D&D 5E Purple Dragon Knight = Warlord?

So we now have a fighter subclass that heals, buffs, grants actions.

Are the warlord fans happy? Nope, not a full class.
Are the warlord critics happy? Nope, inspirational healing.

I'm sure this resounding success will incentive further design...
 

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Hyperbole aside, this seems very much like a bone thrown to the warlord fans.

The fighter subclass could have been anything else. A cavalier with a mounted combat style, a dreadnought that can tank, the weapon master that focuses on a particular type of weapon, the dervish that is all about movement in light armour and two weapons, or the legionnaire that creates a shield wall.

But they went with a leader/buffer with overt healing and action granting.
 


All other comments aside, my take on the PDK is that it is a test case: after a few weeks, or perhaps months, WotC will be able to submit a poll to readers of the wizards.com website (if there are any left there by then) and ask for input on how well the PDK was received. If the feedback is resoundingly negative, with masses of people saying they hate the "inspirational healing" angle with a Capital-FOUR for the "A" in "Warlord," then that tells WotC something useful. However, if the feedback is either neutral or positive, with masses of people saying that the PDK is a useful addition to the game, then that tells WotC that they didn't screw up too badly, and the customers actually like "inspirational healing."

That's my 2 cents worth of thought. (If it helps others, that's appreciated. If it doesn't, I apologize in advance.)
 


Combine the PDK and the Martial Adept feat to obtain something similar to the Warlord. Enough to make me happy.

My thoughts exactly, but only getting to take martial adept once ruins the effect. You get to take commander strike and rally as your manuevers, but only get to use one of them between a short rest.... not enough uses to make it work well.

shame you can't multiclass in your own class....
 

Honestly which feels more like a warlord from 4e.

A) a Battlemaster with Manuvering strike, commander Strike, Rally and inspiring leader feat. You get more tactical options that grow and a decent form of "healing" via in combat and out of combat temp hp. Multiple uses of these tactics per short rest, and they get better as you level or....

b)PDK wiht inspiring leader and martial adept. You get commander strike and rally, but only at d6 and once per short rest. You can heal 3 people, once per short rest and at higher levels when you surge they surge too.....

PDK sounds good, but it seems way more limited in it's actual uses of the cool warlord stuff. Battlemaster has less warlord toys so to speak but he gets to uses them alot more
 


All other comments aside, my take on the PDK is that it is a test case: after a few weeks, or perhaps months, WotC will be able to submit a poll to readers of the wizards.com website (if there are any left there by then) and ask for input on how well the PDK was received. If the feedback is resoundingly negative, with masses of people saying they hate the "inspirational healing" angle with a Capital-FOUR for the "A" in "Warlord," then that tells WotC something useful. However, if the feedback is either neutral or positive, with masses of people saying that the PDK is a useful addition to the game, then that tells WotC that they didn't screw up too badly, and the customers actually like "inspirational healing."

That's my 2 cents worth of thought. (If it helps others, that's appreciated. If it doesn't, I apologize in advance.)

They might, but if they were weather-ballooning Inspirational healing, why not use UA? They were working on some of these ideas when the maritime UA article hit (storm sorcerer and swashbuckler), so why not test martial healing there too?
 


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