Lots of Level 1s?

[EugeneVoid]

How would you optimize Dread Pirate's capstone?

A bunch of followers, but no cohorts.

Should we buff them up?

Exploit them with Sadism, Greater Consumptive Field, (schism? I'm bad with psionics?)

Make Uberchargers?

Just interested.

[VoxRationis]

Use Magic Device and wands of something magic missile? I mean, it's not the best spell individually, but if you have 30 people with it and the party's doing all the "keep them busy/disabled" work...
You guys can probably do better, I'm just throwing things out there.

[Slipperychicken]

Enter Dread Pirate with Bard, take DFI, and give the minions ranged weapons. Now you've got a ton of level 1s each pumping out a bunch of d6 of elemental damage per hit. Assuming they only hit the target on a 20, then we should expect 5% of them to hit each round (before miss chances and other such effects, of course).

This could be especially useful if you can get them dealing, say, acid damage against an enemy's mast.

Get some of the higher-level minions to also be DFI bards, each contributing a different energy type until you have all of the applicable ones (acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic) covered. Maybe you can have them beating war drums below deck for safety. Now the minions are shooting weapons charged with each element, dealing lots of dice against everything they hit. Heck, if their damage is sufficient, you might be better off using a regular IC if it would improve their attack bonus enough to hit on something other than a 20.

[maniacalmojo]

Have not read much on leadership, dead pirate or any of that but a **** ton of warlocks while an individually bad class is amazing in the hands of 30+ people. Eldrich blast aside you now have 30+ people who at will can cast some pretty neat spells.

[Andion Isurand]

If you want to generate attack bonuses... you could try a band of speedy and stealthy Whisper Gnome (https://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20040807a&page=3) Barbarians with the Arctic Template (+2 Con -2 Cha), weilding heavy poleaxes (CW 154) along with spiked light shields and the following feats and flaws:

Distracting Attack (Miniatures Handbook 25)
Swarmfighting (Complete Warrior 105)
Shield and Pike Style (DR338 p92)
Slow to Anger (flaw) (DR325)
Quick Burning Rage (flaw) (DR325)

Use the weapon groups variant and select "polearms" and "exotic weapons" among your weapon groups to gain proficiency with the heavy poleaxe. When an enemy gets too close to any given follower, they can use the spiked shield instead of the poleaxe.

Just be careful they don't use their silence ability while you're trying to command them or otherwise use bardic music to boost them.

Basically these guys can sneak up, charge in, bunch up two to a square, and provide others with circumstance bonuses to attack rolls.

You could also use Strongheart Halflings for their extra feat, but they will lack darkvision, low-light vision and they wont move as fast.

[prufock]

Enter Dread Pirate with Bard, take DFI, and give the minions ranged weapons. Now you've got a ton of level 1s each pumping out a bunch of d6 of elemental damage per hit. Assuming they only hit the target on a 20, then we should expect 5% of them to hit each round (before miss chances and other such effects, of course).

Since you're probably doing some Inspire Courage-op anyway, put up both songs and give them a bonus to hit as well.