership for his elven abjurer4/paladin5. because of charisma and all her cohort can be up to 8th level.

i just have no idea what to make this cohort. none at all.

please give me some to pick from. you know you all want to.
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While I won't sit here and stat out cohorts, I don't mind offering some possibilities. An abjurer/paladin might have a cohort of the following types (list not all inclusive):

* mage apprentice, abujurer speciality
* mage apprentice with focus on combat and anti-evil spells
* cleric from the same faith
* monk from same faith
* fighter (or cleric or anything) to tend to horse, carry arms, etc
* bard who has heard of the great evils fought and wants to scribe epics of these stories -- what better way than by joining the admired character
* any NPC that had his/her life at one time spared as a result (direct or indirect) of something the character did. (would take special dm permission of course to convert an npc to cohort though).

so any class combinations except ranger, druid, barbarian... not that they couldn't work, just would take a little extra explaination.

race would be easily open to elf, human, or half elf.. others would require a bit more explaination.



hmm.. again, list is not anywhere near complete . . . will think about it some more but those are the ones that jump immediately to mind.

Why not a Wiz3/Clr3/Mystic Theurge2? I think that PrC makes an ideal cohort because of it's support capabilities.

Ask the Player?

DMG p46 says "a character can try to attract a cohort of a specific race, class, and alignment."

"The DM determines the details of the cohort." (other than level, race, class, and alignment. Starting level is set by the leadership score.)

I'd ask the player what they are hoping for.

I make the same suggestion to players that want cohorts.

Pick a bodyguard. That way your PC is still the center spotlight of YOUR game.

Pick a character that you can have fun with, probably not one you would normally play.

Specifically, I would suggest :

A single classed sorcerer
A single classed monk
A single classed paladin. An ostrich riding halfling paladin that specializes in either a) thrown daggers or b) ride by attacks.



g!

The sorceror in a campaign played in was very happy with his fighter/Devoted Defender (From Sword and Fist) bodyguard.