Followers as DNPCs

[Super Squirrel]

What is everyone opinions of putting a Follower as a DNPC?

In this particular case, I'm looking at a Squire for a Knight whose job is to stay out of the way and hand weapons to the Knight or hold the torch so the Knight can use both hands in combat.

[Sean Waters]

Can't see a problem with it as such, and it makes a great deal of sense in the scenario you posit.

Giving him XP might be a problem though as he could become worth less as a disad at the same time as becoming worth more as a follower, but I'm sure you'll cope :)

[OddHat]

I don't mind it. It's a small price rebate on the follower, in exchange for reminding the GM that the follower should cause the player a few problems every now and then.

[ghost-angel]

Don't see an issue with it, nothing says a Follower can't fall under DNPC rules either. Or over time if they gain experience the DNPC Disad lessens a bit, though I'm sure there will always be a certain protective instinct in the knight, probably eventually switching the DNPC Disad into a Psychological: This is my DNPC Disad.

[Sean Waters]

You might as well have a couple of points for something the GM is going to do to you anyway :)

[prestidigitator]

While it might be appropriate in some situations, the particular case in question sounds to me as if it may be handlable simply with DNPC alone. The squire is there. You have to worry about his getting attacked or injured. What small benefit he may offer you is offset immensely by the fact that you have to worry about protecting him or getting him the hell out of the way of brigands and evil necromancers.

That he is there might be of some very small incidental effect (maybe he can even pick up a sword now and then), but mostly it just serves as a plot element to keep him in harms way, as it were. As your GM I likely wouldn't make you put any points in Follower for this; I'm a lot happier in this situation, in fact, than if you have some damsel in some tower somewhere that I have to work into the plot and somehow get in trouble in some way that the PC is aware of and able to handle without traveling half-way across a continent or something.

I agree that, over time, you may be able to buy off the DNPC Disadvantage. Once it is paid for (or close), the squire has become useful and may be purchasable as a Follower. That's how I would handle it. I wouldn't really see a problem with anyone else deciding to handle it differently though.