Balancing leadership modifiers

[Umbranus]

I've been thinking some about leadership and how I'd use it in my own games if at all.
The RAW more or less only take into account things that affect a cohort or the followers from a roleplaying perspective. Which is important as we are playing a roleplaying game but there are other important factors as well. Like how strong the impact on your game as a whole and specific characters might be.
And that is wat I want to add.
So here are some ideas for balancing the leadership score based on how what kind of character is going to take the cohort.

changes to existing modifiers:

Delete the special power +1 modifier. Nearly everyone gets this so it's useless.
Instead of the exsisting modifier for having a familiar, cohort and such I'd do the following:
Has a familiar: -1
Has a special mount: -2
Has an eidolon or combat companion: -3
Mounts who often fight on their own instead of being ridden count as combat companions.

New modifiers:

As a balancing factor I add those modifiers.

Use level + cha mod +3 for base leadership score

Leader can cast spells or has sp abilities: -1
Cohort can cast spells or has sp abilities: -1
Cohort has a special mount, eidolon or animal companion: -2
Cohort has a cohort -2

That way spellcasting PCs with companions are discouraged from taking spellcastung cohorts with companions.
With the +3 base leadership most PCs should have about the same score as before except for fighters + some rogues who gain a little benefit and Druids + summoners who get a little nerfed.

Please don't turn this into a debate about whether fighters need some love. This one is already running in another part of the board.

[Ascalaphus]

Most of it: OK.

The ones I don't like: penalty for being a spellcaster. I get the balance argument, but it makes poor sense for Leadership. Being a spellcaster shouldn't negatively impact my ability to attract other spellcaster followers. Particularly if I style the Leadership feat as being the founder of a magic academy.

If you think spellcasters are too powerful, you should work on that directly, not through this indirect way that would only work if everyone is actually taking Leadership.

[Morgen]

Wait, you don't actually make your PC's look for companions?

You don't let them just build them and everything I hope.

[Umbranus]

I don't make players take excisting NPCs as cohorts for severyl reasons:
- I would not want that as a player
- Doing so could spoiler things about NPCs. Like "Why can't I have him as cohort? I'm spending so much time befriending him" "Thats because... don't ask."

[Morgen]

Yeah but they should do some amount of searching about to find one. The NPCs shouldn't just appear out of the mists around them.

[Ascalaphus]

Appearing without any story is bad for immersion, to be sure. But you can also allow the player to create that backstory: "So, you took Leadership and got a wizard buddy... tell me how that happened."

[stagehog81]

I don't have an issue with the players creating their cohort as long as they give a story as to why and how the cohort came to them (ex. a player Cleric that has a Paladin cohort. Their cohort sought them out after receiving a vision during their daily prayers to their god telling them to seek out and protect the cleric on their journey, or the cleric may have sent a letter to an order of paladins requesting assistance on their journey.)