The Mindless Undead

As you enter the crypt’s main chamber, the ghoul you followed stands in front of a makeshift altar. The thing turns to you, its raspy voice echoing the following command. “Kill them.” All around you, skeletons emerge from their coffins, ready to fight.

The scene above happened to all of us. An intelligent undead creature commanding a horde of mindless ones makes for a fun and typical encounter. Undead make great opponents, PCs generally don’t have to think too closely about what they do with them, and only rarely does their destruction cause consternation in the party.

Still, something gnawed at me regarding that encounter. How can a normal, basic ghast (or ghoul or wight) command skeletons/zombies that surround it? Why does the zombie obey the undead? Why would it not obey a living creature that does not control then through magic such as a necromancer would use spells like command undead or control undead ? As a computer engineer my natural instinct is to devise a finite state machine to determine the undead’s behavior. But I can see where that could confuse some people, and really… to account for everything… well that could be problematic.

How can I simplify the model to make it easy and universal? Let’s set some basis.

1. Intelligent undead should have some measure of power over the mindless ones.

2. A mindless undead’s natural instinct is to kill and destroy the living.

3. The changes must not impact the CR of the intelligent undead

4. The changes must not impact the CR of the mindless undead

5. The changes must not change existing spells or abilities (such as channel energy, the Command Undead feat, the command undead spell).

Putting a little thought into it, I would propose the following.

The necromantic energies found in all undead creatures are more powerful in intelligent undead. When a mindless undead comes into close proximity with one such creature, their necromantic energy align. This alignment makes the mindless undead extremely suggestible to the intelligent undead’s wishes.

This alignment only works on mindless undead who are not commanded or controlled through other means. Thus a skeleton commanded to attack an intelligent undead would do so without hesitation. A commanded mindless undead who orders could be open to interpretations or vague such as patrol the walls, could influenced by an intelligent undead. In the example, a zombie could be suggested by the intelligent undead to focus its patrol the west wall.

While not perfect, this mini-rule can explain and justify the scene above, without changing the creature, without changing any spells of magic usage. Thus accomplishing the 5 goals mentioned above.

JP

Secret Project X: Quick Reveal

Louis Porter mentions Secret Project X and shows you the outline mentioned in the Secret Project X: Now an outline article. It's quick so you have to watch attentively.

Funny story is, from seeing the pile, I think I must have called Louis literally a minute after he recording this (see his blog entry).

JP

Secret Project X: Now an outline

Secret Project X finally has a basic story outline, something to launch it! I finalized my proposal into something I liked. Based on a basic idea by Louis, the style is a marked departure from my own usual style. I found writing with a twist to be very exciting. In this case, the adventures have a common theme and story elements I tried to capture. What is it? I’m waiting on feedback before any announcements are made.

I initially started working on another storyline but I scrapped it because it didn’t fit the setting. I could not find myself excited about it. It did not bring the flavor of the setting right. So practicing my own methods, I threw the idea into an idea for the future document and went back to the writing board. I did some research and came up with something I felt was more fitting.

On the first try, I came up with an adventure idea first. What will the PCs do? approach. As a change, I looked through the campaign book to see what would inspire me, if anything stuck. There was one element that did and this time I tried a different approach. Instead of designing an adventure, I worked on the adventure site, my point of light. As I jotted down small ideas here and there: a tavern, the market, a few individuals with interesting stories, things took shape on their own.

I now had a focal location, a cast of characters and a rough idea of the types of stories I would like to write. The merging process began and after some three days of brainstorming, formatting and reformatting ideas until they took the shape I wanted, I had a proposal. I had something tangible I could submit.

JP

Halloween Season Woes!

Am I the only one who, comes Halloween finds himself staring at a blank page, or a page the fills up with material that is either bland, without relevance or just terrible? The time of year that should be most inspiring to a big horror and fear-fan like me. Yet, that is not the case. While I thoroughly enjoy the event and the celebration - I don’t consider it a holiday; I’m not druid or ancient celt-revivalist. I mean TV movies become interesting or at least worth looking over. Horror and scary things are all around us, the getting’s good.

Yet I am faced with a serious lack of good ideas for Halloween. Could it be a case of too much of a good thing?

Well not really since the movies on Syfy, AMC and even TCM are not as awesome as I’d like them to be. I mean, the most interesting movie I saw thus far this October was Meet the Spartans which was funny… but nothing to put me into the Halloween spirit OR help me coming up with an Halloween-theme or good horror-themed offering. No sudden spark.

Perhaps it is the Big-Guy-Upstairs’ way of telling me that I should come up with something different, if only for one month out of the year.

So what is a guy to do in that case? I have obligations and deadlines I need to meet.

OH THE ANGST!

JP

The cat is out

Last week a number of announcements were made, and I spent a lazy weekend doing very little. Okay, I ran a Pathfinder Society adventure on-line, took my daughter to her a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese’s, watched my fantasy football team get crushed, took my Orkland Rayderz to the championship game in Blood Bowl and I made level 13 in D&D Online.

So, I’ve been talking to Louis Porter Jr of LPJ Design about something publicly dubbed Secret Project X. Okay, okay, the title isn’t great but, trust me, the real one is better. This adds a lot of work to my plate, which I always like…

What can I say about Secret Project X ? I will be writing adventures for it and the project is very exciting.

JP

Akos: The Pre-gens

So finally, Neoncon is coming and it will be my first chance to publicly display my work on the Organized Play campaign set in the world of Akos. There is so much work to be done. Today, I am tackling one of the most complex aspects of starting a campaign like this: Pre-generated characters.

Why is it complex, you ask? First off, the characters must showcase and give some of the flavor of the world and its particularities. Second when presented with a character, everyone has their own view on how such a class should be put together. Third, you want to create characters that are relevant to the adventure but not necessarily focused to it. That last point is, I think the trickiest of all. If my adventures are all about traps, and half the party are designed to blow through them, then the challenge in the adventure become insignificant, similar if none of the pre-gens can deal with traps, then I simply cheat the players.

This is not the same as creating one-shot characters where I can think up of a scene or encounter where each of the PCs can shine or has the potential of shining. Those pre-gens will be thrown at any one of the many adventures currently in development. So my thought process is different. I can’t design a character just for one adventure, knowing he’ll be completely useless in the next.

Okay, okay, I’m exaggerating a bit. The Pathfinder rule set has come a long way from having those adventures that completely negated a character’s usefulness (such as the all-undead adventure vs. the rogue heavy party, or the elemental adventure vs. high-crit party).

I wanted to add a little meat to those characters, so someone sitting at the table is immediately gets some element of flavor with the character: where they come from, who their deity is, do they have any special contacts of ability. I like it when I play one-shot adventures that I receive some piece of information that is unique to me, something that sets me apart from the rest of the group OR that justifies my ties to it.

So what I did was to create characters that had flavor and uniqueness. So far, I have built five, but am trying to come up with a total of pre-gens. Each of them has a unique class, a unique feat, or a unique ability to found in our Player’s Guide. The goal is to present the new material we have while keeping the characters someone familiar to the players.

Now that I established what I wanted to accomplish, “what classes to do?” was my next question. In D&D, I always think there are four basic roles that need to be filled: the melee guy, the healer, the arcanist and the skill monkey (roughly, the fighter, the cleric, the wizard and the rogue). Looking at my list of races, classes and abilities, I came up with the following combination:

An Amazon Cleric

A barbaric Holy Warrior

A Greater Halfling Rogue

A human sorcerer

A human noble

On the sixth, I still waffle and am open to suggestions..

Thought creating pre-generated characters was easy? Trust, it’s a lot more complex that it seems at first glance!

JP

Home Front News

This entry includes a number of random shots about gaming.

First, my idea of Pathfinder Society was rejected. It was judged too open AND too limited at the same time! The adventure was clearly non-traditional when compared to other PFS adventures, so while disappointed I can see Josh’s position about it. Having rejected ideas and submissions myself, I take it in stride. What will I do next about it? Come up with something new of course! What about the idea I submitted? Well that one goes into my work bucket, the idea is good, the story in interesting. Chances are it will be given new life at a later date outside the Society! Good ideas never go to waste…

This Friday, Mario restarts a new Warhammer campaign. I still have not decided on a character concept I like. I thought of a few: an outlaw falsely accused of a crime, a hunter/poacher or a Kislevite bounty hunter. I’m still undecided and may just decide when I roll dice and the character starts to take shape or as we talk about what we want to do.

A few people know that I have been talking to a publisher regarding a writing project, I’m very excited about this and will hold off on making any announcement (any announcement will be posted here for sure).

JP

Bargain bin treasures

Whenever I go to a hobby shop, I always look for the bargain bin. Many treasures lurk therein. Things I would not be willing to pay full price for, but also things I do not always look at on my regular peregrination through local (and not-so local) hobby shops.

Yesterday, I looked at the bargain bin at Bonnie Brae Hobbies in Englewood (south Denver). To my very pleasant surprise, I found a box of Zvevda’s Cursed Legion (Roman Skeletons). HALF-PRICE! I grabbed the box and did not let it go until it was purchased and out of sight of everyone!

A few years ago, I happened on a website that had them. The idea of sending any money to Russia was not very appealing and after looking for local sources, I gave up and the undead Romans were relegated to the back of my mind.

Now I have them… My legions will never be TRULY defeated!

JP

The end of a campaign

I’m depressed and morose.

Why you ask? Because Mario’s Awesome Warhammer campaign is over! My character somehow managed to live through it all from the start. He got pretty beefy at the end, despite a few niggling injuries and a few insanities, such as zealotry and an alignment change. Fought off gods, orcs, dark elves, giants, dragons, chaos-infested things and on a weekly basis, each other (okay I usually got beat up by the others).

The Cast: Ragni the dwarf who became a slayer after a close encounter of facial-genital kind. Val, a young half-elven knave who crossed our path and stuck around with us. Eva a chaos-infested witch ready to sell her soul to the dark powers. Father Werner von Breslow-Giersbergen (me) a righteous zealot carrying a burden only I can bear… Guided only by my blinding and complete faith in Sigmar and his patron, Ulrik.

The finale was truly epic. Couldn’t ask for much more! We headed into the Mountains with the soul of a dark chaos god stop him from tricking the orcs into granting him more power. I bore the container that leaked its essence like a burden. One I accepted because I could not allow Ragni or that evil witch Eva to hold it. The witch appeared shortly after the untimely demise of Sister Lady Violet.

Once the battle was in full swing, Ragni my dwarven slayer friend met his doom at the hand of the god-like Nagaash. As it pulled his still beating heart out of his chest, I howled madly from the grief of losing my last true friend and swung my hammer into it as it focused on the witch. The beast finally fell to my blows. Leaving me standing, full of grief and anger that the witch had survived but that my friend Ragni had passed away.

There you have it, in a few words… How Father Werner prevented the end of the world…

Now that the campaign is over, I’m depressed and wondering what to character to do next. We’re going to start a new campaign (still using Warhammer 1st Ed) but I’m in a rut. I really liked my character and do not want to make the same character but I’m oddly lacking ideas this time around. Playing something different is a must. So the question remains… What?

So there you have it… the source of my depression. Nothing that can't be cured with... MORE GAMING!

JP

Fairs and Festivals: Part 2

To my previous post about Fairs, my good buddy Van, posted the following as a comment on Facebook.

You may want to consider including an auction for livestock. Seems like farmers would want to take the chance to buy/sell animals when gathered together as a matter of convenience.

That is very true. While at the fair, I saw a number of animals for sale: cows, horses, goats, sheep, pigs and house pets. I must admit I did not pay close attention – allergies you see. I’m certain that many of them found new homes.

In a medieval/fantasy-style fair (or even in sci-fi locations), animal and livestock sales and auctions are a prominent feature of the fair, something that draws a lot of people to the event. Prized and sturdy animals are highly-sought and their sale value subject to much debate and tension. In addition to cows and goats, a fantasy fair could offer sales of high-quality riding dogs, trained baby wyverns, a pet lizard and a number of other creatures.

Dare I say that some competition could result in rivalries, potentially leading to sabotage, conflict or even murder? Aren’t those the basis of good adventures? A simple emotion sparks a story that writes itself. Often, the world does not need to end for adventure to creep in.

Thanks Van! Great comment.

JP

Tacticon: Post Mortem

All of the tables have been reported. I know there are a few table trackers still floating out there (for which the DMs will have to report themselves). I ran out of PFS numbers almost 3 times, not counting those numbers that DMs handed out without my involvement. I went through over 60 pregens during the weekend.

We ran a total of 30 tables (plus one that was not reported due to TPK, plus the slot zeroes, plus the missing ones)

17 different adventures were run (including the Fiesta, and on-the-spot fiesta)

A total of 165 players played in individual events. The Prestige Distribution was as follows:

• Total for Andoran 76


• Total for Cheliax 7


• Total for Osirion 59


• Total for Qadira 26


• Total for Taldor 48

A big thank you goes out to the DMs: Derek, James, Todd, Homer, Ryan, Jeff, Dave, Chris, Ken, Kerney, Collin, Josh and Bill and anyone I forget in my half-awake "monday" haze...

A particular thanks to Jeff & Dave from Enchanted Grounds who sponsored the fiesta as well as running some great tables. They printed out all the mods for the fiesta and did a super job making sure I had enough paper support (character sheet, pfs numbers, pregens).

Finally, a thank you to Lenny Logan for making the table assignment be extremely easy. Throughout the con, Lenny was very responsive and helpful in assigning us some tables and giving us extra when we needed them.

A few things to work on for Genghis, although most table went very well, there were a few dark spots. Mostly having to do with dynamism and preparation. I know we can work on those and simply outshine all competition. A few players really scored DMs extremely low without a note or explanation. In a few cases, I personally believe those scores were undeserved (as I listened in), but others were fully deserved (from talks I had with the DMs afterwards). The DM rating sheet is a way for a DM to learn and better himself through play (you can never improve if you don't practice). Putting a "3" or "4" (out of 10) without comment serves little purpose in helping the DM better himself, it makes the DM feel miserable without necessarily knowing what irked you or why the game sucked, don't assume the DM can divine such things. And the next time around, that DM is not interested in running.

Please use that tool to make the DM and the game experience better, it works! I do not know of a single DM who ran at the con that I would not want to play with (if only to make sure they improve). If something annoys you, take the coordinator or the even the DM aside and tell them in a constructive manner, which many of you did and the feedback was passed along to the DM all of whom were very responsive to criticism. They recognized or admitted faults and seemed very eager to correct their ways for the next go-around.

Great DMs are trained, not born.

All that said. Great time at Tacticon overall. I have already volunteered to Linda Weygant (Genghis RPG coordinator) to run the Pathfinder Society again.

JP

Fairs and Festivals

Every year, year, I take my family to two big events here in Colorado: the Renaissance Festival (in Larkspur, Co) and the Colorado State Fair (in Pueblo, Co). I enjoy both those events (even if my wallet does not). It’s a time to spend with my wife and the kids (and the occasional family and friends). Do something that's different than our everyday routine

Driving back from the state fair, I began to think how I could use what I saw/did to help make my adventure better, to breathe life into it. You see I am currently writing an adventure that uses a major fair/festival as its background. I wanted to see if I could "medievalize" my day's visit. Without any books or actual references, I tried to break down the fair into a number of elements (everyone else was sleeping in the car so using that time for gaming allowed me to stay awake).

How different were medieval fairs to the one I just attended? What elements of the fair were the same? Which ones were different? How did they differ? How could my experience add details in my adventure? Assuming I were a "typical" inhabitant (which I am), how would I react to impromptu events?

So I tried the following break-up.

1. Performers This group includes acrobats, jugglers, dancers, even painters. Entertainers perform a variety of stunts and acts of daring that amazes and fascinates the common man. I am a sucker for jugglers myself because I have tried a number of times and… well I write RPGs.


2. Tasty/Unique Foods Nothing to say about how good there are for us. Corn dogs, funnel cakes, turkey legs and the other dishes make those events stand out. Every year, I keep my stomach open for a turkey leg and a corndog.


3. Vendors Another staple includes vendors. Many offer items one does not find in their usual stores. While many vendors are just outlets for the local big-wigs (like the phones or cable companies), many are quite unique, and are what I seek out most at the fair.


4. Animals While some animals fall in the category of Performers, animals also include those involved in competitions, and the every-popular petting zoo. My kids LOVE the petting zoo and seeing the little piglets, horses/ponies, goats and bunnies. I will admit there is something about watching or petting animals that call to the kid in all of us. I personally find the horses to be quite nice.


5. Musicians Concerts and music are an intrinsic part of those events. I will sit and listen to a few tunes from a country music band, then walk up to a Latin band and then to a rock band. Music is everywhere and to me, it helps create the event. Many of the tunes there are not my usual bands, and that makes it special.


6. Competitions/Contests From lumberjack contests, to animal rustling, to sandcastle building, to animal judging to the local radio station madness, contests involve people or animals performing and winning prizes. I would generally not travel to witness a number of competitions that take place at the fair, I stop and watch kids run after a sheep or lumberjacks speed cutting a log.


7. Games The Simpsons gave us The Carny Code which was a great episode. Those are games that involve throwing a basketball or a baseball or placing rings on coke bottles. I was never very good at those so I do not participate (one of the few things I can save money on).


8. People The biggest reason to attend local fairs? People. Lots and lots of people. The crowd is what makes everything come alive and binds all of the above together. A group of people watching something will draw you in to see what is going on. Walking around the fairground makes me feel as though I was part of something big. I also like the mix of people, races, influences all coming together without conflict. Everyone gets together at the fair, no matter their size, race, color, affiliation, or style. All are part of the event and I like that.
   

With some of those elements in mind, I drifted off to fantasy aspects of fair. How different would the fair be if magic and other fantasy races were present? However, I found that fantasy really added nothing to those basic elements of the fair. Sure, it added some unique extras, but nothing to add really. I could replace the horses with a pegasus, turkey legs with dire chicken (hummmm dire chicken drumstick...), or the acrobats with flying wizards, but the elements of the fair remained the same. The people of different color/background would become elves and dwarves and halflings and gnomes.

Looking back on the article, this will really add to my adventure. Not so much in the form of encounters or challenges, but in the form of flavor, minor elements and potential subplots.

Oh! And it made the drive home go really fast...

JP

New Wargaming Blog

My name is JP Chapleau. I was born & raised in Montreal, Quebec (that's in Canada). In 1993, I entered Sherbrooke University (http://www.usherbrooke.ca/) where I graduated in Computer Engineering in 1998.

After that I began work and I have lived and worked in Japan (2 months), Paris France (1 year), Dublin Ireland (2.5 years), Quebec City (2 years) and now I have been in Colorado Springs, Colorado since 2005.

I live with my lovely wife, Julie, two daughters Josiane & Marie-Katherine ("Kitty") and son Jean-Patrick.

I am most known for my involvement in Role-Playing and Miniature gaming. My miniature gaming love affair really started in the mid-nineties when the Donjon Maisonneuve opened in Montreal. That game store was the first one to include gaming table and to host games there. For the first time I saw and admired painted armies, terrain and different games. I was hooked (but broke). Around 1996-97, I took the plunge and finally bought Warhammer 40,000. It’s a love affair that’s been going on since. In the years since I took part in a number of tournaments and competitions from Paris, France to Dublin, Ireland to Ft Morgan Colorado. I generally do okay.
These days, though I still enjoy the occasional 40k game, I much prefer playing ancients (with Warhammer Ancient Battles being my favorite ruleset).

This blog will include entries and rants about things I like, things I dislike and what I'm doing these days, but also the occasional historical article and reference to support my war gaming addiction.

I admit that this blog was started to allow me to focus on war gaming only and have my other blog JP on Gaming focus on my other love, table-top RPGs. Thus separating the two will allow you, the readers to focus on those articles you want to read.

Enjoy

JP

Tacticon approaches and gaming life

For those who do not know, I volunteered to serve as the Pathfinder Coordinator (no, I don’t have any news or official Paizo title) for Tacticon, a games convention in Denver, CO. You can find a link to the con website here. This year marks the first time that Tacticon offers PFS. At last year’s Tacticon, I was running some LFR (for the last time) and playing Living Arcanis. Pathfinder was just an upcoming game day in mid-September I hoped I would not be the only one showing up for.

This year, I’m completely out of LFR (not running, not playing). Living Arcanis is gone (though it is replaced by the Chronicles of the Shattered Empires).

What’s my plan for this year? As coordinator, any gaming I get will heavily depend on attendance. With any luck, I might be able to slip into a game or two of CSE, and perhaps play the one Pathfinder adventure I haven’t played yet.

When I came up with the schedule for Pathfinder, I took a page out of my good friend Lenny playbook. Instead of coming up with random story elements, I chose 6 adventures. Four of which were parts 1 & 2 of a series (#7 Among the Living & #49 Among the Dead, #51 The Shadow Gambit & #52 The Twofold Demise). The other two being independent, one-shot adventures. Part 1s would run every morning with part 2 in the afternoons. Evening would have a Fiesta where tables would form based around what they wanted. At this time, I ran four slot-zeroes and have decent DM coverage for all the slots. We will have 4-6 DMs for the Fiesta slots. Morale is high in my camp and the DMs also seem in good spirit. A rare luxury I find…

I remember the old and blessed days of LG when we would run slot zeroes until the very last moment to make sure we had enough DMs for the con. The mad scrambles to finish the interactive. Making sure everything was printed and ready to go.
So at this time, some two weeks before the con, I’m confident and looking forward to the con.

As I write this, I am currently waiting on a number of things: the announcement of the Regional Coordinators for PFS, word on an adventure I submitted to Paizo, same but from Chaosium… So many things going on at once… Plus I have friends wanting to give another go at “The Masks of Nyarlathotep” so they can finish the campaign… Good times indeed.

JP

Thoughts about Cohorts

Recently, my (not-Living-Anymore) Arcanis character, Prima Gallia Tiberiana, leveled up to sixth level and I chose the Leadership feat. She is now accompanied by her handmaiden wherever she goes (being a noblewoman really helps). Oddly enough in my seven years of playing 3rd edition, this was the first time I took that feat. Though I thought about it in Living Greyhawk, I was too lazy (and generally too busy writing or editing) to take the time to maintain a cohort. Though I almost took one (I had access to an eladrin) for Corfell Treeshadow, my cleric of Corellon, the poor guys got removed from the campaign almost immediately after that.

However, I played with a few people (in and out of LG) who had cohorts some good, some bad, some memorable, some not-so-memorable.

The other day, my buddy Kenton (in the same Arcanis campaign) came up with a basic concept for a cohort and asked me for advice on cohorts. Yes, our party would be composed of 3-5 PCs with 1 or 2 cohorts (as we share DM duties, we always hit the 5-6 player mark).

So I began to think… What makes a great cohort? Is there a formula to come up with a great cohort? Which were the ones that left a lasting impression on me? How were they built? What role did they play in the game? Many questions filled my mind. I wanted to be sure that I would allow him to choose and build the character he wanted, by trying to provide options.

The Cohort’s background

This article targets mostly organized play campaigns so I like to keep the background light. I’ve seen spouses, lovers, slaves, squires, and planar allies as cohorts. All of which are fine. The goal is to find a reason the character would stick around you. A secondary goal is to find a way for the cohort to mesh with the rest of the party. After all, the cohort will be privy to many PCs’ secrets, abilities and even share the loot. This does not mean the cohort has to be lovey-dovey with everyone in the party, or an LFR character (oops, I meant a bland, flavorless series of dice rolls).

For my cohort, Drusilla, she used to be a poor legionnaire I recruited to be my personal assistant and handmaiden. Things I wanted her to have were Profession (handmaiden) and rogue skills (trap finding and open locks mostly), because the party needed those.

The Cohort’s basic personality

Like every good character, a cohort must have its own personality. I think that something contrasting especially in the social department is important. If your main character is talkative, the cohort should tend to be quieter. If you are rather quiet, your cohort should be talkative. Avoid the dual talkative or dual quiet characters. Makes them redundant plus it’s often difficult for the rest of the players to know who you are playing at that time. If you can work with completely different accent, this difficulty is not there. But you have to juggle the accents and that gets a little complicated.

Give a cohort a little spark by giving a single trait, what GURPS calls quirks to the character. Maybe the cohort speaks with a lisp, giggles when nervous, has a slight accent or has a short catchphrase. Nothing major just enough to give a short taste of the character.

The Cohort’s abilities

There are many types of cohorts one can build: the crafter, the healer/buffer, the talker the blaster… What is important to keep in mind is that the cohort is a second fiddle to the main characters (the actual Player Characters). The cohort will generally be weaker than the players and should not try to compete with the player directly.

If you already have a blasting Wizard, don’t make a cohort who is a blaster. It takes away the fun for the main character and usually makes your cohort look extremely weak. If your party has a great healer, make the cohort a buffer. If you have great melee, go for an archer.

The Cohort’s advancement

When people design their characters, they often imagine the PC at a very high level. So that at level 10-12, they will become gods among men, lording over all they survey. While a cohort often has a similar advancement scheme, I personally prefer to keep cohorts as simple as can be. This makes playing the cohort quick.

Cohorts should be designed to be effective NOW. Not in four or five levels when they gain a level of Awesome. Because they are often weaker than the PCs, they have to live and survive until then. Having a PC that is not fully effective for a level or two is one thing. Having a cohort that is not effective for the same duration often means a dead cohort.

Finally

A cohort’s role should be secondary. She supports the party and brings with it some abilities the party needs and can use. But should not be the main character at the table.

In organized play, where the party make-up is always in flux, the role of a cohort cannot be tailored to a party, but should be designed in such a way that she supports a party. A healer/buffer or an archer is a good choice as their options are limited and their turn goes quickly. Remember that guy who plays a druid with his animal companion, then his 20 summoned monkeys and his super-complex wizard cohort whose turn takes an hour? Yeah… avoid that. It’s just annoying and while fun for you, everyone else hates it.

Don’t be that guy.

JP