4e Combat Playtest [FULL]

[Atanatotatos]

Character posted to thread. Now with a picture!

Oh,this reminds me: If you post a picture, I'll use that for the token of your character on the map. Otherwise, I'll pick one for you.

 

[Leif]

Leif Unmasked!

You're both absolutely right: My choices are not only "suspect," I'll wager that they're downright retarded in some cases. Oh, no! My secret has been discovered! I have no idea what I'm doing with 4E!!! I was hoping to use the experience of participating in this thread to learn about 4E. Perhaps that was like jumping off a cruise-liner in the middle of the ocean to try to learn to swim?

If you guys don't want to even mess with me, I'll bow out of the game gracefully, no hard feelings.

 

[Atanatotatos]

You're both absolutely right: My choices are not only "suspect," I'll wager that they're downright retarded in some cases. Oh, no! My secret has been discovered! I have no idea what I'm doing with 4E!!! I was hoping to use the experience of participating in this thread to learn about 4E. Perhaps that was like jumping off a cruise-liner in the middle of the ocean to try to learn to swim?

If you guys don't want to even mess with me, I'll bow out of the game gracefully, no hard feelings.

Hey, Leif, re-read my post: those were only advices meant to make Sharm a bit more fit to a combat situation. It's cool man, you don't have to be a min-maxer, as I said. If I and others express a few opinions, take them with a grain of salt, and follow the advices you feel like following, and ignore the rest.
If anything in my posts made you feel uncomfortable I'm sorry, I didn't mean it.
4e is a new system anyway and it is only natural that not everyone has gone through the books searching for power
My advice is to consider the advices and decide your build for yourself, and participate throughly to the party tactics. That will undoubtedly strenghten your knowledge of 4e mechanics, and hopefully you'll have fun in the meanwhile

 

[Leif]

Hey, Leif, re-read my post: those were only advices meant to make Sharm a bit more fit to a combat situation. It's cool man, you don't have to be a min-maxer, as I said. If I and others express a few opinions, take them with a grain of salt, and follow the advices you feel like following, and ignore the rest.
If anything in my posts made you feel uncomfortable I'm sorry, I didn't mean it.
4e is a new system anyway and it is only natural that not everyone has gone through the books searching for power
My advice is to consider the advices and decide your build for yourself, and participate throughly to the party tactics. That will undoubtedly strenghten your knowledge of 4e mechanics, and hopefully you'll have fun in the meanwhile

Thanks, man! I very much appreciate what you say. But, I'm not really happy with the way Sharm is now, especially with all of the problems that you and Victim pointed out. Victim, would it be totally out of line for me to ask you to tell me the easiest way to fix these problems? I know that Atanatotatos said that I should do my own build, but, come on, we've both seen what kind of garbage THAT strategy produces! And feel free to min-max Sharm to the extent that Atanatotatos will allow!

 

[Leif]

Fixing Sharm

Sharm
Minotaur Battlerager Fighter - Dreadnought Paragon Path, Unaligned
L 20
Ht: 7’2”

Action Points = 1

Total HP: 145
TEMPORARY HP:
Current damage:
Bloodied: 72
Healing Surges: 14 (9+con mod)
Surge Value: 36

S 20 +5
D 14 +2
C 21 +5
I 14 +2
W 11 +0
C 16 +3

Initiative: +16 = +10 (half-level) +2(dex) +4(Imp. Init.)

POWERS

At-Will
*Cleave, L1
*Crushing Surge, L1

Encounter
*Crushing Blow, L3
*Inexorable Advance, L11 (paragon)
*Anvil of Doom, PH81, L13
*Boggling Smash, L17

Daily
*Victorious Surge, L9
*Carve Initials, L15
*Relentless Assailant, L19
*Line-Breaker Assault, L20 (paragon)

Utility
*Unstoppable - Daily, L2
*Battle Awareness - No Action, L6
*Defensive Resurgence - Daily, L10
*Blood Iron - Daily, L12 (paragon)
*Bolstering Stride, L16 (MPp16) - Encounter (move ur spd,end adjacent ally. +2d8+con/mod temp. hp)

Paragon Features
*Dreadnought, L11
*Critical Hardening, L16

FEATS
1 Combat Reflexes (+1 to Attacks of Opportunity)
2 Fast Runner (+2 to speed when he charges or runs)
3 Improved Initiative (+4 to initiative checks)
4 Skill Focus (Athletics)
5 Long Jumper
6 Power Attack (+6 damage for paragon tier, -2 attack)
7 Powerful Charge (+2 damage, +2 Bull Rush on charge)
8 Skill Focus (Endurance)
9 Skill Focus (Intimidate)
10 Defensive Resilience (+1 to all defenses with second wind when bloodied)
11 Thunder Hammer (enemy is -2 on saves vs. conditions delivered with hammer/mace)
12 Hammer Rhythm (paragon) (does damage even on a miss with hammer equal to con bonus, 5)

SKILLS
Athletics +21 = +10 one-half level +5 (ability-str) +5 (trained) +3 (feat bonus) -2 armor penalty
Endurance +25 =+10 one-half level +5 (ability-con) +5 (trained) +3 (feat) +4 (item) -2 armor pen.
Intimidate +21 = +10 one-half level +3 (ability-cha) +5 (trained) +3 (feat bonus)
Nature +12 = +10 one-half level +2 racial
Perception +12 = +10 one-half level +2 racial

MELEE ATTACK
Magic +4 Maul (size large = 2d8 damage)
+21 Attack = +10(half level)+5(ability, con)+2(proficiency)+4(magic)

DEFENSES
AC = 30 (10+10-half level+10-armor)
Fort = 32 (10+2+10-half level+5-ability+5-amulet-see below)
Ref = 27 (10+10-half level+1-ability+5-amulet)
Will= 28 (10+10-half level+2-ability+5-amulet)

ATTACKS
Maul (Large): +21 = +10(half level)+5(ability)+2(proficiency)+4(magic)
-Damage = 2d8+5(ability)+4(magic)
Goring Charge: +17 = +10(half level)+5(ability)+2(proficiency)
-Damage = 2d6+5(ability)

ITEMS
+4 Dwarven Chainmail
- +4 to Endurance Checks
- Heal as a daily free action – regain hp as if you spent a healing surge
+4 Flaming Maul (Large, dam =2d8)
- Crit=+4d6
- Dam dealt is fire damage
- Daily power, free action – on hit, deal extra 2d6 dam. + ongoing 10 fire dam (save ends)
Amulet of Protection, +5, +5 to Fort, Ref, and Will Defenses

 

[Atanatotatos]

Thanks, man! I very much appreciate what you say. But, I'm not really happy with the way Sharm is now, especially with all of the problems that you and Victim pointed out. Victim, would it be totally out of line for me to ask you to tell me the easiest way to fix these problems? I know that Atanatotatos said that I should do my own build, but, come on, we've both seen what kind of garbage THAT strategy produces! And feel free to min-max Sharm to the extent that Atanatotatos will allow!

I'll just give you some advices ok? You have chosen the Battlerager Vigor feature right? Then I'd say your all-important stats are Strenght and Constitution; get those as high as you can. Wisdom is third, some Dexterity's not bad, but you can live without it. Intelligence and Charisma are great when you want to build the character you will roleplay, but as a playtest Fighter, honestly you can ditch them.
About feats: Remember, Power Attack gives you +6 to dmg, not +2, because Sharm is paragon-level and is wielding with two hands.
I like Jack-of-all-trades (contrarily to many), but I doubt you'll be needing it in this situation.
As Victim said, you gain little from Deep Gash and Thunder Hammer.
Combat Reflexes is redundant for a fighter, since you will add Wisdom to those OA attack rolls anyway.
Linguist... MIGHT have its use (I know this'll sound strange), but really, you shouldn't have that Intelligence needed anyway IMO.
You're missing plate proficiency, if you want to wear it; battlerager vigor gives you a bonus to dmg if you wear chainmail and use hammers, in case you want to trade some AC for dmg.
Quick Draw, I doubt you'll need it.

Dreadnought is a great PP, I like it very much. The Toughness feat complements it very well.
Hammer Rhytm is a very nice feat; you will deal dmg=Con modifier on a miss if you're wielding a Hammer.
For the rest... well, there are a lot of nice feats in MP, you've got a lot to choose.
The most important advice i can give you is, raise that Strenght.

 

[Leif]

OK, I tried to fix everything. I took Anvil of Doom (L13) in place of a L16 power, so that works with Thunder Hammer. I also took Hammer Rhythm and Armor Prof. (Plate) -- somehow, I thought that all Fighters would have proficiency with plate automatically!

There may be a few more problems here and there, and I still need to spend most of my money, but I'll try to get that done tomorrow, ok?

Incidentally, the bonus for m/w armor does NOT stack with the enchantment bonus of the armor.

I got the feats straightened out, I think.

 

[Victim]

The most important thing I think is to pick things that work well together - and work with the other people in the group. Thunder Hammer or Deep Gash aren't necessarily bad - but they're not going to do a whole lot when most of your Daily powers aren't producing those effects. Or when you have the wrong type for Deep Gash.

You can't trade a Utility power, even a level 16 one, for an attack power. And Anvil of Doom doesn't work with Thunder Hammer - the feat applies to save ends conditions, while the power is 'until the end of your turn.' As a general rule of thumb, Dailies have save ends, and encounter powers are until end of turn.

You could go for a Superior weapon feat to use the upgraded Maul - the Mordenkrad. Or you could go with Plate Specialization or some other defensive feat (Iron Will, etc). Weapon focus improves your damage. Toughness is also good.

Incidentally, the bonus for m/w armor does NOT stack with the enchantment bonus of the armor.

No.

 

[Redclaw]

Hey Leif, don't sweat the small stuff. There are all sorts of choices out there, and lots of ways to build your character. That's actually a great thing to be able to say about 4E, and goes against what most of the crotchety 3.5ers are saying.

Anyway, a few things I thought I'd draw your attention to as possible choices:
Reckless Attacker (MP 144) seems like a great choice for a dreadnought. You get an extra melee attack after a crit, at the cost of a -2 penalty to AC, but you get resist 10 to all damage anyway.
Improved Vigor (MP 136) means that you'll get 2 extra temp hit points when using invigorating powers.
Victor's Confidence (MP 140) could be really nice with a powerful great-weapon build. Since it's an untyped bonus, it'll stack and make you hard to stop with savable effects.

I'm not sure how you traded a Utility power for an Encounter power, however. If that's an option, I haven't seen it, and would love to know where it's given.

 

[Leif]

Erm, talking about the Anvil of Doom power, I suppose? I had a justification for that when I made the switch, but I can't find the power just now, and I can't even remember what it does. Honestly, I've been looking at these 4E books for so many hours today that my eyes are about to cross!