A little help with cohorts please...

[Hurloon]

I have read the rules concerning the leadership feat and cohorts and followers. Is there any specific information about how many cohorts one leader can have at one time? What about retiring/dismissing an old cohort and taking another and better cohort?

When a cohort gets a half share of experience, they fall behind quickly if level advancement is swift for the party. Plus at higher levels more fantastical cohorts become available.

Thankyou in advance.

 

[the_mighty_agrippa]

I have read the rules concerning the leadership feat and cohorts and followers. Is there any specific information about how many cohorts one leader can have at one time? What about retiring/dismissing an old cohort and taking another and better cohort?

When a cohort gets a half share of experience, they fall behind quickly if level advancement is swift for the party. Plus at higher levels more fantastical cohorts become available.

Thankyou in advance.

The feat gives you one cohort. There is some discussion that you can take the feat multiple times to get additional cohorts (some PRCs allow for that too). Dismissing cohorts can impact your leadership score if done for purely powergaming reasons.

Cohorts tend to remain about two levels behind the PC, as they should be.

From the 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.

 

[Sejs]

Uno.

One cohort at a time.

Followers are legion. Cohorts are one serving per customer.

Retiring, dismissing, or reassigning cohorts to other jobs is perfectly fine; though in-character you've got to remember that they're still people and all, not just a hook to hang cool powers on.

 

[KarinsDad]

You might be confusing half experience with half share of treasure.

Cohorts get 50% (if run as per DMG) of the treasure that each PC gets. So, if you have 4 PCs and one cohort, the cohort gets 11% of the treasure and each PC gets 22% of the treasure.

However, the cohort gets 11% of the treasure of a treasure for PCs two levels higher than the cohort.

A normal NPC of the same level as the PCs typically has approximately 13% of the wealth of an average PC. After a few levels, the cohort will have about 50% of the wealth of an average PC compared to the 13% that other NPCs two levels higher than the cohort has.

This means that eventually, the cohort will tend to have magical items which make him pretty much on par with (or at least a challenge for) the same level NPCs that the PCs might meet, even though he is still two levels behind the PCs.

So, although the cohort tends to stay 2 levels behind the PCs, he still is about as powerful as some of the NPCs that the PCs meet. In my experience, the better cohorts are sometimes as powerful as some of the weaker PCs, even though in our games the cohorts have lower ability scores and fewer less powerful magical items.

All in all, I doubt you will find that the cohorts fall behind.


As for multiple cohorts, the rules allow for a cohort of a cohort (i.e. your cohort takes the Leadership feat), but some DMs might not allow that. Typically, the cohort of the cohort tends to stay 4 levels behind the PCs, but such a cohort should either be a meat shield, or should not go on really deadly adventures (we have cohorts of cohorts running PC owned inns and temples in our current campaign).

 

[TrqlKOs]

I was just working on the same sort of thing for my new character, thanks for posting the thread, it's helped me too! I was wondering about something else that's related here though: can you have a cohort AND followers, with a single leadership feat? My hope was to have a single bodygaurd for my spellcaster, and a person or small group back in the city Preparing a base of operations and performing various tasks.

 

[Delta]

If he's using 3.0 rules, then cohorts do in fact get a half-share of experience (3.0 DMG p. 147 -- also, same as 1E & 2E rules for henchmen).

They may fall a little behind, but the advancing XP costs per level sort of counteract it. Say someone is 10th level and gets a 7th level cohort (about 45,000 XP vs. 22,500 XP; 3 levels difference). At 14th level cohort is 10th level (91,000 vs. 45,500 XP; 4 levels difference). At 20th level cohort is 14th level (190,000 vs. 95,000 XP; 6 levels difference).

So the cohort is slipping behind a level every 4 PC levels or so. I don't think that's so bad -- in fact, it keeps them exactly in line with the starting cohort level in the chart on 3.0 DMG p. 45, as designed.

 

[the_mighty_agrippa]

I was wondering about something else that's related here though: can you have a cohort AND followers, with a single leadership feat?

Yep.

 

[frankthedm]

I have read the rules concerning the leadership feat and cohorts and followers. Is there any specific information about how many cohorts one leader can have at one time?

Cohort Level
The character can attract a cohort of up to this level. Regardless of a character’s Leadership score, he can only recruit a cohort who is two or more levels lower than himself.

What about retiring/dismissing an old cohort and taking another and better cohort?

If the DM won't let you retire one, well... accidents happen. Carefull planning might even avoid the "Caused death of cohort" penaty, though some DMs apply that one as Guilty until proven innocent.

When a cohort gets a half share of experience, they fall behind quickly if level advancement is swift for the party. Plus at higher levels more fantastical cohorts become available.

Half share? They get a bit more than that. Factored based on what the player earned.

 

[Storyteller01]

There are third party sources that give followers. One is in MPG's Drow Magic book. Gives a +2 to your leadership score and a second cohort that's two levles lower than the first. They also give a Guild Master feat in the Quint. Halfling. A second cohort two levels lower than the first, doubles your followers, but you HAVE to lead your organization. No leaving them behind or writing them off so you get your cohort.