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There are zero rules for it, so entirely between gm and players to figure out. In my current home game I told players at the beginning if they wanted leadership that I would require them to recruit their cohort and followers in game, not just have them magically appear at level 7. I still let them have a lot of control over making the character though. He ended up taking on an elven holy warrior that they met, I let him pick an appropriate class, told him the guys current gear, and let him write it up the way he wanted.
In another game I'm playing in, I wrote up a backstory on my character and their relationship to the character that I wanted to eventually be my cohort and gave it to the gm for approval.
In other games, we've just sort of hand waved it and a cohort just pops up out of nowhere to join the party.
There's no wrong answer to it. They could be completely written by the player. They could be completely written by the GM. They would probably be best as a collaboration but that takes a lot more time and effort to make work.
Stat wise, I think the general consensus is that cohorts use the npc stat spread of 15 14 13 12 10 8, and starting with npc gear value off the wealth chart.
Personally if I was running a game like yours, I'd introduce the npcs that would eventually become the players cohorts long before 7th level, and try to weave them into the story in a way to make their transition from npc to cohort a natural progression.
I tend to use the downtime rules in the games I run, so attracting followers is simply a matter of PC action. As for the Leadership feat, I generally take suggestions from the PC about what kind of cohort they would like and I design an NPC to match their description. While PC's have sole agency for making their character, that agency ends at their character sheet.
As for designing the cohorts, I generally use the elite NPC stats or point buy that is 5 less than the player (depending on the power level of the campaign) and use NPC wealth equal to the player level.
Hi Mark, I'm also a 1e veteran converted to Pathfinder. Most of my campaigns over the years have been through the ToEE and beyond. I've tended to prefer lower level adventures and have occupied the higher level characters with politics, realm/organisation building and the like. The story has continued with the busy higher level characters sponsoring the lower level party/ies of adventurers.
Under the Pathfinder rules I've also given a Leadership like feat as a bonus feat and had the cohort come from one of the numerous supporting NPCs or via the organisation the PC is rising in.
In the case you are describing you could give the player a cohort character of your creation or you could let them design their own character or you could choose a middle ground and have them design a character within certain constraints e.g. Any or all of Race/class, required feats and skills to max out.
Personally, I would pick the latter option in discussion with the player and give them the option of choosing an enhanced leadership feat as their feat choice if they want something more.
I'd suggest reading this:
https://www.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?Name=Advancing%20Companions&Category= Companions
While this is generally player-side advice about how to level up cohorts and other pets, I think it might be a useful read for GMs also.
In particular, this:
When you select the Leadership feat, you and the GM should discuss the cohort’s background, personality, interests, and role in the campaign and party. Not only does this give the GM the opportunity to reject a cohort concept that goes against the theme of the campaign, but the GM can plan adventure hooks involving the cohort for future quests. The random background generator in Chapter 1 can help greatly when filling in details about the cohort. Once the discussion is done, writing down a biography and personality profile of the cohort helps cement his role in the campaign and provides a strong reference point for later talks about what is or is not appropriate advancement for the cohort.
I guess what I'm saying is: how do I help the players see these Cohorts as people to interact with, not just another combat bonus or piece of equipment?
Easy, cohort are adventures who will do things on your behalf. Take care of problems you don't have time for, but they don't get to be in combat with you.
Cohorts are a problem in combat anyways, since it's not fair unless everyone gets one, and if everyone gets one it's like having double the player characters. It makes rounds take forever because you've got 8 player controlled characters to get through.
I'm all for the idea of having a strong ally that each player can rely on to do things outside of combat.
If you take away them being in combat it wont really matter how the cohort is built.
Also I would only let the players select classes and maybe archetypes, but specifics of the build would be up to you, not the players. This isn't a player character, it's an NPC that supposed to be representative of the world and who's available. They don't get to custom build a second character.
Basically, you're going to have to lay down rules and tell your players, sorry team but that's just not how this is going to work.
You're already being generous by giving them minions so they don't have to do all the work themselves. It might seem smalls but having a strong ally you can get to do work for you so you don't need to do it yourself is actually a really strong thing to have working in the background in your favor.
I guess what I'm saying is: how do I help the players see these Cohorts as people to interact with, not just another combat bonus or piece of equipment?
Well, that is simple answer. Simple enough that it is not obvious immediately. The easiest, and most direct, way to get your players to treat the cohorts as people with their own drives, motivations and agendas.. is to have them tell the players 'No' occasionally.
Don't feel the need to explain why. Make the players interact with them to change their minds, to try and convince them to do things that they've not wanted to do.
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The easiest, and most direct, way to get your players to treat the cohorts as people with their own drives, motivations and agendas.. is to have them tell the players 'No' occasionally.
Absolutely this. Tell them no, don't be afraid to. Giving them cohorts doesn't need to mean giving them a second player character at a lower level. In fact, it shouldn't mean that.
You set the ground rules and stand firm.
also, since you are giving them these things for free, don't feel bad about giving them what you want. If they took the feat themselves, I'd be more apt to let them have input on the cohort, but I still wouldn't let them out and out make the character, especially an optimized PC stand-in (unless I just didn't have enough players and it was bringing the game down)
also, since you are giving them these things for free, don't feel bad about giving them what you want. If they took the feat themselves, I'd be more apt to let them have input on the cohort, but I still wouldn't let them out and out make the character, especially an optimized PC stand-in (unless I just didn't have enough players and it was bringing the game down)
If the game had too few players and that was presenting a challenge I would look at having everyone run two PCs, unless that would create too large a party (though even if you have 3 players, that's only 6 characters total which is pretty normal for a gaming group and what I consider to the max). 2 players would work out to 4 characters total, which is what the game is balanced around.
If for some reason just have extra PCs isn't the route to go, you can look at gestalt rules and seeing how you can tweak enemies to deal with the party's decreased strength in terms of action economy.
also, since you are giving them these things for free, don't feel bad about giving them what you want. If they took the feat themselves, I'd be more apt to let them have input on the cohort, but I still wouldn't let them out and out make the character, especially an optimized PC stand-in (unless I just didn't have enough players and it was bringing the game down)If the game had too few players and that was presenting a challenge I would look at having everyone run two PCs, unless that would create too large a party (though even if you have 3 players, that's only 6 characters total which is pretty normal for a gaming group and what I consider to the max). 2 players would work out to 4 characters total, which is what the game is balanced around.
If for some reason just have extra PCs isn't the route to go, you can look at gestalt rules and seeing how you can tweak enemies to deal with the party's decreased strength in terms of action economy.
yeah that's a good way to go if everyone is cool with that. I have players though that struggle to play one PC, but I could see running their cohort for them in such situations.
Personally though, I ditched having fully stated up cohorts or GMPCs a long time ago. If there are some in the game, or they've been hired or whatever. I come up with a little bonus based on the character to help the PCs shine more. So like a barbarian cohort won't ever actually attack, he'll just add 5 damage to each successful attack or whatnot. That way their presence is felt, but it still gives all the "stage time" to the actual player characters. First started doing this with Earthdawn, whose system allows for a very easy way to do this, but have since adapted it to most games I run now.