Excerpt: The Warlord

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I was not particularly impressed with the Warlord Preview itself - I would have liked to see more powers, especially an at-will one. But maybe this is done intentional, so we won't be able to make a 1st level D&D PHB complete.

But nothing I saw made me not interested in the Warlord. I want to play one of them. Possibly more then before. It looked to me as if the Warlord is also a skilled fighter, and that means it fits the archetype I want to play very well.

Maybe it's a bit early for that, but if we compare the Rogue and the Warlord skills, I see a certain pattern: It seems all classes get to pick 4 skills. The Rogue only gets 2 "free" skills.
I guess I'd have to check the pregens if this holds up.

The interesting thing about this is that makes the warlord's daily a HUGE swing power, which is something WOTC said they were trying to keep away from. I mean if we assume a dragon fight lasts 10 rounds (the one I ran lasted at least 20) and the warlord opens up with his daily, then a hit or miss is the difference between a +4 to 40 or so attack rolls!!

I understood that daily powers are really the big guns you pull out if you feel that things will get or have gotten hairy.


Outside of Warlocky stuff:
I am also a little disappointed that we will have only one Controller in the first PHB. But if I had the choice between only one Leader or only one Controller, I'd pick the latter. I never liked playing Clerics (and this has little to do with their power, but a lot with "how" they have to be played), but certainly enjoy playing wizards or sorcerers.
Still, it would have been nicer if there would have been two strikers, two controllers, two leaders and two defenders. You get a choice for every role.

EDIT: Oh, and the Warlord Quote on the top of the article, it is classic and old. But it's still awesome. If that's what Warlords say, they have already sold me the class. Or would have, if they wouldn't have already done so in the Preview Books.

“Onward to victory! They cannot stand before us!”

 

[FabioMilitoPagliara]

so we are assuming that inspiring word works similary to the healing word?

something like

Inspiring Word
You shout to your allies to hold on and fight back, helping them to ignore pain.
Encounter (Special) ✦ Martial, Healing
Special: You can use this power twice per encounter, but only
once per round.
Minor Action Close burst 5
Target: You or one ally
Effect: The target can spend a healing surge and regain an
additional 1d6 + Cha hit points.


or instead more like was suggested

Inspiring Word
You shout to your allies to hold on and fight back, helping them to ignore pain.
Encounter ✦ Martial, Healing
Minor Action Close burst ??
Target: Your allies in range
Effect: The targets can spend a healing surge and regain
additional hit points equal to your Cha bonus.

 

[FabioMilitoPagliara]

On controllers:
I think the ready (like in playtested) controllers were Shadow and/or Primal so they were out of the book by definition

while a Divine or Martial Controller are possible they may just be still in the work

another Arcane Controller? don't know

 

[hong]

What a wuss warlord. Sounds like a cleric. My warlord will be more like this:

Get on your feet, you [censored due to the grandmother clause], or I will be having fun with your pretty little wife tonight!

Allan Border to Dean Jones, at the tied test in Madras in 1986: "if you can't hack it, let's get a Queenslander out here -- get me Greg Ritchie!"

 

[FadedC]

Pretty sure I saw an item somewhere, which gave the wielder an "item bonus". At work atm, so can't check my files.

Cheers

Hmm...looking at the items on the monsters and more page I see some that mention an item bonus and some that mention a power bonus. It appears that permanent bonuses are item bonuses and activated bonuses are power bonuses.

 

[Stalker0]

I like that Bastion of Defence power. You can pretty much guarantee that most warlords will have at least a 16 Charisma given so many of their powers are Charisma related.

Ah but here's the catch. The ability for a warlord's powers to hit AND the damage they deal is based on strength. So while charisma gives a nice secondary benefit, strength is still very important.

Which is exactly how I like it. I can easily see a person playing a high strength warlord, or a moderate strength high charisma (or int) warlord.

 

[Lurker59]

The bonuses I can recall seeing so far are feat, item, power, and racial. Also what appears to be a generic bonus. Any there any other confirmed ones?

 

[Green Knight]

Ah but here's the catch. The ability for a warlord's powers to hit AND the damage they deal is based on strength. So while charisma gives a nice secondary benefit, strength is still very important.

Which is exactly how I like it. I can easily see a person playing a high strength warlord, or a moderate strength high charisma (or int) warlord.

Depends on the race, I suppose. A Dragonborn will pretty easily be able to get both Str 16 and Cha 16. If Half-Elves get +2 Cha and +2 to any other stat, then they'll be able to do the same. Any other race who gets a Cha bonus, while having to pay a little extra for Str 16, will probably be able to do it, too.

Assuming Point Buy Method B from PHB Lite, you can do the following...

Dragonborn Warlord (+2 Str, +2 Cha)
STR 16 +3
CON 14 +2
DEX 10 +0
INT 14 +2
WIS 10 +0
CHA 16 +3

Half-Elf Warlord (+2 Cha, +2 Any)
STR 16 +3
CON 14 +2
DEX 10 +0
INT 14 +2
WIS 10 +0
CHA 16 +3

Tiefling Warlord (+2 Int, +2 Cha)
STR 16 +3
CON 14 +2
DEX 10 +0
INT 14 +2
WIS 9 -1
CHA 16 +3

Human Warlord (Assuming +2 to any one stat)
STR 16 +3
CON 14 +2
DEX 10 +0
INT 11 +0
WIS 10 +0
CHA 16 +3

Halfling Warlord (+2 Dex, POSSIBLY +2 Cha [Either that or +2 Wis])
STR 16 +3
CON 14 +2
DEX 10 +0
INT 13 +1
WIS 10 +0
CHA 16 +3

 

[VannATLC]

I hope Multiclassing works well.

This gives me even more hope for my Warlord/Wizard (Warmage) character

 

[vagabundo]

Nice preview, pity about the @ wills, some of them sounded pretty good.

I'm pretty meh about the class, but it is a personal decision, I'm meh about playing clerics too. I can see how some people would like Warlords, in fact one of my players stated that he wants his first character to be a Dragonborn Warlord.

Good Job WOTC, keep them coming, looking forward to Wednesday.