MichaelSomething
Legend
But you can multi class Fighter with Bard?!?
D&D (2024) Chance for a warlord?
- Thread starter UngeheuerLich
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Horwath
Legend
replace banneret with battle master
replace marital adept with inspiring leader
EzekielRaiden
Follower of the Way
The problem, as is always the case with any Fighter sublcass, is that the base chassis is too full of stuff.
You can't actually give the Warlord features the room they need to breathe and flex, because "has 4x attacks per round" and "Action surge" etc. is too strong. The old Banneret shows quite well the limits.
People love to say that the best use of Wizards (etc.) is to use powerful control spells so that the non-casters or low-casters are set up to kick huge butt. The Warlord-as-Fighter-subclass answer falls down on this, because they cannot be the kind of person who is best at setting others up. They'll always be best at getting set-up from their allies, they'll just have a minor and distinctly incidental ability to set allies up too.
That's why I just can't see ANY Fighter subclass, no matter how well-constructed, being a Warlord.
As I've said many times previously, imagine if someone told you we weren't getting a Wizard class because the Eldritch Knight exists. Would you accept the Eldritch Knight we have, right now, as a valid substitute for a full, complete Wizard? Even if you would, do you think the typical Wizard player would? Heck, that the typical player-in-general would?
LuisCarlos17f
Legend
To design a warlord class is a serious challenge for game designers, because the power balance may different if we talk about a 3-8 adventurer squads, 8-20 skimishes squad (like Necromunda or Mordheim wargame) or mass battles like Warhammer: Total War. The warlord class should be designed together the system for mass battles and this needs a lot of work. It is about to choose to hire more low-level mercenaries or an expensive magic item, or how to defeat that dragon mount that can terminate a squad of soldiers with only one breath attack.
My own version of 5e warlord is a martial adept focused into the school of the white raven (from "Tome of Battle: Book of the nine Swords")
My suggestion is to create a playtesting class to be tested in the skirmishes and wargame mode of Sigil.
Where could we see a warlord class? In a strategy videogame set in Birthright/Cerilia.
My own version of 5e warlord is a martial adept focused into the school of the white raven (from "Tome of Battle: Book of the nine Swords")
My suggestion is to create a playtesting class to be tested in the skirmishes and wargame mode of Sigil.
Where could we see a warlord class? In a strategy videogame set in Birthright/Cerilia.
Aurel Guthrie
They/Them
I think if they wanted to add a third extra class to 5e, it'd likely be Warlord given its popularity. It's definitely the class I've seen asked for the most besides Psion/Mystic.
I'm actually positive that they'll add more classes. It hasn't been that long since the books came out and we've had playtests for two classes, this early into the edition cycle. Even if their momentum slows down, I'm still betting on Warlord within the next 3-4 years.
I'm actually positive that they'll add more classes. It hasn't been that long since the books came out and we've had playtests for two classes, this early into the edition cycle. Even if their momentum slows down, I'm still betting on Warlord within the next 3-4 years.
EzekielRaiden
Follower of the Way
I don't think it needs to be 2-and-2, but I certainly agree that a Warlord subclass focused on the combat applications of magic would be perfectly acceptable.
For my part, I like the old Warlock split-subclass model, and think that would be an excellent choice for the Warlord. (There's a vague tracery of this in the 5.5e Cleric: at 1st level you now choose whether to be more a warrior or more a priest, separate from your domain. So it's not unprecedented even in 5.5e to have this kind of "first level broad interest, third level specific focus" split.)
E.g. at first level you choose your Leadership Style, which determines what your Leadership Modifier is. Resourceful = Wisdom, highest focus on healing, save-granting, and resilience; Bravura = Charisma, highest focus on buffs, attack-granting, and high-risk/high-reward play; Cunning = Intelligence, highest focus on mitigation, movement-granting, and coordination.
Then at third level you choose your Combat Specialty. Ideas I've had include: Vanguard (front-line well-armored warrior), Sapper (military engineer/trickster), Knight-Enchanter (EK/AT equivalent, enhances ally spells), Old Master (monk-like tutor/helper/guide), and Skirmisher (stealthy "commando" type, mobility, hit-and-run, etc.)
There are other benefits that I think can and should be mined from the Warlock chassis, but this is all that's relevant to what you've said here. A separate spellcasting-adjacent Warlord subclass might have something to do with Abjuration specifically, possibly Divination as well, and there's precedent for that in the Abjurant Champion. So I could see a Warlord subclass that does that, magical reconnaissance and warding.
Paul Farquhar
Legend
I'm inclined to agree with this. The staff at WotC have changed, and they seem to have gone back to the splatbook mentality. And new classes sell splatbooks.
The attitude to 4e has changed from hate to forgotten, so that's not a problem.
The mechanics? Nothing radical, the point is look at this shiny new class. It will no doubt used remixed mechanics from existing classes, with a fresh coat of paint.
CreamCloud0
Hero
i've definitely thought and said this before, it's not that the individual tools to create a good warlord don't exist in 5e, it's just that they're too piecemeal and scattered that's it's just not realistically possible to combine them into a greater whole on a single character.
There is zero reason why a Warlord-like class could not exist within the game. Hell, you can take a Bard right now... make a handful of specific spell selections... remove ALL the fluff from the class, its features, and its spells... and create the foundation of a Warlord. The Bardic Inspiration mechanic stripped of its bardic flavor; Cure Wounds and Healing Word spells stripped of their "magical healing spell" flavor; spells like Bane, Command, Heroism, Aid, Mirror Image and other in-combat spells stripped of all of their 'magic' and 'spell' flavoring and just use the game mechanics by themselves layered with a martial fluff and bent; and if necessary remove the "spell slot" mechanic for determining how often an ability can be used per day and at what power level and replace it with 'martial points' or 'martial dice' to spend instead (or even depower the features such that you can use one every turn at-will if that's preferable.)
Every single mechanical thing in the game can be reduced to basically adding or subtracting a number from another number or changing how often a character is allowed to do something or how they can do it. And how often you can do that, how many characters it affects, and how large those number can get is determined by the level at which the feature comes into play. So just take all the existing mechanics in the game, select the ones that would apply to a 'Warlord' type of class, determine how often and at what character level they can be used (and thus how weak to powerful they can be), and then just fluff all of it with names that denote a military guy giving orders or making tactical recommendations to their fellow characters. You now have a Warlord class for 5E.
Every single mechanical thing in the game can be reduced to basically adding or subtracting a number from another number or changing how often a character is allowed to do something or how they can do it. And how often you can do that, how many characters it affects, and how large those number can get is determined by the level at which the feature comes into play. So just take all the existing mechanics in the game, select the ones that would apply to a 'Warlord' type of class, determine how often and at what character level they can be used (and thus how weak to powerful they can be), and then just fluff all of it with names that denote a military guy giving orders or making tactical recommendations to their fellow characters. You now have a Warlord class for 5E.
Remathilis
Legend
I think the biggest drawback to the Warlord making it to 5e is that no setting requires it. Eberron and the artificer and Dark Sun and the psion are linked in such a way you really can't do the setting without that class. I don't think Warlord is linked enough to any setting (maybe Nentir Vale?) enough for them to say "we need a new class for this setting or fans are gonna riot" Though who knows.
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