Lets design a Warlord for 5th edition

[Tony Vargas]

5E has patterns and you can see where they were going with balance.

Sure, away from it. ;P

The problem with some of the warlord fans is IDK if they actually play 5E.

Too busy running it.

FOr example the at will attack granting thing I covered earlier and its roughly equivalent to a level 10 Sorcerer devoting all their resources to spamming haste all of the time (and thats all they do)

The sorcerer is arguably the least versatile full caster, and, that's not all haste does, and even so, even for it that'd be a waste.

And if you do want the ability to manipulate saves which is a magical ability and very limited (2/day)

I think you mean a save penalty, like Help or Hinder? Saves don't mean the same thing, of course.

and have at will action granting and have some healing and have gambits I think that more or less the problem. How many abilities do you want stacked on the class.

The obvious problem you're having here is that you can't stop thinking that only casters are permitted flexibility, that w/o magic, a class can only be allowed a couple of hard-wired tricks. That kind of limited thinking will never produce a viable class.

I have tested at will action granting in 5E with the noble. IN the right party its broken in the wrong party its fairly weak which makes the class itself weak as that is all that sublclass has been built to do by Moonsong.

Ah, the Heart Noble. Oh, but it's a 10th level Sorcerer casting haste all day for free!
Seriously, your own experience neatly disproves your diatribe.

And, we've had an insight into how 5e balances things like this, exactly this, in fact, and it's by ignoring the extremes you're obsessing over.

At will healing is a problem

AFAICT it's off the table in 5e. Healing's a daily resource - presumably because of day-length issues.

at will attack granting is a problem (comparable to a level 10 sorcerer just doing that and cantrip spam)

But the class that did that, you playtested and found weak. It's really not much of an issue. And, y'know, haste is just one action, then concentration, you're free to do whatever. Action-granting, that action is gone, each round.

the warlord can still fight, presumably heal and have gambits,

Yes, how is that different from any other support class? I mean other than the likelihood that gambits won't have nearly the breadth or power of spells.

Manipulating saves, very powerful ability does exist in game

Bane is a 1st level spell that penalizes saves.

Daily effects on Warlords do not make to much sense .

Meh, dailies have never made oodles of sense, they're more a D&Dism than a genre bit or realism/immersion mechanic. 5e makes heavy use of them, and, it seems healing has to work on that kind of reasource, so that's kinda locked in. If it must have a daily resource pool for healing, might as well make it flexible, opening up a viable range of support and other options...

 

[Zardnaar]

Sure, away from it. ;P

Too busy running it.

The sorcerer is arguably the least versatile full caster, and, that's not all haste does, and even so, even for it that'd be a waste.

I think you mean a save penalty, like Help or Hinder? Saves don't mean the same thing, of course.

The obvious problem you're having here is that you can't stop thinking that only casters are permitted flexibility, that w/o magic, a class can only be allowed a couple of hard-wired tricks. That kind of limited thinking will never produce a viable class.

Ah, the Heart Noble. Oh, but it's a 10th level Sorcerer casting haste all day for free!
Seriously, your own experience neatly disproves your diatribe.

And, we've had an insight into how 5e balances things like this, exactly this, in fact, and it's by ignoring the extremes you're obsessing over.

AFAICT it's off the table in 5e. Healing's a daily resource - presumably because of day-length issues.

But the class that did that, you playtested and found weak. It's really not much of an issue. And, y'know, haste is just one action, then concentration, you're free to do whatever. Action-granting, that action is gone, each round.

Yes, how is that different from any other support class? I mean other than the likelihood that gambits won't have nearly the breadth or power of spells.

Bane is a 1st level spell that penalizes saves.

Meh, dailies have never made oodles of sense, they're more a D&Dism than a genre bit or realism/immersion mechanic. 5e makes heavy use of them, and, it seems healing has to work on that kind of reasource, so that's kinda locked in. If it must have a daily resource pool for healing, might as well make it flexible, opening up a viable range of support and other options...

Banes a daily resource and has a save. Also magical and requires concentration. So limited resource situational and can be interrupted.

Some things basically need supernatural something to explain it. "Jedi mind trick" this is the Warlord you're looking for.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Banes a daily resource and has a save. and requires concentration. So limited resource situational and can be interrupted.

So? Just from Mearls's podcast we have: healing must be daily, concentration might be appropriate, and limits like the tactical zone. Gambits, by their conceptual nature are likely to be more situational on top of that.

Also magical
Some things basically need supernatural something to explain it.

Some things, sure: tossing fireballs, assuming the form of a fiendish dire eggplant, turning gold into lead, conjuring inappropriately-touching black tentacles (or anything else, really) ex nillo, heck, tons of things.
Bonuses & penalties based on inspiration or tactics or hectoring are not reasonably among them.

 

[Hussar]

[MENTION=6716779]Zardnaar[/MENTION] - I think if you're going to insist that at-will action granting is impossible, that's basically a non-starter for any warlord build. There are several ways to grant actions. Good grief, a 3rd level battlemaster can grant an attack 12 times per day, with bonuses to damage, and that's not even specialized. An adventuring day is what, 20 rounds long? So, even right now, out of the PHB, a 3rd level fighter can grant bonus attacks 50% of the time. By 7th level, he can do it 21 times per day, or, essentially, every round.

Arguing that changing that to 100% is going to break the game is a strange hill to die on considering we already HAVE a class that can effectively grant at-will attacks.

BTW, why does it take a 10th level sorc? A 7th level sorc has 7 sorcery points and 3 3rd and 1 4th level spell. He can drop haste 5 times per day, which grants a heck of a lot more goodies than a single attack, and still have all his 1st and 2nd level slots left over. By 8th he's got enough for 6 times, which is a full adventuring day. Good grief, by 10th, I've got 8 slots to spend on 3rd level spells, plus 2 more for sorc points. Well, I suppose that's true to guarantee being able to do it all day long.

Never minding that the cleric has enough bless spells to power the group for a day by about, what, 5th level? 6th? 3 characters (or more) each getting +2.5 on every attack. Yeah, that's not worth more than a single attack every round.

 

[Zardnaar]

@Zardnaar - I think if you're going to insist that at-will action granting is impossible, that's basically a non-starter for any warlord build. There are several ways to grant actions. Good grief, a 3rd level battlemaster can grant an attack 12 times per day, with bonuses to damage, and that's not even specialized. An adventuring day is what, 20 rounds long? So, even right now, out of the PHB, a 3rd level fighter can grant bonus attacks 50% of the time. By 7th level, he can do it 21 times per day, or, essentially, every round.

Arguing that changing that to 100% is going to break the game is a strange hill to die on considering we already HAVE a class that can effectively grant at-will attacks.

BTW, why does it take a 10th level sorc? A 7th level sorc has 7 sorcery points and 3 3rd and 1 4th level spell. He can drop haste 5 times per day, which grants a heck of a lot more goodies than a single attack, and still have all his 1st and 2nd level slots left over. By 8th he's got enough for 6 times, which is a full adventuring day. Good grief, by 10th, I've got 8 slots to spend on 3rd level spells, plus 2 more for sorc points. Well, I suppose that's true to guarantee being able to do it all day long.

Never minding that the cleric has enough bless spells to power the group for a day by about, what, 5th level? 6th? 3 characters (or more) each getting +2.5 on every attack. Yeah, that's not worth more than a single attack every round.

I know but Mearls and co did not put at will action granting in for a reason.

I am not opposed to the Battlemaster fighter abilities I have seen a few of them in action including the BM+ Rogue combo, I have also seen the Noble in action.

I'm going with the 6-8 encounters per day expectation of 5E and even if each encounter is 3 rounds that is 18024 rounds of combat (4 rounds makes it 24-32 rounds of combat). A Battlemaster can only grant 33-50% of that assuming they get 2 short rests. Changing it to 100% at will that has no drawbacks like haste, can't be interupted and can be moved around each round is a kind of comparable IMHO (yes I know they do not get the +2 AC or movement part). And when do people want to get at will action granting on a potential warlord which is comparable to a mid to high level Sorcerer devoting everything to it and they expect to be able to do other stuff as well?

A 10th level Sorcerer can cast haste every round and have enough sorcery points to twin it 3 times.

I am fine with a Warlord with a bless ability and a non magical version of it already appears on the NPC Knight and would make a good short rest "invocation" IMHO for a warlord. Or a subclass ability (Bravura or Inspirational perhaps).

It gets back to what else you want on the chassis I suppose. You want to bless and heal and grant attacks (dealing way more damage than the other support characters).

My concept tactical warlord i linked to does get Battlemaster dice and if they focused on at will attack granting (3 invocations) they could grant around 8 attacks a short rest which would be creeping up to a lot of attacks but they would have to focus on it just like the Sorcerer focusing on haste. I'm also not opposed to a Tactical Warlord picking up an extra dice or 2 over the BM fighter. 6 or 7 BM dice and 2 "invocations" gives you a lot of attacks but would require some resources spent on it. If you want to deal fighter level damage with your warlord play the Battlemaster and take the healer+ inspirational leader feats. Not every warlord will want to do attack granting anyway it was not baked in in 4E merely an option and in 4E they defined a basic attack which was worse than your normal attacks so the opportunity cost was not so great (until you had essentials and various magic items that buff basic attacks).

Its to good for a low level at will ability compared with any other at will ability (cha to damage eldritch blast, duelist or TWF combat style). Clerics for example have to wait until level 8 to pick up a single dice of damage (1d8+1d6+ability mod vs 1d8+4d6+4 or 5 via Rogue). Sure clerics can do more damage via spells and buffing but so can a warlord with invocations or battlemaster dice+ some attack granting invocations+ riders. Even without Rogues you still have things like hunter rangers, hex/hunters quarry, rage, smites, and the -5/+10 feats to worry about as well. Its probably a level 11 minimum ability (comparing to the opportunity cost of a fighter and their 3 attacks and I assume the WL can do other stuff instead of fighter stuff).

What you're really demanding is striker level damage on a leader chassis and that would not fly in 4E either.

I'm only objecting to at will attack granting for free assuming of course we write some invocations and/or settle on a healing rate (which I will post some thoughts soon).

 

[Zardnaar]

Warlord Conceptually

Well I think we all agree on the basic warlord, 1d8 HD, martial weapons, medium armor, probably fighter saving throws (con_+str).

I think we all agree that they get a healing word ability at level 1. This is because its a support character and all WL in 4E had a healing ability. healing surges are not in 5E. In the other thread someone had the idea of bestow 2nd wind, I really like that idea.

The Warlord at level 1 also needs around 2 other minor abilities to be comparable to a cleric. A Bravura one for example could get heavy armor+ a combat style and the inspiring and tactical ones you could update the 4E abilites (int to initiative, cha to hp regained) + give them a little something extra.

"Healing Word"
Bonus action 1d8+ warlord level.

Compared with a cleric who can cast two level 1 spells we can make some comparisons. Assuming you get 2 short rests you are a bit better at healing than a cleric using cure wounds and you can do it s a bonus action. However you may not get two short rests and a cleric can use those spell slots on something else so six of one half dozen of the other. At level 2 however the cleric pulls out a head and level 3 with prayer of healing and more spell slots the cleric is a lot better at healing.

So far the hypothetical warlord at level 1 gets to play in the same ball park. Sometimes the cleric is better, sometimes the warlord is better I think that is a good place to be.

Level 2 Clerics get a nice upgrade to channel divinity. Hypothetical warlord doesn't get that. Hit dice based healing I have tried in my concept builds and the only way I could kind of make it work was have the warlord grant bonus hit dice independent of the actual hit dice. This was a bit more complicated and is harder to evaluate as people sometimes have multiclass HP and vs a clerics healing its hard to know as the rough amount healed can vary by class. Making the warlord grant second wind ability a d8 brings it into line with its hit dice and the d8's cleric healing spells have used since around 1E. Nice and simple and the HD scale with level like the other martial healing in the game.

Now the problem martial healing has is it does not scale that well, second wind rapidly goes from useful to cute its better than nothing I suppose. I propose the the Warlrods ability scales with level and more uses the same as cantrips. This is to make up for the Warlord not getting spell slots like the cleric. This means they get an additional use per short rest at 5,11,17 and each used is 1d8+5,+11, or+17 as well. Note this is still lower than a cleric using a few spells to heal even when the warlord can use that ability 12 times at level 17. However it also makes getting from level 1 to 5 difficult and it is a long time for a single use/short rest ability to cover. Especially when the cleric is picking up more spell slots. We don't want to obsolete the cleric but as I said same ball park is the goal.

Right now we do not have anything for a level 2 ability but something nice and short rest related is probably good. Clerics for example get domain abilities, fighters get action surge, and Moon Druids are Moon Druids (read OP). An obvious one is grant action surge which I like but might be a bit to good at this level and steals some thunder from the fighter as you are kind of getting a better ability as well as you can grant that action surge to a spellcaster for example. Not a bad idea but a bit early IMHO.

Looking at the light and life clerics they have some interesting and powerful abilities. And our Warlord needs a bit more healing to go around. Turning the Light Clerics radiance of the dawn ability into healing instead of damage we can also lower the d10's to d8's. Situational its better than a life clerics heal ability we now have 2d8+level 30' to allies that refreshes on a short rest. Right now Mr Warlord is healing better than a cleric (except life)but its the apex of the Warlords healing ability. This is also only brainstorming but perhaps if the Moon Druid peaks with wildshape at level 2 the warlord can be the same at healing. I'll call this ability healing surge as a nod to 4E. The warlord still lacks spell slots and if we go with invocations the warlord picks up something interesting there. So far good at healing, 2 subclass abilities and perhaps good at healing, not everyone on this thread may want healing at level 2 but without spell slots the warlord needs something and level 3,4,5 I think are already taken. Following the warlock pattern you also get 2 invocations (we need to write some low level ones) and the warlords healing and level 1 abilities have replaced the warlocks and clerics spells onto level 3.

Level 3 is where I think our Warlord can start coming together. 5E is also full of examples we can use from level 3 fighters, through to bard dice, 1/3rd casting, battlemaster dice, and the Mastermind Rogues advantage granting thing all come online. We don't have to follow those examples exactly but its roughly where a 3rd level warlord can perhaps resemble a 4E one more. My rough idea here is a tactical one gets battlemaster dice, an inspiring one gets bard dice, and a Bravura one perhaps gets the mastermind advantage granting thing (perhaps situational such as connecting with an attack). With 2 invocations, subclass abilities and something like dice poolsyou are not to far off a 4E low level warlord and 3rd level is where you leave the apprentice levels behind. For the most part I was recycling other class abilities as 5E has numerous examples of this already from spells, class features through to things like lore bard. Is my inspiring warlord that drastically different from a valor bard? Well you can heal better, fight better, and do 2 cool things with your "invocations" and you get the bardic dice (or battlemaster dice for the tactical one). The conceptual magical 1/3rd caster warlord also fits in here so I think level 3 is a good place to look at that. Martial healing also scales. This leads us to level 4.

Level 4 is very basic and boring in 5E. Its an ASI. On to level 5. Martial healing scales however.

Level 5 in general is a big power up in 5E. Level 3 spells arrive along with 2nd attacks for martial. Now I think we can give the warlord a kick ass ability. You pick up a 3rd invocation guess we will have to create them the Bravura one is easy (2nd attack). A warlock however picks up a real ability however as they get level 3 spells and an invocation. This leads me to something decent and short rest based, perhaps the grant an action idea from earlier. Martial healing scales twice and you pick up a 2nd use of inspiring word here.
Your short rest healing is now.

1d8+5 X 2 (+ charisma bonus for inspiring WL) bonus action "healing/inspirational word".
2d8+5 30' standard action healing surge

Checking my notes its 2 targets for inspirational word, this was before I tweaked the healing earlier and added "healing surge" and the warlord actually has a decent amount of healing ATM (to good perhaps IDK). Maybe shift this ability to an invocation if a WL wants to focus on healing but we have room for a kick ass ability here comparable to a level 2.5 spell slot (or two of them) IMHO (a nerfed haste IDK).

Level 6 The cleric gets an upgrade and being a martial character you can perhaps pick up an ASI either here or at level 10 a'la Fighter or Rogue. Open to suggestions here but we can have another powerful option here such as an ASI, feat or something comparable to level 3 spells, Paladins Aura or stealing spells from another class. Most classes get something nice here Moon Druids for example get wildshape scaling (CR2). Clerics get an additional use of their domain power and a domain feature. To me this means subclass ability (whatever that is), and an extra use of "healing surge". Your healing rate is now.

1d8+6 X 2 (+ charisma bonus for inspiring WL) bonus action "healing/inspirational word".
2d8+6 30' X2 standard action healing surge.

Well that is what I have so far for theory crafting a warlord. The 1st 4 levels I think are easy and if people want to do the invocation/exploit/gambit/powers thing obviously we would need to write some along with a generic level 5 ability+ a subclass ability for level 6. Generally I think the class should focus on at will and short rest abilities (whatever they end up being) along with using the bonus action.

To tie it back to numerous posts about at will action granting a lot of the suggested abilities outside the action granting (healing for example) have been below par for what I consider a support character should do. Low level buffs can be single target grant attack+rider type effects with upgraded versions either being more powerful, bonus actions or effects multiple people. For example you could grant an attack with advantage perhaps as bonus action short rest ability, a few levels later you can effect two people, 4 levels later the whole party and 4 levels after that you grant an action surge to everyone in the party. You may not be able to cast foresight you can grant an action surge to everyone that refreshes on a short rest, not a bad trade off for a 9th level spell slot you can't cast.

Instead of hasting someone at level 5 why not grant an attack (or cast a cantrip)to everyone in the party (once) and since spell casters get 2 spell slots lvl 5 you get to refresh it on a short rest (3 uses vs 2). That is your warlord fireball or nova IMHO. This means the rogue can sneak attack multiple times, the fighter gets an extra attack. Your level 18 warlord is letting the spellcasters drop 2 spells (one a cantrip), the fighter gets 3 extra attacks, the Ranger/Barbarian/Paladin 2 and if its a bonus action the warlord can still have his attack (an arcane one can cast green flame blade).

5E mechanics one can borrow.

Granting Advantage
Granting action surge
Granting second wind
1/3rd casting
Combat style
ability mod to damage (int)
charisma to something (saves, checks)
non magical 1d4 guidance
Non magical bless effect a'la NPC Knights
Non magical smites (hit em where it hurts)
1/3rd casters can have outright magical invocations and subclass features (Jedi mind tricks, come and get it, etc) plus spells or additional magical healing (restoration, regeneration, raise dead etc)

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

But mostly, I wanted a few points at level 1, but not be able to give out +20 to a skill check at level 20. So just off the top of my head, I went Stat+half-level for a 3-15 points range.

I didn't put much though into balance. Just threw out some ideas.

Maybe 2xProficiency bonus, or Prof bonus + 1/2 level?
The approach I took for a vaguely similar issue was to go with Prof bonus, and then apply ability bonus with the subclass. So Inspiring warlord got +Cha, Tactical got +Int, and fighty got +Con to the pool as an initial ability when chosen (at level 3).

Again, i didn't balance. But let me see...

Your typical (5+2) * 6 = 47 HP
Maximizing a d8 = +3.5 HP
* half your hit dice per day * a party of 5.
= 10.6 * 5 people per day.

Mass cure wounds gives 17.5 HP * 5 people.

So it seems about right for a base ability. With sub-class boosting.

The basis that I took with my warlord's healing, based upon almost at-will potential superiority dice generation:
Start with temporary HP. Higher level maneuver allows multiple dice (to create a larger temp HP buffer. Highest level maneuver allows temp HP to be applied as a reaction, pre-emptively before an attack lands to reduce its damage.
Also: At a specific class level (7th I think), Temp HP could be applied as actual healing, but only to a limit of half of the target's max HP.

This allowed potential infinite healing for the party with a specific build, but only to bring them up to half HP, plus a small Temp HP buffer. It risks being overpowered if fighting many minor encounters, but against a more varied range it shouldn't be too bad. Only the most confident party wants to go in to a deadly-level fight on half health.

As with the rest of my design, feel free to cannibalise if there is anything that you think could be useful to apply to your version.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Warlord Conceptually

Well I think we all agree on the basic warlord, 1d8 HD, martial weapons, medium armor,

That far, anyway. ;P

probably fighter saving throws (con_+str).

Saving throws are abysmal in 5e, so I don't suppose it matters much. Fighters shouldn't be limited to just good CON & STR saves, for instance. :sigh: But, there's no reason to expect one class to fix that.

I think we all agree that they get a healing word ability at level 1. This is because its a support character and all WL in 4E had a healing ability.

Meh, every warlord should be able to access healing word from level 1, if they choose to use whatever their core daily resource pool turns out to be on it. None should be forced to. (Expected, certainly, especially if they're the party's sole support, but it doesn't need to be hard-coded like Laying on Hands.)

healing surges are not in 5E.

HD are, and they are functionally similar - use 'em to restore hps on a short rest, gain them back on a long rest. They're just... less so.

The Warlord at level 1 also needs around 2 other minor abilities to be comparable to a cleric.

So, you're saying that inspiring word and 2 other minor tricks is equivalent to 15 1st-level spells (WIS mod + level + 2 (domain) spells prepped, 2 slots to cast 'em spontaneously), 6 cantrips (3 of them known), and 1st level domain abilities?

A Bravura one for example could get heavy armor+ a combat style and the inspiring and tactical

... and resourceful, and skirmishing, and insightful...

ones you could update the 4E abilites (int to initiative, cha to hp regained) + give them a little something extra.

Or they could work from the concepts to find things that might work better now that 5e has looser design guidelines.

Compared with a cleric who can cast two level 1 spells we can make some comparisons. Assuming you get 2 short rests

We haven't heard much on the topic, but it seems like short-rest healing is off the table.

Hit dice based healing I have tried in my concept builds and the only way I could kind of make it work was have the warlord grant bonus hit dice independent of the actual hit dice.

Is there some issue with just a bonus to the die roll? CHA, for instance, good for inspiring warlords, not so great for tactical?

Now the problem martial healing has is it does not scale that well, second wind rapidly goes from useful to cute its better than nothing I suppose.

That's a flaw of that specific ability, yes. It's not endemic to the concept. Obviously, as characters get more more levels, more hps, and more HD, they're ability to recover naturally improves in proportion to their ability to avoid serious injury.

My rough idea here is a tactical one gets battlemaster dice, an inspiring one gets bard dice, and a Bravura one perhaps gets the mastermind advantage granting thing (perhaps situational such as connecting with an attack).

That's weirdly inconsistent and complicated, and it accomplishes nothing - at least, nothing good.

With 2 invocations, subclass abilities and something like dice poolsyou are not to far off a 4E low level warlord

You are, however, far behind the curve of a 5e support class. Remember, this is supposed to be a Warlord for 5e, not 4e.

Well that is what I have so far for theory crafting a warlord.

Only moderately appalling.

. Generally I think the class should focus on at will and short rest abilities

Still a non-starter, with healing being calibrated as a daily resource.

(whatever they end up being) along with using the bonus action.

Bonus actions are not the greatest most functional thing in 5e, it's not surprising that Mike's personal variant give up on them. Same, to a somewhat lesser degree with Reactions.

One of the things about action granting, for instance, is that if it consumes your action, and an ally's reaction, it cuts off a lot of options for both of you, the price is extremely high, even if there's no resource consumption.

To tie it back to numerous posts about at will action granting a lot of the suggested abilities outside the action granting (healing for example) have been below par for what I consider a support character should do.

I'm not shocked.

5E mechanics one can borrow.

Granting Advantage
Granting action surge
Granting second wind
1/3rd casting
Combat style
ability mod to damage (int)
charisma to something (saves, checks)
non magical 1d4 guidance
Non magical bless effect a'la NPC Knights
Non magical smites (hit em where it hurts)
1/3rd casters can have outright magical invocations and subclass features (Jedi mind tricks, come and get it, etc) plus spells or additional magical healing (restoration, regeneration, raise dead etc)

C&GI, still not magical. Nice try though.

 

[Zardnaar]

That far, anyway. ;P

Saving throws are abysmal in 5e, so I don't suppose it matters much. Fighters shouldn't be limited to just good CON & STR saves, for instance. :sigh: But, there's no reason to expect one class to fix that.

Meh, every warlord should be able to access healing word from level 1, if they choose to use whatever their core daily resource pool turns out to be on it. None should be forced to. (Expected, certainly, especially if they're the party's sole support, but it doesn't need to be hard-coded like Laying on Hands.)
HD are, and they are functionally similar - use 'em to restore hps on a short rest, gain them back on a long rest. They're just... less so.

So, you're saying that inspiring word and 2 other minor tricks is equivalent to 15 1st-level spells (WIS mod + level + 2 (domain) spells prepped, 2 slots to cast 'em spontaneously), 6 cantrips (3 of them known), and 1st level domain abilities?

... and resourceful, and skirmishing, and insightful... Or they could work from the concepts to find things that might work better now that 5e has looser design guidelines.

We haven't heard much on the topic, but it seems like short-rest healing is off the table.

Is there some issue with just a bonus to the die roll? CHA, for instance, good for inspiring warlords, not so great for tactical?

That's a flaw of that specific ability, yes. It's not endemic to the concept. Obviously, as characters get more more levels, more hps, and more HD, they're ability to recover naturally improves in proportion to their ability to avoid serious injury.

That's weirdly inconsistent and complicated, and it accomplishes nothing - at least, nothing good.

You are, however, far behind the curve of a 5e support class. Remember, this is supposed to be a Warlord for 5e, not 4e.

Only moderately appalling.

Still a non-starter, with healing being calibrated as a daily resource. Bonus actions are not the greatest most functional thing in 5e, it's not surprising that Mike's personal variant give up on them. Same, to a somewhat lesser degree with Reactions.

One of the things about action granting, for instance, is that if it consumes your action, and an ally's reaction, it cuts off a lot of options for both of you, the price is extremely high, even if there's no resource consumption.

I'm not shocked.

C&GI, still not magical. Nice try though.

Healer feat and second wind are short rest based healing in 5E.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Healer feat and second wind are short rest based healing in 5E.

Tell Mike that.

Maybe feats don't count?

Maybe gear doesn't count?

A lot of things don't seem to count in 5e's design principles - afterall, it's all just a starting point, and we're'll going to change it anyway.