Elite Leadership alternate feat?

[hector212121]

Basically, I want to make a character with a group of elite followers--none of that bullshit with having 100 level 1 followers--without losing too much power from having less followers. Does anyone have any ideas on how to reasonably translate the levels upwards, or is there maybe a way to get a second cohort instead of any followers, or something like that?

I was thinking it might be reasonable to translate 3 level 1 martial characters into 1 level 2, 3 into 1 level 3, etc, while for casters it might be more like 5 for 1 of higher level.

So at leadership score of 23, instead of 90 level ones and so on you could have 5 level 5s and 1 level 6. Yes, you sacrifice a lot of cannon fodder and raw force, but on the other hand, your logistics become 20 times simpler and you can actually name all your followers and track who they are, what their problems are, and so on, which makes for much better roleplaying.

[Swashbucklersdc]

The easiest way to do this would, with GM permission, to use the CR system...

A 1st level follower of a PC class is CR 1/2 (I am assuming, as you want elite followers, you want PC class followers), worth 200 XP.

A 6th level follower of a PC class is CR 5, worth 1600 XP. That is basically the equivalent of 8 1st level followers if you were running it as an encounter.

Using these rules: Creatures whose Hit Dice are solely a factor of their class levels and not a feature of their race, such as all of the PC races detailed in Races, are factored into combats a little differently than normal monsters or monsters with class levels. A creature that possesses class levels, but does not have any racial Hit Dice, is factored in as a creature with a CR equal to its class levels –1. A creature that only possesses non-player class levels (such as a warrior or adept) is factored in as a creature with a CR equal to its class levels –2. If this reduction would reduce a creature's CR to below 1, its CR drops one step on the following progression for each step below 1 this reduction would make: 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/6, 1/8.

[Swashbucklersdc]

Another option, using that same idea, and much more balanced (for GM sanity), would be this...

Use your character level as your CR and figure out your XP level. So, if you are 12th level, you are a CR 12, XP 19,200.

Your cohort can be a maximum of 2 levels lower, so CR 9 (as they use NPC wealth, not PC wealth).

Subtract your Cohort XP from yours, and use the rest to "purchase" your followers, using their XP for Cr out of the rest of the pool. Limit followers purchased in this manner to 6th level, thus CR 5.

Using the above example, your pool is 19,200. Subtract out the XP for your cohort (whether you have one or not), which is 6,400. That leaves you 12,800 in your pool.

Each level 6 is 1,600; each 5th is 1,200; 4th, 800; 3rd, 600; 2nd, 400; 1st, 200.

[hector212121]

Hm. 5 level 5s/1 6 did seem a little low, but the third doesn't actually account for the bonuses and penalties while the second is waaaaay too high, so i have no idea how to properly balance that.

Going with the numbers in my example, the earliest one would expect to be able to get 23 leadership would be (23-7(charisma w/race/enhancement/level)-2(permanent base))=14.

Clearly, the XP based one doesn't get anywhere near covering a Bard or Sorcerer with Leadership, who actually has a guild/school/military base of some sort.

Also of note is that for Elite Leadership, you wouldn't need anywhere near as large a permanent base--a single building about the size of a large house would likely suffice.