What are the traps in char design to beware of?

[Particle_Man]

I have heard there are a few ability/class/race/power/feat combos that look good at first, but turn out to be traps (sub-optimal at the very least).

If this has been done already, then a link to that thread would be great. If not, then could people post what they think the traps in question are?

 

[blargney the second]

Careful Strike is a trap - Twin Strike is better about 95% of the time.

 

[Rashak Mani]

( these powers above are ranger ... just helping those that might be reading )

If you don't like a power you can always retrain... so its not a big issue.

 

[JDillard]

Other than the really obvious "I want to play a fighter with 8 str and 10 con", there aren't really any traps that I've seen.

Some things seem better than others, but not in any really significant sort of way.

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

On the Fighter side of things...

Sure Strike: If you've got anything above a +2 Strength bonus, the trade-off is really hard to justify. You'd be better off taking Reaping Strike (guarenteed damage, even on a miss), especially if you're going 2-hander route. Although for Sure Strike, if going the 2hander route, you could effectively power attack for free, but it quickly becomes obsolete as your Strength bonus continues to increase (and if you're a Fighter, Strength bonus should be increasing as fast and as often as possible).

Dance of Steel (L3 Fighter Encounter Power): Requires you to be wielding either a heavy blade or light blade, and does even less than the 1st level Steel Serpent Strike. Until there's errata that says it should be doing more than it does, avoid it.

For the Wizard...

Acid Arrow. You're a controller, let the ranger/rogue/warlock dish out the ranged damage. Much better off with Sleep (not the insta-win it was at 1st level in 3rd edition, but still pretty potent, especially if used with Orb of Imposition ability and a decent Wis score) and a choice of Flaming Sphere (rolling damage that can be maintained almost indefinitely) or Freezing Cloud (less damage, but attacks Fort, which is quite useful)

Burning Hands: Thunderwave may not have as big of an area, but it's at-will and has better control aspects. Take Icy Terrain or Force Orb instead.

 

[frankthedm]

Don't sack too many ability scores. Getting an extra +1 or +2 from a stat may sound good, but you will be gutting your feat choices if you play “18’s and 8’s” with point buy. Some feats have stat requirements that are different than the prime stats of the classes they are best for. Spell Focus for example needs Charisma 13+.

 

[small pumpkin man]

Don't sack too many ability scores. Getting an extra +1 or +2 from a stat may sound good, but you will be gutting your feat choices if you play “18’s and 8’s” with point buy. Some feats have stat requirements that are different than the prime stats of the classes they are best for. Spell Focus for example needs Charisma 13+.

Or more specifically, check feat requirements when choosing your stats, as stats are one of the few things you can't retrain, and you don't want to find out you have no interesting feats to take.

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

Don't sack too many ability scores. Getting an extra +1 or +2 from a stat may sound good, but you will be gutting your feat choices if you play “18’s and 8’s” with point buy. Some feats have stat requirements that are different than the prime stats of the classes they are best for. Spell Focus for example needs Charisma 13+.

Well said. It pays to plan at least a few levels ahead when it comes to feats and ability scores

 

[vladbat]

I took many builds to 20 to test things out. The most difficutl thing I found was in the classes with more than one attack stat things can get a little harder to hit. Classes like the Lock and Warlord take special attention to your starting array to make the most of the +1s down the line depending on power selections.

 

[Cadfan]

1. I'll second the "don't sack too many ability scores" comment. It may sound smart, but in practice it rarely turns out well.

2. This may sound really obvious, but don't put a 12 in an ability score then try to attack with it. Lets say you're playing a dwarf cleric, and you're using the array. You put 16 into wisdom, then boost it by 2. You put 14 into charisma. You put 13 into constitution because you're a dwarf and you want to be tough. Then you put a 12 into strength because it has to go somewhere, and why not. Later, when you pick powers, you see that you have a lot of strength powers. So you pick one for variety. BAD IDEA. I keep seeing new players do this. Please don't. If you wanted to do both strength and wisdom, you should have gone with a 16 in each, instead of an 18 in one and a +1 bonus in the other.

3. Don't assume you have to have an 18 or a 20. You don't. Two 16s may be as good or better. Depends what race/class combination you are, and what you want to do with your character. Don't discount it.