D&D 3E/3.5 Warlord built more like 3e bard or 4e skald

[RangerWickett]

My preferred Warlord design for 5e would be to give him a variety of Command Presences, which let him direct the party in one tactic at a time. It would work sort of like bardic song, affecting everyone who can hear (who has trained with the warlord). You could switch without having to spend an action.

Bear in mind, I'm imagining the warlord is a bit more advanced of a class than the core four. It's for folks who want a bit more tactical combat.

The most basic command presences would be something like:

Offensive Coordination You get +1 to attack and damage rolls against any creature that two members of your party can see.

Defensive Coordination You get +1 to AC and saves against attacks from creatures that two members of your party can see.

Mobility Coordination When an enemy makes an opportunity attack against you, if another member of the party can see the target, you don't grant advantage on the opportunity attack.

More complicated options might require you to spend your action examining the scene, which grants you Tactical Advantage. Then you can expend your tactical advantage to use a more powerful tactic, something like:

Coordinated Charge One party member can move his speed. Then another two party members can move up to twice their speed and make an attack. Creatures adjacent to the the first party member cannot make opportunity attacks during this tactic.

Feather Me Yon Oaf (why was this never made into a 4e power?) Two party members make ranged attacks against a single target you and they can all see. The allies can switch weapons to make their attack, then switch back to their original weapon if they desire.

I'm not sure whether I'd prefer generic names (Coordinated Charge) or flavorful ones (White Raven Advance).

What do you think?

 

[RangerWickett]

One alternative might be:

The warlord accumulates Expertise Dice each round he makes an attack or is within 30 feet of an enemy, which represents him figuring out the flow of combat. He can spend the dice to deploy tactics like "You run over there" or "Hit him now!" or "Duck!"


I think I prefer the former version, though.

 

[Plaguescarred]

I'd prefer if the Next Warlord is more like the 4E Skald with an Aura and some ability working around it.

 

[FireLance]

Feather Me Yon Oaf (why was this never made into a 4e power?)

My guess is: the reaction to Golden Wyvern Adept and Dragon's Tail Cut (probably renamed spinning sweep). Direct the strike in Martial Power 2 is probably the renamed Feather Me Yon Oaf (ally makes a basic attack).

 

[Klaus]

One alternative might be:

The warlord accumulates Expertise Dice each round he makes an attack or is within 30 feet of an enemy, which represents him figuring out the flow of combat. He can spend the dice to deploy tactics like "You run over there" or "Hit him now!" or "Duck!"


I think I prefer the former version, though.

I like this option. You give the Warlord the Expertise Dice that's becoming the hallmark of the "martial" classes, and you can give the Warlord the ability to use ED to increase an ally's damage (when the ally hits with an attack) or to spend the ED to direct attacks, provide morale boosts or grant mobility during his own turn.

 

[tuxgeo]

I hope the new Warlord class can do things other than through round-by-round expertise dice mechanics.

I'm thinking of Heinlein's Glory Road, where Corporal E.C. "Oscar" Gordon kept being busted in rank, then being quickly promoted back up to Corporal because they needed his abilities: the patrols he led out always came back, in part because he had what he called a "bump of direction" -- he lacked the ability to get lost, and the guys he led out knew that, so they accepted his leadership all the more for it. (Still, that could easily make him a Ranger instead of a Warlord.)

How in the name of heck do you model that by using round-by-round expertise dice? I don't see a way. To me, it's more of an overland travel type of thing, and an avoidance of hazards and ambushes type of thing; but whatever it is, it's more ongoing and steady than a fluctuating (let the dice decide), turn-by-turn decision.

 

[Ultimatecalibur]

I hope the new Warlord class can do things other than through round-by-round expertise dice mechanics.

I'm thinking of Heinlein's Glory Road, where Corporal E.C. "Oscar" Gordon kept being busted in rank, then being quickly promoted back up to Corporal because they needed his abilities: the patrols he led out always came back, in part because he had what he called a "bump of direction" -- he lacked the ability to get lost, and the guys he led out knew that, so they accepted his leadership all the more for it. (Still, that could easily make him a Ranger instead of a Warlord.)

How in the name of heck do you model that by using round-by-round expertise dice? I don't see a way. To me, it's more of an overland travel type of thing, and an avoidance of hazards and ambushes type of thing; but whatever it is, it's more ongoing and steady than a fluctuating (let the dice decide), turn-by-turn decision.

That sounds more like a sense of direction rather than any true leadership ability.

 

[GreyICE]

Hmmm, building up some sort of Expertise Pool (it seems wrong to call them dice if they're being spent on something) as combat goes on, maybe boosted if specific events happen, and then allowing them to be used on maneuvers seems fun.It also seems like something where you could really play up the tactical aspects of the Warlord by making some of the maneuvers conditional WITHOUT wrecking them. Like:

"This ability costs 6 Expertise, or 3 Expertise if the Warlord is flanking the target"
"This ability costs 5 Expertise or 3 Expertise if the Warlord successfully attacked the target this turn."

That's something that 4E never really managed to capture exceptionally well, that feeling of exploiting a weakness (it mostly came when you saw an opening to change combat and actually, well, exploited a weakness) - and having varying Expertise costs allows the abilities to feel like "exploiting an opening" while still letting them come out if they're really needed.

Credit to you, this is the first suggestion for a Warlord in Next I've seen that I think is actual good design. A mix of auras and maneuvers does allow you to create a Warlord that operates in the more "theater of the mind" type of abilities that they're working on (without being either boring or ridiculous).

 

[Rune]

I, too, would like to see such a warlord.

Just one thing, though:

Mobility Coordination When an enemy makes an opportunity attack against you, if another member of the party can see the target, you don't grant advantage on the opportunity attack.

I believe that opportunity attacks are no longer (automatically) made with advantage.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Of the two, I prefer the expertise option, though it's still no where near as good as 4e exploits were. The 'aura' option is too much like the 3e Marshall's "grant all allies in a radius your choice of a trivial bonus."

The Skald's aura is better, for an aura, it has a basic healing function with a neat twist, and dovetails nicely with a variety of spells and exploits.