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I suggest picking up this PDF from Super Genius Games.. It's a buck and it makes using the Leadership feat very easy and well balanced. It's only one page with two options. Option one is three cohorts that don't adventure but provide bonuses to you when you are at home. The other option is more like a local hero where you can gain benefits from people from name recognition alone.
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And if any of you email me this weekend, I'll send you a copy of "#1 With a Bullet Point: 2 Options for the Leadership Feat" for free so you can check it out for yourself. :)
I own it & actually reviewed it, 4/5 stars. It really is a great way to get a benefit out of Leadership without driving your GM crazy.
Sounds like playing Guild Wars solo..
Regarding Leadership...
My DM (and I agree with him, it's how I'd play it), allows cohorts from Leadership that can be part of combat (if we are a small group, like 3 players or less), or that can fill an out of combat role in a normal sized group (such as a troubleshooter or healer that stays away from the combat, or an item crafter that stays back home making things).
In our Kingmaker game, I was playing the best character for the Duke (Baron? King?) and picked up Leadership specifically when I got a wife to be the "second in command".. which kind of turned into "only one in command" when I ran off gallivanting and adventuring all the time.
She was also our magic item crafter. Never found a better use for the Celebrity Bard archetype, heh.
I am currently running a party of 12-14th level adventurers through dragons delve in dungeonaday. The half-orc saint has taken this feat and acquired a group of followers. First of all, since we have 6 in the party, the cohort does not adventure with us. Secondly, the followers are a motley crew of outcasts and rejects bound together in sort of a peasant's crusade. As a GM, I can use them to infight, and cause friction with the local villagers, and generally make trouble. It adds to the game, but that's because the player is very flexible.
Just last night, the saint returned to his underground temple to find that the priest he left in charge was about to burn his new wizard follower at the stake for heresy. . .
I can see how leadership can be totally abused, it requires a reasonable player and a strong GM. I generally keep the followers out of combat, agree that the GM needs to have players explain how they recruit and to have a say in who the cohort is.
Lavachild
Never had a single problem with Leadership in fifteen years.
To be fair, my gaming groups lack the "us vs. the DM" attitude that leads to banned mechanics instead of reasonable discussion between adults, but it's a completely reasonable (not to mention cool) benefit to sink a precious feat into all the same.
At the risk of sounding rude, pre-emptively banning a core feat seems like a scrub move to me.
How do you handle the Leadership feat in your games? More specifically, how do you keep it from causing serious imbalance in the game?...
I have made two modifications that work well for me.
- I only allow the squire feat not the leadership feat. And the squire feat doesn't upgrade to leadership later.- Only martial classes are allowed to take the squire feat.
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In my experience, the problem isn't the cohorts or followers themselves, nor the extra accounting involved. The problem has always been that you can almost double your character's capabilities with a single feat. Think about it; if there was a feat that gave you an extra full action each round, everyone would take it, right? It would be mandatory for all builds. That's essentially what Leadership is. So, to fix the actual problem, I break Leadership down into a whole feat chain. Yeah, yeah, feat chains are a dirty word around here, but it really does fix this problem. Most players will forget about it in favor of other stuff that more closely fits their characters, while players who really want to have the entourage feel can get even deeper into it by investing more feats.
The basic idea is that three chains sprout off of the base Leadership feat, one that gives party buffs, one that gives followers, and one that builds up a cohort. That way, players who just need warm bodies to man the stronghold can get what they want, players who really want a traveling companion cohort can go for just that, and players who just want to be more effective party leaders can focus their feats on that.
Here's what's currently being playtested:
Overview
The Leadership is almost universally banned in both organized play and home games, and for good reason. This revision attempts to rebalance the feature by splitting the single feat into a three-pronged chain of feats. Using this system, it’s still possible for players to attract cohorts and followers, but it requires a much deeper investment. Also, the basic chain of feats allows dedicated characters to provide a variety of bonuses to both their henchmen and their allies.
Leadership
Benefit: As a move action, you may give all allies within 30 feet a +1 morale bonus to their AC for one round. As a standard action, you may give all allies within 30 feet a +1 morale bonus on their attacks for one round.
Improved Leadership
Prerequisites: Character level 3rd, Leadership.
Benefit: The range of your leadership powers increases to 60 feet. The duration of all leadership actions is a number of rounds equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1).
Greater Leadership
Prerequisites: Character level 5th, Improved Leadership, Leadership.
Benefit: The range of your leadership actions increases to all allies who can see or hear you and the morale bonuses granted increase by +1 at 5th level and every 5 levels thereafter.
Cohort
Prerequisites: Character level 3rd, Leadership.
Benefit: You gain a cohort according to your leadership score. The cohort uses the basic ability score array (13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8), may only be an NPC class, and is always at least 2 levels below you.
Improved Cohort
Prerequisites: Character level 5th, Cohort, Leadership.
Benefit: Your cohort now uses the heroic ability score array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8).
Greater Cohort
Prerequisites: Character level 7th, Cohort, Improved Cohort, Leadership.
Benefit: Your cohort may have levels in any PC class.
Followers
Prerequisites: Character level 3rd, Leadership.
Benefit: You gain a number of NPC followers equal to half your level, plus your Charisma modifier. These followers use the basic ability score array (13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8), may only use the commoner NPC class, must be the same race as you, and are always 1st level.
Improved Followers
Prerequisites: Character level 5th, Followers, Leadership.
Benefit: Your followers may now use any NPC class and may be of any race.
Greater Followers
Prerequisites: Character level 7th, Improved Followers, Followers, Leadership.
Benefit: You gain followers according to your leadership score.
Replacing a cohort or follower must be attempted in a settlement or other population center where an appropriately diverse selection of inhabitants and travelers can be found. The cost to replace a cohort is equal to 1,000 gold per level; the cost of replacing a follower is equal to 100 gold per level. New cohorts and followers always come equipped with armaments, tools, and provisions required to perform the functions of their classes.
I allow leadership under certain conditions. First the character must be actively working at building an organization of some sort. This could be a thief’s guild, a religious group, a war band, a spy ring or just about any other sort of organization you want. Second the character has to be able to actually run the organization in question without his cohort. Third the character has made a name for him in something relating to the type of organization he wants to build. And last but most importantly the character is continuing to run the organization.
When a character takes leadership they must take both the cohort and all followers they attract. They must also be able to equip and maintain all followers and cohort in a reasonable manner. If the character does not pay proper attention to his followers and their mutual goals he loses the feat. If he wants he can try and regain the followers by working to rebuild. This results in a permanent -2 to leadership per instance. If he does not want to bother he can simply chose a new feat.
Only player characters have to spend a feat for leadership. Appropriate NPC’s get it for free. I find that the leadership rules actually work well for creating opponents for the players. Since I am not actually using the feat players get full experience and treasure for everyone then fight. This works well for creating the local thief’s guild or followers of the local lord.
Considering that the feat doesn't actually allow the character to MAKE OR CONTROL the npc, it's only as overpowered as the GM wants it to be.
As a courtesy, I usually allow the player to make the NPC, but will veto it if it is overpowered (any full caster, unless filling in for a missing healer, is out).
Fighters I just ok, I don't care.
People seem to think that since they take the feat, they get to control the followers, this simply isn't true.
Even if the cohort is a commoner, it's a commoner that's usually within two levels of the party, so very very useful!
Way better than Weapon Focus, or Dodge...
In all my D&D experience (from high school mid 80's onward) I have never had the problems with Leadership. I have had games where there were not enough players so we played multiple characters. Recently in our Rune Lords game, our Oracle who took Leadership got her followers and Cohort. The Cohort is our extra Cleric. The Cleric has never been in direct combat except Aid Another.
It seems that there are people out there that want to game the system and Leadership is one of those things that can be exploited. We just happen to be one of those groups that don't game the system.
I haven't banned the use of Leadership, in fact, I think it can be really useful in rounding out a group or getting a PC a bunch of useful contacts (good use for those followers).
I let the player control their cohort in combat under the assumption that they should work well together, though I will veto obviously suicidal actions on the cohort's part. As GM, I play the cohort under other situations and will use them to supply information to the players as best I can.
I have let the players build their cohorts, but I will also build for them too based on a few specifications. I make it clear that I will be striving to build a complete and well-rounded character, not just a one-trick bag of hit points.
I don't even worry about using a cohort to craft magic items. I find the concerns about that being a problem are completely overblown.
Nearly all games I play in allow the Leadership feat, and it is very popular. But not for power reasons, if anything it is considered a feat that reduces your power via opportunity cost.
Why?
A couple of reasons.
1. The leadership feat is considered a passive ability in my group's games. You do not get to choose your followers or cohorts, they come to you based on your reputation. You may request a specific NPC that you have encountered before, but it's up to the DM to decide if that's reasonable.
2. Following from 1, the Cohort is an NPC designed by the GM and played by the GM that you don't have control over, let alone a say in their abilities.
Example 1: My Oracle/Sorcerer freed a slave diplomat that they worked with earlier in the game. Once freed they decided to stick around (I requested they be my cohort) and we found out they were a Summoner, a little later my character started a cult which allowed her to gain her followers (21 Commoner/Experts and 2 Adepts).
Example 2: A fellow player started an escaped slave in the same campaign after his Brawler died. He asked to have another escaped slave as a cohort, the GM gave him a Wyrwood Psychic. He later became the rebel leader and gained his followers (5 Commoner/Expert craftsman).
Neither of these cohorts have been game changing, if anything I felt a bigger impact when my Sorcerer/Oracle first learned Haste.
Nearly all games I play in allow the Leadership feat, and it is very popular. But not for power reasons, if anything it is considered a feat that reduces your power via opportunity cost.
Why?
A couple of reasons.
1. The leadership feat is considered a passive ability in my group's games. You do not get to choose your followers or cohorts, they come to you based on your reputation. You may request a specific NPC that you have encountered before, but it's up to the DM to decide if that's reasonable.
2. Following from 1, the Cohort is an NPC designed by the GM and played by the GM that you don't have control over, let alone a say in their abilities.
I'm notoriously bad during a home campaign of 'picking up the contracts'/'recruiting from the opponent'. Thankfully, the GM sees it as a very cool story development device, and enforces the bonuses and the penalties for how the cohort is treated.
This being said, if we hadn't had my cohort along on the last dungeon crawl... well, it might have been the start of a new campaign. He really held the line like a champ. He got a bonus for that one.
There was one time where I had a problem with leadership as a player.
We were a party of 5 and two players took leadership at level 7. One was the life oracle who build himself a bodyguard. The other was the master summoner who got a small cavalier with a dog mount.
Now in addition to having the summoner, eidolon and summons at the table there was the cavalier AND the mount. So we had 10 creatures* taking actions each turn and one player controlled 5 of them.
*Often times the summoner did not summon 1 creature but a group, meaning sometimes the summons wasn't 1 but 2-5 creatures.
I've banned it. The possibility for abuse and marginalizing all the other players is just too much. Sorcerer with Improved Familiar with a wand of <insert damage spell> who takes Leadership to gain a Summoner with eidolon who also takes Leadership to gain a Cleric heal-bot... You end up with one player who can cast at least 3 spells per round, heal everyone and make a nasty full attack with an eidolon. Sorry, not in my games.
People always assume that the player gets to design the NPC...
The feat doesn't say this.
NPCs start with NPC gear, NOT WBL as per character rules.
How many stat points they get is left blank, and thus another thing the GM can choose.
I understand people banning this (I sometimes do) but it is only as overpowered as you, the GM, make it.
What I'm saying is that you can, without having to 'house rule' anything, inform the player that this feat DOES EXACTLY WHAT IT SAYS AND NO MORE. You can make the NPC.
I always sit down with anyone taking this and we work together to make something appropriate, that fills a role, but doesn't overshadow anyone or create a synergy that would lead to OP play (no followers with pets/eidolons, for example).
Most of the time, people use this to make an excellent meat shield (defensive fighter type), that seems to work best and has minimal impact.
Leadership is great in small groups, but disruptive in large ones. Due to all these variables, it is hard to say good or bad to it, as it really is highly situational.
I like it a lot, and most GMs I have played with let me build my own follower (using similar guidelines listed above)-I almost always make a Bard or Fighter. :D
In my game, my character has Leadership. I pick class, and maybe 1/2 of the class choices & some (not all) gear. GM does rest. I control the character, but GM gets override if he feels character would not do as I said. This applies to cohort and followers, and I got a lot (score 23). Most of the followers are spread around w/info(spy) network. Some are coven, some are [whisper]other ninjas. A scattered fow do other stuff, including a ship captain follower.
As for number of creatures, well I have a familiar, my cohort has one also. Three other players have leadership. Full house has 7 PCs. One PC is a synthesis summoner and can summon a few. The wizard summons. The oracle is a necromancer w/undead and a familiar (sort-of). We can load the battle map up quite nicely.
/cevah