All character parties have leaders while some monster parties also have some.
A leader coordinates the team to achieve its goal and for now has effects only in combat. Its a passive role in the sense that the leader does not gain any new abilities but it does influence and modify the abilities of the other characters in the party.
The first role of a leader is to set the bar as to how many characters can join the party, itself included, as determined by the charisma score.
* Charisma of 1: cannot lead a party, gives a 3 member penalty to whichever party it is a member of * Charisma of 2: cannot lead a party, gives a 2 member penalty to whichever party it is a member of * Charisma of 3: can lead a party of 2, gives a 1 member penalty to whichever party it is a member of * Charisma of 4: can lead a party of 3 * Charisma of 5 to 6: can lead a party of 4 * Charisma of 7 to 8: can lead a party of 5 * Charisma of 9: can lead a party of 6 * Charisma of 10: can lead a party of 7
The charisma of the leader also determines how the leader's strengths and weaknesses affect the party members. The more charismatic the leader, the more powerful the effect on allies.
i.e.: A leader with a high strength (greater than 5) will impart damage bonuses to the rest of the party. But a leader with a low (lesser than 5) agility, for instance, will affect his party's chance to hit and evasion negatively.
The formula for applying a leadership effect is
return ((leader.attribute-5) * leader.charisma * 2) + leader.level
The actual effects of a leader's leadership scores are as follows:
Strength: Physical damage +-0.1%/point; Critical chance +-0.01%/point Agility: Combat initiative +-0.0005/point; to hit +-0.0005/point Resilience: Physical protection +-0.1%/point; Parry +-0.005/point Intelligence: (not verified) Elemental damage +-0.1%/point; Elemental protection +-0.1%/point Wisdom: Spiritual damage+-0.1%/point; Spiritual protection +-0.1%/point Charisma: Psychological damage+-0.1%/point; Psychological protection +-0.1%/point
When the leader dies, the leadership effects go away and the party members can become somewhat confused from the loss of the leader. There is a random chance that when the leader dies a character gains a negative effect for a small number of combat rounds, like confusion, berserk or terrified.
Recommended Leaders[]
Most people feel that a Sorcerer, Bard, or Illusionist make the best leaders because their high Charisma won't go to waste. However you may also want to consider using an Engineer as a leader. Their skills are unaffected by stats, they can wear better armor than spell casters, and they can use long range weapons. Therefore they can sit on the protected back row and still be able to help.
However, some people are running around with Leaders that are Guards and Knights. This is probably because they are hard to kill. However, you would need to use a lot of Charisma if you want to have a large party (more than 4 characters).
Also, the new War Wizard makes a great leader IF you plan to bulk up his or her Domination skill which deals psychological damage on several foes and dispels raises. Two of their passive skills also beefs up their psychological damage. They can also stand strong in the front row if their resilience is high and equipped with a good mount which can protect more back row members.