Lazybones's Keep on the Shadowfell Characters

These are characters for my fictional 4e story, located here.

This is my first shot at 4e characters, so comments are welcomed. They are not necessarily optimal, but I tried to make them effective within the character concepts I had developed.

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Jaron, Halfling Male Ranger 1

Str 14, Con 14, Dex 16, Int 13, Wis 12, Cha 12
Hit points: 26 (Blooded 13)
Healing Surge: 6 (8/day)
Initiative: +3
AC 15, Fort 13, Ref 14, Will 11
Melee Basic +5 short sword (1d6+2)
Ranged Basic +5 short bow (1d8+3)
Speed: 6
Languages: Common, Goblin
Feats and Skills: Alertness, Archer Fighting Style, Defensive Mobility, Athletics +7, Endurance +7, Nature +6,

Perception +8, Stealth +8
Special Abilities: +5 vs. fear, +2 vs. OAs, Hunter's Quarry (+1d6 damage), Prime Shot (+1 to hit if nearest to Quarry)
Racial Encounter: Second Chance (force enemy to reroll an attack)
At-Will: Nimble Strike (+5 vs. AC, 1d8+3, shift 1 before or after attack)
At-Will: Twin Strike (+5 vs. AC, two attacks, 1d8 per hit)
Encounter: Evasive Strike (+5 vs. AC, 2d8+3, can shift 2 before or after attack)
Daily: Hunter's Bear Trap (+5 vs. AC, 2d8+3, target slowed and takes ongoing 5 damage [save ends both]; miss half damage, target slowed until end of Jaron's next turn)
Equipment: Leather Armor, Short Sword, Shortbow, Quiver with 30 arrows, Adventuring Gear


Belden (Beetle), Halfling Male Rogue 1

Str 13, Con 14, Dex 20, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 10
Hit points: 26 (Blooded 13)
Healing Surge: 6 (8/day)
Initiative: +7
AC 17, Fort 12, Ref 17, Will 10
Melee Basic +5 dagger (1d4+1)
Ranged Basic +9 dagger (1d4+5)
Languages: Common, Dwarven
Feats and Skills: Rogue Weapon Talent, Quick Draw, Acrobatics +12, Athletics +6, Bluff +5, Insight +4, Stealth +10, Thievery +12
Special Abilities: Brutal Scoundrel (+1 to Sneak damage), First Strike, Sneak Attack (+2d6)
Racial Encounter: Second Chance (force enemy to reroll at attack)
At-Will: Deft Strike (+9 vs. AC, 1d4+5, can move 2 before attack)
At-Will: Piercing Strike (+9 vs. Ref, 1d4+5)
Encounter: Dazing Strike (+9 vs. AC, 1d4+5, and target dazed until end of Beetle's next turn)
Daily: Easy Target (+9 vs. AC, 2d4+5, target slowed and grants combat advantage until save. Miss: half damage, and target grants combat advantage until end of Beetle's next turn)
Equipment: Leather Armor, Dagger


Mara, Human Female Fighter 1

Str 16, Con 14, Dex 15, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 11
Hit points: 29 (Blooded 14)
Healing Surge: 7 (11/day)
Initiative: +2
AC 18, Fort 16, Ref 13, Will 12
Melee Basic +6 Longsword (1d8+4)
Ranged Basic +6 Handaxe (1d6+3)
Speed: 5
Languages: Common, Orcish
Feats and Skills: Fighter Weapon Talent, Two Weapon Fighting, Two Weapon Defense, Athletics +8, Endurance +7, Heal +6, Intimidate +5
Special Abilities: Combat Challenge (mark target), Combat Superiority (+1 to OAs)
At-Will: Cleave (+8 vs. AC, 1d8+4, +2 damage vs. adjacent foe)
At-Will: Reaping Strike (+8 vs. AC, 1d8+4, 1 damage on miss)
At-Will: Sure Strike (+10 vs. AC, 1d8+1)
Encounter: Spinning Sweep (+8 vs. AC, 1d8+4, knock target prone)
Daily: Villain's Menace (+8 vs. AC, 2d8+4, gain +2 attack/+4 damage bonus vs. foe until end of encounter. Miss: +1/+2 bonus)
Equipment: Longsword, Shortsword, Handaxe, Scale armor, Adventuring Gear


Elevaren, Eladrin Male Warlock 1

Str 10, Con 14, Dex 15, Int 15, Wis 10, Cha 16
Hit points: 26 (Blooded 13)
Healing Surge: 6 (8/day)
Initiative: +2
AC 14, Fort 12, Ref 13, Will 15
Melee Basic +2 Quarterstaff (1d8)
Speed 6
Languages: Common, Elven, Giant, Draconic, Primordial
Feats and Skills: Linguist, Arcana +9, Diplomacy +8, History +9, Insight +5, Religion +7
Special Abilities: Misty Step (when cursed enemy slain, can teleport 3 as free action), Prime Shot (+1 attack vs. nearest enemy), Shadow Walk, Warlock's Curse (+1d6 damage), +5 on saves vs. charm effects
Racial Encounter: Fey Step (teleport 5 squares)
At-Will: Eldritch Blast (R10, +3 vs. Ref, 1d10+3)
At-Will: Eyebite (R10, +3 vs. Will, 1d6+3, plus invisible to target until start of Elevaren's next turn)
Encounter: Witchfire (R10, +3 vs. Ref, 2d6+3, target takes -4 to hit until end of Elevaren's next turn)
Daily: Curse of the Dark Dream (R10, +3 vs. Will, 3d8+3 plus slide 3; sustain minor: slide 1 [save ends])
Equipment: Leather Armor, Quarterstaff, Adventuring Gear

I know that the characters aren’t really for playing, but merely approximations for fictional work. So I'll only comment on stuff I would point out to my own players if it was them trying to put a party together with little experience of how the rules play out.

In general:
1. This group consists of 3 strikers and 1 defender. They completely lack controllers and leaders. In an actual game they would be great at dealing with combats vs. single opponents or very few opponents where the striker’s high damage will shine. They would suck vs. medium to large groups of enemies, where the somewhat vulnerable strikers will have to take attacks. The lack of a leader would lead to great difficulty with healing during a fight and I would expect more than average PC deaths.

2. In 4ed you will want at the very least a 16 in your primary score (the one that effects your attacks). And it’s far better to have a few strong ability scores than a lot of medium ones.

Character specific.

Jaron
What role do you see him in? Is he an archer or are you trying to build him as both an archer an a meleer, because that won't work. With a Str 14 his attack bonus would be to low for him to be effective in melee and if he is supposed to be an archer he definately should have Dex 18.

His ability scores are spread to thin regardless of role. If he is intended as an archer they should be closer to 12 14 18 11 13 12.

His hunters quarry should be +1d6 damage (takes a feat to increase it).

From the bit of story you have written so far the vibe I got was Warlord possibly with ranger multi-class feats. That would solve your leader problem too. But would force him to be melee.

Belden
Seems pretty straight forward, no immediate problems there.

Mara
Here IMO you have made a major mistake. For a straight fighter there is no way of actually attacking with two weapons. If you want to fight with two-weapons in 4ed you should be of the ranger class. If you want to be a Tough armored fighter with two weapons you are still a ranger, but one who calls herself a fighter, takes armor training and durable feats and buy a good con score. Take the fighter multi-class feats for extra fightery goodness and abilities.

As you should have a defender in the group I would keep Mara as a fighter, but retool her to either use a shield or a two-handed weapon. I know this might not be very satisfactory, but its a logical consequence of how the 4ed rules work.

Elevaren
Not many comments here. But why would he use a staff when he is trained in the far superior longsword as a part of his Eladrin legacy. He needs a rod or a wand in hand to use his powers anyway, so a staff is just in the way.

monboesen said:

Jaron
What role do you see him in? Is he an archer or are you trying to build him as both an archer an a meleer, because that won't work. With a Str 14 his attack bonus would be to low for him to be effective in melee and if he is supposed to be an archer he definately should have Dex 18.

His ability scores are spread to thin regardless of role. If he is intended as an archer they should be closer to 12 14 18 11 13 12.

Click to expand...

I agree with almost everything said by monboesen, save for that section with regards to stats. Yes, it's better to have an 18 in STR than a 14, but really, it's not the end of the world if you are stuck with the latter. In 4e it isn't neccesary to optimize everything like in 3e, so a +1 or +2 bonus isn't that big of a deal.

While it's true that Jaron's stats are spread thin, a character with those stats for an actual gaming session wouldn't be that bad. Just my two cents.

Thanks for the comments.

monboesen said:

Mara
Here IMO you have made a major mistake. For a straight fighter there is no way of actually attacking with two weapons. If you want to fight with two-weapons in 4ed you should be of the ranger class. If you want to be a Tough armored fighter with two weapons you are still a ranger, but one who calls herself a fighter, takes armor training and durable feats and buy a good con score. Take the fighter multi-class feats for extra fightery goodness and abilities.

As you should have a defender in the group I would keep Mara as a fighter, but retool her to either use a shield or a two-handed weapon. I know this might not be very satisfactory, but its a logical consequence of how the 4ed rules work.

Click to expand...

And it's one of the things I don't like about 4e; in several cases the rules seem to say, "You'll play this archetype... or else." In 3.xe you seemed to have a lot more freedom to develop your characters in unique ways. And I don't like the "you have to have x, y, and z in your party" mentality either. If I'm running a game and everyone wants to be a thief, I'll shape the game to reflect their goals (in 4e's defense, the books do stress player enjoyment over the DM's preconceptions a lot).

I came up with my character concepts before I had the rules in hand. In retrospect I suppose it makes sense to have Mara be a ranger, but I'd conceived of Jaron as an archer from the start, and I thought two rangers would be excessive.

It's interesting how the rules for the fighter class seem to suggest that a Dex-based fighter can work (e.g. see the weapons list), but in reality it seems that you play the two archetypes provided, or nothing (and it's all about strength). I wanted to see if it was possible to escape that restriction. I originally had Mara's Str at 15 and Dex at 16.

There's still one more character we haven't met yet.

Though not optimal it is possible to make Mara a two-weapon fighting Fighter. I’ll try to outline a power and feat path that will work. It makes Mara a Fighter with Ranger multiclass feats and the Ranger multiclass path in order to get some Power that work with two-weapon fighting (and end up with one At-Will power that works with two-weapon fighting). I have prioritized powers that allow attacks on multiple enemies as that thematically IMO fit best with the two-weapon fighting style.

Keep Mara more or less as she is at level 1. I would advice decreasing her Dexterity to 14 (because that is enough to get the feats she wants and it will increase to the needed 15 automatically at 11th level). That leave 2 more ability points to either increase her Strength to 17 (best option IMO) or increase Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma by 2. Increasing Wisdom is another good choice; it increases her bonus with Opportunity attacks and Wisdom is an important secondary ability for many Ranger powers. She would also benefit from choosing her Main and Off-hand weapon from the same weapon group so the weapon focus feat would benefit attacks with both (like hammer and throwing hammer or battleaxe and handaxe).

Choose Feats and Powers as follows:

2nd level
Feat: Warrior of the wild (Perception skill and hunters quarry 1/encounter, lasts until end of your next turn)
Power: No Opening

3rd level
Power: Sweeping Blow

4th level
Feat: Novice Power (Replace Spinning Sweep with Dire Wolverine Strike)
+1 Strength
+1 Constitution

5th level
Power: Rain of Steel

6th level
Feat: ?
Power: Unbreakable

7th level
Power: Come and Get It

8th level
Feat: Acolyte power (Replace No Opening with Unbalancing Parry)
+1 Strength
+1 Constitution

9th level
Power: Thicket of Blades

10th level
Feat: Adept Power (Replace Villains Menace with Jaws of the Wolf)
Power: Into the Fray

11th level
Feat: ?
Ranger Multi-class Path: Replace Reaping Strike with Twin Strike
Power: Sweeping Whirlwind
+1 to all ability scores



There is still some room for choosing feats. The juiciest choices are:

Heroic Tier
Blade Opportunist
Combat Reflexes
Weapon Focus (Heavy Blades)
Weapon Proficiency (Bastard Sword)

Paragon Tier
Heavy Blade Opportunity


11th level snapshot
Mara, Human Female Fighter 11

Str 20, Con 17, Dex 15, Int 11, Wis 13, Cha 12
Hit points: 92 (Blooded 46)
Healing Surge: 23 (12/day)
Initiative: +7
AC 25, Fort 25, Ref 21, Will 19
Melee Basic +16 Longsword (1d8+8)
Ranged Basic +15 Handaxe (1d6+8)
Speed: 5
Languages: Common, Orcish
Feats and Skills: Fighter Weapon Talent, Two Weapon Fighting, Two Weapon Defense, Warrior of the Wild, Novice Power, Acolyte Power, Adept Power, Athletics +15, Endurance +13, Heal +11, Intimidate +11, Perception +11
Special Abilities: Combat Challenge (mark target), Combat Superiority (+1 to OAs), Hunters Quarry 1/encounter (+2d6 damage vs. nearest target until end of your next turn)

At-Will: Cleave (Longsword +16 vs. AC, 1d8+8, 5 damage vs. adjacent foe)
At-Will: Sure Strike (Longsword +18 vs. AC, 1d8+3)
At Will: Twin Strike (Longsword +16 vs. AC, 1d8+3 and Handaxe +15 vs. AC, 1d6+3)

Encounter: Dire Wolverine Strike (Burst 1, Longsword +16 vs. AC, 1d8+8)
Encounter: Sweeping Whirlwind (Burst 1, Longsword +16 vs. AC, 1d8+8 and targets pushed 1 square and knocked prone)
Encounter: Come and Get It (All enemies in Burst 3 shift 2 squares if they can get adjacent with you, then attack burst 1 Longsword +16 vs. AC, 1d8+8)

Daily: Jaws of the Wolf (1 creature, Longsword +16 vs. AC, 2d8+8 and Handaxe +15 vs. AC, 2d6+8, half damage on miss)
Daily: Rain of Steel (Stance, Adjacent enemies take 1d8+3 damage as long as you can make opportunity attacks)
Daily: Thicket of Blades (Burst 1, Longsword +16 vs. AC, 3d8+8 and targets are slowed)

Equipment: Longsword +2, Shortsword, Handaxe +2, Scale armor +2, Necklace +2, Adventuring Gear

Interesting suggestions, and it does make sense to have her multiclass into ranger for the TWF feats. I'll look at the PH and think about what best fits into her character.

Of all the characters, Mara was the one for whom I had the most developed background (in fact, I've even written a number of chapters about her to seed through the narrative, sort of like Lok's flashbacks in Travels).

There is no reason why Mara cannot use those two feats as a fighter. She does not make two attacks, but the +1 damage still represents her making use of both. Effectively, with the feats she gets the same benefits as if you wielded a versatile weapon and a light shield at the same time.

Two rules things I spotted myself though: Hunter's Quarry is 1d6, not 1d8 (there is a feat to upgrade to d8); technically by RAW you cannot have Supernal language at 1st level, though it matters for so little time you could probably just ignore it.

Initially I'd given Jaron that feat; I changed my mind but forgot to revise the damage bonus.

I changed Elevaren's last language selection to Primordial.

Here is how Mara might be build with whats known about the Tempest Fighter Build so far.

Her damage is better (even though she has to use short swords) but her AC is down by 1. More importantly she gets a great at will power that lets attack a foe twice, making it very likely she will hit, and mark, that foe. Dual strike also combines really well with Villains Menace, the value of the to hit and damage bonus increases with the extra attacks.


Mara, Human Female Fighter 1

Str 16, Con 14, Dex 15, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 11
Hit points: 29 (Blooded 14)
Healing Surge: 7 (11/day)
Initiative: +2
AC 17, Fort 16, Ref 13, Will 12
Melee Basic +7 Shortsword (1d6+6)
Ranged Basic +6 Handaxe (1d6+3)
Speed: 5
Languages: Common, Orcish
Feats and Skills: Tempest Technique*, Two Weapon Defense, Action Surge, Two Weapon Fighting, Athletics +8, Endurance +7, Heal +6, Intimidate +5
Special Abilities: Combat Challenge (mark target), Combat Superiority (+1 to OAs)
At-Will: Cleave (+7 vs. AC, 1d6+6, 3 damage vs. adjacent foe)
At-Will: Dual Strike (+7 vs. AC, 1d6+6, two attacks vs. one creature)
At-Will: Sure Strike (+9 vs. AC, 1d6+3)
Encounter: Funneling Flurry (+7 vs. AC, 1d6+6, two targets, one attack vs. each, slide target one square)
Daily: Villain's Menace (+7 vs. AC, 2d6+6, gain +2 attack/+4 damage bonus vs. foe until end of encounter. Miss: +1/+2 bonus)
Equipment: Shortsword, Shortsword, Handaxe, Chain mail armor, Adventuring Gear

*Tempest Technique
When you wield two melee weapons, you gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls with weapons that have the offhand property.

You gain Two-Weapon Defense as a bonus feat, even if you don’t meet the prerequisites.

When wearing light armor or chainmail, you gain a +1 bonus to damage rolls with melee and close weapon attacks when you are wielding two weapons. This bonus increases to +2 with weapons that have the off-hand property.

I second the point that Mara should use the new options for a TWF Fighter. They're online somewhere as a preview for the upcoming sourcebook Martial Power.

As a very minor point, Mara should choose Giant as one of her languages instead of Orcish, if she wants to speak the language of the orcs, since 4e doesn't officially have Orcish as a language anymore. Personally, I prefer more languages, and I know that plenty of DMs continue to use whatever array of languages suits their campaign, but I understand why the designers cut it down to ten languages.