Warlord: TNT Type

I've only played D&D 4e a few times, probably a decade ago, way before I formally got into tabletop RPGs. I didn't have an especially great experience, the people I was playing with were nice enough but they were people I met online so I had no pre-existing relationship with them, and their sensibilities were everything I don't want out of tabletop. Also, combat was waaaay too long. In any case, I don't think 4e is my kind of game, but to my limited understanding of it, I can respect it for what it is. It seems if you want a game that is tactical, without being overly crunchy for the sake of simulationism, then 4e is the way to go. I was always interested in the 4e-based Gamma World, which seemed to strip it down to its essentials, but never got around to playing it. I guess that's neither here nor there.

Anyway, back on point, one consistent positive thing I've heard about 4e from various independent sources is that the Warlord was a really cool class and it was a shame that they didn't follow through with it in 5e. Having skimmed through the wiki, making me basically an expert on the subject, I can see why it was popular. I've always liked the idea of an intelligence-based fighter, but also it's a cool class in that it plays into the tactical-ness of 4e, and it's a martial support class that in addition to using intelligence, also uses charisma, which is often an underutilized attribute. On the whole, it's a cool idea.

I've talked about this in my prior TNT posts, but I really like the combat system in TNT. I like the tactical-ness of missile damage and spite damage within an otherwise opposed roll-based combat. However, like any combat system, it can easily devolve into a slog of number crunching and dull roll after roll. The last session of my campaign I felt like this happened in the single, fairly brief combat encounter. I've been trying to add more special abilities to my Character Types, ideally without getting too crunchy, because I want combat in TNT to be more than just the opposed roll. There should be various other tactical options with corresponding SRs that can sway the battle even when the dice probabilities suggest you'll more often than not win or lose the group combat opposed roll. My hope is for it to be more OSR-like than D&D 4e-like, but 4e can still an interesting point of reference to work from.

So in other words, I think TNT would be will suited to a Character Type very loosely inspired by the D&D 4e Warlord. I'm not using any of the specific 4e Warlord abilities or terminology, it is strictly at the conceptual level.

D&D 4e Warlord

This character type is almost exclusively designed for combat or pre-combat tactics. In a game like TNT, obviously that's not too much of a problem since most things are just attribute-based SR rolls anyway, but it's worth keeping in mind that they don't have any spells or other benefits for SRs outside of combat besides whatever basic talents they have and their attribute scores.

What makes this type cool (or so I think), but also tricky, is that it requires cleverness on at least the part of the Warlord to come up with unique tactical options, willingness of other players to go along with the Warlord, and flexibility and improvisation on the part of the GM to create situations the Warlord can leverage, or respond to the Warlord's plans in interesting ways. I could go more the D&D 4e route and give them explicitly-defined abilities, but that's just not in the spirit of what I want from TNT. That all being said, if everyone is gelling, I think this character type could make combat much more interesting, while still being true to TNT and OSR-like principles. 

Warlord Abilities

Tactical Actions

• The Warlord can make an IQ SR (Battle Order) or CHA SR (Rally The Troops) by exploiting a Tactical Opportunity (see below), which provide benefits to ally SRs during combat. 
• The SR will generally be 1-2 (easy), 3-4 (moderate), or 5+ (difficult) minus Warlord level, to a minimum of 1.
• Warlords cannot attack and make a Tactical Action in the same turn without spending Tactics Points (see below).
• A Tactical Opportunity can only be used for any Tactical Action once per combat.
• Once per combat (or more at GM discretion), a failed Tactical Action SR may lead to disadvantageous circumstances (GM discretion).


• Tactical Opportunity
• A situation the Warlord can exploit for Tactical Actions. This is intentionally loosely defined, and can be anything from an enemy weakness, a trap, object, or feature in the environment, having the high ground, outnumbering the enemy, having superior training to the enemy, etc.
• Tactical Opportunities are only allowed to be exploited for a Tactical Action once per combat so that the Warlord must be creative, and by extension combat will hopefully be dynamic and interesting.


• Battle Order
• The Warlord exploits a Tactical Opportunity to gain the high ground, allow allies to flank enemies or bypass a defensive line, find a weak point on an enemy, etc. 
• Effects may include giving an ally a +3 bonus on a combat-related SR roll (such as missile DEX rolls), receiving a hint from the GM of an enemy weakness, triggering some environmental element that damages the enemies or affects the battlefield (like deploying an artillery weapon or dropping boulders from a cliff), increasing the spite range from 6 on d6 to 5 or 6 on d6, allowing an ally to roll three dice and take the best two on an SR, etc.


• Rally the Troops
• The Warlord gives a rousing speech or rallying warcry that fills an ally with determination, creating a Tactical Opportunity to do something extraordinary, resist the effects of debilitating injuries, or overcome the odds.
• Effects may include allowing an ally to fight for one more round even if they've lost all their CON (if the ally succeeds at a CON SR equal to the Tactical Action SR), giving an ally +3 to SRs to resist debuffs such as poisons, sleep spells, and charms, allowing a spellcaster to channel a spell even if they've run out of WIZ (if the ally succeeds at a WIZ SR equal to the Spell Level), creating a new Tactical Opportunity, etc.


• Tactics Points
• Every time an ally rolls an SR to perform a unique action (i.e. not missile attack, spellcasting, character type special ability), the Warlord gains a Tactics Point.
• A Warlord can only have up to 1 + Warlord Level Tactics Points at a time.
• Each combat, a Warlord starts with 0 Tactics Points, and any unused Tactics Points are lost at the end of a combat.
• Tactics Points can be used to give the Warlord a +3 bonus to a Tactical Action SR, give a +3 bonus to an ally on a combat SR, or allow the Warlord to make a Tactical Action as a bonus action. The Warlord can spend Tactics Points up to their level times per turn, but can only spend them in the same way once per turn.
• I.e. They can spend a point to make a Tactical Action as a bonus action and give themselves a +3 bonus to the SR, but they couldn't spend two points to give themselves +6 to the SR.

Warlord Combat Example

Given that Tactical Opportunities and Tactical Actions are loosely defined, I wanted to give an example of what a Warlord can do. So in this party we have Warlord, Warrior, Rogue, and Wizard, against a horde of goblins, including two club-wielding Clublins, three pig-riding Pigboiz, a goblin Whiz, and a Bugbear.

The Rogue makes a DEX SR to shoot a flaming arrow into the brush to create a fire along the goblins' path. This gives the Warlord a Tactics Point. They use the Tactics Point to make a Tactics Action (specifically, Rallying the Troops) as a bonus action, by exploiting the Tactical Opportunity of the fire. They roll CHA SR 2 (even a horde of Goblins aren't that tough), and on success, intend to give the Warrior a +3 bonus to their CON SR to resist the fire as they charge into battle. The Wizard casts a spell, and the Warrior and Warlord roll their damage dice (the Rogue already took their action to start the fire, but the fire damage dice are added to the roll as well). Since the warrior succeeded at their CON SR, they take no fire damage.

On the next turn, the goblins are intimidated by the Warrior who charges into battle amidst the fire without a care in the world. The Warrior decides to make a battlecry, a showy display meant to further intimidate the goblins, granting the Warlord another Tactics Point. During the commotion, the Rogue wants to set a wire trap to trip the Bugbear, the most dangerous of these Goblins. The Warlord spends their Tactics Point to add +3 to their Tactics Action, a Battle Order, to give the Rogue +3 to the SR to lay the trap. They roll an IQ SR to see if the Battle Order succeeds at assisting the Rogue. Additionally, since this is a unique action SR on the part of the Rogue (and not an SR in response to the circumstance, as the CON SR for the Warrior in the last round was), the Warlord gets another Tactics Point, which it uses to make that Tactics Action a bonus action, so that they can still contribute to the opposed combat roll. The bugbear is successfully tripped, taking them out of the opposed combat roll (for now), and the fight continues...

Summary

I really like the core concept of this Character Type, but it definitely needs testing. I like the idea of keeping tactical actions and the benefits they provide fairly rules-light, almost more like FATE aspects. However, in itself it's not a major benefit, which is why I allowed tactics points to be spent to allow Warlords to make tactics actions as a bonus action. However, part of me wonders if that is overkill. Also, all of this only works if players are willing to take the initiative to make a bunch of SRs rather than just straight combat, which I think is really cool and a necessary buy-in, but it is definitely a demanding thing to ask on a consistent basis. What do you all think?