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| #1FrogReaverFeb 21, 2015 15:21:06 | Alot of people including myself really liked the 4e warlord class. So I wanted to see just how closely the 4e warlord concept could be translated into 5e.
Some insight from wizards of the coast regarding what the warlord was suppossed to encapsulate: "....(You might also wonder why we changed the name from marshal to warlord. The answer is that we wanted to broaden the concept from a medieval military commander to someone who might be a barbaric warchief, an elven marchwarden, or a noble-born knight-commander.)" http://archive.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4ex/20080421a
Keep in mind many features from 4e do not map over to 5e very well if at all. Many features in 4e that were extremely useful may only be marginally useful in 5e. So with this in mind let's first try to capture the warlords essence.
1. Warlords were interesting 4e characters because they were a martial class with the ability to heal. 5e has made martial healing less possible. However, there are good ways a martial character can generate temp hp. (There are also some magical healing options for those that don't mind to go that route).
2. Warlords in 4e were primarily about helping other characters fight better. Many of us were fond of the lazy warlord concept but the class itself was more about making it's own attacks that had side effects of helping an ally. (Movement, extra attack rolls, extra defense, extra damage, extra off turn attacks.....)
So our goals should be to emulate that essence as closely as possible. Summed up this means:
1. Healing or Temp HP generation. 2. Help give allies bonuses to attack rolls or damage rolls or defense or even extra attacks.
***I'd say that most people remember the attack granting powers of the warlord because those were what were used the most because in the 4e system anything that granted an off turn attack was very strong due to the single attack per turn limitation. So most people tended to use the warlords to generate off turn attacks. But if you actually go look at the 4e warlord class powers you will see plenty that grant attack rolls and defense bonuses and things like that. I truly believe that if 4e had a class and combat system featuring multiple attacks like 5e then people would probably use more attack roll and defense boosting powers than attack granting powers like they did in 4e.
It's apparent no single class matches up very well with these goals except maybe bard or cleric or paladin all of which are a little more magical and divine than we are expecting our general purpose warlord to be. So how should we create such a warlord? My answer is multiclassing with a dash of reflavoring. This will be explored in the next post. |
| #2FrogReaverFeb 21, 2015 15:31:10 | Warlord -
Level 1 (Take Fighter) Level 2 Take Fighter) Level 3 (Take Fighter and pick battle master)
Subclasses begin - Barbarian Warcheif Level 4 (Take Barbarian) Level 5 (Take barbarian) Level 6 (Take Barbarian and pick Animal Totem and Wolf ability) Level 7 (Take Barbarian) Level 8 (Take Barbarian for extra attack) Level 9 (Take Fighter for extra feat) Level 10-20 (Take Barbarian)
Military Commander Level 4 Take Barbarian Level 5 Take Barbarian Level 6 Take Barbarian (Animal Totem and Wolf ability) Level 7 Take Fighter Level 8 Take Fighter Level 9 Take Barbarian for extra feat Level 10-20 take fighter
Arcane Leader Level 4 Take Bard Level 5 Take Bard Level 6 Take Bard (Take Valor) Level 7 Take Bard Level 8 Take Bard Level 9 Take Bard for extra attack Level 10 Take Fighter for feat Level 11-20 Take Bard
Divine Captain Level 4-9 Take Paladin till extra attack and +cha bonus to defenses Level 9 Take Fighter for feat Level 10-20 Take Paladin
I think this is a pretty decent template for a 5e warlord class that is playable by the PHB. |
| #3strider13xFeb 22, 2015 5:05:20 | It depends some on Background. I would be more inclined it start as a Bard then move to Fighter. That would give the "Tactics" powers up front, give CHA saves rather than STR, and you gain full weapon and shield selection later. It would show you as a "student of battles" that learned about war before you ever fought in one. Any Bard spells picked would be buffs or heals, no fire or color spray mystical stuff so I can describe it as me shouting orders rather than casting spells. |
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| #5Mommy_was_an_OrcFeb 22, 2015 9:30:58 | I think the basic issue with the template is that each build puts off Extra Attack so long. I'd go the following route: |
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| #8Mommy_was_an_OrcFeb 22, 2015 13:12:57 |
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| (Reply to #8)FrogReaver | 1st of all. If extra attack was soo important then you wouldn't wait till level 6 for it when you could have it at level 5. See the flaw in your logic?
Now with that said there must be enough abilities to make up for an extra attack or a 3rd level spell at some point. What would you consider good enough to make up for such a thing. I gave 2 examples of things I felt were good enough to make up for it. What do you think would make up for getting it a few levels later?
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| (Reply to #9)SpinG22 | He said either 2 attacks or 3rd level spells. Valor bard has 3rd level spells at 5 then extra attack at 6. As awesome as other abilities are, it's hard to match the power of either of those and it will show in your contribution.
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| (Reply to #10)FrogReaver | The suggestion I was comparing was the one where someone suggested to take 1 bard level then 5 or 6 fighter levels.
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