Is a Wizard the answer for party balance?

[Incenjucar]

Invokers are amazing. Be sure you know if you want a control-heavy or damage-heavy one. The control-heavy ones barely do any damage themselves, but have incredibly lock-down power.

Blast 3 stun at level 1. <3

 

[Dan'L]

Love how nobody's bothered mentioning the Druid.

Looking at the party make-up, I'd lean towards a wizard build, since there's a distinct lack of the arcane power source, and it's nice to have someone in the party with a high Int training to do the researchy and knowledgey stuff.

As far as rituals go, I will point out that the cleric should be getting Ritual Caster as well, so that shouldn't be a make-or-break decision point between PHB wizard or Essentials Mage.

Finally, I've not seen one in play, but you might also consider the Witch build from Heroes of the Feywild as a heavier controller build.

-Dan'L

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Shaper Psions have some nifty tricks:

1. They have AoE attacks, some of which slow their opponents or have other status effects
2. They can conjure creatures for opponents to fight
3. They have powers that allow them to manifest their other powers from origin points away from their physical selves, improving range & changing LoS

(As I recall, psions may also have Ritual caster as part of their shtick, but I could be wrong on that.)

 

[Legildur]

I suspect we could help more if we knew a bit ore about the other PCs- we might be able to fine tune the kind of build for a given controller class would work best. What can you tell us about their builds?

I suspect that you are right. Unfortunately races aren't selected in most cases yet, let alone their builds. I don't know if the Rogue and Ranger are looking at ranged or melee. As soon as I know, I'll post back.

If the warlord is giving out ranged basics much, the hunter might be better than general wisdom would indicate.

Otherwise, I vote Mage or Invoker. Dislike the Psion.

Or another defender, like a fighter

Mmmm. Like Dan'L says, need arcane something. I've enjoyed using my Inspiring Warlord to keep the Wizard in our group knocking things with Magic Missile for auto damage.

Invokers are amazing. Be sure you know if you want a control-heavy or damage-heavy one. The control-heavy ones barely do any damage themselves, but have incredibly lock-down power.

Blast 3 stun at level 1. <3

That sounds outrageous! Sounds so far like a contest between Mage and Invoker.

Love how nobody's bothered mentioning the Druid.

Looking at the party make-up, I'd lean towards a wizard build, since there's a distinct lack of the arcane power source, and it's nice to have someone in the party with a high Int training to do the researchy and knowledgey stuff.

As far as rituals go, I will point out that the cleric should be getting Ritual Caster as well, so that shouldn't be a make-or-break decision point between PHB wizard or Essentials Mage.

Finally, I've not seen one in play, but you might also consider the Witch build from Heroes of the Feywild as a heavier controller build.

-Dan'L

HotF not available to us. And agreed that our Cleric will have the ritual caster feat.

 

[keterys]

Mage or Invoker - either way, you win, they're both awesome.

 

[Unwise]

IMO Hunter is the way to go. If you are away a lot, you need a character that people can pick up and use effectively. The hunter is both effective and very simple.

It has pretty much every effect you could want on single targets and clears trash very well. All it lacks is area effect controls. On the plus side though, it can do very good DPS.

A human armed with a Greatbow is doing very nice damage with Twin-Strike at d12 damage. They are also doing a RBA at d12+extras to everyone in burst 1 (range 50? I think). Some braces of archery and other nice items later, you are contributing very significant DPS when control is not needed.

Wizards and Mages both rely too much on daily powers that are generally pretty complex. They are effective, but if your character will likely suck every time you are not playing it. If you do want a spell caster, I would go for an Mage(Enchanter) and make use of the huge at-will blast5 pushback. You can get some nice items and feats to turn that into a truly huge push.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Looking at the race side of the equation...

I'm currently playing a Dwarf. My feeling is that this race can fill any role admirably- even without class/stat synergy- because they're so damn tough. My Starlock (with Con and Cha as his high stats) has more HP than any other PC in the party except the Dwarven Fighter. That ability to use Second Wind as a minor action is deceptively strong. They get some bonus weapons to choose from. They can resist forced moves, too. All in all, they are hard to isolate from their allies...but can stand tough if that happens.

I'm also a big fan of Dragonborn. Their breath weapon makes for a nice ability to have...just in case. And there are some nifty feats to accentuate it, too.

Beyond that, I'd opt for a race that does have stat synergy with the class you ultimately choose, assuming mechanical optimization is your priority.

 

[Herschel]

There's a few ways you could go. Is the Ranger an archer or a melee character? The Hunter and Invoker are fine choices but if the ranger is ranged maybe you want to "mix it up" a little too. A Genasi base with a pre-racial 16 INT might be a good place to start. Look at building a Wizard (including a blaster), a Wizard/Warlock Hybrid and maybe a Swordmage/Warlock hybrid even.

 

[Legildur]

Looks like the ranger will be ranged (elf archer) and rogue will be melee (half Orc).

 

[Neonchameleon]

Looks like the ranger will be ranged (elf archer) and rogue will be melee (half Orc).

If you have a ranged ranger in the party, don't go hunter. The two are slightly different implementations of the same character concept.

Mage or Invoker therefore. Do you want to be able to bring down a rain of blood and divine fire, or do you want to command the elements personally.