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Warlording the fighter
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<blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 6698400" data-attributes="member: 996"><p>This catches the idea of Commanding Presence, and sounds good in concept, the actual mechanic, though broadly applicable and not lacking in effectiveness (gaining/granting advantage usually takes an action), is pretty bland compared to Commanding Presence, which gave each flavor of warlord it's own thing.</p><p></p><p> You might just as well not have hp restoration if you can't use it to stand up a fallen ally. Though some h4ters made a point of asserting that 0hp = unconscious and unconscious = deaf, even though the latter is demonstrably false, even if that point had been valid, it'd be worth it to bend credulity a bit in the name of fantasy heroics and playability and let it work on dropped allies. </p><p></p><p>Also, this is one of those places where 4e and 5e did things pretty differently. In both 4e & 5e, hit points are a daily resource that face attrition over the course of the adventuring day. In 4e, natural healing in the form of surges was the major source of hps, and Inspiring Word (and most literal 'healing' as well) was an encounter-resource surge-trigger, rather than a hp resource in itself. In 5e, HD are a less significant hp resource, with daily hps, consumable potions, and spells being far more important in managing hps. This version of Inspiring Word is 'too 4e' in being a short-rest resource. </p><p></p><p>I do like it being able to affect exhaustion, though.</p><p></p><p> So the Warlord can stand up an adjacent fallen ally once at 1st level, all the way up to thee times at 17th. A cleric with Cure Wounds prepped, OTOH, can do it three times at first level and well, a whole lot at 17th. That's some very strict strict-inferiority there. </p><p></p><p>I get what you're trying to do here, though, I think: you're trying for one specific bit of genre-emulation in the distinction. I don't think it's quite necessary. Let Inspiring Word restore from 0, remove the explicit hearing/shaking requirements, maybe link it to a 'command radius' or something. Then, note in a side-bar that DMs may decide what sort of 'inspiration' seems appropriate to them for the situation and the tone of the campaign their running. It might run from a character being 'inspired' even when the warlord can't act or isn't present (he just remembers something inspiring) to inspired by example, to vocal exhortation, to physical shaking. </p><p></p><p>Also, I'm sensing StatMod*level/2 as a standard, here. I'm not sure it's a great formula. Proportional to level is good, certainly. OTOH, HD (whether expended or not) could be a more proportional-to-class standard (it seems like it'd be fair for an inspired barbarian or fighter to get more hps than an inspired rogue or wizard). Stat mod as a multiplier rather than an adder, I'm not so sure about, either - has 5e done that anywhere else?</p><p></p><p> Almost strikes me as a better guide to designing specific maneuvers (or whatever) than a general ability. It's certainly flexible enough, in as far as 5e goes in providing possible actions, which is potentially pretty cool, just like the Cunning-Action-like ability, below.</p><p></p><p>Again, I think you're going a little too deep into the tone of the fiction side, but at least you're keeping it 'DM discretion.'</p><p></p><p>Oh, and a potential danger (or feature) of it being this general is that the Warlord might easily end up with his own actions not ever being worth taking. That was something you could do with the warlord, intentionally, with specific build choices, but this could have it happening to any Warlord as a matter of course...</p><p></p><p>And, while the action economy management is cool, action economy is less important in 5e than it was in 4e - and management of daily resources much more important. So, for instance, it's potentially effective for the Warlord to have a caster use his action to cast an extra spell, but that spell is still coming out of the casters' limited slots - and if the Warlord were just replaced with another caster, you could do the same, and have twice as many slots.</p><p></p><p>Like the Rogue's Cunning Action, this is kinda cool, a simple mechanic that opens up a fair range of tricks. Obviously you can't call it 'Bonus Action,' as that's already the action type. It should be phrased 'use your bonus action to...' since everyone does get a bonus action every turn, just doesn't always have something they can do with it.</p><p></p><p> That's very like the Inspiration mechanic, which is fine for verisimilitude but maybe weakens said mechanic (which is one of those carrot-for-RP tricks) - assuming it doesn't stack, which'd make sense. A random bonus gives an obvious comparison to Guidance, which is unlimited-use, as a Cantrip, but only d4. Nothing would stop the two from stacking, either.</p><p></p><p> Not sure this'd come up. Large numbers tend to break 5e due to bounded accuracy, anyway.</p><p></p><p>Any hp-restoration or hp-management that can't stand up an ally at 0 hps is decidedly inferior. I can't tell if this is supposed to be an in-combat Action or an out-of-combat function like Inspiring Leader, and that makes a big difference - 'rally' really implies in-combat.</p><p></p><p></p><p> This'd have to be the meat of it, where player choice and character versatility can be provided. The Warlord had a lot of exploits, not quite as many as the fighter, but hundreds, and they did a wider variety of things. In addition, leadership could impact more than just combat. It'd be easy to throw a bland, non-stacking, mechanic like advantage, and doing so wouldn't lack in effectiveness, but it'd be pretty dull, like a Cleric who does nothing but cast Bless (which, according to some game reports we've heard around here, isn't much of an exaggeration). </p><p></p><p>5e has put a lot of it's eggs in the spellcasting basket, a huge chunk of the book is devoted to spells and 30 of 38 builds cast spells, leveraging that resource to give them versatility, choice & effectiveness without necessitating a lot of page count in each class, individually. Since the Warlord needs comparable ability, but can't leverage the game's deep investment in spells, it'd need a surprisingly 'long' write-up...</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tony Vargas, post: 6698400, member: 996"] This catches the idea of Commanding Presence, and sounds good in concept, the actual mechanic, though broadly applicable and not lacking in effectiveness (gaining/granting advantage usually takes an action), is pretty bland compared to Commanding Presence, which gave each flavor of warlord it's own thing. You might just as well not have hp restoration if you can't use it to stand up a fallen ally. Though some h4ters made a point of asserting that 0hp = unconscious and unconscious = deaf, even though the latter is demonstrably false, even if that point had been valid, it'd be worth it to bend credulity a bit in the name of fantasy heroics and playability and let it work on dropped allies. Also, this is one of those places where 4e and 5e did things pretty differently. In both 4e & 5e, hit points are a daily resource that face attrition over the course of the adventuring day. In 4e, natural healing in the form of surges was the major source of hps, and Inspiring Word (and most literal 'healing' as well) was an encounter-resource surge-trigger, rather than a hp resource in itself. In 5e, HD are a less significant hp resource, with daily hps, consumable potions, and spells being far more important in managing hps. This version of Inspiring Word is 'too 4e' in being a short-rest resource. I do like it being able to affect exhaustion, though. So the Warlord can stand up an adjacent fallen ally once at 1st level, all the way up to thee times at 17th. A cleric with Cure Wounds prepped, OTOH, can do it three times at first level and well, a whole lot at 17th. That's some very strict strict-inferiority there. I get what you're trying to do here, though, I think: you're trying for one specific bit of genre-emulation in the distinction. I don't think it's quite necessary. Let Inspiring Word restore from 0, remove the explicit hearing/shaking requirements, maybe link it to a 'command radius' or something. Then, note in a side-bar that DMs may decide what sort of 'inspiration' seems appropriate to them for the situation and the tone of the campaign their running. It might run from a character being 'inspired' even when the warlord can't act or isn't present (he just remembers something inspiring) to inspired by example, to vocal exhortation, to physical shaking. Also, I'm sensing StatMod*level/2 as a standard, here. I'm not sure it's a great formula. Proportional to level is good, certainly. OTOH, HD (whether expended or not) could be a more proportional-to-class standard (it seems like it'd be fair for an inspired barbarian or fighter to get more hps than an inspired rogue or wizard). Stat mod as a multiplier rather than an adder, I'm not so sure about, either - has 5e done that anywhere else? Almost strikes me as a better guide to designing specific maneuvers (or whatever) than a general ability. It's certainly flexible enough, in as far as 5e goes in providing possible actions, which is potentially pretty cool, just like the Cunning-Action-like ability, below. Again, I think you're going a little too deep into the tone of the fiction side, but at least you're keeping it 'DM discretion.' Oh, and a potential danger (or feature) of it being this general is that the Warlord might easily end up with his own actions not ever being worth taking. That was something you could do with the warlord, intentionally, with specific build choices, but this could have it happening to any Warlord as a matter of course... And, while the action economy management is cool, action economy is less important in 5e than it was in 4e - and management of daily resources much more important. So, for instance, it's potentially effective for the Warlord to have a caster use his action to cast an extra spell, but that spell is still coming out of the casters' limited slots - and if the Warlord were just replaced with another caster, you could do the same, and have twice as many slots. Like the Rogue's Cunning Action, this is kinda cool, a simple mechanic that opens up a fair range of tricks. Obviously you can't call it 'Bonus Action,' as that's already the action type. It should be phrased 'use your bonus action to...' since everyone does get a bonus action every turn, just doesn't always have something they can do with it. That's very like the Inspiration mechanic, which is fine for verisimilitude but maybe weakens said mechanic (which is one of those carrot-for-RP tricks) - assuming it doesn't stack, which'd make sense. A random bonus gives an obvious comparison to Guidance, which is unlimited-use, as a Cantrip, but only d4. Nothing would stop the two from stacking, either. Not sure this'd come up. Large numbers tend to break 5e due to bounded accuracy, anyway. Any hp-restoration or hp-management that can't stand up an ally at 0 hps is decidedly inferior. I can't tell if this is supposed to be an in-combat Action or an out-of-combat function like Inspiring Leader, and that makes a big difference - 'rally' really implies in-combat. This'd have to be the meat of it, where player choice and character versatility can be provided. The Warlord had a lot of exploits, not quite as many as the fighter, but hundreds, and they did a wider variety of things. In addition, leadership could impact more than just combat. It'd be easy to throw a bland, non-stacking, mechanic like advantage, and doing so wouldn't lack in effectiveness, but it'd be pretty dull, like a Cleric who does nothing but cast Bless (which, according to some game reports we've heard around here, isn't much of an exaggeration). 5e has put a lot of it's eggs in the spellcasting basket, a huge chunk of the book is devoted to spells and 30 of 38 builds cast spells, leveraging that resource to give them versatility, choice & effectiveness without necessitating a lot of page count in each class, individually. Since the Warlord needs comparable ability, but can't leverage the game's deep investment in spells, it'd need a surprisingly 'long' write-up... [/QUOTE]
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