My group (I, being a player, not DM, in said group) is in the middle of STAP, about to reach Farshore. The AP's been tough, make no mistake, and I expected no less, as I'm running a different group through AoW and killed 3 PCs last session in SoLS (wicked crazy tough adventure!).
Anyhoo, I took the Leadership feat at 6th to acquire a cleric cohort. I'm the healer of the party (favored soul), but I'm planning on multiying to paly and eventually knight of the sliver chalice, the cohort would become the main healer with me being the back up (plus she's female, so she can keep my PC company during the long journeys...).
Okay, so to the point. The DM thinks the path is so tough, he's letting me switch out my Leadership feat and keep the cohort and is giving the other four PCs cohorts for free as well to make up for it (all through NPCs we've met along the way, so nothing cheesy). Is STAP really that tough (keep in mind I'm a player, and don't want to see spoilers...it's tough enough to not read my Dungeon mags)?