D&D 5E (2014) For the Record: Mearls on Warlords (ca. 2013)

[Aldarc]

Like, magic?

Including, but not limited to, magic.

 

[I'm A Banana]

But should a motivational speech really wake someone up from being beaten unconscious?

If hit points are mainly about luck, grit, determination, willpower, and the urge to keep fighting, and as a result being at 0 hp doesn't necessarily mean you've suffered a lethal wound, then yeah, it should.

If being at 0 hp means you've basically suffered a lethal wound, no, it shouldn't.

Different tables will have different answers to what is happening in the fiction when you reach 0 hp. A lot of warlord fans are fond of the former, which means, of course, that there is absolutely nothing wrong with being woken up from unconsciousness by a desperate shout from an ally who is encouraging to others by their very presence. Indeed, it makes perfect sense.

Any kind of warlord that would be consistent with the latter might not be enough warlord to please some warlord fans, I'm afraid, because of that requirement.

 

[ChrisCarlson]

So, truly, you find it logical that a motivational speech could rouse an ally who was beaten unconscious and get him back into the fight?

 

[Bawylie]

So, truly, you find it logical that a motivational speech could rouse an ally who was beaten unconscious and get him back into the fight?

Logical? No.

But I don't find giant spiders particularly logical. They'd collapse under their own weight.

I am willing to throw over quite a bit of "realism" for "fantasy."

 

[I'm A Banana]

So, truly, you find it logical that a motivational speech could rouse an ally who was beaten unconscious and get him back into the fight?

Genre-logic, but yeah, sure.

 

[MechaPilot]

So, truly, you find it logical that a motivational speech could rouse an ally who was beaten unconscious and get him back into the fight?

Also, who says it has to be just a motivational speech?

For example, here is something that I allow all PCs to do in my 5e games that could potentially be seen as a warlord-type ability because it focuses on removing fear effects. In my game, when an ally is affected by fear, you can try to snap them out of it by shaking or slapping them and reminding them of what's at stake, to keep calm, or that the rest of the group needs her. This attempt allows the PC suffering from a fear effect to immediately make another save to remove the effect, or to make her next save to remove the effect with advantage.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

And with 0 HP I could see that you are down and out of it, but just "functionally unconscious", as you lay there some bit of you hears the cry of your comrade through the haze and stirs you to make the herculean effort to stand and give it one more go.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

So, truly, you find it logical that a motivational speech could rouse an ally who was beaten unconscious and get him back into the fight?

In the middle of a fight, the orc slams his club into the stomach of the fighter bringing him to 0hp, he falls down. The warlord yells at him "Hey soldier boy, no laying down on the job..." and the fighter on his turn stands and puts his sword through the orc... seams perfectly fine to me....

two different rangers half a world apart are both stuck in a life or death struggle with a beholder. both get hit by a ray that does 1d10+6 necrotic damage, bringing them to single digit hit points... 6 seconds from now both beholders are going to bit the rangers for 12hp... so the difference is there allies. Ranger A has a warlord yell somthing inspirational and he gets 2d6+3hp back (11) and Ranger B has a cleric channel holy energy through the healing word spell in a 2nd level slot and heals him 2d6+3hp back (11)....

neather fight has been more fantastic then the other, but one has someone playing a cleric the other a warlord

 

[Aldarc]

So, truly, you find it logical that a motivational speech could rouse an ally who was beaten unconscious and get him back into the fight?

It would be an extraordinary feat that would fit within the extraordinary framework of D&D.

 

[Fralex]

I dunno, I have trouble imagining a speech being able to do that just because other things in D&D are extraordinary. For me, it doesn't fit in with the sorts of extraordinary things people do in the game. I mean, magic makes sense because magic is easy to believe. Magic has "existed" forever. Giant spiders are something you can imagine happening, even if strictly speaking the square-cube law would cause huge problems. It all has to make sense on some level consistent with the game's feel. But talking to revive someone without magic, that's asking me to believe something I am very familiar with (talking) doing something I know it can't do (make an unconscious person suffering from shock get up).

But really, that's only because of the way I imagine HP and death in this game. If you interpret it differently, for example if being at 0 HP is more like those parts in fight scenes where the hero has been totally curb-stomped, is moaning in pain on the ground, trying to pick herself up, then motivational speaking is a well-established method of giving someone just enough fight back in her to keep going and dramatically turn the tide of the battle.