The Marshal: an Essentialized Warlord

[Mentat55]

I am currently knocking around the idea of an Essentials version of the warlord, called the marshal. It would be a Str/Cha class built around auras that primarily grant conditional bonuses to allies.

My current skeleton of the class:

• 12 + Con HP, +5 HP/lvl

• Scale, light shield

• Military melee, simple ranged

• +1 to attack rolls for weapon attacks

• inspiring word

• marshal auras

• Some sort of encounter attack power that grants bonuses to allies, maybe lets allies attack instead of the marshal

As I have started writing the auras, however, I have noticed that auras (as opposed to stances) are a bit more fiddly. However, I really like the idea of an aura, and it works in a slightly different design space. I am still working on my own auras, but any thoughts on the types of things that these auras should do would be great. So far, I am thinking along the lines of granting free saving throws, resisting forced movement, granting attack and damage bonuses, granting bonuses to defenses, and giving temporary hit points.

I would also appreciate any feedback you have about the ideas presented here in general.

 

[Mentat55]

Let me post a couple examples of auras I am trying to craft. One seems to function a lot like standard warlord at-will attack powers or the at-will stances we see for the knight and slayer, the other does not.

Stirring Words
At-Will * Aura, Martial
Minor Action Personal
Effect: You activate an aura 1 that lasts until you end it as a minor action, you activate another marshal's aura, or until you fall unconscious. When you hit with a melee basic attack, one ally in the aura that can see and hear you can immediately attempt a saving throw against one effect that a save can end.

Bloody Vengeance
At-Will * Aura, Martial
Minor Action Personal
Effect: You activate an aura 1 that lasts until you end it as a minor action, you activate another marshal's aura, or until you fall unconscious. Bloodied allies that can see and hear you in the aura gain a +3 power bonus to damage rolls.
Level 11: +4 power bonus.
Level 21: +5 power bonus.

My concern with stirring words is that it doesn't need to be an aura -- in fact, it seems somewhat artificial to force it into that particular design space. My concern with bloody vengeance is more generally a concern with any aura that offers a continuous bonus (i.e., not conditional on an action performed by the warlord) -- how to balance such a bonus. The bloodied condition seemed like an obvious one, but it may be too situation-specific.

I'd love to get some feedback on these ideas. In general, I think the auras should augment attack rolls and damage rolls, grant saving throws, grant shifts, provide defense bonuses, give temporary hit points, or provide some resistance against a particular type of attack (e.g., ignore 1 square of forced movement). In that vein, I just remembered another aura idea:

Stand Fast
At-Will * Aura, Martial
Minor Action Personal
Effect: You activate an aura 1 that lasts until you end it as a minor action, you activate another marshal's aura, or until you fall unconscious. Allies in the aura that can see or hear you can ignore up to 1 square of forced movement.

 

[Rune]

They look good to me. I suppose you could also grant attacks through an aura, though you would have spend actions to grant them, of course. In this case, aura 5 would probably be about right.