My player is going to hate his cohort...

[Storyteller01]

Hello Enworld!

One of my players is using Leadership to gain access to equipment that would otherwise not be available in the game, mainly chaositech. He knows the dangers of it to both himself and the party, but wants to go through with it anyway.

I've said he could create her, but I roleplay the cohort. She will be iirevocably, irretrivably insane. He said he didn't mind. I don't think he fully understands what's going to happen.

Such as, her constantly trying to eat/dissect our fairy player character.


So I'm asking all of you to help me flesh out this sociaopaths personality. She's a gestalt ranger (IK)/Akashic who has spent far too long in the realm of mindflayers, abberations, and other nasties. He's used a specialized feat from MGP, so the cohort will be 12 years old when he finds her. She lost her parents during a trip (ship was blown off course), and has been surviving via akashic abilities. Tappping into the memories of this chaos has not been kind to her.

 

[Nifft]

"They mostly come out at night... mostly."

-- N

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'd have a trigger switch (darkness is a good one) for her to go sociopathic. Otherwise, she's a sweet little girl, albeit emotionally fragile.

 

[Agent Oracle]

Ugh, the trigger switch is overplayed. An old GM of mine had an NPC who was a schizophrenic sociopath / pacifist. His trigger that turned him from "turn the other cheek" to "slice their face off" was (dah-de-dah!) violence. The Players wound up just putting him in manacles for... pretty much as long as we had him.

I suggest that you go out and find "The Three faces of Eve". That was a girl who would mess with your head. The movie is based on the book "I'm Eve", which was the autobiography (ies?) of a genuine sufferer of schizophrenia.

If you want to make it really mechanical, make a chart. Give her... say, a 5% chance of changing personalities. 5% chance of having some kind of flash-back to her time with abberations. 5% chance of manifesting a impulsive symptom of her delusions (lashing out violently against a horse and cart, for instance), and then a large amount of "nothing abnormal" space.

 

[MavrickWeirdo]

So his Cohort is River

 

[starwolf]

More like "River of Nine"

 

[Storyteller01]

So his Cohort is River

Not quite as nice!!


The akashic allows her to access collective memories. Less psychic, more channeling. The schyzophenia/multiple personality disorder is a good possibility.

 

[Ion]

He did take a feat to have her be his "cohort" and not just any other NPC. I really like the idea of modeling her after River. The best crazy friend anyone would want to have

 

[Agent Oracle]

Well, just two things

1. Don't treat the leadership feat as an excuse to punish the player. It's an oft-overlooked feat which many GMs flat out disallow, and others self-break by making cohorts that are more dramatic than the PC themselves. Remember that gaining a cohort means that the player will permanently be reducing their own share of the treasure (Cohorts get a share of their leader's take) in exchange for a significantly lower-level character to provide minor assistance (as needed)

2. If the player takes Leadership, he also takes on a huge responsibility. His cohort, no matter how "roleplayed" exists as much to be protected by him as she does to provide assistance. If his cohort dies, he's pretty much boned for getting a new one. Please don't make her a COMPLETE irrevocable suicidal psycho, or give her too many annoying personality quirks, otherwise, the player might contemplate killing her himself.

Also, the cohort should not have a more interesting backstory than the PC. That's not a commandment, that's just a tip. I mean, If the player only dashed off a page or two, don't turn her into her own micro-novel. If she was interesting, she wouldn't be hanging out with a dull PC, no matter how charismatic he is.

 

[MavrickWeirdo]

Not quite as nice!!


The akashic allows her to access collective memories. Less psychic, more channeling. The schyzophenia/multiple personality disorder is a good possibility.

But you can see she has "Ranger Levels"