Leadership & Followers

[czak808]

What do most people do with followers acquired from the Leadership feat?
Being the anal-retentive person that I am, I like to know what, where and how they are doing. I thought I would set them up in a pretty good sized village as a "community within a community". They are all npc class' (expert, commoner, etc...) with selected skills. I figured I could use them for research (sage), building mundane items (alchemist), etc... I made the highest level my seneshal to kind of oversee/ direct the others while I'm adventuring.

 

[Cameron]

I get my cohort to take the leadership feat as well, who will get his cohort to get the leadership feat, who will...

And when I am done, I declare a new nation, and give the DM a massive headache.













Just joking.

Usually, I just have the followers to do the whole village thing. The thing is mainly a plothook thing for the DM to use (threaten my people, etc.).

 

[smetzger]

What do most people do with followers acquired from the Leadership feat?
Being the anal-retentive person that I am, I like to know what, where and how they are doing. I thought I would set them up in a pretty good sized village as a "community within a community". They are all npc class' (expert, commoner, etc...) with selected skills. I figured I could use them for research (sage), building mundane items (alchemist), etc... I made the highest level my seneshal to kind of oversee/ direct the others while I'm adventuring.

When I ran RttToEE one of the PCs took this feat. Since by this time they had conquered large sections of the dungeon. I had the followers be mostly dwarves who were looking to re-establish their home.

I think followers would be good to maintain a small keep, a house in a city, an Inn/Tavern, or some other business that the PC has an interest in. Perhaps its the start of the PCs business that he will retire to.

 

[Drowbane]

My Planescape PC is a vampire who has Undead Leadership. His Cohort and each of his Spawn (each spawn close to cohort level themselves) has Leadership as well.

I'm building an Undead Army on Thanatos (with a Keep that has been rising slowly over the past 4 levels).

I would have to go check my numbers (and too lazy to do so now ), but I think I have over 1000 1 HD skeletons. Hehehe.

 

[czak808]

I'm trying to keep the DM head-ache level to a minimum. Most books state PC's should not be interested in running a business, they should be adventuring. But........... I took the feat and now have >20 followers. A bit much for running just an inn. I figured I'd build a compound and have them "work" for me. They earn their craft skill level in gold per week, so the 20 1st levels should cover maintenance/ upkeep for the lot of them. I've got a good smith (armor & weapons) an alchemist and a sage to do those special tasks for me; ie plot hooks.

 

[Drowbane]

I'm trying to keep the DM head-ache level to a minimum. Most books state PC's should not be interested in running a business, they should be adventuring. But........... I took the feat and now have >20 followers. A bit much for running just an inn. I figured I'd build a compound and have them "work" for me. They earn their craft skill level in gold per week, so the 20 1st levels should cover maintenance/ upkeep for the lot of them. I've got a good smith (armor & weapons) an alchemist and a sage to do those special tasks for me; ie plot hooks.

The thieves guild angle works nicely also. Experts can be just as thiefy as Rogues (who needs trapfinding or sneak attack? )

 

[kigmatzomat]

Lord, leadership can be a hassle. IMC there are 4 people with Leadership. We're at 21st level, the party has lots of prestige, wealth, generosity, land and a smattering of charisma only countered by their high mobility. We're looking at more than 500 followers.

Yeesh. Lots are centered on their lands, which put them mostly out of mind, but there are several who are going for the "web of allies." Those types go for small networks of functionaries in each region. There's usually a lawyer, a couple of researchers, some military types, and several functionaries (craftsmen). The net result is they pull into town and go visit their friends to get the local dirt: politics (lawyer/researchers), threat level (soldiers), economics (craftsmen). At the same time, they can safely get their stuff repaired, start researching the latest riddle, and get some advice on how to proceed next.

In some cases they buy a building in the city. It gives the leader a reason to visit, provides some benefits to the allies, provides some links to the community, as well as creating a safehouse. Of course, at 21st level they can afford to fund such an operation with spare change. At lower levels your mileage may vary.

 

[czak808]

Can followers be classed; fighter, druid, etc...?

 

[kigmatzomat]

In 3.0 they were explicitly stated to be expert, commoner & warrior. I suppose the logic was that people are supposed to follow adepts, nobles and PC classes, not the other way around.

In 3.5 they are described, IIRC, as "low level NPCs." Some people interpret that to mean any NPC class while other DMs will let you have any class.

 

[robberbaron]

When my players take Leadership they either set them up as staff at their base of operations (temple, brothel, underground vault to name but three) or forget about them.

If I decided that a BBEG would go after a character's base, they would become important otherwise detailing them is unnecessary.