D&D 5E The Warlord shouldn't be a class... change my mind!

[Garthanos]

Warlord definitely benefited from the detailed rules of 4e, and even more importantly helped with how rigid movement was baseline. 5e lets you pivot around someone freely, and lets you split up movement. As a tradeoff, 5e nuked flanking. This works well for basic "combat ranges" style play, where the only relevant question is "are you in this clump or not", but loses a lot of the nuance of melee footwork. As such, I absolutely see why the Warlord is harder to implement in 5e.

As for that - The Warlord could still be granting disengages and off turn movement and those off turn opportunity to attack it they get team focus fire working ie getting into the clump you need to be in and out of an enemies reach. this may not be granting flanking... but if you arent using flanking you could allow any ally attacking the same enemy you just set up damage bonuses and the like.

Is it just be, or does the idea that a band of heroes needs a "team coordinator"

Nope it's how soldiers and teams have been operating for thousands of years your I can do everything myself who needs to pay attention to what my allies are doing is noted.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Nope its how soldiers and teams have been operating for thousands of years your I can do everything myself who needs to pay attention to what my allies are doing is noted.

Firstly, your typical group of fantasy heroes are not trained soldiers.

Secondly, until the invention of Bluetooth earpieces battlefield communication was very limited. The commander got to give orders at the start of the battle, but after that it's was the soldiers' training that told them what to do moment by moment. Changing orders mid-battle was very difficult. Many battles would have gone differently had the officers been able to change orders.

Thirdly, "Team Coordinator" is so utterly corporate jargon-speak. At least refer to them as an officer or a captain or something suitably military/historical.

 

[Garthanos]

Firstly, your typical group of fantasy heroes are not trained soldiers.

Secondly, until the invention of Bluetooth earpieces battlefield communication was very limited.

5 man teams you pay attention to the fireteam leader type etc. this is not the battlefield of a thousands.

We could do the old high school stereotypes even nerds not understanding teamwork or roles seems to be a thing. They arent the football players or the social ones who became politicians they are the hides in the corner wizard certain he knows better than everyone.

Arneson said he conceived of the party based on the US military fire team including the division of labor by archetype.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

5 man teams you pay attention to the fireteam leader type etc. this is not the battlefield of a thousands.

"fireteams" are a modern military invention. Anchient world armies probably could have worked more efficiently if divided into small groups with individual sub-leaders - but that kind of organisation simply hadn't been invented yet.

 

[Garthanos]

Never mind.

 

[Krachek]

Is it just be, or does the idea that a band of heroes needs a "team coordinator" sound more like an Acquisitions Inc. style spoof of modern corporate culture than a serious part of the game?

I'm a mightily Warrior!
I'm a cunning Wizard!
I'm a... er.. Team Coordinator!

I don’t think it takes a dedicated class to do this.
in fact the warlord secret dream if often a role of team dictator: move there, attack now, attack that target.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I don’t think it takes a dedicated class to do this.
in fact the warlord wish dream if often a role of team dictator: move there, attack now, attack that target.

I don't care if it needs to be a class or not, so long as it uses genre appropriate terminology!

 

[Garthanos]

I don’t think it takes a dedicated class to do this.

I don;t think it takes a dedicated class to be the wizard of myth and legend Gandalf carried a sword. Build an EK or Arcane Trickster.

 

[Garthanos]

I don't care if it needs to be a class or not, so long as it uses genre appropriate terminology!

Shrug wasnt proposing a class name LOL - just an underlying model which helps define functionality.

 

[Garthanos]

The Xmen and Avengers (or Inuyasha and Naruto to some degree) are the kinds of small group fighting hero teams in action people have in their faces and that is the kind of teamwork modern people expect. Modern fantasy may sometimes be flavor medieval or even earlier but incredibly rare simulation medieval. The hero teams of myth did divisions like this hero is the god of luck and trickery and provisioning enter Loki. This one is the Wotan leader with foresight to predict the battle and enemy actions. (yeah he throws a spear that becomes lightning). And this is the Thor the front line defender. They may not have had the military science to identify how this tactical synergy happened but it seemed like they had it just like football teams existed before fire teams -> its not new.