D&D 5E Quintis the Warlord, what can he do and when can he do it?

[Tony Vargas]

But I would suggest that heavy armor makes more sense than an extra attack. Better to survive the times when he willingly would grant advantage to give advantage to others.

I find that argument...

...persuasive.

Most of his powers involve advantage. Being flanked. Granting advantage. Making the opponent attack him. Moving friends to flank.

Heh. Several powers mark and grant advantage. Maybe straight up give him the option of marking even though it's annpptional rule.

Or something like marking. Protection style, maybe? No, not quite...

 

[raleel]

I find that argument...

...persuasive.

Or something like marking. Protection style, maybe? No, not quite...

Marking disincentivizes. Protection style retroactively debuffs. Bravura incentivized attacking him. Use reaction to grant advantage, but they have to change targets to him. Perhaps then the target grants advantage to the warlord's allies.

Bravuras are almost like inverse marks. Marks punish leaving. Bravuras incentivize staying. They play on greed. They make you make a bad decision. A couple of the bravura powers make this a rock and a hard place (which is The name of a 4e power) by granting the bravura a bonus to ac. Also wearing heavy armor was strongly encouraged for bravuras.

 

[raleel]

I dont know if some of you played Fate of the Norns: ragnarok, but I think there's some interesting concept in it for warlord subclass. One is the Stalo, a warmaster focusing on the weapon he inherited from an ancestor that grows in power with him and allows him to do ''combo'' attacks with his companions. In 5e it would be a warlord with which the companions would spend their reaction to chain attacks in the warlord's turn.

Another is the Maiden of ratatosk, even more the aggravatrix. She use taunt and dodge to bait her ennemies and make them lose their turn. She also master debuffs and counter-attacks. I can see a warlord who dont ''attack'' in their turns, but lure the ennemy and counter attack as a reaction on a miss.

I am quite familiar with fate of the Norns: Ragnarok, and I agree wholesale. Many archetypes in that have powers that would fall into this space, but the stalo and the maiden are definitely the warlord analogs. I think the stalo especially, as he has stances that really help out.

Incidentally, if you are a 4e fan, I suggest fate of the Norns: Ragnarok. It has excellent combat that reminds me strongly of 4e and also expands upon it in unique ways. You play the whole thing with runes - each one represents a power, the totality your hit points, and the number you draw each round is your number of actions.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

http://swse.wikia.com/wiki/Loyal_Protector_Talent_Tree

Also the Exile, Master of Intrigue, Idealogue, Collaberator, even Lineage all have talents that could be used to fill out either core features or subclasses. Especially if we give the class a "talent" list like Invocations, and a lot of the talents could translate almost directly into maneuvers, covering a wide array of appropriate actions.

Seriously I recommend everyone read through at least the listed trees really quick before building any warlord options.

From the Anticipation Tree: "Get Down

Reference: Star Wars Galaxy at War.

Prerequisites: None.

Effect: As a reaction, when an ally is targeted by a ranged attack, you can enable that ally to drop prone immediately (imposing the normal -2 penalty for a ranged attack against a prone target to the triggering attack roll) as a free action."

Doesn't translate directly, but letting the ally drop prone, or move behind cover within 5 ft, and gain partial concealment, would work.

"Anticipate Movement

Reference: Star Wars Galaxy at War.

Prerequisites: None.

Effect: Once per round, as a reaction to an enemy within your line of sight moving, you can enable one ally within your line of sight to move up to his or her speed as a free action."
May have to make it use your ally's reaction, but otherwise translates pretty well, and does something no other class can do.
http://swse.wikia.com/wiki/Noble

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I'll take a shot at it.

Warmaster (ok, not that different from warlord, but a master is less ''party leader'' than a lord, right?)
1d8 HD
Prof: martial weapons, light/medium/shield armor, Tools: Navigator or Vehicule
Skills: two from Persuasion, Intimidate, Deception, Insight, Investigation or Perception.
Saves: Constitution, Intelligence

Lvl 1: Help as bonus action 15', Defend the Fallen: can move as a reaction after an ally is hit if the move gets you closer to that ally.
lvl 2: Secured Encampment: 1 extra level of exhaustion cured on long rest, cant be surprised while resting, Fighting Style
Lvl 3: Archetype (Warpath of Vanguard, Aggravator or Pathfinder)
Lvl 4: ASI
Lvl 5: Extra Attack
Lvl 6: Coordonated Attack: Instead of taking a second attack with Extra attack, can let an ally make a weapon attack as a reaction.
Lvl 7: Gain Expertise in a social skill
Lvl 8: ASI
Lvl 9: Warpath Feature
Lvl 10: ASI
lvl 11: Hammer and Anvil: Add Prof. to damage against enemy adjacent to another ally.
Lvl 12: ASI
Lvl 13: Warpath Feature
Lvl 14: Inspired attack: As a bonus action, grant 1d4 to an ally save, skill check or attack roll. 1/ally/short rest.
Lvl 15: Instill Fear: On a kill, enemies within 15' save against Fear or get frightened for 1 round. 1/short rest.
Lvl 16: ASI
Lvl 17: Warpath Feature
Lvl 18: Impending Victory: Ally within 5' gain 1d4 damage against enemy under maximum hp.
Lvl 19: Awakened Strenght: As an action, one ally can make an weapon attack against all adjacent enemies as a reaction.
Lvl 20: The legend lives on: You do not fall unconscious at 0 until you fail 3 DST. When at 0, your allies within 30' gain Warlord lvl THP, Advantage to Attack and Immunity to Fear. This last until you die or heal over 0 Hp. 1/long rest.

Vanguard:
lvl 3: Champion's Armament: chosen weapon gain special features . Victorious shout: after a kill, one ally can spend a HD to recover healt.
Lvl 9: Bravura: On your turn, you can choose to grant advantage to all enemy until start of your next turn. If you choose so, one ally can spend his reaction to attack the first enemy that attacks you.
Lvl 13: Extra feature for your champion's armament.
Lvl 17: Exhortation: If an ally within 30' woud lose his turn due to a condition, you can spend your reaction to allow him a save at the start of his turn. 2/Short rest.

Aggravator:
lvl 3: Taunting barb: As the Swashbuckler Panache first effect. Aggravating Dodge: If you take the dodge action on your turn, you can make a single melee attack against any enemy that misses you in melee as a free action.
lvl 9: Dash action as Bonus action
lvl 13: Provoke mistep: You can use you reaction to knock down an enemy that misses you in melee.
Lvl 17: Unerving steps: If a creature misses you with an AoO, you can make a single free attack against it.

Pathfinder (War Scout?)
Lvl 3: Hawk friend: gain a hawk companion that can perform non-battle actions.
Herb lore: choose specific poultices like warlock's invocations.
Lvl 9: Bowmaster: add half strength mod (rounded down) to attacks with bows. Gain a new herb lore.
lvl 13: Spot weakness: spend an action to spot a weakspot in a traget, you gain a single weakness die that may be applied to an attack. This dice is a d10 at 13th, and a d12 at 20th level.
lvl 17: Ambush master a per the ranger/rogue UA

 

[mellored]

+1 for warmaster.

 

[The Old Crow]

Too much to comment on everything, but I've always liked the concept of the warlord class (never played 4th). I really want martial options to expand.

I'll take a shot at it.

Warmaster (ok, not that different from warlord, but a master is less ''party leader'' than a lord, right?)
1d8 HD
Prof: martial weapons, light/medium/shield armor, Tools: Navigator or Vehicule
Skills: two from Persuasion, Intimidate, Deception, Insight, Investigation or Perception.
Saves: Constitution, Intelligence

Lvl 1: Help as bonus action 15', Defend the Fallen: can move as a reaction after an ally is hit if the move gets you closer to that ally.

I like the idea of help as a bonus action. I am concerned that granting advantage might be too powerful.

The move as a reaction to ally getting hit is nifty.

This is the kind of martial stuff I'd like to see, it changes the battle in ways more interesting than Moar Damage.

lvl 2: Secured Encampment: 1 extra level of exhaustion cured on long rest, cant be surprised while resting, Fighting Style

Secured Encampment is a great concept. Again this expands martial options outside of combat.

I do have to wonder how the warmaster is immune to surprise only when resting, though. Maybe a reword to indicate that the encampment protects its occupants from being found or sneaked up on.

Lvl 6: Coordonated Attack: Instead of taking a second attack with Extra attack, can let an ally make a weapon attack as a reaction.

I might be the only one leery of requiring allies to use a reaction, simply because I don't like one person's turn to use the resources of another person's, especially if it can happen a lot and the warmaster using the other person's reaction is always a better option than what that the other class could potentially use it on.

Lvl 7: Gain Expertise in a social skill

Interesting.

lvl 11: Hammer and Anvil: Add Prof. to damage against enemy adjacent to another ally.

This seems to just be a straight damage add, but since they waited 11 levels for it, I think it is appropriate.

Lvl 14: Inspired attack: As a bonus action, grant 1d4 to an ally save, skill check or attack roll. 1/ally/short rest.

Just once to one ally? Seems sparse. If it only usable 1 time, it should be everyone within 30' for the whole round or something.

Lvl 15: Instill Fear: On a kill, enemies within 15' save against Fear or get frightened for 1 round. 1/short rest.

That's more like it!

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Secured Encampment: Yeah, the feature is for the whole party, not just the warmaster, it took me 20 minutes to create the class so some features are vague as hell

Coordonated attack: I still think requiring the ally's reaction is a good restriction. Maybe it will allow the rogue to always have one out-of-turn attack. That's okay, that's the job of a warmaster to allow the party to go full throttle and it save the need for the rogue to take the sentinel feat (even more in a feat-less game). Also, it should be mentioned that if the ally dont take the reaction attack, the warlord just makes its normal extra attack, no one's forced to do anything.

lvl 11 is mostly this, just a damage features. I read somewhere that at lvl 11 most classes get a damage increase to keep up with the math.

lvl 14 is quite bad, its mostly a placeholder until I found something more interesting but to be clearer: one ally can only be inspired once per short rest. You can use the feature as many times as you have allies.

 

[Paul Smart]

Secured Encampment is excellent. Exactly the sort of thing I think a warlord type character should be doing. My background is as a military officer, and a secured encampment is the sort of thing I set up for my troops all the time when I was in the field.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

yeah, the one thing I liked the most from the 4e warlord, over the healing, the attack granting and the passive bonus was the ressource management. You know, the many powers that let your party recover some powers, share healing surges with others and all that. That's what I think a warmaster should do in the reality of 5e, especialy balanced in a feat-less, MC-less game. He should help the party's berserker to be less affraid of using frenzy because he will regenerated fatigue more quickly, he should be able to let the rogue feel powerful by letting him get an out-of-turn attack without a feat.

I'm thinking of adding the Spell Commander archetype, a warlord helping the spellcasters to keep a conserve a spell slot if his spell fizzle.