A Player takes Leadership.

[Luna_Mayflower]

So, my group's party level recently hit 6th, and of course that means feats. There are really two questions I'm looking for help on, both of which relate to both players' choice in the feat department.

1. The first player plays a Spirit Shaman (Complete Divine, uses Druid spells). They took the spontaneous healer feat. Now, obviously, casters of Druid spells get cure spells later than Clerics, but due to the feat's wording, the player spontaneously casts cure spells at the same spell level as a cleric does. Would you say that's right?

2. The other player, a Barbarian, has taken Leadership. Interesting, given that she has a CHA of 8, but I digress. Now, her leadership score was boosted a little, so she got a Cohort 5th level Wizard. Apart from the roleplaying, I've let her basically play the Wizard as a second character. Anyway, it's mainly the Cohort thing I'm wondering about. In general, are Cohorts mercenaries, who follow the player for gold, or are they actually there due to friendship and loyalty. Or does it depend on the Cohort?


Also, as a fun aside, one of the main badies called down a Flame Strike on the Barbarian last session, and she 20'd her reflex and shrugged off the measly 21 damage. I mean, for a spell that's meant to smite the target with (un)holy fire, you'd expect better. :smallbiggrin:

[Tvtyrant]

I am pretty sure that a cohort can never be closer than 2 levels behind a character, so it would be a fourth level wizard. The wizard will still likely be stronger than the barbarian soon, but that is beside the point.

[Segev]

If the Spirit Shaman is spending a feat for it, I don't think letting him cast cure spells like a cleric is going to break anything.

The first respondent is correct: your cohort is capped at 2 levels below your level, so the wizard cannot at this time be more than 4th level.

To answer your question on their motivation and loyalty, the Leadership feat actually does mean that the cohort has some personal devotion to the Leader PC. Usually, this comes across as personal loyalty, friendship, hero worship, life-debt, or the like, but can also represent somebody who is in awe and follows out of fear or out of desire to be close to the powerful. If they are motivated by money, they may well be more demanding of their "share" of rewards, but they still follow the PC out of some sense that following the PC is its own reward.

You could have it be a love-stricken younger adventuress who follows out of heartfelt devotion. You could have it be a chronicler who feels that the leader's adventures are something deserving of lengthy and first-hand record. It could be a would-be kingmaker seeking to be the Evil Chancellor to an adventurer he believes will one day claim a throne (possibly with the kingmaker's help). It could be an impressionable youth who wishes to squire with the great knight, or an abused underling who follows out of fear of reprisal as well as fear of being too far from the protective center of the storm of destruction that surrounds the PC.

NPCs who are motivated strictly by money are "mercenaries" or "hirelings," and have specific wages they get paid for their services. They do not, unlike cohorts or full party members, get cuts of the treasure (unless that's the agreed upon wage). Cohorts are much more loyal. Cohorts will leave if abused too much in the wrong way(s), but they put up with a lesser share of the treasure and will serve willingly and well out of some kind of personal loyalty.

[Luna_Mayflower]

If the Spirit Shaman is spending a feat for it, I don't think letting him cast cure spells like a cleric is going to break anything.

The first respondent is correct: your cohort is capped at 2 levels below your level, so the wizard cannot at this time be more than 4th level.

To answer your question on their motivation and loyalty, the Leadership feat actually does mean that the cohort has some personal devotion to the Leader PC. Usually, this comes across as personal loyalty, friendship, hero worship, life-debt, or the like, but can also represent somebody who is in awe and follows out of fear or out of desire to be close to the powerful. If they are motivated by money, they may well be more demanding of their "share" of rewards, but they still follow the PC out of some sense that following the PC is its own reward.

You could have it be a love-stricken younger adventuress who follows out of heartfelt devotion. You could have it be a chronicler who feels that the leader's adventures are something deserving of lengthy and first-hand record. It could be a would-be kingmaker seeking to be the Evil Chancellor to an adventurer he believes will one day claim a throne (possibly with the kingmaker's help). It could be an impressionable youth who wishes to squire with the great knight, or an abused underling who follows out of fear of reprisal as well as fear of being too far from the protective center of the storm of destruction that surrounds the PC.

NPCs who are motivated strictly by money are "mercenaries" or "hirelings," and have specific wages they get paid for their services. They do not, unlike cohorts or full party members, get cuts of the treasure (unless that's the agreed upon wage). Cohorts are much more loyal. Cohorts will leave if abused too much in the wrong way(s), but they put up with a lesser share of the treasure and will serve willingly and well out of some kind of personal loyalty.


The party is 7th level at this point in time, so it's ok for them to have a 5th level Cohort. Anyway, that makes a lot of sense.

Oh, also, am I running it right with the Leader player also playing the Cohort for skills and battles and such (although I still act as the Cohort's voice) and deciding what he does in battle?

[Segev]

The party is 7th level at this point in time, so it's ok for them to have a 5th level Cohort. Anyway, that makes a lot of sense.

Oh, also, am I running it right with the Leader player also playing the Cohort for skills and battles and such (although I still act as the Cohort's voice) and deciding what he does in battle?

Glad to help!

And technically, the DMG says the DM can assign any NPC he likes to a player for purposes of making combat easier to run or more fun to play. Again, technically, the cohort is an NPC, and therefore the DM's to control. However, since it's an NPC that is explicitly on the PC's side, barring extraordinary circumstances, the cohort should be acting largely as another member of the party might. It is your prerogative to play the cohort in battle if you like, and it is (again, technically) the default assumption. However, it is not a house rule, but merely a perfectly allowable option, for the DM to allow the player to run his cohort. And, in fact, it is probably far more common for the DM to allow the player to do so than to run the cohort, himself. Particularly in combat, where the cohort theoretically should be taking its lead from the Leader PC, anyway.