D&D 5E Class Mechanics Idea: The Warlord

[cmbarona]

Consider that the War Cleric, while using Wis-based spells, must still have high Str to stay on the front lines. Or that the Draconic Sorcerer supposedly can stay on the front lines as well.

I think it's ok to assume a character can get a viable attack stat on their own; what's important is that, beyond that attack stat, they can viably specialize in only one stat for class abilities. Given that, I think it's important to divide the Warlord's class abilities between those governed by Int, and those governed by Cha. Maybe even a third governed by Wis. Leave accuracy to class progression. Maybe Warlords can share Fighter Weapon Attack progression, or they could be Cleric +1. Remember, in 5e (currently) players still get a double Ability Score bump at 4x levels like they did in 4e. That should leave room for a decent attack stat and a decent support stat.

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

[MENTION=6696971]Manbearcat[/MENTION] and [MENTION=1544]Zustiur[/MENTION] - thanks! I'm glad to hear someone likes the way this writeup has developed in broad concept, and I certainly agree it would probably need a lot of playtesting and further work to be properly balanced.

I agree with the OP of that other thread saying that 5e lends itself to homebrew: it's got the variety and versatility of 3e's classes along with some of the careful power progression and attention to design balance of 4e. This class would be much harder to design in 3e because he'd be way better than a cleric at low levels and way worse at high levels, and because the combat system was already complex enough that the added detail of warlord tactics would create a ton of exploits and issues, and of course because there was no HD/healing surge-style nonmagical healing. It would also be very tricky in 4e because fitting it into the AEDU power progression would make the tactics system much harder (if not impossible) to implement. Viva 5e!
[MENTION=71281]cmbarona[/MENTION] and others - what do you think of my most recent redesign, where your Cha modifier is added to the effect of some healing and inspirational powers, and Int determines the max number of tactics you can prepare per battle (along with the number you start out knowing)?

Like the war cleric, it allows you the option of beefing up Str or Dex as an attack stat if you want to break heads yourself, but it also rewards focusing on Int and/or Cha.