Word of Wizards - Excerpts: Bravura Presence

Martial Power Excerpts: Bravura Presence

So this week is Warlords week! The last of the Martial classes.

By now, we should be able to see a pattern of how the book will be organized and what will it contain for each class. The new class feature for the warlord which is the highlight of today's excerpt is an alternative to their Commanding Presence; Bravura Presence.

A new build that is not shown is the resourceful warlord.

Other than the new powers which are also shown in today's excerpt, the warlord chapter of the book will feature 12 paragon paths, which you can expect to see one in the next excerpt or so. I have to say that it quite a large number of paths for each class and it probably goes to show how easy it is to design them.

The Bravura warlord leads by example by taking high risk to give high benefits to his allies. The Bravura Presence allows an ally who spends an action point to make an attack to make either a move or basic attack as a free action after the attack, if the attack hits. Otherwise, the ally will grant combat advantage until the end of his next turn.

There is a wide range of powers shown today with the last two having added benefits if used by a Bravura warlord.

Opening Shove (at-will, level 1) looks like a very simple and potentially effective power.

Unified in Blood (encounter, level 13) will spring interesting surprises at enemies who think bloodying an ally is a good idea. It is a immediate reaction which allows the warlord to deal 2[W]+str damage to an enemy which bloodies an ally AND the bloodied ally to make a basic attack.

I really liked Daring Display (encounter, level 23) and Abrupt Skirmish (encounter, level 27) which really brings the warlord to the frontline rather than staying back in combat to give inspiration to his allies. It really gambles on a big risk to throw around combat advantages that would make a Rogue's day.

Particularly Abrupt Skirmish because it really makes me think of that awesome illustration of a dwarven barbarian being surrounded from the Barbarian playtest.