Marshal
Added 2017-12-01 06:09:28 +0000 UTCCome on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?
Decisive leaders and brilliant strategists, marshals inspire their allies to greatness. Invariably, they stand alongside their cohorts, their devoted lieutenants, whom they entrust with their lives, and train for leadership. Marshals out-plan and out-strategize their enemies, overwhelming them with tight coordination and precise strikes. While these tactics rarely afford marshals the killing blow, it ensures theyβre always on the winning side.
Marshals are the first ever cohort class in 5e, putting you in control of two characters at once! We've designed this to be as balanced and easy to play as possible, and playtested it to a fine point. Included are four cohort statblocks, each of which levels as you do, and presents a powerful ally and an interesting character.
Moreover, marshals are also the first nonmagical support class in 5e, featuring a shallow, but rapidly refreshing pool of battle dice, which they can use to buff or heal their allies. Every aspect of this class is focused on supporting and coordinating your allies, pushing the party to victory.
This was bound to be a controversial class, but we're extremely pleased with the results! Try it out for yourself and let us know what you think!
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You can find the most up-to-date version of this class here!
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Changelog:
- 12/1/17: [Typos]
- Banner feature: added
- Cohorts: Berserker: Relentless: 1/long
Comments
Is this being looked at again any time soon? It's a great class and I'd love to see more. Particularly more banner options, including a magical variant.
Joe Garvey
2019-01-12 23:24:49 +0000 UTCThat's probably a good idea. I'm planning on trying it out the next time I get an opportunity. I'll post my experiences with the concept. I love the flavor of it.
Kristopher R. Hunter
2018-04-14 02:29:45 +0000 UTCAs much of a great idea as that is, I'm probably not going to put the Marshal into Dark Matter's character options. The reason being: I want to make sure that it's completely, totally final before including it, and it just needs more playtest time to make sure that's the case.
Mage Hand Press
2018-04-14 02:26:38 +0000 UTCYou know, I feel like this would be an awesome class to have a Dark Matter variant. Complete with a disposable Red Shirt companion :)
Kristopher R. Hunter
2018-04-13 22:33:55 +0000 UTCOh boy, we've got a lot of ideas, but I don't wanna say too many, for fear of not getting them finished. I'd love to do a zombie cohort (for necromancer dudes), a mage cohort, a priest cohort, a templar cohort. We've got a few ideas for banners as well.
Mage Hand Press
2018-02-05 00:51:53 +0000 UTCI really like this! I finally got around to reading it, and I can't wait to see the other banners, and possibly cohorts, that y'all come up with next! Is anything planned as of right now?
Matthew Atkins
2018-02-05 00:44:15 +0000 UTCBoth of these are mistakes: these features happen at 2nd level. As it happens, the Cohort feature originally happened at 3rd level, but it was moved back to 2nd fairly late, so I missed some references to the old level.
Mage Hand Press
2017-12-07 02:11:07 +0000 UTCAlso in the 'True Loyality' feature, it says "In addition, at 3rd, 6th, 10th, 14th, and 20th levels, your cohort gains new abilities based on its archetype", but all of the archetypes for Cohorts get a bonus at 2nd level, not 3rd, so is that a mistake as well, or is the mistake in the Cohort statblocks?
LastLifeTwo
2017-12-06 23:45:29 +0000 UTCFor the 'True Loyalty' feature, it says "For each level you gain after 3rd", is this meant to be 2nd level, since that's when you gain the feature?
LastLifeTwo
2017-12-06 23:34:00 +0000 UTCThank you for clarifying!
Daelbeth
2017-12-02 22:20:27 +0000 UTCIf anything, I may just handle dvati through a sidebar or something, because I'd like to outline that race as one that you can play both roles, master and cohort, rather than letting you play three creatures at once.
Mage Hand Press
2017-12-02 21:20:26 +0000 UTCBeen watching too much FATE. This seems like FATE. :thinking: ... not FATE.
Kura Tenshi
2017-12-02 17:30:05 +0000 UTCI think it turned out really good! I canβt wait to see all the cohorts and Banners you have planned whenever the Complete class rolls around. I think you balanced it out really well with the action economy and all. Also I canβt help but think it would be hilarious to play a Devati Marshal π the chaos of having three characters would be hilarious.
LeBallisticPoet
2017-12-02 15:09:18 +0000 UTCthanks! all good now
Daniel Lamoureux
2017-12-02 01:25:02 +0000 UTCOkay, it's up again. Patreon's attachments system has been giving us problems all day.
Mage Hand Press
2017-12-02 01:18:58 +0000 UTCLemme try to get it back up. Patreon is being awful weird about uploads today
Mage Hand Press
2017-12-02 01:15:43 +0000 UTCwhere is the download? I can't find it
Daniel Lamoureux
2017-12-02 01:14:20 +0000 UTCOh, good catch! The berserker relentless should be once/long. I'll fix that ASAP. I'm glad you're digging this class. It was a huge challenge to make a class that lets you play two characters at once, but I super happy with the way it turned out.
Mage Hand Press
2017-12-02 00:09:11 +0000 UTCOkay awesome! The magic items thing makes sense and I was 90% sure about the feats but wanted to make sure. I figured not since it was a similar situation to the Ranger Beast Master
LeBallisticPoet
2017-12-01 22:12:29 +0000 UTCAlso Relentless on the Beserker Cohort doesnβt have any limitations on how many times it can be used.. Iβm really digging this class though. Iβm envisioning some sort of Marshal/Warden multiclass in My future.
LeBallisticPoet
2017-12-01 22:05:45 +0000 UTCCohorts cannot get feats. You can, because you get the ASI class feature, but the Cohort only gains a stat increase when you get that feature. As far as magic items go, they can attune three items just like any other character. Magic Items are an inherently DM limited option, so it's up to them if they want to give you enough good stuff so you can give one to your cohort.
Jaron Mortimer
2017-12-01 22:03:04 +0000 UTCA Divine themed banner (Cross, or Symbol, or something) is absolutely a thing we want to do.
Jaron Mortimer
2017-12-01 21:58:58 +0000 UTCIt's been a long haul. The Marshal should play pretty well, and we all really like the idea of the Cohort just being a big part of the class.
Jaron Mortimer
2017-12-01 21:57:36 +0000 UTCCouple questions. Can your cohort use an item attuned to you? (Iβm assuming they canβt attunement themselves because balance) Second question is when you and your cohort get ASIs can they get feats instead (Iβm figuring itβs a no but wanted to make sure Iβm reading it right)
LeBallisticPoet
2017-12-01 21:57:29 +0000 UTCLooking forward to a revamp of that banner, cause I want to make my viking chief with a horde of einherjar
Corey Heward
2017-12-01 20:42:02 +0000 UTCThe changes that we made to the way all the banners work basically made the dragon banner incompatible. Plus, we only like to release classes with 2 archetypes, if we can get away with it, since it makes playtesting and refinement easier.
Mage Hand Press
2017-12-01 20:23:21 +0000 UTCThe recharge on initiative rolls is totally intended. We limited the number of battle dice to the bare minimum, so you have this always available, but very shallow, pool of dice. It makes the short or long rest clause a little redundant, but that's to ensure DMs don't restrict it to only combat situations.
Mage Hand Press
2017-12-01 20:20:18 +0000 UTCI've been running into technical problems with my PDF maker -- let's see if I can get the changes to stick this time...
Mage Hand Press
2017-12-01 20:12:11 +0000 UTCDamn! I'll fix that right away -- it's a weird bug I was encountering that kept messing with the levels on the stat blocks.
Mage Hand Press
2017-12-01 20:01:21 +0000 UTCWe've got cohorts in mind to cover most of the classes, but I'm not going to promise we do all of them. Ultimately, I want all the cohorts to play differently, so it doesn't make sense to do two full arcane casters, for example.
Mage Hand Press
2017-12-01 19:59:14 +0000 UTCI'm sure we can do a healing banner. We already have plenty of other ideas for more (including the dragon banner Corey asked about below), but we figured we'd save them for later release.
The Nails of Vecna
2017-12-01 19:37:18 +0000 UTCI believe the intention is that the Marshal can use battle dice in every battle. Kind of like encounter powers in 4e.
The Nails of Vecna
2017-12-01 19:35:35 +0000 UTCThe word 'die' is always missing from the Marshal, because he never says die. :P
The Nails of Vecna
2017-12-01 19:34:01 +0000 UTCThat's actually a typo. Stalkers just really like sneks. It's like their spirit animal!
The Nails of Vecna
2017-12-01 19:30:24 +0000 UTCWhat happened to the dragon banner?
Corey Heward
2017-12-01 18:27:34 +0000 UTCNow you gotta make a subclass for dark matter. Somewhere between zapp brannigan and admiral thrall.
Alexander Garcia
2017-12-01 17:43:57 +0000 UTCDownloaded it a few minutes ago and the banner ability is still missing, I know someone else pointed it out before but I thought I would mention it again. Also kinda sad there's no medic banner. Any possibility of seeing one in the future? I feel like a martial non spellcaster healer would be a fun alternative should a party need a healer but no one wants one of the spellcasting healers (which between your classes and arch types and alot of wizards unearthed arcana spellcasting healers are decently covered) because right now the only martial healer that I've really found that can stand on its own as the parties healer is the monk way of tranquility from unearthed arcana. Sure you guys have the corps man but I feel like that works more as a backup healer. This class could be a chance at a martial main healer through an archtypes.
Jackie syver
2017-12-01 17:02:01 +0000 UTCIn 'War Tactics', it mentions: You begin with 2 battle dice, and regain all expended battle dice when you take a short or long rest, or when you roll initiative. Is the recharge on initiative rolls intended? It seems very strong, and makes the short/long rest recharge somewhat unnecessary.
Daelbeth
2017-12-01 16:49:25 +0000 UTCI really love the class, but the Hunter's stats seem off; it gets spellcasting at level 21?
Astrid Rigby
2017-12-01 16:33:44 +0000 UTCsorry, i was reading this at 4 am, it is on the true loyalty ^^
Medieval Ram
2017-12-01 16:10:16 +0000 UTCThird Level War Tactics' "Brace" is missing the word "die" in the second use of "battle die"
Christopher Schroeder
2017-12-01 15:33:45 +0000 UTCAwesome. Been following this since the Buried Treasure Warlord. Good stuff guys keep it coming!
Richard Ascencio
2017-12-01 14:47:49 +0000 UTCDo you guys plan on making cohorts for every class feel? I'm loving it so far, though. Might make it for the next campaign.
Levi Andringa
2017-12-01 14:39:23 +0000 UTCThe Stalker has proficiency in "Sneak" instead of Stealth
Joseph Blanc
2017-12-01 12:01:18 +0000 UTCNo, your cohort's statistics and abilities are only determined by your marshal level.
Mage Hand Press
2017-12-01 11:12:23 +0000 UTCwhat about multiclassing, does the Cohort still get a hit die if you multiclass into another class for that level?
Matthew Elliott
2017-12-01 10:12:05 +0000 UTCWe have a long list of cohorts we'd like to tackle in the future, but we'd figure we's stop after 4 for now to facilitate playtesting and stuff. I like "Abbot". Might use that
Mage Hand Press
2017-12-01 07:28:25 +0000 UTCcool i figured id ask for a clarification, the only other thing i think could be a cool addition later would be a abbot (cleric/paladin or monk) cohort for a sort of religious council cohort
James Klein
2017-12-01 07:26:28 +0000 UTCLike other NPCs, you just kind of talk about their race using airquotes. However, if you can talk your DM into it, on page 282 the DMG has a table to modify NPCs with racial features.
Mage Hand Press
2017-12-01 07:19:33 +0000 UTCwith your cohort does it gain the racial ability's and or racial stat adjustments?
James Klein
2017-12-01 07:14:48 +0000 UTC"Kiff, show them the medal I earned."
Jaron Mortimer
2017-12-01 06:58:59 +0000 UTCYes, Zapp Brannigan is basically this class in Dark Matter.
Mage Hand Press
2017-12-01 06:49:23 +0000 UTC"Stop dying you cowards"
Alexander Garcia
2017-12-01 06:46:37 +0000 UTCThe cohort gain a hit die and hit points when you gain a level.
Mage Hand Press
2017-12-01 06:45:25 +0000 UTCAh, good catch -- fix incoming.
Mage Hand Press
2017-12-01 06:44:47 +0000 UTCthe cohort life stays the same every level?
Medieval Ram
2017-12-01 06:43:41 +0000 UTCThe Banner feature at 3rd level is missing
Stephan Gosswiller
2017-12-01 06:29:01 +0000 UTC
