VIDEO
hello everyone and welcome back to the
mic murrells happy fun hour I’m your
host Mike miles and this week we’re
going to continue our exploration of the
warlord subclass for the fighter so last
week in the in the prior week we talked
about the concept for the warlord how we
saw that subclass as distinct from other
subclasses for the fighter and we also
settle on essentially the the mechanic
that we want to use to capture the the
warlords thought process how does the
warlord the character approach and look
at the world and then how does the
warlord player the person playing the
warlord how do they look at the rules
and how can we make those two things as
similar as possible so when you’re
playing a warlord even when you’re
thinking about the rules the mechanics
you’re kind of thinking like how a
warlord would approach a situation so we
settled on a mechanic where the warlord
would have an area of focus
the warlord could survey the battlefield
pick out a spot that looked important to
the combat and then give allies benefits
or enemies drawbacks for being in that
area so this week I want to go through
and talk about and create some of the
specific abilities we’re gonna give to
the warlord to give it the things it
does with that that idea like what are
the benefits and drawbacks that a
warlord can bestow so the I decided to
start with that since we’re building the
warlord off of the eldritch night and
the eldritch night gets spells of up to
fourth level that an easy starting point
would be to look at what are some of
things that spells do from 1st to 4th
level now I didn’t want to go through
and just look at every single spell I
wanted to take a look at spells that
felt similar to the effect we described
for the warlord
spells that essentially take a portion
of them of a combat area and mess with
it put a barrier in the way or maybe
grant a benefit
to the characters now I didn’t look at
the cleric yet though right now I just
looked at the wizard spell list so we
don’t see too many things yet that
necessarily provide a benefit to other
characters that is something you’ll find
more often in the cleric and to a lesser
extent druid spell lists also with the
bard spell list wizard is more about
messing people up rather than
necessarily helping others the wizard
sort of buff spells are usually self
buffs they’re protective in nature to
make up for that lack of armor and low
hitpoints but I fell let’s think what
how we want to mess with your enemies
first to start with seemed like a good
starting point so let’s dive in take a
look at my screen right above my head is
the list of spells I thought this is a
good good starting point let’s take a
look at what the Wizards doing and let’s
think about how we really want the
warlord in action I’m gonna be honest I
want the warlord to feel better than the
wizard at this sure wizards can conjure
stinking clouds and lightning bolts and
all this other stuff but we’re talking
about this is our tactical expert so I’m
gonna be okay if the wizard spells don’t
feel quite as good as some of the warm
the warlord effects because that’s
something where you know this is what
those characters focused on the yes they
need an ability to conjure me griddles I
agree if you haven’t watched the stream
I have a well documented love of
McReynolds McDonald’s so the the so yes
if I could get that personal ability
that’d be pretty useful the I guess I do
I can just drive through the drive
through but all right so I’ve got my
handy-dandy D&E be on window up and I’m
just gonna take a look at some of these
spells so let’s start with fog cloud
it’s one I picked out very early on it
creates a sphere 20-foot radius I
believe or let’s see for radius yeah 24
radius sphere of fog so fog in the game
it’s heavily obscured but rides heavy
obscure me now immediately when I think
of this if I cast fog cloud that hurts
both my friends and my enemies and
that’s not really what we want the
warlord to do so that’s kind of nice to
see right off the bat my first
comparison spell I pretty quickly have a
sense of like okay here’s how I can make
this bed
for the warlord it’s long in effect one
side or the other it’s always gonna be
beneficial to the Warlord’s side again
this is our master strategist and
tactician this character isn’t good to
do things that hurt both sides of the
fight this characters gonna be helping
one side sometimes we make a note here
that just says ok and you know the other
thing to look at too is the size right
we want to make sure that the warlords
area focus feels that that it’s big
enough that it’s really affecting things
so now 20-foot radius might be a little
too big I’m sure when this spell was
designed since it hurts both sides look
it afford to make it bigger than we
might otherwise but I’m just gonna
note that 24 tre Deus Sphere a be
obscure me I need to see me miss spell
yeah
there are certain words I will always
misspell all right so that’s our fog
cloud now let’s take a look at Greece
Greece is another area useful spell for
controlling an area yeah let’s go here
and let’s expand our definition so let’s
first take a look at this Greece is a 10
foot square ok so smaller and any
creature that area has to make a
dexterity saving thorough or fall prone
and if you enter that area or your and
your turn there you have to make another
dexterity saving through or again fall
prone this is an interesting one it’s a
smaller area a 10 foot square so not as
big as fog cloud so interestingly enough
it does have drawbacks for anyone who
enters you could cast a Greece spell
then walk into it and slip so similar to
fog cloud it’s hurting both sides what I
think is interesting and this is
probably something if you’re wondering
like why is the area of Greece so much
smaller than the fog cloud since you
have to move into the Greece spell there
are a lot of creatures that could ignore
it it’s much easier for the party
for instance to make this something that
really only hurts one side for instance
imagine you’re in a dungeon you’re going
down a ten-foot-wide hallway you might
cast Greece right in front of the
characters who are in the front of the
party so that the monsters have to move
the Greece and stay there since if they
end their turn there they can also fall
prone my fighter or barbarian or anyone
similar could just stand on the edge of
that Greece and for
the monsters to stay within it or risk
provoking opportunity attacks so that’s
why it’s smaller so we’ll go ten foot
square deck saver prone you end or move
into space or are there when spell cast
I doubt we’re gonna have effects that
the the warlord is using an ability and
it forces a saving throw like Greece but
maybe we’ll see I think you know based
on the past two weeks we really want the
warlord to be enabling others to act in
some way especially as a team but we’ll
see well we’ll figure out where we
specifically end up the we might find
that uh based on the effects we want to
create there could be some immediate
damage effect we may be out but I
suspect we be filled in through an
attack of some sort so okay so we got
fog cloud we have grease these are both
pretty reasonable for simple spells a
little situational and that’s also where
I think we want the warlord to have
effects that are just strictly good for
the group so but right off the bat we
can see that knocking people prone in an
area and essentially giving an armor
class buff you’re making it harder to
hit people making it easy to hide these
are things that are well within what we
want to do so we can build off of that
I want to take a quick look at second
level then I want to start thinking
about and I’ll kind of talk about what I
mean now at first and second level what
does that actually mean for these
tactics so let’s take a quick look at
cloud of daggers this is another one
that I sort of felt this is kind of if I
remember right sneer control spell the
let’s see we got here five foot cube
creature takes forty four slash when it
enters the first time on a turn or it
starts its turn there so this is a
similar type of spell now in our
theoretical ten-foot-wide dungeon carter
where we cast grease you could imagine
cloud of daggers being very useful for
the similar reason you’d put the cloud
of daggers right next to the party where
the monsters want to go the drawback
here is this is only a five-foot cube so
if it’s a ten-foot wide hallway I can’t
fill the hallway with this spell there’s
going to be space there’s gonna be a gap
and so now you could are
you that if you’re not using the grid
you’d put the five foot cube in the
middle of the hallway dungeon master
using miniatures is probably gonna just
have everything snap to grid just for
ease of play so we can assume that while
this is a very useful barrier it’s not
it is smaller because of the damage it’s
offering I mean this is a spell that
could last for a minute 40 for slashing
in theory that could be 40 D for
slashing every creature managed to spend
you know couldn’t get out of it for some
reason
that’s a kunai in blender the other
thing notice is there is there is no
saving throw so this is damage that
happens automatically Greece gave us a
dexterity save for arguably in arguably
a lesser effect going prone is in terms
of the game is not as powerful as taking
or is you know as strong as dealing 44
damage you could argue lying prone
setting up advantage but we try not to
think too much about like make things
too dependent on well what if the group
acts together we account for it but it’s
not it’s not as powerful as just dealing
damage potentially taking some out of
the fight immediately so I’m you know
five foot cube 44 all right that’s
pretty easy
darkness is another interesting one in
that it’s essentially an upgraded
version of fog cloud let’s take a peek
here
let’s see we’ve got a 15 foot radius so
smaller spell it does block dark vision
so this basically shuts down all site
where fog cloud just provides heavy
obscure meant the other nice thing about
this the point you choose is on an
object you’re holding the darkness
eminates on that object okay that’s
something it’s just cool
it’s very supernatural though I don’t
think we want to do something where I
mean the warlord can already move the
focus we talked about it last week we
had this idea that the warlord would
focus on an area and the warlord on
their turn could then move the area so
I’m not really worried about picking up
that but this is basically it another
thing I’m just gonna kind of note this
is 15 foot radius block line-of-sight
and it sits and there’s a lot of just
kind of spells specific stuff it’s 10
minute duration I don’t believe this a
concentration spell
I don’t believe it is so that’s probably
other balancing factor of it’s pretty
useful but it’s not useful enough to
necessarily require concentration I’m
not seeing it
and I don’t think it’s there so now
finally flaming spear this one might be
a little bit a funny one to look at but
I was just thinking the idea that the
sphere since it does take up space it’s
worth looking at right so let’s take a
look what we got here for flaming spear
and this is our 5 foot diameter sphere
fire so fills up one square for using
nature’s now if you remember if you’re
here last week we kind of assume we’re
designing the warlord that you’re
probably using miniatures we’re not
going to phrase the rules in a way that
requires them like in the sense that we
would refer to squares or or build it
out assuming that you’re looking at a
grid but we’re okay with things being a
little more complicated because this is
a very a subclass ain’t a very specific
type of player someone who’d enjoy his
tactical play we’re okay with it being a
little more finicky so anyways we’ve got
our 5 foot diameter sphere fire if you
end your turn within 5 feet of it you
must make a dexterity saving throw or
take do to 6 fire damage half as much on
a successful one now if you compare this
spell to cloud of daggers the damage is
lower a little bit 44 averages out to
about 10 to d6 averages out to be about
7 these spheres is it since it’s within
5 feet of this sphere this can
potentially deal more damage because
it’s hitting more creatures now the one
drawback to it is you can’t just put
this next to the fighter unless they’re
a tiefling or someone who didn’t or fire
damage
so there’s a little bit of a drawback
there the very nice thing that is a
bonus action you can move the sphere up
to 30 feet so again something which
we’re already kind of capturing with the
warlord so I’m gonna note this down it’s
to d6 fire damage but really it’s a 15
by 15 area alright so I’ve looked at
these spells I’ve seen some that maybe
start pointing towards some good
comparisons I’m not seeing things though
in actually this is kind of a good thing
I’m not seeing things that are really
like completely blocking movement and
stuff like that so I kind of feel
looking at this list
we have a lot of room to make
interesting things the warlord that can
compete well with similar spells we
don’t want the warlord to feel that the
wizard could just cast a spell and be a
better tactician than me that this is
selling the the classes abilities short
especially as in its identity so so
let’s see okay let’s say I’m trying to
check the look in chats anything that’s
come up yeah the so Caleb would mentions
you know so far this is trying to do
what an elder tonight can accomplish and
that’s exactly where trying to avoid so
we want to do is take a look at these
spells because that’s actually the
better comparison is think of the elder
tonight they can take many of these
spells I can’t my roughed up my head
which spells the election I can get but
in terms of power all first level spells
are in theory equal so even if the elder
tonight doesn’t get grease and fog cloud
the idea is this is the general box that
those spells will live in so we need to
do things that feel dramatically better
and especially or dramatically more on
point for flavor
so with these things in mind now we know
would we have to beat these things we
can’t we can’t have grease look better
than a warlord tactic so my thinking
here was for the warlord tactics what we
would do is and this is gonna get
interesting but bear with me cuz I think
I think this path might actually work
out pretty well I’m gonna pop up in our
spreadsheet if it were from last week I
went through and showed how we could
just using the dungeon master Dungeon
Master’s guides rules for spell creation
all rules guidelines we could have said
we could convert a spell slot into its
rough damage equivalent we could then
figure out given the number of spell
slots and Elder tonight got because
that’s our comparison it’s neither
fighter subclass that uses magic
how many dice of damage it should a
warlord be able to throw out during the
course of a day and if you take a look
at this table here I bill we’re starting
at third level that’s when your subclass
comes in as a fighter the and this is
just a rough approximation so this was
the the total column here starts at
twenty two ends up at two hundred and
nine that’s the total number of 10-sided
dice worth of damage oh I’m sorry that’s
the total damage the dice the dice
column
that’s the total number of 10-sided dice
and then I just came up with this uses
and peruse columns this is just a quick
approximation of if I wanted to make a
mechanic that felt easy to use the table
in terms of number of dice and then how
often you use it this is a good first
cut now if you remember from last week
we talked about giving the warlord just
a basic ability to heal someone or grant
them a damage bonus and that really
capturing that idea of the tactical
insight the warlord could give and I
think I really want to try to keep of
this ability these numbers these dice
fuelling those abilities the other thing
to keep in mind is last week we talked
about how the Warlord’s healing while
the warlord can’t really deal with
conditions like a cleric could like if
you’re poisoned the warlord doesn’t
necessarily have a class feature that
can deal with that their benefit is if
your warlord provides healing that is an
excess of your maximum that excess
healing becomes temporary hit points so
you could with a fully healed up
character give them if this math holds
up seventy ten temporary hit points at
the start of a fight which is pretty
good and it’s something that
differentiates this this character from
the cleric in terms of how that healing
works and it helps conceptually balance
the idea that the warlord is not as good
at dealing with with conditions but it’s
pretty good at dealing with just damage
which felt right for a fighter you know
essentially healer type okay so this is
what we’ve got here what I’d like to do
is try to keep these benefits purely for
that healing and damage boost I don’t
want to require them in order to use the
warlord tactics and that’s because I
really want the warlord tactics to feel
like something you’re just always
getting I want them to have a dramatic
effect on the fight but I want that to
feel because the warlord is a great
tactician not necessarily because I’m
always just expending something that
area of focus ability is pretty it
seemed to go over pretty well and I want
to be something that feels like you’re
always thinking about because as a
tactical genius we don’t want the
warlord to be a genius like for three
rounds a day right that should be
something where the world always has a
plan it is always ready to
to help pull the party together to
execute a clever maneuver the so if
that’s the case what does it mean for
our special abilities here let’s take a
look over here well I think what we want
to do if we take a look at these
abilities look at the first two levels
of them cloud a daggers in flaming
sphere dealing damage the others aren’t
when I get up to stinking cloud and
sleetstorm I’m going to start seeing
more damage but the ability to control
an area is not necessarily something I
have to worry about in terms of damage
because if I let the warlord do this and
attack or also deal out that extra
damage I’m capturing the damage that
you’re going to be doing that round I
can really just focus on the special
effect you’re gonna create so for
instance you could imagine that fog
cloud could create in here of heavy
obscure man and do damage as a spell
well it doesn’t do that but I’m letting
the warlord essentially do that by
saying you can attack and then use a
tactic that’s gonna be the equivalent of
a first level spell so that means I
don’t have to worry about putting damage
in these and I think that’s actually
going to make my design a lot more
interesting and a lot more fun because
I’m not trying to like okay not to
account for the damage and where’s
that’s coming in I can just assume
you’re using this in addition to an
attack all right so I’m gonna make a
note of that
so used in addition to an attack slash
heal slash damage buff and potentially
all of them depending on where we end up
with the damage buff stuff so that’s the
case it makes these comparisons pretty
simple and we get down here I don’t have
to worry about the damage the damage is
already low enough for these effects
because they’re ongoing effects does
that actually is another thing that
makes my life a little easier I don’t
have to worry about trying to figure out
well how long will this effect stick
around the damage it’s doing now you’re
just you’re attacking so that makes my
life a bit easier the alright so let’s
take a look at some pretty simple things
we could do at first level so we know
knocking people prone should be
something we can definitely do and it
feels pretty thematic so I’m just going
to put knocking prone you know targets
in
your area of focus are knocked from the
wind hey that’s pretty simple one now
there are other effects in the game let
you’d let you knock people prone so it
might not be the most useful one but
that’s a good starting point I am also
going to point out this is when hit so
this and it’s also targets yeah sorry
hostile targets so to me I want to put
this one down here it might not be
someone we end up with I kind of feel
it’s pretty straight forward I mean chat
let me know do you think this is an
ability that you’d find useful in a
fight especially we could use it almost
all the time I think maybe using this
whole time might be too good we’ll see
but I kind of want you to use it all the
time because I really feel like I’m
being pretty tactically clever but
compared to Greece this is just better
right doesn’t hurt my friends and it
doesn’t require saving throw because I
just have to hit you and knock you prone
oh and someone mentioned in chat who was
it
Northland Kyle yes that’s one thing we
mentioned last week using concentration
yes we want concentration because that’s
a nice little barrier we can put in here
so that you’re not stacking these up it
also gives the enemy away to try to shut
it down so the so we’re gonna throw this
one in here people seem to think like it
might be it’s pretty good it’s always
advantage in melee maybe at a size limit
the oh the narrative explanation
Ibanez rock star yeah what I imagine
here is this is and we will mix way this
flavor right but I imagine as warlord is
providing oops more laud world Lord is
providing insight on where to strike so
we’d want to capture the name and then
obviously give some description so if I
was actually know what I’m going to try
I’ll show you kind of how we can wrap
that it might be kind of interesting we
might call this well here let’s do
something here this is an easy way if
you have to name something what I like
to do is forget hey the people of the
world of D&D are naming these things and
so let’s go to our monsters oh wait no
monsters are over here and here’s here’s
a very easy thing you can do right let’s
go to who’s are awake and search for
prone I don’t think that you know I’m
trying to search the wolf came up the
wolf knocks people prone that’s
if it does direwolf do you knock people
prone yes it does so this is something
where we did this lot in 4th edition
actually the idea that people in the
world of D&D they would no direwolves
are dangerous because they pull you down
when they attack you so an easy thing we
would do here now you run the risk of
some of my not they have the player by
know that but you can imagine some like
dire wolf tactics when a hostile
creature in your area of focus is hit oh
here’s one thing we could do too well I
don’t know I was about to write as a
reaction I don’t know if I want to turn
off the Warlord’s opportunity attacks
[Music]
that’s something that limits it you know
but but just popped in my head like a
that’s an easy way to limit this mmm mmm
I’m gonna say no cuz it’s more fun to
always get it but it might be too good
especially when you were in this stage
like we’re not gonna like this is
something we would play test internally
so I like to go crazy because then you
have other designers going well this is
nuts right that we could just throw it’s
easy to add limits afterward but you
might find in play that actually works
and it’s great like oh this does work
it’s balanced whatever reason it’s
working out perfect so so when a hostile
creature your focus is hit it is not
prone and I’m gonna just say hit I don’t
happen I’d think of just by an attack I
don’t care it’s um I don’t care what the
spell attack go up an attack I just care
that you get hit because I want the
wizard or the warlock to also get
benefits from this like why not you know
tactically in the world of D&D
you know how to make spells work well
with your your weapon fighters the the
okay so the I’m turning key I’m trying
to keep an eye on chat choose if I see
things come up so if I’m a little bit
like scattered I’m like looking right
now people saying anything the trying to
sort of see how this thing is going and
kind of take the temperature so we got
dire wolf tactics that’s a good thing to
give some flavor and so as your allies
struggle against the enemy you direct
their attacks to their most whatever
this is this is fake flavor because this
is so generic but their most vulnerable
points that’s terrible flavor because it
could be in anything but this is where
that
first sentence we want to capture what’s
going on what I imagine is you’re
directing attacks two legs the limbs so
we might say you make direct attacks to
point yeah you know this feels really
just kind of cheesy or whatever then
their legs or I almost type wheels
I guess you’re fretting a bunch of cars
whatever this is not portable flavor
text this is another great example of
with flavor text you want to get get
across the spirit but you don’t also
want even imposition of like hey wait
what if you’re attacking like a
centipede or a serpent or some like that
the rules for knocking stuff prone will
capture that anyways in d and v we’re
okay with you knocking a snake prone cuz
the snake actually flipped on its back
is not happy but so this is some pretty
low hey this is this is the flavor
texture you get live on stream it’s not
all that great but it gets across this
is what we want to do the you’d want to
get a sense of like hey what’s happening
that movie in your mind is important it
helps put the player in the same mindset
as the character
it also helps makes things just easier
to understand so but the this is apply
to flying creatures oh yeah that does
the area of focus extend into the air
great question
Abel hawk and actually makes sense for
the Abel Hawk to ask what a hawk would
think right yeah I’m gonna just put a
quick note up here area of focus should
be a cube and that’s just now you talked
about having being more specific and how
you want to say might be four squares
but I’m just gonna say cube doesn’t
necessarily mean that it’s gonna end up
as a cube but just reminds me that I
need to remember oh yeah this can go up
and yeah that would be a very
interesting one because oh so now this
is a really good point Abel hawk I’m
glad you brought this up what happens to
a flying creature when it’s not prone it
crashes so something that lets you
automatically knock people prone if you
hit them with any sort of attack is
really good if I put my area of focus up
in the air right I can knock creatures
out of the air pretty easily now I’m
going to say I like that it might again
this might be too good and I think what
we’re going to see is how does the
frequency of this ability
with things I want the warlord to always
feel like the Warlord’s being clever but
something like knocking prone if I’m
always knocking everyone prone is that
too good so I’m just gonna make a note
down here I’m gonna put reaction save
there are ways we can limit this but
like I said earlier it’s much easier to
put your limits on afterward if people
say hey in our internal test it just
feels too good so Oh Abel Hawk you
mentioned it’s only a ten-foot cube it
won’t crash too hard but remember I can
put my cube up in the air right there’s
nothing in so far that says this has to
be on the ground now we may want to
finesse that but what we’re seeing is
that see and this is why we play test
right because you can already see me
thinking here I’m thinking Oh what is
the name of this how do I make my flavor
you know I’m working on one track in
shat everyone else is working on their
own tracks that’s like you know parallel
processing and people start thinking of
well how does this work in my game how
would my players use it what happened my
game last night what are some of the
other options so this is why play
testing is critical because it’s really
it’s very difficult for one person to
see all the possibilities but you give
this concept of like a 100 500 people
suddenly everything starts becoming more
apparent so we know now we’re starting
to hit some of those limits the things
that are gonna turn this character
subclass from hey wow isn’t it fun to Oz
a DM I hate this thing all my monsters
are constantly getting knocked prone but
we know knocking is I’m one problem
that’s a first level spell I’ve got to
give us to you right like we said it’s
ok for a spell so I’m gonna I want to be
committed to this idea that this
character has to be able to top what a
spell can do it’s just to the extent to
which that can happen the nice thing
about spells is they are limited you can
only use them so often so what I’m
running into is my desire to have the
warlord always have these abilities on
so that might be something that’s going
to require some finesse but again my
feeling is start with not necessarily
super obviously broken but start with
something that feels like it might be
too good then rein it in rather than try
to self edit because you really want
that first test to feel
you want people you want to be able to
quickly identify what your actual
problems are a play test
initial play test that shows no real
problems is your probably didn’t
actually do any really new design or you
were just manage to get hit it perfectly
which not very likely it’s probably much
more likely that you might not be
pushing things far enough all right so
here we go
this one comparison to Greece really
just brought into focus some real issues
we need to think of but right now I’m
not gonna worry about them too much I
want to take a look at some other
benefits I could give you we have prone
is a pretty simple condition we can
throw around at first level notice we
didn’t really have any other conditions
coming in so we know magic wise mmm it’s
probably something which we want to take
a look at figure out when we start doing
things like restrained if ever there
might be too good to throw on all the
time restraints very punishing condition
but what we’ll figure out where we are
from there now a very simple one is we
kind of look at here with fog cloud have
you obscure ‘men typically using that to
get a defensive benefit or to let people
hide so let’s go to here to our remember
what do we always do we look everything
up because we know we’re gonna get it
wrong so let’s just go here just go to
index let that load up I have you know
there’s gonna be this should be in the
basic rule so I’m just going to go there
it’s kind of nice to have it all in one
place
all right so adventuring and let’s see
could be under I think it’s either under
the environment or it’s in let’s see
it’s either under combat so let’s just
pop over at the environment real quick
because we have vision and light that’s
we got here having a skirt area a
heavily obscured area such as darkness
opaque fog fog cloud are dense foliage
blocks vision entirely a creature
effectively suffers from the blinded
condition when trying to see something
in that area so what that means is look
under blinding a blinded creature can’t
see it automatically fails on the
ability to check the requires site
attack rolls against the creature of
advantage
and the creatures attack girls have
disadvantage okay so it’s very hard to
see stuff and that also would allow us
to make stealth checks to hide because I
can’t see the person there they just
need to focus on being quiet okay cool
so we’ve got with fog clouds something
that’s letting you hide and it is
blocking vision what’s interesting is
that that’s darkness has a similar
effect the so that’s kind of we’re kind
of putting those under the same roof
kind of think of this as like here
here’s our defensive benefit we’re gonna
look at so let’s go back with our
tactics um let’s see so a pretty simple
thing here would be some sort of
defensive bonus right so we call the
shield wall and say allies in your area
of focus gain a bonus to AC and saves
maybe +1
it’s a little irritating so now you have
to track that out there and now I can
imagine now I’m gonna have to always
remind players hey +1 AC remember your
+1 AC but it’s also pretty generically
useful and it feels like that’s
something useful you know I’m always
gonna want to use that I wouldn’t say no
to pulse I’m honest AC and I think I’d
also want to put it on saves because I
think that is something again that when
I look at the spell fog cloud well if I
throw a fireball into a fog cloud of fog
cloud does nothing for me but if my
warlord is giving me a bonus to both AC
and saves okay it helps against spells
to helps against the broader range of
effects and again I want the war load
effects to feel better than the
equivalent effect the wizard throws
around now the scoby task what about
advantage or disadvantage I’m a little
leery of throwing those around they’re
pretty big effects and they can also
come from other sources so my feeling
was if I was to give say disadvantage
and all attacks against my allies here
that’s really good but it also steps on
a lot of other effects characters might
be toting around which we’ve attached
typically to using an action of some
sort the classic example
we’ll go right up here let’s go back to
the top and let’s go to our let’s see
let’s go to our classes and actually we
look at the fighter itself it’s a great
example here in the under our class
features your fighting style so with
protection I can grant disadvantage that
is requiring me to use my reaction now
there’s must be within five feet must be
wearing a shield but essentially it’s
saying a character can use a reaction so
essentially once per round to grant
disadvantage putting that on all attacks
it’s probably a little too good whereas
plus when you see you know that’s
something where you could give that the
party it’s useful essentially one out of
twenty attacks is gonna miss because
that plus one bonus but if everyone’s
getting it pretty consistently you’re
gonna notice that you know if it’s a
three characters are getting that
benefit or four if your old clumped up
together you’re going to get that
probably like once per encounter there’s
it you’re gonna turn to hit into a Miss
it doesn’t sound super good but it feels
pretty good at the table we’d also made
me consider going to plus two but I feel
like that might be a little too good but
we’ll put that there but I think the
other thing also is I did disadvantage
would also make it much harder to score
quick so you have to roll two twenties
rather than just one
so the but that’s something which is
pretty simple and straightforward
it’s got good you utility and it’s good
defensive element then again it’s
something compared just to spells are
being thrown around actually I will take
a quick segue over to the cleric if I go
to the cleric we look at shield of faith
that’s our first level spell it’s a
bonus action does require concentration
gives plus two bonus Tacey so I think
plus one bonus to the entire party
versus plus two bonus one character it’s
a little bit different but it also means
I can protect if Ganon and that sort of
if I’m if I need to have a ten-foot-wide
Carter I’m giving the bonus to both
characters so rather than just one so I
think I think it’s a pretty good comp
and you know it might be plus one
versus plus two I’ll think I’m at a
little bit but that’s why I put the plus
one and plus two if you can see it put
those in question marks I’m gonna kind
of think of that and especially as we
test we might sort of go well let’s try
it’s try one try the other how does it
feel this is also another area where
I’ve talked about how balance so much of
it is the feel you might be the
mathematically prove the plus one is the
right number but if players just don’t
feel like it’s worth tracking like yes
you turned one hit into a Miss and
that’s a nice swing but players just
don’t feel like it’s having a big impact
so it’s always something to keep in mind
now that doesn’t mean we could say make
these if we found the eight plus two
bonus are just too good
we’d have to keep in mind well the field
might be good but it just might be too
it’s just shutting down too many attacks
so so that’s a pretty good one there
question it would it stack the oh yeah
these abilities oh that’s a that’s a
great question these abilities will
probably assume that the same ability so
if I have to world to warlords in the
party they probably shouldn’t stack that
we would probably draw on language view
some spells of the same spell cast
multiple times doesn’t build up unless
it specifically says otherwise so it
would stack there with other benefits
like from Schule faith because those are
two separate sources all right so we’ve
got some basic defensive ability we have
a basic offensive ability direwolf
tactics might be too good let’s think of
something that’s a little more has a
little more utility and I camera if I
talked about this one last week but it’s
one that I liked because it’s not really
useful until you realize wait I really
need this
so reorder ranks and I’m just gonna do
this in kind of very quick spend 10 feet
of movement to swamp position with any
other ally in the area of focus so this
is what I was thinking about in terms of
if you have a group of characters
defending a single point I can quickly
swap people around and essentially now
we’d probably to make sure make it clear
like where are they moving all this
other stuff but essentially it means if
you have back rank in front rank you can
quickly reorganize them it means for
instance a rogue could swap places with
one
character make an attack then swap
places with another character and then
get away from the fight so we might even
want to say swapping does not provoke
but I put a question mark there because
another immediate other one would be you
know it’s gonna call clever movement
very lame name but the allies don’t
provoke in the area that might be too
weak but Woolsey that’s another one
which is pretty straightforward these
two might get a combined but again the
idea is if I’m defending a point it
gives me a lot of flexibility that the
characters who want to attack only have
to be exposed to danger as long as they
want to or if the enemies try to
surround you you could the party can
quickly reorganize this is also one that
if we if we think the area of focus is
gonna grow with level it be gets more
and more useful as you go up in level so
so yeah it might also make sense pen
half movement we’ll figure it out this
is also another one we’d want to test to
make sure if the area gets really big it
doesn’t now feel like you’re teleporting
you can imagine if the area is large
enough that there’s space between the
characters and they’re swapping
positions all the time like does that
feel real so but that’s you again we’re
just going across the the gist of the
ability is you can reorder your ranks
normally you can’t do that right so this
is gonna let us maneuver the party
around in reaction to threats much much
quicker the alright now let’s talk about
some other abilities so far we’ve talked
about abilities that say hey your carrot
your allies already occupy a spot how
can you give them benefits last week we
talked about the idea that you could
have an area focus that essentially acts
like a magnet it pulls your allies into
it the example being imagine you’re
fighting some monsters in a doorway the
wizards in the back suddenly a secret
door opens up and a werewolf bounce into
the room to attack the wizard well what
if the warlord had the ability to
quickly move the party to the new
threatened area so I’m gonna give this
one the very flavourful name of charge
magnet
and what it just means is allies can use
a well let’s see I don’t know if I want
to use their reactions I think I want
you to do it you’re actually gonna stay
here you can use your action or reaction
to move allies into the area focus that
means you get to keep your opportunity
attack up it also kind of makes you
wonder if this reaction business if the
Warlord’s the warlord come using
reactions to make opportunity attacks
mmm I’m gonna throw this up here as a
question because now we work another one
where it’s like light I don’t want the
character that the ally to use the
reaction because it’s moving you across
the battlefield might not be too useful
if you can can’t actually defend this
pot you’ve gone to you’re like Hello The
Fighter the barbarian is no next to the
werewolf any waves as the werewolf just
keeps going because the Barbarian used
the reaction so so that’s another easy
one what the forget what’s happening now
is we starting to build our content
we’re starting to see where it’s pushing
against the framework we built you said
we want you to use these all the time we
want to make them manageable but now
we’re starting to pop out some of the
stuff of like well this might not really
fit right does it is this fitting in the
space we’ve set aside for it and that’s
kind of like it’s kind of how I think
about design for this content I gave a
box and a ninth double spells you know
the boxer 9/9 all spells huge you can
fit a lot in there the box where a can
trip is a lot smaller um these are kind
of contra e but I also want to compare
them to Wizard spells and make sure that
the warlord feels so you can kind of see
that tension right I have a can trip
sized box but now I’m comparing it to
much of bigger boxes I stripped out the
damage so those boxes got smaller but
they still might be bigger now I’ll do
you know if this one might be getting
much bigger in comparison to this so
it’s always a give and take so let’s see
what we got here how about blinding
tactic is a reaction from hulking 73 how
about blinding tactic is a reaction he
blindsides target enemy to Allah ally to
move the proton an opportunity attack oh
that’s pretty
yeah that sounds kind of interesting
like what if the
that’s not something I necessarily
thought of what if we attach some of
these things to our warlords attacks
that could be pretty useful I’m gonna
throw this in here just as a note but
attack buffs on targets and area of
focus triggered on warlord attack so I’m
just gonna put that down here I’m gonna
put it in bold because why not it’ll
just make it stand out a little bit more
but that’s another interesting model I
hadn’t really thought of that could be a
pretty nifty way to channel some these
attacks so for instance the direwolf tag
this might be I hit someone and if the
next person hit them also knocks on pro
so that might be another way to kind of
channel that so I thought that that’s an
it that’s an interesting way to look at
that because then we can bring in more
more effects and more control elements
that are nested in conditions but I
don’t want them to get out of control
there the nice thing is as the warlord
gets a second attack now you can tag two
people so that’s another that’s an
interesting to look at
it also gets across the teamwork benefit
now it does require some tracking you
have to remember hey I as the warlord
hit that creature I hit the werewolf the
next time the werewolf gets hit then
this thing is gonna trigger but it’s
definitely worth exploring and it’s
always good to have a lot of sort of at
this stage of the design a lot of tricks
up your sleeve
because then as things get complicated
you kind of already have a few ways to
to mitigate some of that you know the
box is not the right size we’re going to
do so the okay and then so we’ve got
that stuff here so we’ve got something
that live allows for movement we got
some jointed defensive abilities I also
want to take a look and think okay what
did what happens when we’re not fighting
the warlord is a tactician but there
should be some sort of benefit you can
get like I think if you’re not in a
fight let’s say the party for some
reason has to build a fence the world
Lords probably pretty good at organizing
that too so you know one of the things
we could look at doing is let’s call it
help boost right you know when the
warlord uses the help action
it applies to everyone in the area of
focus so now I’m gonna take a quick look
at my help action make sure I’m not
completely hosing that mechanic but if I
go back home and I go over to my real
strontium it’s bending the basic rules I
just like to have the basic rules for
this stuff cuz a lot of times the core
element it’s it’s smaller right I’m
gonna go down to combat go to actions in
combat and let’s take a look at help
okay you come in your age another
creature in the equation of a task okay
when you take the help action the
creature you aid gains advantage and the
next ability check it makes perform the
task you’re helping with provided that
it makes the check for the start of your
next turn okay cool so the the other
alternately you can eat a friendly
creature and attacking a creature within
5 feet of you you faint distract the
target or in some way so so this is also
another thing I can so I think both of
these are great now and here’s why the
attack version is actually strictly
worse than what the mastermind row can
get kind of the mastermind road can
choose one person as a bonus action one
person gets the benefit of the help
action so it’s pretty good
I get still attack I can still sneak
attacks this is saying a bunch of people
could get a benefit there might be times
there’s a warlord I might decide I’m
gonna forgo my attacks most likely at
low level once I get my second attack
it’s not as useful but I might use this
to give everyone advantage because let’s
say I have the rogue is up next I
whatever they want to make sure they hit
but I also know the the warlock is gonna
throw an attack spell but else wanna
make sure it can hit so that can be
useful but I do like the skill thing and
I think that using this for the skill
for instance we’re all trying to climb a
wall I make my air focus the whole base
of the wall wherever it’s standing I can
aide and everyone gets advantage now on
their checks to climb not as useful if
time isn’t an issue because we can
assume that if like we have an hour to
climb this wall each character can just
you know take the action eight
everyone’s aiding and moving it back and
forth but during a fight this could be
really useful or anything any situation
in which time is of the essence it’s the
kind of thing where it’s simple enough
that this might almost become a
it’s just something all warlords get now
put a question mark maybe they shouldn’t
but it’s just very simple it’s very
flexible right I don’t need to try to
start predicting what you might want I
can just give you look you can give
everyone advantage
people like advantage there are plenty
of times when outside of a fight this is
gonna be useful I mean you can even
imagine in social encounters the parties
trying to talk their way past the
barbarian patrol that stopped them the
warlord could use this to like sort of
buff up everyone else and so if everyone
has to make separate charisma checks or
if the group is trying to accomplish
multiple things so and it really kind of
hits home that idea of the Warlord’s
smart the Warlord’s cunning it’s not
just during a fight warlord is also good
in areas outside of combat and I always
like that field the more we can make
these things crossover the better so the
so chat what do you guys think about
that hunt I see people like that or the
yes yeah Keith I’m on I agree especially
a were lurch lead from the front while
the mastermind does is working back yeah
that’s that’s probably good feel what
we’d want here the world’s gonna get up
in that area of focus everyone’s around
him or behind them is gonna say okay hey
we’re gonna do this we’re gonna build
this this we’re gonna paint this fence
and everything they do a great job the
okay cool people seem to like that so
cool alright so what will keep that
there and I think there might be
something which is just a core thing the
nice thing about it is we don’t now have
to start coming up with a specific ones
for climbing or jumping like okay I just
named climb like jumping which might be
because that’s not usually a check but
there are a lot of areas with the our
ability checks are gonna take up so much
space that this feels more liberating
than it does confining in the sense of I
can think of a lot of ways to use this
so cool the let’s see so what else we
got here so this is like a decent
starting point we’ve identified our pain
points like we just worried that to give
you really fun abilities it’s gonna have
to come to cost you know the more I
think about this I don’t know if I can
just let you knock people prone all the
time so we’ll have to figure out is that
too good
let’s take a quick look I think though
what we are doing is about to compare
this to things like darkness fog caught
in grease I kind of feel
like what we’re talking about here is
already it’s more useful and it’s
it’sit’s more on point on it quite a
Jacob and 144 what do you think the
level 20 ability would be I have no idea
we’ll get to that when we get to that
cuz I’ve been feeling we’re gonna do
maybe one more week on the warlord now
because we’ve made some half-decent
progress here with these abilities prior
to the point now I can write a few up
but yeah it is interesting to think like
how can we extend this like what does a
capstone ability look like for the
warlord I don’t want to do something
like on your turn as long as you’re
conscious I think I’d say something like
everyone within every day my area of
focus gets an action so that is super
good it’s super broken which means yeah
it’s probably a level 20 ability that
might work right you can imagine you get
your focus on the wizard the cleric the
rogue the barbarian all of them get to
do something and you get your turn I
would not want that to take up your turn
because that’s like I mean it’s cool
that you got to watch every ounce do
something awesome but I also want the
warlord leading from the front as chat
pointed out earlier so it should feel
like I know I’m in there attacking so
the wizard and the cleric and combo up a
spell it might be too good it’s probably
something we’d say once per day you know
it just kind of kind of floating out
there’s your thing but I think that
would really feel like finish them right
you’re fighting the tower ask and it’s
almost yeah it’s on its last thing or
when you do the combo right like you
know and you could also imagine in
non-combat situations right where it’s
like we need to you know smash the you
know the vial the demons essence in it
then someone needs to set it on fire
then something needs to throw it down
the pit okay the warlord can make us do
that in a snap right so the okay so
that’s I’m gonna just make a note of
that
make sure they don’t lose that and I put
it in quotes I came over the exact level
the does is it at level 20 I can’t
remember shout we’ll take a look later
but allies in your area of focus you use
an action boom so that’s a pretty good
so we just jumped ahead but that but
it’s kind of actually what’s used to
what doing that it gives us a sense of
like what’s the most powerful thing we
can think that a warlord could do
letting the entire party take an entire
turn like rounds worth of actions that’s
really good not a lot of creatures
unless they’re much more powerful than
you
would want to cope with that so let’s
take a look once we get to third and
fourth level I’m gonna zero in on wall
of fire because that to me that’s where
I’m like okay I wanna make sure the
wizard isn’t just a better tactician I
want to respect the Wizards Lane but I
don’t want to I don’t want to cross over
into it too directly but I want to make
sure that the wizard again just through
the use of high level slots does not
just feel like a better tactician so
let’s go over to our spells let’s go to
all spells and let’s take a peek at wall
of fire fun spell I actually quite I’d
like I always like the wall spells are
fun alright so we’ve got a concentration
spell the last one minute it’s gonna if
I remember right it’s 60 feet long so
that’s pretty big the useful thing here
for us to think our tactical focus is
probably at the start maybe approaching
this size now how wide is it’s one foot
thick but still that’s essentially 12
squares so we can also make it a ring
we’re just well some pretty good to for
trapping things or keeping a bunch of
enemies at bay ah the walls opaque so
that’s pretty interesting that means
we’re getting a lot of those benefits
just fold it in of those lower level
spells like fog cloud this is just baked
into its blocking line-of-sight it’s
also essentially it’s like fireball
Junior it’s 5 D 8 fire damaged half on a
successful save that’s anyone within the
walled area so if I make the wall on you
wish you get roasted and the nice thing
about the wall spell is since I can
essentially make a path I can thread
this through a group of enemies you know
my friends don’t have to get hurt by
this my foes can one side of the wall
selected by you and you cast the spell
deals 5 D 8 fire damage to each creature
that ends it’s turned within 10 feet of
that side or inside the wall creature
takes the same damage when it enters the
wall the first time on a turn or ends
its turn there the other side of the
wall deals no damage so this is a great
spell for blocking off an area it is
blocking out of sight so it’s not so
useful for our fighter types if they’re
next to the wall as a DM I would judge
if you attack through the wall you
wouldn’t take the damage because you
aren’t going through it but we kind of
let up at the dungeon master if you’re
if you’re playing with me
you’re probably even though the walls
only one foot wide you’re probably
feeling the square with the wall so
unless you ever reach weapon you can’t
attack through it but you still can’t
see so you’re probably a disadvantage so
but the interesting thing here is now
but here’s the one nice thing this spell
is just dealing lots of damage I’m not
worrying about damage because I’ve
already decided upfront I want to just
put that into my generic healing and
damage boost ability so what this is
really showing me is just this idea of
more the size what I should be looking
for I’ve just gotta sumed that my damage
you know I figured out what those dice
those spell slots are worth I’m just
gonna ride that unless unless
playtesting starts showing it’s just
doesn’t feel powerful enough so but it’s
kind of good that I’m looking a wall
afire and feeling okay this is pretty
good this is just a lot of extra damage
in some ways you know again it’s showing
me that what I’m seeing consistently
from spells is they lack the precision I
want to give the warlord this is a very
useful spell but it has drawbacks
I can easily if I’m not paying attention
if the fight changes I can easily
position this where it’s actually
hurting the party more than its helping
I actually had this I’ll tell you a
story about one of my campaigns I
actually had this happen with the
players used a wall of fire to protect
themselves and with fire fighting a
giant horde of bug bears and they’re
using it to control a doorway that led
into a very big room they were in so the
face of the bug Bears were hosed that
they couldn’t get at the party but what
happened was when the way that the
wizard dropped the wall there was a
secret door in the room that when the
bugbears opened the door they were
actually able to hide behind the wall
and move in and ambush the wizard which
then dropped the wall so it’s a good
example of it was very useful but
because in this case the players didn’t
know about this secret door it actually
ended up working against them the bug
bears are able to open the door and then
able to hide because since the party
couldn’t see through the wall of fire
the bugbears could hide and then move
along the wall and it’s believed it
where they were they were safe in the
wall the fire the way is positioned they
did have to take damage from it and then
launch an ambush
I wouldn’t want a warlord ability to
offer that the more led ability should
again just feel like okay this
is tilting way toward favoring us and
it’s tilting towards holding back the
enemy so that’s a good sign that these
fourth double spells while they’re
dealing a lot of damage let’s take
another look I’m gonna throw any bards
black tentacles is another example I
think it’s gonna have something similar
where if you go into the area that’s bad
news for you wherever you are so draw a
20-foot square on the ground when a
creature enters the affected area the
first time in a turn or starts its turn
their decks save or 3d6 damage and
restrains so again this is very good for
keeping enemies at bay but you and your
allies don’t want to go into this area
you could imagine in effect where the
monsters managed to escape and it’s
actually making it more difficult now
for the party to engage so it does
require a bit more precision to make
sure it’s tilting to pure benefit and
now I do see the restrained condition
coming in so I’ve got to keep in mind
restraints pretty good that is my main
concern is I want to make sure that the
warlord can compete on those sort of
condition benefits that spells just
aren’t aren’t overshadowing it so but
again since now the warlord is just pure
benefit it does make those conditions
more powerful alright so but I feel like
to start with we have a pretty good
foundation here I think that what’s nice
about this is we have a pretty clear
vision of where we want these abilities
to end up we so far have managed to keep
damage and healing out of them so that
can be a separate track we do see some
pressure though for even a condition as
simple as prone we already kind of feel
you know chat I saw you know you guys
talking I’m thinking of this too it
might be too good right especially when
we start talking on flying creatures and
where I can put this it just might be
too much of a shutdown ability so we
want to think about some ways to
elegantly limit these but we’ll try
playing first and we’ll see what happens
and then we’ll start putting some limits
on this but otherwise you know it wasn’t
too hard to come up with some new what
new new concepts and what’s nice is
looking at the spells or comparing to I
think we do have some nice space here I
think we can create effects that just
feel like oh yeah I’d rather when it
comes to tactical benefits the warlord
can outclass the wizard the Wizards
probably that on going
the image element obviously like wall of
fire that can be hard to top especially
since the wizard can also still cast
spells though not a concentration spell
so but I don’t think it’s so far that it
feels like oh that’s a real drawback you
know I’d feel comfortable as a designer
thinking well that’s the benefit the
wizard spells hose everybody so the
benefit is there is like you can get
more damage thrown in on them if you are
able to tilt it actually what ideally
what you’d have is the warlord is
working with the wizard to turn those
spells into just strict benefit that
there’s something in the tactics you’re
using you know I want to try to find a
me I don’t think of some ways to like
create tactics that they feel like they
they dovetail well it’s like a wall with
fire so again we’re creating that sense
of teamwork so and we also have our art
our capstone ability let the the party
gets to basically take an entire round
of actions and the enemy just sits and
watches and takes the punishment so
that’s where we are we’re just sort of 2
o’clock so we’re gonna call that a
session here next week without what I’ll
do is a walk through the warlord how
it’s all coming together and really
importantly to one of the things we’ll
have to resolve and I’ll talk through
this is okay we have all this stuff
that’s going on how do we manage it can
the warlord attack heal someone
and use a tactical ability all in one
turn and also make an opportunity attack
so starting to see there’s a lot getting
packed into again they’ve that idea that
it’s like a box okay your turn is like a
box what can we fit in it we may have
too much there especially we’re thinking
you’re doing it all the time now the
nice thing is without those heal and
damage bonuses going back to our
spreadsheet we were looking at somewhere
between like starting at two uses at
level three tapping it at six at level
20 those might not be the right numbers
but they’re probably in the right zip
code or right neighborhood so maybe we
don’t have to worry so much about the
damage bonus and heal being something
you use all the time maybe use that in
place of your tactical benefit yeah
we’ll see I’ll start putting some
thoughts into it and start building out
some prototype characters and lay out
the skeleton for the subclass right well
thanks everyone for joining in thanks
for your comments in chat and next week
we’ll take a look at sort of the the
foundation of the class we’ll have
something actually that’s fully playable
so looking forward to sharing that
talk through how it all comes together
and then we’ll have something you can
check out and maybe using your own games
thanks everyone I will see you next
Tuesday 1 p.m. Pacific time