Leadership (da feat) question

[Marshall]

pg 147 DMG :

There are no limitations to the class, race, or gender of a character's cohorts, nor are there limits to the number of cohorts who can be employed by a character.

The book says you can have multiple cohorts, but has no mechanic for getting them.

 

[Corlon]

wha

cohorts, AND followers, I thought they were the same thing
I'm so confused


I never really got the feat anyway, can someone explain it?

 

[clark411]

Perhaps if cohort is also seen as plural, this can solve the mystery. "Cohort" can be viewed as a group as well as a single associate. Therefore, I'd figure that a 5th level cohort is either a single person of 5th level, or a group of people who comprise 5 levels.

Saying that, I'd also say that since this the specifics of the feat are in the DMG, the final interpretation is left to the DM of the campaign. Note that I say this because the original poster is a player in a campaign o mine, and the friend of the poster is my DM. hehe

 

[Hejdun]

Where does it say that you can take Leadership multiple times?

 

[Mr Fidgit]

Leadership doesn't say you can take it multiple times, Hejdun.

it also doesn't say you can't take Leadership multiple times, like some other feats specify.

 

[Krafen]

In high level campaigns I allow that the followers can be even made of PC classes to give them a tiny chance of survival.
I mean, whats a warrior good for when 10+ PC's and NPC's run amok?
And its not fun rolling 20 dice just to see how incompetent NPC classes are. Nothing against experts...they rawk, but the warrior class is a joke. they gain absolutely NO feats and have 4 HP...what a joke. In a low magic campaign ok, but not FR.
Just for the sake of the Leadership feat, they should be really tough mercenarys just like real NPC's.

The ELH has rules for followers of different classes. I believe it was NPC classes other than warrior, expert, and commoner are ECL +1, PC classes are ECL +2, and prestige classes are ECL +4. This would mean a wizard PC could recruit 1st level wizard apprentices as if they were 3rd level followers.

 

[Saeviomagy]

I could perhaps see a reason for a difference between NPC and PC classes, as NPC classes are supposed to be weak.

I can't see why there should be a difference between aristocrat, and adept and the other classes when there isn't a difference between the utterly useless commoner, and everyone else.

I also can't see why there should be a difference between a prestige class and a flat class - supposedly both are equally powerful. If they're trying to express rarity, they should just have written "followers of a prestige class that the character does not him/herself have should be extremely rare" - after all, the player doesn't control who applies for his positions...

I still think the entire ruling is crap - the original rule doesn't even hint at all the followers being NPC-only classes, and since there are no gear charts (specifically referenced in the leadership writeup) for commoners or even experts, I don't think it was originally intended. Finally, I think a character picking up leadership and then gaining an army of 1st level peasants would be royally displeased, and with good reason.

Mind you, I'm also of the opinion that none of the NPC classes (bar the expert) should even exist.

 

[Simulacrum]

Finally, I think a character picking up leadership and then gaining an army of 1st level peasants would be royally displeased, and with good reason.

Mind you, I'm also of the opinion that none of the NPC classes (bar the expert) should even exist.

Hehe, thats my opinion too, exept the aristocrat is pretty good too. Commoner is a joke even for the most low standart world.
And in the case of Fearun where whole countries and kingdoms are build by legions of mages......this makes no sense at all!
The commoner is something like the stoneage collector or something....

 

[Mistwell]

Does Leadership allow you to choose what type of followers you have? For example, could you choose to have all Experts?

 

[Mr Fidgit]

it doesn't specify, Mistwell.

someone with Leadership does get a penalty to their 'cohort-only leadership modifier' if they recruit a cohort of a different alignment. otherwise, there's no mention of classes or alignments recruited. (other than the 'special' cohorts)