Shattered Kingdoms

Mmm, this is a brilliant idea. I do not believe I can find anything negative about it, or worth critisising. I think adding the 'cohort' status in the title, next to the race/class is probably the best solution.

Perhaps make it so that you can toggle it off and on? That way, those people who want to remain secretly affiliated with their exemplar can choose to toggle it off, much like the profession option.

Stopped reading after that. Not glad with any non-static new things. Cabals are about all that really need to be like that. You may change how you feel about someone else.

I feel this idea would encourage restricted roleplay.

I think this is the type of quality idea that both encourages new players and encourages roleplay, which is often an increasingly rare combination in innovations to muds.

Just to provide criticisms because as you know, the "twink" in me is always looking to point things out:

Over five years ago(?) you radically changed the way SK combat operated to greatly increase the time it took to kill other players. The boards were filled with months about the huge impact of this change (rogues being super-wimped, hammer being wimped, hybrids being unstoppable now, etc.) This was a massive change that you felt was a necessity for the life of the mud.

More and more, changes are being made which reverse this massive change you made. As more and more code changes come in which increase overall damage, I recommend you decide beforehand if you are ready for the scale of the consequences. I can already see the creation of a rogue with haste/gs/frenzy, two enlarge scrolls, a highly enchanted 2h pigsticker, and 3 'cohorts', in aggressive stance, 1hit killing the vast majority of the mud.

Just something to keep in mind with any change that increases overall player damage/accuracy/spell damage.

I do not believe the cohort's exemplar/master needs to be obvious to others in any way.

If the cohort or exemplar want it to be known, they will put it in their title. If not, it can be as secret as they want. I'd say avoid systemization of who's cohort is who, and let RP take care of it.

rp [REDACTED], the lot of ya!

If you would have kept reading, you would have read the part where I said the idea wasn't set in stone and I was asking for your opinion about how to make it better.

This is a good point. It might be best to focus on defensive buffs such as hit points and saving throws rather than offensive buffs. On the other hand, a combination of both would not necessarily make combats faster, since they would tend to cancel each other out if both exemplars had the same numbert of cohorts. I just need to be sure it's not ONLY offensive bonuses.

To continue the original example, right now anyone can claim to be the follower of Slayne, but no one would believe him. I think that there ought to be some way you can prove your affiliation if you want. Maybe exemplars can make a neck slot item that only the cohort can wear. And what if it was the item that provided the exemplar bonuses? (which still only function while your exemplar is in the realm) Just brainstorming here.

Also on the topic of whether or not your bond is permanent, I'd expect there to be some way to terminate it, but that it would make your next cohort bond be weaker. I think picking your exemplar is not a choice you should make lightly.

I'd say for showing your cohort-exemplar bond, there shouldn't be an item. Instead, there should be a custom emote that could be triggered that would show something like "A red mark of Slayne's cohort glows on Ubernoober's skin." I'd say that to keep secrecy available as an option, it should only be triggered via a command like "bond" or "mark" or something.

If there was an item that granted the exemplar powers, I guarantee you cohorts would get ganked for them. Bad idea. It'd be exactly like ganking someone for their religious symbol (which happens frequently enough).

Fluffball doesn't have a bad idea, though. You could even bring back "poses" for this system. If the cohort wants to show his affiliation, he can do it through the pose, which would vary based on his class AND exemplar.