zen_cat
Explorer
I love the idea of the Marshal class, but am concerned that at lower levels the marshal isn't going to be as effective as other characters, and I want to make sure I'm not missing something in how the rules work.
At 1st level you get Commanding Presence, which at that stage only works on allies within 10 ft. If I'm reading it correctly, it allows you to give one of your attacks to an ally, and it costs them a reaction. This seems like a poor trade, as two of any other class could get the same amount of attacks, but they would be able to use manuvers or spells, and no one would need to spend their reaction. Am I missing something?
You also get rallying surge, which at 1st level will heal someone for 1d8+1, recharging on a long rest, which seems like a good secondary ability.
In comparison to this, a Fighter gets 3 manuvers, a fighting style, and a soldiering knack. So at first level it seems that the party is less effective if it contains a marshal.
At 2nd level, the marshal starts to get half as many manuvers as the fighter does at this stage, and their first lesson of war, which seems equivalent to the knack that fighters get at 1st level.
At 3rd level, everyone gets archetypes (yay!). Marshals get Mark Foe, which is a solid ability, adding an expertise dice to attacks against one enemy, and arguably stronger than the Manuver specialization that fighters get at this level. Notably, marshal archetypes don't get an extra manuver school like the Fighter.
Based on the first three levels, it seems to me like the Marshal isn't a great choice, unless I'm missing something. Does anyone have any experience with marshals in their game? Do you use any houserules?
At 1st level you get Commanding Presence, which at that stage only works on allies within 10 ft. If I'm reading it correctly, it allows you to give one of your attacks to an ally, and it costs them a reaction. This seems like a poor trade, as two of any other class could get the same amount of attacks, but they would be able to use manuvers or spells, and no one would need to spend their reaction. Am I missing something?
You also get rallying surge, which at 1st level will heal someone for 1d8+1, recharging on a long rest, which seems like a good secondary ability.
In comparison to this, a Fighter gets 3 manuvers, a fighting style, and a soldiering knack. So at first level it seems that the party is less effective if it contains a marshal.
At 2nd level, the marshal starts to get half as many manuvers as the fighter does at this stage, and their first lesson of war, which seems equivalent to the knack that fighters get at 1st level.
At 3rd level, everyone gets archetypes (yay!). Marshals get Mark Foe, which is a solid ability, adding an expertise dice to attacks against one enemy, and arguably stronger than the Manuver specialization that fighters get at this level. Notably, marshal archetypes don't get an extra manuver school like the Fighter.
Based on the first three levels, it seems to me like the Marshal isn't a great choice, unless I'm missing something. Does anyone have any experience with marshals in their game? Do you use any houserules?