What is the greatest number of followers you can legally get?

[EisenKreutzer]

By using stuff like the Leadership Feat and the Thrallherd PrC, what is the highest number of followers you can obtain (using official Paizo and DSP material)?

[Yanisa]

163 + 1 Cohort, I guess.

Thrallherd and Leadership cap at leadership score 25 and most ability add to the leadership score. Also they don't stack.

There is also Vile Leadership (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/vile-leadership). Which also doesn't stack but it's another leadership feat.

[Ninjaxenomorph]

There is a mythic ability I believe that doubles your followers.

[Terazul]

**EDIT**: Ahhh, missed that innocuous Pathfinder tag... Nevermind then!

[Yanisa]

There is a mythic ability I believe that doubles your followers.

So there is (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/mythic/mythic-heroes/mythic-paths---paizo-inc/champion#TOC-Crusader-Ex-), I am not that well-versed with mythic.

So

326 Followers + 1 Cohort so far.

[PsyBomb]

I did the math once, and if you count indirect leadership (leadership chaining) and can build the cohorts and level-6 Followers to optimize leadership scores, I got it over a thousand. Didn't use Mythic on that build, though.

[Yanisa]

I did the math once, and if you count indirect leadership (leadership chaining) and can build the cohorts and level-6 Followers to optimize leadership scores, I got it over a thousand. Didn't use Mythic on that build, though.

Sadly leadership requires 7th level and the highest follower is 6th level. I also call this a technical foul, because are the followers of your followers also your followers? Either way let's run away with this idea. :smallamused:

You can do this with your Cohorts and still gain insane amount of numbers. You can get 6 cohorts that can grab Leadership. (You get one cohort that is 2 levels lower, capping at 17th level at max leadership core. That 17th level can only have a 15th lvl. Following that line 13, 11, 9 and finally 7 the minimum level for leadership.)

Which already brings the number up to 1145 followers and 6 cohorts. Bam! Already a thousand+.

Getting mythic on your followers is hard, unless the DM is a really nice dude, but we cannot really optimize for that. The best option is this the third party feat mythic leadership (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/mythic/mythic-feats/mythic-leadership-mythic), which adds 3 possible mythic cohorts. This Feat allows half your mythic tier, assuming max tier your first cohort is 5, second is 2 (2.5 rounded down) and the third is 1. That's 1630 followers and 6 cohorts. (All cohorts mythic adds 489 followers for 2282 followers)



But Thrallherd is a whole different nutcase, this one gets leadership at 6th level. Which means each maxed out Leadership Score brings us 2 Thrallherds. Also Thrallherd allows more cohort stacking (minus 1 instead of minus 2). This goes all kinds of insane. At this point the numbers are endless if you assume any follower can reach a 21 leadership score.

A quick first guesstimate tells me a follower is level 6. He gets a basic leadership score of 6 (Level) + 3 (17 cha*) + 1 (Thrall herd) for 10 to start with. We need 15 more points. Let's just say unlimited followers is going to lead to unlimited wealth anyways, even a few thousand already brings in insane amounts of workforce. So no budget here.
*Charisma is based on Elite Array 15 base + 2 racial bonus

+3 Headband of alluring charisma +6 (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/h-l/headband-of-alluring-charisma)
+3 Tome of Leadership and Influence (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/a-b/book-tome-of-leadership-and-influence) (We have an uneven stat)
+3 Diadem of Inspiring Rule (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/c-d/diadem-of-inspiring-rule) (Very cheap too)
+2 Breastplate of Command (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/magic-armor/specific-magic-armor/breastplate-of-command)

At this point we reached a leadership score of 21 which gives one 6th level follower, yes this is pretty much endless. If you want 25 just make a single helmet out of Diadem of Inspiring Rule + Imperial Army Greathelm (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/h-l/imperial-army-greathelm) + Crown of Conquest (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/c-d/crown-of-conquest) for +7 leadership score in a single item.

Typically, all the way at the end I find Suzerain Scepter (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/rods/suzerain-scepter) and Ring of the Ecclesiarch (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/rings/ring-of-the-ecclesiarch) both items double followers. That brings the non Thrallherd level up to 9128 followers and 6 cohorts assuming all cohorts are mythic, just shy from 10.000. Also no third party is necessary for this almost 10k, just a really nice... stupid... insane DM.

And here I thought 163 was the max, how young and naive I was back then.

[PsyBomb]

Sadly leadership requires 7th level and the highest follower is 6th level. I also call this a technical foul, because are the followers of your followers also your followers? Either way let's run away with this idea. :smallamused:

You can do this with your Cohorts and still gain insane amount of numbers. You can get 6 cohorts that can grab Leadership. (You get one cohort that is 2 levels lower, capping at 17th level at max leadership core. That 17th level can only have a 15th lvl. Following that line 13, 11, 9 and finally 7 the minimum level for leadership.)

Which already brings the number up to 1145 followers and 6 cohorts. Bam! Already a thousand+.

Getting mythic on your followers is hard, unless the DM is a really nice dude, but we cannot really optimize for that. The best option is this the third party feat mythic leadership (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/mythic/mythic-feats/mythic-leadership-mythic), which adds 3 possible mythic cohorts. This Feat allows half your mythic tier, assuming max tier your first cohort is 5, second is 2 (2.5 rounded down) and the third is 1. That's 1630 followers and 6 cohorts. (All cohorts mythic adds 489 followers for 2282 followers)



But Thrallherd is a whole different nutcase, this one gets leadership at 6th level. Which means each maxed out Leadership Score brings us 2 Thrallherds. Also Thrallherd allows more cohort stacking (minus 1 instead of minus 2). This goes all kinds of insane. At this point the numbers are endless if you assume any follower can reach a 21 leadership score.

A quick first guesstimate tells me a follower is level 6. He gets a basic leadership score of 6 (Level) + 3 (17 cha*) + 1 (Thrall herd) for 10 to start with. We need 15 more points. Let's just say unlimited followers is going to lead to unlimited wealth anyways, even a few thousand already brings in insane amounts of workforce. So no budget here.
*Charisma is based on Elite Array 15 base + 2 racial bonus

+3 Headband of alluring charisma +6 (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/h-l/headband-of-alluring-charisma)
+3 Tome of Leadership and Influence (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/a-b/book-tome-of-leadership-and-influence) (We have an uneven stat)
+3 Diadem of Inspiring Rule (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/c-d/diadem-of-inspiring-rule) (Very cheap too)
+2 Breastplate of Command (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/magic-armor/specific-magic-armor/breastplate-of-command)

At this point we reached a leadership score of 21 which gives one 6th level follower, yes this is pretty much endless. If you want 25 just make a single helmet out of Diadem of Inspiring Rule + Imperial Army Greathelm (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/h-l/imperial-army-greathelm) + Crown of Conquest (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/c-d/crown-of-conquest) for +7 leadership score in a single item.

Typically, all the way at the end I find Suzerain Scepter (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/rods/suzerain-scepter) and Ring of the Ecclesiarch (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/rings/ring-of-the-ecclesiarch) both items double followers. That brings the non Thrallherd level up to 9128 followers and 6 cohorts assuming all cohorts are mythic, just shy from 10.000. Also no third party is necessary for this almost 10k, just a really nice... stupid... insane DM.

And here I thought 163 was the max, how young and naive I was back then.

Yeah, forgot that it went to 7 in PF. Still, given that this is a baseline, you get the point. Wonder what the result is at the moment you have a WBL of 10k... I'd need to actually build the characters at that point.

[Feint's End]

Thrallherd gives you 2 cohorts. Both could potentially be thrallherds too etc.
Should be possible to get more than a thousand by chaining. Otherwise you are pretty much limited by your charisma score and this becomes an exercise in optimising that.

Edit: let's see

You can have 2 cohorts (both level 17)which both have 2 more (16 and 15) of which both have 2 (one type has 15 and 14 and the other type 14 and 13). One of these can have 2 more (the one with 15 has a level 14 and a level 13 again).

So now we are looking at (if I calculated correctly):
1×20 (you)
2×17
2x16
4x15
6x14
4x13

This is just the top of the iceberg though. If you consider how high their scores will be due to how thrallherd levels stack they each can have high followers too. Also the lower ones can be thrallherds too albeit below 15 they only get one cohort so there is that.

[Spore]

I did the math once, and if you count indirect leadership (leadership chaining) and can build the cohorts and level-6 Followers to optimize leadership scores, I got it over a thousand. Didn't use Mythic on that build, though.

Is there a optimum between levels and amount of followers? Because an army of commoners isn't exactly useful (if satisfying to have as acolytes doing your handiwork). Just because you are a thrallherd it doesn't mean that there are more nscs with class levels popping up. And if you are going into the thousands, you'd have the 1% of adventuring guys in a city of millions.

I know this is TO but if you apply this to any settings with sufficient numbers on the NPC census you should have a function or similar to optimize number versus level.

[Yanisa]

Is there a optimum between levels and amount of followers? Because an army of commoners isn't exactly useful (if satisfying to have as acolytes doing your handiwork). Just because you are a thrallherd it doesn't mean that there are more nscs with class levels popping up. And if you are going into the thousands, you'd have the 1% of adventuring guys in a city of millions.

I know this is TO but if you apply this to any settings with sufficient numbers on the NPC census you should have a function or similar to optimize number versus level.

Even a lowly commoner can work and earn money. Although you are better off with any kind of spellcaster and magic item creation, as thrallherd you can jsut stab your believers and new ones will come in 24 hours.