Leadership good ways to use it

[Beowolf]

For a long time i have been wondering how exactaly can/do you use leadership.
I know how the feat works and all, but i just can't seen to see ways to use your
followers efficiently. The cohort is fine but at the levels where this feat gains the most people even mild challanges to your pcs would be slaughter to your followers. can anyone give me examples of things they did with their followers just to show some examples to learn from and please details are welcomed
thanks

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

IMC, followers are usually used to stay back and clean/guard/etc the PCs home 'base'. They're really not useful enough to come with, and make the group easier to be noticed by enemies.

 

[Victim]

Spread them out to create a network of contacts and allies.

 

[Torm]

Do all of the above, plus make them sell stuff for you, keep almost all the profits, and use leadership to convince them this is good for them. Oh, and start a cult, and use it to get their savings, belongings, and their women, too.

I am, of course, kidding. But nobody I've seen usually talks about the evil uses for stuff like this, so thought I'd throw some out.

 

[dave_o]

I was part of a set of Kender twin PCs who were "professional sea borrowers" (IE, pirates). We both took Leadership to have a sizable crew of 1st level Kender, as well as a Cohort (bodyguard) each. As I recally, my Cohort was a Thanoi that Bucky (my character) had raised since birth.

One could also have them perform upkeep on a castle, have them fill the role of various servators, or even run a church. Leadership is definately my favorite feat.

 

[argo]

You are right that followers should not go on adventures with you (unless it is to stand outside the dungeon and watch your horse). Some more common usese of followers are:

The staff of you castle/manor house
The crew of your ship/trading caravan/whatever
The low level pickpockets/fences/etc of you thieves guild
The altar boys/etc of your church
The spearholders of your mercenary company (suplement with non-follower hirelings) who stay in fort while your "comando team" takes on the big dogs.

The other use for followers that I am particularly fond of is as "contacts". This requires a little more work on the part of the DM but the basic idea is that you know a lot of people scatered around who don't nessicarily work for you but will help with occasional (modest) favors/info when you pass by. This works espically well in a intrigue game or a modern game.

 

[Felix]

Experts make the best followers. They can be trained to work as:

Alchemists
Herbalists
Pickpockets
Blacksmiths
Masons
Carpenters
Bowers
Fletchers
Ferriers
Archetects
Artists
Tailors
Barbers

Or can be employed in a number of service areas:

Butler
Musician
Master Sailor
Merchant
Castellian
Detective
Page
Dancer
Interior Decorator

They basically make your home base really cool, somewhat profitable, and something to look forward to coming back to. They can't fight, but when you get into the high enough levels, you have hordes of 1st level followers... and can do pretty much anything with them that you want. You could be a drug company (herbalists), a construction company (masons and workers), or a protection agency (warriors and detectives). Yeah, I'd have to say that Leadership is one of my fav's, but it only works when you have a home base to work on.

 

[Beowolf]

Thanks everyone for your input but i am looking for somthing more stats wise and examples of how to use them in a way that acually accomplishes somthing. For instance the pirate one, the followers did more than Guarding the camp/castle/temple. Also for the theives guild or company ones how would the dm do the profit earned form selling/theft/fences with out making the feat too powerfull (pc sits around for a year and rakes in the profit type thing) i am really trying to fully explore the Leadership feat.

 

[Felix]

Int: +2
Ranks: 4
Skill Focus: Craft (whatever) +3
Masterwork tools: +2
Take 10 Skill check: 21

Craft 200gp DC 20 item (or DC 10 item with DC raised):

20*21= 420sp/week
4.75 weeks later, 200 gp item.

The upshot: As soon as you have 5 1st level followers (which is the smallest amount of followers you can have) you will be grossing 200gp a week. Materials will cost a third of that (or thereabouts). Keeping the staff alive will cost something around 1gp per follower per week. Meaning that you will have a household income of 140gp per week.

When your leadership score gets up to 13 (not hard for an 8th level character... Leadership Score: 8 class levels + 3 CHA + 2 base of operations) you will be able to double that. So you'll be pulling in 280gp per week. And this is completely independent of anything else you are doing. Basically you get your big horde of wealth by adventuring, and these guys are your 401k. That money can be spent building your retirement castle, arming it, buying influence at court, etc.

Looking for stats? See if your DM will allow you to use the Non-Elite stat array from the DMG. It gives +2, +2, +0, +0, -2, -2 to whatever scores you want. So you can have more effective crafters without having the elite stat array for everyone, which would be silly.