Quote Originally Posted by Prime32 View Post
What I don't understand is why that rule doesn't apply to cohorts as well. It's very possible for a character to have a cohort stronger than himself.
Because Cohorts are supposed to be near-equal adventuring partners. They wouldn't be particularly useful if they were stuck with extra level penalties in addition to never being able to climb higher than two levels below wherever you currently are. That 2-level gap alone should be quite sufficient to ensure a character's cohort is not more powerful than the character unless the character takes a cohort of a much higher tier than himself, like the Fighter who picks up a pocket Wizard. That's a flaw in the class design, not the Leadership rule.