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View Full Version : [3.5] Creative Races/Templates for Cohorts



balistafreak
2010-04-11, 07:20 PM
Most players make their cohorts like their characters, starting with a basic race and adding class levels.

But you're not building the character you're going to be directly playing, you're getting a companion who rightfully should be interesting in his own right. (I HATE artificer/healbot cohorts.)

As I understand it, the main aversion to avoiding massive LA is that players like "starting at 1st level", even when a game has its characters start at a high level. They can't imagine their players simply starting powerful naturally. That, and the vast majority of LA adjustmenting races and templates have craptastic HD to LA ratios (2 HD for LA +5? Very little's worth that much.) or have non-scaling abilities that lose their charm once one starts adding class levels to them.

As such, what creative races, creatures, and templates can you Playgrounders suggest for a Cohort?

Volthawk
2010-04-11, 07:51 PM
For a Paladin, Archon Cohorts could be fun at higher levels.

reptilecobra13
2010-04-12, 12:01 AM
Just for our own entertainment, we decided to allow gestalt cohorts in our current gestalt campaign. As such, my half-orc barbarian/dragon shaman (white dragon totem) took Draconic Leadership and now has a level 15 white dragon/sorc following him around. The half-orc is immune to cold at his current level, and so his cohort focuses on energy substitution (cold), launching cold-subbed fireballs into melee wherever his leader is fighting, softening his opponents and readying them for a great cleave.

HunterOfJello
2010-04-12, 12:03 AM
Wizard with spontaneous divination alternate class feature. You'd have your own personal semi-accurate fortuneteller at your side at all times, not to mention an extra spellcaster.

Bugbeartrap
2010-04-12, 11:19 AM
I once had a human psion shaper cohort, who focused all those feats on extending his powers and the Fusion power. He spent most of his time fused with me or party members for extra HP and actions. We always joked of using fusion multiple times to fuse the entire party into one character, like a giant fleshy megazord. Fusion doesn't say you can't use it while already fused...

balistafreak
2010-04-12, 11:38 AM
Fusion grants you extra actions? :smalleek:

Yora
2010-04-12, 11:53 AM
No, which is the reason Fusion isn't totally overpowered.

balistafreak
2010-04-12, 12:05 PM
... that's what I thought... :smallsigh:

For a moment there I thought I had overlooked something awesome.

Glimbur
2010-04-12, 12:12 PM
As I understand it, the main aversion to avoiding massive LA is that players like "starting at 1st level", even when a game has its characters start at a high level. They can't imagine their players simply starting powerful naturally. That, and the vast majority of LA adjustmenting races and templates have craptastic HD to LA ratios (2 HD for LA +5? Very little's worth that much.) or have non-scaling abilities that lose their charm once one starts adding class levels to them.

The main aversion I have to LA is that when a DM says they're starting a game at 8th level, for example, they mean ECL 8. That means you could start as a wizard 8, or wizard 5/half dragon. (3 LA). This is kind of an extreme example, but class features and hit dice are really really good, which means LA is really really bad. You have to get some rather silly modifiers or powerful special abilities (see Mineral Warrior or Feral, with the reading of getting HD based powers from total HD not just racial HD) to make LA worth it.

~LuckyBoneDice~
2010-04-12, 01:17 PM
In my Pseudo-FR campaign, our bard has a Neanderthal Druid and a Vashar Death Lord for cohorts. It's a riot because they argue insessently.

For you, pick a race that's small (say Whisper Gnome) and give it one or more oddball templates that change how he works entirely (say Feral and Half-Minotaur) to create a cohort who is memorable (now, he's a Barbarian who can specialize in anti-mage combat)

strider24seven
2010-04-12, 04:45 PM
How about a Corpsecrafted Spell-Stitched Necropolitan?

Or a Gheden Half-Troll Were-Dire-Bat/Were-Dire-Shark Voidmind Half-Clay-Golem War Troll (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=5689601&postcount=80)?

The Vorpal Tribble
2010-04-12, 04:47 PM
Heck, why not a Phthisic? Just flesh out all your character's psychosis and have them walk about proud and free.

strider24seven
2010-04-12, 05:00 PM
Phrenic is also godly if you are playing with Psionics.