Making an awakened cohort

[King Atticus]

In the campaign I'm currently playing I'm running a kobold sorc who is raising a pet shocker lizard. I'm thinking of getting him awakened and taking the Leadership feat. Would he be able to serve as my cohort if so how would that work. If I take Leadership at 6 my cohort could only be 4, an awakened shocker lizard would have 4hd. So taking this into account he wouldn't be able to have any class levels until he gets enough xp to gain a level. Could someone break down how a cohort gains xp, I've never done much research on leadership. I know this will be the least optimal usage of the feat but I just can't resist the flavor of it. :smallamused:

[Divide by Zero]

Awaken doesn't have any rules for LA that I know of, so talk to your DM about how this would work. If he decides it's LA 0, then you can take it and it won't have any class levels. If it has LA, you won't be able to take it as a cohort until you gain more levels.

As for XP, the feat tells you exactly how to do that:

Cohorts earn XP as follows:

The cohort does not count as a party member when determining the party’s XP.

Divide the cohort’s level by the level of the PC with whom he or she is associated (the character with the Leadership feat who attracted the cohort).

Multiply this result by the total XP awarded to the PC and add that number of experience points to the cohort’s total.

If a cohort gains enough XP to bring it to a level one lower than the associated PC’s character level, the cohort does not gain the new level—its new XP total is 1 less than the amount needed attain the next level.