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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Starglim" data-source="post: 2078649" data-attributes="member: 17011">Dungeon Masters' Guide 1979, p. 34-37.OK, seriously, I wouldn't play Leadership exactly as 1st Edition henchmen but I'd retain some strong similarities. The standard Leadership feat assumes that a heroic character turns up somehow to serve the leader character. Unless the character already has underlings of some sort, one of whom is capable of becoming and advancing as a trusted cohort, clearly, the cohort is some sort of itinerant looking for a leader and mentor who has got word of the character's desire for a skilled aide. He's an NPC, with all that that implies, who has some reason to adventure with the character - either because he is genuinely loyal, or for some ulterior motive that could eventually be turned to real admiration and loyalty over time.The DM should create the character, based on the types of characters that the player asks to find, run whatever form of interaction and negotiation he sees fit, and play the cohort as an NPC who generally follows the PC's orders with a helpful attitude. Once the PC and cohort fully know and trust each other in-game, the DM may hand over the character sheet and may agree to the player running the character, depending on the general ruling for the campaign as to players running multiple characters. By default it doesn't happen unless the PC is not present for the adventure.Cohorts should gain half XP (regardless of who's running the character) if the leader is present, full XP if they are the sole character run by the player in that session. However they count as full characters for Challenge Ratings and division of XP whenever they are present for an adventure. Heroes should be discouraged from placing their followers and entourage in danger to absorb hits and give themselves a cheap boost in combat power.Division of treasure, as always, is negotiated between players (as distinct from PCs) and should never be the subject of a GM ruling. However two possible systems are to give cohorts half shares of treasure, or to give each player the same share of treasure and let the PC pay his own employees as he sees fit. Cohorts don't get magic items as of right, but it might be sensible or good role-playing to give them items that the PCs don't need themselves.</blockquote>

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