Ever used Leadership?

[Quidam]

Crafter Cohort

I'm planning on picking up Leadership for my warlock in order to get a crafter cohort. That way the crafter has good reasons to stay behind from time to time, keeping party size from swelling and gives me access to multiple item crafting feats for the cost of a single feat. Once he hits 12th, the warlock can supply any prerequisites via imbue item when working with the cohort to craft.

When I've mentioned this on the boards before the biggest issue people had was the XP cost of creating items. I'll have to work with the DM to deal with it- perhaps for items the cohort uses his own XP for he charges for the XP. Or we could just have him refuse to use his own XP, forcing a party member to work with him & provide their own.

 

[James McMurray]

My cleric has a wizard cohort. He's helpful in combat, but being two levels lower means he isn't too beefy. His main use is in miscellaneous benefits like Rope Trick, Keen Edge, and being able to scribe scrolls I can read via the magic domain.

 

[KarinsDad]

A corollary question - to what extent do DMs let the player design their cohort? Are they a mini-PC, or does the DM do all the work?

In my campaign, the player suggests some cohort ideas and I may or may not use them. I then design the cohort for plot and party weakness (class, race, and items). PCs are also 35 point buy whereas the NPC cohorts are 25 point buy in my campaign.

Leadership can be a very potent feat, so I control it.

One thing that I've seen done that worked quite nicely was to have the cohort as the 'backup character', so that if the main PC dies, the player has (a) got someone to continue playing with in the adventure, (b) has a ready made party member that can be 'bumped' to the appropriate level (often they are two levels lower than the PC, and a replacement would be one level lower) and fit right it - after all, they have already been adventuring with the party for yonks.

This works well, especially for when a PC goes unconscious. We have also had players "swap cohorts" when a newbie type player gets a cohort that is too complex for him to play. The cohorts still belonged to the given PC, just the player of the cohort was a different player.

If a PC with a cohort dies in my campaign, I do not bump up the level of the cohort. I give the player the option of playing a PC one level lower or the cohort two levels lower for two reasons: the cohort is an integral member of the team and some of my players prefer team consistency to team power; the PC might be raised from the dead, so the cohort tends to be a stopgap chance to play until that occurs. In that case, I have the cohort gain XP and when the PC comes back, I do not use the lose level rule, I use a lose XP and have to regain it house rule. So, a 10th level PC might come back with a 11th level cohort (if the cohort was played for a long time). At this point, I blow off the 2 level rule and just keep both acquiring XP as normal. It might be some time before the PC overtakes the NPC level-wise, but this does make it interesting (course, it has not yet happened in our game, but I'm waiting).


To the OPs question, I found that cohorts make for good stories and good backup, but they tend to not outshine the PCs. They do, however, make the party stronger and hence, challenges have to be beefed up a bit (but not too much). I tend to beef up the challenges with more opponents, not necessarily with stronger opponents.

 

[Doctor DM]

Funny you ask, I was wondering the same thing. One of my PC's is about to take it. I think it's fine, but I'm making it so your cohort has to make sense with your background. The PC's a ninja, so the cohort is gonna be a young ninja in training who has been sent to follow and learn from the PC as is tradition in the clan.

 

[pallandrome]

In my experience, the Leadership feat is generally good for high level players who need someone trustworthy to leave behind and run their country while they go off adventuring. Having a Cohort for an item crafter, or a researcher for bizzare information that would be too dull for the PCs to spend time looking up, are also good uses. I rarely allow Cohorts to come along on the actual dungeon raids unless the party is missing some crucial componant that to Cohort fills (A party without any healing, or without a tank, for example). In such occasions, I control the Cohort (taking under consideration any commands given by the Leader), and play him so that he is useful, but not as useful as having an ACTUAL pc fulfill that function.

 

[frankthedm]

A corollary question - to what extent do DMs let the player design their cohort? Are they a mini-PC, or does the DM do all the work?

Up to the DM. The feat lets the PC "try to attract a cohort of a particular race, class, and alignment". If the DM wants to let the player build the cohort, that's the DM's call, not the players.

IMHO atracting a cleric should be very difficult unless the Player's goals line up directly with the cleric's goals. A cleric's loyaty is already 'spoken for' as it were.

 

[moritheil]

Some DMs do require that the PC meet an NPC in character and RP out developing a friendship (or whatever the cohort-PC relationship is.)

 

[Destil]

I'm planning on picking up Leadership for my warlock in order to get a crafter cohort. That way the crafter has good reasons to stay behind from time to time, keeping party size from swelling and gives me access to multiple item crafting feats for the cost of a single feat. Once he hits 12th, the warlock can supply any prerequisites via imbue item when working with the cohort to craft.

When I've mentioned this on the boards before the biggest issue people had was the XP cost of creating items. I'll have to work with the DM to deal with it- perhaps for items the cohort uses his own XP for he charges for the XP. Or we could just have him refuse to use his own XP, forcing a party member to work with him & provide their own.

You may want to take a look at the Artifactor class in the Eberron Campaign Setting. Their built to make items: craft reserve of free XP that can only be spent doing so, use magic devices to emulate any spell requirements and every item creation feat as a bonus feat.

 

[Dross]

Just thinking - a bard could be quite a good cohort, especially for combat types. There is a nice precedent for heroes to have followers who write of their deeds and compose songs for them - and an ally who hangs back and inspires you all could be rather effective in a "back seat" sort of way - the most common mode for bards, and one which is often seen as a complaint about the class.

Cheers

Like brave Sir Robbin who ran away?

 

[Storyteller01]

Have you ever played in a game where one of the PCs had the Leadership feat? How did it work out? Is it a lot of extra power?

I'd have to agree with robberbaron. We have two players with leadership, with two more planning on taking it later. The result after they all have their cohorts (in e gestalted campaign):

-A pilot with a healing +2 buff to most of his skills, and tracking when the scout is out.

-A melee based psionic who has sniper fire while he closes in.

-A sorcerer who'll have a huge information network to begin his political aspirations.

-A fighter sorcerer with sappers and indirect fire teams during large battles (too much planning for the typical adventure, so they'll come in during those long awaited climactic moments).


The hardest part is getting the players to remember that the cohorts/followers are NPC's instead of buffs from a feat, and that's been easy so far. Combat does get slowed down though.