Leadership feat

[montoya]

I've often thought about taking this feat, is it worth it and can it be a fun thing to play as?

[shadow_archmagi]

I've often thought about taking this feat, is it worth it and can it be a fun thing to play as?

Leadership is widely regarded as among the very best feats, since it gives you a second character. Having two characters is twice as good as having one character. (Admittedly, the second character is a bit less powerful than your current one, but still! If you're dealing 20 damage a round, and your little friend is dealing 15, then you'll still be hard-pressed to find a feat that increases your output by 75%)

In general though, yes, it can be fun to have a cohort and some minions to follow you around.

[OldTrees1]

Leadership is powerful but I have found that it is only fun to play with if not selected for the power.

My necromancer auto takes Leadership and Undead Leadership in order to have a larger off screen army.

[Studoku]

From a pure power viewpoint it's among the strongest feats in the game. You get to control a second character which gives you twice as many actions in combat.

In an actual game, it's annoying, slows the game down and tends to involve the cohort being treated as an automaton with no goals, personality or existence outside casting spells he's made to.

[Chronos]

It's explicitly only allowed with DM approval, and with good reason. If you've got a small group, then it can help to fill out a party, and in general improve the game. If a player has a really cool idea for why someone else would be following their character around, it can support that idea. If there isn't a good reason to allow it, though, it shouldn't be allowed.

[Abaddona]

How good it is mostly depends on the DM.
If cohort is NPC class with standard or elite array and you have no way to influence his build then he becames basically pack mule and a simple utility guy (giving potions to downed characters, looting bodies etc.).
That being said there is high chance that your DM will let you have some sort of input about your cohort build and his character so he can became extremely useful - if you choose him to be artificer he essentialy multiples your WBL (though you should take him with you on adventures, so he won't feel bad), bard or marshal = additional buffs for entire party, even simple fighter can be flanking buddy.

Another thing are followers - they are low levels, right, but they can be various crafters, animal tamers, miners - basically valuable resources during times between adventures.

Oh - and one more thing, technically your cohort also can take leadership, altough there is fair chance that if you tried this your DM will throw a book at you.

[montoya]

I'm playing tonight so I will bring it up. My cleric is a follower of Tempus so eventually he wants to command an army.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Note, however, that the feat does not explicitly give you control over your cohort.

Some DMs, myself included, will allow you to influence the cohort's build but will control the cohort's actions just as with any other npc.

[montoya]

I'd be OK with that. I don't want just a pack mule and as an above poster pointed out an automaton doing mundane tasks and buffing the party the entire time. He would have his place in a grander scale.