The problem with Cohorts !!

[Li Shenron]

In one campaign, one player was a pirate, so her cohort was her first mate and her followers were her crew. When we went ashore to adventure, the cohort would take command of the ship and we knew it was in good hands.

In that same campaign, the cleric eventually built a small temple and took leadership. His cohort was the resident high priest at the temple he founded and the followers were the other clergy and staff.

Use in this way, the leadership feat provides the player with a trustworthy cluster of NPCs which he can entrust non-portable holdings to, rather than a small military unit that follows him everywhere.

I think this is how Leadership is explained to work in the DMG.

That is, you can have one cohort to follow you in adventures and/or many followers to care for your non-adventuring businesses. Followers are slightly more than hirelings, which you can have without Leadership, and they are supposed to be following you for something else than money (although you should provide them with basic sustenance).

A cohort is the typical villain's "right hand", a devoted bodyguard for the Wizard or Cleric, a squire like Sancho Panza, or an apprentice. He is supposed to be willing to take risk to defend or support his master.

Followers are usually voluntarily helping the leader, for religious or political reasons for example. The cultist of an evil priest are probably "followers": they are not merely hirelings or mercenaries, they do it for reasons other than simply money, but they are definetely less compelled to the master's will when it comes to risk their lives.

 

[smetzger]

I've DMed games with cohorts and played in a game where I had a cohort.

I haven't had any problems with it. I allowed my players to design there own cohort and when I played I designed my cohort.

I especially like having a cohort who plays the voice of reason when I have a particularly brash/immature/sarcastic character. This allows me to play the brash personality without doing stuff that would get me killed; cause the cohort can always step in and calm my main character down.

 

[Lord Vangarel]

Hackenslash, if you die a horrible death I'll make sure it's at the hands of the cohort not me!!!

Having thought about this a bit more I think a large part of the problem stems from the player with the cohort. As I said above he is very good at creating characters tweaked for great abilities and as a result Hackenslash now see's two characters with good abilities played by the same player. Now this could happen with any player in any game with the Leadership feat if the player has freedom to create his cohort and puts the time and effort in.

What I think I'll do is discuss it with the players and probably revise how Leadership works, either immediately or for the next campaign.

 

[mmu1]

Hackenslash, if you die a horrible death I'll make sure it's at the hands of the cohort not me!!!

Having thought about this a bit more I think a large part of the problem stems from the player with the cohort. As I said above he is very good at creating characters tweaked for great abilities and as a result Hackenslash now see's two characters with good abilities played by the same player. Now this could happen with any player in any game with the Leadership feat if the player has freedom to create his cohort and puts the time and effort in.

What I think I'll do is discuss it with the players and probably revise how Leadership works, either immediately or for the next campaign.

I think the root of the problem is that you allow the players to design their own cohorts and twink them to take maximum advantage. You should be the one designing the NPCs.

 

[Hackenslash]

Cohorts that may be allowed.....???

Hello again all !

Thanks for all the advice and suggestions. Hope my DM read all the responses since he last posted his comments on this Thread. Anyway, I definitely like the ideas from Azul, Li Shenron and Durifern. Thanks again !!! This will probably be the way I go with Cohorts in my own campaign. Definitly 2-3 levels lower(max.) than the main PC and only a supportive, background role unless the adventure calls for involvement from the Cohort. However I do feel that with the right amount of roleplaying in a particularly small party (2-4 people) then maybe a more active role from the Cohort would be acceptable. But I am firm in my belief that under no circumstances that the Cohort or follower should over shadow the PC's or Hogg the limelight from other players. At the end of the day, I am flexible enough to realise that players want followers and cohorts to show off their importance or prestige in the game, once they reach certain levels, but I think it should be monitored and controlled to a certain extent.

 

[Hackenslash]

I think that Lord Vangarel has taken this Thread a little too seriously and personally. Once again, It was not my intention to attack, accuse or provoke ill feelings. I was just simply confused over the rules and wanted to see what other opinions were and how others ran Cohorts. But under the circumstances it is clear that there are many ways of running Cohorts and differing opinions on the importance of creation and implementation, all I will say is Each to their own. So, sorry to Lord Vangarel for any offence caused. Bye for now. Peace !!!

 

[Lord Vangarel]

No offense taken Hackenslash, and certainly not taking this too seriously or personally.

 

[Hackenslash]

Hiya Lord Vangarel,

Bit new to this message board business, not too sure how to take certain comments posted. Anyway, thought for a minute that one of my next Teleport spells was gonna go wrong again, except this time I would end up in Hell....again !! and instead of being surrounded by normal rogues, I would be surrounded by Half-Fiendish, Dread Trollish Rogues instead...DOH !!!! Hahahaha...see ya Thursday night....Ya big scary DM you....hahahahaha