brash assault + combat challenge = yay?

[evilbob]

I believe the conversation went something like this:

Wow, that seems excessively harsh! This is completely out of the scope of the thread now, but I have to say that this type of maneuver seems like a great tactical move (the warlord's forte), and should be rewarded! Sure, some enemies are going to be wise, and even dumb ones probably won't fall for it time after time, but I have a hard time believing that animals or undead or other "mindless" (not a term anymore, but still) creatures wouldn't get suckered in by this every time. Any DM playing against that is really doing a disservice to the PC, at least in my opinion. Warlords don't do a lot of direct damage: this really helps up their effectiveness and rewards team play. Why discourage it?

 

[keterys]

Eh... Brash Assault mostly sucks. It's basically 'Basic Attack plus the enemy decides if its free attack is cooler than my free attack', so yeah, it makes sense to almost never bother if it's marked (that's how marked works) or if the ally's free attack is particularly notable.

 

[evilbob]

Eh... Brash Assault mostly sucks.

Really? Brash Assault and Opening Shove are honestly the two warlord powers I've seen used -most- effectively. They look like they suck, but since warlords don't do very much direct damage, it seems like they're much better off spending time helping others do damage. In fact, the "warlord trap" - as I call it - is warlords suckering themselves into thinking that they should do damage personally on their turn, as opposed to either causing damage through allies or buffing allies to do more damage on their turns. This is just my own observation, but warlords I've observed who attempt to do damage personally end up frustrated, and those who turn themselves into a fighter puppetmaster end up feeling awesome.

I dunno, maybe Commander's Strike is technically more effective (and certainly more guaranteed) but Brash Assault gives the chance for better damage (at the cost of your own HP) each time. If you're built like a tank (hide + high Int + shield or scale + shield), it seems like a good bet.

 

[keterys]

Your DM must be taking the free attack a lot, then... most likely in a lot of situations where it doesn't actually make sense to do so.

Mathematically speaking, yeah, it sucks I do think Opening Shove is very cool, though, agreed.