Leadership question.

[Ieatelves]

Hello good folks of the playground.

I'm currently playing in a pretty solid campaign who's DM has a tendency to put the players under heavy pressure from intense fights. Now my character's the party tank (See Thread: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=253165 the problem actually worked out, I'm now playing him at full steam) and as of late he's been getting leading tendencies. Beeing lvl 8 now, I've been thinking of getting the leadership feat, for the fluff and giggles of having an extra character to manage.

Now the DM hasn't seen this feat in use on his table for years (not too sure if he's seen it at all) and I'm figuring that since he knows I'm one of the party's character optimiser he's put down this restriction:

All my followers AND the cohort will be -randomly- generated untill they're found to ''fit'' the theme.

Now, this beeing a warforged heavy campaing, I was hoping to have a few low level artificier followers for the fun of it, but with this restriction I'm not even sure what my lvl 7 follower will even look like! Last thing I need is a sword and board fighter... Anyway, your thoughts on this?

[prufock]

"Randomly" seems like a bad way to do it. Why don't you just tell your DM what sort of cohorts and followers you'd be recruiting, then have him build them? That way he can control their level of optimization while sticking with whatever theme/abilities your party needs.

Another possibility is to limit your followers to NPC classes only, while letting you build your own cohort.

[Zdrak]

"Randomly generated" doesn't even make sense. When your character is recruiting followers and cohorts, he won't pluck the first passerby from the street, won't he? He will be either recruiting at the local temple, or the wizard school, or the fencing academy ...

He should be able to find a cohort that fits at least a broad description (eg. "pious god-fearing preacher"), even if not optimized to a "t".

[ahenobarbi]

How will he choose randomly? Roll for race and after that for every level? That would probably end up completely useless.

I'd recommend what others did: give general description of what you want (a character capable of crafting various magic items), possibly some suggestions (artificer, wizard that got as many crafting feats as possible, ...) and let the DM build the character. Also ask if you could take a look at the sheet (or role play "job interview") to know what you get.

[Ieatelves]

Thanks for the feedback folks, I was thinking just about the same thing about this whole idea. If I get a pack of comoners as my lvl 1 followers, my cohort should at least be a decent character. But it seems it's gonna be far worse:

According to one of the players (since i don't see or talk to the DM all that much) the DM is thinking of my making my cohort a NPC with NPC class level (I'd guess mostly warrior levels). He seems to really want to keep me in check, and this is making me rethink the whole idea -__-;

An idea I've been thinking about is asking for a mount instead of a cohort. Having gained the mounted combat feat trough knight levels, it would be a logical choice. Beeing in a construct heavy setting, I'd aim for a effigy warhorse (complete arcane) who'd level with us. Of course, I know by usual means an effigy creature would cost a heap of gold to get, s'why I'm wondering if the feat could cover it's cost. Thoughts on all of this?

[docnessuno]

You could consider the dragon cohort feat if you are looking for a mount.
Your DM cannot screw you up much on that, and dragon riding always get bonus point for coolness.

[KillianHawkeye]

According to one of the players (since i don't see or talk to the DM all that much) the DM is thinking of my making my cohort a NPC with NPC class level (I'd guess mostly warrior levels). He seems to really want to keep me in check, and this is making me rethink the whole idea -__-;

Nerfing an option to this degree is really just a passive-aggressive way of telling you not to do it. Pass!