Leadership Rogue Cheese or "You and What Army?!"
Assumptions: Cohorts will be of the maximum allowable lvl. No hoarding feats. No Leadership modifiers.
Books Required: PHB, DMG
Character: 18 Cha + Rogue levels. All advancement points except for your 20th level point go into CHA. Extra Charisma from items or race gives you more followers sooner, but the final tally remains the same as this character maxes the chart without any magical help required. All feats 6th and above are used to buy Leadership, Rogue Special abilities are used to buy Leadership.
Legend:
Lvl: Main characters Level
CHA: Main Characters Charisma
LS: Leadership Score: See page 45-46 DMG for the tables and description. Leadership Score is equal to character level + Charisma modifier +/- other factors which don't much matter.
CH1 - CH9: The current level of each of your Cohorts numbered 1 through 9.
Followers: Number of Followers of each level. Followers can only be Warriors, Experts, or Commoners
M: Multiplier or the number of times the Leadership feat has been taken.
Total at 20th level: 9 Cohorts, 1467 Followers, 2024 Levels worth of people.
Neat huh.
Now.... The Smackdown!
Assuming that all of your followers are Human Warriors with Point Blank Shot, Rapid-shot and average stats, then...
Composite Longbows for 1467 Followers: 146,700 gp
10 rounds worth of Arrows: 1476 gp
591 Scrolls of Greater Magic Weapon(5th lvl caster) 221,625 gp
Total Spent: 369,801 gp
Money Left to spend: 390,199 gp
Finding a way to use all the GMW scrolls on 29,550 arrows making them +2 (which adds 324.72 damage): Priceless
Surprise Round: Main Character Shouts "Get `em" as Free action. Sits down in Lawnchair with Cohorts as a partial action.
Round 1:
2952 Follower attacks (All followers take 2 attacks, and your 18 6th lvl warriors take 3)
147.6 Autohits of which 7.38 are crits
140.22 * 4.5 (Longbows: d8) + 7.38 * 13.5
630.99+99.63 = 730.62 damage per round. More damage if the target requires less than a natural 20 to hit.
Real World: The average damage would likely be more than that as I'm sure at least some of the followers would have magic bows or above average strengths which could be taken advantage of. Of course if the target has damage reduction then we lose, but I'm sure that at that point a Cohort or two could be convinced to get out of the lawnchair and deal with the menace. "Hurry up and kill the Balor, Buffy; Arnold will be over at sundown, and then I have to inspire the troops again. You, Ms. Number 594, could you be a dear and freshen up my martini, its gone all warm on me."
Of course, there are a bunch of ways to increase that damage, but I can't think of any method to easily effect all 1467 followers at once. If anyone knows a way, speak up!
Comments: You can increase the level of that first cohort by killing him off and using Charisma magic items to offset the -2 Leadership Score penalty. This lets you replace him with a higher level cohort.
It costs you 440 gp per day to feed your Horde a good meal. Roughly another 293 gp to house them (based on poor lodging). Which means that as a 20th lvl character, spend the rest of your Average Character loot, you can only support your Horde for a mere 532 days or 1 year 5 and a half months. Should be just enough time to conquer that small duchy you had your eye on, and get the real dough flowing in
By spending 72,500 gp of your 150,000 gp, you can max the follower chart out at 14th level.
72,500 buys you +6 Enhancement item (36k), +1 Armor of Command (9k), and +1 inherent book (27.5k) which takes your Charisma to 32, which makes your leadership score 25 exactly. Doing this, you can have 1141 followers at 16th lvl reducing the damage to only 568.22 per round.
My good roommates, being disgusted with the lack of 18th lvl Wizard Cohorts pointed out that by taking 16 Rogue levels and 4 Guild Thief prestige levels, you can take Leadership one more time, and massage the numbers in such a way as to get another 18th lvl Cohort. Of course that gives you another 163 followers, which is another 81.18 damage a round. But that would be cheesy.
Hopefully, the Epic Level Handbook will have a revised Leadership chart that accounts for Leadership Scores above 25. My minions and I look forward to such a development.
Edit: Fixed math error (Thanks CRGreathouse) and added text to Guild Thief.
Assumptions: Cohorts will be of the maximum allowable lvl. No hoarding feats. No Leadership modifiers.
Books Required: PHB, DMG
Character: 18 Cha + Rogue levels. All advancement points except for your 20th level point go into CHA. Extra Charisma from items or race gives you more followers sooner, but the final tally remains the same as this character maxes the chart without any magical help required. All feats 6th and above are used to buy Leadership, Rogue Special abilities are used to buy Leadership.
Legend:
Lvl: Main characters Level
CHA: Main Characters Charisma
LS: Leadership Score: See page 45-46 DMG for the tables and description. Leadership Score is equal to character level + Charisma modifier +/- other factors which don't much matter.
CH1 - CH9: The current level of each of your Cohorts numbered 1 through 9.
Followers: Number of Followers of each level. Followers can only be Warriors, Experts, or Commoners
M: Multiplier or the number of times the Leadership feat has been taken.
Code:
[color=white]
Followers
Lvl|CHA|LS|CH1|CH2|CH3|CH4|CH5|CH6|CH7|CH8|CH9| 1st/2nd/3rd/4th/5th/6th|M
1 | 18|--| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - / - / - / - / - / - |0
4 | 19|--| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - / - / - / - / - / - |0
6 | 19|10| 5 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 5/ - / - / - / - / - |1
7 | 19|11| 5 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 6/ - / - / - / - / - |1
8 | 20|13| 6 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 10/ 1/ - / - / - / - |1
9 | 20|14| 6 | 8 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 30/ 2/ - / - / - / - |2
10 | 20|15| 7 | 8 | 9 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 60/ 6/ 3/ - / - / - |3
11 | 20|16| 8 | 9 | 9 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 75/ 6/ 3/ - / - / - |3
12 | 21|17| 8 | 9 | 10| 11| - | - | - | - | - | 120/ 12/ 4/ 4/ - / - |4
13 | 21|18| 9 | 10| 10| 11| 12| - | - | - | - | 175/ 15/ 5/ 5/ - / - |5
14 | 21|19| 10| 11| 11| 12| 12| - | - | - | - | 200/ 20/ 10/ 5/ 5/ - |5
15 | 21|20| 11| 11| 12| 12| 13| 14| - | - | - | 300/ 30/ 18/ 12/ 6/ - |6
16 | 22|22| 11| 12| 12| 13| 14| 14| 15| - | - | 525/ 49/ 28/ 14/ 14/ 7 |7
17 | 22|23| 12| 13| 13| 13| 14| 15| 15| - | - | 630/ 63/ 35/ 21/ 14/ 7 |7
18 | 22|24| 13| 13| 14| 14| 15| 15| 16| 17| - | 880/ 88/ 48/ 24/ 16/ 8 |8
19 | 22|25| 13| 14| 14| 15| 16| 16| 16| 17| 17|1215/117/ 63/ 36/ 18/18 |9
20 | 22|26| 14| 15| 15| 15| 16| 16| 17| 18| 17|1215/117/ 63/ 36/ 18/18 |9
[/color]Neat huh.
Now.... The Smackdown!
Assuming that all of your followers are Human Warriors with Point Blank Shot, Rapid-shot and average stats, then...
Composite Longbows for 1467 Followers: 146,700 gp
10 rounds worth of Arrows: 1476 gp
591 Scrolls of Greater Magic Weapon(5th lvl caster) 221,625 gp
Total Spent: 369,801 gp
Money Left to spend: 390,199 gp
Finding a way to use all the GMW scrolls on 29,550 arrows making them +2 (which adds 324.72 damage): Priceless
Surprise Round: Main Character Shouts "Get `em" as Free action. Sits down in Lawnchair with Cohorts as a partial action.
Round 1:
2952 Follower attacks (All followers take 2 attacks, and your 18 6th lvl warriors take 3)
147.6 Autohits of which 7.38 are crits
140.22 * 4.5 (Longbows: d8) + 7.38 * 13.5
630.99+99.63 = 730.62 damage per round. More damage if the target requires less than a natural 20 to hit.
Real World: The average damage would likely be more than that as I'm sure at least some of the followers would have magic bows or above average strengths which could be taken advantage of. Of course if the target has damage reduction then we lose, but I'm sure that at that point a Cohort or two could be convinced to get out of the lawnchair and deal with the menace. "Hurry up and kill the Balor, Buffy; Arnold will be over at sundown, and then I have to inspire the troops again. You, Ms. Number 594, could you be a dear and freshen up my martini, its gone all warm on me."
Of course, there are a bunch of ways to increase that damage, but I can't think of any method to easily effect all 1467 followers at once. If anyone knows a way, speak up!
Comments: You can increase the level of that first cohort by killing him off and using Charisma magic items to offset the -2 Leadership Score penalty. This lets you replace him with a higher level cohort.
It costs you 440 gp per day to feed your Horde a good meal. Roughly another 293 gp to house them (based on poor lodging). Which means that as a 20th lvl character, spend the rest of your Average Character loot, you can only support your Horde for a mere 532 days or 1 year 5 and a half months. Should be just enough time to conquer that small duchy you had your eye on, and get the real dough flowing in
By spending 72,500 gp of your 150,000 gp, you can max the follower chart out at 14th level.
72,500 buys you +6 Enhancement item (36k), +1 Armor of Command (9k), and +1 inherent book (27.5k) which takes your Charisma to 32, which makes your leadership score 25 exactly. Doing this, you can have 1141 followers at 16th lvl reducing the damage to only 568.22 per round.
My good roommates, being disgusted with the lack of 18th lvl Wizard Cohorts pointed out that by taking 16 Rogue levels and 4 Guild Thief prestige levels, you can take Leadership one more time, and massage the numbers in such a way as to get another 18th lvl Cohort. Of course that gives you another 163 followers, which is another 81.18 damage a round. But that would be cheesy.
Hopefully, the Epic Level Handbook will have a revised Leadership chart that accounts for Leadership Scores above 25. My minions and I look forward to such a development.
Edit: Fixed math error (Thanks CRGreathouse) and added text to Guild Thief.
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