Sell Me On a Level 23 Character

[Nytmare]

I was recently invited to an as of yet unbuilt, one-shot, epic level 4e game. Unfortunately, though I'm familiar with 4th Ed, I've only ever DMed, have only run people up into the early Paragon tier, and haven't played in about 3 or 4 years.

What I'm looking for are build ideas that would be "fun" in (I'm assuming) a very combat heavy 23rd level game. I don't think I really have a preference when it comes to role or power source. I'm just looking to see what fun tricks other people found, so that I can avoid having to sort through the numerous options myself.

 

[Nytmare]

"Sel"? Are you kidding me? Anyone want to by a slightly used, wildly unpredictable, wireless keyboard?

 

[drothgery]

"Sel"? Are you kidding me? Anyone want to by a slightly used, wildly unpredictable, wireless keyboard?

I think if you edit the first post in your own thread and 'Go Advanced', you can change the thread title ...

No experience with epic 4e, though, sadly ...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

In our now defunct campaign, I was playing a Dwarven Starlock (balanced build) who MCed into Psion. The proposed paragon path for that PC was the Dreamwalker. A certain selection of his powers made magical or Psionic creations from which he could see and/or even attack- extending his range and giving him unusual attack angles.

I can tell you that the build was fun to play in combat, though I don't know how "optimized" it was, and I didn't plot him out beyond Paragon level.

 

[Nytmare]

I can tell you that the build was fun to play in combat, though I don't know how "optimized" it was, and I didn't plot him out beyond Paragon level.

Yeah, I don't give a whiff about optimization. I'll look into it!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

If you like the idea, I can post more details.

 

[keterys]

What kinds of characters do you enjoy?

I've played a fighter, artificer, bard, and invoker|cleric at that level, and a few others to high paragon, and helped others make a swordmage|warlock and thief, as well as DMed for or played with over 100 other PCs, and the first step is definitely "What do you find fun?"

For the second, I'd suggest: "What does your group find fun?" followed by "What does your group need?"

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Other 4Ed PC concepts I sketched out:

1) a Dragonborn Paladin (Cha)/Sorcerer (Cosmic) hybrid with MC:Starlock (Cha), aiming for Celestial Scholar or Scion of Arkhosia. Based on the scholar from The Thirteenth Warrior.

2) a Warforged Battlemind/Infernal Warlock Hybrid. Character inspired by combining Hellboy with a LeMarchand Box from the Hellraiser stories & movies- an sentient, animate gateway to the lower planes who is in rebellion against his designed purpose.

 

[Ajar]

I have a stealthy-as-hell Rogue|Warlock hybrid multiclassed into Assassin that I'd love to see played out to epic. Combining Cunning Sneak with Shadow Walk allows him to make a Stealth check to hide anytime he moves 3 or more squares from where he started, and I've been adding encounter teleports to basically build him into Nightcrawler. By epic he should pretty much just be able to stay hidden all the time and bamf all over the place. I have a paragon path picked out for him, but not an epic destiny (yet).

I do have one epic character: a Swordmage|Warden hybrid multiclassed into Wizard that is a very sticky defender. Having enemies work hard to get away from me (including by teleporting) and just being able to say "get over here!" is pretty fun. Definitely a classic tank. The Wizard multiclass is only to support his cold theme, which isn't an essential element of the build -- but it's pretty fun to pull a bunch of guys over with Ensnaring Bolts and then drop a Blast of Cold on all of them.

The other two characters in that party, which is currently running through Tomb of Horrors 4E, are:

- A classic Twin Strike eladrin archer Ranger with a vicious longbow and a war ring -- at 23rd level she's rolling 6d12 crit dice and crits on 19-20. If you like rolling a lot of dice, that could be a good route.

- A dragonborn Warlord who has put half his feats into dragon breath. He can drop flaming acid on everyone's heads 3-5 times in any given battle. From above, because he can fly.

Finally, in terms of straight up dishing out punishment, I played a greataxe-wielding warforged battlerager Fighter who would have been an unstoppable engine of devastation had that game made it to epic. I wanted to play a big robot with a big axe, and it didn't disappoint even in heroic tier. I have a paragon build of him kicking around as a contingency.

If any of those are interesting, I can post more details.

 

[Nytmare]

What kinds of characters do you enjoy?

Outside of 4th, I generally build from the point of the story and the group on up. "Yay! We're playing a halfling cavalry unit!" Beyond that, I guess that I tend to make something that is unlike whatever the last thing I played was.

For this exercise, I'm currently orphaned from any aspect of story, and have never played from the character on this side of the screen.

What I'm looking for are the things that other people have liked, and why they liked them, to help break the choices I need to make into more manageable chunks.

For the second, I'd suggest: "What does your group find fun?" followed by "What does your group need?"

I've never played an RPG with this group before (I think maybe I played a little Call of Cthulhu with one guy and a night or two of Big Eyes Small Mouth with another around 15-20 years ago) The DM is one of my standard players and we've been gaming together for almost 20 years.

The characters are currently being made in a void. If any of my suspicions about epic level play are true, I'm expecting that means we're looking at a game that boils down to "You are the good guys. Godzilla is behind this door. Now spend the next 5 hours wrestling with a complicated stack of abilities you've never played with before."