What if Leadership were a Fighter-only feat?

[InnaBinder]

I'm sure this has been thought of and discussed before, but a quick Google check didn't bring up relevant results.  It seems like it might add a bit more luster to the Fighter's portfolio.

[Lo77o]

So if you want leadership you just take a 1 lvl fighter dip. Wont change much balance wise.

[InnaBinder]

So if you want leadership you just take a 1 lvl fighter dip. Wont change much balance wise.

I was thinking more like "Fighter 6," given that its current requirement is character level 6.  That sounds like a bit of a balance change, from here.

[Lo77o]

Just seems like an odd mix. Like what if warlocks where the only one who could use spiked chains... Well...

I guess i'm not sure what you intend to accomplish with this.

[zugschef]

give the fighter leadership as a class feature at level 6 and erase leadership as a feat. now the fighter is a borderline tier 1 class from level 6 on.

[Gribel]

That looks like LA to me. Get LA +2 to get a fighter of your ECL plus followers, while you play the cohort.

[dipolartech]

Im with Gribel on this one, what you will end up with for optimizers is somebody is playing a wizard, thats one level behind and gets an ubercharger or lockdown meatshield for it. Or worse a fighter, psion/thrallherd combo....

[Lo77o]

That looks like LA to me. Get LA +2 to get a fighter of your ECL plus followers, while you play the cohort.

Haha... that is wonderful. Makes me wonder if a bunch of followers and a Fighter 2 levels above you is worth +2LA

[dipolartech]

Could be for Circle magic users.... And what happens when the fighter multiclasses after level 6 to spell cast into RKV?

[Unbeliever]

Im with Gribel on this one, what you will end up with for optimizers is somebody is playing a wizard, thats one level behind and gets an ubercharger or lockdown meatshield for it. Or worse a fighter, psion/thrallherd combo....

+1, it's like "let's balance the Fighter class by tacking on Optimized Build at ECL -2 onto it."  Not a real attractive move.

[ImperatorK]

What exactly makes the Fighter the only one able to attract followers?

[Kasz]

What exactly makes the Fighter the only one able to attract followers?

Tropes.

The leader of a party is always a fighter.

Order of the Stick
Conan
Aragorn (arguably a ranger but he's more fighter than say...wizard or cleric)
King Arthur

[InnaBinder]

What exactly makes the Fighter the only one able to attract followers?

Tropes.

The leader of a party is always a fighter.

Order of the Stick
Conan
Aragorn (arguably a ranger but he's more fighter than say...wizard or cleric)
King Arthur

This.  It creates an "able battlefield commander" type of character, and that's something the fictional Fighter is usually cast as.  Additionally, it might, in theory, give the Fighter a class feature that's useful rather than "I get lots of feats in lieu of class features."

[ImperatorK]

Followers aren't just soldiers though.
And personally I wouldn't give classes abilities based on tropes.

[Unbeliever]

No doubt the Fighter is a sad class.  Moreso probably b/c of the way feats ended up working out (as opposed to spells, I guess) than anything else.

But, the Warblade or Crusader, with some White Raven and maybe even going Bardblade/sader and with a possible dip here or there very ably handles the "able battlefield commander" trope. 

And, the Aragorn and Conan examples sort of prove the point.  There is no way that either of them is a straight-up Fighter in D&D terms. 

[TC X0 Lt 0X]

Im not gonna lie, the Marshal is gonna be pissed.

[Arturick]

I almost feel like the solution is not to give Fighters exclusive access to leadership, but rather to make the Fighter a "pet" that you can pick up as a member of another class, possibly by means of a feat, but perhaps more with a class feature.

6th Level Rogue Feature - "Kneebreaker"  You gain a thuggish companion who acts as your muscle when brute force is needed over finesse.  He remains one level below you.

6th Level Paladin Feature - "Squire"  You gain a trustworthy stalwart who, while good hearted, didn't have what it took to be a real Warrior of God.  That won't stop him from trying to help fight the forces of darkness.

6th Level Monk Feature - "Chris Tucker/Owen Wilson"  You get an obnoxious sidekick who fights with real weapons, yet somehow remains less relevant than you at all times, probably because he's just so damn annoying.

[FlaminCows]

There isn't any reason to fix the Fighter because the Fighter doesn't have any mechanics to fix. The only reason anybody cares about the Fighter class is that it is in the core rules and is called "Fighter".

While fixing the fighter, you can go on ahead to fixing the commoner class and polishing turds.

[ImperatorK]

I combined Fighter with Warblade. That's my Fighter fix.

[RobbyPants]

It would certainly be a boost to the fighter, and give a reason to take six levels of the class. What I find funny about it, is that this approach could be paraphrased: "To fix the fighter, we'll let you play a fighter and let you roll up a real character on the side".

This should probably have a caveat that the cohort must be a caster, or something. Otherwise, it's not very helpful. A 6th level fighter bringing a 4th level monk to the table isn't doing much more than a 6th level fighter hiring a commoner 1 to move around and stand in the way of things so they can't charge.