D&D 3.5 - Cohort Help please

[samduke]

So this is specific to d&d 3.5

Feat: Leadership grants a cohort under DMG is 2 levels max under PC
Feat: Improved Cohort allows this upto 1 level under PC
Feat: Epic Leadership ELH seems to indicate Cohort could be same level as PC

DMG indicates that after the initial attract a cohort that EXP would allow the cohort to level, possibly upto the PC level

My question is thus- Is there any known feat, class feature or otherwise that is 1st party or drag mag. that allows a Cohort to attract at PC level

[Darg]

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
to attain the next level. This rule is especially significant when
the PC loses one or more levels; a cohort’s level advancement
could be stalled for quite some time until the PC regains his or
her lost levels and gains enough additional XP to be eligible for a
higher-level cohort (see the Leadership feat on the following
page).

The cohort can't gain levels over their maximum. Epic leadership provides the benefit of improved cohort of maximum level of PC level - 1. I can't say I've come across anything that allows the cohort be your level or higher.

[Particle_Man]

Maybe, with high bluff skills for both, the cohort could pretend to be the leader and the leader could pretend to be the cohort? Then the “cohort” could be higher level than the “leader”.

[Darg]

Maybe, with high bluff skills for both, the cohort could pretend to be the leader and the leader could pretend to be the cohort? Then the “cohort” could be higher level than the “leader”.

Well, I guess it's technically possible to get a semi-permanent level buff to artificially inflate one's CL to qualify for a higher level cohort. Lycanthropy is an option as it is curable and high level druids can grant it basically on demand. I'm not familiar of any other to gain temporary HD increases. Bonus HD won't work as they aren't calculated as part of CL.

[Particle_Man]

Well, I guess it's technically possible to get a semi-permanent level buff to artificially inflate one's CL to qualify for a higher level cohort. Lycanthropy is an option as it is curable and high level druids can grant it basically on demand. I'm not familiar of any other to gain temporary HD increases. Bonus HD won't work as they aren't calculated as part of CL.

Not sure if you meant to quote me. If so, I wrote: B-L-U-F-F, as in "lying", not B-U-F-F, as in "make more powerful". :smallbiggrin:

[ExLibrisMortis]

My question is thus- Is there any known feat, class feature or otherwise that is 1st party or drag mag. that allows a Cohort to attract at PC level
Yes, but it only works on dragons. Dragonlance Campaign Setting, page 77, Dragon Rider. You can attract any dragon with an ECL up to your level, and you treat dragons' ECL as three levels lower. The ECL reduction is equivalent to the Dragon Cohort feat, but the ECL = max level thing is Dragon Rider only, as far as I know. Just for the heck of it, the class continues by adding 8 bonus HD across 10 levels, so you can end up--at ECL 20--with a dragon cohort (a young adult copper, specifically) with 25 HD and an unspecified LA that's probably at least +4.

[Thurbane]

I know this isn't what OP was looking for, but you could arrange for your cohort to get some temporary hit dice, from Inspire Greatness or similar, and it might temporarily be your level or higher?

[ShurikVch]

Anarchomancer PrC (Dragon #315):
Ritual of the Dark Infiltrator allow you to change your character to different alignment, race, gender, class...
In short - to create completely new character - and nobody would be detect the false
The maximal level for the fake character is the same as for your Cohort
The ritual takes 1000 XP, 1000 gp, 24 hours, and can be reverted as a full-round action.

[Morty_Jhones]

theres nothing that stops a 'cohort' being more powerfull than the leader technicaly, since the cohort' s allowance runs of its CR.

however

Don't overlook that -2 penalty to leadership score for having a 'speshal' cohort.
Meaning that if you do have a lycanthrope or a dragon follower they are, by desine, going to be weaker (in CR) than if you had a standard NPC of your race. The only way to get round this is to be a monster race yourself.

[ExLibrisMortis]

theres nothing that stops a 'cohort' being more powerfull than the leader technicaly, since the cohort' s allowance runs of its CR.
Maximum allowable cohort ECL doesn't depend on CR at all.