However, there are two things to note about the class:
[*] The first thing is that while the Warlord is clearly the best class, it ranks pretty low on the lists of classes that create jealousy.
[*] Even compared other leader classes (or classes that break the role barrier for the mold anyway, like the Invoker), the Warlord doesn't create as much jealousy as a Fighter creates among Paladins and Wardens. That's because they have a specific form of force multiplication specialization while the other non-shitty leader classes bring something else to the table. Clerics are hands-down the best at healing, bards are great with cynical status buffs, etc.
This has led me to think that all classes for a new edition of D&D should completely forgo crap like the Defender and Striker and instead behave in one of two ways. They should either rely on other classes to give them big-time knockout attacks or enable classes to use big-time knockout attacks. For example:
Cleric: They throw out the lion's share of cynical heals and buffs. They dabble a bit in other roles, more than other classes, but that's mainly what they do.
Paladin: They grant extra attacks and bonuses to their buddies when they're hit with attacks. They have ways to draw fire to themselves.
Artificer: They lay down summons and equipment on the board which give people one-shot special moves that different classes will be able to use better. You know, shit like magic weapon armories, Magi-Tek armor, soforth.
Wizard: Wizards lay down positive battlefield control that locks down monsters and makes them easier for teammates to hurt. They are also a 'dabbling' class.
BarbarianThanes: Thanes flip-flop between two states. When they're unhurt, they provide passive defense bonuses to everyone but themselves and act as melee interdicters. When they are hurt then the passive defense bonuses end and they explode in an orgy of violence.
WarlockNecromancer: The necromancer summons undead that act as blockers and performs asymmetrically better when they're backed up by other party members. Not very hard, because that's how summons perform anyway.
Rogue: Rogues get massive bonuses for attacking enemies that are unengaged or hindered in some fashion. They also can render wide swatches of enemies hindered with shit like covering fire and smoke bombs and glyphs of warding. They can't do both at once, though.
DruidElementalists: Elementalists work like element benders from TLA/LoK. Except that they get two schools and/or there is more diversity within the schools like water benders also getting to manipulate acid. Haven't decided yet. They provide random escalating bennies from a grab bag to the party that fails and starts from scratch when they 'lose the bending momentum', which typically means that they're not attacking enough or getting hit too hard. However, they themselves start to take penalties if they stay in a particular style too long, so they need to switch it up.
Psion: Psions generate a pool of Telepathic Bonds and Inspirations that they provide to the party to create weird extra actions (like flying in the air and blasting people with a barrage of mind bolts) with some refreshing scheme I haven't though of yet. The party gets to pick which ones that they want to follow, which makes them unavailable for other people.
Mystic KnightBard: Bards generate Melodies packaged with Crescendos on a round by round basis. Melodies are passive granted abilities/bonuses. Crescendos are active bonuses that you can activate if enough people hearing them do what the Crescendo tells you to do. For example, if at least people hearing the Marching Waltz move a total of 50 squares, minimum 3 different contributors with 5 squares minimum movement, the bard can activate a Crescendo which lets everyone who participated take an additional move action.
I also wanted to through the Warlord and Monk/Kensai up onto that list, but I am too lazy. There's ten classes though and you get the idea.
Several things to note from this proposal:
- All of the classes synergize with each other in obvious ways. The classes also have a tendency to trip over their own dicks if you have too many of them of the same kind at the same time. Clerics provide redundant bonuses, paladins don't get attacked enough to make their bonuses worth it, artificers provide too many inventions for people to use, etc. Having two of the same class in a three to seven PC party isn't a big deal, but there starts to be problems with more than that. Some classes still do synergize like the Rogue and Wizard, but they're the exceptions.
- Similarly, classes don't create party jealousy. Not just because a Paladin or a Bard are nowhere near as awesome without other people to appreciate it, but because Paladins and Bards create different kinds of bonuses under different conditions.
- You have to put a limit onto how many bonuses people are throwing out at once. Because shit can get out of hand really fast if a Thane has to track the bonus a cleric is giving him, has to remember to do a jumping attack to advance the Bard's Crescendo bonus, has to decide whether he wants the Ghost Crusher Sword or the Storm Giant's Strength Potion from the artificer's workbench, and figure out a way to take advantage of the rogue garroting a hill giant.
- After you've gotten the basic force multiplication schtick down, you can layer on additional crap to the class to make them more diverse and so you don't have the 'who's going to be the cleric?' problem. However, it's absolutely vital that you don't have the additional crap overshadow the primary focus of the class, which is force multiplication for other party members. Bards can and will also do swashbuckling and throwing out illusions and minor mind-control magic, but it can never be a bigger deal than their music. Artificers can fly around in fantasy power armor and shoot death rays from their blunderbusses, but they will ironically not be as good in their own power armor as Captain America or Wolverine would be in the power armor. And the class provides free suits of power armor.
- I know I've come across really hard on the 'No Self Buffs' paradigm before but that's because almost all games that I've seen it get used in have classes that don't provide buffs at all. If everyone provides party buffs of some sort then it's not a big deal.
