New Feat: Tactical Leader

[koga305]

We're talking about Warlords over on the 5E board, and I brought up the point that there's no feat granting an "at-will" Warlord-style ability. So I wrote one!

Tactical Leader
You are an expert at leading your allies to victory, directing their strikes against the most powerful enemies you face. You gain the following benefits:

• Friendly creatures within 30 feet of you who can see and hear you (including yourself) gain a +2 bonus to Initiative.
• If you take the Attack action on your turn, you can use a bonus action to take the Help action to aid an ally in attacking your target.
• When you score a critical hit on a creature, you may choose one ally. That ally may immediately use its reaction to make one weapon attack against the same creature.

Some concerns: The +2 initiative might be too fiddly. Alert does give a +5 bonus but that's large and easy to remember. I'd like the feat to have a "static" bonus if possible, since it already has an "active" and a "triggered" one, but I can't think of much else that's on-theme for a Warlord character. The second ability is awkwardly worded but I can't think of a better way to do it.

 

[tuxgeo]

Maybe something involving movement? Positioning is also part of the 4E Warlord.
How about something like this for an actively chosen ability?

• If you take the Attack action on your turn to make a weapon attack, an ally of your choice that you can see can use a reaction to perform either the dash or the disengage action.

 

[koga305]

Wow. That's practically buying your party a Cunning Action (minus the hide) that they can pass around as needed every turn. I like the idea, but it's pretty strong - maybe there's a way to implement a stronger version of this ability that isn't at-will.

 

[Flamestrike]

The Critical hit feature makes the feat very juicy for Champion fighters (and Assassins!). From a 'meta' point of view I would consider making the feat more appealing to Battle-masters and Paladins.

How about:

Tactical Leader
You are an expert at leading your allies to victory, directing their strikes against the most powerful enemies you face. You gain the following benefits:

• You gain + 1 to your Charisma or Strength Score to a maximum of 20.
• Friendly creatures within 30 feet of you who can see and hear you (including yourself) gain a +2 bonus to Initiative.
• If you take the Attack action on your turn, you can use the Help action as a bonus action on the same turn. The ally you Help must be within 30 feet of you, and able to see and hear you to receive this benefit.

 

[tuxgeo]

Wow. That's practically buying your party a Cunning Action (minus the hide) that they can pass around as needed every turn. I like the idea, but it's pretty strong - maybe there's a way to implement a stronger version of this ability that isn't at-will.

Admittedly, the at-will granting of a reaction on an attack is a bit much. Maybe make it only if you hit, so not every round?
Among the 4E Warlord At-Will powers, a couple of them do grant mobility: 4E's Opening Shove lets an ally shift your INT squares (or make an attack) if you hit; and 4E's Wolf Pack Tactics grants a free 1-square shift to one ally adjacent to either you or your target, before you make your attack.

Other alternative ideas: 4E's Inevitable Wave lets any ally who charges your target deal extra damage to that target (for a while) after you hit it with a melee weapon attack, while 4E's Paint the Bulls-Eye lets them deal extra damage to your target (for a while) after you hit it with a ranged weapon attack. You might want to rejigger those to make separate points about melee and ranged attacks, without trying to grant a bonus action or the use of a reaction.