Can a Cohort make a Magic Item?

[Storme]

Can I Cohort Artificer, who does not "gain experience" create items, which is the main focus of the class? There Craft Reserve Pool MIGHT be enough to make a magic pencil that magicly cleans the saving when you sharpen it without expending xp...so how do NPC's do it? Where did all these items come from? I didn't make them!

I know Simulacrums cannot make items in 3.5 for just that reason. They have no xp, so can't spend any, and so, can't craft magic.


Storme

 

[BlackSeed_Vash]

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.

So to answer your question, yes cohorts can make magical items.

 

[Storme]

Where did you get that information? I'd like to show it to my DM.

 

[javcs]

It's in the SRD ... It's also in the PHB/DMG ... under the Leadership Feat, I believe.

 

[Dross]

From the SRD

So to answer your question, yes cohorts can make magical items.

While this is RAW, I've gotten the feeling (from these boards) that a fair % of DMs might want to veto or limit this. So I'd check with your DM.

 

[Bagpuss]

Oh course if your cohort does make items then he doesn't advance as quickly as he would normally.

Also to gain that XP he has to come on adventures and put himself at risk, you can't just leave him at home crafting items all the time.

 

[irdeggman]

Also the cohort wouldn't receive xp if he did not go out on adventures with the leader. Well I would never award xp to someone who did not "participate" in the encounter.

While not explicit in this - it is within the basic concept of xp awards.

 

[Maldor]

if he's level 5 or more you can give him magic items to destroy to add to his craft pool

P.S. i'm not sure Simulacrums don't have XP it says they can't gain more XP and that imples to me thay have XP.

 

[s-dub]

I think that the short answer is yes. The cohort has XP and gains XP. The cohort also has class levels and can get item creation feats/class abilities.

In another interesting idea, if you don't like the idea of everyone who has a cohort having them run around with the party all the time you could give everyone a cohort and assign them some sort of task (such as guard the PC's stronghold). Every so often when you're bored or don't have time for a serious game session you play defend the stronghold with the cohorts =P. That provides the player entertainment, the party one less person running around complicating combat, the cohort gets both XP AND a fair amount of down time in which to create said items.

That said, I think that the player should still have to pay the cohort at least a reduced fee for the XP that they are using up to prevent abuse.

 

[Storme]

I think that the short answer is yes. The cohort has XP and gains XP. The cohort also has class levels and can get item creation feats/class abilities.

In another interesting idea, if you don't like the idea of everyone who has a cohort having them run around with the party all the time you could give everyone a cohort and assign them some sort of task (such as guard the PC's stronghold). Every so often when you're bored or don't have time for a serious game session you play defend the stronghold with the cohorts =P. That provides the player entertainment, the party one less person running around complicating combat, the cohort gets both XP AND a fair amount of down time in which to create said items.

That said, I think that the player should still have to pay the cohort at least a reduced fee for the XP that they are using up to prevent abuse.

I planned to have the cohort Artificer charge the players 1 or even 2 gold per xp she has to expend (quite frankly that's to avoid...not abuse...but my level 5 cohort dropping to level negative 5! Hehe).

NOTE: The spell description does not say "The similarcrum gains no more experience." The word experience isn't mentioned. It says, "A simulacrum has no ability to become more powerful. It cannot increase its level or ability." This suggest to me that it has no experience to spend (I suspect this was the point of the change in the first place because a frequently abused usage of the spell in AD&D was to snag a piece of hair from a powerful caster, make a simulacrum and have it write you scrolls and make magic items all day while you were out adventuring. The xp cost for making magic items solves this problem).