For Cohorts and Henchman sure. I'd hope they were useful for a variety of levels. But when playing PCs having an allied PC (or PCs) 2 levels higher or more can really flatten the enjoyment. IME.
I'll agree with this. I've a couple of intermittent players in my game and whenever they show up their PCs are lucky to be able help the 'main' group at all.
It is getting to the point that I may have to come up with a quick way of solving this.
