help with the death of a cohort (again)

[eXodus]

in the game i have been running one of the pcs (elven 6th paladin/3rd abjurer/1st sellsword) got herself a nice little cohort. because of her charisma and such she ended up with a 8th level cohort. it ended up being a half-orc 6th cleric/2nd fighter.

after meeting up with this new cohort the party knew him for all of two whole days and he was killed by a greatsword-wielding orc barbarian.

the party pooled their resources and the party wizard teleported the dead cohort's remains back to a large city and had him raised from the dead.

then one day later, and on the same journey the cohort was again killed. this time his brain was devoured by an illithid.

my problem is this: do i let the cohort be raised again? and if he is raised will he want to run with these goons again? also, how about a new cohort? seeing as this one only lasted four days could he just be replaced?

has anyone else had problems with cohorts dropping like flies?

 

[arwink]

Difficult question to answer without knowing how Raising is seen in your world

The big question, essentially, becomes "Does the Cohort want to come back?" Raising is only going to work if the half-orc is willing to return from the dead, and if he's died twice in close succession, he may just decide that it's to much effort to return to the prime once again.

On the other hand, if the half-orc is somehow fanatical about serving the primary character, raising from the dead shouldn't take a great deal of thought. It could all be about the mission, after all. If raising is a common practice for adventurers, it shouldn't be out of the ordinary for the cohort to make the decision the same way any character would when considering whether he should return to the party.

As for the cohorts dropping like flies - yeah, it does tend to happen. Worse, once you get on the death-raise-loose a level cycle it can begin to happen a lot more often. Cohorts are essentially there as second tier characters in terms of their importance, and they can often go down fast when fighting opponents designed to challenge a higher level party. Cohorts that avoid front-line combat and take support roles are always good (Clerics that serve as healers and buffers for the primary characters, archers/bodyguards, wizards who serve as item crafters and scholars etc), and often survive a little longer than one who'se taking the burden of front line combat off a PC.

 

[yennico]

I totally agree with arwink.

The encounters your party are facing are challenging for 10th level chars and not for 8th like the cohort.

And one question: Do your party really need the powers, etc. of this cohort ?

In our party (15th level ) playing the WotC adventure "Iron fortess" one PC had a cohort : a fighter4/wizard9. This cohort was pretty useless in any combat situation.

Just my 2 cents
yennico

 

[Tonguez]

Yeah pretty much a cohort should serve as backup not second rank characters. IMC Cohorts usually stay at home and run the Manor/Estates while the PC Lord goes off adventuring. If they are along for the ride they tend to sit back and attack from range, cast buffs or heal as required - Cohorts are like Gabriel and Xena, not Batman and Robin...

As to your question I'd say the curreent (dead) Cohort will refuse to come back and that the PC will need to find a new Cohort (using the penalties in the Feat description re allowing a Cohort to die and the 1 month (?) time lag)