Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 7047328" data-attributes="member: 996">The class does not cause controversy.D&D was briefly but brutally afflicted with the edition war, and has been perennially afflicted with a martial|magic double-standard.  The rejection of 4e by a sub-set of fans already well-served by an open-source version of the game, and the entrenched expectation that casters should be held to much looser and more forgiving standards* of balance & realism than non-supernatural alternatives, are the sources of the controversy you're alluding to.The Warlord is a convenient focus for them, since it's a martial class that was very nearly balanced with casters, and was introduced by 4e, challenging one side, I guess you could say the 'establishment' side, of both controversies.Divorced of both issues - for instance, if appearing in a game not technically D&D, and/or in a form that wouldn't in any way challenge the dominance of magic - it would not be caught up in much, if any, controversy. Then you're saying it for the wrong reason, because that is the biggest problem plaguing these discussions, and the reason that they were exiled to a discussion ghetto (much to the delight of the instigators).And, also a reason they barely get into the next issue, let alone reach a consensus regarding it...That is a non-trivial design challenge faced by all classes, particularly the broader their concept and appeal might be.  You see it with the Sorcerer and the Ranger in 5e, and even 5e's slot-casting paradigm isn't entirely acceptable to all long-time fans of the Vanican tradition.  It's also a design and playtesting and feedback issue that WotC needs to address (as it already has, valiantly, with other classes, and varying degrees of success - the Ranger possibly the poorest example).  It's not something that can be expected to be conclusively dealt with in a community discussion (where consensus of any sort is rare, even on issues amenable to objective analysis) - though those can be very fruitful in terms of getting ideas out there.* to put the most charitable spin on it - but there are also clear expectations of absolute caster supremacy out there.</blockquote>

Verification