Leadership

[frankthedm]

I think you might be missing the point. You can make examples where the cohort is less powerful than a feat, but you there a plenty of examples (draconic cohort, army of cohorts, etc.) where the allies acquired through feats can actually be more powerful than the BBEG altogether.

You make a strong argument for those feats being quite overpowered. BBEG or PC, doubling ones potency with a feat, thats a great example of broken!

And what if (for example) the party meets the "fancy toady" by itself and kills it? Do they get no XP? Depriving them of XP is a needless way of handling it, and can irritate players.

Why do suggest depriving PCs of XP in a situation similar to what wotc has covered before and said they should gain XP for. If the cohort will be replaced by the time the party encounters the BBEG, then of course the cohort is worth XP when encounted seperatly. BBEGs will even find out that marching corhorts into the jaws of death weakens thier feat quickly.

"Example 1: Over the course of many days, a powerful necromancer stocks his lair with undead created via spells. When the PCs fight the necromancer and these undead minions, the necromancer has his full array of spells, so the act of creating these undead hasn’t reduced the challenge he provides. Thus, the Sage recommends awarding full XP for defeating the undead."

 

[Question]

There are cohort enchancing feats? Where?

 

[Infiniti2000]

While I generally agree, I believe the DMG (but not the SRD) actually states that the chort is controlled by the player (anyone have a DMG handy to quote it)?

Cohorts are called NPCs, but the DMG says this, on page 106, "A cohort is effectively another PC in the party under that player's control, one whose share of XP, treasure, and spotlight time is bound to take something away from the other player characters."

 

[Drowbane]

1)For one, Leadership can give the PC any number of cohorts, though I've never seen a PC have more than one.

2)As for who controls what, I've not seen any rules for that.
IME the player controls the cohort during combat and the DM role-plays the cohort.

1) I've always run it that Leadership gives you one cohort at a time... however I hand out additional Cohorts to go along with Leadership-related feats (Epic Leadership, for example).

2) Thats how I do it.

 

[Jedi_Solo]

There are cohort enchancing feats? Where?

Heroes of Battle and the most recent Dragon has some. There may be others since I don't own all of the books.

 

[lukelightning]

Personally I think the player should control the cohort (and similarly, the player should control any of his character's animal companions, familiars, steeds, etc.).

As a player, I see it as "this is my feat or class feature." If you take the weapon focus feat, you get control over what weapon you have a focus in. If you take the spell mastery feat, you choose which spells are mastered. Your cleric gets to choose which deity to follow, your bard gets to choose which sort of musical performance to use. I don't think a cohort is something that the DM should be able to hijack.

As a DM, I think it's just easiest if the player controls it. I already have to worry about controlling a zillion NPCs, why do I want to worry about Goodkind the Valiant's lackey? I could easily think of some quirky/interesting personality for this lackey and have him interact, but I bet my player would have an even better idea.

I certainly wouldn't worry about a PC having an "unrealistic" control over his cohort's actions. If the PC wants a zealously devoted and slavish follower, fine! Books and stories are filled with characters such as this. Look at Samwise Gamgee! If the player wants the "domineering wizard with a servile toady" archetype, go ahead! I bet the player himself might even roleplay out the toady's insubordination, malingering, and acts of rebellion far better than I could.