My first ever D&D character was a sexagenarian human warlord for 4e who helped save his home town from a war band of goblins. He led the defenders and rallied a charge against the goblin chief’s entourage, barely surviving the attack. While the town survived, his home was destroyed, and so he set off on the path of adventure with nothing left to lose.
He may have suffered from a minor case of edgelord (it’s been so long I can’t remember every detail, and those character sheets are long gone), but he was a fun character. As a warlord he could support his allies by creating openings for ranged and melee attacks, provide some minor healing to keep the team standing, and could debuff the enemy with special maneuvers. In practice this was a wonderful class for tactical combat and had enough flavor for me to roleplay with out of combat.
He was by no means a great character – he wasn’t optimized for what he did, and that translated into pitiful healing and a limited number of maneuvers he could pull off per encounter. It was still fun though, and that’s the most important part. He could survive on the front lines almost as well as a fighter and his healing was enough to keep his party alive long enough to escape a deadly encounter.
Why am I talking about warlords right now? For one, I miss the class. 5e’s Battle Master is a pale imitation. I’ve tried them before and they just don’t have that same feeling that Warlords have. I’m sure options exist for Pathfinder 1e, but I don’t want to drown in the miles-deep ocean of character options for that edition. As for the Spheres system for Pathfinder: I already think PF1e is homework, and Spheres is just even more homework on top of that.
This isn’t a dig at the Spheres of Might and Spheres of Power systems – they do a great job of turning Pathfinder into a different system, arguably a better system. It hits on something I’ve talked about before in passing; hacking an existing system to the point where it becomes something completely different just tells me the hacker would be better off with a different game altogether. I can admire and appreciate the effort put in by these designers, but I know Spheres isn’t my cup of tea.
So that brings me to Pathfinder 2e and the Marshal archetype. As an archetype, you can take the feats for it as a multiclass option, which opens up the abilities of the marshal to any class that has training in martial weapons. It’s an excellent choice for champions to take thanks to their high Charisma scores, but would also be great for a battle oracle or cleric. The rally cries of the marshal would also supplement the healing capabilities of these classes.
This finally brings me to the concept of a support melee class, one that can buff or debuff while holding the front line. Ideally it doesn’t take the place of your tank, but acts alongside them while the casters and ranged warriors benefit from the added protection. It’s a versatile fighter, without the restrictions imposed by arcane or divine magics and able to support in a unique and satisfying way.
The Pathfinder 2e Marshal is special because it’s open to any class, leaving the door wide open to bring the archetype’s skillset to something like a wizard, rogue, or bard. While this may not be optimized character creation, I love the idea of a puny wizard who takes the Marshal path to become a battlemage commander of sorts. Perhaps a bard who tells tales of mighty warriors and decides to train and more properly emulate those heroes of old.
I’ll fully admit that some of the appeal of the marshal comes from a tactical command point of view. Being able to observe the battlefield, asses what needs to happen, and try leading your companions in combat scratches a certain itch. I don’t have the disposable income for tactical wargaming on the scale of Warhammer or its counterparts, nor do I have the patience. However, when it comes to a tabletop RPG you can bet that I’m far more invested in the success of these characters. I want to lead Balthazar the Red into battle with a rag-tag band of adventurers and successfully fight off the encroaching horde of monsters. In this way, games like 5e D&D and Pathfinder 2e thrive with their heavy focus on combat mechanics.
Where the warlord, or the marshal, or whatever iteration of the class you can name, falls off is when they’re put into a game with a greater focus on roleplaying than combat. Sure, you can say you’re a gruff battlefield commander till the cows come home, but if a system doesn’t support that in combat it can be disappointing. I’ve played characters in games where their core elements don’t line up with the style of game being run – a dungeon-delving rogue who doesn’t get to go into dungeons, a frontline fighter who rarely sees combat, a wizard in a wholly magical world where their magic is meaningless – and I can tell you for certain that this discordance leads to disappointment. This is also why you should always hold a “Session Zero” where you discuss the world being played in, the style of game, potential character concepts, and anything else that will lead to all the players playing characters that work for them and the game.
So after all this, why don’t I play these warlord-type characters anymore? I play plenty of fighters these days due to my impatience with magic-user classes and a strong desire to hit things with swords, so it would be a natural extension of that, right? There are a few reasons: I don’t want to overshadow other players who want to do their own things; I have a hard time taking charge and laying out a plan on the fly; other players don’t always want to go into a fight and spend 20 minutes trying to work out a plan of attack; DMs don’t always prepare for tactical combat, which means that fights can often be unsatisfying melees.
The most important reason, the one that I fall back on when I can’t put any of the other reasons into words, is that sometimes I just want to turn my brain off and have fun. I set time aside to play TTRPGs with friends, and when the moon and stars align with everyone’s schedules and it’s been a long week I just want to relax. I can pick up a tactical wargame on PC and play that whenever, and I can scratch the warlord itch. I don’t always get to play RPGs with friends, and when I do I want have a good time with them telling a story together.
While I love warlords as a class type, they’re not the perfect class for me in every game. Nowadays I tend to lean towards narrative focused, improv-heavy games, and this is a bad fit for tactical combat characters. It can work, but it won’t be as satisfying as it would be in a game made for tactical combat.
With all of that said, I’m still excited to try out the PF2e Marshal. I know the game I’m getting into is a dungeon crawl, and I know that combat is going to be brutal. In my mind, this is a perfect chance to try it out and see how it compares to my memories of that old mediocre warlord.
The Hungry Dungeon Master 