Leadership Feat - Information Network Variant?

[lady2beetle]

Hello! I haven't posted before but I've been reading all your posts on just about everything and you are all awesome. So here goes - my first real question.

My group is starting a new campaign and since it's an entirely urban adventure, I've decide to bite the bullet and play a bard. She's intended to be a combination skillmonkey, enchantress/diviner/illusionist and spy. Essentially, if it happens in her city, she knows about it, or can find out.

My question is about the Leadership feat. I used it in a campaign years ago where the followers were just the orphans and street rats in the cities that were my character's eyes and ears. At the time it was more of a fluff feat (I think it may have given me a bonus to my gather information checks or something), but if I'm going to ask my GM to use it this time around, I wanted to run it by you guys first. How would you go about doing this? Are there any feats that would help me? I think most of the leadership feats I saw involve adventuring and combat, and I have no intention of taking my followers into combat with me.

So, ideas? Thoughts? Experiences? I'm all ears!

Added information that may or may not be aplicable:


We're starting at level 1.
I am planning on going the Bard/Virtuoso/Sublime Chord route.
It's a large group - between 8-10 players at any given time.
Most of our group likes to kill things, but I enjoy roleplay, so I try to fit it in through my character's story and feats like this to give my character some flavor.
It also means I hope to have some use in combat since there will be a lot of it, but I don't have to be strong at combat since at least half the party will be a fighter-type character.
We're using Core 3.5 + Complete Books
I have no intention of abusing the leadership feat, but I know feats are hard to come by, so I'm still trying to decide if it will be worth taking.

[DeltaEmil]

The Leadership feat is considered one of the most powerful feats in the entire game, because it allows you to play a second character. And if that second character is another spellcaster, and you're a very experienced player who knows how to (ab)use spells, then you double your shenanigans.

It also comes with those rather weak and useless followers, who can still be a very nice bonus, and craft stuff or make money for you, if you need it.

I would advise you to look at the bullet point alternatives (http://paizo.com/products/btpy8pkq?Bullet-Points-2-Options-for-the-Leadership-Feat) for the Leadership feat in the Pathfinder game. They change the Leadership feat in that you have either three NPCS (a sage looking for information, a spellcaster, and a crafter) sitting in a home base, or a designated favored region, where you gain specific combat and social bonuses.

You might also ask your GM to look at the Affiliation rules in the Player's Handbook 2. Affiliations can provide another alternative to the Leadership feat, and allow you and your GM to create a ingame organization about information gathering or skullduggery, or join an existing one.

[OldTrees1]

Dungeon Master's Guide II has Guilds. For the cost of 4 feats (Favored in the Guild, [guild related +2/+2 feat], Leadership, Guildmaster) you get to run a guild.

I would combine that with the Player's Handbook II affiliation that is most similar to your organization to see what additional benefits you and your guildmates would receive.

As a guildmaster, your guild might even act like a business (either DMG II or PHB II I forget which)

Based on your purpose, you might want to ask you GM if you could trade in the cohort in exchange for bundling those 4 feats as one 1st level feat that improves when you reach 3rd, 6th and 9th levels.

[Kinsmarck]

I've used the Leadership feat in exactly the manner you've described for a number of characters, and it hasn't really been a problem. As long as you're not taking control of the game from the DM, ala "I couldn't have been ambushed there! I would have known!" you're fine.

Another option to consider, along with the others suggested here, is the downtime mechanics in Pathfinder's Ultimate Campaign book. It's a cost-investment, I know, but I've found even after cursory read-throughs, that it allows for a lot of background character interactions and support like this. From founding your own guilds and businesses (without the four feat tax, I might add), to running mercenary bands and establishing homesteads, it covers quite a bit. I'm not sure how much of its contents are laid out on the PFSRD, but it may be worth looking into for you.

Cheers!