NeoExodus Legacies: Of Cohorts and Leadership

I have been thinking a lot about NeoExodus Legacies, trying to clear out my backlog of things I need to do for the campaign... And one of the things that gnaw at me are cohorts. I like the idea of having them as an option. I remember our Arcanis (after the Living campaign was done) game where we had 2 cohorts in the party and both added a lot of extra abilities and flavors to the tea.

Then I remembered that I wrote a blog post at the time. Yikes! Already three years ago! You can read my thoughts in this post from 2010. As I re-read it, I really though that it conveyed most of what I wanted to say. And that my thoughts from back then had not changed, they have only been reinforced actually!

I think there are two good example of a cohort: Robin and Samwise Gamgee. Both of these are integral to the story of the main character (Batman/Froddo) but the main character can do their thing on their own. Okay Froddo is a little messed up at the end, but I'll focus on the first 2.5 books.

So... How to make cohort rules that are usable, fun and simple. I'm a fan of simple rules...

So I sat down and looked at the rules I had to compare: Living Greyhawk and Living Arcanis. Both had a usable system so I decided to inspire myself from them. Pathfinder Society has no such rules - which I really find too bad - though I can see why.

So in short:

A cohort is a less-powerful character. Still decent, the cohort becomes really good when he is together with his owner. Robin alone is not as tough as when he is with Batman or with the Teen Titans.

The cohort is not always present in the game. Batman often adventures on his own.

The cohort gains experience. Robin grew up and eventually became Nightwing.

The cohort should not have its own "pet". Remember when I said I wanted the cohort to be a quick addition. I don't want to see the summoner, his eidolon, his 12 summoned beasties, then the druid cohort with his animal companion and his 4 summoned animals begin to play.

I have been trying to merge the two together and have a first draft of the NeoExodus Cohort Rules ready to go to D'Anne and Linda for them to tell me how wrong I am. After that, I will make a post asking for feedback by you, my readers. So other than the big PaizoCon special... I have a number of things in the NeoExodus pipe! Its a really exciting time for the campaign.

JP