All-arcane party

[deadsmurf]

My game currently has basically an all arcane party - Swordmage, Bard, Wizard, Sorcerer and a decidedly not arcane Barbarian.
Its worked out very well so far, and it's a little weird having every single one of them having such a good Arcana check.

 

[Akaiku]

The barbarian could be thaneborn and multi into sorcerer. That's funny by the way, just take implement proficiency and use your fullblade to cast spells.

 

[Otterscrubber]

I haven't read arcane powers yet, but a lot of what I'm seeing seems unbalanced. Giving anyone a burst 3 at will with both fire and thunder keywords seems too nice. I like that they are fleshing things out but I hope they dont go too far.

 

[jasin]

Specifically in my case, through Heroic:

Two questions:

Do Melee Training and Longsword Proficiency do anything really worthwhile or is it more of a concept thing? You did mention charges, but in most other cases, it seems Thunderwave would work at least as well.

Where is Rolling Thunder from, and what does it do?

 

[Nifft]

Do Melee Training and Longsword Proficiency do anything really worthwhile or is it more of a concept thing? You did mention charges, but in most other cases, it seems Thunderwave would work at least as well.

Melee Training: my OAs actually matter! This is nice when I'm flanking. And Charge is really useful when something is next to an ally and I can Charge + flank (and when it has a high Will defense, so +3 vs AC is actually better than any of my other attacks would have been).

Longsword Prof. is bloody useless, but I need it for Spiral Tower. (Not the strongest PrC PP out there, but it suits my dude's playstyle quite well, and I want to see what using a shield buys me.)

Where is Rolling Thunder from, and what does it do?

Sorry, I meant Resounding Thunder, from the PHB. It just allows you to make any Thunder keyword blast or burst bigger by one.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Klaus]

Bump!

What I'm looking at right now is something like:

The Captain - Human Bard (Valorous); chainmail, longsword, longbow. Takes a mix of melee and ranged powers. Less of a tra-la-la bard and more of an arcane diplomat.

The Veteran - Dwarf Wizard (Staff)

The Wall - Fire Genasi Swordmage

The Burninator - Dragonborn Sorcerer (Dragon)

 

[Nifft]

The Veteran - Dwarf Wizard (Staff)

No. The only Dwarf in an Arcane party should be a Con-based Warlock.

The synergy between Dwarf and Wizard is very, very low.

Human, Tiefling, Eladrin, Deva, Genasi, or maybe Elf: these are your good Wizard choices. (And Elf is only for cheesy Orb tricks.)

Cheers, -- N

 

[Klaus]

No. The only Dwarf in an Arcane party should be a Con-based Warlock.

The synergy between Dwarf and Wizard is very, very low.

Human, Tiefling, Eladrin, Deva, Genasi, or maybe Elf: these are your good Wizard choices. (And Elf is only for cheesy Orb tricks.)

Cheers, -- N

But doesn't Con and Wis help with Staff of Defense and rider effects? And Con related directly to Summoning, no?

Plus Blade Initiate + Dwarven Weapon Training = Kopesh implement with +2 bonus.

 

[Nifft]

But doesn't Con and Wis help with Staff of Defense and rider effects? And Con related directly to Summoning, no?

You don't get rider effects when you miss (except maybe counting Cloud of Daggers).

It's nice to have a high secondary ability score (like a Deva). But unless you can hit when you need it (like an Elf can do once per encounter), it's not worth the lower attack bonus.

Plus Blade Initiate + Dwarven Weapon Training = Kopesh implement with +2 bonus.

Eladrin get the same thing, but have a better benefit, and with a better weapon, and without the -1 to all attack rolls forever.

If you want to do damage, be a Genasi with a high Strength, and take the Arcane Power feat that lets you add your Strength to all Arcane spell attacks.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Tuerny]

One of my current groups is also an almost all arcane group.
We have:
Human Vestige-Pact Warlock
Human Illusionist Wizard
Human Guardian Druid
Half-elf Valorous Druid
Deva Defender Swordmage

We are basing it out of the White Lotus Academy and have played through one session so far. The control on this group is pretty incredible, since the Swordmage is essentially a secondary controller (lots of area effects and lock down effects.) Despite how many hit points the group has, they seem strangely fragile. We have only been through two combats so far, but it will be interesting to see how they handle encounters.