Home » Ancient Posts » A (Draft) Warlord Class for Lords & Wizards (and Other Old School Games)    
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Rachel Ghoul

The irony is that I understand that even in 4e the optimal way to play a Warlord is offensively– that is to help end the fight before HP attrition can occur. The temporary hit points thing, by the way is most inspired.

Randall

@Jeremy: Perhaps because morale is already covered elsewhere in 1e and other TSR editions of D&D?

However, how TSR D&D defines hit points really does not matter here as Hit Points are defined as energy/fatigue/ and minor scratches/cuts/pulled muscles/etc. that will effectively recover with a full night's rest in Microlite74 Extended and Lords & Wizards. Morale and the like are not included. Only rest restores HP. Body Points represent actual injuries and heal very slowly naturally (bonus if under the care of a healer), or can be magically healed by clerics, potions, and the like.

Shouting at people doesn't decrease fatigue in real life (or in M74 or L&W), but a really good leader can encourage people to draw on their deep reserves for a short period of time even when fatigued. L&W simulates this by allowing its Warlord class to give a pre-battle "pep talk" that gives temporary extra energy — temporary hit points.

Jeremy

The 1e DMG explicitly says that hit points aren't just physical damage. I don't understand why people seem to insist it is.

Is it necessarily morale? No, but I don't see why that couldn't be a factor in the intangible aspect of hit points.

Archaeopteryx

Perfectly understandable! 🙂

The power level didn't really bother me as I did enjoy just cutting loose occasionally as the next Heracles or Sigurd, but the combat length killed it for me too.

Randall

@Archaeopteryx: That's one of the many minor reasons 4e just did not work for me — after the main "combat takes far longer than I could possibly stay interested in it" reason, of course.

Archaeopteryx

As an aside, the 4e players who try to provide a non-magical explanation for Warlords are fooling themselves.

If one takes the rules in 4e then, much like real world myths and legends, ALL heroes are explicitly supernatural. This is why a 1st level rogue could potentially fire a crossbow 9 times in a 10 second round, or why a high level fighter could make a standing jump of 30 feet and then hit a guy so hard HE flies another 30 feet.

The Warlord shouting closed a sucking chest wound is no more incredulous than those feats.

Anonymous

My mistake – it's only "skill & luck" I'm thinking of, in AD&D 1e at least, along with undefined magical factors.

Maybe I'm just allergic to the meat points interpretation.

Randall

@Fullerena: You're right, morale rules in TSR editions do not apply to player characters (just to npcs, henchmen, and hirelings — and monsters, of course). However, in an old school game, chances are there will be more henchmen and hirelings than player characters on an average expedition, so the "old school" Warlord's morale-raising abilities are still likely to see lots of use. Not to mention that the combat abilities of men-at-arms led by a Warlord increase dramatically.

I do not know where the idea that old school editions of D&D include morale in hit points came from — as you will not find "morale" listed as part of definition/description of hit points in OD&D, Holmes Basic, B/X. BECMI/RC, or the 1e/2e Players Handbooks.

Anonymous

In the old school editions I'm familiar with, the morale rules explicitly don't apply to PCs, and morale is explicitly one of the factors that make up hit points.

This might be a nice pet class though.