I'm also anxious to play a Tactical Warlord, the concept is pretty cool, and close to some of my favorite 3e fighters, and, as with your player, it fits my personality and play style.
But, from reading the class, it looks like the Inspiring Warlord is better, especially in the absence of a Cleric. It's better at healing, and it's defining feature doesn't round down your stat bonus (what warlord is going to start with an 18 INT, wouldn't it've been simpler to just be honest and say Tactical Presence gives your buddies a crappy +1?). Inspiring Presence at least gives a non-trivial bonus, and it's healing aplies on any use of an action point, not just attacks, /and/ with a feat, it can give you an extra coin-toss saving throw, which can get an ally out of a crippling effect that much sooner.
Plus, of course, there's the Dragonborn with it's ideal stat bonuses. The Human's extra at-will is often attractive, but maybe not so much for the Warlord. Viper's strike hardly does anything - it allows you and an ally, together, to manage a pale immitation of a defender's 'mark' - Commander's Strike gives up your standard action to give an ally a melee basic attack (OK for a STR-based ally, but that's about it). Wolf Pack Tactics is nice, and Furious Smash is weak on damage but targets FORT.
Those at-will powers also stack up subtly against the tactical warlord. Furious Smash is the only martial at-will that goes against FORT - even though it does poor damage, it can kill fort-vulnerable minions (like Goblins & Kobolds) quite dependably, and it gives a hit /and/ damage bonus, unlike at-will Comander's Strike, which is damage-only, or encounter Warlord's Favor, which is attack only. Similarly, the Warlords only 1st level STR vs REF attack, Hammer & Anvil, grants a CHA benefit, not INT.
So, the starting out Inspiring Warlord has a class feature that does something perceptible, and gets the added flexibility of one or two non-AC attacks.
At least stat polarity isn't a problem. The Warlord needs STR (FORT), INT (REF) and CHA (WILL), he can cover his defenses without taking a 'useless' stat, and can take full advantage of his features and powers without doubling up on a stat pair.
Either Warlord likely has an AC problem though. Conceptually they may feel like fighters, but they're not that durrable. A Tactical Warlord might have enough INT to make Hide as attractive as Chain, giving him a little extra mobility, while an Inspiring one almost certainly goes for Chain (and probably has a poor REF save). Neither benefits much from DEX or, beyond the usual, CON, making armor & shield proficiencies & specilizations burdensome to qualify for.
While Dragonborn rocks for an Inspiring Warlord on stat bonuses alone, nothing really stands out for the Tactical Warlord. Tieflings are anti-social and distrusted, and while the idea of a 'best of both' build is intriguing, it wouldn't seem to pay off as much as just having a really high primary. Eladrin DEX bonuses are superfluous. No other race hits either of the Tactical Warlord's desireable stats. Back to the Inspiring build, I suppose a Half-Elf could use it's dilitante feature to snag Rightious Brand (see below) as an encounter power,
and it's CON bonus to qualify for some better armor. The Warlord has only basic need of CON, less for DEX and none at all for WIS, so the Dwarf has little to offer but durrability and the Elf is not at all suited to the class.
Blackbrrd said:
Righteous brand IS silly. I think it is supposed to be str bonus to damage, or half strength bonus to attack. It gets more and more silly the higher up in level you get.
Righteous brand is the only power I've noticed so far that gives your /primary/ stat as an attack bonus to an ally. All the warlord powers, it's a secondary stat, CHA or INT. And, it's at-will. It's arguably superior to both the Warlord's Favor (encounter) and Furious Smash (at will), which are just different enough to make it unclear whether Righteous Brand is strictly superior to them.
My thought would be that Rightious Brand should be giving a CHA bonus, or some other secondary stat apropriate to the War Cleric.
