Two Cohort Questions

[ARandomGod]

A fellow player in a campaign I'm in is discussing various possible cohorts for his PC. One would be a nymph druid (The character in question is half-nymph, for story reasons, so nymphs would be quite reasonable).

His question about this is:
"I was wondering whether nymph druid spellcaster levels stack with druid class spellcaster levels. Nymphs normally cast spells as a 7th level druids.

According to Improving Monsters in the srd:

Associated Class Levels
Class levels that increase a monster’s existing strengths are known as associated class levels. Each associated class level a monster has increases its CR by 1. A spellcasting class is an associated class for a creature that already has the ability to cast spells as a character of the class in question, since the monster’s levels in the spellcasting class stack with its innate spellcasting ability."


Another thought he's had is a gnome Mystic Theurge, which already exists in the character's background and therefore there's an easy story reason for him to become a cohort as well.

The idea there is that he would be a great support for spells and item creation. Item Creation is where my second question comes is. As I understand it, cohorts don't actually have experience per se. So, where does the XP used for item creation come from? Is there an existing actual rule for this? If so or if no, how have your group(s) handled this before?

 

[Joker]

I thought cohorts did have gain xp's but that they only gained half as much as a pc would. But dont take my word for it. I could be lying.

 

[ARandomGod]

I thought cohorts did have gain xp's but that they only gained half as much as a pc would. But dont take my word for it. I could be lying.

We've pretty much up to this point leveled the cohort based on the table, and ignored XP. However, I see that you're (partially) correct in that they do gain XP, when I relook at the Leadership feat. It's a more complicated mathematical formulae than 1/2, but still there:

(From SRD)
"Cohorts earn XP as follows:
The cohort does not count as a party member when determining the party’s XP.
Divide the cohort’s level by the level of the PC with whom he or she is associated (the character with the Leadership feat who attracted the cohort).
Multiply this result by the total XP awarded to the PC and add that number of experience points to the cohort’s total.
If a cohort gains enough XP to bring it to a level one lower than the associated PC’s character level, the cohort does not gain the new level—its new XP total is 1 less than the amount needed attain the next level. "

So we could actaully *track* the cohort's XP, and take it from there. ^_^ You know, follow the rules? O_O

So, any opinions about the nymph/druid?

 

[Raylis]

Associated Class Levels
Class levels that increase a monster’s existing strengths are known as associated class levels. Each associated class level a monster has increases its CR by 1. A spellcasting class is an associated class for a creature that already has the ability to cast spells as a character of the class in question, since the monster’s levels in the spellcasting class stack with its innate spellcasting ability."

You pretty much anwsered your own question right there, yes. So a 1st Level Nymph Druid would have the abilities of a 1st level druid and cast spells as an 8th level druid (thus gaining 4th level spells).

As for the cohort/XP, in my game I just ignore the equation and give the cohort half the XP said cohort's PC earns.

Hope that Helps

Raylis

 

[dcollins]

The half-XP rule was what existed in 3.0. Like all off-editions, 3.5 made this markedly more complicated for technical reasons.

 

[DarkMaster]

Well if you look at the formula for advancing cohorts they basically go up one level when the PC goes up by one level (obviously assuming that the PC didn't spent any XP)

the formula is XP Cohorts = (Cohort lvl/PC lvl)*PC xp

or both level at the same time for sake of simplicity