Odd Leadership Flaw

[prufock]

In a game for which I'm the DM, two different players (a knight and a rogue) have Leadership. Neither has yet attracted followers, but they each have a cohort. The knight attracted his cohort earlier than the rogue. The PCs are the same level (7), however the cohort levels are different (5 for the knight's, 4 for the rogue's).

Here's the issue: With PCs, lower level characters get more experience for the same encounter. Lower level cohorts, however, get LESS experience, meaning that the lower level one will continue to lag, and that lag will be more pronounced as levels progress.

Proof:
Cohorts gain c*x/l where c = cohort level, x = xp gained by the PC, and l = the PC's level. So assuming l is the same for both the rogue and knight, x will also be the same at any given point. Then c*x is always smaller for the lower level cohort, therefore so is the whole expression.

It's an odd issue that I haven't seen discussed before. Has it ever come up in your games? Should I worry about it at all?

[Snails]

Yes, there is a lag, but it will be constant. I do not see how it would grow.

The 9th level cohort gets experience in proportional to its level, 9, and needs 9000 xp to reach 10th.

The 10th level cohort gets experience in proportional to its level, 10, and needs 10000 xp to reach 11th.

Isn't that what we want?

It is not unreasonable to forget about tracking cohort experience completely, and just let them level up when their master does, if you are really concerned.

[Yora]

Eventually the cohorts will reach the limit of not being able to advance to a level only one level lower than the character they follow. The higher level cohort may reach the limit sooner, but once there, it no longer matters.

[prufock]

The 9th level cohort gets experience in proportional to its level, 9, and needs 9000 xp to reach 10th.

Good point. Using my current group's situation,
Knight's cohort, level 5: For CR 7 encounter gains 375 xp, needs 5000 to hit level 6. That's 13.3 CR appropriate encounters.
Rogue's cohort, level 4: For CR 7 encounters gains 300 xp, needs 4000 to hit level 6. Also 13.3 encounters.

So the lag remains but doesn't get any worse.


Eventually the cohorts will reach the limit of not being able to advance to a level only one level lower than the character they follow. The higher level cohort may reach the limit sooner, but once there, it no longer matters.

Also a good point. I figure this will happen sooner or later anyway.

Thanks for helping me clear this up.

[Vertharrad]

Actually w/o a certain feat the cohort can only advance to 2 levels lower than the leader PC. There is a feat in HoB(heroes of battle) that makes it 1 level lower than the leader PC.

[TuggyNE]

Here's the issue: With PCs, lower level characters get more experience for the same encounter. Lower level cohorts, however, get LESS experience, meaning that the lower level one will continue to lag, and that lag will be more pronounced as levels progress.

Proof:
Cohorts gain c*x/l where c = cohort level, x = xp gained by the PC, and l = the PC's level. So assuming l is the same for both the rogue and knight, x will also be the same at any given point. Then c*x is always smaller for the lower level cohort, therefore so is the whole expression.

It's an odd issue that I haven't seen discussed before. Has it ever come up in your games? Should I worry about it at all?

As Yora said, at some point they will both cap, and then it doesn't matter. (I recently made a spreadsheet to figure out when this capping happens; unfortunately, I didn't save it, but the upshot was that a level 1 cohort to a level 10 leader catches up by the time the leader hits 14 or 15.)


Actually w/o a certain feat the cohort can only advance to 2 levels lower than the leader PC. There is a feat in HoB(heroes of battle) that makes it 1 level lower than the leader PC.

No; that feat gives you the ability to attract a cohort of 1 level lower. Cohorts can already level up after being attracted to 1 level lower than you:
Regardless of a character’s Leadership score, he can only recruit a cohort who is two or more levels lower than himself. […]
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.

Edit: wow, I fail at reading comprehension. Apparently that says that they stop 1 XP short of gaining (leader level - 1), rather than 1 XP short of (leader level). WotC, y u no clarify things?