Hello people. Thanks for clicking and trying to help.
I think I have a problem in my playtest, but I want some more opinions about it.
My group's Paladin got the Leadership feat. Not a very big deal. She got as a Cohort a cleric npcs that was a friend of the party and deeply immersed on the story. I have no problem making npcs follow the party, controlling and roleplaying them. The cleric npc already went with the party, but now she won't divide the party xp since she'll receive a flat 2/3 of what the paladin receive.
Then, the ranger with Charisma 8 got the leadership feat too, since he wanted to be the Teacher of a promissing young girl they found. Okay for me too, and the girl is rapidly evolving to become a 8th level char (the party is at 13rd level). No big deal again.
But then, the sister of one of the characters (the fighter) appeared on the story. There's a deep RP relation among them and all. Here's the catch: The fighter's player got the leadership feat just to have her character sister as a cohort (since that would keep the sister a little safer was the reasoning of the player, and because the character wants her long-separated sister with her now), and the player don't even want the followers.
No problem with me. Makes a great and pretty party and RP. Besides, they fill up some holes in the party (don't laugh, and please, Crusader of Logic, don't begin veiled insults at my players for no playing wizards or something like that -your style and avatar scares me), since the party has a Paladin, a Ranger, a Two Weapon Fighter and a Rogue.
But then I came to the point of the Xp. As for one cohort okay. But since the party has three cohorts, do you people think that the combats are becoming way too easy, and that maybe the chracters are gaining too much XP for that? The cohorts are level 11, 10 and 8.
What do you guys think?
Ps: Don't worry crusader, one of the cohorts is a wzard who uses "real" magic.
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Hiya Dieago,
I always enjoy reading your posts, you have the most interesting combinations of things pop up in your games.
I'd say the 11 and 10 cohort are going to be contributing fairly well to your parties combat effectiveness. The 8 probably not so much depending on what they are (cleric or wizard may be more useful at this level but very fragile as well). I'm guessing you already have a good idea of how they're contributing to combats though.
My advice would be to scale the encounters up 1 level higher but award XP as if a standard encounter were fought. (EG give them EL 14 encounters but award EL 13 XP). Since you're not divvying up the XP anymore, Co-Horts can have a big influence on the ease at which encounters are completed and the progression of your characters due to XP bump. The fix above will address this. However, I'd be discussing this with the players first, or they may get upset :)
I have a co-hort in the game I DM but I don't do XP. I level the players where appropriate and keep the co-horts at a level or two behind. Because of this the advice above is all theoretical, I have no play expereince to see if it works sorry.
I also think this is a valid point to bring up with the designers and see if they'll give some feedback. This seemingly small change in cohort dynamics has made a big change in your game at least.
Cheers
SCALEING up is the way to go also what xp chart are you useing group or individal xp? I would divid xp as if they were full members of the party.
Lets say random numbers here that there are 10 member all told cohorts and pc...divide xp by ten
then take the amount each chort shoule get and give them 2/3rds of that as normal
then take the left over and divide it among the pc's
any left over is lost
be the way I would do it
Thanks Wrath, I feel flattered.
No, your idea is interesting. The cohorts are a 11th level cleric, a class the group didn't had, a 10th level necromancer, and everyone knows a wizard helps a lot, and the groups hadn't one wizard, and a 8th level rogue, and the party already had a rogue.
Now, it's actually very rare to have more than two encounters at my games. There's much xp of skill use and RP, but yet the cleric and the necromancer help a lot when the encounters arise. While I like your sugestion, seeker, I think than then they will never level up with so little combats... But thanks for the suggestion anyway. It's very appreciated.
I'll consider giving -1 el of xp Wrath, but as you said, this is theorical. I think I'm going to give it a little Math to see what comes with it.