New Class - the Warlord!

That is certainly high praise, thank you! The College of Schemes' Ruthless Parry takes your Reaction to use (so only once per turn). It is pretty strong, but once you reach 11th level and get your Expert Tactics (which take a reaction to use), you'll have some serious reaction decisions to make!

laserllama

Glad you like the first version! I've always thought the "lazylord" sounded fun, but it'd be hard to imagine someone enjoying that playstyle. I figured giving them the combat ability of a cleric who is out of spell slots wouldn't break anything and give them something to do. I was originally only going to include Chivalry, Ferocity, and Tactics, but the idea for a ruthless cutthroat utilitarian subclass was too hard to resist! I was brainstorming how to add a 1/3rd caster Arcane Trickster equivalent and Skald made too much sense not to include! I did consider giving them the Paladin spell list over the Bard though. Keep in mind that the Skald's capstone is two parts. Allowing you to cast a spell in place of an attack (so you could still do spell & Order/attack as your action, then Order/attack as a bonus action). You and your allies can also burn hit dice to regain spell slots. I'll see if I can think something more elegant up!

laserllama

I love this! This is the elegant take on the 5e warlord I've been looking for. It feels like it could have been in the core book. Question about Schemes- Is Ruthless Parry supposed to be at will?

Looks very promising so far. Orders are implemented well. I like that the class is still a competent warrior, no lazylording here. I like that you're hitting a lot of the qualities that people usually expect from something like a cleric or bard (guidance-style skill buff, clutch revive for end game fights, granting bonuses to saving throws and AC... College of Tactics even gets their own version of Divine Inspiration!) Chivalry, Tactics, and Ferocity are all standard for most 5e Warlord brews. I like these, they all feel distinct in flavor and function. Skald and Schemes are archetypes I didn't expect but they are good ideas. Schemes is an especially cool take on the class. One critique: Am I missing something or is the 18th level skald feature kind of underwhelming since they already get a similar thing at 7th? It's still just one attack and one spell cast per turn, but now you don't have to use your bonus action. Skalds don't really need their BA for much aside from healing word, though, so is this really good enough for the capstone?

ranch_big