D&D 5E Yes, No, Warlord

[Mercule]

When I hear "warlord" I still think of military juntas with drug addicted child soldiers. So, yeah, another name might be good.

Well, the name "psion" is currently available.

 

[SteveC]

Okay, this warlord thing is completely out of hand.

Yes, I want to see a warlord: it turned out to be my favorite 4E class, so I want to see it in 5E.

Yes, I want it to have actual healing, to reflect what the classes actual role is in the game. Like anything else, if you don't like it, don't allow it in your game.

But more than that, I want to see more content for the game. I don't like psionics, but many people do, so I want to see them, so that D&D is the more of what those people want to play.

I want D&D to be a big tent where you can play <your favorite class goes here> and we can all have a good time together.

 

[ZickZak]

You just renamed it.... but i can use your words too.

Why do we need an arcane caster if we have an eldrich knight?

Because an eldriTch knight is a Fighting Man + Arcane Caster. Get it? -.- And no, Arcane Caster isn't EK -Fighting -Armor/Weapon training +3xSpells.

As you said, you have trips and disarms on top of it 3 maneuvers and bard's stuff 3-5x per short rest and feats, that I am sure allow you to do stuff with a shield...

Stop with the math, please. Eldritch knight 1/3 of a wizard? In spells; may be. You're missing on the fighting abilities a bit.

And as I said: If you wanna see "Gains 12 dice per short rest on level 3" somewhere, I suggest staying in 4e.

BattleMaster 3, Bard 6 (Paladin 11)
That's it. During this conversation I read the entire Battle master and Bard and Warlord is Right there. The only one stopping you to see it is you yourself.
All you want full Warlord for is to have everything all the time.

 

[Yunru]

Because an eldriTch knight is a Fighting Man + Arcane Caster. Get it? -.- And no, Arcane Caster isn't EK -Fighting -Armor/Weapon training +3xSpells.

As you said, you have trips and disarms on top of it 3 maneuvers and bard's stuff 3-5x per short rest and feats, that I am sure allow you to do stuff with a shield...

Stop with the math, please. Eldritch knight 1/3 of a wizard? In spells; may be. You're missing on the fighting abilities a bit.

And as I said: If you wanna see "Gains 12 dice per short rest on level 3" somewhere, I suggest staying in 4e.

BattleMaster 3, Bard 6 (Paladin 11)
That's it. During this conversation I read the entire Battle master and Bard and Warlord is Right there. The only one stopping you to see it is you yourself.
All you want full Warlord for is to have everything all the time.

*Ahem* "Non-magical".

 

[ChrisCarlson]

I'd be cool with adjacent. It actually fits the narrative examples I've used much better than doing so from a distance. However, I expect that some Warlord fans will take issue with it being limited to adjacent.

There inlies the rub. Even among avid, pro-warlord advocates, there is no consensus. As many as there are who would be okay with it, there will be those who say the class failed to represent the true essence of the warlord.

 

[mellored]

Because an eldriTch knight is a Fighting Man + Arcane Caster. Get it? -.- And no, Arcane Caster isn't EK -Fighting -Armor/Weapon training +3xSpells.

And battlemaster is fighting man + warlord.
Not an actual warlord.

We can keep going around this circle.

BattleMaster 3, Bard 6 (Paladin 11)
That's it. During this conversation I read the entire Battle master and Bard and Warlord is Right there. The only one stopping you to see it is you yourself.

I've tried that.

But your power is still locked up into daily spell slots and hit people with radiant damage (and no good option for channel divinity). Even with heavy reflavoring it loses a lot of the martial feel when you can do something one moment and not the next.

 

[mellored]

There inlies the rub. Even among avid, pro-warlord advocates, there is no consensus. As many as there are who would be okay with it, there will be those who say the class failed to represent the true essence of the warlord.

No different from the ranger, or sorcerer.

Though i'm surprised to see so much support for the bard, who doesn't even have an aura.

 

[mellored]

How about this as a compromise on healing...


Level 2: Inspiring word: As a bonus action, an ally can spend a hit die.

Level 3: Sub-Class
*Medic: You can cast cleric spells with a 1/3 progression.

Level 4: you can pick up the healer feat.

 

[ChrisCarlson]

No different from the ranger, or sorcerer.

Or the fighter. Or the barbarian. Or the paladin. Or the wizard. We can do the same thing you are doing.

No one gets exactly what they think a particular class needs. Because they didn't publish it. WotC did. Saying that the battlemaster isn't a real warlord is no different than saying the illusionist isn't a real illusionist because illusionist used to be a class. So what? Not in 5e it ain't. Likewise for any number of other pre-5e classes. And so it is for the warlord as well. What it is--it's essence--is in 5e. That's just a fact. You just don't like the decisions the devs made. And that's okay. Other people feel the same about other 5e classes. You could open a thread for every single one of the 5e PHB classes and get tons of people offering ways in which it failed their expectations or how they would have done it differently. That's the heart of all the warlord debates. Not that it doesn't exist, but that it doesn't exist the exact way (a) particular individual(s) want(s) it to exist. And sometimes that's because the person is not tempering their expectations through a 5e filter prior to analyzing what they do have.

 

[ZickZak]

And battlemaster is fighting man + warlord.
Not an actual warlord.
We can keep going around this circle.

Battlemaster is Fighting man. Maneuvers, Martial Arts, Wild shape... they don't add anything new. Everything you come up with is made from the 4 base classes. In your example fighter + warlord - warlord is still fighter+divine caster.

Whatever.

I chose paladin for the auras, protections and fighting, not for the spells.
If you care for the spells and CD, level 2/6 cleric opens up tons of perfect options for CD and you still can keep 5 lvls of paladin for Extra attack (unless you're Valor Bard). Then you decide if you want the 6th lvl Bardic College Feature OR 6th lvl +Cha to saves for all around you.

3 BattleMaster, 2/6 Cleric, 5/10 Bard, 3/10 Paladin - So many options to make it a mess and you miss on high level abilities (It's rare to play at level 20 anyway), but you can have everything, I think, just not 24/7.