Leadership: How do you handle it?

[Ferrum]

At 15th level my DM suggested I take Leadership as my feat. I chose a wizard/loremaster as my cohort, and together we developed a backstory that pretty much designed her as an artificer. She doesn't adventure with my group, but does cast extended spells before we set out, and works on creating magic items while we're gone. The cohort was the easy part.

Now we're faced with tackling the followers. This seems a bit harder to sort out. I'm not sure if it would be appropriate to have them all appear out of nowhere, or slowly amass out of nowhere, and going out and recruiting them one by one (I'm alotted nearly 50) seems to be tedious and not likely to be fun for the rest of the group.

I know there's no RAW answer for this, but if there are any ideas that might help my DM or ideas I can use in-game, they would all be appreciated.

For reference, my character is a Half Earth Elemental, Half Elven Barbarian/Fighter type. He's kind of legendary. He was encased in lava for the past 700 years, immediately following a great battle against a terrible evil. However, he's currently living in seclusion, because an evil magiocracy has taken control of the kingdom (making public recruiting extremely problematic). He currently has what could be considerred a hidden "Keep" that he shares with his group, which houses the 5 followers he has, so far.

 

[Plot-Device]

In Power of Faerun it has all sorts of rules for Leadership. In fact that's all the book is for, running Guild campaigns, running Political campaign,s running Religous campaigns, all using leadership. It says you make a leadership check, to find followers and it takes 1 day per level. But that's only to find them. I don't have the book on hand, but I'm pretty sure it says something about them finding you anyway, but you can make a check to get ones you want. IE You want a few Smiths and an Architect to join up so they can reinforce your base, so you go talk to them. Otherwise people will just trickle to you slowly, and you'll have no say in the matter.

If I was the DM (I'm not a DM right now btw) I think the coolest way to handle this would be like this: next time you go out adventuring and come back have your cohort mention something about you, and the people's growing sentiment towards you. Then any followers you haven't picked up yourself are all randomly chosen. They'd be like sleeper cells. There'd be no cohesion between any of them, but maybe over time. Just a group of people who all support you in anyway they can but they can't be to open about it. Thought that would be nifty.

Hope that helps.

 

[Nifft]

How about the Earth Elemental connection?

You could have low-level supporters from various Druidic Earth-aspeted cults ("underground resistance").

Cheers, -- N

 

[Tonguez]

I tend to apply the Friends, family and groupies system

- your Followers are people who will do stuff for you because of respect/awe/obligation/love so in most cases friends and family works (and don't forget that the WHOLE village is related)

In your case as a legendary figure you also get groupies. Maybe the artificer also has her own followers who by default will serve you, as suggested a small cult may have formed around your exploits as the avatar of the volcano. Then of course those fleeing from the Magiocracy may start gathering nearby your keep, be attacked, forcing you to save them and be declared their 'hero'

As DM I'd also allow you to have actual magma elementals (small ones) amongst your followers

 

[Ferrum]

Thanks for the responses.

The cult idea while ego-boosting might be a bit much. If there is a legend of my character, it has probably been retold in hushed tones and as more of a fairy-tale at this point than anything historical. Though perhaps some group fond of the story might put 2 and 3 together once rumors of my recent activities start to spread.

I was also hoping for a small earth elemental faction to show up, descendants of my clan perhaps. These are all interesting ideas for my DM to consider, but I'm still a little curious or confused on how exactly I should go about recruiting.

There is a small village being protected by my keep, however, a representative of their god is member of our party, so taking followers out of this group seems almost like stealing his wards away. I'd prefer to minimize that.

Any ingenius ideas on how to recruit quietly?

 

[FrostedMini1337]

Have his wards do it for you. Have him pass out letters or something during his sermons, which they will go to the town and deliver for you.

Have acess to psionics? Some telepathy, mindlinks, that sort of thing? Maybe modify a memory to remember you talking to them?

Little history lesson for you: when christians were being prosecuted they would figure out who was or was not a christian by drawing the top half of that annoying fish that people put on their car in the sand. If someone drew the other half they'd go scanter off and say where the meeting was, or say it in code of whatever. You could apply the same thing. Draw half a volcano and half a stickfigure, and do the same thing.

Sending, Or Whispering Winds?

Summon a Planar Ally to do it for you? You'd have to pick on that can shift himself a bit or go inviso, or something of that ilk.

 

[Spatzimaus]

Well, to begin with, the DMs I play with would never have let you get away with the "Artificer" trick. Using a cohort to create tons of effectively XP-free magic items by only spending a single Feat is definitely stretching the intent of the rules, especially since the cohort isn't even adventuring with you. Cohorts aren't servants who do whatever you want; they're independent NPCs, nearly as powerful as you are, who follow you because of your charisma and reputation. So, they wouldn't spend XP solely for your benefit. Most DMs I know don't even let the player control the cohorts, they're run as NPCs by the DM himself (or handed off to a guest player).

As to the followers, note that they'll be WAY below your level. (Incidentally, a leadership score of 20, at level 15, for a character who doesn't normally have high CHA?) So, they won't be coming with you anyway. Generally speaking, the easiest solution is to have the Leadership feat coincide in-game with either a patent of nobility from the King (meaning you get an estate, with its staff as your followers), or you join some organization (with the followers as low-level guild members).

 

[FrostedMini1337]

What's wrong with the artificer? It's not like the DM doesn't know she exists, so if the PC's end up with too much gear it's no ones fault but the DM's. And if they do end up with too much gear the DM just has to adjust to it.

I think the artificer as a cohort is rather awesome: now the DM doesn't have to worry about having the PCs find gear in their treasure. Now the PC's can just find cash and mundane gear and any amount they don't wish to keep the Artificer can turn in to whatever they want/need
without the hassle of trying to scalp their gear, etc.

His leadership score is probably so high from having a keep, great renown, and maybe a special power. Plus I think there are a few feats, and maybe a specific armor that will do the trick. And starting an orginization is what it sounds like he's doing. Forming a rebel group.

 

[Storyteller01]

The items don't nessecarily have to be exp free. Since cohorts don't gain exp in my game, their leaders pay the cost.


If you're interested, look into Goodman Games Cavaliers Handbook. If you're willing to take a second feat you can add retainer templates to a limited number of followers, adding a bit of specilization to the group. Experts are pretty diverse as it is, but it gives you something to help add personality and structure.

 

[Spatzimaus]

What's wrong with the artificer? It's not like the DM doesn't know she exists, so if the PC's end up with too much gear it's no ones fault but the DM's

How is that, exactly? If the player uses an item-creation ability in EXACTLY the way it's intended to be used, it's the DM's fault?
There are six limiting factors on making magic items.
1> The XP cost. (Storyteller01's method helps with this, but since cohorts as written get XP, he's basing on a house rule). By using the cohort as an item factory, the OP is skipping this one.
2> The GP cost. This one's still intact.
3> Knowledge of various Feats. You're using a single Feat, Leadership, to give the benefits of several item creation Feats. And that's not counting the fact that Leadership also gives Followers.
4> Knowledge of various Spells (except when making straight-plus magic armor/weaponry, which depend on caster level). Since the OP is a Barbarian/Fighter, this one isn't minor.
5> Time. Since the cohort's sitting back in town, the OP isn't really sacrificing any time; he simply gives a pile of money, waits a few days, and his new item is there.
6> The fact that certain types of magic items are subject to DM approval. This one doesn't apply often; the DM can't really say "no, it's not possible to make a +3 sword". If the player just sticks to the items in the book, he'd still have a huge variety of stuff to choose from.

As I said, there's absolutely no way any DMs I know would allow this. First, because it's a huge abuse of the rules, giving the player half-priced magic items with no extra feats/spells needed. Second, because it requires the cohort to spend his own resources (XP, time, Feats) purely for someone else's benefit.