D&D 5E A Marshal for 5e

[Garthanos]

I think I have decided I rather like the Warlord as a Fighter Subclass it hearkens back to the 2e Warrior Lord descriptions of the fighter (The 2e fighter very much desscribed the fighter as both Weaponmaster and Tactician).

So I am not sure about this though it does evoke rather strongly both the 4e Warlord along with using Mearls happy fun hour: subclass as a starting point.

https://www.gmbinder.com/share/-L9FFfbsDApwhwdqDEJo

Any opinions?

 

[Zardnaar]

Its late here but a quick skim.

Looks great you have formatted it really well.

Mechanics wise you have probably obsoleted the fighter. 3 attacks at the same rate, most abilities at level 1 or 2 better and the strength based archer thing is probably to good as it lets you have a good AC and key everything off strength (a dex based archer AC 15 vs 17 once you get the best medium armor). Tacticians Insight doesn't scale well and is probably strictly better than action surge level 3+ and gets worse every level above 3. In a 4 person party for example at level 3 you are granting around 8d10 damage which blows action surge out of the water and by level 6 you can do it 6/day vs a fighters probably action surge once or twice. You probably want to have something like that be usable about the same amount of times as a fighters action surge (or clerics channel divinity as is) with perhaps scaling damage dice to account for the fighters extra attacks via action surge (4 at lvl 5, 6 at level 11). You can also nova with it way better than a fighter. Its very front loaded.

Probably dump the 3rd attack at 11, a lot of your abilities are probably fine relative to say Ranger and Paladin but they don't get a 3rd attack and OP level 1-3 cf fighter. Apart from that its a good effort.

 

[Krachek]

In fact maybe a bit to nice.
4ed nostalgic will love it.
Multiple conditions, micro bonus, out of turn action, obviously 4ed style.

 

[Garthanos]

Its late here but a quick skim.

Looks great you have formatted it really well.

Mechanics wise you have probably obsoleted the fighter. 3 attacks at the same rate, most abilities at level 1 or 2 better and the strength based archer thing is probably to good as it lets you have a good AC and key everything off strength (a dex based archer AC 15 vs 17 once you get the best medium armor). Tacticians Insight doesn't scale well and is probably strictly better than action surge level 3+ and gets worse every level above 3. In a 4 person party for example at level 3 you are granting around 8d10 damage which blows action surge out of the water and by level 6 you can do it 6/day vs a fighters probably action surge once or twice. You probably want to have something like that be usable about the same amount of times as a fighters action surge (or clerics channel divinity as is) with perhaps scaling damage dice to account for the fighters extra attacks via action surge (4 at lvl 5, 6 at level 11). You can also nova with it way better than a fighter. Its very front loaded.

Probably dump the 3rd attack at 11, a lot of your abilities are probably fine relative to say Ranger and Paladin but they don't get a 3rd attack and OP level 1-3 cf fighter. Apart from that its a good effort.

It is impressively presented isnt it. But I cannot honestly claim it as mine.

Mearles was using the spell casting of the Eldritch knight and converting it to raw numbers using the table in the DMG as the basis for balancing his Tacticians Insight ability basically the numbers are his (and was built on top of the fighter class)
hence where the attacks came in... It looks like this gave up heavy armor and possibly other tweaks to make it more Warlordy in other ways instead of a fighter sub-type.

Tactician’s Insight
Starting at 3rd level, you can grant your allies useful tactical insights while
they are in the area of your tactical focus. You gain a number of uses of insight based on your fighter level.

As a bonus action or as part of an attack action, you grant insight to yourself or allies in your tactical focus. You can grant this benefit to yourself and as many allies as you wish in your focus, but you cannot expend more uses than you currently have.

A creature that gains your insight can use it in two ways. It can regain hit points immediately upon receiving it. Roll 2d10 and the creature regains that many hit points. If the creature would gain hit points that place it above its maximum, it gains the difference as temporary hit points. Alternatively, a creature can save the insight to use when it hits with an attack. It increases the attack’s damage by 2d10. (*On a hit, weapon attack? Always benefit.*)

You regain expended uses of Tactician’s Insight when you complete a long rest.

Level U Max
3 2 1
4-6 3 1
7-9 7 2
10-12 9 2
13-15 14 3
16-18 16 3
19-20 20 4

Mearls design is still pretty tentative and this ran with it pretty close

If Tactical Insight needs limits perhaps in order to use the Insight to increase your damage the Warlord would have to succeed in an attack action this turn.

 

[Garthanos]

Here is the transcription of the Happy Fun Hour design. Mearles video actually did mentioned building a Fighting style that felt Warlord Like but he didnt present one.


https://thinkdm.wordpress.com/hfh/warlord-fighter

But I actually thought of that.

A fighter class feature (perhaps at level 3)

Battle ready / Eager for the Fight
For most the beginning of a battle is something they have to react to and its reflexes that take over but for you its a fulfillment of your expectations and your plans.
You may pick and alternative stat (instead of dexterity to base your initiative on)
Intelligence - Quick Thinking / Charisma - Cunning / Wisdom - for Perception , Constitution - for instinctive response.

Fighting Style

Leading(or Probing) Strike
Your every attack creates/reveals openings for yourself and your allies to exploit.
Subsequent attacks against a target you successfully attack this turn gain +1 to the attack.
or maybe just the first gains a +3 damage.

 

[Garthanos]

Its late here but a quick skim.

Looks great you have formatted it really well.

Mechanics wise you have probably obsoleted the fighter. 3 attacks at the same rate, most abilities at level 1 or 2 better and the strength based archer thing is probably to good as it lets you have a good AC and key everything off strength (a dex based archer AC 15 vs 17 once you get the best medium armor). Tacticians Insight doesn't scale well and is probably strictly better than action surge level 3+ and gets worse every level above 3. In a 4 person party for example at level 3 you are granting around 8d10

2 uses total a day at level 3 each use confers 2D10 to one ally and expends one use, if I am understanding it correctly at level 3 and 2 it is 4D10 no matter what the party size is.

"You can grant this benefit to yourself and as many allies as you wish in your focus, but you cannot expend more uses than you currently have."

This class lacks action surge - Mearls sublass of fighter doesn't -

I am assuming the Marshals other sub-class abilities are intended to make up for that..

 

[Zardnaar]

2 uses total a day at level 3 each use confers 2D10 to one ally and expends one use, if I am understanding it correctly at level 3 and 2 it is 4D10 no matter what the party size is.

"You can grant this benefit to yourself and as many allies as you wish in your focus, but you cannot expend more uses than you currently have."

This class lacks action surge - Mearls sublass of fighter doesn't -

I am assuming the Marshals other sub-class abilities are intended to make up for that..

Its 3 uses a long rest at level 3, as many allies as you like. 4 at level 4, 5 at 5 etc.

I went with 4 PCs as an example. Its marginally less damage than a fighters action surge at low level (say 1d8+5 8.5 avg or 2d6+3 10 avg vs 2d10 per person 9 avg)

 

[Garthanos]

Its 3 uses a long rest at level 3, as many allies as you like. )

As many as you like in the area if you have enough uses to expend I watched the video and I am pretty sure its a use expended per allly affected.

And both Mearls chart and the one in the pdf are 2 uses at level 3. Unless I am seeing a cached version or something. It is table controlled based on level not equal to level.

 

[Garthanos]

Maximum is how many uses you can give to a single target

 

[Garthanos]

The numbers and damage were based on spell casting of the Eldritch Knight at level 3 they have 2 spells and according to the DMG that for a single target (save half damage effect) ... is 2D10 ... its basically a perfect line up and Mearls Warlord like the Eldritch Knight gets it and can Action Surge too. ie 2 spells doing 2D10 each daily.

The Marshal/Mearls design uses the same language ->but it could have been clearer and specified 1 target per expenditure. it was clear he meant for the numbers to correlate exactly to the EK.

While it certainly has a number of abilities I do not know if they add up to an action surge.