Leadership Optimization - How does Great Diplomat work?

[Aemoh87]

So my group at school is going to play a short 3.5 campaign before returning to the newer titles we play. It's going to look like a cheetos commercial up in there so I wanted to play the "best" character I have ever built. But I built it a few years ago and don't completely understand it.

So my first question is, how does Great Diplomat work? It gives you a leadership score but it doesn't explicitly say you get a cohort. Just so I can explain this to my DM.

Then more importantly does this stack with leadership... does this stack with Thrallherd?

Then my last question, I already know what I am gonna do with all my minions but any suggestions on ways to up leadership score or build a cool keep?

[The Trickster]

It gives you a +2 bonus for diplomacy, and raises your leadership score by 2. This means when calculating your leadership score from taking the feat leadership, you get two extra "points". I would say yes to it stacking with Thrallherd, since that class feature gives you a leadership score.

[The Glyphstone]

So my group at school is going to play a short 3.5 campaign before returning to the newer titles we play. It's going to look like a cheetos commercial up in there so I wanted to play the "best" character I have ever built. But I built it a few years ago and don't completely understand it.

So my first question is, how does Great Diplomat work? It gives you a leadership score but it doesn't explicitly say you get a cohort. Just so I can explain this to my DM.

Then more importantly does this stack with leadership... does this stack with Thrallherd?

Then my last question, I already know what I am gonna do with all my minions but any suggestions on ways to up leadership score or build a cool keep?

Thrallherd explicitly says that you lose any benefits of the Leadership feat, as your more mentally pliable thralls and followers replace the mundane followers that you had.

If you want a cool keep, you need the Stronghold Builder's Guidebook, and the Landlord feat contained therein.

[Aemoh87]

Thrallherd explicitly says that you lose any benefits of the Leadership feat, as your more mentally pliable thralls and followers replace the mundane followers that you had.

So if you never take the leadership feat do you gain a cohort from Great Diplomat? I guess can I cheese a cohort beyond my cohort gained from thrallherd?


If you want a cool keep, you need the Stronghold Builder's Guidebook, and the Landlord feat contained therein.

I love this feat. Always have.

Also Thrallherd still uses leadership score as written so does it still get feat and item support?

[Feint's End]

Also Thrallherd still uses leadership score as written so does it still get feat and item support?

Technically it uses another calculation namely Characterlevel + Thrallherdlevel + Cha-Mod as opposed to the Leadership feat Characterlevel + Cha-Mod +/- other modifiers.

[The Glyphstone]

So if you never take the leadership feat do you gain a cohort from Great Diplomat? I guess can I cheese a cohort beyond my cohort gained from thrallherd?

That's what the text says, yes. You would lose the cohort if you took Thrallherd, though, because GD says 'as if you had taken the Leadership feat', and Thrallherd causes you to lose cohorts and followers gained from the Leadership feat.




Also Thrallherd still uses leadership score as written so does it still get feat and item support?

If you could find a feat, such as Great Diplomat, that augmented your Leadership score without requiring Leadership as a prerequisite, I guess it could.

*EDIT: The Thrallherd does actually say the phrase 'Leadership score', so it would be eligible if the above was met. It is calculated differently than the normal Leadership score, though.