Casters Suck? Please explain.

[Incenjucar]

Edit: I am a Dwarf Cleric. How is it that I can get this +13 to hit?

A dwarf cleric won't be able to get a +13 to hit at level 1, they're a high survival race and a leader class, not an insane accuracy race/class combo. Insane accuracy is for tiefling and dragonborn strikers.

You can absolutely get a +9 to hit as a dwarven cleric, though, if your Wisdom was 20, or have +8 to hit and +10 to hit whenever your allies flank a target.

 

[bganon]

Combat advantage with spells? Tell me how I can do this.

Aggressive Advantage, Distant Advantage, Hidden Sniper, Terrain Advantage, etc...

Melee classes get higher attack bonuses and can easily get CA.

The attack bonus increase is compensated for in monster design. Target the weak NADs.

I do not like that I have to work extra hard to hit something simply because I chose to be a caster. Is that supposed to be balanced because I should get hit less often? I got down to 4 HP twice in one encounter and less than that one time in the other 3 encounters. My HP is 31 and my AC is 18. Blah!!

Wizards should be multi-targeting and have the power selection to easily choose the weakest NAD.

Your Cleric, however, looks quite deliberately to be a strong healer. You've taken feats and powers that focus on healing and defense rather than smacking things. You're playing the best healer build in the game, one that even after nerfing is still so good it's considered borderline overpowered. And you're upset that you only hit half the time? If you want to hit things, maybe you shouldn't play a pacifist cleric.

 

[Miio]

I still have to hit with my powers to perform the heals and other effects associated with the ability. Otherwise, my turn consists of Healing word, and that's it. Not to mention, that is only TWICE per encounter. Yes, I have a CD that allows me to heal in a burst. My issue last night is that NO one was in my burst, and I couldn't get to anyone because I was completely surrounded during EVERY encounter.

 

[Incenjucar]

My issue last night is that NO one was in my burst, and I couldn't get to anyone because I was completely surrounded during EVERY encounter.

Which is why you need a defender.

 

[Miio]

A dwarf cleric won't be able to get a +13 to hit at level 1, they're a high survival race and a leader class, not an insane accuracy race/class combo. Insane accuracy is for tiefling and dragonborn strikers.

You can absolutely get a +9 to hit as a dwarven cleric, though, if your Wisdom was 20, or have +8 to hit and +10 to hit whenever your allies flank a target.

We can't flank, however. Any feat I could take to give me CA when my team flanks is bunk. Two ranged characters and one melee character.

The answer is that our party just won't work, I guess. I think that is sad.

 

[Incenjucar]

D&D has some flexibility, but generally if you don't have a four-person party with one of each of the four roles, you'll have a hard time of things, especially if you don't have heavy rules mastery or a DM with a talent for customizing encounters to make things fair. In general your party seems fairly randomly composed. Something has to give.

 

[Miio]

D&D has some flexibility, but generally if you don't have a four-person party with one of each of the four roles, you'll have a hard time of things, especially if you don't have heavy rules mastery or a DM with a talent for customizing encounters to make things fair. In general your party seems fairly randomly composed. Something has to give.

Of course it is randomly composed? I don't figure every happenstance group of heroes happens to have every role filled.

As I am quickly feeling dumber and dumber, I still want to hold out hope that the party can work. I built my healer the way I did because we don't have a defender. I was hoping the extra healing would in a way compensate for not being able to stick enemies and the result of that being that everyone will be getting damaged.

I am still going to play a couple more sessions as the cleric before I switch to a Defender. I will be taking away Defensive Grace for a feat that can raise my attack. I don't think I can afford to take my Wisdom mod to a +5, however.

 

[eriktheguy]

Typical monster defenses are
14 + level for AC
12 + level for NADs

Your DM should be using equal or lower level monsters. In that case you will be hitting on average around 8+, which seems about right to me. However, many enemies have higher defenses than this, and it is not always obvious just by looking at them. At best, try to hit brutes and soldiers with your Ref spells. Will might be well used against skirmishers.

Consider asking your DM to hand out free expertise feats, its a house-rule that many DMs use.

 

[Miio]

Typical monster defenses are
14 + level for AC
12 + level for NADs

Your DM should be using equal or lower level monsters. In that case you will be hitting on average around 8+, which seems about right to me. However, many enemies have higher defenses than this, and it is not always obvious just by looking at them. At best, try to hit brutes and soldiers with your Ref spells. Will might be well used against skirmishers.

Consider asking your DM to hand out free expertise feats, its a house-rule that many DMs use.

His reply was "hell no". So much for sleeping with the DM... ):

Eh, I see that it is balanced on paper. As someone has said, bad luck rolls will make the attack bonuses void whether you are maxed out or not. We were fighting Skirmishers in every room, which is the party weakness, as well as minions. Every encounter was actually rather difficult because of that. I can see that on other encounters we would definitely do much better. We just aren't 100% equipped for every situation.

My DM did say I could play two characters. SO, I will just make a defender and hopefully the party runs better.

Thanks to everyone for further explaining why casters are, in fact, balanced.

 

[Miio]

Non-strikers should have to work about as hard for a % chance to hit as you do. Strikers usually get an advantage to hit, because they're strikers.

For burst or blast powers, you can take the Coordinated Explosion feat for a +1 to hit if one or more of your allies is in the attack radius, and ON TOP OF THAT, you can get the Distant Advantage feat to gain combat advantage when using ranged or area spells against any enemy flanked by your allies.

So if you drop an Area attack on someone flanked by your allies, and the allies are in the area of effect, that's a +3 to hit right there.

You can also take Impending Victory to get an additional +1 vs. bloodied enemies when you use at-wills.

If you used thunder and lightning powers, you could take Oncoming Storm for ANOTHER +1 bonus every time you use a thunder power after using a lightning power.

I hadn't even seen this post. Thank you for this! I am using this advice.