Cohorts as minions

[Asmor]

I was thinking that cohorts might work well as minions. Take a feat, you get a cohort. If he dies, eventually you can replace him.

Stat the cohort up like a minion. Give him just basic attacks, and a encounter power that's appropriate for supporting his 'leader' in an appropriate way.

For example, a wizard might take a bodyguard cohort who has the fighter's marking ability. Needless to say, since the bodyguard has minion status and drops in one hit, he's no replacement for an actual defender, but it does serve a purpose in aiding the wizard.

Another popular one might be a combat medic. Allowing its target to spend a healing surge seems like it might be stepping on a leader's toes too much, though... Perhaps once per encounter the medic could let the target spend a healing surge, but instead of healing it gets that many temporary HP. Or, alternatively, the target heals as normal but only receives half as much healing.

 

[Aegir]

I'm not sure I care for minion cohorts; for one thing it seems like it'd encourage them to be used as artillery units, because using them any other way would be completely pointless (they'd simply die in the first round or two).

Now, as an At-Will for the future conjurer class? Totally. No more than one active at a time, standard action to sustain, sounds like a fun option.

 

[Asmor]

Oh, one thing I forgot to put in was to take a page from Savage Worlds. Despite dropping if they take any damage, cohorts don't necessarily die. They're just knocked out.

You could either have the player a roll a save for them afterwards, or just rule that they only actually die if they're critted.

 

[Aegir]

Oh, one thing I forgot to put in was to take a page from Savage Worlds. Despite dropping if they take any damage, cohorts don't necessarily die. They're just knocked out.

You could either have the player a roll a save for them afterwards, or just rule that they only actually die if they're critted.

That would certainly make it a bit more worthwhile, tho' its hard to know exactly what real benefit it'd give (he'd still likely be little more than an encounter attack ability: run in fast and smack a monster. Get smacked and drop. Get up after fight. Rinse & repeat).

Now, one thing it does add, potentially, is the possibility for playing more large-scale fights: dare I say, old-school RPG combats, involving minions and hirelings.

 

[WhatGravitas]

Oh, one thing I forgot to put in was to take a page from Savage Worlds. Despite dropping if they take any damage, cohorts don't necessarily die. They're just knocked out.

You could either have the player a roll a save for them afterwards, or just rule that they only actually die if they're critted.

Yeah, that's makes it much better! Because I like to have cohorts with more attachment than "feat critter".

Cheers, LT.

 

[Sashi]

It would be impossible for someone who gets knocked out at the earliest provocation to be anything other than a source of comedy (granted it would often be black comedy, bust still comedy).

 

[Idabrius]

An interesting notion. It works pretty well, ruleswise. How do I know? I used a minion as a sort of NPC cohort. Edward the Bastard, a level 2 solo-brute style fella had a minion page. Edward used his greatsword, while the page constantly used Aid Another with the shield he was carrying in order to give ol' Eddy a nearly constant +3 to AC.

 

[Asmor]

It would be impossible for someone who gets knocked out at the earliest provocation to be anything other than a source of comedy (granted it would often be black comedy, bust still comedy).

Well, it depends on what you're using them for. I like the idea of cohorts as support better than just an extra attack. Using the examples above, the bodyguard would stick with the wizard instead of rushing into combat, while the medic would stay behind a defender.

They could still be attacked, of course, but ideally they'd stay out of the spotlight and not make themselves a target (bodyguard excepted, but only if something's rushing the wizard).

The question is how to achieve that goal?

 

[Aegir]

The obvious choice is through a 4E-ified Leadership feat, or possibly a Cleric/Warlord (leader types) paragon path. Theres also the option of simply handling it like hirelings, tho' that could definitely be badly exploited.