Out of curiosity, aside from a purely martial base class, what sort of mechanics do you guys feel that a Warlord should have? Are there any homebrews of Warlord you've seen that seemed to fall short of the mark? If so, why?
I'm working on my own homebrew of Warlord, and, while I've got an idea of the mechanics and such, I'm trying to better hammer out a direction for the class. I'm currently using a Superiority Dice skeleton, with my own modification. "At the beginning of your turn in combat, if you have no Superiority Dice remaining, you regain one." Since this was the basis of the class, I wanted to make it "martial" in that martial classes don't necessarily need rests to work. You still prefer to rest, certainly, but your main class feature isn't removed because you ran out of uses. Thoughts?
Your class should have some mechanic that is reusable. Like wizard cantrips, or a Rogue's cunning action. As well as some abilities that are not combat driven. Give it some abilities that are fun to use out of combat.
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Hell yeah I am going to Polymorph the boss into a Rabbit. I have always wanted a being a pure evil stuffed into a ball of fluff.
Your class should have some mechanic that is reusable. Like wizard cantrips, or a Rogue's cunning action. As well as some abilities that are not combat driven. Give it some abilities that are fun to use out of combat.
Currently I've got a conversion of the different "Presences" (3rd level, slightly scaling like Paladin auras) from 4E, but I'm not entirely happy with their current implementation. As far as out of combat, I've got a Song of Rest-esque ability (2nd level) that gives a bonus to the first initiative rolled after the short rest and expertise (3rd and 10th). Expertise was the only broad-ranging ability I could think to give that would cover several situations instead of creating more very specific abilities to fill in the games.
At this point if someone wanted to play a Warlord I'd direct them to Avatar Mystic -> Mantle of Command and call it a day. It (plus the other Avatar Disciplines) has pretty much everything you could want mechanically.
Regarding the OP's homebrew, there's nothing wrong with giving back all martial dice on a short rest. You should be getting those pretty frequently so you'd feel like a Warlock. Another way to do it is to regain superiority dice each time you yourself attack. Assuming your Warlord actions use an Action, this could create a fun ebb and flow between regaining and spending Martial Dice for the Warlord actions. Other than those two options, regaining one per turn is fine I guess. A lot of your choices will revolve around what exactly you expect the Warlord to be doing, and how much is possible per turn.
Regarding the OP's homebrew, there's nothing wrong with giving back all martial dice on a short rest. You should be getting those pretty frequently so you'd feel like a Warlock. Another way to do it is to regain superiority dice each time you yourself attack. Assuming your Warlord actions use an Action, this could create a fun ebb and flow between regaining and spending Martial Dice for the Warlord actions. Other than those two options, regaining one per turn is fine I guess. A lot of your choices will revolve around what exactly you expect the Warlord to be doing, and how much is possible per turn.
The dice recharge on a short rest as well, yes, but they also recharge 1/turn while in combat with 0 dice. The gist is so you'll always have at least one die to do things with. The action variation isn't very viable, in my opinion... Very few maneuvers (even the ones I've homebrewed) actually use an action. They're all bonus action, or in addition to an attack, or a reaction. I do like the idea, but I think it falls short with this particular system.
I'm just thinking in terms of rewards and action economy. In my mind, one of the things the Warlord was fantastic at doing was granting allies extra attacks/actions. So a proper trade-off would be to sacrifice my action to grant it to someone else. My assumed weaker attack would be passed up in favor of a stronger attack by a Paladin's Smite or Rogue's Sneak Attack. Or, I could give a caster another action to cast a spell. In either case the receiver would still expend resources, but they could act "out of their turn" by using the Warlord's resources (their actions).
I would honestly just mimic Battlemaster Fighter entirely with a new list of maneuvers. All the major pieces to Warlord pretty much already exist, but they're spread across different places like Battlemaster, Banneret, and Avatar Mystic. Battlemaster sacrifices actions to grant extra actions, Banneret has your Cha-based auras, and Avatar is Int-based. They usually sacrifice something hefty for their effects too, like rest-limited Superiority Dice, Action Surge, or Long-rest Psi points. I wouldn't grant a homebrew Warlord equivalent effects if there was so much resource regeneration. At least with regaining dice upon hitting with your own attack, and sacrificing your action(s) to spend superiority dice, you have sufficient tradeoff.
I'm just thinking in terms of rewards and action economy. In my mind, one of the things the Warlord was fantastic at doing was granting allies extra attacks/actions. So a proper trade-off would be to sacrifice my action to grant it to someone else. My assumed weaker attack would be passed up in favor of a stronger attack by a Paladin's Smite or Rogue's Sneak Attack. Or, I could give a caster another action to cast a spell. In either case the receiver would still expend resources, but they could act "out of their turn" by using the Warlord's resources (their actions).
I would honestly just mimic Battlemaster Fighter entirely with a new list of maneuvers. All the major pieces to Warlord pretty much already exist, but they're spread across different places like Battlemaster, Banneret, and Avatar Mystic. Battlemaster sacrifices actions to grant extra actions, Banneret has your Cha-based auras, and Avatar is Int-based. They usually sacrifice something hefty for their effects too, like rest-limited Superiority Dice, Action Surge, or Long-rest Psi points. I wouldn't grant a homebrew Warlord equivalent effects if there was so much resource regeneration. At least with regaining dice upon hitting with your own attack, and sacrificing your action(s) to spend superiority dice, you have sufficient tradeoff.
As I said, I've pretty much done that with taking the shell of Battlemaster, tweaking it, and adding my own homebrewed maneuvers in a listing similar to that of how spell lists are. Battlemasters still only get access to the normal maneuvers unless DM gives say-so, while my Warlord homebrew gets access to all of them. I've got the general progression and core mechanics down.
I suppose I was a bit vague in the original post. I've already got a 1st to 20th level progression and two subclasses, I'm just looking for some ideas on more specific mechanics, and perhaps a better way to do some non-combat features than outright giving expertise. Other than that, I feel like my current version satisfies your prerequisites, though it still definitely needs tweaking.
As others said there needs to be something reusable that screams Warlord, and it needs to be something they can actively do.
I've seen some do thus by allowing warlord homebrews do things to give other characters actions and stuff with their reactions...
Think battlemaster fighter subclass but with some tactical like abilities at will and then higher level tactical abilities with a short rest mechanic, etc.
Whatever you do, don't turn them into a shitty fighter with the occasional tactical abilities that always run out. What you want is it to feel like a tactical class ALL the time that has some fighter type abilities as back up. They should feel like tacticians primary and warrior secondary.
Worst thing to do us design them as such where they can easily find themselves regulated to hitting things and doing nothing else.
Also, and this is VERY important. When designing their tactical abilities do keep in mind unconventional groups. Too often do I see versions of warlord that are screwed if there's no rogue, or other fighters in the group, or if the party is primarily ranged or all magic users. So stay away from main abilities that rely on a specific ally type or allies to be too close to the enemy. Individual abilities can, but make sure the main ones are either versatile, or they have multiple choices to customize to different groups and play styles.
You should also think about what makes them different from other classes. Because if it is too similar someone might ask why the Warlord isn't just a subclass of either the Fighter or the Barbarian.
Out of curiosity, aside from a purely martial base class, what sort of mechanics do you guys feel that a Warlord should have? Are there any homebrews of Warlord you've seen that seemed to fall short of the mark? If so, why?
I'm working on my own homebrew of Warlord, and, while I've got an idea of the mechanics and such, I'm trying to better hammer out a direction for the class. I'm currently using a Superiority Dice skeleton, with my own modification. "At the beginning of your turn in combat, if you have no Superiority Dice remaining, you regain one." Since this was the basis of the class, I wanted to make it "martial" in that martial classes don't necessarily need rests to work. You still prefer to rest, certainly, but your main class feature isn't removed because you ran out of uses. Thoughts?
"I encourage peace."
Your class should have some mechanic that is reusable. Like wizard cantrips, or a Rogue's cunning action. As well as some abilities that are not combat driven. Give it some abilities that are fun to use out of combat.
Hell yeah I am going to Polymorph the boss into a Rabbit. I have always wanted a being a pure evil stuffed into a ball of fluff.
"I encourage peace."
At this point if someone wanted to play a Warlord I'd direct them to Avatar Mystic -> Mantle of Command and call it a day. It (plus the other Avatar Disciplines) has pretty much everything you could want mechanically.
Regarding the OP's homebrew, there's nothing wrong with giving back all martial dice on a short rest. You should be getting those pretty frequently so you'd feel like a Warlock. Another way to do it is to regain superiority dice each time you yourself attack. Assuming your Warlord actions use an Action, this could create a fun ebb and flow between regaining and spending Martial Dice for the Warlord actions. Other than those two options, regaining one per turn is fine I guess. A lot of your choices will revolve around what exactly you expect the Warlord to be doing, and how much is possible per turn.
"I encourage peace."
I'm just thinking in terms of rewards and action economy. In my mind, one of the things the Warlord was fantastic at doing was granting allies extra attacks/actions. So a proper trade-off would be to sacrifice my action to grant it to someone else. My assumed weaker attack would be passed up in favor of a stronger attack by a Paladin's Smite or Rogue's Sneak Attack. Or, I could give a caster another action to cast a spell. In either case the receiver would still expend resources, but they could act "out of their turn" by using the Warlord's resources (their actions).
I would honestly just mimic Battlemaster Fighter entirely with a new list of maneuvers. All the major pieces to Warlord pretty much already exist, but they're spread across different places like Battlemaster, Banneret, and Avatar Mystic. Battlemaster sacrifices actions to grant extra actions, Banneret has your Cha-based auras, and Avatar is Int-based. They usually sacrifice something hefty for their effects too, like rest-limited Superiority Dice, Action Surge, or Long-rest Psi points. I wouldn't grant a homebrew Warlord equivalent effects if there was so much resource regeneration. At least with regaining dice upon hitting with your own attack, and sacrificing your action(s) to spend superiority dice, you have sufficient tradeoff.
"I encourage peace."
As others said there needs to be something reusable that screams Warlord, and it needs to be something they can actively do.
I've seen some do thus by allowing warlord homebrews do things to give other characters actions and stuff with their reactions...
Think battlemaster fighter subclass but with some tactical like abilities at will and then higher level tactical abilities with a short rest mechanic, etc.
Whatever you do, don't turn them into a shitty fighter with the occasional tactical abilities that always run out. What you want is it to feel like a tactical class ALL the time that has some fighter type abilities as back up. They should feel like tacticians primary and warrior secondary.
Worst thing to do us design them as such where they can easily find themselves regulated to hitting things and doing nothing else.
Also, and this is VERY important. When designing their tactical abilities do keep in mind unconventional groups. Too often do I see versions of warlord that are screwed if there's no rogue, or other fighters in the group, or if the party is primarily ranged or all magic users. So stay away from main abilities that rely on a specific ally type or allies to be too close to the enemy. Individual abilities can, but make sure the main ones are either versatile, or they have multiple choices to customize to different groups and play styles.
You should also think about what makes them different from other classes. Because if it is too similar someone might ask why the Warlord isn't just a subclass of either the Fighter or the Barbarian.