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Grod_The_Giant
2020-10-09, 05:08 PM
The Warlord
Sometimes it is not enough to be a conquering warrior, a champion of all that’s right, an experienced sellsword, or an elite foot soldier. Sometimes the circumstances require more than mere competence in a commander of soldiers and situations. Sometimes the circumstances demand a Warlord.

Warlords inspire trust in those they lead. They earn that trust by slogging through harsh landscapes, dangerous battlefields, and haunted catacombs along with those under their command. With a look, they can see where to best deploy their resources or come up with a sneaky ruse to fool their enemies. A Warlord has a tactician’s mind, a cartographer’s overview of the disputed landscape (or dungeon warren), and a way with words that can inspire battle-hardened fighters to give it their all when melee breaks out.

Creating a Warlord
When creating a Warlord, think about where your character learned to lead men. Did they have formal training in a noble's army or a military academy? Did they begin as a foot soldier and rise through the ranks? Maybe they never served in an army at all, and their talents were honed on the street. Just as importantly, what led them to a life of adventure? Do they seek wealth? Glory? Are they in service to a ruler, or do they follow their own dreams?

Quick Build
You can make a Warlord quickly by following these suggestions. First, put your highest ability score in Charisma, followed by Strength and Constitution. Second, choose the Soldier or Noble background. Third, choose the Back to Back, Stand Fast, and Watch Your Back auras.

CLASS FEATURES
As a Warlord, you gain the following class features.

HIT POINTS:
Hit Dice: 1d10 per Warlord level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 10 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d10 (or 6) + your Constitution modifier per Warlord level

PROFICIENCIES:
Armor: All armor, shields
Weapons: Simple weapons, martial weapons.
Tools: None
Saving Throws: Wisdom, Charisma
Skills: Choose two from Athletics, Deception, Insight, Intimidation, Medicine, Persuasion, Performance, and Religion

EQUIPMENT
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:
• (a) a martial weapon and a shield or (b) two martial weapons
• (a) five javelins or (b) any simple melee weapon
• (a) a priest’s pack or (b) an explorer’s pack
• Chain mail



Level
Proficiency Bonus
Features
Aura Die

Auras Known



1st
+2
Aura of Battle

1d4

3



2nd
+2
Motivating Shout

1d4

3



3rd
+2
Command Style

1d6

4



4th
+2
Ability Score Improvement

1d6

4



5th
+3
Inspiring Strike

1d6

5



6th
+3
Style Feature

1d6

5



7th
+3
Cry of Warning

1d6

6



8th
+3
Ability Score Improvement

1d8

6



9th
+4
Extended Aura (40ft)

1d8

7



10th
+4
Style Feature

1d8

7



11th
+4
Aura of War

1d8

8



12th
+4
Ability Score Improvement
1d8

8



13th
+5
Improved Inspiring Strike

1d8

9



14th
+5
Style Feature

1d10

9



15th
+5
Unflinching Leader

1d10

10



16th
+5
Ability Score Improvement
1d10

10



17th
+6
Extended Aura (50ft)

1d10

11



18th
+6
Lightning Reflexes

1d10

11



19th
+6
Ability Score Improvement
1d12

12



20th
+6
Double Aura

1d12

12




Aura of Battle: As a Warlord, you can draw on your raw charisma to project an aura, affecting yourself and all allies within 30ft. Creatures lose the benefits of the aura if they move farther away, but regain them if they return to your range.

Projecting an aura is a bonus action; you may stop projecting it as a free action. An aura must be concentrated on, as with a spell, and lasts for up to 1 minute.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (a minimum of once). You regain any expended uses when you finish a short or long rest.

Aura Die: Most Auras involve your Aura Die. At 1st level, this is 1d4. At 3rd level, it improves to 1d6, at 8th level to 1d8, at 14th level to 1d10, and at 19th level to 1d12.

You may only apply one Aura Die to a given roll, regardless of how many you have the opportunity to benefit from—use only the largest die. Bardic Inspiration dice and the Bless spell also count as Aura Dice, and thus also cannot be applied to the same roll.

Warlord Auras: Initially, you know three Auras. At 3rd level, and every subsequent odd-numbered level, you learn one additional Aura. In addition, each time you gain a Warlord level, you may replace one Aura that you know with another.

Back to Back: When an adjacent creature is attacked, allies affected by your aura can use their reaction to impose disadvantage on the attack roll.
Demand Fortitude: When making Constitution saves, allies may roll your Aura die and add it to their roll.
Force of Will: When making Wisdom and Charisma saves, allies may roll your Aura die and add it to their roll.
Hold the Line: Allies may take one additional reaction each round, which can only be used to make opportunity attacks.
Nimble Hustle: When making Dexterity checks and saves, allies may roll your Aura die and add it to their roll.
Over the Top: Allies may move half again as far each round, and opportunity attacks against them have disadvantage.
Stand Fast: At the beginning of their turn, allies gain temporary hit points equal to your Proficiency bonus.
Surge of Might: When making Str checks, saves, and damage rolls with Str-based weapon attacks, allies may roll your Aura die and add it to their roll.
Watch Your Back: When an ally is attacked, they can use their reaction to roll your Aura die and add it to their armor class against that attack. They may do so after seeing their roll but before the DM announces the result.
Watchful Eye: When making Perception checks and Intelligence checks and saves, allies may roll your Aura die and add it to their roll.


Motivating Shout: Beginning at 2nd level, you may use your bonus action to call out encouragement to one ally within 30ft, granting them one of the following bonuses:

Your ally gains temporary hit points equal to your Charisma modifier + one-half your Warlord level (rounded down)
Your ally may take one additional reaction before the start of their next turn.
Your ally may use their reaction to move up to half their speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
Your ally has advantage on the next attack they make before the end of their next turn.


Ability Score Increase: When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can't increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.

Inspiring Strike: Beginning at 5th level, once on each of your turns when you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can roll your Aura Die and add it to the damage. Beginning at 13th level, you can roll two Aura Dice.

Cry of Warning: Beginning at 7th level, you can use your reaction to call a warning to an ally within 30ft, providing one of the following benefits:

Your ally can roll your Aura Die and add the result to their Armor Class against one attack,
When making a saving throw, your ally can roll your Aura Die and add it to their roll.
An opportunity attack made against your ally automatically misses.
Your ally can move 10ft without provoking opportunity attacks.


Extended Aura: Beginning at 10th level, the range of your Marshal class features—your Auras, Motivating Shout, Cry of Warning, and so on-- increases to 40ft. At 17th level, it increases again to 50ft.

Aura of War: Beginning at 11th level, you gain the ability to rally your allies to even greater feats. When learning new Auras, you may also select any of the below options; when projecting an Aura of Battle, you may choose an Aura of War you know instead. Due to their greater power, however, you cannot use Auras of War as often--once you have used Auras of War twice, you cannot do so again until you complete a long rest.


Alacrity: Your allies may use their bonus action to take the Dash or Disengage action, or to make a single weapon attack.
Courage: Your allies gain immunity to being charmed or frightened.
Defiance: Enemies within range of your Aura provoke opportunity attacks whenever they leave a creature’s reach, even if they have taken the Disengage action.
Prowess: When making weapon or spell attack rolls, allies may roll your Aura die and add it to their roll.
Spellbreaking: When a foe within range of your aura attempts to cast a spell, allies may use their reaction to make melee weapon attacks against them. If they are damaged, they must make a concentration save against the damage or their casting fails and the spell slot is wasted.
Teamwork: When you activate this Aura, select one feat you possess and grant its benefits to all allies within range.
Vigor: When struck by an attack, or damaged by a spell, allies may use their reaction to halve the damage they receive.


Lightning Reflexes: Beginning at 18th level, you may take one additional reaction each round.

Double Aura: Beginning at 20th level, you may project and concentrate on two Auras simultaneously, and may activate two Auras in a single bonus action. Doing so still counts as using your Aura feature twice, and does not allow you to exceed the normal limit on how many Aura Dice a creature can add to a single roll.

----------------------

Exemplar
Fighting Style: Beginning at 3rd level, you adopt a particular style of fighting as your specialty. Choose one of the following options. You can't take a Fighting Style option more than once, even if you later get to choose again.

Defense: While you are wearing armor, you gain a +1 bonus to AC.
Dueling: When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon.
Great Weapon Fighting: When you roll a 1 or 2 on a damage die for an attack you make with a melee weapon that you are wielding with two hands, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll, even if the new roll is a 1 or a 2. The weapon must have the two-handed or versatile property for you to gain this benefit.
Protection: When a creature you can see attacks a target other than you that is within 5 feet of you, you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on the attack roll. You must be wielding a shield.
Blind Fighting (UA): Being unable to see a creature doesn’t impose disadvantage on your attack rolls against it, provided the creature isn’t hidden from you.
Interception (UA): When a creature you can see hits a target that is within 5 feet of you with an attack, you can use your reaction to reduce the damage the target takes by 1d10 + your proficiency bonus (to a minimum of 0 damage). You must be wielding a shield or a simple or martial weapon to use this reaction.
Two-Weapon Fighting: When you engage in two-weapon fighting, you can add your ability modifier to the damage of the second attack.


Exemplar Auras: Beginning at 3rd level, you may learn any of the following Auras of Battle along with the ones available to all Warlords.

Lead From the Front: Allies have advantage on attack rolls against the last creature you successfully damaged with a weapon attack
Draw Fire: When an enemy within range of your Aura makes an attack roll against an ally who is also within your Aura, they must roll your Aura Die and subtract the result from their attack roll. However, when attacking you, they may roll your Aura Die and add it to their roll.
Shifting Assault: Whenever you are hit by an attack, all allies may use their reaction to move up to half their speed without provoking opportunity attacks.


Thick of the Fight: Beginning at 6th level, when you fail a save to maintain concentration on your Aura, you may expend one use of your Aura of Battle feature to succeed instead.

Motivating Surge: Beginning at 14th level, when you use your Motivating Shout ability, you gain the same benefits as target


Leader
Larger Than Life: At 3rd level, you gain proficiency in Persuasion, and may add twice your proficiency bonus to such checks.

Leader Auras: Beginning at 3rd level, you may learn any of the following Auras of Battle along with the ones available to all Warlords.

Fierce Life: Upon activating this aura, roll your Aura die. All allies within rang of your Aura regain hit points equal to your roll plus your Charisma modifier. For as long as you maintain the Aura, allies can't have hit point maximum reduced.
Motivate Fortitude: When making saving throws against being blinded, deafened, poisoned, or stunned, allies may roll your Aura Die and add it to their result.
Motivate Charisma: When making Charisma checks and saving throws, allies may roll 1d4 and add it to their roll.


Reviving Surge: Beginning at 6th level, you may use an action to expend one use of your Aura of Battle feature to heal an ally. Roll a number of Aura Dice equal to your Charisma modifier; one ally within 30ft gains hit points equal to the result.

Mass Shout: Beginning at 14th level, you may target up to two allies with your Motivating Shout ability. You must grant the same bonus to each one.

Terror
Eye of Fear: At 3rd level, you gain proficiency in Intimidation, and may add twice your proficiency bonus to such checks.

Terror Auras: Beginning at 3rd level, you may learn any of the following Auras of Battle along with the ones available to all Warlords.
Hesitation: Enemies treat the area within range of your Aura as difficult terrain. Creatures immune to being charmed or frightened are not affected by this ability.
Domination: When an enemy within range of your Aura makes a saving throw against being charmed or frightened, they must roll your Aura die and subtract it from their result.
Motivate Fear: When an enemy within range of your Aura makes an ability check, they must roll your Aura die and subtract it from their results.


Killing Glare: Beginning at 6th level, you may use an action to expend one use of your Aura of Battle feature and force one creature within 30ft to make a Charisma saving throw, with a DC of 8 + your Proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier. If they fail, they are frightened for one minute.

Intimidating Shout: Beginning at 14th level, you may target enemies with your Motivating Shout ability. Foes so targeted must make Wisdom saving throws, with a DC of 8 + your Proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier, or be frightened until the end of their next turn

JNAProductions
2020-10-09, 05:45 PM
NItpick: Extended Aura refers to the class as Marshal.

Overall... Doesn't feel OP. If anything, it feels kinda weak, though admittedly I've not run the math. But... I dunno. It feels dull.

With 2-5 Aura uses per Short Rest, you'll basically always have them available. So turn one, attack and activate appropriate aura. Cry of Warning if needed.
Turn two, Attack and Motivating Shout. Cry of Warning if needed.
Turn three, repeat.
Turn four, repeat.

Dienekes
2020-10-09, 05:50 PM
Yeah new warlord always love looking at those.

So my initial impression was actually “Well you made the best Marshal I’ve ever seen.” With the enforced focus on Charisma and you even divided the gameplay into Minor Auras and Major Auras with admittedly more interesting names.

However, the actual auras granted seem very interesting. But far more interesting to me are Motivating Shout and Cry of Warning. Both being apparently unlimited use with interesting and powerful niche abilities that probably shouldn’t be mindlessly spammed. This makes up for the Auras which as far as I can figure you’re going to probably be stuck with maybe one choice per encounter for a good chunk of your adventuring.

Though my opinion would drop dramatically if in practice it ended up one of Shouts or Cries was being used most frequently. Part of the fun of playing Warlord was needing to access and pick the right ability each round to shape the battle. Gameplay that ends up repetitive defeats that fun.

Some points. I would rename Aura of War: Skill since it has nothing to do with skills. I get you were trying to go with skill at arms or something to also encompass spells. I’d rename it to Prowess myself. And though I can probably figure out what you were going for you cut off the end of the Double Aura feature and I think you may need to check Reviving Surge I think some words got jumbled about.

NigelWalmsley
2020-10-09, 06:01 PM
I think any "leader of men" class that doesn't give you the ability to lead any men is a failure on first principles. You should be getting some warriors to push around at some point.


Aura Die: Most Auras involve your Aura Die. At 1st level, this is 1d4. At 3rd level, it improves to 1d6, at 8th level to 1d8, at 14th level to 1d10, and at 19th level to 1d12.

I understand that other things in 5e work this way as well, but having the bonus be variable seems like way more of a pain than it could possibly be worth. It seems like just letting people add your proficiency bonus about tracks, and doesn't involve rolling any extra dice.


Bardic Inspiration dice and the Bless spell also count as Aura Dice, and thus also cannot be applied to the same roll.

Is there not a better way of referring to "things that are obviously morale bonuses" than "here is a list of things that are obviously morale bonuses"? Again, not really your fault, but it feels really awkward that this will "break" if there's ever an official Marshal class or something that works similarly but isn't tagged here.


Warlord Auras:

I don't understand why this and "Aura of Battle" are separate abilities, particularly since "Aura of War" has its differences from "Aura of Battle" spelled out.


Your ally can roll your Aura Die and add it to the Armor Class against one attack, or to one saving throw.

Is that supposed to mean they add it to a single instance of a saving throw, or that they add it to one particular saving throw for some period of time? From context it seems like the former, but it reads like the latter. It's not a big deal, but it should be phrased less ambiguously.


Extended Aura: Beginning at 10th level, the range of your Marshal class features—your Auras, Motivating Shout, Cry of Warning, and so on-- increases to 40ft. At 17th level, it increases again to 50ft.

Editing: the table says 9th for the bump to 40ft.


Double Aura: Beginning at 20th level, when you project an Aura of Battle, you grant the benefits of two separate Auras simultaneously. This only requires one use of the ability, but does not allow targets to add more than one Aura Die to their

Editing: last sentence is unfinished.

How is this intended to interact with Auras of War? Can I only Double Aura with two Auras of Battle, or can I get two Auras of War, or an Aura of Battle + an Aura of War? Can I Double Aura + Aura of War for three auras at once?


Larger Than Life: At 3rd level, you gain proficiency in two of the following skills: Deception, Intimidation, Performance, or Persuasion. If you were already proficient in the skill you choose, you may instead gain proficiency in any skill. You may select two musical instruments in place of one skill, if you choose.

Getting this at 3rd level is awkward. All of those are options for the Warlord by default, so if he wants them he'll presumably just take them at first level. I guess it lets you complete the set, but it feels like a lot of the time this will get "get any two skills you want". That's not necessarily unbalanced, but it's not really a thematically compelling ability.

Amechra
2020-10-09, 08:19 PM
So... as it stands, you can't have an Aura of Battle and an Aura of War active simultaneously (because both types of Auras use your Concentration). Is that intentional?

(Plus, I see you've added a sneaky bit of errata in the description of Aura dice. You can't fool me!)

Grod_The_Giant
2020-10-09, 08:34 PM
Overall... Doesn't feel OP. If anything, it feels kinda weak, though admittedly I've not run the math. But... I dunno. It feels dull.
Compared to other martial types, though? You're not playing resource management games, but you get to attack and choose from a couple different Motivating Shout options each turn. You're also sort of encouraged to move you teammates around like chess pieces to maximize AoOs.


Yeah new warlord always love looking at those.

So my initial impression was actually “Well you made the best Marshal I’ve ever seen.”
Heh, thanks. The only reason I didn't use Martial as the name of the class was that I already used it on a Fighter subclass.


Though my opinion would drop dramatically if in practice it ended up one of Shouts or Cries was being used most frequently. Part of the fun of playing Warlord was needing to access and pick the right ability each round to shape the battle. Gameplay that ends up repetitive defeats that fun.
Agreed... do any of the options jump out now as being clearly better or worse?


Some points. I would rename Aura of War: Skill since it has nothing to do with skills. I get you were trying to go with skill at arms or something to also encompass spells. I’d rename it to Prowess myself. And though I can probably figure out what you were going for you cut off the end of the Double Aura feature and I think you may need to check Reviving Surge I think some words got jumbled about.
Will fix, thanks.


I think any "leader of men" class that doesn't give you the ability to lead any men is a failure on first principles. You should be getting some warriors to push around at some point.

I understand that other things in 5e work this way as well, but having the bonus be variable seems like way more of a pain than it could possibly be worth. It seems like just letting people add your proficiency bonus about tracks, and doesn't involve rolling any extra dice.

Is there not a better way of referring to "things that are obviously morale bonuses" than "here is a list of things that are obviously morale bonuses"? Again, not really your fault, but it feels really awkward that this will "break" if there's ever an official Marshal class or something that works similarly but isn't tagged here.
Pretty much all 5e paradigm issues here... the system just doesn't like minion-masters, and freeing up enough design space to roll around with an meaningful force of soldiers would require the main character to be incredibly weak.


I don't understand why this and "Aura of Battle" are separate abilities, particularly since "Aura of War" has its differences from "Aura of Battle" spelled out.

It's... major and minor auras. Aura of War abilities are stronger but can't be used as often.


Is that supposed to mean they add it to a single instance of a saving throw, or that they add it to one particular saving throw for some period of time? From context it seems like the former, but it reads like the latter. It's not a big deal, but it should be phrased less ambiguously.

To a single roll. I'll fix.


Editing: the table says 9th for the bump to 40ft.



Editing: last sentence is unfinished.

How is this intended to interact with Auras of War? Can I only Double Aura with two Auras of Battle, or can I get two Auras of War, or an Aura of Battle + an Aura of War? Can I Double Aura + Aura of War for three auras at once?

Will fix.


Getting this at 3rd level is awkward. All of those are options for the Warlord by default, so if he wants them he'll presumably just take them at first level. I guess it lets you complete the set, but it feels like a lot of the time this will get "get any two skills you want". That's not necessarily unbalanced, but it's not really a thematically compelling ability.

I wasn't really sure what to put there, to be honest...maybe expertise in Persuasion?


So... as it stands, you can't have an Aura of Battle and an Aura of War active simultaneously (because both types of Auras use your Concentration). Is that intentional?

(Plus, I see you've added a sneaky bit of errata in the description of Aura dice. You can't fool me!)
It is very much intentional, yes.

(I did?)

NigelWalmsley
2020-10-10, 12:22 PM
It's... major and minor auras. Aura of War abilities are stronger but can't be used as often.

Sure. I'm just saying the way it's split up is awkward. If you look at the Marshal, it explains what Minor and Major Auras are in the Auras ability, and it has the generic ability first. I just think that's a clearer presentation.

Grod_The_Giant
2020-10-10, 01:14 PM
Sure. I'm just saying the way it's split up is awkward. If you look at the Marshal, it explains what Minor and Major Auras are in the Auras ability, and it has the generic ability first. I just think that's a clearer presentation.
Ahhh, okay, I see what you're talking about now. And you're not wrong...hmm. After responding to your last comment, I started thinking "what if you got a squad of soldiers instead of the high-tier auras," so maybe I will trade that out after all...

Amechra
2020-10-10, 02:52 PM
Under Aura dice, you've made Bardic Inspiration dice and the die you get from Bless into Aura dice. The default rule is that you can stack them, and now you can't (assuming that the Warlord is in your game.)

Grod_The_Giant
2020-10-12, 10:09 AM
Under Aura dice, you've made Bardic Inspiration dice and the die you get from Bless into Aura dice. The default rule is that you can stack them, and now you can't (assuming that the Warlord is in your game.)
Huh, I guess I did... Mostly I just wanted to stop you from stacking too many numerical bonuses.