Companion characters as PC

[tsadkiel]

From what I can tell, a specialized full PC will always outdo a companion character in his area of specialty, but not by a huge margin, and the companion character will be statistically solid in all areas. They won't be nearly as versatile, though, and since they don't have dailies, they can't nova.

There are a couple of minor advantages to playing a companion, though. For one thing, you can get away with some strange builds. Tiefling warlord with 12 strength? Not a problem - your damage will suffer, your accuracy won't, so you'll still be able to deliver the bonuses right on schedule.

Similarly, companion characters don't have to worry about equipment. Ever. The dragonborn fighter in my example above has a better attack bonus while wielding his magical greatsword, but the companion doesn't lose any attack bonus or armor class while wearing a loincloth and waving a dagger around.

As I said, minor advantages at best, compared to a focused character. But if you wanted a focused character, you wouldn't want to play a companion in the first place. So in my games, it's an option if anyone wants it, I guess. I suspect none of my players will take me up on it.

 

[AllisterH]

Those people who value simplicity over power.

FWIW the power gap isn't that considerable IME, though the reduction in options is.

Which is I think something that can appeal to some gamers.

There _ARE_ gamers who get frozen so to speak, with all the options available to a 4e character (and this _IS_ one of the reasons for slower combat).

The PC companion rules would be perfect for those type of players...They're still effective just not as versatile so they can still contribute but don't feel overwhelmed.

I have a player who felt slightly intimidated with the options but last week, I gave them a companion character to play with and they were happy since they still felt like they were contributing yet there was less stuff for th eplayer to worry about.

 

[darjr]

It's such a great idea. I have to try it.

Now only if some software supported it...

I wonder if anyone has tried to mesh the companion rules with summoning and/or beastmaster rules and such.

 

[Wik]

From what I can tell, a specialized full PC will always outdo a companion character in his area of specialty, but not by a huge margin, and the companion character will be statistically solid in all areas. They won't be nearly as versatile, though, and since they don't have dailies, they can't nova.

Yup. But I think, really, you're better off starting with a companion character, and slowly turning that character into a PC, if you're trying to reduce options for a player.

Simply slowly introduce powers. For feat choices, make sure choose "fire and forget" feats (like Expertise, Improved Initiative, Toughness, etc). Magic item powers can be traded in for static level bonuses. I think the net effect, for a player, is better. Because without them, what you will get is "I have an at-will, and that's it", and that will get boring to the player... especially if he's the only one doing it in the group.

If too many powers is the problem, you need to address that, and Companions are a temporary fix, at best.

Like I said earlier, these guys come into their best as single characters when the player really wants to do something outside of the rules. Those players, I've found, are usually more than willing to take a power hit for their concept... and that's when the companion character is a great place to start.

Want to be a baby dragon? That's a companion character. A unicorn? Hey, that's a companion character. What if you just want to be that winged elf? Or a fairy thief? Or....

They're all companion characters, and the game can easily support that type of play.

 

[Nebulous]

We've had one static companion character since KotS, splug the goblin, and he's (somehow) still alive in Pyramid of Shadows. But more importantly, we've started making PCs into companion character sheets (with some tweaks) when a player is absent to run that character. We've found that high heroic and higher level 4e is too difficult to run multiple PCs and the group was suffering as a whole when a player had to split his brainpower between two full-power characters. Having reduced options has greatly helped.