everyone in group taking 'leadership'?

[Aus_Snow]

If you want to 'price it out' of some PCs' grasp, I suppose a prereq of say, Cha 13 and/or. . . Negotiator? or whatever. . . might do the trick.

Otherwise, there's always the dreaded DMPC option. . .

Another commonplace is having the cohort act as the scout, so usually a rogue, or sometimes actually a scout. Basically, just filling in the spots that the players don't want to do themselves.

Yeah, like this. I created a Wilderness Rogue DMPC once, which proved helpful but didn't outshne anyone.

 

[Cincinnatus]

If you want to 'price it out' of some PCs' grasp, I suppose a prereq of say, Cha 13 and/or. . . Negotiator? or whatever. . . might do the trick.

Good ideas here.

I'm a pretty liberal DM. I allow players to take anything they want from any officially published WotC 3rd Edition book. The -one- thing I have banned is Leadership.

 

[krupintupple]

The -one- thing I have banned is Leadership.

may i ask why? i'm the OP and curious, as i'd like to know every angle before my player-load essentially doubles.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Probably because looking at it strictly compared to other feats, it is unrivaled in the power you gain.

Of course, it's a "special" feat, and all the useful information on it is purposefully put in the DMG. Because it really is, more so than most feats, totally up to the DM whether to allow and how to adjudicate what it gives (what kind of stats?, who controls the cohort?, etc...). Its "brokeness" is relative, though. Sure, it'll always give more than any other feat, but that's not the point of it. It exists for two situations. One is yours, where you feel the group needs more people. The other is to help fit a character concept players might want of being a real leader with loyal vassals.

I agree with what someone else said earlier, though. If everyone's gonna take it, why not just let them each run two PCs? It can be fun, if the game time doesn't get bogged down in them looking things up for two people.

[sblock]My first experience with 3E was a friend who wanted to test it out, and had me as his lone player, running four different characters. Maybe I'm just crazy, but it was really fun bickering with myself. Man, those four HATED each other! [/sblock]

 

[irdeggman]

Probably because looking at it strictly compared to other feats, it is unrivaled in the power you gain.

Book of Exalted Deeds' feats not withstanding of course.

I agree with what someone else said earlier, though. If everyone's gonna take it, why not just let them each run two PCs? It can be fun, if the game time doesn't get bogged down in them looking things up for two people.

The other advantage of this is that of "levels", the 2nd PC won't ahve to remain 2 levels behind.

Another viable option is to switch to gestalting (from Unearthed Arcana) which allows more basis to be covered with a single PC and in a small group it could be real useful.