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Warlording the fighter
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<blockquote data-quote="Neonchameleon" data-source="post: 6659322" data-attributes="member: 87792"><p>Not even close.</p><p></p><p>The warlord's conceptual and mechanical niche involves not casting spells. Which has massive worldbuilding implications (enabling e.g. Dark Sun to work almost seamlessly the way it does in 4e rather than the huge number of tweaks required for 2e) and strong party building implications. In 4e you can easily and effortlessly run an all-martial party (the way almost all sword and sorcery parties were pre-D&D - and yes, The Grey Mouser was a martial character) with the warlord taking the strain for the panic buttons that would belong to the cleric.</p><p></p><p>And there's also a vast range of inspiring leaders both throughout fiction and throughout real world history that have been able to inspire people who thought they were <em>done</em> and push them forwards to victory. Whether through marine-sergeant profanity or through being exemplars themselves, close to real world Paladins but without divine investiture. Or any one of a number of other ways. (And to properly persuade someone forward who think they are absolutely done requires restoring hit points to put them back on their feet).</p><p></p><p>Not having the warlord makes Sword and Sorcery D&D and low magic D&D in general hard to play. (Remember that D&D is so high magic that <a href="http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=7338" target="_blank">Gandalf was a fifth level wizard</a> - and seldom cast two spells in a single day). It locks D&D into levels of magic in the range of World of Warcraft - nothing wrong with that, but it takes it far, far away from non-D&D fantasy fiction.</p><p></p><p>And you can't refluff 5e spells anything like as easily as 4e powers; nothing maechanical can change in a refluff, and there are a lot of mechanics round spellcasting.</p><p></p><p>What I actually want for the warlord is to look for inspiration is not to the 4e warlord, but to the 3.5 Crusader (White Raven school).</p><p></p><p>As a second level feature the warlord gets to pick five "opportunities" - effectively Warlord powers - and each opportunity has a card. When they roll initiative they may remove one of the five from their deck. They then shuffle and draw two. Each opportunity has something like the following:</p><p><strong>In each others' way</strong></p><p>Requirement: You are in melee with two enemies</p><p>Cost: No action</p><p>Effect: Until the start of your next turn everyone but you gains advantage against these enemies.</p><p></p><p><strong>Look! A distraction!</strong></p><p>Requirement: You and an ally are in combat with an enemy and you are adjacent to that ally</p><p>Cost: Your action</p><p>Effect: They may make an attack action in place of you.</p><p></p><p><strong>You need a nap already?</strong></p><p>Requirement: One ally is on three or fewer hit points</p><p>Cost: Your bonus action</p><p>Effect: They regain three hp - if they are still on negative hp they then regain enough to put them on 1hp and stand up.</p><p></p><p>At the end of your turn you may discard a card to draw one. At the start of your turn draw a card.</p><p></p><p>(And yes, this means a second level warlord is going to have precisely one card in hand most of the time - more and better ones at higher level).</p><p></p><p>Some of the triggers are more tailored to tactical play; I don't think any I've presented don't work in theatre of the mind. (And yes, the names of the cards can explicitly be tailored to any given warlord).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Neonchameleon, post: 6659322, member: 87792"] Not even close. The warlord's conceptual and mechanical niche involves not casting spells. Which has massive worldbuilding implications (enabling e.g. Dark Sun to work almost seamlessly the way it does in 4e rather than the huge number of tweaks required for 2e) and strong party building implications. In 4e you can easily and effortlessly run an all-martial party (the way almost all sword and sorcery parties were pre-D&D - and yes, The Grey Mouser was a martial character) with the warlord taking the strain for the panic buttons that would belong to the cleric. And there's also a vast range of inspiring leaders both throughout fiction and throughout real world history that have been able to inspire people who thought they were [I]done[/I] and push them forwards to victory. Whether through marine-sergeant profanity or through being exemplars themselves, close to real world Paladins but without divine investiture. Or any one of a number of other ways. (And to properly persuade someone forward who think they are absolutely done requires restoring hit points to put them back on their feet). Not having the warlord makes Sword and Sorcery D&D and low magic D&D in general hard to play. (Remember that D&D is so high magic that [url=http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=7338]Gandalf was a fifth level wizard[/url] - and seldom cast two spells in a single day). It locks D&D into levels of magic in the range of World of Warcraft - nothing wrong with that, but it takes it far, far away from non-D&D fantasy fiction. And you can't refluff 5e spells anything like as easily as 4e powers; nothing maechanical can change in a refluff, and there are a lot of mechanics round spellcasting. What I actually want for the warlord is to look for inspiration is not to the 4e warlord, but to the 3.5 Crusader (White Raven school). As a second level feature the warlord gets to pick five "opportunities" - effectively Warlord powers - and each opportunity has a card. When they roll initiative they may remove one of the five from their deck. They then shuffle and draw two. Each opportunity has something like the following: [B]In each others' way[/B] Requirement: You are in melee with two enemies Cost: No action Effect: Until the start of your next turn everyone but you gains advantage against these enemies. [B]Look! A distraction![/B] Requirement: You and an ally are in combat with an enemy and you are adjacent to that ally Cost: Your action Effect: They may make an attack action in place of you. [B]You need a nap already?[/B] Requirement: One ally is on three or fewer hit points Cost: Your bonus action Effect: They regain three hp - if they are still on negative hp they then regain enough to put them on 1hp and stand up. At the end of your turn you may discard a card to draw one. At the start of your turn draw a card. (And yes, this means a second level warlord is going to have precisely one card in hand most of the time - more and better ones at higher level). Some of the triggers are more tailored to tactical play; I don't think any I've presented don't work in theatre of the mind. (And yes, the names of the cards can explicitly be tailored to any given warlord). [/QUOTE]
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