Introducing a cohort

[Glyfair]

For the first time, one of my players is taking the Leadership feat. I'm curious about the various ways you have had a cohort work their way into the party, storyline wise.

In this particular case, the party is very fighter heavy. Their only cleric has been the player aiming for Silver Pyromancer, and thus with only 1 level of cleric to his multiple levels of wizard. They just had a druid join the group, but he's still working his way into the group.

So, the Silver Pyromancer took the feat when he reached 6th level. He wants a cleric, which is fine for me. I've got a general layout for him, am working on a personality, but want to work it into the game somewhat cold (i.e. there aren't any appropriate NPCs to slot into the positon).

What sort of stories have you had for your cohorts joining?

 

[Dog Moon]

For the most part, we don't tend to really have any reasons for cohorts joining, but the main one I can think of was pretty cool.

Okay, so we're an Evil party. I think there were three of us. One had died and another had been taken prisoner. I managed to escape successfully. I did the cliched guy sitting in the tavern corner waiting for adventurers [was cool because I was a PC doing that to NPCs instead of the other way around]. I managed to get a Cleric and Paladin of Pelor. Fortunately, this Paladin was not Detect Evil trigger happy. So I hire them to help my friends.

I get this brilliant plan and decide to down to the BBEG lair and parley with him. We come to an agreement and I return to the city. Me and my two new 'friends' go fight a few of his people and we all end up captured. This starts that massive plan that I worked on for like 5-6 weeks IRL [generally about 10 hour sessions each] and finally manage to turn the Paladin Evil. With Leadership, she became my Cohort.

I used every trick I could think of to convince her that she was not worthy to be a Paladin, that she was not worthy of her God and that her God was not worthy of her worship. Every little thing I did pushed her a little farther to the edge. Cheered when she finally fell off and became Evil.

 

[smootrk]

I have found the easiest way to bind the cohort to the particular character is to simply have the cohort be a distant relation to the character or from the same town/environs who has heard of the exploits of this 'home-town-hero'. Then the cohort just seeks out the character. The relation is always distant, so that in the eventuality that the character changes alignment or otherwise wants to dismiss the cohort, then there is no major conflict necessary to accomplish the change, and the cohort can just walk away.

 

[Chimera]

As the Silver Pyromancer has a level of Cleric, it may be best to make it a cleric of the same god, saying that this person is from the same organization as the PC. This gives a natural connection.

In a game that ended this spring, my Wizard took Leadership and took a Bard cohort. We didn't need more healing, as we had a pretty good Cleric in the group. What my cohort did was Perform, with the aid of Inspirational Boost (first level Bard spell), in order to aid all the fighting types by +2. Now think of how much that would help your fighter heavy group! Her second level spell (she being 4th level), was Sonic Weapon, which she always cast not on herself, but on the Scout/Ranger's hopped up bow (Strong +3, +1 Magic, +Shocking - so the S/R was at d6 shortbow +d6 electric +d6 sonic +skirmish +4 base damage.)

That being said, a buffing, healing Cleric for a group short of that sort of thing is a pretty good idea. As such, Augment Healing might not be a bad feat to go with.

 

[Glyfair]

As the Silver Pyromancer has a level of Cleric, it may be best to make it a cleric of the same god, saying that this person is from the same organization as the PC. This gives a natural connection.

Oh, I'm already on that. However, the in play connections to the Church of the Silver Flame have been pretty low at this point. I'd rather avoid a "he just shows up and says I want to follow you" situation.

 

[Stormborn]

Oh, I'm already on that. However, the in play connections to the Church of the Silver Flame have been pretty low at this point. I'd rather avoid a "he just shows up and says I want to follow you" situation.

Sounds like the simplest thing is to make it a connection to the specific PC, maybe a distant relative sent by a higher ranking memeber of the clergy, who also happens to be a relative, to learn from or keep tabs on the PC. Another option is to make the cohort an old friend from seminary encountered by chance who happens to be in a situation where they can go adventuring. Perhaps the PC simply recieves a letter one day from a superior that says "So and so will meet you at the Temple in Wroat in 3 days. Be there. Take care of him." With no explination, you can then work out why for yourself and make that part of some plot later. Perhaps the cohort is actually the bastard son of some noble that the Church wants kept far away from court, etc.

 

[Altalazar]

I think it really varies based on the campaign and the timing / geography of the characters when that feat is taken. In one game, I heard of the DM just having the cohort and followers start to trickle in to the player's stronghold after hearing of his deeds.

In my current game that I run, one player took leadership feat just as they completed a series of adventures that led to the establishment of a new trade route. One player was looking to cash in on it personally, rather than just get a percentage of the route, and so he took the leadership feat, generating a cohort and 5 followers and that became a caravan captain and his team that then worked for that character on the trade route. It also doubled as a way to introduce a new character for one of the players, who came as part of that team and then joined the general group while the caravan team went off to ply the route.

So I think there is no general way to do it - whatever works best for the current storyline of the campaign is the way to go. The more creative, the better, IMHO. This should include asking the player "ok, why do you want followers and a cohort? What would you like them to primarily do for you, what purpose would they serve?"

 

[Glyfair]

I think it really varies based on the campaign and the timing / geography of the characters when that feat is taken.

Indeed, which is why I asked for your experiences with introducting cohorts, rather than suggestions for introducing mine. I'm looking for inspiration, that I can apply to my campaign specifics.

 

[Vrecknidj]

My son DMs a Warcraft Campaign. Whenever someone has taken Leadership, he's chosen some interesting character from the novels and worked up stats for that individual. He has his own campaign mirror the stories rather well (he's taken us through all the wars, starting long before the actual campaign setting). It's been very cool to have "named" cohorts running along with the PCs.

Dave

 

[Altalazar]

Indeed, which is why I asked for your experiences with introducting cohorts, rather than suggestions for introducing mine. I'm looking for inspiration, that I can apply to my campaign specifics.

Well, then I hope my examples provided suitable inspiration.