Cohort help

[Bryon_Soulweaver]

I want a cohort for my player but I dont have any idea how to get one or how it works, for the past 4 years of playing. I know that my character needs a reputation of some kind, which is already has, and the group is mostly good, he is CN. He is sor 11/rog 3/wiz 2, and got Leadership at the sixth level but I never bothered with it till now. His father was a unique demon, not evil but also not good and still has his chaotic nature. The LA is +6, getting several more bonuses than normal half-demons.

I dont know what the cohort should be like, I asked the my DM if I could finally get one and we are currently in the Outlands. We rescued some slaves from a slave camp, a young girl is now following him like a lost puppy, although he treats her like crap. I was thinking I could use her and teach her wizardry, the DM now uses her as a tag-along.


Any ideas what I should do (and do I get control of her)?

 

[JimAde]

The kind of cohort you can get is based on your Leadership score. That score is:

Character level + Charisma Modifier + modifiers for reputation and situation (detailed in the DMG or the SRD).

The text doesn't specify whether it's your actual class levels or your ecl, which would make a big difference in your case. For now, let's assume it's your ECL. This character's ECL is 22. Assuming he has no charisma modifier or other modifiers, that makes his leadership score 22 also. Looking on the chart, that means his cohort would be 15th level, and he would have a bunch of 1st-level followers as well.

How you get the cohort and how much you control him is something you have to work out with the DM. I am dealing with this in my own game at the moment, as one of the PCs just got the leadership feat. He and I decided together who the cohort was (as part of his backstory) and what basic strengths he should have. Then I made up the character and I will run it as an NPC. What makes it a cohort instead of just an NPC party member is that the cohort is personally loyal to the PC and can be relied on to stay loyal and do his best for the PC's cause.

Hope that helps.

 

[kigmatzomat]

The slave girl would be a follower, unless she turned out to be a high level adventurer. Cohorts have PC class levels and, as JimAde said, yours would be around 15th level, maybe higher due to your non-magical charisma, maybe less depending on ECL, if they have a different alignment or you have a familiar. The max level your cohort can be is your level -2. If you're lucky it's ECL -2 but I'm not sure.

Either way, you're talking about a true adventurer who's only about 2 levels behind you.

What I've done as a DM is get an idea from the player what kind of cohort they want. Do you want a healer cleric, a scout rogue, or a meat shield fighter? At a story-convenient place, I trot out an NPC that I created and see if the two mesh. If not, we do it again later with a different NPC. Once they get along I hand the player the character sheet. I let the player deal with the cohort 99% of the time, with the occassional interjection from me. Sometimes it's to clarify their motivations based on backstory others its when the player is running the cohort in what I find to be a suicidal manner.

Cohorts IMC expect a reasonable share of the treasure (they are risking their lives too), have their own personality quirks and goals. The goals tend to include their "hero" but that doesn't make them handpuppets.

I'm not sure if cohorts factor in to the XP awards under RAW (I have house rules) but they may and that and the treasure may cause friction with other players. The solution IMC is the DM increases the threats/rewards accordingly. I have 7 players (18th level) and 2 cohorts (16th level) so my "default" encounter is CR20. This gives about the same risk, XP & gp as if the party was cohort free. The people without cohorts aren't gypped and the ones with them get the pleasure of running 2 PCs.

 

[JimAde]

IIRC, the rule is that you calculate XP normally, as if the cohort wasn't there. Then the cohort gets 1/2 the XP of the PC. Yes this means XP "appear out of nowhere", but I believe that's the way it works.

 

[Corsair]

IIRC, the rule is that you calculate XP normally, as if the cohort wasn't there. Then the cohort gets 1/2 the XP of the PC. Yes this means XP "appear out of nowhere", but I believe that's the way it works.

Almost. Cohorts get XP based on a ratio of their level and the leaders level.

If the cohort is level 8 and the leader is level 10, then the cohort gets 80% of the XP that the leader gets. This should keep the cohort leveling at the same pace as the leader.

 

[JimAde]

Thanks, Corsair. That makes more sense.

 

[Bryon_Soulweaver]

Background? Born in Sigil, mother abandoned him when he was 5 when he killed his father with a fireball: equal to a 18th level caster; been in orphan till he was 15, reaching adulthood by human D&D standards. Been traveling to several worlds for a year before joining up with the current party, he started at level 1 while most of the others started at level 7.


If the girl cant become a cohort, then I guess she can become an apprentice wizardes or cleric in training, since there are two clerics and a wizardes in the group. There is also a monk and barbarian/fighter gasalt.





PS: If all else fails, he could always send her to the symbol, who the party has made good relations with. "I hate human girls, they're so annoying and all I want to do is send them to Baator." My character said this to a passing solar in Sigil, the celestial saw his dark heritage (eyes that look like blood lite aflame, how couldnt he?) and shuttered.

 

[kigmatzomat]

She *can* be a cohort but it'd be a waste since she's probably 1-3rd level and you could have a 15th level cohort. It'd make more sense to have her be a follower: you should have 50+ 1st level followers, ~6 2nd, ~3 3rd, 2 4th, 1 5th and 1 6th level followers. IIRC, cohorts are commoner/expert/warriors in the DMG. The SRD doesn't specify class and I think there's some supplement that suggested you could have adepts with a +2 ECL mod (meaning an adept 4 is a 6th level follower). Aristocrats are supposed to be too snooty to be followers.

Nothing sucks about having a couple of 5-6th level minions around to take care of the horses, clean weapons, skin animals, etc. But if you can have a 15th level minion with PC classes and/or PrCs as well......

 

[Bryon_Soulweaver]

If she became a cohort, how fast would she level by game terms?

 

[Jhulae]

If she became a cohort, how fast would she level by game terms?

If she were that low a level, compared to what you'd get, most likely 1 level each time your DM gave out exp until she started nearing your character's effective level.

As an aside, Leadership only makes sense if it's based on the leader's ECL, because it's, well, the character's effective Character Level, and Leadership is based on Character Level.

If a Drow (as an easy example) were to get another drow as a cohort, the cohort's level would be, at most, two levels behind the leader. So, a 10th level drow (ECL 12) would be able to have an 8th level drow (ECL 10) as a follower. That same 10th level Drow (ECL 12) would be able to get any other ECL 10 character as a cohort, whether it's from straight levels or a combinaton of levels and LA.