Cohort for Spymaster?

[Nettlekid]

Given the prevalence of any number of high power OP tier-1 gamebreakers, I thought it might be amusing to build a character who is not only designed to be low powered, but makes their entire thing about appearing even MORE low powered. Using significant early entry cheese to get into Psibond Agent early and then into Spymaster makes a character with high skills, the ability to mentally nudge people and turn them into unwitting minor minions, while safely disguised as a farmer or priest or some Commoner. What better defense is there than not to be targeted in the first place? A God Wizard isn't going to just go around nuking towns for no reason, and since Spymaster makes all Divination spells reveal information about the fake identity, there won't even be a weird "blank spot" to pique that God Wizard's curiosity.

The one problem is that being incredibly low-powered, this character wouldn't have many options once being clever stops working and subterfuge drops. Of course, grabbing Leadership gives me a whole extra character to work with and supplement the Spymaster. What kind of character would make the ideal cohort for this kind of thing? Some similarly subtle character as a partner? An amazingly ostentatious melee thug who would often not be even thought of as associated with the Spymaster? A caster of some kind? Someone who purposely works with the Spymaster, or maybe one who isn't even aware of the companionship? Suggestions welcome.

[Ellowryn]

Basically you want you cohort to be the right hand in a magic trick, with your actual character being the left hand. Make him big and loud and beefy. Maybe some sort of DFI Bard, or maybe a Crusader, or any class that benefits from high charisma which you max on him. He is a big walking Distraction, in combat or not, allowing you to be as subtle and sneaky as possible.

[Red Fel]

Basically you want you cohort to be the right hand in a magic trick, with your actual character being the left hand. Make him big and loud and beefy. Maybe some sort of DFI Bard, or maybe a Crusader, or any class that benefits from high charisma which you max on him. He is a big walking Distraction, in combat or not, allowing you to be as subtle and sneaky as possible.

Very much this. But basically, it depends.

If your goal is to be a sneaky, unnoticed Spymaster, it helps to have a sneaky, unnoticed cohort. Pick a class with subtle power, such as Beguiler or Swordsage. A race with subtlety, such as Changeling or Tibbit, helps too.

On the other hand, if your cohort is meant to be the diversion, big and loud works quite well. Abandon subtlety and go for a boomer. But here's some meta for you - if you want to not only fool the world, but the other players, go for complexity. For example, having a big Goliath Barbarian is a fun option, but if you instead choose a Warforged Dragonborn Warblade with Exalted feats, everyone will instantly assume that, given his complexity, he must be the actual character. Obviously, this only works if you're able to introduce both characters together, but at the very least it'll fool the rest of the world. (This is part of the popular "the big guy's with me" image evoked by Tibbit Thrallherds and intelligent Psicrystals, for example.)

[Nettlekid]

Okay, so it sounds like ostentatious is the way to go here. I don't think I want the cohort to be a right-hand man, and instead more of a bodyguard type or muscle to take care of things when subtle manipulation doesn't work. The biggest problem with that though is that I don't want the cohort to be a weak link; if my guy is totally disguised as a Spymaster, I don't want anyone using Detect Thoughts on the cohort and learning the Spymaster's identity that way.

So what kind of build should this ostentatious character have? Melee fighter, like an Ubercharger or some kind of precision damage user? Healer/Divine caster? Utility arcane caster? What complements a Spymaster?

[Fouredged Sword]

I had a great spymaster who had the following cohort.

Dwarven LE rogue 2 / monk 2 / rogue 1 / assassin X

She acted as his secretary and ran every combat pretending to be a damsel in distress. It was worth it completely when a villain finally grabbed her by the arm and held her hostage. Three rounds of observation and negotiation later and she lands a death attack elbow to the diaphragm.