Leadership and "Special Abilities"

[Herremann the Wise]

Hello everyone and hope you are having a good day or evening,

Just a query about the Leadership feat and one of the bonuses that resides there in relation to "Special Ability". (Having one gives you a +1 bonus to your Leadership score.)
However, what ability would be considered special enough to earn this bonus?

Most PC's normally have an ability that they would consider special but what would be considered special by the general populous?

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[Trainz]

Hello everyone and hope you are having a good day or evening,

Just a query about the Leadership feat and one of the bonuses that resides there in relation to "Special Ability". (Having one gives you a +1 bonus to your Leadership score.)
However, what ability would be considered special enough to earn this bonus?

Most PC's normally have an ability that they would consider special but what would be considered special by the general populous?

A few things deemed appropriate by the DM I guess. Peronally, I would grant it for example for 5 or more ranks in Diplomacy.

A slight threadjack, but considering Leadership:

With the Leadership feat, someone can only attract a cohort up to level 17. Epic Leadership allows you to attract cohorts of higher level. That said...

If a PC only have the basic Leadership feat, does it mean that his current cohort is stuck to level 17, or can he earn levels after that (up to 2 levels behind the PC), without the acquisition of Epic Leadership ?

 

[I'm A Banana]

"Special" would, I think, indicate some character-defining trait, something beyond the normal class-granted abilities and feats that anyone can get.

Did your character come briefly into contact with an artifact and now his hands glow with an unnatural aura? That's special. Or maybe he researched a new spell that was named after him. Or perhaps she was the first creature with psionics in the world. Or maybe the rogue discovered and named a new kind of blade.

That kind of 'making the PC part of the world thing' is what I would coin a "special ability"

 

[Peskara]

Strictly IMO, what's considered a special ability would depend on the campaign world. If PC classes are rare in the world, then just being a fighter, cleric, wizard, rogue, etc. might be considered special. If adventurers are a dime a dozen then it would take more than having a PC class to impress the average person who might consider becoming a follower or cohort. So basically I think it's whatever would make would make the average campaign-world denizen say, "Wow, did you hear so-and-so could do this?" Attracting followers/cohorts seems like it should be based on someone's amazing reputation in most instances (except when it's based on personal contact, and even then, those you meet have to be impressed by something about you to make them want to follow you).

 

[Gregor]

I agree with Peskara, it totally depends on the campaign world (this seems to be the default answer for everything ). I agree that if adventurers are fairly rare and the world is dominated by human commoners, then the abilities of a PC class would probably constitute a special ability. I mean, a Paladin's ability to remove your disease or cure you with the slightest touch seems pretty special. Or a Cleric's ability to raise someone from the dead, a Wizard's ability to throw a fireball, a Rogue's ability to do a backflip through said fireball, or a Druid's ability to turn into a Bear are all very special.

Conversely, if adventurers and magic are fairly common such as in FR, then something very special or very rare would equal a special ability. For example, maybe having the ability to wield Spellfire or to jump from shadow to shadow would be special. In other words, maybe the abilities granted by a PrC would make you special? Im rambling...

cheers,

 

[iwatt]

IMC memebership of special orders (for clerics or paladins) qualifies for "Special Ability". This doesn't necessarily mean taking levels in a PrC, because you can be associated with an order without taking levels in the corresponding PrC. It's just that generally taking th Levels is way too attractive to my PCs.

For the non-divine, I tend to adjucate depending on the case. The straight fighter (no PrC) who rules on the Gladiatorial match I judge to have the "ass-kicking" special ability, for example.

The Barbarian bearing the clan's ancestral weapon also qualifies as a special ability.

Basically, my answer is ...it depends on the campiagn world.

 

[Camarath]

With the Leadership feat, someone can only attract a cohort up to level 17. Epic Leadership allows you to attract cohorts of higher level. That said...

If a PC only have the basic Leadership feat, does it mean that his current cohort is stuck to level 17, or can he earn levels after that (up to 2 levels behind the PC), without the acquisition of Epic Leadership ?

From Epic Leadership

"Normal: The Leadership feat provides no benefit for leadership scores beyond 25."

That (as well as the Leadership chart which highest level as "25 or higher") is limits the cohort level to the level listed for a Leadership Score of "25 or higher" which is 17.

 

[CyberSpyder]

From Epic Leadership

"Normal: The Leadership feat provides no benefit for leadership scores beyond 25."

That (as well as the Leadership chart which highest level as "25 or higher") is limits the cohort level to the level listed for a Leadership Score of "25 or higher" which is 17.

With all due respect, that answer doesn't seem to fit the actual text describing the benefits of the feat terribly well.

The text of the leadership feat states "Having this feat enables the character to attract loyal companions and devoted followers, subordinates who assist her. See the table below for what sort of cohort and how many followers the character can recruit." (emphasis mine)

And later: "Cohort Level: The character can attract a cohort of up to this level. Regardless of a character’s Leadership score, he can only recruit a cohort who is two or more levels lower than himself."

It seems to be fairly evident that the table only describes the maximum level of your cohort when you get him.

If you look lower, in the section about gaining XP, you'll see that there is no reference to the leadership table for determining maximum levels. "Multiply this result by the total XP awarded to the PC and add that number of experience points to the cohort’s total.
If a cohort gains enough XP to bring it to a level one lower than the associated PC’s character level, the cohort does not gain the new level—its new XP total is 1 less than the amount needed attain the next level."

The cohort cannot approach beyond two levels behind the PC - but it would appear that it can continue to advance at the same rate as the PC, even if that advancement would take it beyond the maximum level of cohort you can attract without Epic leadership.

 

[Camarath]

It seems to be fairly evident that the table only describes the maximum level of your cohort when you get him.

After rereading the rule I believe you are correct. Sorry about that.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

Most PC's normally have an ability that they would consider special but what would be considered special by the general populous?

generally, I define a special power as something that can be expereinced by your followers and enhance their performance. Inspire Courage or Competence, Bless, Aura of courage perhaps... those are the things I think of. Being able to do something flashy yourself but not effect your followers in any way doesn't do it for me. When I think of a special power, I think of the little minions expereincing their leader's power on a personal level and being improved by it. That's what gets you more followers over your level and charisma, not being able to turn into an eagle or execute a mighty cleave.

Kahuna Burger