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

[Urriak Uruk]

A whinging pedant is a common archetype found in real life. Whinging pedants generally mistreat their peers and cause conflict in physical and virtual social spaces. Should whinging pedant be a class in D&D? Why or why not?

Just in case you got your eye test done and can read better, hear it is again:

Well that was rude.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Should whinging pedant be a class in D&D? Why or why not?

If you don't mind them being magical, I'm sure a Bard build could pull it off.

 

[Prakriti]

That's silly. She'd be an Antagonist NPC. She doesn't need a class, just a stat block.

But what if you want to play an evil stepmother? Is it fair to say that you are literally prevented from doing so because there's no evil stepmother class?

"Of course not!" you might say. "You can already play an evil stepmother! Just create a female PC of evil alignment and give yourself a stepdaughter as part of your backstory! You don't need special mechanics for that!"

To which I say, "The hell I don't!" I need an evil stepmother class, otherwise I'm not really playing an evil stepmother. I need evil stepmother class abilities! An evil stepmother spell list! Evil stepmother subclasses! I want the ability to grant disadvantage to stepdaughters! The ability to dominate husbands for so many rounds! And I won't rest until Mike Mearls and Jeremy Crawford give it to me in an official product!

(Imagine the above multiplied by 1,000 and spread out over 5 years, and you have the warlord situation.)

 

[PsyzhranV2]

But what if you want to play an evil stepmother? Is it fair to say that you are literally prevented from doing so because there's no evil stepmother class?

"Of course not!" you might say. "You can already play an evil stepmother! Just create a female PC of evil alignment and give yourself a stepdaughter as part of your backstory! You don't need special mechanics for that!"

To which I say, "The hell I don't!" I need an evil stepmother class, otherwise I'm not really playing an evil stepmother. I need evil stepmother class abilities! An evil stepmother spell list! Evil stepmother subclasses! I want the ability to grant disadvantage to stepdaughters! The ability to dominate husbands for so many rounds! And I won't rest until Mike Mearls and Jeremy Crawford give it to me in an official product!

(Imagine the above multiplied by 1,000 and spread out over 5 years, and you have the warlord situation.)

Golly gee whiz, this is the worst case of reductio ad absurdum I have ever seen. Can we shut up this clown?

Keep the language family friendly, please.

 

[Undrave]

But what if you want to play an evil stepmother? Is it fair to say that you are literally prevented from doing so because there's no evil stepmother class?

"Of course not!" you might say. "You can already play an evil stepmother! Just create a female PC of evil alignment and give yourself a stepdaughter as part of your backstory! You don't need special mechanics for that!"

To which I say, "The hell I don't!" I need an evil stepmother class, otherwise I'm not really playing an evil stepmother. I need evil stepmother class abilities! An evil stepmother spell list! Evil stepmother subclasses! I want the ability to grant disadvantage to stepdaughters! The ability to dominate husbands for so many rounds! And I won't rest until Mike Mearls and Jeremy Crawford give it to me in an official product!

(Imagine the above multiplied by 1,000 and spread out over 5 years, and you have the warlord situation.)

Aaaah...

I'd say it's a pretty terrible concept that lacks general application, but I have no problem with the idea of a Witch subclass or something. Or a full on Witch class if you can stretch the archetypes and have a Stepmother subclass (pet class?)

I like crunch and I feel like 5e doesn't have enough player content so go ahead and ask for it!

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Golly gee whiz, this is the worst case of reductio ad absurdum I have ever seen. Can we shut up this clown?

You click "ignore" on his profile, then you don't see his posts anymore. You can't report him, he's not doing anything against mod rules.

In fact you're dancing closer to getting reported by repeatedly insulting him.

 

[Tony Vargas]

But what if you want to play an evil stepmother?

Same thing as if you want to play a dragon or a mollusk disguised as a stalactite or a pit with poisoned spikes on the bottom:
You DM.

Also, 'evil' is judgmental and hurtful 'stepmother' sexist & an implied criticism of religious preferences - the preferred term should be "legal guardian with alternate morality."

 

[PsyzhranV2]

You click "ignore" on his profile, then you don't see his posts anymore. You can't report him, he's not doing anything against mod rules.

No, I need to be there to mock them and tear them down every time they go on their ridiculous and insulting anti-Warlord screeds. Because it's getting absolutely ridiculous.

 

[Umbran]

A whinging pedant is a common archetype found in real life.

Mod Note:

You know, if you wanted out of the discussion, you could have just left it. No need to build elaborate constructions designed to get you removed....

Anyone else want to be extremely rude?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Prettymuch sheer will of the fandom since the 80s. The old-school ranger was very hard to make into an adequate archer (DEX was one of the few stats it didn't have a minimum requirement in), which was Robin's big thing (especially as he had been perceived in pop-culture from the 30's through the 80s), heck, in 1e, by the time it got followers -random, weird, supernatural followers for the most part - it also had spellcasting.
Yet, it was the woodsy fighter sub-class, so there was just this collective psychic force pressing on TSR like a million voices crying out, and not being silenced by anything but an "unofficial NPC Class" 'Archer' with an Archer-Ranger option in The Dragon.
Talk about zeitgeist.

And a noble-born knight back from the crusades, and a leader of a largish band of insurgents...

Sounds about right. And yeah, I think you could fit all that with either a Captian/Rogue MC build with Knight background, or simply a Captain with the Bandit Leader subclass and Knight Background, if the Captain class and the relevant subclass are built right for it.

It's been done before as an AC (or AC & REF) bonus to adjacent allies, or variations thereupon, and yeah, it worked for as few as two characters.

'Formations' - essentially combat style-like benefits that help everyone in said formation, a shield wall is an obvious example - wouldn't be a bad little option for warlords to facilitate.

I'd love for the class to put group formation abilities on the table. The Captain adopts a Stance, and that changes what sort of benefits their ally gets within x feet of the Captain. When the Captain uses it's low level feature that lets their allies move half their speed, they can use that to get into the formation called out by the Captain's stance, which gives a passive benefit to the whole group, and opens up a thing the Captain can do on their turn that let allies do a cool thing as a reaction, or whatever. Playtest and iterate for elegance and balance.

But what if you want to play an evil stepmother? Is it fair to say that you are literally prevented from doing so because there's no evil stepmother class?

"Of course not!" you might say. "You can already play an evil stepmother! Just create a female PC of evil alignment and give yourself a stepdaughter as part of your backstory! You don't need special mechanics for that!"

To which I say, "The hell I don't!" I need an evil stepmother class, otherwise I'm not really playing an evil stepmother. I need evil stepmother class abilities! An evil stepmother spell list! Evil stepmother subclasses! I want the ability to grant disadvantage to stepdaughters! The ability to dominate husbands for so many rounds! And I won't rest until Mike Mearls and Jeremy Crawford give it to me in an official product!

(Imagine the above multiplied by 1,000 and spread out over 5 years, and you have the warlord situation.)

this is a completely absurd comparison. Warlord isn't even vaguely equivalent to "the bad guy". It's like saying there should be a BBEG class. Comparing that to the Warlord, or what my own game WIP calls the Captain, or what is already hinted at but not fully explored in the Banneret, Battlemaster, and Mastermind, is intentionally dishonest nonsense.