Design & Development: Warlord Article UP!

[KarinsDad]

I can actually swallow pin the flank. The allies are simply coordinating their attacks enough that the enemy can't withdraw with provoking attacks. Nothing is mystically keeping him there, he's just off balance and can't back out of the melee without exposing himself to attack.

But, why can they not coordinate if the Warlord is back at the inn? Why can they not do this every encounter? Every round? Every opponent?

Well, because of rules balance and the fact that the design team couldn't think of a good marital controlling power that makes sense as a once per day.

Unlike Arcane or Divine powers where the very fact that they are mystical allows for explanations as to why they can only be used once a day.

Per encounter can make a bit of sense for martial powers (fooled me once, shame on you, you cannot fool me a second time). But, it's a real difficult stretch to understand the concept of a Daily Martial Power ("oh, you pull a muscle every time you use it, so you cannot use it until the next day" huh? ).

Silence and how it interacts with warlord powers is another issue. One I suspect the 4e team solved by removing silence entirely. Or everybody suddenly knows handsign- some sweeping fluff rationalization of one sort or another.

Fluff. When stretching for rational, I guess that's as good as any.

 

[KarinsDad]

Well first off the reason why the allies couldn't do that themselves is behind the whole point of the Warlord is that he is a master of knowing how to manipulate the battlefield so he knows that by first attacking a enemy to unsettle him, and then positioning two PCs to stop him from shifting.

As for the opponent moving down the corridor, he can still back down the corridor and provoke a OA, he cannot shift now though since the PCs are prepared for any kind of dodge or meanuvour he would use to do this, thanks to the Warlord's initial strike and positioning.

hehe

PC 1: "We've been doing this superior position maneuver for 20 years now. Tell me again why we cannot do it without the Warlord's help."

PC 2: "Laws of Physics. We are merely pawns of the Warlord. And he is a pawn of the great god Daily."

PC 1: "Oh, come on!"

PC 2: "Yup. Fact of life."



Order of the Stick is going to have a field day with these new rules.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Per Day abilities for Martial is viewed as, "through the chances of the situation and simply luck you manage to pull a Exploit that is extremely difficult. The difficulty of the Exploit and the requirements it needs to be pulled off are to the point that it only happens once a day." The Martial character is probably trying the whole fight to pull it off, but it only actually gets pulled off when you use it.

As for why the Warlord is needed, well comes down to the fact that the Warlord seeing how he has such knowledge of the ways of war has noticed that in this circumstance if he can get two PCs into pinning the target they can do this. It is a situation that only comes across because of chance/luck.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

hehe

PC 1: "We've been doing this superior position maneuver for 20 years now. Tell me again why we cannot do it without the Warlord's help."

PC 2: "Laws of Physics. We are merely pawns of the Warlord. And he is a pawn of the great god Daily."

PC 1: "Oh, come on!"

PC 2: "Yup. Fact of life."



Order of the Stick is going to have a field day with these new rules.

*Points to post I just wrote*

 

[hong]

But, why can they not coordinate if the Warlord is back at the inn? Why can they not do this every encounter? Every round? Every opponent?

All of your issues can be solved by the simple strategem of not thinking too hard about fantasy.

 

[mach1.9pants]

All of your issues can be solved by the simple strategem of not thinking too hard about fantasy.

All of my issues? There are a lot of them
Oh you were talking about 4E issues..........

 

[Bishmon]

All of your issues can be solved by the simple strategem of not thinking too hard about fantasy.

When rules provoke the response of "don't think too hard" I'm thinking that's rarely a good thing.

 

[KarinsDad]

Per Day abilities for Martial is viewed as, "through the chances of the situation and simply luck you manage to pull a Exploit that is extremely difficult. The difficulty of the Exploit and the requirements it needs to be pulled off are to the point that it only happens once a day." The Martial character is probably trying the whole fight to pull it off, but it only actually gets pulled off when you use it.

As for why the Warlord is needed, well comes down to the fact that the Warlord seeing how he has such knowledge of the ways of war has noticed that in this circumstance if he can get two PCs into pinning the target they can do this. It is a situation that only comes across because of chance/luck.

And this "extremely difficult" chance/luck situation occurs whenever the Warlord deems it necessary. hehe. Gotta love those "Laws of Probability" breaking Warlords.

You don't even see how off in right field your explanations sound, do you? They sound rational to you, right? Or are you just pulling my chain with this stuff? I gotta admit, it's very imaginative.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

It isn't that it is that the Warlord deems it necessary, it is that yup, for the whole fight he has been doing his best to set up good attacks, etc. Just that when the PLAYER decides to use the Per-Day, in-game the Warlord happens to find a opening to use that strategy.

The Warlord has no clue he has an abilities by these names, all he knows is he can set up good strategic advantages for his allies when the opportunity arises.

This is simply broken down into specific abilities for the sake of the player and mechanics of battle.

 

[Darn]

And this "extremely difficult" chance/luck situation occurs whenever the Warlord deems it necessary. hehe. Gotta love those "Laws of Probability" breaking Warlords.

You don't even see how off in right field your explanations sound, do you? They sound rational to you, right? Or are you just pulling my chain with this stuff? I gotta admit, it's very imaginative.

Not when warlord deems it necessary- when player deems it so. Narrative control to players. A good thing in my book. :\

Edit: Ninja'ed! This board is so anime.