My Cohort is a DMPC!

[Triskavanski]

So last Sunday I played my Supervillain bard. And already want to play something else. Not because the Bard himself is bad, but rather, the cohort I took with the Leadership feat is a DMPC.

Worse still.. Its a bad DMPC


My Idea originally was something like Vezzik from Avatar legend of Kora with Zhu Li, where I'd have a stoic cohort behind me to do the thing. I even wrote it in the back story the DM wanted. I was suppose to have my bard be an eccentric, slightly goofy, but at the most frightening of times down right terrifying. The fool who isn't a fool so to speak.

When I asked my DM about Leadership and rolling the characters stats he said "Alright you can take leadership, and I'll roll the character up." Okay sure, no problem. Just the important thing is how the character is suppose to kinda be. I don't need the cohort absolutly optimized, just be able to take Warweaver/Wayfayer guide cause the the character is totally suppose to be something to support me, including the ability to prepare "escape pods"

Then the sheet came in.. 5 wisdom. Yeah, thats right. Five wisdom. Even with 3d6 5 wisdom is pretty hard to do. It would require all three dice to roll a 1, 2, 2 or 1, 1, 3. Which I don't think he was even rolling dice.

The cohort wasn't even the same one I was writing in the background to be my cohort in name or gender.

And it took a few times for the character to actually be able to take war-weaver next level too. But hey, he did get there eventually. Not that it'll matter much I think..

Cause the DMPC "due to his low wisdom score" trips over invisible rocks, decides to get into fist fights in the middle of the street, instantly says the worst possible things and has at least one player's character completely pissed off at him as the DMPC cohort will not leave that character alone and is now making it his mission to get in the way of the player.

The question here, am I totally justified to just "No, screw it." and either demand to make the cohort the 'Right' way, train out of the feat, or just give up the character/Game?

And yes I've started bringing this up in our chat room too.

[dascarletm]

SNIP
Then the sheet came in.. 5 wisdom. Yeah, thats right. Five wisdom. Even with 3d6 5 wisdom is pretty hard to do. It would require all three dice to roll a 1, 2, 2 or 1, 1, 3. Which I don't think he was even rolling dice.
SNIP
The question here, am I totally justified to just "No, screw it." and either demand to make the cohort the 'Right' way, train out of the feat, or just give up the character/Game?

Well, a 5 isn't too unrealistic probability-wise. It's on par with a 16 in rarity and I don't think many would bat an eye at a 16.

You can fire your cohort and go through the process of hiring a new one. I would suggest not to take up game time doing this, but instead do it off-screen with the DM. Tell him your character finds the current cohort too much of a liability, and you're looking for a new #2. If he insists on role-playing that so be it. If he just wants to make a new character tell him you are screening the applicants so you won't accept anyone as dumb as the last one. You'll need someone more competent, and preferably more like your original concept.

[AvatarVecna]

First possibility: the DM thinks it's funny to have a character like this in the group. To be clear, this kind of character being present can be funny if the group is right for it, but if this kind of Chaotic Stupid isn't welcome in your group, and your DM doesn't get the hint, the character's not the only one with a Wisdom penalty. If this is the problem, it can probably be solved by talking to your DM about it; OOC problems are best solved OOC.

Second possibility: your DM is punishing you for taking such a broken option, and intentionally made a character that was technically what you asked for while also being terrible in-game. You are unlikely to convince your DM that you wanted a War Weaver for non-broken reasons, but I suggest you try anyway, since OOC problems are best solved OOC. If your DM isn't willing to listen to reason, and you want that cohort badly enough to screw up your own build, take the Thrallherd PrC (once you can weasel your way into qualifying): sure, the thrall you gain from that is technically whatever the DM says you get from it, but killing off the thrall has no penalty other than time, since you attract another one the next day with no penalty. Just do this until you've attracted the cohort you wanted in the first place, and then go adventuring with your new puppet. Note: if you go with this solution, the DM may have enemies target that cohort out of spite. There's likely not much you can do about that other than leave, but calling him out on such childishness will likely be satisfying.

Good luck, either way.

[John Longarrow]

I'd have a talk with the DM.

From the description you would never have accepted the current cohort based on personality/actions.

AvatarVecna is exactly right. Dismiss, get a new one who you've screened. As a bard dealing with an NPC, use diplomacy to convince the DMPC this is for their own benefit and that, while you will miss them, you can't see standing in the way of their greatness by forcing them into your shadow.

[AvatarVecna]

I'd have a talk with the DM.

From the description you would never have accepted the current cohort based on personality/actions.

AvatarVecna is exactly right. Dismiss, get a new one who you've screened. As a bard dealing with an NPC, use diplomacy to convince the DMPC this is for their own benefit and that, while you will miss them, you can't see standing in the way of their greatness by forcing them into your shadow.

My favorite part of this response is the DMs almost inrvitable childish reaction and the rebuttal he's handed you on a silver platter:

"Nah, how about you give me a Bluff check."

"Alright, but you'll have to give me a Sense motive check."

[Triskavanski]

Ah.. that reminds me. I guess one good thing about the cohort is that he's almost fanatically devoted to my bard. Think Dracula's thrall, only worse.. Honestly I don't know why he has the character tripping over rocks, and socially inept when said character has like 14ish dex and 13 cha.

Character Sheet (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=677382) now that I'm home

[AvatarVecna]

Character Sheet (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=677382) now that I'm home

Wow...that character sheet. Okay, a few notes:
Wizards are not proficient with armor, even through various ACFs. He's got his ASF covered, but that check penalty should be applying to all Str-/Dex-based ability/skill checks, as well as his attack rolls...and it's not noted on any of those things, and I'm not seeing any feats dropped for proficiency. Still, he's at least a decent optimizer, because he knows about Blended Quartz and knows that masterwork armor lowers the check penalty (at least, I hope he knew about the latter, rather than arbitrarily lowering it for no reason).
Concerning his stats, I can understand why he kept this set (it's pretty decent), but why put the 5 in Wisdom? If he decided he really needed Str and Dex to be 14, then he should at least put that crap 5 in Charisma where he's never going to use it! And then he could put that 13 in Constitution! Urgh...
Okay, so here's what I don't get: normally, you armor up a wizard if you want them going into melee, but don't want to have to waste time buffing them up to survive it (letting the armor effectively buff their AC as a free action at all times). But that armor becomes pointless next level when he can cast a single Mage Armor to affect the whole party...and even more pointless after that, when he can set it up to cast itself on the whole party hours before the fight takes place. Urgh...
I like how, rather than focusing his skills in a particular direction, he dabbles in over a dozen different skills without achieving even low-op mastery of a single one of them. I could maybe let go Knowledge: The Planes, since it's a secondary skill for wizards, but Concentration, Spellcraft, and Knowledge: Arcana? What the hell?
I'm so glad he picked up Mage Armor despite being a mage wearing real armor. I like how he's wearing armor that has a teeny tiny benefit over casting Mage Armor but also has more downsides.
Slightly above-average HP does not help how he's apparently going to be putting this 5th lvl character into combat.
Can't remember if this is how it works by RAW or not, but this dude is prolly gonna die if doesn't get some defensive magic items at least...or did he spend all that on the swanky armor that's gonna be pointless next level?

[John Longarrow]

Make sure to get his 32 skill point before he goes. They ARE listed under his possessions, so you should be able to 'hold onto them for him'. B-)

Really not sure what your DM was trying for with this guy. At least ask for the 12 skill points this guy never used when leveling.

[Aspiration]

Seems clear to me that the issue is likely that your DM didn't want you having a cohort who was too strong. So, talk to him about how you're okay with having an unoptimized cohort who does have flaws both mechanically and RP-wise, but you'd rather it be in this other way and why you'd prefer that. Or if you're not okay with that, chances are you should be looking into retraining the feat.