Lehrbuch
First Post
Let's look at lord of the ring. Gimli was a dangerous warrior, but he wasn't the leader. But let's say he wasn't just a very good fighter, but the *best* of the land. Would he have lead the party? No, it wasn't in his character/nature to be a leader, no matter how good he is at swinging an axe...
Yeah, but that's because Gandalf was the leader. If the rest of the "party" had been dwarves, then sure Gimli would probably have been the leader unless a more highly ranked dwarf-noble was present. He's pretty clearly a "leader" amongst dwarfs. That's why he's at the council in the first place.
Also, literature isn't that good a model for the internal party composition and internal party dynamics for a party of PCs.
In my game one of the DM's "PCs" at the moment is basically a demi god. (it's not D&D but whatever). If he gets mad, he can level a city (but he tends to kill *everyone* so the PCs really don't want that to happen). However he is letting the party lead him around (it's part of a quest) because he knows he can't trust himself in a fight (due to berserk-ness) and in general due to faulty memory. Even though he's immensely powerful, he's a terrible choice for a leader and he knows it.
Sure, this might be working well for you. However, (no offense intended) this is what I mean by convoluted and unlikely. You are needing to invent special reasons why the natural leader isn't acting like it. Which could be fantastic the first time. But it's liable to get very old if you pull the same trick in the next campaign.