Followers Needed

[spectre72]

In our game session this last weekend my primary character finally achieved her goal of settling down and starting to build her fighting school, she is a gnomish monk/psion.

Now my trouble is that she recently earned the leadership feat, and she is being allowed 8 1st level NPC's for this but I don't know what I want to take.

Of course some should be monks, but what other classes would be helpfull in building and running her martial arts school?

Your suggestions, and reasoning will be very helpfull.

 

[Piratecat]

Technically speaking, those 1st lvl followers have NPC classes and not character classes. You'll have to train them up from scratch!

 

[F5]

Funny...I was about to post a very similar question. I have a wizard character who will probably be getting Leadership next level, and I'm not sure what kind of followers to take on, either. I'm not even completely clear what types of NPCs are elligible to be followers. Do you have to stick to NPC classes, or are PC classes fair game?

As for the Martial Arts school, you might want to have a healer of some kind around. Maybe a 1st level cleric with the War domain, who can patch up students after sparring accidents, but is a passable fighter himself. Also, maybe some NPC class experts to run the day-to-day affairs of the school (an accountant, quartermaster and weaponsmith could be useful). Your leadership score goes up as you gain levels, which means you get more followers of higher level. Wait until you get some higher level followers before you start taking on other Monks to act as teachers. The rest of the 8 followers can be fighter or monk students.

<edit> I guess PC answered the first part of my question...we're stuck with NPC classes. That said, the Experts would still be useful, and replace the fighter/monk students with NPC Warriors instead.

 

[spectre72]

Technically speaking, those 1st lvl followers have NPC classes and not character classes. You'll have to train them up from scratch!

From the SRD-

Number of Followers by Level: The character can lead up to the indicated number of characters of each level. Followers are similar to cohorts, except they’re generally low-level NPCs. Because they’re generally five or more levels behind the character they follow, they’re rarely effective in combat.

I think you are referring to "except they’re generally low-level NPCs".

My GM has said that this does not mean NPC classes, so I am eligible to take character classes.

 

[Piratecat]

Cool! I could be wrong anyways.

I think you should recruit people showing psionic talents. Will your DM allow free multiclassing between monk and psion?

In my game a bard PC recruited lots of low-level bards, sent them out to other countries, and used them as international spies. It was a very clever technique.

 

[spectre72]

Cool! I could be wrong anyways.

I think you should recruit people showing psionic talents. Will your DM allow free multiclassing between monk and psion?

The Leadership feat was worded differently in 3.0, and of the 4 GM's at the table we agreed unanimously (a rarity ) that it did not restrict to NPC classes.

As to the Monk\Psion question, the GM really doesn't like Psions or Monks. He inherited my character when the group got too large and had to split into 2 sections, and my character hs been a thorn in his side since then

And now I am starting a school to train more monks\psions

I am also about to recruit my cohort - desert elf : fighter 2 / barbarian 4 / Frenzied bezerker 1

Add to this about 80,000gp and a 10% interest in a shipping company (from the sale of a ring of elemental command - water) and I will be causing all kinds of trouble

Now my thoughts for NPC's were a number of monks (with profession skills to help build and run the school), a cleric, and a mage of some type.

 

[Enkhidu]

F5 hit it on the money when he said people to run the day to day of a school - don't underestimate the impact a base of operations staffed by extrememly loyal followers in a campaign. Admittedly, you could use your low level followers as combat ready individuals (students, maybe?), but having a staff that is loyal to a PC and not just their pay is something unbelievably valuable.

Some examples of followers that my PC has to staff a base of operations: a decent exchequer who's made sure that the Chancellor of the kingdom hasn't screwed us over on taxes, a majordomo who ensures that guests are taken care of whether the PCs take a direct hand or not, a seedy "information gatherer" who has a number of unsavory contacts when we need them, a cook (we've not had to worry about being poisoned), and the youngest son of one of the wealthiest landowning families in the region.

The best thing is that if you take a cohort that is designed not to accompany you directly, but instead stays near the base of ops, you have someone with enough muscle to put a hurtin' on your enemies when they attemtp to hit you on the homefront while you're away.