If you found yourself in front of people that had never played D&D 4E before, and they asked you to define the Leader class role, how would you do it?  It’s actually kind of difficult to put your finger on because each of the 4E and Essentials Leaders do the job in slightly different ways.

Personally, I’d use a chess analogy to define a Leader.  Let’s say the Leader is playing the white pieces, and the DM had the black pieces.  And during his turn, the Leader is allowed to do more than just one piece, because sometimes he could move two of his pieces; or swap two white pieces positions; or make them tough so that they can’t be captured during black’s turn; or allow a white piece to take an extra move and capture more than one black piece; or even bring a captured white piece back on the board after they have been removed!

Of course, in a game of chess, all those sorts of moves would be cheating, so obviously the analogy fails there – mainly because D&D combat is just far more complex.  Having an effective Leader on the opens up combat options to player-characters far beyond just healing and buffing – the traditional D&D Cleric’s role – and has created new sort of character class type that has never existed in D&D before: the battle leader of tactics.

But how do the various Leaders stack up when measured against each other?  Which are the true Leaders of Heroes, and which just aspire to the job?

Base Assessment Parameters

As in the Defenders Roundtable blog, I wanted to keep my measuring of Leaders to be as equitable across the board as possible.  Like for Defenders, I chose to make all the Leaders racially Human, but due to the nature of many Leaders to seem to require two good Secondary class stats, I chose  a statistic array of [16, 14, 14, 11, 10, 10].  This allowed me to apply a 16 to the Primary class stat and a 14 in both Secondary class stats, with the +2 Human racial stat bonus applied to the Primary stat to generate an 18.

Powers were analyzed through the Heroic Tier (to Level 10), and Feats were not used in the analysis, as they are player options that can be used to either optimize or sub-optimize a character class – not to mention that there has always been a disparity between the power level of feats between character classes.

For each analysis, the Leader classes are scored subjectively on a 0-5 scale, with a 5 ranking representing superlative traits or abilities for their chosen role, while a 0 represents a serious deficiency in Leader abilities.

Leader-Defining Abilities

Each of the four roles has defining abilities that make it unique compared to each other.  And so it is important to list those defining abilities by function in order to know what makes up a Leader:

• Healing – Leaders can heal their comrades and themselves in the heat of combat – by either allowing characters to spend healing surges, or even sacrificing their own healing surges to aid allies.
• Bolstering – Leaders can grant temporary hit points, allowing their allies to survive dangerous attacks.  Some Leaders can also grant allies resistance to certain types of damage.
• Succor – Leaders can help ease suffering of allies by aiding in saves against ongoing damage or effects, or removing them entirely.
• Tactical Inspiration – Leaders can inspire their comrades to do attack with greater accuracy, or to strike harder for greater damage.
• Tactical Positioning – Leaders can allow allies to move freely in the midst of combat, or can swap the position of teammates to create combat advantages.
• Tactical Assault – Leaders can grant their allies the ability to strike enemies, forgoing their own attacks in favor of dealing damage through their comrades.

Stat Selection

As with all classes, Leaders have a single Primary stat to assign, but multiple Secondary stat options.  As mentioned previously, Leaders tend to need to have two decent Secondary stats assigned in order to utilize their powers well:

• Ardent – Primary: CHA / Secondary: CON & WIS
• Artificer – Primary: INT / Secondary: CON & WIS
• Bard – Primary: CHA / Secondary: CON & INT
• Templar (Cleric) – Primary: WIS / Secondary: STR & CHA
• Rune Priest – Primary: STR / Secondary: CON & WIS
• Sentinel (Druid) – Primary: WIS / Secondary: CON & DEX
• Shaman – Primary: WIS / Secondary: CON & INT
• Marshall (Warlord) – Primary: STR / Secondary: INT & CHA
• Warpriest (Cleric) – Primary: WIS / Secondary: CON & CHA

Given the abilities of Leaders to hand off their own healing surges to allies, CON would seem to be an important stat in order to increase the number of surges.  Interestingly, only the original 4E PHB Leaders – Templar (Cleric) and Warlord – do not tend to have these as important Secondary stats.

Hit Points and Healing Surges

Here is the breakdown of hit point and healing surges for the various Leader classes:

• Ardent – Hit Points: 12 + Constitution score & 5 HP/Level; Healing Surges: 7 + Constitution modifier
• Artificer – Hit Points: 12 + Constitution score & 5 HP/Level; Healing Surges: 6 + Constitution modifier
• Bard – Hit Points: 12 + Constitution score & 5 HP/Level; Healing Surges: 7 + Constitution modifier
• Templar (Cleric) – Hit Points: 12 + Constitution score & 5 HP/Level; Healing Surges: 7 + Constitution modifier
• Rune Priest – Hit Points: 12 + Constitution score & 5 HP/Level; Healing Surges: 7 + Constitution modifier
• Sentinel (Druid) – Hit Points: 12 + Constitution score & 5 HP/Level; Healing Surges: 7 + Constitution modifier
• Shaman – Hit Points: 12 + Constitution score & 5 HP/Level; Healing Surges: 7 + Constitution modifier
• Marshall (Warlord) – Hit Points: 12 + Constitution score & 5 HP/Level; Healing Surges: 7 + Constitution modifier
• Warpriest (Cleric) – Hit Points: 12 + Constitution score & 5 HP/Level; Healing Surges: 7 + Constitution modifier

And so here are the hit points and healing surges values by the middle of the Heroic Tier (Level 5) for the Leaders:

• Ardent – Hit Points: 46; Healing Surges: 9; Healing Surge Value: 12
• Artificer – Hit Points: 46; Healing Surges: 8; Healing Surge Value: 12
• Bard – Hit Points: 46; Healing Surges: 9; Healing Surge Value: 12
• Templar (Cleric) – Hit Points: 43*; Healing Surges: 7; Healing Surge Value: 10
• Rune Priest – Hit Points: 46; Healing Surges: 9; Healing Surge Value: 12
• Sentinel (Druid) – Hit Points: 46; Healing Surges: 9; Healing Surge Value: 12
• Shaman – Hit Points: 46; Healing Surges: 9; Healing Surge Value: 12
• Marshall (Warlord) – Hit Points: 43*; Healing Surges: 7; Healing Surge Value: 10
• Warpriest (Cleric) – Hit Points: 46; Healing Surges: 9; Healing Surge Value: 12

*Assigned score of 11 to the CON stat

So far, there is very little difference in the hit point and healing surge values for most Leaders, with the exception of the Artificer, Templar (Cleric), and Marshall (Warlord).  The Artificer is singled out to have one less base healing surge than all other Leaders, while the Templar (Cleric) and Marshall (Warlord) have both reduced hit points and total healing surges due to the fact that Constitution is considered a very low priority stat.  Even in the recent changes to the Class Compendium, the Constitution stat for Marshalls is not considered mentioning – although for Templars, it was brought up that Constitution could take a higher role than Charisma in cases where the Cleric decides to do melee combat.  But even with these slight disparities for hit points and healing surges, the Leader classes are pretty even across the board.

Hit Point & Healing Surge Scores:

• Ardent – 5
• Artificer – 4.5
• Bard – 5
• Templar (Cleric) – 4
• Rune Priest – 5
• Sentinel (Druid) – 5
• Shaman – 5
• Marshall (Warlord) – 4
• Warpriest (Cleric) – 5

Healing Class Feature

The first major ability which defines a Leader is the class feature of healing.  Each Leader has an ability to allow a character (or themselves) to spend a healing surge, which can be used as a minor action, twice per combat, and within a close burst 5 (10 at 11th Level and 15 at 21st Level). However, some Leaders have more potent healing class features than merely granting a healing surge, as can be seen below:

• Ardent – Ardent Surge: Bonus to Healing Surge: 1d6 hit points at 1st Level (increases by +1d6 hit points per 5 Levels after 1st Level)*
• Artificer – Curative Admixture: Bonus to Healing Surge: WIS Modifier + 2 hit points at 1st Level (increases by +2 hit points per 5 Levels after 1st Level)
• Bard – Majestic Word: Bonus to Healing Surge: 1d6 + CHA Modifier hit points at 6th Level (increases by +1d6 hit points per 5 Levels after 1st Level)
• Templar (Cleric) – Healing Word: Bonus to Healing Surge: 1d6 hit points + WIS Modifier at 1st Level (increases by +1d6 hit points per 5 Levels after 1st Level)
• Rune Priest – Rune of Mending: Bonus to Healing Surge: 1d6 hit points at 6th Level (increases by +1d6 hit points per 5 Levels after 1st Level)**
• Sentinel (Druid) – Healing Word: Bonus to Healing Surge: 1d6 hit points at 1st Level (increases by +1d6 hit points per 5 Levels after 1st Level)
• Shaman – Healing Spirit: Bonus to Healing Surge: one ally is healed for 1d6 hit points at 1st Level (increases by +1d6 hit points per 5 Levels after 1st Level) ***
• Marshall (Warlord) – Inspiring Word: Bonus to Healing Surge: 1d6 hit points at 1st Level (increases by +1d6 hit points per 5 Levels after 1st Level)
• Warpriest (Cleric) – Healing Word: Bonus to Healing Surge: 1d6 hit points at 1st Level (increases by +1d6 hit points per 5 Levels after 1st Level)

* Ardents with Mantle of Clarity also grant the target +1 to all defenses for 1 round; Mantle of Elation also grants the target +1 to attack rolls for 1 round.
** Rune Priests with using Rune of Protection also grant all allies in burst +1 to all defenses for 1 round; Rune of Destruction also grants all allies in burst +2 to damage rolls for 1 round.
*** Shaman’s Bonus to Healing: Other than the target and adjacent to shaman’s spirit companion

For sheer healing power, it’s hard not to be a bit impressed with the Bard and Templar, which adds onto a healing surge additional healing dice as well as their Primary stat modifier!  All the other Leaders – save the Artificier, Rune Priest, and Shaman – have almost as potent healing as the Bard and Templar, but lack the stat modifier bonus to the healing surge.  Regretfully, the Bard does not get to start adding dice until 6th Level, but the additional from Primary stat modifier sort of makes up for it.

Certain Ardent builds get a nice one round defense or attack buff along with their healing class feature, which while maybe not as potent as the Bard’s healing output, can be handy in the right circumstances.  Rune Priests also get to buff defense and damage rolls, which affect all allies in the burst area, but their bonus dice to their healing class feature starts at 6th level instead of 1st level and that puts them a bit behind on healing output overall.

The Artificer and Shaman have the weakest bonuses to their healing class features, although arguably, the Shaman has the advantage of being able to offer healing to two allies at the same time.  But tactically, there might not always be an ally adjacent to shaman’s spirit companion to benefit from the additional bonus dice, which means it just goes to waste. 

The Artificer begins with a decent bonus to their healing class feature at 1st Level with 4 additional hit points – which is half a point higher than the average of 1d6 – but it soon falls far behind the pack by the end of the Heroic Tier, offering only 6 additional hit points as opposed to 2d6 (average 7).  Of course, the Artificer’s flat bonus to healing might be admirable to someone with bad dice luck! Of course, there is one advantage to an Artificer’s healing infusion that all other Leaders lack – their class feature healing expends no healing surges, which can be really handy in the long haul. But the downside of this is that they can only prepare their two healing infusions during extended rests. It takes a healing surge from either the Artificer or the ally to replenish the healing infusions during a shirt rest, which means that the healing infusion can be a savings on surges during a long dungeon crawl.

Healing Class Feature Scores:

• Ardent – 4.5
• Artificer – 3.5
• Bard – 4.5
• Templar (Cleric) – 5
• Rune Priest – 3.5
• Sentinel (Druid) – 4
• Shaman – 3
• Marshall (Warlord) – 4
• Warpriest (Cleric) – 4

Conclusions

Tallying up the scores for the Hit Points & Healing Surges with the Healing Class Feature, there is already a small but notable point spread between the highest and lowest scores:

• Ardent – 9.5
• Artificer – 8
• Bard – 9.5
• Templar (Cleric) – 9
• Rune Priest – 8.5
• Sentinel (Druid) – 9
• Shaman – 8
• Marshall (Warlord) – 8
• Warpriest (Cleric) – 9

So far, most of the Leaders so far seem to be pretty balanced against each other.  Check back for Part II of this blog series, when the additional Healing powers, as well as the Bolstering and Succoring powers available to Leaders will be compared to each other to determine who offers the best aide to their allies.

So until next blog… I wish you Happy Gaming!

[Editor's Note: Made corrections to Bard, Templar, and Artificer healing class features - thank you to those who noticed my omissions. Have updated the overall scoring to take into account the corrections discussed above.]

Tags: character class, D&D 4e, discussion, leader

This entry was posted by Editor-in-Chief on Monday, May 23rd, 2011 at 12:12 pm and is filed under Character Classes, Role-Players' Edge. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.