How to build Warlord?

[Erfar]

During 4th edition i would like play warlord class but never did this =( And now i'm playing in 5th edition and wanna play something like "warlord". But doesn't know best way to build him. I'm thinking it must be something from Fighter-Bard-Paladin triangle.

I think character must have heavy armour, high charisma, social skills, Inspiring Leader feat and so on.

From Fighter I may get armour, Rally, Commander's Strike, may have some control with polearm

From Bard I may get some party/solo-buffs and cha-magic.

From Paladin I may get armour, some healing, some buffs but I think less powerful then Fighter or Bard.

So what class or multiclass will be better? I'm interested in 3, 5 and 10 levels. Or may be already exist homebrew class?

p.s. I like Joan from fate series and wanna build character with her portrait.

[Sigreid]

Based on what I've heard about warlord It sounds like your best way of emulating it would be to split BM and Master Mind. BM gives you the ability to give commanding strike to your allies for an extra attack for the rogue, and some crowd control. From master mind you get ranged help and the ability to redirect your enemies attacks to a target of your choosing. No healing, but /eh.

[NecroDancer]

If your DM allows for homebrew use this class

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?386929-The-Warlord-now-in-5e!

[Sigreid]

If your DM allows for homebrew use this class

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?386929-The-Warlord-now-in-5e!

Yeah, different tables have different needs and desires but I'd never let that withing 100 yards of my game.

[NecroDancer]

If you want to go a warlord with no homebrew build a bard 6 fighter (battle master 3) paladin 11. There's probably a better build out there but this is still ok

[Citan]

During 4th edition i would like play warlord class but never did this =( And now i'm playing in 5th edition and wanna play something like "warlord". But doesn't know best way to build him. I'm thinking it must be something from Fighter-Bard-Paladin triangle.

I think character must have heavy armour, high charisma, social skills, Inspiring Leader feat and so on.

From Fighter I may get armour, Rally, Commander's Strike, may have some control with polearm

From Bard I may get some party/solo-buffs and cha-magic.

From Paladin I may get armour, some healing, some buffs but I think less powerful then Fighter or Bard.

So what class or multiclass will be better? I'm interested in 3, 5 and 10 levels. Or may be already exist homebrew class?

p.s. I like Joan from fate series and wanna build character with her portrait.
I think you narrowed it very nicely, although the Mastermind Rogue suggested above works well too.
Another option mechanically (but maybe not thematically) would be Open Hand Monk.

Anyways, where my opinion differ from yours is on the "mandatory heavy" thing. In all armies there have been different generals, there were even some archer ones (although not often admittedly). So it really depends on your builds.


.I had made such a build weighing heavily on soft control (shove/push) which mixed Battlemaster, Monk and optionnally Life Cleric / Druid. Here is the link if you want the details. It boils down to...

Battlemaster Figher 3: Trip Attack, Commander's Strike, whatever you want for the third (Precision?).
Spelless (if allowed) Hunter Ranger 3: additional Fighting Style, more manoeuvers and dice, Horde Breaker.
(optional) Life (better heal) or War (Divine Favor) Cleric 1-2: Bless, Shield of Faith, Sanctuary, Guiding Bolt, Healing Word, plus Sacred Flame as a backup damage and Guidance which is always good.
(optional) Druid 1-2: Wild Shape does not usually suit a leader, but is a nice bonus. True value here is cantrips (Shillelagh to build on Wis, Thorn Whip for more control, Produce Flame for double use) and spells ("Life" Goodberry, Jump and Longstrider, Thunderwave). With that said, Land Druid gives more spell slots for the day, Moon Druid gives a few more useful forms for scouting.
Open Hand Monk 11+: magic Extra Attack, free push/prone effect on FoB, great mobility, decent enough defenses.

Basically, it's a player building on Wisdom, enabling better attacks by proning / stunning enemies (Trip Attack / Flurry of Blow effects / Thorn Whip), while keeping others alives and well with Bless and Healing Words.
It's your best bet if you want a Wisdom based character. A bit difficult to build but it ends well, with sustainable 4 attacks per turn (Extra Attack + Horde Breaker + Martial Arts bonus action). Mobile is a given on this.

You could view this as a general born from people, a wise man taking the head of troops to correct some wrongdoing.




For a Charisma based character, I would suggest you to mix...
Crow
n Paladin 3+ or 7+: "Mass Compelled Duel" Channel Divinity, Command and Compelled Duel, Divine Favor, Shield of Faith, Bless, take damage of ally as a reaction. The break point depends on your choice of archetype for Fighter).
Fighter: either Battlemaster 3 (as in WIS build) or Purple Dragon Knight 11: PDK enforces the "leader" part with Expertise in persuasion and giving extra attack to ally on Action Surge. You also get a 3rd Extra Attack.
Lore Bard 6+ (for Cutting Words and Magic Secrets: Crusader's Mantle, Aura of Vitality, Counterspell or Slow) or Valor Bard 3+ (for Combat Inspiration), along with Dissonant Whispers, Healing Word, Heroism, Blindness or Heat Metal.

You will obviously build CHA first here, you can go either STR or DEX as you wish. Inspiring Leader is the obvious feat here.
My advice would be the following: Crown 3 / PDK 11 / Lore 6: you get pretty decent sustained attack (4 attacks per turn with possible Divine Favor on top) and a load of resources to help your allies: above mentioned spells, short-rest Bardic Inspiration, and up to 3rd level spells from Bard. STR build would work great here.

See it as the most "classic" general of all, having spent his life building a military career.

Although honestly, the Crown 7 / PDK 3 / Lore 10 could work great too: you get "hit in place of ally" as a reaction, 2nd levels spells from Paladin and another bunch of great spells from Bard (including Magic Secrets's Circle of Power). Go DEX build (with min to decent STR), take Shield Master combined with Expertise in Athletics: you got great defense to compensate the fact you take heat for allies, while still being decently good at shoving when needed. Obviously you will mainly use the "duel" spells and abilities though. And because you are Dex, you can trade some Bard level if you'd prefer to pick up Swashbuckler or Mastermind Rogue 3. Which brings us to...



This is a bit different, because we actually want to have a good Intelligence score, so it makes it quite MAD... Because we probably also still want some abilities that are exclusive to Paladin (although we could also make do without).
So the basic is...
MasterMind Rogue 3+ for the bonus Help Action.
Abjurer Wizard 5-6+ (for self ward and ability to use ward for ally, but also bunch of great spells including rituals to protect your soldiers and debuffs for your enemies).
Battlemaster 6-7+ (for the Manoeuvers and Know your Enemy).
(optional) Crown Paladin 3 (see above, very MAD because of STR)
(optional) Land Druid 3 or Trickery Cleric 3 (to get Pass Without Trace for your group).
(optional) Bear (more tanky) or Wolf (advantage for allies) Bear 3.
My suggestion for build would be probably Abjurer 6 / Battlemaster 11 / Mastermind 3: You get as always good sustained damage, a great chassis in terms of HP / Defense, and many spells to use.

I think this could be great for a leader of bandits of sorts, or some Robin Hood group... ;)


So here it is for a quick overview of what several classes have to offer, through a few oriented builds.
Hope that helps (plz note that my suggestions aim at concept first, optimization later, although those builds should end fairly strong if you manage to reach that far).
Of course, you could also cherry pick abilities to make improbable concept (such as Mastermind 3 / Crown Paladin 3 / Lore Bard 6 / Battlemaster 8 XD).

[CaptainSarathai]

BM Fighter, and SCAG OoCrown Paladin. Another thing I sometimes like to ask my DM (or offer as a DM) is to effectively "Multi-class" into your own class. So, something like
Fighter (BatMaster) 6
Fighter (Purple Dragon Knight) 6

Failing that, Purple Dragon Knight with the Martial Adept feat would also work pretty well. Depends on what you want your Warlord to do.

[Erfar]

Ty all guys.
@Sigreid, @Citan, I'm miss mastermind option, it is intresting too =)

@NecroDancer, Ty. I'm discuss this to DM

@Citan, One trouble with multiclassing is game not begining on 20 lvl =(

@CaptainSarathai, intresting option never think about it

[Citan]

Ty all guys.
@Sigreid, @Citan, I'm miss mastermind option, it is intresting too =)

@NecroDancer, Ty. I'm discuss this to DM

@Citan, One trouble with multiclassing is game not begining on 20 lvl =(

@CaptainSarathai, intresting option never think about it
I laughed on that one. XD
Well yes, you're right, some of the builds I suggested are more complex than others.
But the important thing is to determine what your "chassis" will be then consider everything else as icing on the cake. ;)

To take the probably simplest example, Crown 7 / Battlemaster 3 / Lore Bard 6, you obviously start as Paladin until level 6 or 7. Then you will probably take the Battlemaster levels because it's a short rest resource and more accessible, so you enhance your martials. Then you take Bard levels to get more healing and debuffs.
But you are still a Paladin at core, because the brunt of your turns is still smacking things away in melee range while keeping tabs on one or several enemies.

The big difference is, you chose to get some short-rest effects instead of permanent +1d8, the same way that you choose to get more spell slots and slightly different spells from your usual style (Bard) at the expense of some powerful spells (Banishing Smite, Circle of Power). But you will still be using Compelled Duel, Bless, Divine Smite and other things as any other Crown Paladin.

The fact that you "change class" as you level is the thing that gives the impression that you are progressing very slowly, in a very fragmented way. As soon as you rather consider classes as groups of martial and magical skills, in which you just cherrypick to tailor and enhance your Paladin differently from the suggested guidelines, should feel more natural. ;)

[WickerNipple]

Unearthed Arcana just added a very Warlord power to the Bard option.

http://media.wizards.com/2016/dnd/downloads/UA_Bard.pdf

You'd want to refluff it, but "everybody move to me out of turn and gain temp hp" is as Warlord as it gets.

[Aett_Thorn]

A little less magically oriented, but I would think that a combo of the following would work:

Fighter: Either BM or Purple Dragon
Paladin: Devotion
Barbarian: the new UA Ancients allows you to give your resistance to an ally

[Jjj111]

I'm surprised no one has just mentioned a variant human dragon knight. By 4th level you can have both inspiring leader and the feat that gives some superiority dice and battle maneuvers.