Cohorts

Main > Feats > Leadership > Cohorts

Specialized NPCs called cohorts are willing to follow you on adventures. A cohort always acts on your initiative.

You gain the following ability:

Recruit

You may recruit adventurers, mercenaries, and sellswords to actively assist you. Recruiting requires spending 8 hours in a settlement and making a Diplomacy check. You may select the profession and martial tradition you are looking for, and may also specify a particular race from those available. Not all races, professions, and traditions will be available in all locations; the available pool is determined by the GM. The base DC of this check is 10 + the Hit Dice of the person you are looking to recruit, modified per Settlement Size Modifier and Miscellaneous Modifier. Modifiers are cumulative. You may take 10 on this check.

You may not recruit a creature with more Hit Dice than the maximum shown on Table: Cohort. The exact feats the cohort possesses are up to the GM, though you may reject a given cohort and attempt to recruit another with the normal action. Recruits are usually humanoids with no racial Hit Dice, and are of races available in the region you are recruiting. Creatures with racial Hit Dice, templates, or abilities unsuitable to player races are not suitable to be cohorts.

You may have multiple recruited creatures under your control, but their total Hit Dice cannot exceed your ranks in Diplomacy. If you attempt to recruit a creature that would exceed your Hit Dice cap, you must choose which other creatures to release from your service.

A cohort serves you loyally and will follow you into and aid you during combat, but will not obey obviously suicidal orders nor subject itself to harm for no obvious purpose. Cohorts are usually within 1 alignment step of you, though some exceptions may occur at the GM’s discretion.

Settlement Size	DC Modifier
Thorp	+8
Hamlet	+6
Village	+4
Small Town	+2
Large Town	+1
Small City	+0
Large City	-1
Metropolis	-2

Factor	DC Modifier
Settlement is predominantly of a different alignment to you.	+1 per step (cumulative)
Population of settlement is at least 50% of a particular race you are seeking.	-2
5% to 25% of the population of the settlement is of a particular race you are seeking.	+1
Less than 5% of the population is of a particular race you are seeking.	+2
You are looking for your own race.	-2
You do not specify the profession.	-2
You do not specify tradition.	-2
You are attempting to recruit a contact.	-5, ignore DC modifications for alignment, race, profession, and tradition.
A cohort has been killed and not resurrected.	+5 (cumulative for each death, reduced by 1 for each month since the cohort’s death)
Signing bonus of 10 gp per Hit Die.	-1 (cumulative, may be applied up to 5 times)
Supplying magical equipment.	Reduces DC equal to half the cumulative enhancement bonus of weapons and armor, (minimum reduction of -1)
Settlement is particularly insular, isolated, or opposed to you.	Varies, GM decision

Building A Cohort

Cohorts gain abilities based on their Hit Dice and race.

Ranks in Diplomacy	Maximum Hit Dice	Base Attack Bonus	Feats	Good Saves	Bad Saves	Combat Feats	Special
1	1	+1	1	+2	+0	0	Martial tradition
2	2	+2	1	+3	+0	1	-
3	3	+3	2	+3	+1	1	-
4	3	+3	2	+3	+1	1	-
5	4	+4	2	+4	+1	2	Ability score increase
6	5	+5	3	+4	+1	2	+2 enhancement
7	6	+6/+1	3	+5	+2	3	-
8	6	+6/+1	3	+5	+2	3	-

The listed statistics are modified by the cohort’s race as normal. Cohorts are considered to have a CR equal to their Hit Dice - 2 for purposes that require it. Cohorts have class skills according to their creature type (Animal Ken, Athletics, Crafting and Healing for humanoids), plus the ones listed in their profession. Select from the following professions to determine the cohort’s base statistics:

Student

Hit Dice d6; Saves Fort (bad), Ref (good), Will (good); Ability Scores Str 11, Dex 12, Con 13, Int 16, Wis 9, Cha 10; Practitioner Modifier Int; Skill Points per Hit Die 2; Class Skills Arcana, Commerce, Lore, Mysticism

Magic Scholar: Students gain the Alchemist feat as a bonus feat at 1 Hit Die. Students add half their level (minimum 1) to all Arcana or Mysticism checks (chosen at creation).

Budding Academic: Students gain an additional 4 skill points per Hit Die that must be spent on Intelligence-based skills.

Starting Equipment: Alchemy kit, simple melee or ranged weapon with 20 pieces ammunition.

Thief

Hit Dice d8; Saves Fort (bad), Ref (good), Will (good); Ability Scores Str 12, Dex 16, Con 13, Int 11, Wis 9, Cha 10; Practitioner Modifier Int; Skill Points per Hit Die 4; Class Skills Commerce, Deception, Perception, Stealth, Streetwise, Thievery

Rogue Training: Thieves may take rogue talents in place of feats.

Trapfinding: A thief cohort adds 1/2 her level to Perception skill checks made to locate traps and to Thievery(Disable Device) skill checks (minimum +1). A thief cohort can use Thievery(Disable Device) to disarm magic traps.

Starting equipment: Studded leather armor, thieves tools

One of:

1. Simple or martial melee weapon and simple or martial ranged weapon with 20 pieces ammunition.

2. Simple or martial melee weapon and shield.

Warrior

Hit Dice d10; Saves Fort (good), Ref (bad), Will (good); Ability Scores Str 16, Dex 12, Con 13, Int 9, Wis 10, Cha 11; Practitioner Modifier Con; Skill Points per Hit Die 4; Class Skills Intimidation, Perception, Streetwise, Warfare

Athlete: Warrior cohorts gain a bonus equal to half their Hit Dice on all Athletics skill checks as well as on Constitution-based ability checks.

Starting equipment: scale mail or studded leather armor

One of:

1. Simple or martial melee weapon and simple or martial ranged weapon with 20 pieces ammunition.

2. Simple or martial melee weapon and shield .

Woodsman

Hit Dice d10; Saves Fort (good), Ref (good), Will (bad); Ability Scores Str 12, Dex 16, Con 13, Int 9, Wis 11, Cha 10; Practitioner Modifier Wis; Skill Points per Hit Die 4; Class Skills Lore(geography), Lore(nature), Perception, Stealth, Survival

Survivalist: Woodsman cohorts gain a bonus equal to half their Hit Dice on all Survival skill checks. Woodsmen gain the Tracker feat as a bonus feat at 1 Hit Die.

Starting equipment: Studded leather armor, a simple or martial melee weapon and simple or martial ranged weapon with 20 pieces ammunition.

When a cohort gains variable starting equipment (for example, a choice of weapons or shields) the total cost of the combined weapons, ammunition, and/or shield cannot exceed 100 gp.

All cohorts are proficient with simple weapons, light armor, and bucklers. Cohorts begin play with leather armor and a dagger in addition to any equipment listed in their descriptions; further equipment must be supplied to them. A cohort’s starting gear may not be used to increase PC wealth; it cannot normally be sold and if extreme circumstances occur where the PCs benefit from its loss, it must be replaced (or wealth sufficient to pay for replacements given) at the earliest possible time. If the cohort is deceased, this payment must be made to their next of kin or other designee (it is assumed that such a person always exists as part of normal recruitment). If a cohort is equipped with additional items, the cohort will not keep them if leaving your service.

When you gain a level and your ranks in Diplomacy increase, you may assign an additional Hit Die to current cohorts, up to the maximum they may possess and not causing the total Hit Dice you have recruited to exceed your limit.

Feats: A cohort begins with one feat, and gains another feat at every odd Hit Die. A cohort may gain any PC feat for which it qualifies. Cohorts may not gain magic item crafting feats.

Combat Feats: Cohorts gains combat feats with the proficient progression.

Martial Tradition: Your cohort gains a martial tradition, using the practitioner modifier given by their profession.

Ability Score Increase: Just like PCs and Monsters, a cohort gains a permanent +1 bonus to an ability score of your choice for every 4 Hit Dice possessed.

Enhancement: At 5 Hit Dice, a cohort gains a +2 enhancement bonus to one ability score. At 9th level, they increase this bonus to +4 and gain a +2 bonus to an additional ability score. At 13th level, the first bonus increases to +6, the second to +4, and they gain a +2 bonus to an additional ability score. These bonuses may be retrained as if they were a single feat.

Feats marked (cohort) grant additional options for your cohorts. Some abilities call out joint actions. These actions require both the user and his cohort to pay the requisite action cost.

Re-recruiting cohorts

A cohort that leaves your service on good terms is easier to recruit. You may maintain a network of such former cohorts, called contacts, equal to twice your practitioner ability modifier (minimum 2).

Such contacts do not normally travel with you beyond reaching the nearest settlement. Each contact will have a place of residence, usually in a settlement but sometimes a wilderness area, ship, or other abode. You may send messages to a contact by whatever means you have available, requesting that they meet you at a particular time and place, allowing you to recruit them. Feats such a Messenger can facilitate getting messages to the contact and their traveling to meet you. Contacts are able to travel to your caravan at the same rate as your Messengers.

Contacts have lives apart from following you and may on occasion send requests for aid or show up in unexpected places. Unlike a cohort, there is no penalty for the death of a contact. Mindless cohorts may not become contacts.

Cohorts Feats

Name	Categories	Prerequisites	Benefit
Leadership	Combat • Leadership • Style	—	Gain a cohort or a group of followers

Open Gaming License Version 1.0a Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

15. COPYRIGHT NOTICE

System Reference Document. Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.; Authors Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, based on material by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.

Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. Copyright 2009, Paizo Publishing, LLC; Author: Jason Bulmahn, based on material by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, and Skip Williams.

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System Reference Document

Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook

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