You attract followers to your cause and a companion to join you on your adventures.
Prerequisites
| 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 |
Character level 7th.
Benefit
This feat enables you to attract a loyal cohort and a number of devoted followers 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 Score
Your base Leadership score equals your character level plus any Charisma modifier. In order to take into account negative Charisma modifiers, the 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 below.
Leadership Modifiers
| Leader’s Reputation | Modifier |
|---|---|
| Great renown | +2 |
| Fairness and generosity | +1 |
| Special power | +1 |
| Failure | –1 |
| Aloofness | –1 |
| Cruelty | –2 |
Your reputation (from the point of view of the cohort or follower you are trying to attract) raises or lowers your Leadership score, as shown on Table: Reputation Modifiers.
| 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* |
| * Cumulative per cohort killed. | |
Other modifiers may apply when you try to attract a cohort; see Table: Attracting Cohorts.
| The Leader… | Modifier |
|---|---|
| Has a stronghold, base of operations, guildhouse, or the like | +2 |
| Moves around a lot | -1 |
| Caused the death of other followers | -1 |
Followers have different priorities from cohorts. When you try to attract a new follower, use any of the modifiers that apply on Table: Attracting Followers.
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. 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.
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.