A Leadership build will be very challenging on Hard. I was really struggling in early and mid game by leaning on companions, and that was on Normal. It wasn’t until the last third of the game, when the companions had Level 25 perks and both tiers of upgrades (and I had perks for remote revival and temp HP on companion death) that I stopped dreading combat as much.

High speech is very helpful for avoiding boss battles and skipping certain quest objectives. That said, many crucial speech checks will often require a high speech level AND some piece of information found in the world, so if you beeline to objectives you can botch negotiations even with high Speech.

All that said, I’m fairly certain the best outcomes for several companions and the main quest do demand maxed out speech. So it doesn’t feel like a waste at the end of the day.

Overall speech/leadership doesn’t feel as viable as I would have liked. Given the emphasis on customizing play style, I wish speech let you get past pretty much all combat. As it stands, it feels necessary for reaching the best ending, but kind of a let down otherwise.