Leadership Feat

[Storyteller01]

I have no problem with it, but my capmaign is scued (butchered spelling, sorry) more towards endind with epic combat. The extra followers and cohorts gives me an idea of what to expect later.

On the flip side, everyone is respinsible for their organization. Thise that have followers on the sidekines have to check on them after the fact. Although one character having his followers 'grow' out of their living ship was an ingenious idea on his part.

 

[two]

If the cohort is a pure spellcaster, the cohort can very easily be the most powerful walking, talking, buffing, healing "feat" in the game.

I think a fighter/rogue/semi-spellcasting cohort is both reasonable and easier to run and adjudicate.

Obviously a 10th level Fighter grabbing a 8th level Cleric cohort sends the Fighter's survivability through the roof. Having the same fighter grab a bard or rogue cohort... not so much.

As a player, I love taking this feat, but it is very easy to abuse.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I think it's overpowered, which I guess is kind of sad. I think it should require multiple feats to get the same effect.

It's powerful for two main reasons:

1) It gives you extra actions, potentially every round. It's like permanent Haste, only worse, because your ally might be a member of a different class (and even worse if they're a druid!).

2) Your cohort is more powerful than a feat. (He gets his own feats, too!)

In practice, it can get more powerful if a spell-casting cohort is willing to make magic items for you... or maybe that's not legal. I don't know for sure.

I vaguely recall a very late 2e article in a Dragon Magazine discussing how to handle "cohorts" ... but in 2e cohorts were usually much lower level and not nearly as survivable, so the advice is probably useless in a 3.x context.

 

[Imperialus]

I like cohorts... I play them a little differently though.

Players don't create their cohort, I do. A player will tell me what kind of sidekick they want and I'll do my best to accomidate that but I actually stat them up and give them a basic personality. Each cohort also comes with a list of goals that is given to the player. If they don't at least try and help the cohort accomplish them then he might take his leave.

On the flip side though the cohort does not gain XP dispite "earning" a half share. Instead he levels up any time his patron does consistently remaining one level behind him.

 

[Michael Silverbane]

Leadership can have a huge effect on game-play, both in the number and difficuly of challenges that the characters can face, and on the amount of spotlight time that a single player recieves. The former of those things really only adds work for the DM, but the latter can both add work for the DM and reduce the fun had by the other players.

I tend to encourage my players to take leadership early and often, and also shunt some of the work of other NPC hirelings and allies into the hands of the players, but not all DMs want to do the extra work or to have players controling more than one character. You'll have to figure out your own preferences in this regard, and once you do, don't be shy about telling your players about it... There is absolutely nothing wrong with saying, "this feat causes me too many headaches, I'm not going to allow player characters to have it."

Later
silver

 

[Markn]

It is more powerful than other feats if you allow the cohort to adventure with the party, even if you don't try to abuse the cohort there is no way that adding an extra PC classed character (even at -2 levels) is not better than nearly any other feat. This is particuarly true since the cohort does not take away from the PCs share of the XP.

That said it is still a cool feat.

QFT!

One other poster mentioned that perhaps Leadership should take 2 feats. I have has similar veins of thought as well.

Some people have also mentioned that the DM should do the leveling and I have to agree with that (which is something I haven't done). I think that I will try this tactic in the future. Up to this point I have let the PC have a free reign (sort of) with the NPC. I have always stressed that they need to behave like a person when selecting abilities/spells/feats, etc and my players are very good about this. I, also, do not treat the NPC any different than any of the players. If they are in a bad situation I attack and attempt to kill them. The loot loss is a minor drawback to my players for the extra power the cohort brings so the entire group does look out for the characters welfare. All in all, its not too bad.

Many posters have mentioned about the drawbacks of dead cohorts and the difficulty of finding new ones. On this point, I agree, but I gotta ask - Does no one raise their cohorts? Maybe its not worth it when you are a 6th level guy with a 4th level cohort but as the PC's gain levels (and my group is now 14th), the power of the Leadership feat becomes greater and greater and more and more versatile that you don't want to lose that cohort!

Don't get me wrong, its not that I dislike Leadership, its just that I don't think its done quite right. As some posters have said, perhaps it is best left as a role playing tool rather than a feat mechanic.

At any rate, lots of good ideas in this thread! Keep 'em coming!

 

[Storyteller01]

...On the flip side though the cohort does not gain XP dispite "earning" a half share. Instead he levels up any time his patron does consistently remaining one level behind him.

I do the same, but the characters make their cohorts. But..... (always one ofthose) I've also ruled that, since the cohort is effectively part of the character (part of their concept) items made by them are paid by the characters exp.

 

[dagger]

On the flip side though the cohort does not gain XP dispite "earning" a half share. Instead he levels up any time his patron does consistently remaining one level behind him.

We do this, except the cohort is always 2 levels behind. A lot easier than worrying about XP.

 

[Laman Stahros]

A lot of players seem to want to take the feat, create a character with no personality but in class/skill/feat choices perfectly refutes his PC's weaknesses or vastly increases his strengths. The key is that DM controls this cohort in creation and throughout the game.

QFT

 

[jmucchiello]

Actually, at high levels a travelling cohort becomes a bigger and bigger liability. A 20th level character who is not charisma based can have a hard time getting his max cohort level above 15th level. A character 5 levels behind at 20th level is a liability. Also, the cohort cannot rise above 17th level with the Epic Leadership feat and that requires a Cha of 25, ridiculously high for a say a fighter. Heck, even at 12th level, the cohort has a hard time making 9th level. Personallly, I've seen both the cleric-bot and the loyal household methods of using leadership and for me they are both valid. The cleric-bot is a real boost to the party but keeping him alive can be difficult. If some guy is running around among your enemies casting healing spells, who do you attack?

Oh, and as for extra actions, the DM should run the cohort to avoid PC to NPC telepathy for coordinated actions.