I have an 11th level Summoner in a home-brew Brithright campaign with a Leadership Score of 20 - the skill bonuses my character's followers possess have a very real impact on some of the campaign's features (guilds, regency, realm actions, etc.). Been scouring the boards for a while and still unsure about the way PC classes (Fighter, Wizard, etc.) stack up against NPC classes (Expert, Aristocrat, etc.) for the "level" qualifier for followers.
Specific example - if I wanted my character's 1st-level followers (50 of them, as specified by "Number of Followers by Level" in the Leadership feat)to be guard-types, are they the same "level" if they're either a Warrior 1 or a Fighter 1? Or is the "level" qualifier determined the same way as CR, where an it takes several NPC "levels" to equal that of a single PC class? Thanks!