The main difficulty here is that dictating bigger waves of enemy movement would be overpowered for an at-will, and achieving that pseudo-magical action dictation is something that should probably stay out of non-magical characters by default. Do warlords necessarily need to change the entire battlefield more so than an at-will ability would be capable of? Do they rely on mind control? I don't believe so. Though this is one of the points where we see some overlap with a bard: there'd be NO issue having a charm or an enchantment that forced an enemy to move like that.
One alternative, that might be a bit sticky, is kind of comparable to how 4e's marking mechanism is an improvement over the 3e knight's challenge: rather than dictate an action, it introduces a choice. Rather than pulling, sliding, or pushing enemies, I could see some Expertise Dice abilities offering that sort of choice, but we'd still have to be careful not to get into magical territory. It still has to be clear what the choice offers: a maneuver that, if the enemy doesn't move, punishes them with some damage or some penalty, might work pretty OK. Maybe a "Paint the Target" ability that lets a warlord spend ED's on allies' attacks as long as the target remains in the same place. Abilities like this are feasible, they just require more thought and caution than "pull 5 squares" so that you can keep things believable.
A failure of design to incorporate an aspect does not mean such limitations actually exist. It just means the design is limited. Here, I made you a wonderful, metagame-free version of some Warlord Abilities. These would work perfectly fine in 3E.
Lamb to the Slaughter
A hostile creature who has a clear path to the Warlord and can see them (or sense them if the creature relies on non-sight senses) and is no farther from the Warlord than its maximum movement speed makes a Will (Wisdom in Next) save (DC 10+Warlord Level+Charisma Modifier).
If the creature fails the save it immediately moves adjacent to the Warlord (this movement does not provoke opportunity attacks). Up to three allies may make a charge attack immediately.
Taking these action doesn’t affect the subject’s normal place in the initiative order. The charge attack is a single attack and follows the standard rules for attacking. This maneuver does not allow the subjectto make more than one additional attack in a round. If any ally has already made an additional attack, due a prior maneuver, the haste spell, or any other spell or ability, this charge action may not be used.
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Reorient the Axis
Each ally who can hear the warlord and is not grappled, entangled, or otherwise immobilized may immediately move at a speed dependent on the Warlord's intelligence modifier as a free action. Their speed is considered to be equal to 5' times the Warlord's intelligence modifier (so a Warlord with an intelligence of 15 would grant a move of 10'). This movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
Taking these action doesn’t affect the subject’s normal place in the initiative order. If a maneuver or spell has already allowed the subject to move as a free action this turn they may not make this move action.
Does this convince you that movement effects may be created without using "metagame mechanics" (whatever that inane phrase means today) ?
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