Leadership

There are several paths to leadership whether you are intending to play a Bandit King, the Knight with your own contingent, or simply the founder of a new temple you will always need underlings loyal and willing to do the tedious work.
You can attain this through either simple roleplay and good social skills, or mechanically with the leadership feat. Here, we are going to discuss the leadership feat and optimal ways to make good use of it, considering it's potential complexity and its superiority when it comes to large-scale potential.

Leadership(Feat)

The Leadership feat can be found in the feats section of d20srd.org or on page 106 of the Dungeon Master's Guide.
Benefits: 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.
This feat however runs off another number, your leadership score. The leadership score is created from multiple factors. The two primary factors are your level, and your charisma. Combine these two numbers to get your base leadership score, then further benefits that add or subtract various modifiers.

Leadership Score

Additional leadership score modifiers include a +2 for being of Great Renown, a +1 for a reputation of Fairness and Generosity, a +1 for being or having a great power, a -1 for a significant failure, a -1 for a reputation for aloofness, and a -2 for cruelty.

Cohort

Your cohort can go by quite a few names depending on your character and the roleplay involved. Sidekick, Lieutenant, Squire, Student. Any of these are valid but the universal fact is, they follow you by choice. The level of your cohort is determined by your leadership score as well, but the catch also is that they must be at least 2 levels below your own level at any given time.

Followers