multiple cohorts and leadership.

[Drowbane]

You could (up to DM, of course) have a cascade of Cohorts (for lack of a better term).

One of my players had this going on in our first Epic campaign (starting lvl 21). He had leadership, and I think a PrC that gave two Cohorts. Each cohort (3.0, so both lvl 20) had a cohort (lvl 19)... who had cohorts... all the way down to around lvl 5.

Nearly all of the cohorts were clerics... he had another feat that gave him a Stronghold.

Instant fortified temple/keep of Bane! Tons of followers to cover the basic mook-soldiers and staff. Scribes, whatever... he had it.

All said and done, it was mostly flavor. Rarely did he take even his right-hand clergy into battle with him.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

The paladin in my game took Leadership and I've already told him he isn't going to cascade Leadership down through his cohorts, one becuase he told me what kind of cohort he was looking for and I created it, and two it will be too much of a hassle and he will try to abuse it. This game runs slow enough at high levels without one player have a crap load of PC's to run.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I have several PC's with leadership in my game, and I have leadership in a game in which I play, and here's how the followers shake out in those cases:

One PC is a Thrallherd (so she essentially has leadership) and her followers constitute a spy network that she keeps in contact with psionically. She has her followers broken out into teams of spies in various important locations throughout the world, feeding her information, and acting as intelligence sources. They may occasionally be in harms way, but not very often.

Another PC is a ship captain, and his cohort is his first mate, and his followers are his most trusted crew members. These followers DO get into fights pretty often, as you can imagine.

For my PC, my followers are contacts throughout the large city in which we are based. They are people he's helped, or who share his goals and enemies. They are rarely if ever in harms way.

 

[green slime]

I can't get my players to even look at leadership.

Which is wierd, 'cause I'd allow both multiple leadership feats, and cascading leadership.

I even allow a Thrallherd to take Leadership.

I think it is due to some really bad experience with cohorts and followers in a previous game somewhere else. Or maybe it is just some wierd principle I just don't understand

 

[irdeggman]

I can't get my players to even look at leadership.

Which is wierd, 'cause I'd allow both multiple leadership feats, and cascading leadership.

I even allow a Thrallherd to take Leadership.

I think it is due to some really bad experience with cohorts and followers in a previous game somewhere else. Or maybe it is just some wierd principle I just don't understand

Perhaps they only want to run 1 PC at a time?

A lot of players want to focus on only 1 character under their control at a time since it can easily detract from their character development and role-playing when splitting their attention.

 

[roguerouge]

You could (up to DM, of course) have a cascade of Cohorts (for lack of a better term).

One of my players had this going on in our first Epic campaign (starting lvl 21). He had leadership, and I think a PrC that gave two Cohorts. Each cohort (3.0, so both lvl 20) had a cohort (lvl 19)... who had cohorts... all the way down to around lvl 5.

Nearly all of the cohorts were clerics... he had another feat that gave him a Stronghold.

Instant fortified temple/keep of Bane! Tons of followers to cover the basic mook-soldiers and staff. Scribes, whatever... he had it.

All said and done, it was mostly flavor. Rarely did he take even his right-hand clergy into battle with him.

That's a good player, using a hole in the rules to create story rather than to power-up for combat. Good show!

 

[taliesin15]

Aboyd is on the right track here, in that it should really be up to the DM, because campaign/milieus vary so much, and because parties and players vary so much.

Most of all, can the player deal with more than one cohort? Secondly, can the DM handle the extra work? Generally, I let the players run their familiars, animal companions, henchmen, NPC party members, cohorts and followers to a large extent, but all these are not the PCs. If a PC was to do something which would cause a morale check (i.e. kill their animal companion for food), I would as DM take over the control of the NPC in question. Sometimes the action taken might be much more subtle, like a LG PC doing something slightly evil, chaotic or neutral--this might cause the NPCs to at least think twice (hey, has our Paladin been taken over by a vampire or Demon Lord?).

That said, to the original question, multiple cohorts, I don't necessarily see a problem with that if PC is famous enough, charismatic, high level and treats his followers well, and if I think the player is mature and competent enough to run them.