No Cleric? Hold me.

[Dausuul]

Is this true? We have a party of 6 without a Cleric. A few times, a party member has fallen to negative hit points. The Warlord tried to use Inspiring Word to bring them back up. After several discussions, we decided that since the downed character is unconscious, he can't hear the inspiring words to wake up.

You can house-rule it that way if you like, but it's not the way the rules are written and it's a MASSIVE nerf to the warlord class. The warlord's inspiring words are supposed to be able to penetrate even unconsciousness and rouse dying heroes back to the battle. It's a very cinematic sort of thing, but cinematic is the name of the game in 4E.

I'm currently playing in a party with a Charisma-based warlord (me), an archer ranger, and a paladin, and we do just fine. I have a fair bit of healing to toss around, maybe not quite as much as a cleric would, but certainly enough to keep the party going.

Obviously, your game is your game, but I would hesitate a long time before imposing a house-rule like the one you describe. If it helps, you might think of dying characters as not unconscious but merely incapacitated; like a more severe form of stun effect. They're lying there in a haze of pain, barely conscious, feeling life ebbing away... then they hear the warlord bellowing "ON YOUR FEET, SOLDIER!" and stagger back up.

 

[Surgoshan]

In The Abyss, Bud's no cleric, but he gets an unconscious Lindsey back on her feet. Granted, he does so by ripping her shirt open and beating the out of her. Still, that's pretty warlord.

 

[godfear]

In The Abyss, Bud's no cleric, but he gets an unconscious Lindsey back on her feet. Granted, he does so by ripping her shirt open and beating the out of her. Still, that's pretty warlord.

Fantastic reference. ; )

-g

 

[Kingskin]

Hah! Our party consists of an Orc Ranger (me) and a Goblin Rogue.

It ain't easy being green...

 

[BlueBlackRed]

I would hope that either the warlord does a good job of healing, or your group kills everything that gets in your way before the opposition does more damage than you can take.

My level 1 group has that exact make up, and although we're only level 1 we tear up most things that don't get surprise on us.

 

[Bhelue]

My group consists of 2 Wizards (1 of each type), a Warlord, a Paladin and a Ranger. They just finished "THE" Kobold battle and did a fine job. Between the Pally and the Warlord they had enough healing. And due to all the AoE attacks (2 mages, 2 dragonborn and a Ranger with twin strike) they mopped the floor with most of the encounter. Irontooth did drop the warlord and almost killed the pally but they managed to get a string of lucky hits at the end.

Btw: Good Synergy is Paladin Chalenge combined with the Wizard Spell: Cloud of Daggers. If the CoD misses it stays in the square and does auto damage on the beginnng of the targets next round. Then the target has a choice of staying in the square or moving and taking Chalenge damage or staying and taking CoD damage. (CoD ends at the end of the casters next turn but until the target has experienced it at least once, it won't know it will expire).

Another synergy is Flaming Sphere combined with Combat chalenge or Cloud of Daggers. With the sphere you take damage if you dont move and if you do move away from the Paladin you take chalenge damage.

 

[fnwc]

Is this true? We have a party of 6 without a Cleric. A few times, a party member has fallen to negative hit points. The Warlord tried to use Inspiring Word to bring them back up. After several discussions, we decided that since the downed character is unconscious, he can't hear the inspiring words to wake up.

If this is correct, this is a big difference between the Cleric and the Warlord; one that has keeps causing the party trouble.

I think you are mixing the fluff (the name and description) with the mechanics (the crunch) of the power.

While you are certainly free to do so, the PHB states that players have fairly free reign over how their powers look and operate (e.g., magic missile can be a bunch of glowing, flying skulls).

Since 4E no longer uses things like 'Verbal/Somatic' then enforcing them on a power like Inspiring Word based off of its fluff is against the RAW and the RAI as well. If the designers had intended the power not to operate on unconscious characters I'm sure the crunch would state this -- especially given that this particular power is likely to be used in just that situation.

 

[Henry]

After several discussions, we decided that since the downed character is unconscious, he can't hear the inspiring words to wake up.

Inspiring words isn't like, "C'mon, Marius! You can do it! Get up!"

Inspiring word is like,

"GET UP, YOU WUSS! YOU CAN SLEEP WHEN YOU"RE DEAD! THAT LITTLE FLESH WOUND IS A IN A BUCKET! GET UP, I SAID!" *yanks character off the floor and on his feet*

Less bard, more Drill Instructor.

And, by magic of the fact that they're made of stern stuff, the character rouses from a bloody heap and pushes past the blinding pain to get back up -- to kill the warlord, if nothing else.

 

[Zurai]

Less bard, more Drill Instructor.

Bingo.