"Frost Mage" - Is this a good idea ?

[Erestor]

Is this a good idea to create a "Frost Mage" - like something we can find in some ... MMO ^^

A Character that will have some RP like "I'm an Elementalist", and who will take talents & powers according to that ?

Will this Character be efficient enough ? Any idea of "combo" ?

Thanx ^^

 

[Bandreus]

Talking about flavour, yes. If one likes playing that sort of character, why not?

Mechanics-wise, while I don't think it would be a lame character, he could suffer a bit from a lack of options. We know combat in 4E is heavilly about playing different tactics in different situations, so maybe a Frost mage could suffer from his strong specialization once in a while.

 

[DLichen]

Well, besides the obvious Winter's Touch + Lasting Frost combo, a frost mage is quite doable in 4e since cold powers are pretty common.

Burning blizzard might also be worth a look if you're going solely cold for flavor purposes.

 

[erik_the_guy]

There is a frost mage in my party. She calls herself 'Frostitute'. I guess its good against red dragons.

 

[Minigiant]

Most of the game's cold spells are great vs melee enemies (slow, prone, immobilized). Add the 2 feat combo and you can stall a melee foe then let the team gang up on it after they take the other melees.

 

[Particle_Man]

You can even have a Dragonborn with the cold once-per-encounter breath weapon.

I think it can work, but make sure you have "back up" dailies that can work if you go against Frosty the Evil Snowman and his Snowball minions in his lair.

 

[Boarstorm]

There is a frost mage in my party. She calls herself 'Frostitute'. I guess its good against red dragons.

Frostitute rules the jewelcrafting market on my server. *sighs heavily*

 

[neobolts]

Along with Ray of Frost, make sure you take an at-will power that covers an area at level 1 (i.e. don't take magic missile). Wizards are the AoE kings of 4e.

A friend's group has a PC following a "frost mage" concept (the player looooved spell thematics in 3e). Unfortunately, the player was very discouraged in the first session because he has Ray of Frost, Magic Missile, and Chill Strike. He was trying to play the "striker" role essentially, and wound up frustrated by unchecked clusters of minions and a warlock that outshined him as a striker.

 

[Lab_Monkey]

I like this idea and think it is very do-able at low to mid levels. There are very few creatures with cold resistance. As long as you have a few powers from other energy types and some decent at will powers to fall back on, I think it would be a very fun build.

However, at high levels, the payoff for feats like Burning Blizzard/Wintertouched/Lasting Frost is questionable at best. Most players will have traded out all but one or two daily cold spells plus Ray of Frost. That seems like a waste of several feats and a less than thematic build. That's too bad- I really want to play this type of character.

 

[Mengu]

Also keep in mind there is nothing to stop you from renaming some powers and rewriting the flavor text. Rename Cloud of Daggers to Winter's Icy Daggers. They are now a whirling cloud of icy daggers (that still do force damage). Rename Magic Missile to Winter's Ice Missile, it is now in the shape of a spear of ice, that does force damage upon impact. You could rename Sleep to Winter's Hybernation. These will allow Winter the Frost Mage to mix the powers up a bit for flexibility.