Should I let a PC choose whatever followers he wants for the Leadership Feat?

[dreaded_beast]

I have a PC Paladin of Torm who has just picked up the Leadership feat. He is not asking for anything unreasonable, but for now he is entitled to 25 Level 1 followers. He is asking for a very varied assortment such as clerics of Sune, Mystra, Lathander, a paldin, etc.

I was wondering if followers of the Leadership feat need to be all of the same type, can be mixed and matched, etc.

Should I allow my player to pick? I'm thinking that he can have most of them, but some of them may be harder to come by, considering the location, etc.

 

[The Souljourner]

Definitely not. He doesn't get to choose who decides to come looking to work with him.. they just come. Of course, he doesn't have to accept everyone who comes, but if he turns away too many reasonable candidates, it may deter others from coming.

The general type of followers should make sense.... clerics and paladins of Torm are perfect examples... fighters, too. Clerics of other gods... well... I guess maybe, but if you're jewish, are you really likely to go devote yourself to helping the rabbi at the temple, or the priest across the street? Sure, all good clerics are generally kinda on the same side... but that doesn't mean they necessarily get along all that well all the time.

They definitely don't need to be, and in fact shouldn't be, all of the same type. Think of them like groupies... they come because they've heard you're someone worth following... all different kinds of people are likely to come, though one would think that rogues and bards would find a paladin of Torm too much of a stick in the mud.

-The Souljourner

 

[Lord Pendragon]

I don't think there's a clear rules declaration one way or another, so to me it boils down to, is there a compelling reason not to allow it? If not, then I see no reason not to allow him (the player) to choose his followers. It adds more fun to his game, and I don't think there's any harm in it. Followers are largely an RP device. Why be hardnosed about it?

 

[Corsair]

I am 90% positive that the followers are supposed to be an assortment of generic NPC-classed folks. No clerics or paladins, just warriors and experts and the like.

 

[FireLance]

Since the rules don't say anything one way or the other, this is best sorted out between you and the player. You might want to take the following into account:

1. Rules restrictions. By the rules, a paladin can only have followers who are lawful good. This means that he cannot attract followers who are barbarians, bards or druids. Of course, you can always apply rule 0 as a DM.

2. Balance issues. Balance issues generally do not arise because followers are very low-level compared to the PC. However, if the PC does something that you don't really like, e.g. he recruits nothing but clerics and has them act as a scroll-creation factory, you can come up with creative consequences, e.g. his followers recompensed the full cost of creating the scrolls, they do not like what they are doing and desert, or a group of evil characters hear of his scroll stockpile and raid it.

3. Flavor issues. You don't have to agree if it doesn't feel right for your world. If a cleric of another faith would not follow him, you are within your rights to say no. If there just aren't that many low-level clerics who have heard of him, not all of his followers will be clerics.

4. What is fun? If his followers will not adversely affect the game, there is no harm in giving the player what he wants. Attracting a specific follower (or type of followers) could be the springboard for adventures or the reward for having helped certain organizations or individuals. Perhaps a cleric of Mystra shows up because the PC is working towards a goal that she supports, or because he has saved her in the past. Individual followers may also have their own agendas. Why would a low-level cleric of Sune decide to work for a paladin of Torm? Perhaps she is smitten by his good looks, but might she have some other motive?

At the end of the day, remember that taking the Leadership feat ought to be an advantage instead of a liability to the PC. After all, he has given up another feat to take it.

 

[dreaded_beast]

Great responses everyone! Very helpful! You don't know how much this helps!

I am thinking about giving him most of the followers he wants, but not all. Also, I am not sure how long it will take for them all to show up. I was going to have them all appear within 1 week of game time. Mainly, he wants the followers to take care of recently acquired Keep the party has found. Hopefully, they won't get all "scroll-factory" on me.

 

[Seravin]

I am 90% positive that the followers are supposed to be an assortment of generic NPC-classed folks. No clerics or paladins, just warriors and experts and the like.

In 3.0 that was true. In 3.5 the rules don't say one way or the other.

In my game I started with the NPC option only, but to make my life easier I had the players do the homework and say how the classes were divided up amongst the followers - I didn't need the extra work and it was the players who were interested in this option in the first place. I'd recommend this way regardless of whether you choose the 3.0 or 3.5 method of class availability.

Later I did a a limited trade-in of npc to pc classed followers. Now, based on how my players used their followers I'd now be inclined to let them have the full number of followers with pc classes. In the end, the followers were there for prestige and to protect the character's holdings.

Otherwise - ditto on what FireLance said.
First it should be fun, second, the feat should provide some advantage to the player, and third the choices should make sense within your campaign.

 

[Seravin]

Great responses everyone! Very helpful! You don't know how much this helps!

I am thinking about giving him most of the followers he wants, but not all. Also, I am not sure how long it will take for them all to show up. I was going to have them all appear within 1 week of game time. Mainly, he wants the followers to take care of recently acquired Keep the party has found. Hopefully, they won't get all "scroll-factory" on me.

It's within your rights to set limits. If the npc's are making scrolls, where is the gold and the xp's coming from? Sounds like the pc should cough up at least the creation cost - but those xp's are a little more problematical, especially if the npc starts with the minimum experience for the level they're at. They'll need to adventure to get that needed experience, which means they'll be away for awhile doing other things. Also, the follower may want to make scrolls for themselves if they're going to be adventuring. ad nauseum.

In the end, keep it simple and work the rules out ahead of time. Tell (or work out with) the player how many scrolls/potions/whatever they can expect for cost. Make it either a hard limit or an experience point pool. I'd recommend maybe 1-3 potions or scrolls per game month. Remember the player will also have these followers to cast ad-hoc spells too. They could conceivably teleport to the keep after a hard battle and have the priests heal them with many cure light wound spells.

 

[Sejs]

Followers are drawn from the NPC classes only.

Cohorts can have PC class levels though. Or be cool things like Mimics.

 

[molonel]

Followers are drawn from the NPC classes only.

I'm actually looking for that rule in my 3.5 DMG, and I don't see it.