Tactics And Leadership-A 5E Contest Chatter Thread

[JNAProductions]

Please, one and all, settle in, have some tea and doughnuts. And, PLEASE, give feedback on each other's entries! I want everything to be the best possible!

Class Thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?541142-Tactics-And-Leadership-A-5E-Class-Contest&p=22540621#post22540621)
Non-Class Thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?541144-Tactics-And-Leadership-A-5E-Everything-But-Class-Contest&p=22540629#post22540629)

[8wGremlin]

Interested...
Is there any particular format you require for your entries for easy reading?
Do you want just text or imagery and presentation as well?

[JNAProductions]

Ziegander made some lovely Preset Tables (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?521278-Preset-Class-Tables-for-5e-Homebrew) you can use, but no. No specific format-just make it clear and concise.

Edit: Images, fluff, presentation... That will probably be to your benefit, but is not required. All that's required is the crunch.

[Kuulvheysoon]

I've been thinking of knocking one or two things out, this might give me the impetus needed to get it formalized.

[Devcon1]

One question, if I may ask: in terms of submissions, can they only be one thing, or can they be a group of related content (i.e. a group of related monsters, a collection of feats, a series of spells, etc.)?

[JNAProductions]

For the class? One class. That can include new spells or equipment or such, but should be closely related to the class.

For the other contest? Go nuts. You're allowed up to three entries there.

[Devcon1]

I meant the other contest, yes. And thanks for the answer. I already have my first submission in mind.

[JNAProductions]

I meant the other contest, yes. And thanks for the answer. I already have my first submission in mind.

Swiggity swooty! I look forward to it.

[wilhelmdubdub]

do subclasses go in classes or everything else? Also do you have links to older posts I don't want to put something in that was already done. Thanks!

[JNAProductions]

Everything else.

And no.

[Talamare]

ERROR 404
Not enough information about what is happening for me to understand.

[Morphic tide]

ERROR 404
Not enough information about what is happening for me to understand.

Sudden 5e contest without apparent warning. There's one for classes and a second for literally anything else.

[Zanthy1]

I have something I'd like to submit, but it is in PDF format, is there a good way to post that?

[JNAProductions]

I have something I'd like to submit, but it is in PDF format, is there a good way to post that?

You could provide just a link to it-however, if it's old brew, then it can't be accepted. New brew only.

[JNAProductions]

I am submitting this class, which is a take on the Favored Soul. Some ideas and concepts were borrowed from the Unearthed Arcana, and obviously I used stuff from the Players Handbook. This Brew was made on The Homebrewery by me, and the artwork is credited on the first page.

https://imgur.com/TqqUAUA

Okay, so your images are kinda blurry and hard to read. But I'll muddle through!

Better hit die than a Sorcerer, but not than a Warlock.

Gets a few martial weapons.

Spectral Weapon... A free +1 weapon is pretty nice, though if you don't get Extra Attack, it's hard to leverage. That being said, it's crazy on a Sorcadin (or Favored Souladin, in this case) who would multiclass anyway, so I'd make it simply count as magical. Perhaps deal an extra 1d4 Radiant damage, but it shouldn't be ALL radiant.

AC 16+Dex, since you have no reason NOT to use a shield. I don't like-make it the same as Mage Armor, since you get shields.

DR 5? DR 5? Just, everything is reduced by 5 damage. That makes you INSANELY TANKY against hordes (who are still a threat-or SHOULD BE-due to Bounded Accuracy). For reference, by level 15, you're looking at AC 20 (21 starting next level, if your prioritize Dex over Con), so against a town guard with +2 Prof, 14 Str, and a longsword, you take...

.4 DPR. That's not a typo-he averages (with crits) to about 2 damage a hit, and hits on a 17 (I assumed level 16, or Dex over Cha). That's insane.

Unwavering Resilience is too good. The extra HP is okay, but immunity to two common and powerful conditions is not.

Complete Channeling is too good, since monsters usually have more HP than players. For reference, the Tarrasque has 676 HP. If he fails a DC 19 Cha save (21 if you're level 20 and pop Ascendance ahead of time) which happens 45% (55%) of the time, he goes from full HP to (assuming you split it between you, four other players and Big T, with each player having max HP of, say, 150) 238 HP. That's 2/3rds of his HP, gone, in one action. And if you fail? Try again next round. (This assumes you can choose to lose excess HP, rather than giving it out. If not, you'd have to wait till damage was taken-it's still too good, though, even if you have to.)

Make Some Chaos... Is incomplete. Who gets the madness? What's the save DC? Range?

Same issue with Madness Incarnate.

Lawful Binding is Hold Monster twice per short rest. That's borked.

Mighty Binding is even more borked.

[Kuulvheysoon]

So there's the entire "If you submit, you must vote" thing going on. Is that cross-contest? So if I submit to the non-class one, do I have to vote in the class one, or just the non-class one?

[JNAProductions]

So there's the entire "If you submit, you must vote" thing going on. Is that cross-contest? So if I submit to the non-class one, do I have to vote in the class one, or just the non-class one?

No. Not cross-contest.

[Devcon1]

Another question, if I may ask:

I am planning on brewing a demon lord as part of my first submission, and I was wondering if I would be allowed to include a madness table for said demon lord within that first submission.

[Jormengand]

So, looking at the Leader:

- I'm not saying that bounded accuracy doesn't deserve to die in a fire, but Leader of Men is not a responsible way to do it.
- You don't technically specify what "Using the die on an action" actually does. It seems relatively obvious that it's meant to be added to the result, but you should probably say that.
- It's kinda good form to say "At Xth level" at the start of your abilities, which you haven't for some of them. Otherwise, technically, they get those abilities all the time because text trumps table.
- "Intelligence modifier times" is not good wording and you know that. Please clean it up.
- "Knowledgeable Leader or Charismatic Leader" is a sentence fragment. The preceding sentence needs a colon, not a full stop.
- Yes, you know what ASIs and Extra attack do. Yes, I know too. Write them out anyway. It just looks sloppy if you don't.
- You should give your abilities evocative names rather than making a silly reference and then dropping stronger entirely due to budget cuts.
- Would it not be so much easier for lead from the front to give you a bonus on damage rolls equal to your leadership die size, rather than giving you a leadership die but it's not actually a leadership die and it never counts as one?

- Fight Smarter seems like it's mostly just going to be better than using your leadership dice normally. Like, strictly better or almost strictly better. So it's basically just completely invalidating your class's basic shtick.
- Nothing else about this class or subclass is magical. The cantrips and rituals are really out of place and you should never need them or use them.

- Having a charisma archetype on an int- and wis-dependant class is not a good idea because no-one will take it, especially since you also need str or dex and con.
- Pseudo-damage is weird and complicated and dominating monster with it is probably overpowered and it's a mess and doesn't make any sense.

Looking at the Programmed:

- Alpha Beta Gamma Epsilon Zeta is a bit like ABCEF. I assume Delta got dropped due to budget cuts?
- I don't care how you got the CR for the Zeta: no level 1 party will survive being swarmed by eight of those things. Hells, I'm not sure they'd survive one if it weren't for the "Run if alone" dictate.
- Some of the dictates are really badly written. None of them except for "Run if alone" and "Do no harm" are clear enough for me to be sure what they mean. Swarm which enemy how? Do they have to be actively trying to swarm some enemy somewhere all the time? Explode at 25% what? Forces? Hit points? Loss of hit points? Buff, don't beat, but here's a short sword, go kill? Sacrifice for superiors if needed? If asked? All the time, like an outdated lemming stereotype? Stay 'til (Not till. That's what a cashier uses) the end of what? The battle? The world? Everything? What if there are some superiors and some noncombatants who are about to be blown up and I can only save one, do I suffer a critical existence failure? How badly do I have to be losing before I'm forced to retreat (even if retreating is more dangerous than fighting because okay yeah lawful creatures are dumb)? Etcetera etcetera. Half-sentence descriptions aren't good enough.
- I'm not sure that the CR for the Epsilon is okay either. 75 hit points and AC 16 means that someone with proficiency 2, strength 15 and a greatsword will take... 21 rounds to get through it. I think you need to reconsider something with 10 HD and 2 CR. 5HD and 1/8 CR is right out.
- The Gamma is in a weird state of being both really powerful and being completely useless on its own. I'd reconsider having something that can't be properly CRed.
- Swap is badly worded - is the Beta still the target of the attack?
- Many-armed has the odd wording "And with success" which implies that the attempt can be successful or is automatically successful or something and I don't know.
- The wording of dictating: detonate needs to be cleared up a lot. It's also very very powerful because it can make a CR 2 creature deal 75 damage to an entire enemy party which is a lot of damage in exchange for giving up your CR 2 creature (even if it is an unusually powerful one). Though, everyone did just take a hundred points of damage from your ordinary full attack, so...

[Ninja_Prawn]

*pokes nose in*


Welcome, one and all, to... The second? Third? [Insert Proper Number Here] D&D 5E Homebrew Class Contest!

Fifth (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=20957208&postcount=1). You're welcome.

Someone please remind me to vote when the time comes!

[JNAProductions]

Another question, if I may ask:

I am planning on brewing a demon lord as part of my first submission, and I was wondering if I would be allowed to include a madness table for said demon lord within that first submission.

Yes, that is fine.


So, looking at the Leader:

- I'm not saying that bounded accuracy doesn't deserve to die in a fire, but Leader of Men is not a responsible way to do it.
- You don't technically specify what "Using the die on an action" actually does. It seems relatively obvious that it's meant to be added to the result, but you should probably say that.
- It's kinda good form to say "At Xth level" at the start of your abilities, which you haven't for some of them. Otherwise, technically, they get those abilities all the time because text trumps table.
- "Intelligence modifier times" is not good wording and you know that. Please clean it up.
- "Knowledgeable Leader or Charismatic Leader" is a sentence fragment. The preceding sentence needs a colon, not a full stop.
- Yes, you know what ASIs and Extra attack do. Yes, I know too. Write them out anyway. It just looks sloppy if you don't.
- You should give your abilities evocative names rather than making a silly reference and then dropping stronger entirely due to budget cuts.
- Would it not be so much easier for lead from the front to give you a bonus on damage rolls equal to your leadership die size, rather than giving you a leadership die but it's not actually a leadership die and it never counts as one?

- Fight Smarter seems like it's mostly just going to be better than using your leadership dice normally. Like, strictly better or almost strictly better. So it's basically just completely invalidating your class's basic shtick.
- Nothing else about this class or subclass is magical. The cantrips and rituals are really out of place and you should never need them or use them.

- Having a charisma archetype on an int- and wis-dependant class is not a good idea because no-one will take it, especially since you also need str or dex and con.
- Pseudo-damage is weird and complicated and dominating monster with it is probably overpowered and it's a mess and doesn't make any sense.

Looking at the Programmed:

- Alpha Beta Gamma Epsilon Zeta is a bit like ABCEF. I assume Delta got dropped due to budget cuts?
- I don't care how you got the CR for the Zeta: no level 1 party will survive being swarmed by eight of those things. Hells, I'm not sure they'd survive one if it weren't for the "Run if alone" dictate.
- Some of the dictates are really badly written. None of them except for "Run if alone" and "Do no harm" are clear enough for me to be sure what they mean. Swarm which enemy how? Do they have to be actively trying to swarm some enemy somewhere all the time? Explode at 25% what? Forces? Hit points? Loss of hit points? Buff, don't beat, but here's a short sword, go kill? Sacrifice for superiors if needed? If asked? All the time, like an outdated lemming stereotype? Stay 'til (Not till. That's what a cashier uses) the end of what? The battle? The world? Everything? What if there are some superiors and some noncombatants who are about to be blown up and I can only save one, do I suffer a critical existence failure? How badly do I have to be losing before I'm forced to retreat (even if retreating is more dangerous than fighting because okay yeah lawful creatures are dumb)? Etcetera etcetera. Half-sentence descriptions aren't good enough.
- I'm not sure that the CR for the Epsilon is okay either. 75 hit points and AC 16 means that someone with proficiency 2, strength 15 and a greatsword will take... 21 rounds to get through it. I think you need to reconsider something with 10 HD and 2 CR. 5HD and 1/8 CR is right out.
- The Gamma is in a weird state of being both really powerful and being completely useless on its own. I'd reconsider having something that can't be properly CRed.
- Swap is badly worded - is the Beta still the target of the attack?
- Many-armed has the odd wording "And with success" which implies that the attempt can be successful or is automatically successful or something and I don't know.
- The wording of dictating: detonate needs to be cleared up a lot. It's also very very powerful because it can make a CR 2 creature deal 75 damage to an entire enemy party which is a lot of damage in exchange for giving up your CR 2 creature (even if it is an unusually powerful one). Though, everyone did just take a hundred points of damage from your ordinary full attack, so...

Thanks for the feedback, Jor. I'll adjust the wording and whatnot definitely, and take the other critique into consideration.

[Morphic tide]

I suppose I'll give a shot at making the old A-game Paladin (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?445134) as an Oath. 5e's Bardic Inspiration is a significantly better tactical tool than the 3.5 version of being just a buff.

...Burning spell slots on Bardic Inspiration seems pretty underpowered, unless it's swapping the Smite dice for Inspiration dice directly, in which case it's overpowered without some harsh restrictions. Maybe have it be a swap with a restriction of Inspiration dice per die roll, with the 7th or 15th level features including an extra simultaneous die. Drop it on an archer then charge in, trusting the archer to wisely use their allotment of Inspiration dice, is pretty tactical, right? A d6 bends bounded accuracy(nearly removing the "super-expert high-level badass fails DC 20 check" situation 5e seems to love), but doesn't overpower the d20 enough to break bounded accuracy(nublet will still have only minor chance to hit fully-grown dragon).

Okay, 3rd level, Channel Divinity for a "free" Inspiration and a heal modelled after a mix of 3.5 Lay on Hands and 5e Song of Rest, with 7th level carrying the Smite to Song effect of Inspiration dice replacing Smite dice that are usable one-at-a-time, replacing the usual Aura effect at that level, then 15th level gives Charisma modifier uses of Channel Divinity per Long Rest and two Inspiration dice uses at once, while 20th level carries a continuous Heroism aura(so Fear immunity and Charisma mod temp HP every round in 30 ft.). 18th level shifts the Inspiration dice from a 10 ft. single-target limit, able to target self, to 30 ft. range distributed, allowing for handing out up to 5d8 split among the party as desired that's usable 2d8 at a time. Not sure if I want to have Improved Divine Smite be giving an automatic d8 of Inspiration each round or not...

For Oath Spells, Heroism is an utterly obvious one(what's it's actual duration? d20SRD lists Instantaneous for some absurd reason). Healing Word isn't on the default Paladin spell list, according to the SRD, and works quite well on a support-oriented Paladin by avoiding action conflicts between healing and attacking/buffing. Prayer of Healing is excellent non-combat healing, and Enhance Ability has lovely options to it, so those two get to be the 2nd level slot. Beacon of Hope is a crazy synergy with Prayer of Healing, and eats Concentration better spent on buffs, so the 3rd level heal side is Mass Healing Word, for when the whole party has scratches to deal with, and the 3rd level buff can be Protection from Energy, so that scratches are more likely. For 4th level, Death Ward can be the "healing" side, covering an ally liable to get killed so you have healing response time, and the buff can be Stoneskin. 5th level healing is Mass Cure Wounds, basically longer-range, less-potent, in-combat Prayer of Healing(or multitarget Cure Wounds...) so that healing the whole party mid fight for a decent amount is on the table. Then Dispel Evil and Good(the Good and Evil spell thing needs to die, now, because 5e is finally giving Undead and Fey proper Outsider attention...) can cover the buff.

Hallow makes for a good "frill", but is actually kinda crazy in some situations because no-save permanent generalized Outsider denial. Fiends, Fey, Celestials(they can possess things now?), Undead and Elementals are just flat out not able to enter, without any save to get around it. It... completely kills any sort of high-level siege narrative involving most of a creature type and all of three creature types if it does get used.

Now, Oaths... The A-game Paladin was, thematically, all about being support, as far as a Paladin can substitution level, AFC and feat into. It led the charge, yes, but did so by making everyone else better able to handle the charge with them. So Oath of Courage seems an appropriate name. Any ideas for Tenants? Because I've got literally all the mechanics mapped out to type out in the next two hours or so(got a PRC to finish up with confusing wording to manage)

[Kuulvheysoon]

Now, Oaths... The A-game Paladin was, thematically, all about being support, as far as a Paladin can substitution level, AFC and feat into. It led the charge, yes, but did so by making everyone else better able to handle the charge with them. So Oath of Courage seems an appropriate name. Any ideas for Tenants? Because I've got literally all the mechanics mapped out to type out in the next two hours or so(got a PRC to finish up with confusing wording to manage)

I was thinking of doing something similar, but calling it the Oath of the People.

[Morphic tide]

Well, I've got the Oath of Courage finished. Tempted to toss in a base class for the subsystem stub I came up with out of frustration at the idea of forced rest cycles. Because all the rest-reliant classes drop like a dive-bomber the instant you go another fight between rests. Pure casters like Wizards are especially vulnerable to this bull****. It's an improvement over 4e, mind you, but it's still depressing that there's functionally zero wiggle room.

And yes, there's alignment restrictions. The example is strict, so only opposite corners of the alignment chart prevent use. The Lawful Good paladin isn't going to be able to buff the Chaotic Evil barbarian. If one of them goes to neutral on the Law/Chaos axis or the good/evil axis, buff applicability is restored. It shouldn't be that big of a restriction...

I specifically swapped the attack roll bonus from the Bard ability for a damage bonus to make sure it doesn't cause direct problems. This is because +2d6 to attack rolls on the melee bruiser is not a good idea in 5e, mechanically.

[JNAProductions]

So how is everyone doing on their projects?

[Devcon1]

I'm unfortunately not as far as I'd like to be, but I should be able to get more done this weekend.

[Talamare]

Is there a hint to a deadline?

[Ninja_Prawn]

Is there a hint to a deadline?

Check the OP in the contest thread:

The contest will end one month from now, on December 5th!

[GalacticAxekick]

I think you made a lot of great changes, and it's cool to see the archetypes develop! Here are some new comments, plus some old ones I don't think you've addressed:


Level 1 - You may choose a single Basic Order. You acquire more at higher levels.If Orders were used as actions, choosing one would be fine. It will be in competition with the Warlord's Attack action, which gives the Warlord meaningful decisions to make each round. But because Orders are used as a bonus action or for free, the Warlord will be using the same one every round. For the sake of providing round-to-round options, I'd let the Warlord pick at least two at first level.


Basic Orders
Wolves Dance - Each Ally within 30 ft may move 5'
Knight's Move - An Ally within 30 ft may move their speed.
Flicker Step - An Ally within 30 ft may move 5', this movement does not provoke.5e doesn't normally use a grid, and so it has no rules for precise movement or position. Moving 5' is almost always useless. Moving half your speed is the game's usual way to represent small movement (which is why standing up from prone, mounting and dismounting cost this much, and why climbing, swimming, crawling, and difficult terrain reduce your speed to this much).

For example, you might let two allies move half their speed, one ally move their whole speed, or one ally move half their speed without provoking opportunity attacks.


Level 2 - Fighting Style, Protection is not an Option.Why not? I can see a leader defending their troops, thematically, and I don't see any harm mechanically.


Level 3 - Presence
You begin exerting a certain Presence in the battlefield. You may choose a Presence at level 3. All Presence work as Immediate Reaction to a Triggering Event.Just "as a reaction" is fine. There are no "immediate" and "non-immediate" reactions in 5e.


Inspiring Presence -
Trigger - An Ally within 15 feet of you is hit by an enemy attack
Effect - That Ally immediately recovers Health equal to your Charisma Modifier, before damage is rolled. This can be a problem. If your Charisma modifier is 3 and you find a commoner, for instance, that commoner's unarmed strike will deal 1 point of damage every time, and so every time they throw the punch your ally with regain 2 hit points. Suddenly the cheapest and fastest way to heal at low levels is to brawl for your commander. Instead of healing, why not grant the ally resistance to the damage they would've received?


Resourceful Presence -
Trigger - An Ally within 15 feet of you completely misses and deals no damage with a Ranged Attack
Effect - That Ally may immediately attempt the same attack with disadvantage against a different enemy within Line of Sight, and within 10 ft of the original targeted enemy. This does not consume an additional ammo.I love the way you salvaged this feature! I honestly didn't think there'd be a balanced way to save ammunition and spell slots, but this is it!

[Talamare]

I think you made a lot of great changes, and it's cool to see the archetypes develop! Here are some new comments, plus some old ones I don't think you've addressed:

If Orders were used as actions, choosing one would be fine. It will be in competition with the Warlord's Attack action, which gives the Warlord meaningful decisions to make each round. But because Orders are used as a bonus action or for free, the Warlord will be using the same one every round. For the sake of providing round-to-round options, I'd let the Warlord pick at least two at first level.

5e doesn't normally use a grid, and so it has no rules for precise movement or position. Moving 5' is almost always useless. Moving half your speed is the game's usual way to represent small movement (which is why standing up from prone, mounting and dismounting cost this much, and why climbing, swimming, crawling, and difficult terrain reduce your speed to this much).

For example, you might let two allies move half their speed, one ally move their whole speed, or one ally move half their speed without provoking opportunity attacks.

Why not? I can see a leader defending their troops, thematically, and I don't see any harm mechanically.

Just "as a reaction" is fine. There are no "immediate" and "non-immediate" reactions in 5e.

This can be a problem. If your Charisma modifier is 3 and you find a commoner, for instance, that commoner's unarmed strike will deal 1 point of damage every time, and so every time they throw the punch your ally with regain 2 hit points. Suddenly the cheapest and fastest way to heal at low levels is to brawl for your commander. Instead of healing, why not grant the ally resistance to the damage they would've received?

I love the way you salvaged this feature! I honestly didn't think there'd be a balanced way to save ammunition and spell slots, but this is it!

Oh wow, you're actively editing this one too. I was going to reply that I made some changes in line to your suggestions XD
Did not expect that you had already edited this as well. XD
I definitely want to say Thank you for the assistance, it's helping immensely.

The 2 Allies Half Speed sounds like a pretty great one as well.
As far as moving an allies only 5 ft. 5 ft is enough to escape melee range without being attacked; which is the goal of that one.

Moving every single ally is pretty big, and a little time consuming. If you move each ally too far then they need to start thinking about it, but if they are only moving a little then it's more immediate. You're right that it's less impactful, but it's just an option. Some people may really love it.

Orders are going to consistently cost your Bonus Action. So there will be some competition for any other bonus actions you might want to take, but I admit that one of the main reasons its at only a single order at Lv1 is because I'm having difficulty thinking up stuff. It has to be stuff that is weak enough for level 1, and won't overlap when the amount of options expand at higher levels. The design space feels fairly tight.

No Protection is partly because it would overlap with Phalanx Presence, and partly because I was hoping it would be something personal for the Warlord. Since most of his abilities will rarely affect himself.

I think I'm going to make Inspiring offensive healing instead. Since, I can't think of any defensive version in which it isn't essentially damage reduction, that can work alongside not having resources, and that isn't potentially exploitable as you listed.

I wish I could brag about how I awesome I am at salvaging it, but I basically took 4e Seeker's class feature.

[GalacticAxekick]

I definitely want to say Thank you for the assistance, it's helping immensely.My pleasure!


The 2 Allies Half Speed sounds like a pretty great one as well.
As far as moving an allies only 5 ft. 5 ft is enough to escape melee range without being attacked; which is the goal of that one.For the manoeuvre that doesn't provoke opportunity attacks, that's very true! But for the manoeuvre that moves multiple allies, they'll provoke as many opportunity attacks as their enemies can make. It's no different from waiting until their turns to move.


Orders are going to consistently cost your Bonus Action. So there will be some competition for any other bonus actions you might want to take,As a martial character, the only other bonus action you'll be taking is two-weapon fighting (or orders acquired at later levels). This means no build except two-weapon builds has meaningful round-to-round decisions until later levels and that two-weapon builds make weaker Warlords than others. Making Orders an action would solve both of these problems.


I admit that one of the main reasons its at only a single order at Lv1 is because I'm having difficulty thinking up stuff. It has to be stuff that is weak enough for level 1, and won't overlap when the amount of options expand at higher levels. The design space feels fairly tight.As long as Orders are a bonus action, you'll need to be very careful to keep them weak, because they'll be stacking with the action the Warlord takes each turn. That design space is tight. But if you make Orders an action, you win yourself a lot more breathing room. You can start looking at cantrips for inspiration (especially for scaling!) and start thinking about stronger or specialized variations of the game's weakest actions (shoving, grappling, dashing, disengaging, dodging). If

In fact, because such a huge variety of pre-balanced options exist as the actions in the PHB, my entry to this competition is a Bard variant (http://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/SyJbQnhWl) who simply grants people reactions, actions and movement with its "orders":
Cue: As a reaction, you grant your target any one reaction they are capable of. You can use this reaction in response to the normal trigger of the reaction you grant.
Deploy: As an action, you let your target move up to their speed with their reaction.
Sic: As an action, you let your target use any action they are capable of with their reaction.


No Protection is partly because it would overlap with Phalanx Presence, and partly because I was hoping it would be something personal for the Warlord. Since most of his abilities will rarely affect himself.It's fair that you would want Fighting Style to benefit your Warlord rather than his allies, but players might have other preferences, so I think it's best to leave the option open to them.

Also, the overlap with Phalanx Presence is a good indicator that Phalanx Presence needs rework; it gives the player no new tools, so to justify it you had to cut out an old tool. Here's an idea for a new niche to fill: Deflect: When a creature you can see misses you or a target you can reach with an attack, you can use your reaction to choose a new target for that attack. The new target must within the attacker's reach if you deflect a melee attack, or within range centred on you if you deflect a ranged attack. The attacker can be the new target. The new target faces the original attack roll.

Also, why not grant the archetypes features in addition to the core class features? That's the standard, in 5e. You could offer a competing reaction (which offers the player some great decisions to make) or a feature that isn't a reaction at all. For the Phalanx Leader, I might offer this: Shield Bearing:: When you take the Dodge action, attacks against friendly creatures within your reach have disadvantage, and friendly creatures within your reach have advantage on Dexterity saving throws, both until the start of your next turn.

When you take the Disengage action, the movement of friendly creatures within your reach does not provoke opportunity attacks until the start of your next turn.


I think I'm going to make Inspiring offensive healing instead. Since, I can't think of any defensive version in which it isn't essentially damage reduction, that can work alongside not having resources, and that isn't potentially exploitable as you listed.What's wrong with damage resistance? It's a fantastic tool for the Warlord to have, especially since it scales so well at higher levels and since it doesn't stack with other sources of damage resistance (that is, it can't be abused)

And beware; if your warlord can heal people by telling them to attack others, nothing is stopping them from carrying and crushing the infamous "bag of rats".

[JNAProductions]

Prestige Classes shouldn't stack for ASI purposes. Plus, that makes a Fighter 2 Dip much more appealing-Fighter 2/Any Caster 5/Mage Commander 6 gets 3 ASIs, for instance, which is admittedly right on schedule-a level behind, even. But then they get their fourth at level 15, one level ahead of time, since they're on the Fighter track.

Repeat After Me seems fine.

Marking The Targets is WAY TOO GOOD. Guiding Bolt costs a spell slot. This is for free on any spell, and even cantrips!

Follow-Up Attack needs to be cleared up. When do they provoke? Is it immediately? In which case... Way too powerful, what with Rogues getting an extra sneak attack and whatnot.

Counterspell Spotter is fine.

Covering Spellfire seems fine.

How We All Should Fight is both 1) Mean to Wisdom classes and 2) probably too good. +6 or 7 to all damage rolls pretty much ever (since it doesn't specify of first level or higher) is kinda crazy.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Hey, this closes on the 5th, right? Is everyone done with their classes? I'd better decide who to vote for...

[clash]

Where do we submit our votes?

[JNAProductions]

I'll whip up a voting thread.

Also, to anyone just now joining us, SUBMISSIONS ARE CLOSED! All entrants are what they are.