NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6671316" data-attributes="member: 2067">I've no objection to such a thing existing, merely an objection to the statement that the current situation is one where fighters are ineffective at helping party members. They are quite effective at helping party members. More effective in many situations (ie, a fight) than others. It's fine if we get a fighter that is even better at it, but that's different than saying that the current fighter fails at it. A fighter doesn't call upon divine guidance to help their allies, so the thing that represents calling on divine guidance should not be the same mechanic as giving a morale-boosting speech or some sound tactical advice (a la the Help action). A cleric's plea that the gods help you in your next endeavor could certainly be the Help action (adds a little of that "you don't need to cast a spell to be magical" thing). Bardic inspiration could work the same way if someone wanted it to, though its fiction as it exists is similar to the idea of a morale-boosting speech or word of encouragement (which, I think, is part of why it's not a full action - Help or casting a spell is a more intensive thing than a few words). Depends on your play goals. If you want to play a character who helps allies more than you want to play a character who attacks in a flurry of blows, trading your extra attacks for the Help action is viable - you'll still contribute to success, and 5e's balance isn't so unstable that you'd be losing party effectiveness, and you get to be the character you want to play. If you'd rather pump out damage, that's your choice, too.It's just not true that a fighter can't be an effective support character in play. Or put another way, saying you want a more buffy non-combat fighter build is all well and good, but saying that the current fighter sucks at buffing and can't contribute outside of combat isn't going to pass the BS test. If the question is "why," the answer is pretty straightforward: because when a character drops to 0 hp, they aren't just temporarily overcome, they are suffering from an actual life-threatening wound, and shouting doesn't fix that. To fix that, you'd need some actual miracles. There's ways to get at that without recovering HP (boars in 5e have an ability that lets them fight on after they've reached 0 hp, a "warlord" who didn't heal HP could give a similar trait to a PC), of course. Healing isn't necessary for that vibe, by a long shot. It's one way to accomplish it, though, and works if you're cooler with action-movie-style injury or with treating HP as plot points/luck/morale/etc. and almost never actual injury.</blockquote>

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