Warlord

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Description

You know, in DnD every party has to have a Cleric. And yes, we tinkered the Cleric to make them six kinds of awesome fun, so that's no hardship. But there should be another class that can 'keep a party going' just as good as a cleric can.

Welcome to the Warlord, folks!

A warlord does not have even one single heal. Not one. But you know what, he'll support a party so well you can adventure just as hard as if you had a pocket band-aid wagon right behind you every step of the way.

If you like playing support toons, the Warlord is your cup of tea. And to make it even better, the Warlord is perfectly capable of wading into the front lines and doing just as much damage as any heavy-armor melee toon can dish out. Now, the Warlord is very much a team toon. The larger the party, the more powerful he gets and the more potent the buffs become. So while Clerics get a bit 'washed out' in large parties, Warlords just get stronger and stronger.

So, grab a Warlord and snuggle up to the barbarian, this class is a helluva good time!

Alignment: Any.

Hit Die: d10.

Starting Wealth: Each character begins play with basic (non-armor) clothing worth 10 gp or less.

Class Skills: The warlords class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Appraise (Int), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (dungeoneering) (Int), Knowledge (engineering) (Int), Knowledge (geography) (Int), Knowledge (history) (Int), Knowledge (local) (Int), Knowledge (nobility) (Int), Linguistics (Int), Perception (Wis), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis) Survival (Wis) and Swim (Str).

Skill Points at Each Level: 6 + Int modifier.

Table: Warlord

Level	BAB	Fort	Refl	Will	Hold the Line	Formation	Special
1st	+1	2	0	2	-	-	Inspiration 1d6, Combat Leader +2, Commanding Presence +1
2nd	+2	3	0	3	-4 to hit for +2 ac, affects adjacent allies	-	Hold the Line
3rd	+3	3	1	3	-4 to hit for +2 ac, affects adjacent allies	-	Inspiration 2d6
4th	+4	4	1	4	-3 to hit for +2 ac, affects adjacent allies	1d12	Rallying Presence, Formation 1d12
5th	+5	4	1	4	-3 to hit for +2 ac, affects adjacent allies	1d12	Inspiration 3d6
6th	+6/+1	5	2	5	-3 to hit for +3 ac, affects adjacent allies	1d12	Force Majeure, Combat Leader +3
7th	+7/+2	5	2	5	-3 to hit for +3 ac, affects adjacent allies	1d12	Inspiration 4d6
8th	+8/+3	6	2	6	-2 to hit for +3 ac, affects adjacent allies	2d12	Formation 2d12, Commanding Presence +2
9th	+9/+4	6	3	6	-2 to hit for +3 ac, affects adjacent allies	2d12	Inspiration 5d6
10th	+10/+5	7	3	7	-2 to hit for +4 ac, affects adjacent allies	2d12	Cry Havoc
11th	+11/+6/+1	7	3	7	-2 to hit for +4 ac, affects adjacent allies	2d12	Inspiration 6d6
12th	+12/+7/+2	8	4	8	-1 to hit for +4 ac, affects adjacent allies	3d12	Formation 3d12
13th	+13/+8/+3	8	4	8	-1 to hit for +4 ac, affects adjacent allies	3d12	Inspiration 7d6
14th	+14/+9/+4	9	4	9	-1 to hit for +5 ac, affects adjacent allies	3d12	Brilliant Leadership, Combat Leader +4
15th	+15/+10/+5	9	5	9	-1 to hit for +5 ac, affects adjacent allies	3d12	Inspiration 8d6
16th	+16/+11/+6/+1	10	5	10	-0 to hit for +5 ac, affects adjacent allies	4d12	Formation 4d12
17th	+17/+12/+7/+2	10	5	10	-0 to hit for +5 ac, affects adjacent allies	4d12	Inspiration 9d6
18th	+18/+13/+8/+3	11	6	11	-0 to hit for +5 ac, affects allies within 10 feet	4d12	Onward to Victory, Commanding Presence +3
19th	+19/+14/+9/+4	11	6	11	-0 to hit for +5 ac, affects allies within 10 feet	4d12	inspiration 10d6
20th	+20/+15/+10/+5	12	6	12	-0 to hit for +5 ac, affects allies within 20 feet	4d12	Victorious Surge

Class Abilities

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

A warlord is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, with all armor, and with shields (including tower shields).

Combat Leader

At 1st level, the warlord begins to demonstrate the brilliance of their battlefield leadership. The warlord and all allies the warlord can see gain a +2 bonus to initiative. This bonus increases to +3 at 6th level and +4 at 14th level.

Commanding Presence

The mere appearance of a warlord upon the field of battle has a positive impact among his allies. The warlord and all allies that can see him gain a +1 bonus to attack and weapons damage rolls. This bonus increases to +2 at 8th level, and +3 at 18th level.

Inspiration

During battle, once per round, as a move action, the warlord may exhort his comrades with words of courage and determination. This inspiration affects all allies within a 30-foot radius centered on the warlord, and bestows 1d6 temporary hit points, plus 1d6 additional points for every two warlord levels beyond 1st (2d6 at 3rd, 3d6 at 5th, and so on). These temporary hit points last until the battle ends, or until they are removed through damage. A warlord may inspire a number of times per day equal to 3+ his Charisma modifier. This inspiration does not provoke an attack of opportunity. The warlord can choose whether or not to include himself in this effect.

Hold the Line (stance)

During battle, the warlord may enter a defensive stance centered on himself as a swift action. By doing so, he takes a penalty to his attack rolls of -4, but gains a bonus to his AC of +2, and grants this same bonus to all adjacent allies (but not the attack penalties). As he levels up, the penalties decrease, and the AC bonuses increase, eventually granting no to-hit penalties and a +5 AC bonus to the warlord and his allies. Beginning at level 18, the size of his defensive bastion increases to 10 feet, and increases to 20 feet at level 20. Note that this ability may be stacked with defensive fighting and/or combat expertise, though AC bonuses from these actions do not extend to the warlord's allies.

It takes no action to sustain or leave the stance. If the warlord is knocked prone, or suffers a condition which prevents him from taking actions, the stance ends (though the warlord can use another swift action to start it again).

Only one stance may be active at a time. (For clarity, defensive fighting and combat expertise are not stances. Stances are class powers that are labeled as stances.)

Rallying Presence

As an immediate action, the warlord may grant an ally a reroll to a save. This must be done before the outcome of the save is resolved. The warlord can do this a number of times per day equal to 3+ CHA mod.

Formation

At 4th level, the warlord begins to gain offensive power as long as there is at least one PC ally in the party who has temp hit points granted by his Inspiration power. After applying, and while maintaining, temporary hit points on any player character he is allied with, the warlord gets a formation dice pool, which he may apply as damage, once per round, as a free action, to a melee attack he has successfully made. Temp hit points from other sources, including other warlords do not count. At level 4, the size of this dice pool is 1d12, as shown in the table, "Table: Warlord", and it increases by one die each four levels until it reaches 4d12 at level 16.

Alternatively, once per round, as a free action, the warlord may 'gift' half the dice in his pool, round up, to a PC ally's melee damage roll. This ally must have remaining temporary hit points from the warlord's Inspiration power in order to receive this gift.

At level 8, the warlord's Formation dice go up to 2d12 (maximum gift of 1d12). At level 12, it increases to 3d12 (maximum gift 2d12), and up to 4d12 at level 16 (maximum gift 2d12).

Force Majeure

Beginning at 6th level, the Warlord adds his CHA modifier to his melee damage rolls.

Cry Havoc

Up to once per round, when the Warlord strikes a target, he may invoke havoc upon it as a free action. Until the end of the Warlord's next turn, any attack roll made by the Warlord or any of his PC allies who have temp hit points bestowed by the Warlord, gain a benefit. All attacks now score a critical hit against that target on an 18-20, or with a +1 increased crit range, whichever is preferred. Further, his rolls to confirm critical attacks suffer no penalties from fighting defensively, hold the line or combat expertise against a target he has invoked Havoc upon. The warlord can use this ability a number of times per day equal to his CHA modifier (minimum 1).

Brilliant Leadership

If the warlord successfully strikes an opponent while using 'Hold the Line', he may grant an ally receiving the 'Hold the Line' bonus an immediate opportunity attack against the same opponent. This may not occur more than once per round.

Onward to Victory

Once per day as an immediate action, the warlord may grant himself and all allies within 10 feet per point of his CHA mod a move action. These moves are resolved immediately, in initiative order. Ongoing effects such as bleed damage do not 'tick' on this granted action.

Victorious Surge

Once per day as an immediate action, the warlord may grant himself and all allies within 10 feet per point of his CHA mod a standard action. These actions are resolved immediately, in initiative order. Ongoing effects such as bleed damage do not 'tick' on this granted action. Special: This may be used as part of the same immediate action as Onward to Victory.

Warlord Example Build

For those who are non-expert in this class, or who are busy, or who simply don't want to spend hours digging around feats, here's an example build. Note: This is not a suggested build. Heck, it's probably even not very good. But what it WILL do is let you play without hours of investment, and it will perform more than adequately. If you want to tweak, feel free!

Human, base stats: Str 14, Dex 12, Con 14, int 14, Wis 8, Chr 18.

Example Feats

1st Level: Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Heavy Whip, Combat Expertise. Get a solid weapon, open up some good feats.

3rd Level: Improved Trip. You have a reach tripping weapon. Guess what you should be trying to do.

5th Level: Improved Disarm. Your weapon gives bonuses to disarm, too!

7th Level: Greater Trip. Trip them and hit them, at a distance. So hard not to love this.

9th Level: Improved Reposition. Bad guys in a bad place? Move them!

11th Level: Greater Reposition. move the baddies and hit them while you're doing it. So awesome.

13th Level: Power Attack. Hit them HARD, man!

15th Level: Fury's fall. Build up some Dex, trip them even better!

17th Level: Fury's snare. Trip them and tie them up, all in one convenient attack. Very nice, this.

19th Level: Furious Focus. Power attack making it hard to trip? Not any more!