NPC Leadership and XP's

[Techwarrior]

So, let's say our Friendly Neighborhood Big Bad Evil Guy has the Leadership feat.

How would you, as a DM, expect to calculate XP for an encounter with this character and his assorted Cohorts and Followers?

How would you, as a PC, feel XP would be best calculated for such an encounter?

Where does RAW lay on the matter?

How does one generate treasure for such an encounter?

[nedz]

By RAW the cohort and followers are all part of the BBEG and so you only apply XP for the main character. This is one of the reasons Leadership is regarded as such a powerful feat — even by WotC.

But, as DM, you can award whatever XPs you want based upon the difficulty of the encounter irrespective of the CR.

[OldTrees1]

I do not count Summoned Monsters or Animal Companions/Familiars/Wild Cohort for those were balanced with combat in mind.

I do count Cohorts for Leadership was not balanced with combat in mind. (if one can even consider it balanced at all). So I use Leadership to justify the Master commanding the Cohort but I include both when I calculate Encounter level/xp rewards.

Since my DM opinion is based on opinons about balance and fairness, I continue to hold the opinion when I am a PC.


I generate default gear(bare essentials) for the NPCs and then spread around more gear until it is reasonable for the encounter(based on WBL and my faster xp gain).

[Brookshw]

I've never bothered giving a bbeg leadership, they get their cronies for free for whatever reasons work with them being the bbeg in the first place, nutty cult, power alliances, militaristic society, etc. I've never felt any urge for a mechanical explanation. Any creatures encountered are worth their normal xp, loot etc.

[Urpriest]

Yeah, Leadership isn't a feat for NPCs, it's a feat for PCs.

[OldTrees1]

Meh, I like a mechanical metric of support. Leadership is usable in this regard.

[Urpriest]

Meh, I like a mechanical metric of support. Leadership is usable in this regard.

EL already does that, as do the organization rules in various sources.

[nedz]

Yeah, Leadership isn't a feat for NPCs, it's a feat for PCs.

Do you have any RAW supporting this ?

I mean, we all know that it's a problematic feat — it even implies as much in the rules.

[Urpriest]

Do you have any RAW supporting this ?

I mean, we all know that it's a problematic feat — it even implies as much in the rules.

The number of NPCs in an encounter is already governed by Encounter Level. Leadership would have no effect on that, so it's meaningless on an NPC.