Can a character have both a Cohort and Followers?

[yaluckyboy09]

One of my players is getting the Leadership feat soon and I'm trying to understand it's rules. I figured most of it out except one thing: Can he have BOTH a Cohort AND Followers? I can't seem to figure that part out

[Silva Stormrage]

Yes you get both cohort and followers with leadership.

[Kazudo]

You figure out their Leadership Rank and go down the table, and they get a cohort of (at most) that level, and the attached number of followers.

Keep in mind, one's cohort can never be more than 2 levels below its master (a well buffed 6th level player getting Leadership at earliest possible would get a 4th level cohort, no matter what the table says, but the same number of followers as the table says.)

Now, if a character ALREADY HAS an animal companion, familiar, thrall, etc., then there's a penalty per instance to their Leadership score, but that doesn't apply to the followers they get from Leadership itself.

[John Longarrow]

yaluckyboy09,

While they get both, unless the character is doing specific recruiting they will get what ever followers you (the DM) decide.
If the character tries to recruit (say puts out the word he's looking for stout warriors or skilled hunters or what ever), you should give them something similar to what they are looking for.

Work with the PLAYER for what they want their CHARACTER to get. This often works best.

[yaluckyboy09]

You figure out their Leadership Rank and go down the table, and they get a cohort of (at most) that level, and the attached number of followers.

Keep in mind, one's cohort can never be more than 2 levels below its master (a well buffed 6th level player getting Leadership at earliest possible would get a 4th level cohort, no matter what the table says, but the same number of followers as the table says.)

Now, if a character ALREADY HAS an animal companion, familiar, thrall, etc., then there's a penalty per instance to their Leadership score, but that doesn't apply to the followers they get from Leadership itself.

He has an animated weapon that follows him around, would that qualify as a companion/familiar/thrall/etc.?

[Kazudo]

I wouldn't count it that unless it's an Item Familiar.

[Jormengand]

I wouldn't count it that unless it's an Item Familiar.

See, I wouldn't count an Item Familiar, given that it's not really a familiar in the conventional sense, and is anyway primarily used by truenamers to buff their truespeak roll.

That said, anyone who is using not one but two of the most broken feats ever to grace Dungeons and Dragons Revised Third Edition really needs to be spoken with.

[Kazudo]

See, I wouldn't count an Item Familiar, given that it's not really a familiar in the conventional sense, and is anyway primarily used by truenamers to buff their truespeak roll.


Actually, I don't either UNTIL it becomes intelligent and nearly a separate entity. It has a lot to do with how I manage my table. Fortunately, Leadership and feats/class features like it are almost always banned barring a REALLY good reason.



That said, anyone who is using not one but two of the most broken feats ever to grace Dungeons and Dragons Revised Third Edition really needs to be spoken with.

Amen. The only way it would be worse is if the player took two flaws to make losing the feat slots moot.

[Jormengand]

Amen. The only way it would be worse is if the player took two flaws to make losing the feat slots moot.

And grab up two traits while you're at it. Be a wizard, your cohort is a truenamer optimised to spam two buff utterances (Probably the +2 CL one and the infinite blindsight one, though ignoring all cover even total cover or dispelling epic spells as a swift action are also cool) and heal you infinitely out of combat, his cohort is a marshal who goes around buffing everyone's initiative, his cohort is a marshal who goes around buffing the truenamer's truespeak, and all your followers are sorcerers who live solely to spam Magic Missile.

And of course, everyone has item familiars, traits and flaws and is probably an illumian. Then the truenamer makes them all ethereal forever.

[Kazudo]

And grab up two traits while you're at it. Be a wizard, your cohort is a truenamer optimised to spam two buff utterances (Probably the +2 CL one and the infinite blindsight one, though ignoring all cover even total cover or dispelling epic spells as a swift action are also cool) and heal you infinitely out of combat, his cohort is a marshal who goes around buffing everyone's initiative, his cohort is a marshal who goes around buffing the truenamer's truespeak, and all your followers are sorcerers who live solely to spam Magic Missile.

And of course, everyone has item familiars, traits and flaws and is probably an illumian. Then the truenamer makes them all ethereal forever.

Not to mention one BSF who abused the Incarnate Construct Sandform Creature spin a few thousand times to get an obscene STR and CHA score (and therefore an obscene leadership bonus) and is also a primordial giant with invisibility at will.

[Jormengand]

Not to mention one BSF who abused the Incarnate Construct Sandform Creature spin a few thousand times to get an obscene STR and CHA score (and therefore an obscene leadership bonus) and is also a primordial giant with invisibility at will.

I wish you to imagine Pun-Pun with Leadership. Then all his followers are Pun-Pun too.

Let us flood the world with infinite infinite kobolds in accordance with the rules as written.

[Kazudo]

I'm imagining it. An army of Ascended Kobolds.

Something has to be able to stop that. BUT THIS IS NEITHER HERE NOR THERE.