Good Cohort Build for a Swashbuckler?

[Ralana]

Currently in a homebrew game our group is playing I have a swashbuckler who is a general of a military force. I'm looking for ideas of good cohort builds to take for this character as I will be taking leadership.

As Wisdom and Intelligence are my characters lower stats I'm looking at builds that will offset my characters weakness. What I'm considering is:

Witch, Arcanist, Wizard with a focus in crafting.
Wizard with Divination/Craft focus.

Currently, the party only has one arcane caster who. And we have a lot of healing. There is also a lot of downtime in this game so I think crafting would be a boon in this. Any thoughts?

[Baval]

Crafting leadership is pretty much the quickest way to get leadership banned at most tables in my experience. Taking leadership and getting all the crafting feats out of it plus the time to do it while youre adventuring via proxy is a lot for one feat.

Since INT is a weak stat for you, and youre leading an army, id say Bard or something similar. You get the skills youre lacking, plus a buddy who can buff your troops.

[Devilkiller]

Instead of assuming that crafting is off the table you could ask the DM and the other players what they think about it. Some groups might think it would be fun to have an item crafter. Others might think it is really going too far. Either way the DM might want to make some adjustments to treasure, WBL, etc.

Bards are great cohorts since they buff the entire party (and maybe your army too). They can't provide certain stuff like resistance to energy damage or protection from mind control as well as Wizards though. They also can't make you fly except maybe on a summoned monster (or perhaps a man-sized parrot familiar if you're willing to spend another feat). Lingering Performance plus Saving Finale can really help out with saving throws.

The Evangelist archetype Cleric provides the same Inspire Courage buff as the Bard with a nice selection of defensive and condition removal spells. It can also help you get airborne in various ways, and there are a lot of domain powers which are potentially more interesting for an NPC focused on buffing than a PC who might want to take other actions. For instance, the Law domain can let you touch somebody and make all their d20 rolls result in 11 for a round. That could be great for clutch situations.

Sorcerers provide most of the same benefits as Wizards and could if you so choose come with a flying mount such as a Roc (via Sylvan bloodline). Sorcerers also don't require as much day-to-day prep for spell lists. I'm sorry if I seem a little obsessed with flying, flying mounts, etc. Lack of mobility can be a serious problem for many martial PCs though.

[Corvino]

Thematically a high-Int Investigator or Rogue might fit the bill as your spymaster or chief of scouts. This way your Charismatic general has (literally) good intelligence to deploy your forces. The Investigator gives you access to a ton of knowledges about enemy weaknesses too.

While full casters are great crafters and allow lots of game-breaking shenanigans having them as cohorts seems a bit cheap.