Review my Half-Elf Two-Blade Ranger

[TimDrake]

Hello,

Here is one of the first characters I've created with the D&D 4th Edition PHB : an half-elf two-blade ranger.
Can you review it for me ? All your comments will be welcome.

My idea was to create a character inspired from Fitz Chivalry, the hero of the Farseer novel series written by Robin Hobb.

The file attached to this message is the PDF character sheet generated with the wonderful Excel character sheet created by Amurayi : http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?t=229672

Character Name : Kerian

Race : Half-Elf
Alignment : Unaligned
Deity : The Raven Queen, Melora, Sehanine

Class : Ranger
Level : 1

Racial Features
Vision : Low-Light
Dilettante : choose one at-will power from a class different to yours Use this power as encounter power => Eyebite Warlock (Fey Fact) power.
Dual Heritage : take feats that have either elf or human as a prerequisite
Group Diplomacy : grant allies +1 racial bonus to Diplomacy

Class Features
Fighting Style : Two-Blade Fighting Style
Toughness
Hunter's Quarry
Prime Shot
Weapon Proficiency : simple melee, miitary melee, simple ranged, military ranged
Armor Proficiency : cloth, leather

Abilities
Strength : 16 (+3)
Constitution : 13 (+1)
Dexterity :14 (+2)
Intelligence : 12 (+1)
Wisdom : 13 (+1)
Charisma : 12 (+1)

Defenses
Armor Class : 14
Fortitude : 14
Reflexes : 13
Will : 11

Hit Points
Full Hit Points : 30
Bloodied : 15
Healing Surges per day : 7
Healing Surge value : 7

Initiative : 2
Passive Perception : 16
Passive Insight : 13

Speed (Walk) : 6
Speed (Run) : 8

Skills
Acrobatics : +7 (trained : class skill)
Arcane : +1
Athletics : +3
Bluff : +1
Diplomacy : +3
Dungeoneering : +1
Endurance : +6 (trained : class skill)
Heal : +1
History : +6 (trained : skill training feat)
Insight : +3
Intimidate : +1
Nature : +6 (trained : class skill)
Perception : +6 (trained : class skill)
Religion : +1
Stealth : +7 (trained : class skill)
Streetwise : +1
Thievery : +4

Feats
Skill Training : History

At-Will Powers
Hit and Run
Twin Strike

Encounter Powers
Dire Wolverine Strike
Eyebite (Warlock At-Will Power from Dilettante half-elf racial feature)

Daily Powers
Jaws of the Wolf

Armor
Leather Armor

Weapons
Main melee weapon : Longsword
Off-hand melee weapon : Battleaxe
Ranged : Shortbow

Languages : Common, Elven, Draconic

Background Story
Illegitimate son of a human lord and an elf, rejected by his mother's family, Kerian was sheltered and raised by his father's stableman. He although received an education worth his noble ascendance : he knows well his region history and learned the arts of weapons and combat. His elvish blood is certainly the cause of the strange power (eyebite warlock power) manifesting when Kerian is angry. After years of taking care of his father's horses with the stableman and some participations in battles with minor rogues in the neighbourhoods, Kerian is a young man who seeks adventure and opportunities to prove his talents to his father.

PS : I'm sorry for my poor english in the background story, I'm a french RPG player and I did my best to write this short text.

 

[rhm001]

Hello,

Abilities
Strength : 16 (+3)
Constitution : 13 (+1)
Dexterity :14 (+2)
Intelligence : 12 (+1)
Wisdom : 13 (+1)
Charisma : 12 (+1)

Feats
Skill Training : History

At-Will Powers
Hit and Run
Twin Strike

Encounter Powers
Dire Wolverine Strike
Eyebite (Warlock At-Will Power from Dilettante half-elf racial feature)

Daily Powers
Jaws of the Wolf

Armor
Leather Armor

Weapons
Main melee weapon : Longsword
Off-hand melee weapon : Battleaxe
Ranged : Shortbow

So, a couple points; only copied the relevant sections:

1) Did you take the scores based on what you think the character would have? Or because of Skills? Or did you roll them? If so, great. If not, then you might want to shoot for something a little more optimal with the 22 points, say:

Strength : 16 (+3)
Constitution : 15 (+2) (13+2)
Dexterity :14 (+2)
Intelligence : 10 (+0)
Wisdom : 14 (+2)
Charisma : 10 (+0) (8+2)

As a Ranger, you don't get much from Int or Cha, so you might as well up Wis and Con, since Wisdom helps your attacks and hitpoints never hurt. Alternatively, you could take Wis 15 and Con 13, but if you're using a Battleaxe as one of your weapons, the Con can help with feats later on.

2) Why Skill Training? Character aspect? If not, there are a long list of feats that will be more useful; there's Two Weapon Fighting, to list one.

3) Why Eyebite? Even with your build as it was, you were going to have a hard time hitting anyone with it. I would suggest something Strength-based, possibly: Righteous Brand (Cleric); Cleave (Fighter); Viper's Strike (Warlord); or Wolf Pack Tactics (Warlord). Alternatively, if you still want to go for the "anger" character aspect, take the higher Con mentioned above and take one of the Warlock's other at wills, (any of them!) since they all either are or can be based on Con, so you'll at least have a slightly better chance to hit with them. You're in melee mostly, so I'd go with Hellish Rebuke if you did that.

4) Are the weapons based on the character, too? All swords or all axes might be preferable, though not necessary. If it's not a strong part of the character story, I'd also say there's no reason to take a shortbow when you can take a longbow.

Hope that helps.

 

[TimDrake]

So, a couple points; only copied the relevant sections:

1) Did you take the scores based on what you think the character would have? Or because of Skills? Or did you roll them? If so, great. If not, then you might want to shoot for something a little more optimal with the 22 points, say:

Strength : 16 (+3)
Constitution : 15 (+2) (13+2)
Dexterity :14 (+2)
Intelligence : 10 (+0)
Wisdom : 14 (+2)
Charisma : 10 (+0) (8+2)

As a Ranger, you don't get much from Int or Cha, so you might as well up Wis and Con, since Wisdom helps your attacks and hitpoints never hurt. Alternatively, you could take Wis 15 and Con 13, but if you're using a Battleaxe as one of your weapons, the Con can help with feats later on.

I used the purchase method but didn't try to optimize ablitity scores. My first goal was to get abilities consistent with the concept of my character : a strong, dexterous but also versatile ranger. Your alternative ability scores are certainly more optimized, but INT 10 and CHA 10 don't go very well with what I had in mind for my character. He may not be the perfect striker in combat encounters but I thought he'll be enough powerful to survive. Am I wrong ?

2) Why Skill Training? Character aspect? If not, there are a long list of feats that will be more useful; there's Two Weapon Fighting, to list one.

Yes, History skill training is part of my character background story.

3) Why Eyebite? Even with your build as it was, you were going to have a hard time hitting anyone with it. I would suggest something Strength-based, possibly: Righteous Brand (Cleric); Cleave (Fighter); Viper's Strike (Warlord); or Wolf Pack Tactics (Warlord). Alternatively, if you still want to go for the "anger" character aspect, take the higher Con mentioned above and take one of the Warlock's other at wills, (any of them!) since they all either are or can be based on Con, so you'll at least have a slightly better chance to hit with them. You're in melee mostly, so I'd go with Hellish Rebuke if you did that.

As I said in the background story part of my first post, Eyebite power comes from the elvish blood of the character. I wanted a Warlock power and thought Eyebite, as a Fey Pact power, was the best one according to the half-elf origin of the character. Perhaps should I have a look at other warlock pact powers ...

4) Are the weapons based on the character, too? All swords or all axes might be preferable, though not necessary. If it's not a strong part of the character story, I'd also say there's no reason to take a shortbow when you can take a longbow.

I understand your comment about shortbow/longbow but can you explain what you mean about swords and axes ? Aren't longsword and battleaxes good weapons for a two-blade ranger ? I couldn't find any better one-hand weapons in my PHB.

 

[Caliber]

I understand your comment about shortbow/longbow but can you explain what you mean about swords and axes ? Aren't longsword and battleaxes good weapons for a two-blade ranger ? I couldn't find any better one-hand weapons in my PHB.

By using the same weapon in both hands, you can use Feats to enhance both weapons, while two different weapons would need two different feats. Of course, you could also get some different effects for each weapon. Using the same weapon in each hand was very important in 3E, and its still important (just less so) in 4E.

 

[Mentat55]

I think what he means is that if you wielded two weapons from the same category, like a pair of axes or a pair of heavy blades, you could doubly benefit from feats that key off weapon categories.

 

[rhm001]

He may not be the perfect striker in combat encounters but I thought he'll be enough powerful to survive. Am I wrong ?

I understand your comment about shortbow/longbow but can you explain what you mean about swords and axes ? Aren't longsword and battleaxes good weapons for a two-blade ranger ? I couldn't find any better one-hand weapons in my PHB.

There's no obligation to optimize, and I'm sure he'll survive. That said, as other people have discussed in the past, the new system strongly encourages optimizing, more than earlier editions did, and the monsters and challenges appear to be built with the assumption that they'll be facing parties of optimized characters. As always, how much your character is helped or hurt by his scores will depend on your DM and the type of campaign he runs. The new rules are just more "self-aware" about that fact.

For lower levels, the longsword and battleaxe are probably a fine combination. They're both fine weapons. It's at higher levels that you'll be rewarded for using weapons that are in the same category. The various weapon feats you can take are all dependent on different secondary scores (Example: Dex for heavy and light blades vs. Con for axes), so by using two of the same type of weapon, you benefit from the same feats, rather than spreading them out to the different weapons. In addition, it will be much harder to qualify for many of the higher level feats if you're trying to raise Str and Dex and Con, especially when you're starting with those scores a little lower (that's the system encouraging optimization again...)

EDIT: Ninja'ed on the second point!

 

[TimDrake]

Thanks for your replies : the point about swords and axes is now clear for me.

 

[Mistwell]

I like your character by the way. I think taking skill training:history is a good choice, particularly if you have a DM willing to give you skill challenges.

 

[Deodanth]

There's no obligation to optimize, and I'm sure he'll survive. ...As always, how much your character is helped or hurt by his scores will depend on your DM and the type of campaign he runs. The new rules are just more "self-aware" about that fact.

Hehe, I wonder what it says about me that the first place my eyes went on this sheet were to the ability scores and I immediately said "Hmm, this guy should dump some Int and Cha." But you've defended your choices well. Don't listen to us soulless optimizers, let Kerian be Kerian!

For lower levels, the longsword and battleaxe are probably a fine combination. They're both fine weapons. It's at higher levels that you'll be rewarded for using weapons that are in the same category.

And one nice thing about 4e is that thanks to the retraining rule, you won't be locked in to the choices you made at the beginning. So Kerian's weapon selection and tactics could change over time. One factor that could affect this is what magic weapons he might acquire during the game. I'm just guessing here, but your campaign is probably more the kind where the DM assigns/grants certain magic items to the players, rather than where the players choose or purchase their own.

My first character right out of the box was a Ranger too. They are fairly easy to grasp, fun to play, and get to participate in most aspects of the game. Have fun.

Skills
Thievery : +4

I think this should be +2, shouldn't it?

PS : I'm sorry for my poor english in the background story, I'm a french RPG player and I did my best to write this short text.

Your English is fine, and well above the average for most forum people!

 

[Terwox]

Looks cool.

Might want to see what everyone else is playing though -- your character is going to lag a bit behind (a little) if everyone else is playing something optimized. If that doesn't bother you, cool.