Chlanna nan con thigibh a so's gheibh sibh feoil!

Question: Is it just me or does Warrior Ideal (War 3) do the same thing as Battle Cry (War 2), only worse?

It's just you. But I'll explain and then we can all be in this together.

When you use Battle Cry, you are unleashing a terrifying roar that targets those that oppose you and strikes them with crippling fear. It affects a limited number of people and inflicts a dice penalty, but affects all those people regardless of where they are, what actions they're taking or who they're targeting.

When you use Warrior Ideal, on the other hand, you are targeting only yourself, drawing on your inherent facility with battle to allow you to become an embodiment of a certain kind of warrior. Those who attack you are disoriented and frightened by your new badassery. It affects unlimited people (as many as choose to attack you) and inflicts a penalty of successes, but it does not affect anyone who isn't attacking you or who chooses to take actions other than fighting.

Battle Cry affects the whole field of battle, and it not only makes enemies bad at fighting, it makes them bad at everything else, too. They are so shaken by your bloodthirsty shout that they find it harder to concentrate, harder to plan, harder to call on their magical powers, and so forth. They become overall worse at everything they do, which not only helps you fight them but also helps your comrades fight them and prevents them from succeeding at any other, non-punches-related shenanigans they might try to get up to. Warrior Ideal, on the other hand, is specifically a bonus power that is placed on yourself, making you so impressive and battle-worthy that enemies have difficulty standing up to you; it levies a harsher penalty and can affect anyone and everyone who tries to touch you, but it's completely useless for helping your friends or stopping enemies from using powers or taking other actions. The first power is weaker in effect but has a much larger range and scope of utility, while the second power is more powerful in effect but much more limited in what it can do and affect.

So there you have it. :) Battle Cry and Warrior Ideal both inflict negatives on enemies, but the way they do so and the balancing levels of power versus utility make them quite different in result. And if you want to be super badass you can always pop both to really put the fear of your own personal God into enemies, whether they come at you or not.