Rules Index | GM Screen

The Role of Cohorts and Followers

Source Ultimate Intrigue pg. 131
Cohorts traditionally function as fellow adventurers, and followers function as background characters who perform tasks to help the PCs behind the scenes. There are plenty of other things for these characters to do, however, such as aiding in downtime activities or kingdom-building. The options below make followers more involved in campaigns, and also provide alternatives for groups that want to enjoy the character interaction from having cohorts but don’t want more characters in combat.

Contacts: When using the contacts rules, a cohort or a follower can act as a contact. Followers typically have a Trust score of 3 or 4, whereas a cohort always has a Trust score of 5. Using followers and cohorts as contacts is a good way to keep them in the background and away from the direct spotlight.

Downtime: The downtime system in Ultimate Campaign already interfaces with the Leadership feat. A character can use followers as labor or organize them into teams, and can appoint a cohort or a notable follower to serve as a manager for her business. See Using Followers for more details.

Heists: Followers can aid in overcoming the obstacles of a heist. They can help distract guards, help foil barriers, and even brave hazards. Cohorts can act as if they were additional PCs during the heist, allowing the group to do more to achieve the heist’s goals.

Influence: When using the influence system, cohorts can potentially help the party gain influence at a social event, allowing more discovery or influence checks. A character could also offer the service of her cohorts and followers to curry favor with an organization, and if the organization is the source of these followers or cohorts, the character can gain additional Leadership bonuses from having high influence (see the Great Renown section on page 130).

Kingdoms: When using the kingdom-building rules from Ultimate Campaign, a cohort—or, in rare cases, an extremely skilled follower— can serve as a kingdom leader.

Mass Combat: When using the mass combat rules from Ultimate Campaign, cohorts or notable followers can act as commanders for armies, and a numerous group of like-leveled followers (such as the 1st-level followers at extremely high levels of Leadership) can combine to form their own army.

Reputation: When using the reputation and fame system from Ultimate Campaign, a character could have her followers or cohort perform impressive actions to enhance her reputation. Fame also provides a good measure of how famous the character is for the purpose of Leadership bonuses (see the Great Renown section).

Social Conflicts: A party engaged in a social conflict can use cohorts or followers as agents to attempt to perform goals during challenges, potentially increasing the party’s reach and allowing them to participate in multiple engagements simultaneously. Sneaky, personable, or knowledgeable cohorts and followers can aid in discovery challenges or even take on the challenges themselves.

Verbal Duels: A clever PC can stack the deck in her favor by seeding followers into an audience before a verbal duel in an attempt to gain an edge or at least counter negative biases.

Archives of Nethys

Rules Index | GM Screen

The Role of Cohorts and Followers