Excerpt: The Warlord

[Green Knight]

Given this, it's weird that they're only including one Controller in the PH1....every 4e party for the first year will need a Wizard in it.

Apparently, the Warlock was supposed to be the second Controller, but over time, they decided that it made for a better Striker. Hence three Strikers and one Controller. Incidentally...

Very early on in 4th Edition design, our work on character roles led us to the idea that any character serving as the party’s “cleric”—whether a bard, shaman, warlord, or whatever

Shaman, huh? Primal Leader, I take it?

 

[Fallen Seraph]

I love that they even adressed the whole Warlock name discussion:

(You might also wonder why we changed the name from marshal to warlord. The answer is that we wanted to broaden the concept from a medieval military commander to someone who might be a barbaric warchief, an elven marchwarden, or a noble-born knight-commander.)

Hehe, nice.

The more and more I here about it, the more I like it.

Also:

Inspiring Presence: When an ally who can see you spends an action point to take an extra action, that ally also regains lost hit points equal to one-half your level + your Charisma modifier.

The definitely is showcasing that HP in 4e, is not just physical damage. It fits quite well into the concept of fighting capacity for HP.

Also, no powers with shifting involved

 

[bjorn2bwild]

Indeed, looks supremely awesome.

Are "martial weapons" now "Military weapons" ?

Wish they had chosen to include descriptions of their example at-will powers, so we could actually playtest the warlord, but it's cool. Dig what I see so far.

47 days to go!

 

[zoroaster100]

I don't think parties will truly need a controller to be effective (even though parties with a controller might be ideal). On the other hand, in previous editions, parties really did need a cleric or were very substandard. I am very pleased that clerics are not so critical any more.

 

[mach1.9pants]

i dunno if I missed it, and I cannot seem to find it in the PHB lite v1.31 but this

Weapon Proficiencies: Simple melee, military melee, simple ranged

Was something I didn't realise was in 4E- simple martial etc. But I could have easily missed it

 

[MaelStorm]

Nice, but quite a short excerpt (concerning powers). Again, just two build options. I hope Martial Powers will showcase extra build options for martial classes.

 

[EvolutionKB]

It's good, but not as crunchy as expected. Still can't wait until wednesday though!

 

[jeffhartsell]

Armor Proficiencies: Cloth, leather, hide, chainmail; light shield
Weapon Proficiencies: Simple melee, military melee, simple ranged

A new weapon category, military melee. They probably did not want to confuse martial weapons with martial powers.

 

[MaelStorm]

i dunno if I missed it, and I cannot seem to find it in the PHB lite v1.31 but thisWas something I didn't realise was in 4E- simple martial etc. But I could have easily missed it

Looks like they changed weapon categories since the Rogue preview for being more broad. That's good news.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Nice, but quite a short excerpt (concerning powers). Again, just two build options. I hope Martial Powers will showcase extra build options for martial classes.

We definitely will the product summary for it states:

This book provides new archetypal builds for the fighter, ranger, rogue, and warlord classes, including new character powers, feats, paragon paths, and epic destinies.