So considering getting the Leadership feat and was wondering how to effectively use this feat without having a revolving door of dead NPCs?
Background:
Cleric of Muir that's typically plays "Support". Party of 6 already so don't really need additional cannon fodder :-P
I've played a Ranger in the past and found that my Animal Companions would die quite often with this group. (There's a running joke that I single-handily wiped the jungle clean of Constrictor Snakes in a 20-mile radius).
What would you suggest?
Establish some kind of base of operations, you get a bonus to your Leadership score for this anyway. Leave your followers at home, crafting stuff for you, running your business interests, earning money for you etc. No leader should drag their low level minions with them, unless they're planning some sort of large scale war.
If youhave a decent charisma and do the 'smart' things for bonus. It will only be 2 levels behind you. A high dex and high con body guard who normally stays out of combat and is there just to keep you out of combat, is pretty survivable. Monk and Paladin both work pretty well for that.
A bard buff bot is also usually pretty safe.
And yeah, if you even bother recruiting the low level minions, leave them at home.
Get a cohort that can heal and/or protect himself (for example, another cleric).
I had a beastmaster ranger with leadership for extra companions. I worked out with the DM that the minions actually ran by chain of stables/menagerie, allowing me to change my animal companion in the city and in less time than 24 hours. Also meant that i had somewhere to put and pick up my T-Rex companion without scarying the villagers.
I am playing a Ranger with a Pseudodragon cohort. The dragon is leveling as a rogue so its effectively a level 4 rogue to my level 8 ranger. as a part of the group his main purpose is trap finding, device disabling, scouting and the occasional well timed sneak attack.
it works great because it gives the group most of the benefits of a rogue in the group... without actually having to have one, but does not force the DM to rebalance encounters with what amounts to an additional character in the game.
granted your GM may not allow such an addition but its the best use of Leadership I have ever had without causing a lot of balance chaos.
Talk it through with your GM first so s/he doesn't kill off your minions just because they got too annoying.
If you already have a party of 6 I wouldn't take leadership at all.
It'd unbalance things too much, which itself can lead to the NPCs dying a lot - to rebalance the GM has to up the CR value of encounters, putting the lower level NPCs even farther behind the curve, and/or GM will go after them as monster bait being the soft target of the over powered group.
I wouldn't take leadership, or even have a pet, unless you needed it to bring the party up to 5 individuals total, 6 max.
I would have to disagree. Leadership is very helpful. Of course I don't know that much about it. I have used the feat for my player used now. Also I didn't use it on a human, so. I am a druid with an animal companion. I used this feat on a Nightmare(a horse with hairs and hooves made of fire). It's pretty sweet. So again my opinion is try to use it. The more players by your side, the better chance you have of not dying. Get more allies and good luck:)
As a DM with a party in which two of the PCs have cohorts I can atest to the fact of the DM having to bump the combat up to try and balance due to the large number of characters. my suggestion if you are going to take leadership is do make a healing cleric or a buffer of some sort because they are less likely do die due to being in front. Having a rogue isn't a bad option either though if a trap goes badly you may well lose your cohort if it was a trap set up for a character your level.
Overall though a support character of some kind is usually your best bet due to the fact that the buffs of your cohort are only two levels under what another PC could do so it is a very nice addition to the group. Though do be warned it does tend to bog things down since it is like having a whole other character.
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Cohorts and Animal Companions are VERY squishy. Cohorts even moreso than Animal Companions in fact.
Thus giving them an important role in combat (especially front liner) is a very bad idea. Doubly so if your GM prefers to avoid concentrating attacks on PCs for fear of killing them too quickly as killing a cohort or Animal Companion is usualy considered far less traumatic compared to killing a PC.
The Druid in our RotRL group tends to ignore this quite frequently, apparently because she wants to have her AC play an important part in combat, on par with PCs front-liners. This usually ends up in her being quite distraught about her AC often being in mortal danger, and even being killed once.
Note also that using a cohort in combat will need you to master the cohort's combat routine in addition of your PC. If both are quite similar, it should be ok, but if they are quite different (let's say and archer and a meleist), you will end up wasting time deciding your cohort's actions.
The best, then would be to have a cohort focused on non-combat tasks and with a very simple role in combat (healing, buffing or tanking as a bodyguard for example). This should also prevent said cohort from stealing the spotlight away from PCs.
Ideally, your followers should never see combat. Use them for tedious tasks that require a lot of warm bodies but are not too dangerous.
Same goes for your cohort unless you have a really high charisma. Even so, your cohort is at least two levels behind you. A cohort might occasionally join the battle, but he is better used for buffing, support, magic item creation, and other functions that don't endanger him.