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Message: <blockquote data-quote="slobster" data-source="post: 6015352" data-attributes="member: 6693711">I'll take a crack at one of my favorite newcomers, the warlord.Warlords aren't necessarily inspirational leaders, though many are. They aren't always in positions of ultimate authority either; the general of an army could be a warlord, but so could his strategic adviser or his battle standard bearer. The warlord is defined by his devotion to the art of combat, his understanding of the ebb and flow of conflict. Whether through mastery of tactics, or the inspiration of his allies, or the ability to out-think and out-guess his opponents, the warlord's leads his allies to victory through his mastery of the art of war.Just for the sake of argument, let's give the warlord combat superiority (CS) dice just like the fighter. Let's also assume that these refresh at the end of the warlord's turn rather than at the beginning.When he starts out, the warlord gets a single d6 CS die just like the fighter, but unlike the fighter he can't use that dice himself. Instead, he may use it any time when an ally is making an attack to add 1d6 to their damage total. This represents his ability to read an opponent and point out a weakness in their defense, or his ability to exhort his allies into great acts of heroism.Because of its name and its pedigree, I see the warlord as being the class that most emphasizes the tactical aspects of combat, for the player who enjoys that sort of thing. The class has to offer meaningful decisions and conditional benefits to reward tactical play.The following are leadership styles, a mirror of the fighting styles chosen by fighters.Wolf-Pack Tactics: Spend a CS die during your turn as an action. A target ally harries one adjacent enemy, opening holes in its defenses that can be exploited. The next attack made against that enemy is made with advantage. If more than one ally is currently adjacent to the enemy, one of those other allies may immediately make a melee attack against the enemy as he presses his deadly advantage.A Gap in their Defenses: Spend a CS die at any time during an ally's turn. While they move this round they do not provoke attacks of opportunity.Hold the Line: You gird yourself and your allies for the enemies' inevitable attack. Spend and roll a CS die on your turn as a free action. You, any adjacent ally, and any ally adjacent to an ally that this ability affects, gains a number of temporary hp equal to the number you rolled. Once an ally benefits from this ability he may not benefit again for the rest of the encounter.Sever the Serpent's Head: You identify a single dangerous foe and instruct your allies to bring it down fast. Spend a CS die at any time as a free action. Target an enemy. Until you regain that CS die, attacks that hit that enemy roll damage twice and take the better result. If the targeted enemy dies while this ability is active, and that enemy had a position of authority or power over the rest of the enemies in this encounter, then the remaining foes must immediately make a morale check with a penalty equal to your charisma modifier or break.(I realize that the last one used morale rules, which we aren't sure will exist, but I was just brainstorming. If we do end up with morale rules, a warlord seems like a good place to include some interactions. Maybe he should even have a passive ability that imposes a penalty on all morale checks enemies make!)There you go. Far more tactical-minded than other classes in the playtest so far, but I think it fits. Maybe others can come up with some ways to clean it up a little bit so that it meshes better with theater-of-the-mind play, but as it currently is I think it could make the transition and still be playable. It's obviously built on the CS chassy pioneered by the fighter, and I'm curious if that works for people or if it needs its own schtick.</blockquote>

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