Here is the text from some e-mail traffic i had with the Customer Serv people at WotC. Note how he says to calculate the EL for the party (basically the cohort counts as a party member for this purpose). I have sent several (at least 3 different e-mails to the sage (going all the way back to the days of Skip) and have yet to receive a reply on this subject.
A single cohort will probably not have an effect on the situation in game, except for the following cases:
When the level of PC varies greatly (for instance when a new player joins or an old PC dies and is replaced - and the DM doesn's allow the player to create a PC at the same level as the other PCs. If a player misses some games and his PC suffers in exp because of this. When a cohort is of a higher level than the PCs in the party is when things start to get messy, IMO. Basically it is free exp for the party since the cohort raises the appropriate EL (and even CR of the encounter) and yet doesn't detract from the exp awards given.
Regardless the rules for leadership have the potential to unbalance game play if not handled weel by the DM - which is why the caution is in the DMG concerning the use of the feat. A whole army of followers can get things quickly out of whack, even if they are relatively cannon fodder - they can still have an effect on things by sheer numbers alone (especially if armed with missile weapons). Some DMs choose to allow the player to role-play both his PC and the PC's cohort. IMO this can get quickly out of hand with the player having in-character conversations with him/herself and subsequently dominating the role-play for the session thus leaving the other players to feel cheated.
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Man. This just isn't my mail
I did intend to say that the cohort does NOT cause them to take an extra cut out of their experience. You write in for an answer and I just go making it more confusing.
It is possible to have multiple cohorts, just not at the same time. So if you have a cohort, and then your cohort dies, you can then get another cohort. At this point you have had multiple cohorts and that is the plural that the section on page 104 is referring to. I can definitely see how it can be confusing. But the intention is for 1 cohort. Good gaming!
Travis
Customer Service Department
Wizards of the Coast
dtd 1/13/105
-----Original Message-----
Thanks again for the reply and the time you are taking with me. When I looked over my original response I noticed it was rather brash and insulting. I didn't mean it to be that way, sorry for the wording.
I assume you meant to say ".. .does not cause them to take an extra cut out of their experience." (Stupid computers not keeping up with our hands/minds.) Since the method written states not to count them (cohorts) when determining XP awards for individual characters. The 3.5 formula has the individual award determined on an individual character basis (using their level and the CR of the opponent/trap and then dividing by the total number of characters present. It is this last number (the one in the denominator) that is not to include any cohorts present, so they never detract from the amount of XP awarded to characters they only allow a greater amount of XP to be awarded. Still seems kind of broke to me, but what the heck. I thought the method in 3.0 was better for this issue (cohorts counted as a half character when determining XP awards).
As far as only gaining 1 cohort, I can understand the logic but it still seems to be a gut-feeling call that is repeated whenever the question is asked. I guess the real question is then what is meant by the statement on pg 104 of the DMG "There are no limitations on the class, race, or gender of a character's cohorts, nor limits to the number of cohorts who can be employed by a character."? This is the same text that was in 3.0. It is a very clear, concise and complete statement and there are no other statements in the DMG that contradict this when referring to cohorts. As far as reading this out of context, I don't see how that can be done since it is 1/3 (one sentence out of three) of the paragraph it comes from and paragraphs are supposed to divide separate thoughts/concepts when writing. But there might have been something that was intended to be said that didn't make it into print, which would expound on this statement and help clarify the intent.
Again thanks for the time and effort you are putting into this.
dtd 1/13/05
-----Original Message-----
From: Wizards Customer Service [ mailto:custserv@wizards.com
Yeah, totally forgot about the weird cohort experience rules, you're right. And the method is what was intended. The party's level goes up for determining encounters, but the cohort does cause them to take an extra cut out of their experience. Again, it is written as intended. Sorry about the confusion.
Travis
Customer Service Department
Wizards of the Coast
dtd 1/12/05
-----Original Message-----
Thanks for the reply.
I don't think you read the wording in the DMG under experience for cohorts.
3. Actually, if you look under the subheading "Attracting Cohorts" on page 106 of the 3.5 DMG, it states that Cohorts is effectively another PC under that player's control, "one who share of xp, treasure, and spotlight time is bound to take something away from the other players' characters." So the cohort does take his share of the xp and does raise the party's level.
1 - under experience points on pg 104 "Don't include a cohort as a party member when determining the XP awards for individual characters." It then goes into the formula for awarding a cohort experience, but they do not count in the awarding of PCs experience while they do raise the party's level for determining encounters.
dtd 1/12/05
-----Original Message-----
From: Wizards Customer Service [ mailto:custserv@wizards.com
1. You can only have one cohort at a time with the leadership feat. You can have a number of other followers as detailed on page 106 of the 3.5 Dungeon Master's Guide, but you only ever have one cohort.
2. You only gain the benefits from the leadership feat once, so if you take it multiple times, the effects would not stack. There is no reason to take the feat more than once.
3. Actually, if you look under the subheading "Attracting Cohorts" on page 106 of the 3.5 DMG, it states that Cohorts is effectively another PC under that player's control, "one who share of xp, treasure, and spotlight time is bound to take something away from the other players' characters." So the cohort does take his share of the xp and does raise the party's level.
I hope that clears things up. Have fun and good gaming!
Travis
Customer Service Department
Wizards of the Coast
dtd 1/12/05
-----Original Message-----
Based upon some quite energetic discussions with some fellow gamers, I have some questions on cohorts and the Leadership feat. I haven’t seen any clarification on these topics in the past so any guidance/advice/ruling would be greatly appreciated.
1. How many cohorts can a character with the leadership feat have at one time?
The DMG pg 104 seems to imply that there is no limit, although some are reading it as a character can replace cohorts who leave or die an unlimited number of times but can only have one cohort at a time. There are no limitations on the class, race, or gender of a characters cohorts, nor limits to the number of cohorts who can be employed by a character. This seems to echo the 2nd ed rules that had henchmen precursor to cohorts and the number allowed based on the characters charisma score while followers replaced men-at-arms I think that is what they were called as listed under fighter, thief and cleric classes
2. Can this feat be taken more than once?
This is not included in the description of the feat, which is the norm. If a character is limited to only one cohort at a time can this number be increased by repetitive acquisition of the Leadership feat?
3. Is the method for determining experience for cohorts and factoring them into the experience distribution as written in the DMG really what was intended by the rules or did something get messed up during the final editing/compilation of the book?
Cohorts are counted when determining the party level for encounters. They are not counted when awarding experience, they get a different rate that doesn’t detract from the experience point awards. pg 104/105 Don’t include a cohort as a party member when determining the XP awards for individual characters. A cohort gains XP equal to cohort level/leaders level times the leader’s XP award. So what essentially happens is that by bringing along cohorts the party can survive encounters of higher levels, gaining higher experience point awards with no additional risk involved. In 3.0 the cohort did take from the XP pool available, but at 1/2 the rate a normal player character would. This really gets distorted if there is no limit to the number of cohorts a character can have see question 1 above. This seems to be a broken game mechanic and is, at least on the surface, unbalanced.
dtd 1/12/05
