Minor Cohort Question

[Three_Haligonians]

Hey,

Can anyone point out the rules for gaining XP from a Cohort? Are they treated like summoned monsters (i.e. no Xp gained) or like a regular encounter?

Thanks

J from Three Haligonians

 

[Pinotage]

Hey,

Can anyone point out the rules for gaining XP from a Cohort? Are they treated like summoned monsters (i.e. no Xp gained) or like a regular encounter?

Thanks

J from Three Haligonians

Should be in the DMG, and I think they're in the Feats section of the SRD as well. Basically a cohort gains XP based on the ratio of the level of the cohort and the character with the leadership feat, with the caveat that the cohort must always be two levels lower than the character. So a 10th level character with an 8th level cohort would imply that the cohort gains 0.8 of the XP the character gains. Note that cohorts do not gain XP from combat or share party XP in any way.

Pinotage

 

[Gez]

Oops, misunderstood the question. I thought you wanted the rules for XP for a cohort (which are page 104-105 of the DMG 3.5).

 

[Thanee]

Hmm... good question. I'd probably treat them like a regular opponent in terms of how much XP they are worth.

(The question is not how much XP a PC's cohort gains. )

Bye
Thanee

 

[Diirk]

They aren't worth any xp I don't think; like summoned creatures, they're considered to be part of the xp you get from whoever owns them.

 

[glass]

They aren't worth any xp I don't think; like summoned creatures, they're considered to be part of the xp you get from whoever owns them.

I'd agree with that to a point, but I'd say it was a guideline rather than a hard & fast rule, especially if the PCs encounter the cohort on his own without meeting the leader. After all, the BBEG might have replaced a slain cohort by the time the PCs meet him. Possibly several times.

And the rules do suggest modifying XP awards for encounters of extra difficulty: I'd say say meeting a cohort is extra difficult compared with no encounter at all!


glass.

 

[Pinotage]

Oops, misunderstood the question. I thought you wanted the rules for XP for a cohort (which are page 104-105 of the DMG 3.5).

Seems like I did as well. Oh, well. For and From are so close together! Sorry!

Pinotage

 

[Gez]

They aren't worth any XP, they're part of the character. I want for proof of that they aren't counted when you divide XP between party members -- if a group of four character of level 6 (each with one cohort of level 4) defeats a CR 6 monster, the reward is 1800 XP, which will be divided by 4, not by 8. So each leader character will get 450 XP, and the cohorts will all gain 4/6×450=300 XP, for a total XP award of... 3000 out of 1800!

If cohorts aren't counted as individual party members for the party's rewards, then they aren't counted as rewards either.

Note that NPCs are not necessarily supposed to have cohorts, since they can have infinite underlings through the "Plot Device" feat that all NPCs get for free.

But if you do use the Leadership feat for NPCs, then cohorts are worth nothing. The fact that the PCs can loot both the cohort *and* the leader's gear (roughly a +60% increase in gear value, if you look at page 127) is a big enough reward as it is...

NPC With Cohort Gear Value Chart:

Level   Leader    Cohort      Total   % of Increase 
   6     5 600     3 300      8 900      58.92%
   7     7 200     4 300     11 500      59.72%
   8     9 400     5 600     15 000      59.57%
   9    12 000     7 200     19 200      60.00%
  10    16 000     9 400     25 400      58.75%
  11    21 000    12 000     33 000      57.14%
  12    27 000    16 000     43 000      59.25%
  13    35 000    21 000     56 000      60.00%
  14    45 000    27 000     72 000      60.00%
  15    59 000    35 000     94 000      59.32%
  16    77 000    45 000    122 000      58.44%
  17   100 000    59 000    159 000      59.00%
  18   130 000    77 000    207 000      59.23%
  19   170 000   100 000    270 000      58.82%
  20   220 000   130 000    350 000      59.09%

 

[Thanee]

I think they should be worth XP, since they are not under the direct control of the NPC mostly. They are independant characters, that follow the NPC, because of the Leadership feat, but they are still independant in their decisions.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Gez]

Incidentally, the table I painstakingly made above shows that NPC gear value is steadily increased by 60% compared to the NPC gear value two levels earlier (rounded down to a "pretty" number (no more than two significant numbers, all the rest are zeros) if needs be). This can let you establish gear value for epic NPCs: 170×1.6=272, so a level 21 NPC would have 270K worth of gear. A level 22 NPC would have 350K worth of gear. Level 23? 430K. And son on.