Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Nightingale 03-19-06, 04:43 AM	Hey guys. Just thought i would ask to clear a few things up with my dm. How 'exactly' does leadership work? Do you get to customise the followers you get down to the skills? And how about your cohort? Just a clear clarification would be nice guys. Cheers
GaffeR 03-19-06, 04:50 AM	Unfortunately, Leadership is one of those things that was left vague and up to DM discretion. I believe that if you burn a feat on leadership, you should be able to customize your own cohorts and followers. However, many DMs would disagree with answers varying from, "You'll get something applicable," to, "I'll give you whatever I want so long as it suits my storyline". I dealt with the latter. Nothing like being railroaded into leadership and getting followers you can't do anything with and a cohort who never adventures with you. Oh, and of course, I had no hand in creating any of them. Good times with the old leadership! Anyways, forgive me bitterness and ask your DM.
tsuyoshikentsu 03-19-06, 05:13 AM	The answer is "you design your own" for two reasons. One, any DM who's fair-minded will let you. Two, if your DM is a prig, all you have to do is say "I sit here and dismiss my cohort/followers, then lure a new one, rinse/repeating till I get the one I want. Adventures can wait." Then they go complain to the What's a DM to Do? board and we all call him an idiot.
Eagle Prince 03-19-06, 11:09 AM	I think by the book that the DM makes the NPCs, but you are the one who decides whether or not to accept them. It even gives some rules saying that you can say that you are only looking to recrute people of certain race, class, alignment, etc. So you should always get something that at least resembles what you want, unless of course you don't care too much and tell the DM to do whatever he wants. I think usually you will end up making your own cohorts and any custom followers b/c its just that much easier for the DM, not only then he doesn't have to spend the time, but like above post it insures that you don't just reject it and take something else. I have made my own cohorts and also on 3 cases, with three different DMs, the DM has made my cohort for me, once by my own request. In both cases they were very good, so IMX its okay for your DM to make them assuming he is not just out to screw you over. One of my DM-made cohorts had very good ability scores and some nice magic gear above what they should have. He forgot that he wanted the cohort to have ranks in a certain knowledge skill too, but instead of changing around skill points to make room, he just upped the Int by 2 and gave max ranks in it! Wow, nice deal for such a small mistake on his part. The other one had above average stats, but also had as much gp of gear as my PC plus a fully crewed boat! And the third was like a totally custom-made monster as a cohort.
Alratan 03-19-06, 12:12 PM	I hear their are rules for this in Power of Faerun
Faithless the Wonder Boy 03-19-06, 01:05 PM	As both a DM and a CharOpt regular, I have to say that I actually do NOT allow my players to completely build their own cohort/followers. Okay, before the hisses and cries of "Bad DM!" go about... I ask my players exactly what they're looking for in a cohort. I tell them to get as specific as they'd like - after all, from an RP standpoint, they're probably always on the lookout for people with those specific qualities. Then I work with them to create a cohort that both fits my storyline and fits exactly what they're looking for. I've had several people take leadership in campaigns I've run, and I've never had a complaint about it. Furthermore, once the cohort is there, it basically (within reason) will listen to what ever the PC has to say, and so choices down the road really can be dictated by the PC... For followers, I do something similar, except that followers are generally a good bit more "average" than a PC or cohort. So, I ask them what they'd like in followers, that sort of thing, and then I make a generalized spread. There are always some variations within it. For example, I once had a wizard who wanted to start an abjuration academy and wanted his followers to all be wizards that attended his school. Well, most of them were wizards, but I also included a couple of individuals who had no innate spellcasting abilities, but always wanted one - ranks in UMD, but no class levels in a class that granted spellcasting. That sort of thing. Again, the followers will listen to almost anything the leader has to say, so he can more or less dictate how they run from then on...