Help with Leadership Feat

[Samothdm]

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I don't have my DMG with me (at work now) but if I remember correctly, based on his level and his charisma score, he's only going to get 1 cohort and no "minions" at this point.

Since theoretically, the cleric's patron (the bad guy) who "assign" the cohort to the PC cleric, I'm trying to rationalize why he wouldn't assign him someone who he (the patron) trusts.

I think I can figure it out, though. Thanks for bringing to my attention the thought that making the cohort a bad guy would essentially be like my cleric PC "wasting" a feat. I hadn't really thought of it in those terms. That's what I get for thinking of things from a DM perspective!

 

[Samothdm]

BTW, Coyote6, I noticed that you're from Salinas. My dad used to live there and we'd go there all the time as kids to visit my grandparents. I doubt most other people here on the boards have even heard of it!

 

[Airwolf]

...

Since theoretically, the cleric's patron (the bad guy) who "assign" the cohort to the PC cleric, I'm trying to rationalize why he wouldn't assign him someone who he (the patron) trusts.

...

Of course you could go X-files on the PC. Assign him a Scully to his Mulder. If you recall at the beginning of the show, she was assigned by one of the 'bad guys' to keep an eye on Fox and to dig up dirt on him so they could toss him from the FBI. As the time goes on, she is converted to Fox's point of view.

This would require quite a bit of role playing on the part of the cohort and the PC.

Anyway, just a thought.


Regards,
Airwolf

 

[Bhaal]

Since he'll most likely get a cohort assigned by the bad guy, that should be incorporated in some way.

* I liked the earlier suggestion of having the cohort initially a bad guy too, just spying. Make the cohort yourself so 1) it fits what the evil guy would give them and 2) the PC won't get too attached if something happens (more in a second). The cohort should help out but otherwise seem a little socially and emotionally distanced. Then after time they realize the error of their ways. They confess to the cleric/party, give all information they have on the bad guy, and perhaps even offer the cleric/party to kill them for their evil deeds, but also add that they really wish they could live to fight along side the cleric/party, etc. Then the cleric/party can either forgive the cohort, spare their life, and have a VERY loyal NPC from then on, or they can kill the cohort, disband them, etc. In the cases of losing the cohort, keep in mind that 1) the party gets the scoop on the badguy, a huge plot development for a feat and 2) as DM, you should allow the cleric to get a new cohort.

* There's a million ways to spin the whole "bad guy planted the cohort" idea. Perhaps they're being forced to in order to feed their family, or charmed by the bad guy so they don't know what they're doing. Perhaps they're just being fooled like the party is, but have a different scope of things, and a different story about the bad guy. Perhaps with some conversation with the NPC, the party will find some telling inconsistancies between their image of the bad guy and the cohort's. This way you've got a good, honest cohort from the start, and they offer a potential lead-in to suspect the bad guy.

 

[Taluron]

Yeah, that was gonna be my suggestion. Make the cohort a 'bad guy' who sees the error of his ways. Just make sure he doesn't royally screw over the players before he changes sides or the others will likely scrag him.

 

[Datt]

For those of you who were wondering in the DMG on pg 147 half way down the 2nd column:
"There are no limitations to the class, race, or gender of a character's cohorts, nor are there limits to the number of cohorts who can be employed by a character."

 

[MerricB]

Tangent: Is it possible to take Leadership more than once? I seem to remember it being possible, but I can't find anything to back that up now.

Yes.

Leadership gives you only one Cohort each time it is taken.
You may take it multiple times.


http://pub58.ezboard.com/fokayyourturnfrm3.showMessage?topicID=283.topic
http://www.dndadventure.com/html/articles/errata_dmg.html
http://www.d20reviews.com/Eric/errata.htm

Cheers!

 

[Janos Antero]

Thanks MerricB, I know I saw it somewhere other than those locations, but at least I know I wasn't hallucinating now.