Leadership
You attract followers to your cause and a companion to join you on your adventures.
Prerequisite: Character level 7th.
Benefits: This feat enables you to attract a loyal cohort and a number of devoted subordinates who assist you. A cohort is generally an NPC with class levels, while followers are typically lower level NPCs. See Table: Leadership for what level of cohort and how many followers you can recruit.
Leadership Modifiers: Several factors can affect your Leadership score, causing it to vary from the base score (character level + Cha modifier). Your reputation (from the point of view of the cohort or follower you are trying to attract) raises or lowers your Leadership score:
| Leader's Reputation | Modifier |
|---|---|
| Great renown | +2 |
| Fairness and generosity | +1 |
| Special power | +1 |
| Failure | -1 |
| Aloofness | -1 |
| Cruelty | -2 |
Other modifiers may apply when you try to attract a cohort, as listed below.
| The Leader | Modifier |
|---|---|
| Has a familiar, special mount, or animal companion | -2 |
| Recruits a cohort of a different alignment | -1 |
| Caused the death of a cohort | -2* |
Followers have different priorities from cohorts. When you try to attract a follower, use the following modifiers.
| The Leader | Modifier |
|---|---|
| Has a stronghold, base of operations, guildhouse, etc. | +2 |
| Moves around a lot | -1 |
| Caused the death of other followers | -1 |
Leadership Score: Your base Leadership score equals your level plus your Charisma modifier. In order to take into account negative Charisma modifiers, this table allows for very low Leadership scores, but you must still be 7th level or higher in order to gain the Leadership feat. Outside factors can affect your Leadership score, as detailed above.
Cohort Level: You can attract a cohort of up to this level. Regardless of your Leadership score, you can only recruit a cohort who is two or more levels lower than yourself. The cohort should be equipped with gear appropriate for its level (see Creating NPCs). A cohort can be of any race or class. The cohort's alignment may not be opposed to your alignment on either the law/chaos or good/evil axis, and you take a –1 penalty to your Leadership score if you recruit a cohort of an alignment different from your own.
| Leadership Score | Cohort Level | Number of Followers by Level | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | ||
| 1 or lower | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 2 | 1st | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 3 | 2nd | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 4 | 3rd | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 5 | 3rd | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 6 | 4th | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 7 | 5th | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 8 | 5th | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 9 | 6th | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 10 | 7th | 5 | - | - | - | - | - |
| 11 | 7th | 6 | - | - | - | - | - |
| 12 | 8th | 8 | - | - | - | - | - |
| 13 | 9th | 10 | 1 | - | - | - | - |
| 14 | 10th | 15 | 1 | - | - | - | - |
| 15 | 10th | 20 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - |
| 16 | 11th | 25 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - |
| 17 | 12th | 30 | 3 | 1 | 1 | - | - |
| 18 | 12th | 35 | 3 | 1 | 1 | - | - |
| 19 | 13th | 40 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | - |
| 20 | 14th | 50 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | - |
| 21 | 15th | 60 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 22 | 15th | 75 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 23 | 16th | 90 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 24 | 17th | 110 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 25 or higher | 17th | 135 | 13 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
A cohort does not count as a party member when determining the party's XP. Instead, divide the cohort's level by your level. Multiply this result by the total XP awarded to you, then add that number of experience points to the cohort's total.
If a cohort gains enough XP to bring it to a level one lower than your level, the cohort does not gain the new level—its new XP total is 1 less than the amount needed to attain the next level.
Number of Followers by Level: You can lead up to the indicated number of characters of each level. Followers are similar to cohorts, except they're generally low-level NPCs. Because they're usually 5 or more levels behind you, they're rarely effective in combat.
Followers don't earn experience and thus don't gain levels. When you gain a new level, consult Table: Leadership to determine if you acquire more followers, some of whom may be higher level than the existing followers. Don't consult the table to see if your cohort gains levels, however, because cohorts earn experience on their own.
Endzeitgeist Says: The most powerful feat in the game. This nets you a second character and flunkies to carry your loot. It also blows the doors for roleplaying open wide and is a great way to interact with the world. Leadership is my favorite feat ever. Note that your cohort should not steal the spotlight of other players and make sure you can run the cohort in a quick and expedient manner in order to not bog down gameplay. Also, work with your GM - some GMs ban this feat and making a cohort that fits with the GM's vision is always a good idea.