Going to move
Mellored's Review here:
Mellored said:
The class is powered by friendship. Where you need to "bond" with an ally for them to get the full benefits. This does solve the whole "respect" issue since other players need to preemptively buy in to accept your commands, but it also makes the class nearly unplayable if you don't have any willing party members (unless your academy of beast, where you can make NPC's your friend). It's also a bit unclear on how many bonds you can have at a time.
The bonds of friendship serves only 2 purposes: player agency and a "Bless"-like limit for buff powers. Completely ditchable if those aren't issues. Or this could be ditched and the buff powers just say: up to 3, 4, or 5 allies depending on tier (Command bonus plus 2). This actually became less clear with a recent revision - 3 active Bonded allies, 4 at Paragon (11), 5 at Epic tier (17). You can have a "Friends" list that has as many as you want to manage.
Like the Holy-roller Paladin, the Bring-out-your-dead Necromancer, the Son-of-the-Devil Warlock, and the Kender rogue there probably needs to be some group buy-in for the class to really play well.
Mellored said:
The class is structures similar to a battlemaster, with a few commands (3 give, your choice out of 9 others) and command points that refresh during a short rest, and several light healing features sprinkled in to fill in the gaps, including the ability to spend your own hit dice to heal someone else at level 5. Though how much it heals is a bit unclear.
Spend Hit Dice and add Inspiration bonus instead of Con bonus per dice. So at 8th with Charisma bonus +2, up to 4 x (1d8+3)
But still it is an emergency heal since you are shorting yourself HD for healing later. Kind of what Mearls referred to in as a Nova style use of HD in reference to
Blood Magic - just like blowing your best spell slots on in combat healing.
Mellored said:
About 1/4 of the class is sub-class which seems a bit haphazard in it's collection of abilities. With Calvary (mounted combat), Diplomacy (Cha extra command points, help as a bonus action), Beast (Pets), Medicine (Healer), Music (+Int to damage, Cha extra command points), and tactical (Inspiring leader).
For myself the essence of the unrepresented Warlord is support and aiding others whether animal or humanoid. The Battle Master can cover the lead from the front Tactical Fighter 'Warlord'.
Within the 'support/director' warlord there is a broad spectrum of potential allies. I wanted to be able to do: Jasmine and Rajah, Beastmaster, Masterblaster, full lazy lord, a bard replacement, diva and bodyguard, a cleric replacement, a mount/rider combo, and the commander. All non-magical. I tried to use the same tools in each of the sub-classes with one defining trait per archetype.
Skald does not get Int to Damage - it is Command bonus - so +1 to all allied attacks until 11th, then +2 and +3 at Epic.
Mellored said:
The mechanics are a bit scattered, and unclear in a few places. It takes a bit of flipping back and forth between to see what your final ability actually is.
I'd like to revise it more for clarity where needed.
Mellored said:
The rest of the balance is also a bit haphazard, though nothing terribly off. Many features tend towards the underpowered side, a few are overpowered, and a few depend on how you read them.
Ambiguity is kind of 5e's thing. But I'd still prefer to balance it better - kind of like a UA article, and not, "here it is - done".
Mellored said:
It also doesn't follow the general flow of power curve of the other classes, being heavily front loaded at level 3, leaving it ripe for dipping. For instance, Academy of Music 3 / Bard would be very overpowered.
Curious on what I'm not seeing here.
Mellored said:
6. At-will attack granting – no. Though you can get enough Command points to do it every turn if you don't spend them on other things.
Opportunistic Strike is at-will attack trading. Attack for Basic Attack.
Mellored said:
Overall it's a nice class if your playing a lighter, more roleplay centric game, allowing you to play with the power of friendship trope. The balance issues is mostly covered by the fact that it's a support class, and doesn't compete for spotlight or glory. Though having 4 pets can potentially steal much of the spot light. But i wouldn't take it for a dungeon crawl or with any char-op in the groups, the balance just isn't tight enough.
In many respects I like the Ki powered Marshal better than the Warlord but they are the same class with the words changed. Command Points=Ki, Commands=Encouragements.
I'd like to tighten up the balance. I'd compare with Barbarian, Fighter, Monk, and Rogue at the top end while making sure the animals companions are roughly Ranger grade and there are options for certain spells that would be missed without a real caster in the party. Bless, Revivify/Raise, Lesser Restoration, Greater Restoration, Guidance.
Chevalier could use more options when not mounted but with Giant Lizards as mounts from Out of the Abyss or JoLydee's Beasts of Battle you can pretty much be mounted anywhere. The potential lack of damage can be countered by using a Lance with Duelist style - 1d12+2. It is the least MAD of the options. Since you can blow off the mental stuff with little cost.
Kind of like the idea of charging in (mount movement), Lance attack, move closer, Strike on Mount (using rider's 2nd attack and bonus action plus mount's reaction) to potentially trigger trampling charge (mount bonus action), then Mount uses Disengage (mount action) to keep moving and potentially setup next charge. At 5th on a warhorse. Or with a warcat and a small rider for Pounce. Say 1d12+6 for the lance, 2d6+4 hoof then potential knock down and trample for 2d6+4.
Beast Handler has the potential for 4 companions at Epic but that's more lateral power since it is still limited to the Action economy. I think of it more use the right AC for the job - like the Weapon Master. It would probably pick up Inspirational Leader for the Temp HP but that's for more of a Lead from the back build.
Healer is a healer - probably more healing/mitigation than a Cleric but less flexibility. Combat healing isn't super important but it can still fight and drop some other Commands/buffs.
Diplomat depends heavily on party build. If the party is already using their reactions all the time it would probably be weak. But I'm not sure how everyone is getting their reaction to trigger for attacks all the time.
Commander is like a BM Fighter that gets their level 6 feat at 3rd with a lower HD and MAD. Wondering if I should add a 'selfish' damage add Command for those that want one - but they should probably just do a Battle Master.
Skald is weird since I'm not sure I wrap my head around the idea of playing music in combat. The music ties to a damage aura (like 3e Marshal). She can't play and cast a spell so I'm not sure what interaction with Bard there is. Maybe it needs a Concentration descriptor on the music.
