The Most Underpowered Class?

[holywhitetrash]

in my opinion warlords are the most underpowered i mean they seem to be able to put out damage but their job is to be the leader and their healing is subpar and all of their powers proc off of ac
the only time i have seen someone play a warlord they hated it

 

[Turtlejay]

Leader=!Healing

Leader=Support

Healing is one aspect of support. Buffing and battlefield control is another. While Warlords make subpar healers, they make good leaders in other aspects.

This naturally means that they are not cut out for some playstyles. If you go into it thinking you are playing a healbot, or a lazerbeamer, you will be disappointed. You are a weak fighter with support elements.

Jay

 

[abyssaldeath]

Warlords excel at making the rest of the party awesome by handing out extra attacks, hit and damage bonuses out the wazoo.

 

[renau1g]

I'm not sure if they're necesarily sub-par healers, but they aren't as great as clerics (but there's that feat lets you add Int bonus to inspiring word to make up some of the difference). There's no other leader I'd like to adventure with in my group than a Taclord...so sure in a straight-up fight he's not as powerful as a fighter or barbarian, but his/her job is to make the others better and lets the heavy hitters take extra attacks

 

[Destil]

Depends on your warlord. Inspiring warlords have really good access to encounter heals, maybe better than a cleric (haven't compared the two post Martial/Divine power) and excel at granting saves. They don't heal as much damage overall, but it's easier to make one with a good number of encounter triggers. Also their encounter healing powers tend to have better non-healing aspects, especially damage.

Tactical warlords excel at granting attacks and bonuses.

Either one will generally deal good damage, better than most healing-focused clerics. A strength cleric can close most of the difference, but they would do it by dedicating feats and powers to damage rather than healing, and end up about in the same spot.

In fact I believe warlords are still near the top as far as damage dealing leaders, though I haven't really done a careful comparison since the PHB came out.

Also, don't just compare them to clerics. If anything clerics are like fighters, clearly one of the favorites and very possibly overpowered, particularly if you just look at healing.

 

[keterys]

Inspiring Warlords can actually give some extremely good damage boosts, with Warlord's Strike, War of Attrition, Inspired Belligerence, etc. Tactical is much better at giving bonuses to hit, though.

 

[cattoy]

I'm going to use a couple of 12 level characters I have made as examples and will only be comparing At-Wills.



So there we have 2 out of 3 Arcane spell casters that have a higher static bonus to damage then a melee striker without the use of a Staff of Ruin.

Wrong. Or rather, who cares about static bonus when the weapon and maneuver bonus overshadows it?

Wizard = 19.5
Barbarian (only one with a mere 20 in primary stat BTW) 25.5
Sorcerer = 24.5
Warlock = 26.5

A goliath Barbarian equipped with a brutal weapon tops out at 27 or higher, depending on what kind it is.

 

[Destil]

Wow, I just looked over inspiring warlord feats. They're fantastic at granting little bits of healing and saves. The cleric may have more focused heals, but really for overall healing if your party is 5 or more people the inspiring warlord should remain pretty competitive. And they throw out saves like candy.

Saving Inspiration - Forgo extra dice of healing from Inspiring Word for a save.

Inspired Recovery - When an ally spends an action point they get a save, and add your Cha bonus to the roll.

Yeah, if you build around it and don't have a small party an inspiring warlord will keep up with a cleric just fine. May not heal your defender up with one inspiring word, but the fighter can spend an action point (which you should generally be doing every other encounter anyway) and get some extra healing and a save whenever they need it. And while the cleric has to weaken himself for one turn to heal the entire group the warlord just lets everyone take an action point, put out the hurt, and takes another swing with his +3, 1d12 sword or whatever.

 

[abyssaldeath]

Wrong. Or rather, who cares about static bonus when the weapon and maneuver bonus overshadows it?

Wizard = 19.5
Barbarian (only one with a mere 20 in primary stat BTW) 25.5
Sorcerer = 24.5
Warlock = 26.5

A goliath Barbarian equipped with a brutal weapon tops out at 27 or higher, depending on what kind it is.

Considering that were were arguing about whether or not casters were less effective because they can't use IAoP or BoA and not about DPR, I'd say static bonuses are relevant to the post.

 

[Diirk]

Considering that were were arguing about whether or not casters were less effective because they can't use IAoP or BoA and not about DPR, I'd say static bonuses are relevant to the post.

Possibly, but thats a really, really bad barbarian.