Leadership
Leadership feat: All regents get Leadership as a virtual feat (including regents with only source holdings), regardless of whether they meet the prerequisites or not. If a regent already has the Leadership feat, he gains a +2 bonus to his leadership score. Note that the other limits of the feat still applies, so that a 1st level regent can’t actually have any henchmen since they must be of lower level than him.
Leadership score: Character level + Your highest ability modifier (assume +3 if you haven't detailed your regent) + Bloodline bonus (usually between +2 and +4). Outside factors can affect a character's Leadership score, as detailed in Table 2-3: Leadership Modifiers (not included here).
Changing the Leadership score: If your Leadership score rises, you can attract more followers and have more powerful cohorts. If your Leadership score go down, followers may leave your service. Cohorts are a little more loyal; as long as your cohort is of a lower level than you, he won’t desert.
Henchmen (Cohorts): Cohorts are usually called henchmen if human or a member of a common race; any reference to either is a reference to both, unless otherwise noted. Henchmen, being exceptional characters in your service, are almost always members of PC classes (or have monster hit dice in the case of cohorts).
Number of Henchmen: You can have any number of henchmen at any given time, but having more than one henchman also reduces your effective Leadership score by two for each henchman past the first. In effect you can have one powerful henchman or several weaker ones.
Henchman Level: The maximum ECL* of your henchmen is equal to one half your Leadership score (round down), but you may only attract henchmen of lower ECL than your regent.
The DM may allow henchmen whose level exceeds this limit under certain circumstances (such as when an experienced regent dies, and leaves a henchman whose level exceeds the new regents normal limit). In such a case, you may not have more than one henchman until your leadership score is high enough to be able to accommodate the high-level henchman. In addition, depending on the power of the henchman, the DM may assign additional drawbacks to compensate (like the henchman not being available all the time, or being inclined not to follow orders).
Note that some domains will start (or gain during play) with henchmen as special assets; these henchmen ignore the normal limitations on henchmen (but do count when checking to see if you have multiple henchmen).
Example: Tuornen starts the game with a special lieutenant (henchman); the legendary elf general Braedonnal Tuare. He still counts as a henchman though, so he will limit the power of the Duchess other henchmen.
Special Cohorts: With the DM's permission, a leader may seek out a special cohort. A wizard could try to gain the services of a special familiar for example, or the paladin king could try to attract a dragon mount (only appropriate for an epic game).
Lieutenants: Lieutenants are considered henchmen and are counted against the limit for henchmen.
Followers: Followers are characters that have joined you or your cause out of a desire to serve. Followers are often members of NPC classes, but some of them might have PC class levels as well. Note that followers do not represent all the manpower available to your domain; it only represents those characters that are particularly skilled and exceptionally loyal.
Grouping followers: It is usually not desirable to keep track of individual followers; instead they act as groups (i.e. your bodyguard, cadre of trusted spies, and so on). Each group gets one supportive action per turn.
Number of Followers by Level: The maximum ECL of your followers is equal to one quarter of your Leadership score, but followers must have an ECL at least 3 levels below yours and can never be more than ECL 9. Rather than keeping track of actual levels you can assume that you have a small group (no more than a score) of followers belonging to the level group indicated by your Leadership score, as well as a larger pool (no more than a hundred) from the group below that. It is not necessary to detail this mass of lesser followers; just assume that they are there and that you can use them is required. Your domain may well contain characters of even lower levels, but they are so weak in comparison to your regent that they do not qualify as followers.
Example: If you have an 8th level regent with a Leadership score of 28 that would equate to a maximum ECL of 5 (rather than 7, since the regent's level limits max ECL in this case). he would have a personal elite bodyguard of Medium-level fighter characters (4th or 5th level since they must be at least 3 levels lower than the regent). This bodyguard would then be a natural companion for the regent on everything from diplomacy to adventure actions. He would also have a larger pool of Low-level characters (ECL no greater than 3), perhaps a score more knights (3rd level fighters) and a many dozens of other squires, armsmen, aides, servants, guards, and whatever.
Follower Alignment: A leader usually attracts followers whose alignments are within one step of his own, and never those of oppose alignments.
Replacing Followers: If you lose followers, you can generally replace them, according to your current Leadership score. You can either just wait for new followers to appear (1d4 turns) or you can use the Hire Help domain action to speed things up. If you are to blame for the deaths of the followers, it will take extra time for new ones to return (at least a full year), and using the Hire help action to recruit some new ones will be more difficult (+5 or more to DDC).
* ECL is normally equal to class level (heroic characters are +1, professionals -1, and characters with NPC levels are also -1); so your elite 6th level fighter captain is ECL 6, while your professional 7th level expert adviser is only ECL 5.
