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In Mutants and Masterminds you can purchase a side kick as a feat.

I'm rolling up a knight, and I want a squire, using a similar game mechanic.

Is there anything like this in DnD, other than Leadership? I don't want a small gang of cohorts, but only one follower.

Or would this just be a 'the GM rolls them up as an NPC and you wing it' kind of thing?

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4 Answers

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Actually, the Leadership feat would work well for this. Leadership grants a cohort (a single high level follower) and followers (several low level ones). You could take the cohort and simply never claim the low-level followers.

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Agreed, Leadership lets you have a sidekick/cohort of up to your level minus two, which is not colossally different from the M&M Sidekick feat (in M&M 1e, that is, which is all I have) - which caps them at your level-1. I guess you could try to talk your DM into cashing in all the followers for that one additional level of cohort. – mxyzplk♦ Nov 7 '10 at 2:39
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I would go so far as to say that this is exactly the sort of thing Leadership was designed for. – Burrito Al Pastor Nov 7 '10 at 3:04
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There is also the Improved Cohort feat from Heroes of Battle I think. It allows your Cohort to be level -1 instead of level -2. You're still allowed followers. – C. Ross♦ Dec 31 '10 at 17:10
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Best for this as has been said but why not make it even more suited to a knight? Squire sure. Why not a trusted war horse, or hunting dog can think of more..? All could gain exp with you. I can think of many more to make your squire stay lower and using leadership to its full potential. Its possibly one of the best feats open. Downfall is as a DM I would make you role-play some of your cohorts (or I would play them ...), remember up to DM, and for that matter they may choose one for you. And best situation a story/session creates one.

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Could you edit this answer? It's quite hard to read, but you may have an interesting idea. Perhaps multiple paragraphs will help. – Brian Ballsun-Stanton♦ Dec 30 '10 at 9:43
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I'm not trying to be the "just roleplay it!" guy, because that guy is annoying, but my feeling is that you could certainly pick up a squire or other cohort purely through roleplay.

But there would be a core difference, in games I run. Spend a feat on Leadership, and you'll get a cohort who is absolutely trustworthy and will never betray you. Pick up a squire through roleplay, and get a guy who you're pretty sure you can trust, but who is likely to have priorities that don't entirely match your own.

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I believe the rules do support this (although I don't have them handy). The catch is that a non-leadership cohort takes a share of the XP for each encounter they participate in, and expects to be paid (usually with a half share of treasure). – AceCalhoon Dec 30 '10 at 14:02
@AceCalhoon A leadership cohort also expects to be paid. The experience point thing is handy, though. – GMJoe Mar 21 '12 at 3:52
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If you want something other than the Leadership feat. In DMGII there are two feats that you can use :

Apprentice : A character with this feat has apprenticed himself to a master in order to speed his learning and bolster his skills.

and

Mentor : A character who takes this feat has offered his knowledge and skill to a lower-level NPC and takes that NPC on as an apprentice.

Another way of getting a side-kick is to use charm person or dominate person, but considering this is Knight you are talking about, that may not be the best way.

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Oooh! Knight Thrallherd. "Hi, I'm Sir Dominator, and this is Squire 43." – Brian Ballsun-Stanton♦ Jan 9 '11 at 10:25

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