You are the sort of person others want to follow, and you have done some work attempting to recruit cohorts and followers.
Prerequisites: Character level 6th.
Benefit: Having this feat enables the character to attract loyal companions and devoted followers, subordinates who assist her. See the table below for what sort of cohort and how many followers the character can recruit.
| Leadership | Cohort | Number of Followers by Level | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Score | Level | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th |
| 1 or lower | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2 | 1st | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 3 | 2nd | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 4 | 3rd | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 5 | 3rd | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 6 | 4th | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 7 | 5th | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 8 | 5th | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 9 | 6th | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 10 | 7th | 5 | — | — | — | — | — |
| 11 | 7th | 6 | — | — | — | — | — |
| 12 | 8th | 8 | — | — | — | — | — |
| 13 | 9th | 10 | 1 | — | — | — | — |
| 14 | 10th | 15 | 1 | — | — | — | — |
| 15 | 10th | 20 | 2 | 1 | — | — | — |
| 16 | 11th | 25 | 2 | 1 | — | — | — |
| 17 | 12th | 30 | 3 | 1 | 1 | — | — |
| 18 | 12th | 35 | 3 | 1 | 1 | — | — |
| 19 | 13th | 40 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | — |
| 20 | 14th | 50 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | — |
| 21 | 15th | 60 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 22 | 15th | 75 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 23 | 16th | 90 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 24 | 17th | 110 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 25 or higher | 17th | 135 | 13 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
Leadership Score: A character’s base Leadership score equals his level plus any Charisma modifier. In order to take into account negative Charisma modifiers, this table allows for very low Leadership scores, but the character must still be 6th level or higher in order to gain the Leadership feat. Outside factors can affect a character’s Leadership score, as detailed below.
Cohort Level: The character can attract a cohort of up to this level. Regardless of a character’s Leadership score, he can only recruit a cohort who is two 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 earn XP as follows:
Number of Followers by Level: The character can lead up to the indicated number of characters of each level. Followers are similar to cohorts, except they’re generally low-level NPCs. Because they’re generally five or more levels behind the character they follow, they’re rarely effective in combat.
Followers don’t earn experience and thus don’t gain levels. However, when a character with Leadership attains a new level, the player consults the table above to determine if she has acquired more followers, some of which may be higher level than the existing followers. (You don’t consult the table to see if your cohort gains levels, however, because cohorts earn experience on their own.)
Leadership Modifiers: Several factors can affect a character’s Leadership score, causing it to vary from the base score (character level + Charisma modifier). A character’s reputation (from the point of view of the cohort or follower he is trying to attract) raises or lowers his Leadership score, see table below.
| Leader’s Reputation | Modifier |
|---|---|
| Great renown | +2 |
| Fairness and generosity | +1 |
| Special power | +1 |
| Failure | -1 |
| Aloofness | -1 |
| Cruelty | -2 |
Other modifiers may apply when the character tries to attract a cohort, see table below.
| The Leader… | Modifier |
|---|---|
| Has a familiar, special mount or animal companion | -2 |
| Recruits a cohort of a different alignment | -1 |
| Caused the death of a cohort | -2* |
* Cumulative per cohort killed.
Followers have different priorities from cohorts. When the character tries to attract a new follower, use any of the modifiers that apply on table below.
| The Leader… | Modifier |
|---|---|
| Has a stronghold, base of operations, guildhouse or the like | +2 |
| Moves around a lot | -1 |
| Caused the death of other followers | -1 |
Source: Dungeon Master’s Guide (Page 106)