Rules Index | GM Screen

Loyalty and the Leadership Feat

Source Ultimate Intrigue pg. 131
Conflicting loyalties and potential betrayals are part of the excitement of the Leadership feat. Having fully loyal followers weakens the tension of the game—imagine if all the PCs and NPCs used Leadership to surround themselves with implacably loyal allies who neither side could subvert, trick, or recruit. Cohorts and followers begin genuinely loyal to their leaders, but they aren’t immune to bribery, blackmail, replacement with an impostor, and other manners of threats and enticements.

On the other hand, players like to receive a more concrete benefit from their feats—the benefits of Toughness and Skill Focus, for example, can’t be reduced by bribes or chicanery. For that reason, as well as to balance the spotlight, consider making the Leadership feat free in an intrigue-focused campaign, with the caveat that players’ cohorts and followers may change their loyalties in certain circumstances. Sometimes, a little warning is all it takes to avoid an unpleasant clash of expectations later in the game.

Some groups have players with the Leadership feat run their cohorts during combat to take the burden of running additional NPCs off the GM. This method can still be used in a campaign where cohorts and followers might betray the PCs, but the GM should remind players that she might make adjustments to a cohort’s proposed actions every once in a while. For more advice on running cohorts, see the companions system.

Archives of Nethys

Rules Index | GM Screen

Loyalty and the Leadership Feat