[3.5] Can you take over a village/town or bigger with the Leadership feat?

[newbDM]

I enjoy the leadership feat, but now I want to know what the limits of what you can with it are. For whatever reason, say a good or neutral character (I do not like playing evil characters) decided to "conquer" a settlement, could it be done with the Leadership feat?

If so, how large of a settlement can you potentially take over based on the settlement sizes table in the DMG?

And as an afterthought, how large of a settlement can a character keep a indefinite hold on, police, and defend afterward?



Also, how would you go about it mechanically?

What types of followers should a PC/player take?

What ways are there of enhancing one's Leadership Score to increase one's number of followers, and how many can a player potentially have? I know there is a feat in Tomes of Battle that doubles your number of followers, and an item that doubles it again, but what else can be done?


edit:
p.s. Can the pros here please suggest ideas and/or situations for how a non-evil character can do this?

p.s.2. Is this something that can be done in a D&D game? Or would it be something that would require the entire campaign/story to revolve around a player (aka me in this case) and it's PC, which would be completely unfair and unmotivating for the entire party and probably the DM as well?


p.s.3. What exactly can you do with a village/town/etc once you have one? How can you as a PC profit from it, and/or use it to aid you on your future adventures and such?

[RandomFellow]

There is no RAW mechanics in D&D 3.5E in any WotC source for taking over territory.

So you'd either need to homebrew it or use something like Birthright.

[Ricky S]

yea it would be likely. If you went through the due processes. Like get elected or kill the current leader or something like that.

[The Neoclassic]

I'd imagine that a character with a high enough Leadership score wouldn't have too much trouble getting a bunch of peasants in a town to follow him or her. However, the few high level, authority figure, or unusual NPCs in the town would probably not be so easy to convert and would require more specialized attention. In other words, I can see using Leadership to charm the masses and make them follow you, but there will be a few key individuals who you'd likely have to use other means (perhaps some Leadership/Diplomacy combo set of checks?) to convince them to do the same.

Why you might do this... Well, perhaps you need a base of operations for some holy mission. The current leader of the town might be evil, and you need to wrest control from her. The town is at risk of invasion and unless they learn to trust you and stop just debating amongst themselves, they will probably be overrun. Just a few ideas; hopefully I'll come up with more later.

I don't know how you could directly profit from a town, but if you have essentially taken over the town (through charisma rather than force), it's not unreasonable to assume that townies will be friendly or helpful, provide you with free food/lodging, and provide discounts on most goods and services.

[MickJay]

Cheaper services, shops selling stuff at the base/lower cost, taxes, part of the tolls (depending on where the city is located, this alone can be worth a lot) annual gifts, birthday presents, ius primae noctis (if you really have to), depending on the law system you might be able to get to preside over court cases (and get the money for doing so), and the list goes on.

No sane GM would let you really have a city, though, usually you get a piece of paper that says "we love you, mayor", keys to the gates and maaaaybe 5% discount on wares

[KillianHawkeye]

The fact is that the Leadership feat is not designed to provide a character with rulership over a town/city/region, simply because such a thing is far too complex. Leadership just grants you a number of loyal and faithful followers. But when was the last time you saw a town where everyone was a loyal follower of the local lord? Never, because there's always someone with their own opinions and enough at stake to voice them. Some noble or merchant or town councilman or other influential citizen is always going to disagree (privately or publicly) with the rulership, or even be plotting to take the job themselves. It's just one of those inevitable aspects of free willed NPCs: they'll eventually be in it for their own personal gain.

So would Leadership be helpful in securing governance over a town or city? Sure it would. Having loyal followers in key positions, or just on the town watch, will be a big help. But you're not going to ever have an entire town worth of loyal, unquestioning followers unless it is a very, very small town (or more like a fort in the wilderness, in all likelihood). You're still going to have to deal with the every day diplomacy that comes with being a leader of people who exist outside of a strict hierarchy.

Really, at the end of the day, it's all going to come down to the DM to decide how much work it really takes to run a town, and when and what sort of disagreements you'll have with the locals, and how many guards you need to keep the peace, and how many soldiers you need to defend the town from wandering monsters, etc. I suggest talking this over at length with your DM to see how they want to handle it, or if it's even possible and what would be required to pull it off, since there really aren't any established rules for this sort of thing. Good luck!