A striker has enhanced dmg at the cost of HP and AC. By creating a striker class with an AC that can surpass the defnder, it can fill multiple roles.
Can it? Can the Avenger really replace a defender? Even if he butchered his Constitution to get the 20 Dex/Int? I must admit, I've never seen an Avenger in action, so this is all theory, but it looks like it would be really hard for an Avenger to be a good defender.
Ok, here's how I would build an Avenger with 25 AC at level 4. Luckily, that 20 Dex/Int requirement means there can't be
that much variation.
Elf (or any other Dex and Wis race. Can't be Int, because Retribution Avengers occasionally want to be hit, and for another reason I'll get to later.)
Original stats:
Str: 13, Con: 10, Dex: 17, Int: 10, Wis: 15, Cha: 8
After Racial adjustment:
Str: 13, Con: 10, Dex: 19, Int: 10, Wis: 17, Cha: 8
At level 4:
Str: 13, Con: 10, Dex: 20, Int: 10, Wis: 18, Cha: 8
So, that's 42 hp and 7 surges. A Paladin, since that seems to be the comparison we're using, with 10 Con (ugh) would have two less AC (wow, I can't believe I forgot about the no magic shields), only 1 more HP, but 3 more surges. That's pretty significant. In addition, she has a way to discourage enemies from attacking her friends (Divine Challenge), and a way to "undo" attacks that hit her friends (Lay on Hands). If she wanted, she could use her feats on Toughness, Durable, and Healing Hands, widening the effective HP gap between her and the Avenger.
The Avenger can't heal his allies. If the Avenger
does get hit, (and he will be hit. AC isn't everything), it takes a larger proportion of his daily healing surges to heal, meaning he can't stick around for the long run. And perhaps most importantly, he doesn't have a mark. If an enemy is adjacent to his ally, he can't discourage it from attacking his ally. If he's not adjacent to an enemy, he can't discourage it from charging the squishies.
There's more to a Defender than being tough, and there's more to being tough than being hard to hit.
And forget about Retribution Avengers. No intelligent monster is going to stick to them if their AC is through the roof. They'll peel off and attack the squishies first chance they get. At least Pursuit gives quasi-stickiness.
I can see how an Avenger might not need a Defender to protect him, but I don't see how he can protect everyone else.
Oh, and about the trade-off of damage for toughness, those feats the Avenger spend boosting his AC could have gotten him RRoT (which is still pretty good) and Weapon Proficiency with something gross. The ability points he spend on Str and Dex could have been placed in Wisdom. This guy
has made a trade.
This cuts down on the number of players needed to survive an adventure, which makes it even harder to find a game here in enworld LEB.
Does it? My experience with 4e pbp has been extremely limited, but it seems to me that less reliance on roles being filled is a good thing. What if there's an adventure ready to go, but there aren't any defenders around. Shouldn't it be a good thing that a "properly" built Avenger can serve as a defender? But I'm not wild about class-based systems in the first place. And this assumes an Avenger can be a defender.
There are half a dozen choices for both ranged and melee strikers, so I think Avenger should just be disallowed altogether in this particular environment. There are so few reliable judges to start with, that a class enabling parties of 3 to survive doesn't seem logical in this arena. Save the Avengers for home games, and let the defender classes do their jobs here.
Can you show me how an Avenger can defend? He has a couple pulls, and he's a little sticky if he's Pursuit, but I don't see him being a good defender. I'm not trying to be confrontational here; I'm just wondering if there's something I'm missing.
Edit: Swordmages! How could I forget them?
At the cost of two feats (Hide Armor Proficiency and Improved Swordmage Warding) a Swordmage with 20 int at level 4 could have the following AC:
10 + 2 (1/2 level) + 5 (int) + 4 (Swordmage Warding + Improved Swordmage Warding) + 4 (+1 Hide Armor) = 25!
Int
is the main stat for a Swordmage, so they aren't making nearly as much of a sacrifice to pull this off, and even a human can get the 13 Str, 13 Dex, and 17 Int to do this and still have some left over for Con.
So, one defender can match the Avenger for AC.