the Jester
Legend
Temporary hit points and raising a pc's current and maximum hps are both good ways around this.
D&D (2024) Chance for a warlord?
- Thread starter UngeheuerLich
- Start date
Why not both?
A5e has the Marshal which is a Warlord, and Martial Artistry's second stretch goal is the Swordmage. Win-Win!
This is actually the time when a Warlord might actually gain traction-- when the preliminary work on books for late 2026 and into 2027 are occurring-- because these are the books that will not have input from the two remaining names that were on 5E14 that decided not to make a Warlord in the first place... Jeremy Crawford and Chris Perkins.
Originally it was Mike Mearls and his staff producing 5E14 that decided to not include the Warlord due to how they were seeing hit point recovery be fluffed and made a part of their game. And Jeremy and Chris were a part of that group. But now that Mike is gone and Jeremy and Chris are soon to be gone too... the remaining "new" members of the D&D design staff-- the ones who were not there to have an opinion on the Warlord at the time-- can start making their own design decisions and go ahead if they want with all these ideas that were back-burnered until now. The Psion, a Dark Sun setting book, the Warlord, a Dawn War setting book etc. etc.
This isn't to say we are actually getting the last three of those four things... but if there was ever a time when those had the chance to happen, now is that time. New staff... new opportunity to put their own stamp on the D&D game.
Originally it was Mike Mearls and his staff producing 5E14 that decided to not include the Warlord due to how they were seeing hit point recovery be fluffed and made a part of their game. And Jeremy and Chris were a part of that group. But now that Mike is gone and Jeremy and Chris are soon to be gone too... the remaining "new" members of the D&D design staff-- the ones who were not there to have an opinion on the Warlord at the time-- can start making their own design decisions and go ahead if they want with all these ideas that were back-burnered until now. The Psion, a Dark Sun setting book, the Warlord, a Dawn War setting book etc. etc.
This isn't to say we are actually getting the last three of those four things... but if there was ever a time when those had the chance to happen, now is that time. New staff... new opportunity to put their own stamp on the D&D game.
FrogReaver
The most respectful and polite poster ever
I think there's some interesting space in martial support options. Though I don't know that any of it is currently unexplored. The only issue is that it's spread a bit too thin over all the martial classes/subclasses.
We have fear, disarming, forced movement, advantage, disadvantage, allied movement, temp hp, attack me or face disadvantage (essentially 4e style marking), even attack granting.
I don't believe at will action granting can be balanced in 5e, which after healing is the other line in the sand for warlord fans.
But there's also an additional problem for support martials in 5e, all their abilities need to make thematic sense in the broader game and that's not actually easy to do. Take action granting, haste does it, but what's a martial character doing that allows your allys another action that makes sense in the fiction. Well what is an action in the fiction? It's essentially what your character is capable of doing in a certain amount of time. How the heck is a martial supposed to have any effect on that, and especially round after round after round?
It's not just about cool mechanical abilities, it's about justifying them fictionally as well.
But I do wish you all the best of luck in getting one you all will be happy with (that's a third problem, all warlord fans want something different from the warlord). I'd like to see an official implementation and how they avoid all these potential pitfalls.
We have fear, disarming, forced movement, advantage, disadvantage, allied movement, temp hp, attack me or face disadvantage (essentially 4e style marking), even attack granting.
I don't believe at will action granting can be balanced in 5e, which after healing is the other line in the sand for warlord fans.
But there's also an additional problem for support martials in 5e, all their abilities need to make thematic sense in the broader game and that's not actually easy to do. Take action granting, haste does it, but what's a martial character doing that allows your allys another action that makes sense in the fiction. Well what is an action in the fiction? It's essentially what your character is capable of doing in a certain amount of time. How the heck is a martial supposed to have any effect on that, and especially round after round after round?
It's not just about cool mechanical abilities, it's about justifying them fictionally as well.
But I do wish you all the best of luck in getting one you all will be happy with (that's a third problem, all warlord fans want something different from the warlord). I'd like to see an official implementation and how they avoid all these potential pitfalls.
mellored
Legend
It kind of already exsists.
A mid level cleric has enough Command's to grant at-will-enough opportunity attacks, and no one claims that's overpowered.
Battlemaster 15 can do it at-will.
Haste also exsists, which grants extra action.
I.e.
As an action, one ally within 30' can immediately take an Action. That action can be used to take only the Attack (one attack only), Dash, Disengage, Hide, or Utilize action.
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Scribe
Legend
Twiggly the Gnome
Legend
If WotC did a 5.2 Warlord, it'd have a subclass called Martial Healer... that gets cleric spells.
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