Tactics And Leadership-A 5E Contest Chatter Thread

[GalacticAxekick]

Spoiler: Talamare 2: The Warlord Strikes Back

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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 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.