Commentary Regarding Leadership

On Leadership and Similar Abilities.
by Shea C. Reinke

Originally posted on Wizards of the Coast website
http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19572770/Commentary_Regarding_Leadership?num=10&pg=1

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The leadership feat is one of the most unique feats in the world of Dungeons and Dragons d20. There are a few corollaries to leadership in the complete supplements as well as amongst the so called "third party" accessories. This article relates only to that which is available OGC. The reason is all my SR&D work presented here on the Regdar's Repository is hereby declared Open Game Content, not Product Identity, and available to be utilized for free. Just, ya know, remember paragraph 15 as that's Shea C. Reinke. Also am sorta known as the Wonder World Design Studio's lead designer. There will be a Wonder World web site before I have my bachelor's degree (with recompilations of things and an SR&D download) but for now on to: The Leadership Feat!

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Who, what, when, where, why, and how: leadership and leadership related special abilities.

Players take leadership for one of two reasons: the cohort or the followers. Most often the cohort. The idea that most players have is that they get two characters. In allot of games that is what they get. In other plays a cohort is played with the way the rules were written. A cohort is not the player's character, and, as easy as it is to play that way, the player is not supposed to be controlling their cohort. In and out of combat, a cohort, and all a character's extras (also known as subordinates, companions, flocks, mounts, familiars, and any number of other titles and terms equivalent to "assistant") are still one hundred percent NPCs. The dm is in control of their actions and the dm is in control of their reactions, even their actions and reactions in regards to their leading PC. Followers are usually attractive to a player that has some sort of mercantile or political aspirations, but can also take the form of fans, family, or fellows in guild of some sort. Players with such grandiose aspirations should be careful about how much time dealing with their followers will take away from the group play. If the entire party has leadership, or leadership-like abilities, dealing with the players' characters' characters will take a significant amount of play time.

The game function that is provided by the feat is replicated throughout the game. The paladin's mount, the druid's animal companion, the wizard's familiar, as well as a number of characters created or called by spells, manifestations, and numerous supernatural abilities grant a functionality similar to that provided by the leadership feat. Simply, a degree of influence over a NPC far greater than what can be provided by skills such as Bluff or Diplomacy. The NPCs affected by leadership will act in your interests and at your directives to the best of their ability. Followers are more than helpful; they are at your service. The "link" abilities that familiars, special mounts, and animal companions receive cannot be more clear in clarification of the mechanical relationship between the player and their designated assistants. A wizard's familiar character can eventually learn to speak with the master. (What benefit are you supposed to gain from being able to talk to your own PC? Ipso the familiar is not your PC.) As an intelligent NPC, a familiar is free to act in its master's best interests in any way the DM considers fitting.

A paladin's mount is similar to a familiar and a cohort, in that it is fully intelligent and capable of contemplating it's own actions, but the interaction mechanics regarding a druid or ranger's animal companion is even more clear as to how the assistant relationship functions. Druids and rangers are able to make a Handle Animal check as a free action, they gain a +4 bonus to these checks, and they are able to expand their companion's utility by granting it bonus tricks. Far from being in direct control of the animal, a player must make skill checks to influence the actions of a companion. Similarly a player can be forced to make opposed interaction skill checks (such as Diplomacy, Bluff, and Sense Motive) when dealing with their own cohort or followers. In essence the leadership feat is like automatically succeeding at a Diplomacy check to change a target NPC's attitude to helpful. The difference is that once a NPC is on your side the effect is persistent, unless the DM decides otherwise. The loss of your assistants is a grey subject when your are speaking RAWise.

Spellcasters and manifesters have abilities that temporarily grant the abilities of leadership. The wizard and the sorcerer's familiar already mentioned, the two arcane character classes also have summon and enchantment spells that command control and create a familiar on demand. Clerics, druids, and manifesters have spells and powers that emulate or replicate most of the arcane spells, but the druid has spells like shambler. The cleric has the planar ally spell, and the psionic classes have astral construct. More so, negative clerics have command instead of destroy. A negative cleric's ability to constantly surround themselves with a undead, particularly if they have access to intelligent undead, is almost game unbalancing. A fifth level negative cleric can, if you let them, have five 1 HD vampire NPCs, or ten 1/2 HD zombies. There are two conveniences to attracting assistants through special abilities. The actions component in the attraction process are well defined, and the interaction between the primary and assistant characters is well defined. In the ability description command actions are proscribed and the actual interaction check is usually a will save.

An animal companion is most often directed via Handle Animal by the leading PC. Your PC and familiar are empathic and eventually learn to speak with each other. Paladin special mounts act exactly like a summon monster ability, and all assistant NPCs, however they arrive, act with the best interests of the leading character in mind. The degree to which the assistant NPC can conceive of the leading character's best interests can vary drastically however. A negative cleric's undead in particular may be mindless and unable to conceive of their master's benefit, and animal companions are limited to the understanding of animal intelligence. Special mounts and familiars are intelligent, but only at high levels does that intelligence rival a PC's. Cohorts and followers, similarly, are not inherently aware of what a PC desires of them. The PC must interact and communicate directives and plans to the assistant NPCs in exactly the same way that the PC interacts and communicates with non-assistant NPCs. Having a significant number of followers means that you either have an efficient command hierarchy, you make regular public appearances, or you simply let your followers organize themselves. Perhaps your cohort is your general, perhaps he is your king, either way your relationship with your leadership allotted assistant NPCs is mechanically defined in terms of numbers and attitudes, no more or less.

The level arrangements you have with your assistants displays the dynamic between the characters. As you progress, they progress. Your spells get better as you gain levels. HD determines your command capability. Familiars, mounts, and animal companions gain special abilities at particular class levels, and your cohort's progression is gauged by your PC's progression. Other NPCs exist in a state outside of the XP progress dynamic. The antagonists don't need to go adventuring, they are as difficult as they need to be for the game to play out. A cohort, and any other assistants, will stay within a mechanically described progression relative to your level. In particular, a cohort may never be more than two levels below your PC's. Other assistants have other special progressions, but the issue is that they move with you. Your goals are shared, and you are in the lead. If there comes a time when the metagame provides your cohort with outstanding reason to progress past that limit you may want to consider letting the cohort stop being your cohort and level. Sometimes in plays people move on and out of the spotlight. Life changing (and XP rewarding) events should be able to push even your cohort onto another path and draw your followers elsewhere. Better than death and more noble than having your celestial mount taken away.


Attractive and to an extent controlling.

The process of gathering your followers, attracting your cohort, obtaining a familiar, gaining a special mount, or calling an animal companion is one that is not rigorously defined, when mentioned at all. A paladin's mount simply appears one day, a gift of celestial favor. Its summoning is a conjuration (calling) effect, and in all ways, other than its individuality, it is treated as a summon monster spell. A familiar costs a small amount of time and a pittance of money. The duration, 24 hours, but not the details of the ritual are defined. The ceremony that produces an animal companion requires 24 hours as well, and that time must be uninterrupted prayer. What is entailed in attracting a cohort or followers is even greyer. In many game plays a cohort simply appears, via metagame magic, as soon as the leader PC's player finishes crafting the character sheet, with the PC's followers in tow behind.

The attraction process is intentionally left in the hands of the dungeon master for a good reason. The type of game you are playing has a metagame impact on the process of cohort and follower attraction. As stated above, in many games it is simply easier to allow a player to create and control their assistants directly. The decision to play this way is based more on the player's maturity, the severity level of the game, and the degree of mental workload that the dm wants to maintain, but even when playing this way the dm retains the authority to override the player's decisions, or force interactive skill checks, in regards to the assistant or assistants. A full court press DM will, however, retain total control over actions and dice rolls for the assistant NPC. This doesn't make the cohort or followers any less the PC's assistants, it just takes direct control of the characters away from the player. Either style of play is admirable, as already stated, the choice lies within the theme of the game, the intensity of the session, or the time of day.

In an immersive style of play what is involved in the attraction and control process should be as in depth as the PC's other developments. Allowing the player to create a cohort whole character sheet, roll all checks, and even speaking for the cohort detracts from the cohort's distinct identity as an NPC. What is gained in convenience is paid for out of the verisimilitude of the play. It is entirely reasonable for a dm to force a player to role play the attraction and control process, even forcing the player to designate already existent NPCs as assistants instead of generating new characters simply because the player took a feat. This method becomes particularly pertinent when a cohort or follower dies and must be replaced, or when a dm prepares potential cohort characters as part of the campaign. The rules for the animal companion, special mount, and familiar abilities are clear in how a PC must recover from the loss of their mechanically defined assistant NPC, but the leadership feat is not. Beyond the emotional loss, there is only a minor penalty to your leadership score to denote the death of one of your designated assistants.

As D&D is a combat simulation game, a player's cohort (or any other assistant NPCs) are a mechanical game trait that is gained via a balanced systematic process of the rules and a player should not loose the functionality of the feat except through the most entertaining metagame circumstances. If your cohort is killed or dismissed the rules do not intend for a player to progress the game without the advantage provided by the feat. So much so that there is a listed penalty to your leadership score for previous cohort deaths when attracting a new one. In the course of the play there may be realistic reason for a cohort to divorce from the PC. The plausibility of the plot can be undermined if one takes the rules into account over the actual storylines of the characters. Allowing a player to switch their PC's cohort around is entirely acceptable. For example, if you have an aristocratic character that always has a translator, aid, or general servant type flunky at her side, but she wants that NPC to be useful and part of her character concept instead of a random hireling. The play could run in so much that this flunky, this fool, could be designated nearly randomly. In any given scene she has one, but there is no particular one. Perhaps she only hires the best bodyguards; in that case the aristocrat's cohort character could become more like a standing business relationship with a defenders' guild.

A strange form of metagame could go this way: Your character has the leadership feat, but no dedicated cohort or followers. The idea is that they are on the spot inspiring. Any given NPC that meets the listed requirements determined by level and alignment could be convinced to follow you, even if for only a short time. When you go to the fighter's guild for hirelings, the real deal decides to come with you for free. The villain king's jester joins you in your plot to overthrow the king because he can see the greatness in thee. Stand in front of a crowd to give a speech, and by the time you are done you have the beginnings of an army, or a riot. At high levels you could conceivably be set upon by thieves only to end up their king until you manage to leave. The idea of being around you is attractive. An NPC knows that associating with you will teach them something. For a day, for a week, for a month, or a year the time they spend with you will be an experience. Playing with leadership this way is no violation of the rules, just playing a little loose. Shuffling cohorts also helps the player from getting too possessive of their character's cohort, and allows for a more advanced form of PC/NPC social interplay.

When considering the leadership feat another intriguing form of role playing phenomena can occur. Just because the player selects the leadership feat for the character does not mean that the PC's in game personality desires to be a leader of many. For play purposes a PC's cohort can be dedicated to the PC despite the PC's desires to the contrary. Followers could be devoted to the PC much to the PC's chagrin. In many tales a leader is a leader because others see them so, not because they want to be. This phenomena is particularly common in tales of nobility or divine mandate. All this said, the leadership feat can also represent a PC's in game drive to change the course of history through the influence of the masses. Either extreme, or something in between, are all acceptable play styles for handling leadership. This phenomena applies to the other mechanically defined assistant NPCs to a lesser extent. Just because a player decided that his sorcerer character has obtained a familiar does not mean that the PC must have an in game appreciation of the magical beast. Even allowing for the special mechanical relationship between them the sorcerer may be, in game, somewhat annoyed that this strangely intelligent animal insists on tagging along and spell sharing.

Of all things, the planer ally spells describe what may be the best example of how to attract a leadership cohort. The spell description provides the ability to communicate, and some details about the bargain that must be made. This kind of bargain for services is exactly the kind of deal that a normally attracted cohort should desire from you. What? You think that your assistants are there because they like you? Cohorts like all PCs and NPCs have goals. Taking the feat means that you are aware of how to manipulate a NPC cohort's desires to your advantage, you have a presence that's attracting, but that does not mean that the cohort's own goals go away. When you are attracting your cohort find out for yourself what the NPC wants out of life. Make your decision based on compatibility. Mechanically only the cohort's description, and potentially type, matters, but depending on how the plot is played out a cohort's motivations could mean everything. In the case of an unwilling leader concept the gm could conceal the identity of a PC's cohort, even from the PC's player. In some plays a cohort could even be mistaken for an enemy. The only fact that the leadership feat assumes is that there is an NPC around to help you with some regularity. Oh yeah, and they will risk their life to save yours.


Classes and the leadership feat.

How about a bard? The character class that should burn to take leadership not once, not twice, but three times over. Fans, not followers, folks. Of course not all classed bard are really performance artists, some are speakers, using Perform (Oratory) and Diplomacy to change the attitude of the masses. The best way to play a performing bard's followers, the way that keeps the best with the combat simulation intent of the game, is to say that the listed number of followers a bard has is the number of die hard fans in the region this week. Groupies are fanatics for the guy they can go see, if you go away they move on to the next new thing. Sure thats not as stratified as a fighter's regiment of armed and outfitted first, second, and third level horsemen, but a performance artist is more likely to spawn a fanatic phenomena in a moment. It is entirely plausible to say that a reasonably leveled mid-evil rockstar could be relied on to start a riot on demand. Sure, those kind of followers are not around the next morning, but some of them might be back around that next night. In the life of an adventuring bohemian artist, your cohort is your backup, and amongst your followers there are the elite, the johnny come latelys, and the crowd. Of course, when a bard shuffles cohorts, he, of all character classes, is the most likely to be shuffling nobility.

Forming a regiment is not a bad idea either though. Warrior characters that intend on being military generals should consider investing in the process early. Barbarians, fighters, paladins, and rangers generally form militant forces with their followers. Don't wait to take leadership to start your army, and don't rely on the feat to do all the work. Leadership alone provides for only a meager army, even when you get into epic levels. If you are militant minded, consider your followers your captains, you team leaders, or some other phrase that means command staff. Put your cohort and your followers in charge of the soldiers that you are paying, and make sure they have professions like cooking. Armies cost money. Only if the entire party took leadership, and their cohorts took leadership, and their cohorts took leadership, etc would you have something even resembling an army by the time the group hit 20th level. 120,000 gp will get you an army a thousand strong, plus a maintenance support staff, for a year. Take leadership and spend the money and you will have a real army. Not only an army, but one that has a commanded hierarchy of your party's loyal cohorts and followers. The kind of army that songs are sung about.

Clerics form clergy, almost uniformly. The gods are doing all that inspiring and spell granting for a reason. Some clerics of caring deities may be able to get away with starting portfolio related groups, or taking an entire town as a flock of followers, but most deities want more active worshipers. In allot of cases a cleric will have a following of paladins. Not only are they a form of clergy, they give you money instead of costing you anything. A paladin regiment, or paladin captains, make for an amazingly motivating command staff. They prevent morale breaking attacks like dragons, and they are always ready with a little front line healing. Another variant clergy is the idea of fanatics. A rabble that rolls around behind you, you talk to a god, so they want you to tell them what that god said to do. Seeing as you can talk to a god you probably aught to tell them what the divine is saying. The nice thing about assistant NPCs is that when they are told they are doing something wrong, they tend to take it better.

Wizards and sorcerers are the least likely to take leadership. Not only due to the lack of spare feats available to them, the concept of an arcane spellcaster does not directly lead to the idea of a massive following. In some fantastic play settings this idea is totally reversed. Elder wizards almost always have favored apprentices, and the wizarding world is highly organized into schools and ministries. A more classical D&D stereotype for a sorcerer or wizard with leadership is the idea of an apprentice cohort, and a menagerie of odd relations. An arcane leader is the most likely to have outsiders, intelligent magical beasts, or nifty things like pixies as followers. Sorcerers in particular may feel more comfortable attracting assistants that are as magical as they are. Another classic arcane leadership choice is the defensive warrior cohort, but in that case the followers an arcane class receives seem a little out of place. You can hire high level characters, they just cost more. Gp will cover the cost better than the feat for simple concepts such a professional bodyguard, and they will even risk their life for you, you paid them to. The only thing you are sacrificing is the overwhelming personal loyalty.

Druids already have a strong leadership function as part of their class abilities, and pairing a cohort with you animal companion gives you three seriously combat worthy characters more or less under you direction. If you spend the majority of your time as an animal you may even consider giving your leadership score a boost, because your cohort may be getting all the credit for your accomplishments. Druids are usually loner concepts so there is no stereotype druidic following. In some ways they are like clerics, in others like warriors, but mostly they are not leaders. It would not be too much of a loose ruling to allow a druid with the leadership feat to attract more animal companions. Take animal HD for level and go. You could do this with other classes, but only the ranger's concept fits with this method as well as the druid's.

Monks are almost identical to clerics in that they usually form following of class and mentality. A master monk has many students, one that stands out above the rest as the expected successor to the elder master. Evil, or cruel, monks form gangs of thugs, good, or caring, monks often function almost like families. Rogues as well usually form organizations of like-minded individuals, but there is rarely such loyalty and honor amongst thieves. In reverse of that monks and rogues may be the classes most likely to take cohorts and form followings that are completely unrelated to their class concept. Perhaps a rouge or monk is actually the rightful heir to the thrown. Perhaps a monk has a fumbler for a cohort, and merchants for followers. A rouge could attract a noble, even a queen, and in that case just imagine what kind of followers your ready rouge could start attracting. The power behind the thrown is often sneaky.

Commoners are generally considered to be beyond (or below) the state of mind to be taking the leadership feat. The aristocrat commoner class is the stark exception to this. Every aristocrat worthy of the term will have leadership as their sixth level feat. That's just taking into account what an aristocrat is supposed to be. Other than the conceive many intelligent, and sometimes monstrous, humanoid NPCs should be taking the leadership feat. Most monster entries are representing the commoners of the species. Amongst them should always be one that sacrificed a combat feat to lead the rest, just as there should always be a proportional number of leading aristocrat in a population density. Proportionally about a third of a population is probably another character's assistant, but in extreme circumstances that margin could go to half, or even almost a hundred percent. A goblin hoard should have a king that has leadership, or a king that is a cohort.


Shea's Research and Development

All in all the leadership rules are fairly simple for the complicated concepts they refer to. I have, of course, made some more rules. These are all feats. Spending money in regard to leadership is called hiring. Items that boost charisma are easy to understand, but the rules get a little fuzzy when your cohort is at a limit level and it comes down to what happens when magical modifiers get turned off and on. One thing I want to mention: The below information has received no response from Paizo Publishing (Dragon Magazine). I tweaked a tiny bit. I mention this in the light of public announcement:
Warning! The below is not worth any money!

Behind the curtain: Carriers and Cohorts
This entire suite of feats all started with the carrier feat. I originally came up with the carrier feat as a racial feature for one of my Wonder World races: the Plague. I needed a way for the Plague, a race that is naturally gaseous, to "carry" stuff, and I thought "carrier" seemed a suitable double-entendre to name the racial feature. After seeing how well the carrier worked into the game other players in my playtesting group asked if they could get a carrier or something similar. I thought about the nature of the carrier as I had created it originally and decided that a "first level cohort" option was something missing from the game. The Plague's racial ability became "Host", a special type of carrier with special bonuses, and carrier became a feat that could be taken a first level. A carrier is intended to represent just that, an extra body that can "carry" things for the PC: be it equipment, messages, or simply the PC's interests. The carrier could be the dedicated manservant of a noble, a plucky apprentice for a mage (perhaps a loyal protector), or a particularly dedicated (and free) pet for a character that does not have the animal companion class feature. I decided to make the carrier's advancement limited to the PC's experience both for game balance purposes and because I feel that such a dedicated character can not progress except within the larger experience of the character that it regards as more important than itself.

Behind the curtain: Hoard Master
As I was tinkering with the idea of the carrier feat one of my playtesters asked if I had any other feats in mind that could be wrapped up in a "leadership expansion" suite of feats. I thought for a minute and remembered something another of my other playtesters had lobbied for: he wanted to build an army using feats. I had originally told him that to build a real army you needed to actually pay people as though they were hirelings, and we created a truly expansive army using leadership, "cohorts with cohorts", and hirelings, but as I thought about it I decided there could be a way to "featify" that process. I thought of goblin hoards, swarms of religious fanatics, and just plain charismatic leaders that have inspired massive followings. The hoard master feats just sort of fell out of that. I came up with the basic mechanics over the span of an hour conversation and hammered them into place with just a little more time. They are not the kind of feat that most players want to deal with (or most DMs either). They create simply too many NPCs for most gamers to control in play reasonably, but for those that want to deal with that sort of thing I think they integrate pretty well into the existing mechanics.

Behind the curtain: Cult of Personality
The "odd man out" of this set of feats: I really made cult of personality to highlight, what I feel is, the intent of the followers in the leadership feat. Nowhere in the leadership feat description does it say that followers are restricted to NPC classes, but I think that was what the designers were thinking. I have seen many many DMs rule on one side of the fence or the other and there is a difference. If you allow followers to be character classes the PCs resources are significantly improved. If you restrict followers to commoner classes you retain the feel of the PCs and the character classes being somewhat special. If you use the Cult of Personality feat then you keep the best of both rulings while giving the PCs (and NPCs) the chance to have a small army of divinely inspired cleric healers, teams of fireball dodging rogues, or a cabal of item crafting mages backing them up. The feat can only be taken at 9th level, or later, due to the level restriction on leadership so only a particularly charismatic or affluent leader will have to "upgrade" their followers as long as they are aiming for cult of personality early. If a character waits to take the feat after they have a handful of followers then its up to the circumstances and the dm to decide what kind of upgrade process the character's following should undergo.

Behind the Board: Squad Leader
This one, along with its assistant feats (epic squad leader and inspired leadership), is the newbie. I haven't had a chance to see them in a game session yet. One day I ran into this massive three thread (multi-board) conversation about whether or not you could have more than one cohort with the normal leadership feat. The answer is yes and no. You can have more than one, but not at the same time. I decided that one of the neat things about feats is the "Normal:" entry. So I thought of a feat, other than additional cohort, that would allow for multiple cohorts. About two weeks later another conversation came up that described making base attack bonus and modern defense into skills. My thoughts of what ramifications that had on the whole attack rate thing somehow linked into leadership and from this the squad leader feat was born. Setting the additional cohorts at a getting a new one every five levels turned out to look a little pointless. You got great stuff like your sixth cohort being first level when your leadership score is twenty. Setting your first squad leader cohort at a higher progression than your leadership cohort was based in the idea of making up for the lost followers, and something about it looks good. If you try squad leader, or any of these really, drop me a line and let me know how it goes.


ADDITIONAL COHORT [GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Cha 13, Wis 13, Leadership.
Benefit: Having this feat enables you to attract an additional cohort. This cohort is treated like your first cohort, except that any cohorts you have reduce your leadership score the same way a familiar, special mount, carrier, or animal companion does for the purpose of attracting your additional cohorts.
Normal: The leadership only gives you one cohort at a time.
Special: You can gain this feat multiple times, each additional cohort reduces your leadership score for the purposes of attracting another.

CARRIER [GENERAL]
Benefit: Having this feat enables you to attract a dedicated servant, pet, or similar character. Your carrier is completely dedicated to your well being to the extent that it will sacrifice its life for your benefit, do anything you command it to the best of its ability, and it will never leave your side unless you dismiss it (and sometimes not even then). Carriers always begin at first level and gain XP directly from your total as you see appropriate. When your carrier would normally be calculated into an XP award add your carrier's level -1 to your level as an effective level adjustment. If your carrier participates in an XP award without you it is treated as you, and the XP is applied to you or your carrier as you see appropriate. Your carrier's level may never equal or exceed your own, except at first level.
Special: You can gain this feat multiple times. Each time you take this feat you gain the ability to attract an additional carrier. When you have multiple carriers participating in an XP award you add their level adjustments together to create your effective character level. A carrier effects your leadership score the same way a familiar, additional cohort, special mount, or animal companion does.

COMPANION [GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Wis 13, Carrier, Leadership.
Benefit: Taking this feat allows you to designate one of your carriers as your cohort. Your carrier now gains experience as a cohort in addition to any experience garnered from your total. A companion is calculated as a cohort for determining XP awards instead of as a carrier (your companion no longer adjusts your effective character level when you gain XP), and a companion's level can exceed the normal limit for a cohort as determined by your leadership score. Also, a companion does not reduce your leadership score the way that a carrier does.
Normal: A carrier's level adjusts yours when determining XP awards, and a cohort's level is limited by your leadership score.
Special: You can gain this feat multiple times, once for each carrier that you have. You do not have to take leadership multiple times to gain multiple cohorts with companion.

CULT OF PERSONALITY [GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Cha 13, Leadership.
Benefit: Having this feat allows you to attract followers with character and prestige class levels.
Normal: Followers are restricted to commoner class levels.

EPIC COHORT [EPIC]
Prerequisite: Cha 17, Wis 13, Leadership.
Benefit: Having this feat allows a cohort you have already attracted to progress beyond normal level limits. You cohort can exceed the level limit indicated on the Leadership or Epic leadership tables, and even exceed your own level. In addition to the XP a cohort normally receives you may allocate some or all of your XP award from any given challenge to your epic cohort.
Normal: Your cohort's level is restricted by your leadership score.
Special: You can take this feat multiple times, once for each cohort you have. The benefits of this feat do not apply to attracting a new cohort, only to the advancement of a cohort that has already been attracted.

EPIC HOARD MASTER [EPIC]
Prerequisite: Cha 29, Wis 24, Leadership, Epic Leadership, Additional Cohort, Hoard Master, Improved Hoard Master, Greater Hoard Master.
Benefit: This feat enables you to attract twice the number of seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth level followers indicated on the Epic Leadership table.

EPIC SQUAD LEADER [GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Int 23, Cha 23, Squad Leader.
Benefit: Taking this feat allows you to gain more than six additional squad leader cohorts. To determine the number of additional squad leader cohorts you can attract extrapolate the squad leader table's progression mechanism. All modifiers and relative level limits still apply.
Normal: You are limited to six squad leader cohorts.

GREATER HOARD MASTER [GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Cha 17, Wis 13, Leadership, Additional Cohort, Hoard Master, Improved Hoard Master.
Benefit: This feat enables you to attract twice the number of fifth and sixth level followers indicated on the Leadership table.

HOARD MASTER [GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Cha 13, Wis 13, Leadership, Additional Cohort.
Benefit: This feat enables you to attract twice the number of first and second level followers indicated on the Leadership table.

IMPROVED HOARD MASTER [GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Cha 15, Wis 13, Leadership, Additional Cohort, Hoard Master.
Benefit: This feat enables you to attract twice the number of third and fourth level followers indicated on the Leadership table.

INSPIRED LEADERSHIP[GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Leadership.
Benefit: This feat grants you a + 4 bonus to your leadership score.
Special: If you have this feat and the squad leader feat you may continue to attract followers according to the table provided in the leadership feat description.

SQUAD LEADER [GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Int 13, Cha 13, Leadership.
Benefit: Having this feat changes the way your followers and cohorts feature functions.
Followers: A character with squad leader attracts no additional followers.
Cohorts: A character with squad leader retains the cohort gained from leadership, and gains the ability to attract up to six additional cohorts based on the character's leadership rating. The normal penalties to your leadership score apply when attracting a cohort with the squad leader feat.

[code]Leadership Score Cohort Level — Additional cohorts level by Score —

1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th

1 or lower 1st — — — — —

2 1st 2nd — — — — —

3 2nd 3rd — — — — —

4 3rd 3rd 1st — — — —

5 3rd 4th 2nd — — — —

6 4th 5th 3rd — — — —

7 5th 5th 3rd 1st — — —

8 5th 6th 4th 2nd — — —

9 6th 7th 5th 3rd — — —

10 7th 7th 5th 3rd 1st — —

11 7th 8th 6th 4th 2nd — —

12 8th 9th 7th 5th 3rd — —

13 9th 10th 7th 5th 3rd 1st —

14 10th 10th 8th 6th 4th 2nd —

15 10th 11th 9th 7th 5th 3rd —

16 11th 12th 10th 7th 5th 3rd 1st

17 12th 12th 10th 8th 6th 4th 2nd

18 on 12th 13th 11th 9th 7th 5th 3rd[/code]
Cohort Level: Regardless of a character’s Leadership score, he can only attract an additional squad leader cohort who is three or more levels lower than himself. The cohort should be equipped with gear appropriate for its level. A character can try to attract a cohort of a particular race, class, and alignment. The cohort’s alignment may not be opposed to the leader’s alignment on either the law-vs-chaos or good-vs-evil axis, and the leader takes a Leadership penalty if he recruits a cohort of an alignment different from his own.
Cohorts provided by squad leader earn XP in the same fashion as the cohort provided by leadership.
Special: If you have the inspired leadership feat as well you may continue to attract followers as described in the description of the leadership feat.

SUPREME HOARD MASTER [GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Cha 19, Wis 21, Leadership, Additional Cohort, Hoard Master, Improved Hoard Master, Greater Hoard Master.
Benefit: This feat enables you to attract four times the number of followers indicated on the Leadership or Epic Leadership tables.
Special: This feat does not stack with the effects any other Hoard Master feat. Instead, this feat effectively doubles the benefit of all other Hoard Master feats you have.
Note: Supreme Hoard Master does not give you access to the Epic Leadership table of followers unless you have the Epic Leadership feat.

Finally an item, be it somewhat silly.
This was not part of my submission to Paizo Publishing.

Cohort in a Bottle: This otherwise simple glass bottle glows with an inner light and has intricate sigils inscribed onto the stopper. To remove the stopper from the bottle requires a full round action in combat, and one round after you have removed the stopper an outsider designated at the time the item was created appears. The bargain for the outsider's services has been prearranged, but an ally may refuse to work with you if your goals are diametrically opposed to theirs. You may designate a task for the ally, or you may make general use of their services for two weeks. A successful Knowledge (Arcana), Knowledge (Religion), or Knowledge (Planes) may be able to reveal the identity of the outsider connected to the bottle if it is unknown.
Strong Conjuration; CL 15th; Craft Wondrous Item, planer ally, greater; Price 13,100 gp; Weight 1 pound.