Water, water everywhere, Nor any drop to drink

[Jester David]

I threw up a few ideas in another thread.

1 Attack:
*Help action.
*An ally who can see and hear you gains THP equal to your Cha modifier + your proficiency bonus.
*An ally can use his reaction to move upto 5*Int or their speed (which ever is lower).
*Choose an ability such as wisdom. An ally gains +Int on saving throw using that ability until the start of it's next turn.
*An ally gains +Int to their AC against the next attack, or until the start of your next turn.
*An ally can use their reaction to make a stealth check.

2 Attacks:
*One ally who can see and hear you gain THP equal to your Cha modifier + your proficiency bonus.
*Ally can use their reaction to make an attack.
*All allies can use a reaction to move upto 5*Int or their speed (which ever is lower).
*Each time an enemy takes damage before the end of the next turn, increase the damage by Int.
*An ally is immune to fear until the start of your next turn.
*1 ally gains +Int on saving throw until the start of it's next turn.

3 Attacks
*
*An ally gains +Int to their AC until the start of your next turn.
*Help action to every creature in range.
*All allies can use their reaction to make a stealth check.
*An ally can use a reaction to move upto 5*Int or their speed (which ever is lower), and then make an attack.
*All allies gains +Int on saving throw until the start of it's next turn.

4 Attacks
*Upto Int modifier allies can make an attack as a reaction.
*All allies who can see and hear you gain THP equal to your Cha modifier + your proficiency bonus.
*An allies are immune to fear until the start of your next turn.

That's the big warlord list of powers, but much of it is just make attacks, gain temp hp, granting advantage, or moving an ally. (Which the battle master already does to a degree.)

Is that all support is?

 

[mellored]

These are a lot of mechanics, but what is the Warlord actually doing to grant these bonuses?

It was just a brainstorm. But most are pretty obvious.

Also, is there currently a caster that can do something like this every turn?

With concentration, yes.

That is to say, can a caster take an action every turn that supports the other characters while doing no damage himself?

No, unless you count the help action.

Why would i want a class that does the same thing?

 

[Lord Twig]

It was just a brainstorm. But most are pretty obvious.

With concentration, yes.

No, unless you count the help action.

Why would i want a class that does the same thing?

The point is you are asking for a pure support class when no such class currently exists in the game.

 

[pemerton]

were you aware there is a LotR TTRPG (there have been several over the years, actually)? Maybe you can find an official write-up of Aragorn, somewhere in one of those games, and point to the mechanical benefits his leadership grants to his allies?

I have a shelf of MERP books, from my Rolemaster days. MERP/RM don't use inspiration or emotion mechanics, which is just one of several ways in which that system is not a very good fit for LotR.

I never had the Decipher game, but it was generally poorly reviewed.

The One Ring uses separate tracks for exhaustion, injury and hope, and so is different from D&D in that respect. Hope can be spent as a buff, and can be recovered if one's Fellowship Focus is alive and well at the end of the session. That is a mechanic that models inspiration, in circumstances where a "lesser" character chooses a "greater" one (such as Aragorn) as his/her Fellowship Focus.

Burning Wheel is not an official LotR game, but is very influenced by LotR in general tone (and especially in its elves, dwarves and orcs). It is not a hit point system at all, but has separate mechanics for Wounds/Injuries and for Steel. A character who fails a Steel test (eg because in pain, or confronted by dark magic, or ambushed, or whatever) loses actions to Hesitation. Another character can use the Command skill to reduce that Hesitation.

In D&D, there are no distinct mechanics for Hope or Steel. There is only generic buffing and hit point recovery. That's why, to capture the inspirational leader archetype in D&D, those are the relevant mechanical foci.

 

[mellored]

Is that all support is?

I'd probably add some skill features as well.
But there's another thread focused on the possible mechanics.

But 5e comes down to actions, bonuses/penalties to die rolls, HP, movement, and skills.
So any (all?) of those things, but for other people instead of yourself.

 

[mellored]

The point is you are asking for a pure support class when no such class currently exists in the game.

Ok... not seeing an issue.
Different is good.

Also, that's based on a fighter. They can still swing weapons to do damage themselves.

 

[Lord Twig]

That's why, to capture the inspirational leader archetype in D&D, those are the relevant mechanical foci.

And this sneaks in every time. In order to be an inspirational leader you require all other characters to be inspired by your character and they must recognize him as a leader.*

Honestly this might be a case where the Warlord would just require buy-in from the rest of the group in a manner similar to how the old-school Lawful Good Paladins had to be approved by the rest of the group so they didn't end up killing each other. If the rest of the group agrees to let your character be the leader, there is no problem.

*And what if there are two "inspirational leaders" in the group? How does that work? You never see a modern military group with two leaders. And for good reason.

 

[ChrisCarlson]

[MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION]:

So I take it Aragon has no "warlord" qualities or mechanical features, to represent the passages you quoted, in any of the various LotR systems (or its clones)?

Interesting. I guess they didn't feel there was a big enough need to give his such crunch...

 

[Lord Twig]

Ok... not seeing an issue.
Different is good.

Also, that's based on a fighter. They can still swing weapons to do damage themselves.

Again, missing the point.

It appears the Devs have decided that there would be no pure support classes in 5e. All classes are intended to contribute directly in addition to any support they may perform. If this is true then there is no way to provide a Warlord that you will accept with the current design philosophy.

 

[ChrisCarlson]

And this sneaks in every time. In order to be an inspirational leader you require all other characters to be inspired by your character and they must recognize him as a leader.*

Honestly this might be a case where the Warlord would just require buy-in from the rest of the group in a manner similar to how the old-school Lawful Good Paladins had to be approved by the rest of the group so they didn't end up killing each other. If the rest of the group agrees to let your character be the leader, there is no problem.

*And what if there are two "inspirational leaders" in the group? How does that work? You never see a modern military group with two leaders. And for good reason.

I've mentioned before, my buddy's homebrew WWII RPG. In it we all played a band of soldiers. Through character creation choices, each character ended up with a rank. Highest ranking PC was the commander of the team/mission.

There were rules for how the leader "commanded" such that player agency remained. Any character acted as they deemed fit by them player. As the actions played out, the leader was instructing the character to performer that chosen act. We eventually dubbed it, "Schrodinger's Command". What did the boss just tell his men to do? Not sure. Let's open the box and find out...

• Jim (playing Private Griswold): I pick up the fallen gunner's 50-cal and opens fire on the Nazis overhead!
• Eric (playing Lieutenant Neely): "Private, <pointing at gun on ground> take out those kauts up on the ridge!"
• Jim, with the help of the GM, resolves action.

In that order. And it always worked great. Was every action a "command"? Of course not. When it made sense and fit the narrative, the leader was there to fill that role. Never by stripping agency or stepping on another player's enjoyment.