Ultimate Lair Assault character

[kerbarian]

Lair Assault has a glory award for having all characters use the same race. I was thinking about going even further -- can you make a single character that would perform well in Lair Assault if you play with five copies of that character?

After working at it a bit, I believe the answer is a resounding yes. What I came up with is a Tiefling Warlock|Artificer. Some highlights of the character (with self-buffs):

• At-will +12 vs. Fort for 27.5 damage
• At-will reaction of 7 autodamage to anyone who attacks you
• Resist 14 fire
• Lots of healing (3 heals, 20 THP, regeneration)

I'm sure a differentiated party could do better... but with every character having high-end striker damage plus massive amounts of healing, I think it would work pretty well.

[sblock=Some more character details]Defenses are moderate -- 20 AC, 18 Fort, 18 Ref, 17 Will (buffed by Emerald Shield).

The main attack is Hand of Blight, which is either Melee or Ranged 10. In the +12 attack bonus above, I included CA because it will almost always be available (Hand of Blight causes targets to grant CA, and everyone can create instant flanking buddies via Phantasmal Henchman). Sometimes the bonus will go even higher due to a +2 attack bonus vs. bloodied creatures and another possible +1 from Magic Weapon or Cruel Bounty.

I don't know if anything in the current Lair Assault has vulnerabilities, but the damage includes cold (via Icebound Sigil), and there's extra damage vs. radiant-vulnerable creatures via Pelor's Sun Blessing. In addition to the 27.5 average damage, Emerald Shield gives you an at-will reaction for 7 autodamage whenever you're attacked by an adjacent enemy. Damage can go even higher with strategic use of Magic Weapon, and there are a couple powers that add more damage without using up standard actions.

The fire resistance of 14 comes from the Tiefling racial (7) + Diabolic Transformation (5) + Akanul background (2).

For healing, there's the artificer heal, another heal from Pelor's Sun Blessing, and a third surge from the Amulet of Life. Restorative Infusion lets everyone start with 20 THP and then move it around to other characters based on who needs it. Diabolic Transformation starts you out with regeneration 2, and that can be increased via Armor of Sudden Recovery as soon as you start taking ongoing damage.

I hear there's some mud and lava in this Lair Assault, and Body Equilibrium should be great for getting across that.[/sblock][sblock=Character Builder output]====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ======
Lair Demon, level 5
Tiefling, Warlock/Artificer
Eldritch Pact (Hybrid) Option: Sorcerer-King Pact (Hybrid)
Hybrid Warlock Option: Hybrid Warlock Will
Hybrid Artificer Option: Hybrid Artificer Will
Dark Sun
Akanûl (Akanûl Benefit)
Theme: Noble

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
STR 8, CON 20, DEX 10, INT 16, WIS 10, CHA 15

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
STR 8, CON 17, DEX 10, INT 15, WIS 10, CHA 13


AC: 18 Fort: 18 Ref: 16 Will: 17
HP: 52 Surges: 11 Surge Value: 13

TRAINED SKILLS
Heal +7, Perception +7, Thievery +7

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics +2, Arcana +5, Athletics +1, Bluff +6, Diplomacy +4, Dungeoneering +2, Endurance +7, History +5, Insight +2, Intimidate +4, Nature +2, Religion +5, Stealth +4, Streetwise +4

POWERS
Basic Attack: Melee Basic Attack
Basic Attack: Ranged Basic Attack
Noble Utility: Noble Presence
Warlock's Curse Power: Warlock's Curse
Artificer Feature: Healing Infusion: Curative Admixture
Artificer Feature: Healing Infusion: Resistive Formula
Feat Utility: Diabolic Transformation
Wild Talent Cantrip: Body Equilibrium
: Arcane Defiling
Artificer Attack 1: Magic Weapon
Warlock Attack 1: Hand of Blight
Warlock Attack 1: Cruel Bounty
Artificer Attack 1: Icebound Sigil
Artificer Utility 2: Restorative Infusion
Artificer Attack 3: Phantasmal Henchman
Warlock Attack 5: Emerald Shield

FEATS
Level 1: Diabolic Soul
Level 2: Mindbite Scorn
Level 4: Staff Expertise

ITEMS
Leather Armor of Sudden Recovery +1 x1
Amulet of Life +1 x1
Iron Armbands of Power (heroic tier) x1
Magic Quarterstaff +2 x1
Pelor's Sun Blessing (level 3)
Adventurer's Kit
Thieves' Tools
Potion of Healing (heroic tier)
====== End ======[/sblock]

 

[Vicar In A Tutu]

Thank you, very nice! Watch semi-rude video of girls, buy attractive Nike shoes, very cheap, buy, thank you.

(Seriously: the character looks nice.)

 

[jester_gl]

Cool character, pretty strong. I'm just going to point some little things to you.

Pelor sun blessing is a boon and not an item. You can't buy it.
Lair assault is not specifically a dark sun module so you don't get a free psionic cantrip.

And as far as ultimate lair assault character go, this group would be well challenged. No athletic, no thievery and no resist to push means I would not go the mud room way with that group. Of the other two ways available, one is impossible for you to open (no strength) and the other would negate most of your bonuses.

I don't think there is a single most powerful character for lair assault. This one would bring much to the challenge, but a group of varied character of different power would work best.

 

[Saagael]

It isn't a full group of the same character, but close:

1 Pacifist Cleric for healing
4-5 Wizards with Wizard's Fury daily power, optimized for Magic Missile

With 4 wizards, you get 8 MMs per round, and at 9 damage (5 int + 2 power + 1 enhancement + 1 Staff of Missile Mastery) damage each, you're dealing 72 damage a round. That knocks out one enemy each round, without having to worry about attack rolls at all. And of course if you're really worried, you have the Staff's power that lets you target 2 enemies instead of just 1. So on your nova round, you're doing 72 damage to one guy, and 36 to another, which should be pretty close to killing 2 enemies outright.

If you've got a full group of 6 people (5 wizards), you're doing 81 damage per round normally, with 127 damage on your nova round.

The last issue is healing, as a cleric can't really do much without at-will heals, and this strategy makes Astral Seal useless (the wizards aren't hitting, so no healing). That leaves Sacred Flame or Invigorating Assault for temp HP generation.

A warlord might not be bad, since they have good healing, and give a bonus to initiative, to almost ensure that the players go first (With Combat Leader and Improved Initiative, everyone's got a +10 to initiative) and can kill enemies faster than they can attack them.

To make it better, hybrid with other classes to get better encounter-long daily powers.

EDIT: To deal with terrain issues, make the wizards hybrid battlemind, and trade their level 5 daily for Corona of Floating Force. There you go, ignore all terrain effects and hazards for the whole encounter.

 

[kerbarian]

Pelor sun blessing is a boon and not an item. You can't buy it.
Lair assault is not specifically a dark sun module so you don't get a free psionic cantrip.

My understanding from the Lair Assault rules is that both of those would be allowed. The WotC site says "Any legal character build of the appropriate level, using options from official Wizards products, is permissible in D&D Lair Assault." While Lair Assault isn't specifically Dark Sun, it sounds like a Dark Sun character is fair game. And while you couldn't buy the boon (unless you find a particularly mercenary temple of Pelor), it is an item of the appropriate level from an official Wizards product.

And as far as ultimate lair assault character go, this group would be well challenged. No athletic, no thievery and no resist to push means I would not go the mud room way with that group. Of the other two ways available, one is impossible for you to open (no strength) and the other would negate most of your bonuses.

Interesting. I was hoping that Body Equilibrium, huge fire resistance, and ranged attacks would deal well with mud and lava, but I guess I'll have to see how it goes. The character does have Thievery trained, though it's mediocre without Dex.

 

[kerbarian]

4-5 Wizards with Wizard's Fury daily power, optimized for Magic Missile

It looks like Icebound Sigil adds its extra damage to Magic Missile even though there's no damage roll. So Wizard|Artificers could do some pretty serious autodamage, and they could still pack in all the healing of my character above.

I built out the character, though I haven't tweaked all the details. He still has Staff Expertise so Magic Missile won't provoke, and I switched the theme to Guardian for an extra attack. I wasn't sure what to do with the last feat (it was extra curse damage for the character in the OP), so I took multiclass warlord for yet another heal.

With Icebound Sigil, Magic Missile will be doing 13 damage per attack, or 26 autodamage per character per round.

[sblock=Character Builder output]====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ======
Lair Wizard, level 5
Genasi, Wizard/Artificer
Hybrid Artificer Option: Hybrid Artificer Will
Elemental Manifestation Option: Cindersoul
Akanûl (Akanûl Benefit)
Theme: Guardian

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
STR 10, CON 20, DEX 10, INT 18, WIS 8, CHA 13

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
STR 10, CON 17, DEX 10, INT 15, WIS 8, CHA 13


AC: 17 Fort: 19 Ref: 17 Will: 16
HP: 47 Surges: 11 Surge Value: 11

TRAINED SKILLS
Arcana +11, Athletics +7, Perception +8, Thievery +7

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics +2, Bluff +3, Diplomacy +3, Dungeoneering +1, Endurance +9, Heal +1, History +6, Insight +3, Intimidate +3, Nature +3, Religion +6, Stealth +2, Streetwise +3

POWERS
Basic Attack: Melee Basic Attack
Basic Attack: Ranged Basic Attack
Guardian Attack: Guardian's Counter
Genasi Racial Power: Firedeath
Wizard Utility: Ghost Sound
Wizard Utility: Light
Wizard Utility: Mage Hand
Wizard Utility: Prestidigitation
Artificer Feature: Healing Infusion: Curative Admixture
Artificer Feature: Healing Infusion: Resistive Formula
Wizard Attack 1: Magic Missile
Artificer Attack 1: Magic Weapon
Artificer Attack 1: Shielding Cube
Artificer Attack 1: Icebound Sigil
Wizard Attack 1: Wizard's Fury
Artificer Utility 2: Restorative Infusion
Wizard Attack 3: Fire Shroud

FEATS
Level 1: Manifest Resistance
Level 2: Staff Expertise
Level 4: Skirmishing Leader

ITEMS
Staff of Missile Mastery +1 x1
Cloth Armor (Basic Clothing) of Sudden Recovery +1 x1
Amulet of Life +1 x1
Pelor's Sun Blessing (level 3)
Adventurer's Kit
Thieves' Tools
Potion of Healing (heroic tier)
====== End ======[/sblock]

 

[kerbarian]

With Icebound Sigil, Magic Missile will be doing 13 damage per attack, or 26 autodamage per character per round.

It gets even better. If you take an Augmenting Whetstone as your L6 item (dropping Pelor's Sun Blessing, or maybe the Amulet of Life), you can use it on the Staff of Missile Mastery to increase both the enhancement and item bonuses to damage by +1, for a total of 15 damage (30 autodamage per character per round).

The Lair Assault rules say you can't use your gold to purchase consumable items above your level, but I don't see any reason you couldn't spend your actual level-6 item slot on one.

 

[jester_gl]

The WotC site says "Any legal character build of the appropriate level, using options from official Wizards products, is permissible in D&D Lair Assault." While Lair Assault isn't specifically Dark Sun, it sounds like a Dark Sun character is fair game. And while you couldn't buy the boon (unless you find a particularly mercenary temple of Pelor), it is an item of the appropriate level from an official Wizards product.

The dark sun options of free psionic utility, arcane defiling, free-reroll on 1 are not character option, they are campaign specific features.

Rules for how arcane magic functions on Athas, including defiling and preserving.
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At the Dungeon Master’s discretion, a player can select one wild talent when he or she creates a character for a DARK SUN campaign.​

The same way you can't suddenly decide to use inherent bonuses, even if the option is present in the character builder. You could take the feat to get 3 wild talents to get body equilibrium though. But reading the power, skip it for lair assault it won't help.

And the boon is actually NOT an item. That's why you cannot buy it. The character creation rules specifically mentions gold to buy items.

Another line in the character creation rule is : The consumable must be of the character's level or lower. So no level 9 potions, no buying a consumable with the level 6 item slot.


The wizard's fury group I had thought about before to try and complete the dungeon in 4 real minutes Magic missile this one for 8, go. Chess clock timer activated. Same problem as before though, only one route is possible for this group. But for a quick boring victory I think it's the way to go. Pelt the boss for 3 rounds staight with magic missile and win on round 10 or so.

 

[kerbarian]

The dark sun options of free psionic utility, arcane defiling, free-reroll on 1 are not character option, they are campaign specific features.

Sure, wild talents are a campaign-specific character option, but how can you say they're not a character option? They're an option for how you can build your character, and they're published in an official Wizards product. As far as intent is concerned, Wizards has been pretty clear that the idea for Lair Assault is to use absolutely anything you can come up with, calling it "drinking from the firehose" and suggesting DDI Character Builder as a way to find all the options available to your character (which allows you to add a wild talent).

And the boon is actually NOT an item. That's why you cannot buy it. The character creation rules specifically mentions gold to buy items.

It specifically mentions "receiving" magic items, plus gold to spend on additional items. The boon would be one of the received items, not a purchased item. I don't have the DMG2 with me, but I believe there's a line in the description of boons that they "equate to magic items".

Another line in the character creation rule is : The consumable must be of the character's level or lower. So no level 9 potions, no buying a consumable with the level 6 item slot.

This one may be a problem. I had been looking at one Wizards page about Lair Assault which says:

"A character has three magic items, one of 4th level or lower, one of 5th level or lower, and one of 6th level or lower. Note: You may only have one rare item. The player also has 840 gp to spend on other items, only two of which can be consumables. The consumables must be of the character’s level or lower."​

That clearly allows a level 6 consumable as long as you don't buy it with gold. However, their PDF with the Lair Assault character creation rules has a different wording which restricts consumables whether or not they're purchased with gold:

"Restriction: No more than 2 consumable magic items of 5th level (or lower) (magic items that have a consumable power, such as potions or ammunition)"​

Based on that wording, taking an Augmenting Whetstone with your level-6 slot would not be allowed. Since there are conflicting rules about whether it's allowed, I wouldn't take it, which means the MM damage will sadly have to drop back to 13.