Lead the Attack Nerf future implications

[Mengu]

Huh? You basically win against a solo in one round? Is your party made exclusively of DPS monsters from the Wizards Character Optimisation boards?

Depends on your ability to generate multiple attacks in a nova round, and other buffs the warlord hands out. You don't have to be built for DPR, just for efficiency. If people bust out encounter power, AP, encounter power, and maybe one other person uses a daily, it will happen, especially with more organized players who are willing to shuffle around initiative for a beneficial order.

[sblock=Example]
Consider a level 8 party, lets say Warlord, Fighter, Invoker, Ranger, Rogue (I just grabbed a selection of characters from our various parties to test, though I scratch built the warlord since we don't have a tac lord).

Warlord walks up to enemy and opens up with Lead the Attack giving everyone +6 bonus, and doing 20 damage. For the sake of argument, I'm going to assume no one will miss in this fight with that +6 and soon coming combat advantage. The warlord then uses Adaptive Strategem on the Ranger. Saves his AP.

Invoker goes next, drops Rain of blood on solo and warlord for 13 damage, and then uses AP for thunder of judgement, dealing 27 more (17 base, +5 for vulnerability, +5 for AP benefit from warlord). Target is now also dazed granting CA to everyone.

Ranger goes next, skips HQ, uses move, Claws of the Griffon, Off-Hand Strike, AP, Twin Strike, triggering half-orc racial somewhere in there. Between adaptive strategem, the vulnerability, and the warlord AP benefit, he does 136 damage (36+25+25+25+25).

Fighter doesn't have any fancy tricks. Uses basic attack, AP, basic attack, for 41 damage (18+23).

Rogue goes, throws a dagger with sly flourish to get her sneak attack in, dealing 26, moves into melee for a minor low slash dealing 17 more. Then action points for Compel the Craven dishing 22 more points, and giving the warlord, ranger, and fighter opportunity attacks. Respectively they do 20 (including power bonus from invoker's Rain of Blood), 25, and 18 damage.

That brings the total tally up to 365 damage in one round. A level 8 solo with 18 Con will have around (9*8+18)*4 = 360 hit points.

You can see even against a higher level solo, the damage will be fairly crippling. The solo is dazed, rattled, and marked by the fighter. And the warlord still has his bonus till the end of his next turn and an action point as well as the bonuses from the invoker, so there is more potential there.

You don't need charop DPR monsters for monster damage, just a few good select powers, and coordination. The at-will powers of the above characters are Warlord 1d8+6, Invoker 1dX+10, ranger 1d10+5/1d10+5, Fighter 1d8+9, Rogue 1d4+10. For 8th level, this is nothing crazy.

Unfortunately, a ranger is always most helpful in these situations where bonuses are being handed out like candy. So this sort of nova could be more challenging without a ranger.
[/sblock]

 

[Prestidigitalis]

Depends on your ability to generate multiple attacks in a nova round, and other buffs the warlord hands out. You don't have to be built for DPR, just for efficiency. If people bust out encounter power, AP, encounter power, and maybe one other person uses a daily, it will happen, especially with more organized players who are willing to shuffle around initiative for a beneficial order.

Well, it is a daily power, so it's hard for the other characters to know if the warlord plans to use it in any given encounter. By the time the warlord uses it, the others may have already consumed their APs or their most effective single-target powers.

There is also the problem of not necessarily knowing which opponent is the truly dangerous one. If the warlord waits until this becomes obvious, there is even more chance that the other characters will have blown their best stuff elsewhere.

And just a question here -- is there anything from WotC that says never to use more than a single elite in an encounter?

 

[Mengu]

Well, it is a daily power, so it's hard for the other characters to know if the warlord plans to use it in any given encounter. By the time the warlord uses it, the others may have already consumed their APs or their most effective single-target powers.

I guess that depends on the game. Usually it's not too hard to tell even before going into a battle, who the main antagonist will be. If there is a dragon growling at you, you know what's coming. And sometimes even before an encounter, there is communication between players, like the warlord might say "if we meet X, I'm going to use Lead the Attack on him", or the paladin might say, before we go into the dragon's lair, let me use Wrath of the Gods on everyone, or the cleric might say, stay close to me, I'm going to open up with Moment of Glory.

As I said, it works well for a coordinated party, but if your players are more individualists, then yeah, Lead the Attack is not a very good power, but it probably wasn't all that great for them to begin with. Those are the groups that need more healing.

And just a question here -- is there anything from WotC that says never to use more than a single elite in an encounter?

Nope. Nor is there anything that says never to use more than a single solo.

Edit: I don't mean use two solos, just that there is lots of precedent to use more than just a solo.

 

[keterys]

Things that affect d20 rolls (most particularly attack and defense, and to a lesser extent saves) have no business scaling with level. That's just not how a d20 works.

So, if Lead the Attack were something like:
Hit: 3W & you and allies gain a power bonus to damage rolls against the target equal to Int until the end of your next turn.
Miss: Half damage
Effect: You and all allies gain a +1 power bonus to attack rolls against the target until the end of the encounter.

The secondary stat would still matter, and the d20's randomness would be preserved.