Warlord Player's job is to tell other players what to do??

[Primal]

D00d, you just pointed out elsewhere that the theme for warlord is "military officer". Now you may not like that theme, but it is perfectly valid, and in fact highly evocative when one considers how many military-ish heroes there are in fiction, history, myth and even videogames. Make up your mind. Does it have a theme, or not?

I'm a bit baffled about the whole Warlord class, because the name is actually a bit misguiding. IMHO it would work better as a Prestig... I mean, Paragon Path or Epic Destiny, because to me a warlord means someone who leads and commands a vast army. It feels just silly that it's meant to be a core class.

Does this mean that Warlords train in secret military academies? Or can any farm boy train on his own to become a Warlord -- and recruit his three sheep and old grandfather into his army?

 

[Nytmare]

You know, speaking of traps, since they're part of encounter design now, it's pretty easy actually for players to determine if there is a trap in room with a suspiciously easy combat encounter ("Hey, those Gnolls are only about 6th level monsters and since there was no terrain hazard at all, there must be a 3rd level trap somewhere in this room!").

Cue Gnollish Gninja Paratrooper.

 

[hong]

I'm a bit baffled about the whole Warlord class, because the name is actually a bit misguiding. IMHO it would work better as a Prestig... I mean, Paragon Path or Epic Destiny, because to me a warlord means someone who leads and commands a vast army. It feels just silly that it's meant to be a core class.

Does this mean that Warlords train in secret military academies? Or can any farm boy train on his own to become a Warlord -- and recruit his three sheep and old grandfather into his army?

The answer, padawan, is to be found in Hong's Second Law.

 

[hong]

Cue Gnollish Gninja Paratrooper.

Actually, cue "I have a bad feeling about this...".

 

[Fifth Element]

This is Dungeons and Dragons, not Full Metal Scabbard.

Full Metal Arrowhead is probably a more apt rendering.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I'm a bit baffled about the whole Warlord class, because the name is actually a bit misguiding. IMHO it would work better as a Prestig... I mean, Paragon Path or Epic Destiny, because to me a warlord means someone who leads and commands a vast army. It feels just silly that it's meant to be a core class.

Does this mean that Warlords train in secret military academies? Or can any farm boy train on his own to become a Warlord -- and recruit his three sheep and old grandfather into his army?

Maybe not a farm boy. But maybe an aristocrat? I mean, even Fighters are bit... over-equipped to be normal farm boys with all their weapon & armor proficiencies (plus bonus feat).
Wizards are also hardly farm boys.

I assume that Warlords train in military academies along side fighters. Sometimes, they might come from a less civilized background, and might be the member of a very... "martial" tribe, and have shown a knack (or trained to do so) to lead their tribe members during raids.

Unless you want to tell me that the power level of D&D characters is a little bit or even very much above that of an average farmboy. That's certainly true.

 

[Primal]

The answer, padawan, is to be found in Hong's Second Law.

Which is?

 

[Gundark]

I just assumed there would be some kind of dialogue. Like this:

Warlord Player: "What were you planning on doing this round?"
Other Player: "Was thinking of moving, then attacking that -Insert Monster- over there."
Warlord Player: "Cool, let me give you a bonus with -Insert Ability-"
Other Player: "Great, thanks.. since it will be such a great bonus to hit, maybe I'll use an encounter power instead of an at will one."

Or some such thing..

Am I wrong in thinking this is a good way to do things?

J from Three Haligonians

This is how my group will do it.

 

[BryonD]

I could also write something like "adapt or perish"!, but that would imply that the 4E approach should generally to be considered superior - Which I don't believe, it's a matter of taste
...

So, the battle call should probably be "Adapt to 4E or don't!"

Exactly so.

Many people dropped D&D during 2E (myself among them). We didn't "perish" by any stretch. There were plenty of other viable options around.
And there are vastly more options out there now then there were then.
I'd guess the whole OGL product base out there is enough to keep anyone going for the rest of their life. That is probably bigger than all of non-D&D gaming was back in the 2e days. And the non-D&D segment (which was good then) is also much bigger and better now. (with the assumed exceptions, of course...)

So the options for "don't" are very much alive and well and 4e has no choice but to contend with that.

And (IMO, of course) I think WotC ended up making a game that one fraction of their fan base is going to consider awesome, but many other fractions are not going to find worth choosing over some other available option. I'm not saying they all will think 4e is bad, just that many think something else is better. Being perfect to a smaller group of people isn't as good as being very good to a larger group of people.

 

[hong]

Nah. For most people on this here mailing list, even the ones who are complaining, it'll be "adapt to 4E now, or later!"