Warlords Heal?

[Mortellan]

This Warlord class seems as stretched thin on what his role is, as the class it replaced, the bard. :-/

 

[WayneLigon]

I must have missed the news. Where does it say warlords heal?

It's a line in Rich Baker's blog: He’s a competent healer, like any leader, but I’ve chosen mostly offensive powers because our group happens to have a healing-freak cleric in it (the player actually prefers to spend his action on a heal than swing at a bad guy).

 

[WayneLigon]

Warcoach

WarBardWarWar War

 

[Doug McCrae]

I think a Sacred Cow that could go away is the term "Hit Points."

They should be called "Awesome Points". As in "I am twice as awesome as you are" or "How can I ignore a hail of arrows? Because I. AM. AWESOME!!!"

How about Bulwark for Avoidance of Death?

 

[Beregar]

SWSE has "second wind," an ability that lets you pull yourself together and shake off some of your injuries. It restores hit points, and relies on the explanation that hit points aren't really lethal damage per se, but are rather a combination of minor injuries, exhaustion, luck, and other ablative indicators of how well you're doing. If all the warlord's abilities function like second wind, I don't see why they'd be stretching the limits of in-game logic.

I'm a bit old fashioned (?) and like to think hp as something that drops when something actually damages you. After all, if it's basically your morale, will to fight, luck etc then why don't spells like bane, crushing despair, ray of exhaustion and fear do hit points damage? They are reducing your will to fight and are an opposite to inspirational boosts.

Furthermore, shouldn't spells like bless, good hope and prayer give you extra hp to reflect inspiring presence of divine? They are giving you "morale bonus" after all. Shouldn't they be able to heal as well as "cure light wounds" spell can?

That being mentioned. Why is cure light wounds able to cure all hp damage if some of the damage is supposed to be representing bad luck, bad morale and exhaustion with real physical damage coming into play only when you are really low on hp? If it's the inspirational boost coming from healing, shouldn't spells like restoration also heal?

It might very well supposed to represent all what you said above and maybe I'm thinking things too far, but in my head mechanics and naming doesn't seem to support hp as mere "abstract" for damage, mental and physical exhaustion, morale etc.

 

[Gargoyle]

Have you ever watched The Princess Bride? There's a scene in it where Inigo Montoya has been stabbed repeatedly by the Six-Fingered Man. He's in pain, bleeding, on the way to death. Then, her remembers his mission, and begins to repeat, "Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." He rises up, an returns to the duel.

With each repetition, Inigo gains strength and speed. He's just as physically wounded, but he's up and fighting again.

In this case, Inigo inspired himself, but the same idea operates about as well if someone else reminds you of why you are there, what you're doing, and what it is you've got that's worth living for...

Which thematically works fine at the climax of a movie. Will it work during every encounter in a D&D game?

I am concerned it taxes the DM's ability to suspend disbelief without it being magical.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

In this case, Inigo inspired himself, but the same idea operates about as well if someone else reminds you of why you are there, what you're doing, and what it is you've got that's worth living for...

In fact, if you just yell, "Hey you, what you got here that's worth livin' for?" you can raise the dead.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I'm a bit old fashioned (?) and like to think hp as something that drops when something actually damages you. After all, if it's basically your morale, will to fight, luck etc then why don't spells like bane, crushing despair, ray of exhaustion and fear do hit points damage? They are reducing your will to fight and are an opposite to inspirational boosts.

Furthermore, shouldn't spells like bless, good hope and prayer give you extra hp to reflect inspiring presence of divine? They are giving you "morale bonus" after all. Shouldn't they be able to heal as well as "cure light wounds" spell can?

I actually like this idea. It does make sense in this context.

That being mentioned. Why is cure light wounds able to cure all hp damage if some of the damage is supposed to be representing bad luck, bad morale and exhaustion with real physical damage coming into play only when you are really low on hp? If it's the inspirational boost coming from healing, shouldn't spells like restoration also heal?

Because the Cure spells use Positive Energy, which have the added effects beyond the physical mending of wounds. Restoration does not use Positive Energy, so it doesn't provide the benefit of healing the non-physical damage. Admittedly, in 3.5 Restoration removes fatigue and exhaustion, but perhaps in 4e, if they are really going along this path, there will no longer be a fatigued and exhausted condition for Restoration to remove.

 

[mhensley]

Rallying people to fight through their wounds. Not that unrealistic. Though its tempts me to call it "coach". Or better yet:

Warcoach

Then I give you the iconic Warlord for 4e-

 

[TerraDave]

lol (really).

I think all questions have been answered.