So the Kickstarter campaign (
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/11 ... oum-for-5e) is well underway and I figured it might be worth revisiting some topics here, and maybe trying to expand upon them. Please note that all of this is draft material and may or may not appear in the alpha rules or final rules in this (or any) form.
The captain class is one of our new offerings for 5e, though the ideas behind it go back to the previous edition and beyond. In fact, representing a battlefield commander that's currently trying to lead/aid a small specialized group really touches base with the earliest history of roleplaying games as they branched off from traditional wargaming. For us, the captain represents a capable fighter that's focused on making the entire group better by their presence. To that end, captains have lots of features, but let's just look at one of their most basic: Bid to Action.
The current draft version of the rule is:
- Bid to Action
Beginning at 3rd level, you can spur others to act quickly. When a creature’s turn ends, use your reaction to nominate a friendly creature other than yourself to have its turn next instead of its normal initiative count. The creature must not have already taken its turn yet this round and retains its original initiative count for future rounds.
This feature allows the captain to enable other characters to react to changing combat situations. For example, if the Theurg is normally last in initiative order but another character just took significant damage? Allow the Theurg to act now instead of later. Is the warrior warning that they're going to retreat from the monster? Bid the scoundrel to act earlier in the round in order to take advantage of having an ally in combat for backstab damage.
There are also some significant limitations to the feature. It's always at the end of another's turn, so you can never use it to go first, you can't personally benefit from it (which makes using it in smaller groups more challenging), and it uses up your reaction (which can be dangerous for you, especially if you're in the thick of combat yourself).
Let us know what you're interested in, the forum provides an opportunity to answer questions in greater depth than other formats.