How many cohorts?

[Treebore]

Page 104 of the 3.5 DMG, under the heading of cohorts, second paragraph, states that there are no limits to how many cohorts a character may have.
Then everything else talks about cohorts in a singular context and what their max level is. I looked through the errata and FAQ at WOTC and found nothing to further clarify this.

Does the rules mean a character can have essentially any number of cohorts at a given time, as long as they continue to meet the requirements under which the cohorts are hired? Is there anything in the rules that state a numerical limit to the number of cohorts a character can have at one time?

Or does the rule mean that a character can have an unlimited number of replacements for the one cohort they can have?

 

[Hannibal Barca]

By the rules, unless a feat specifically states otherwise, you may only take a feat once. So the short answer is one cohort.

That being said, Monte Cook has stated that you can take Leadership more than once. (See his web site).

 

[Lord Pendragon]

You can only have one cohort at any given time (barring DMs who allow the feat to be taken more than once.) The mentions of multiple cohorts are in reference to successive cohorts. That is, if one cohort dies, you can get another, and if he dies, another, and so on and so forth until your Leadership score is too low to attract another.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

It would also be logical to allow a cohort to be dismissed. If both motivated and handled reasonably, you would not risk negative modifiers.

Keep in mind that your DM my lose patience with a Lone Ranger who dismisses Tonto more than once without a strong in character cause.

 

[Treebore]

Thanks. It would have been nice if after making a statement that you can have so many cohorts they had specified the conditions instead of continuing to be so ambiguous. How hard would have been to add the sentence, " A character may have no more than one cohort at a time."

 

[Hussar]

Well, according to the 3.5 SRD:

LEADERSHIP [GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Character level 6th.

Benefits: Having this feat enables the character to attract loyal companions and devoted followers, subordinates who assist her. See the table below for what sort of cohort and how many followers the character can recruit.

Right off in the table it shows one cohort of x level. It does mention later that lost cohorts and followers are replaced over time.

 

[Treebore]

That is my point, it does not specifically say you get ONE cohort, it is implied. The only thing it really tells you is there is a level limit to your cohort. The sentence I refer you to in my first post specifically states that you can essentially have an unlimited number of cohorts, but it does not go on to say "but only one at a time." Every other sentence i read implies one cohort, but nothing specifically says only one, or further clarifies the sentence I am refering to. So it would have been nice to add some clarification to it, instead of thinking a lot of implications is good enough. 3.5 is supposed to be about rules clarifications, this rules set can use some clarification.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Treebore, I sympathize with you. There are a lot of things in D&D that didn't seem obvious to me either. Leadership's "one cohort" deal seems very obvious to me, but I'm sure there are things that seem obvious to you that did not to me.

The simple truth is that the writers of 3.x are people too. They aren't always going to extra-clarify points that, to them, seem clear-cut. At least until they get enough letters/emails about the confusion.

 

[Treebore]

I've tried that, apparently my particular questions were never asked by enough people for it to be addresses by WOTC.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

I've tried that, apparently my particular questions were never asked by enough people for it to be addresses by WOTC.

Which means they must have been fairly clear.