Cohorts - how do you handle them?

[diaglo]

I like the idea of cohorts rolled up randomly myself.

Olgar Shiverstone is our DM. we use the PHB standard array... which is/was 25 pts. by point buy ... when we created the PCs in the 2000ed and have converted them to 3.11ed for Workgroups.

random roll might make the NPC cohort more powerful. in fact it will on avg. i can show you or dig up a whole bunch of threads. here and on several other boards.


currently there are 5 players. JoeBlank, howandwhy99, biorph, diaglo, and a guy who doesn't post on ENWurld. but we did have 2 more players (arielslover and Val..something or other check the story hour in my sig) just a few months back... and the guy who doesn't post has been with the campaign from the start, he just has a very tough schedule to work in... so typically we had 6 PCs and now we are down to 5. and thus why this has come up again. as Olgar noted. we lack a cleric now. and undead seem to be on our menu.

 

[the Jester]

Hi JoeBlank!

[*]What does the player have access to, full stats of the cohort, or something less?

We allow the pc full access to the cohort. In fact, we allow the pc to run the cohort- otherwise it's more work for the dm. But the dm always has the option to call the cohort's actions, since the cohort is an npc.

[*]What about character creation for the cohort? Do you use the same rules as PC creation, or something else? Who creates the cohort, DM, player, or a joint effort?

Same method as for pcs, usually done by the pc, but not always. It's really up to the dm on this one- does he want to go so far as to generate the cohort? If so, how accomodating is he on class, level, etc.? I find making a personal connection to the pc is important, either way.

[*]How much control does the player have over the cohort, and when? From what I hear, many games just allow the player full control over the cohort, like a second player character. We will almost certainly go with something less than this, but the question is how much less.

As I said above, we let the pc play the cohort 95% of the time.

[*]How are XP and treasure rewards handled/divided (especially if other than per the DMG)? Are the new XP rules for cohorts working out, or are you using something else?

Our group doesn't give cohorts treasure- their pc must do so from his or her share. I find it's simplest to follow the dmg rules for xp; they work well.

Hope this helps!