Playtest (A5E) Level Up Advanced 5E Playtest Document #9: Warlord

Welcome to the 9th Level Up: Advanced 5E playtest document. This playtest contains a candidate for the game’s warlord class. The warlord is a new class and — like our spell-less ranger — we have allocated two playtest slots for it. This is the first document; a revised playtest version may appear next week based on your feedback.

Note that this class references two rules elements which have not yet been previewed -- followers, and strongholds. Those will be revealed at a later date.

Level Up Playtest Document #9: Warlord — Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition (A5E)

Welcome to the 9th Level Up playtest document. This playtest contains a candidate for the game’s warlord class.

www.levelup5e.com

Download the playtest document here!

And take the playtest survey here:

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[tetrasodium]

Rouse the troops mentions removing one level of exhaustion or resolve. Since it doesn't seem to be a phb or dmg thing & isn't mentioned again in the warlord thing, what is resolve?

 

[DeviousQuail]

What's the point of voting for this to be released tomorrow if you're going to release it today? /s

 

[Morrus]

Rouse the troops mentions removing one level of exhaustion or resolve. Since it doesn't seem to be a phb or dmg thing & isn't mentioned again in the warlord thing, what is resolve?

You read fast!

We haven't revealed those yet, but resolve is the mental version of fatigue, which are what replace exhaustion.

 

[Morrus]

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[bedir than]

As someone who most DMs using theater of the mind 5' movement differences are generally meaningless. I mention this because of Fast Feet, which is part of my favorite archetype from the playtest

 

[dave2008]

ok, thank you for sharing. I've had a quick look and in generally I like it, but there are two issues IMO:

1. Commanding Presence Starting at 1st level, you have a Commanding Presence which extends from you in a 10-foot radius. Your allies can attack at your command. When you take the Attack action, you can forgo making one attack to allow a friendly creature within range of your Commanding Presence to make an attack instead.

IMO, this is biggest issue and why it doesn't seem like a 4e "warlord" to me. The 4e version could pretty much always doing something and provide support / inspiration. You were never giving anything up to do cool things. The cool things were on top of your attack / action. However, the A5e design means I always feel like I'm loosing something since I have to: "...forgo making one attack..."

My suggestion: Build the warlord off the paladin smite paradigm. The warlord gets its attacks, but can use a bonus action to do cool things. And don't limit it to just attacks.

2. Followers At 5th level, you gain one follower. You gain an additional follower at 10th, 15th, and 20th level.

My issue with this is that I may not want to play with "followers." It is possible that this is more fluff, but I wouldn't want to loose useful things for me (the warlord) and my group to gain followers because I (the player) don't want to manage followers. Now, if it can be ignored with no negative impact or was archtype specific (and thus I can choose a different archtype) than I would be fine with it. I just don't want to loose something more interesting and useful to gain followers.

 

[Morrus]

ok, thank you for sharing. I've had a quick look and in generally I like it, but there are two issues IMO:

1. Commanding Presence Starting at 1st level, you have a Commanding Presence which extends from you in a 10-foot radius. Your allies can attack at your command. When you take the Attack action, you can forgo making one attack to allow a friendly creature within range of your Commanding Presence to make an attack instead.

IMO, this is biggest issue and why it doesn't seem like a 4e "warlord" to me. The 4e version could pretty much always doing something and provide support / inspiration. You were never giving anything up to do cool things. The cool things were on top of your attack / action. However, the A5e design means I always feel like I'm loosing something since I have to: "...forgo making one attack..."

My suggestion: Build the warlord off the paladin smite paradigm. The warlord gets its attacks, but can use a bonus action to do cool things. And don't limit it to just attacks.

2. Followers At 5th level, you gain one follower. You gain an additional follower at 10th, 15th, and 20th level.

My issue with this is that I may not want to play with "followers." It is possible that this is more fluff, but I wouldn't want to loose useful things for me (the warlord) and my group to gain followers because I (the player) don't want to manage followers. Now, if it can be ignored with no negative impact or was archtype specific (and thus I can choose a different archtype) than I would be fine with it. I just don't want to loose something more interesting and useful to gain followers.

We’re not ready to share the rules yet (because they’re still in early draft form) but ‘followers’ are mechanically not NPCs so much as they are daily abilities you can use. They fade into the background until you use that ability, and then they fade right back again. You can almost think of them as spells. The basic idea is similar to the way its handled in Handwork Games’ Beowulf game, although the details are different. So there’s no follower management involved.

 

[dave2008]

We’re not ready to share the rules yet (because they’re still in early draft form) but ‘followers’ are mechanically not NPCs so much as they are daily abilities you can use. They fade into the background until you use that ability, and then they fade right back again. You can almost think of them as spells. The basic idea is similar to the way its handled in Handwork Games’ Beowulf game, although the details are different. So there’s no follower management involved.

OK, that sounds intriguing. Thank you for the clarification.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

The wording posted for Commanding Presence (I have only read this thread, not the document) seems like the same poor choice the beast master ranger had...except you won't even be rolling for your ally much of the time if you are picking another PC.

I wouldn't be interested in that as a major class feature. As a small occasional benefit it would be fine.

Note: I'm on hiatus from gaming while Covid looms so cannot actually playtest.