Yeah, I'd go Taclord also, multiclass Wizard for a ranged attack and Arcana, and hope the initiative bonus helps the rogue strike first and then the Paladin engage before the rogue gets pulped. Your healing should be fine, especially with the Paladin. You're kind of soft on ranged abailities, so the Wizard multiclass helps a tad there.
3 PC Party - Go Taclord?
- Thread starter Xipe_Totec
- Start date
Yeah, I'd go Taclord also, multiclass Wizard for a ranged attack and Arcana, and hope the initiative bonus helps the rogue strike first and then the Paladin engage before the rogue gets pulped. Your healing should be fine, especially with the Paladin. You're kind of soft on ranged abailities, so the Wizard multiclass helps a tad there.
Xipe_Totec
First Post
Ok, just got a little more news:
First (and possibly best) looks like the DM caved at least a LITTLE bit and is allowing essentials stuff (/shrug at why)
So that means that the Rogue is playing an essentials rogue which I thought was great since that not only gives her sneak attack every turn, but her MBA's are based on Dex, not Str, so that should really help the effectiveness of playing a Taclord.
Second, it's possible we might be adding a 4th player (it's still up in the air at the moment) so that could really change the party dynamic, however I'm going to go ahead and try to start putting together a build for a Taclord and try to get the best of PHB1 and Essentials books (and I'll go ahead and assume he'll allow the Warlord Essentials update from Dragon).
So with all that in mind, anyone have any great idea's? I haven't even really looked at all the essential feats and stuff, so not sure what kind of goodies there are, but hopefully between the two I can come up with a competent build. With that in mind, I'm really torn on what race to choose between Dragonborn and Eladrin. I'm leaning more towards the Eladrin to be able to pick up Arcana and the Int bonus, but just not sure... I know how important Str is to pack as much +hit as possible, but so many of the powers I was thinking of taking seem to either have an effect by themselves or a miss effect, so maybe only taking a 16 in Str would be ok?
As for the all the cleric suggestions, I appreciate all your help, but I'm just not interested in playing a cleric. The whole flavor of them is just boring to me, so I'd rather play something that interests me. Thanks for the suggestions, though, I really do appreciate any input.
First (and possibly best) looks like the DM caved at least a LITTLE bit and is allowing essentials stuff (/shrug at why)
So that means that the Rogue is playing an essentials rogue which I thought was great since that not only gives her sneak attack every turn, but her MBA's are based on Dex, not Str, so that should really help the effectiveness of playing a Taclord.
Second, it's possible we might be adding a 4th player (it's still up in the air at the moment) so that could really change the party dynamic, however I'm going to go ahead and try to start putting together a build for a Taclord and try to get the best of PHB1 and Essentials books (and I'll go ahead and assume he'll allow the Warlord Essentials update from Dragon).
So with all that in mind, anyone have any great idea's? I haven't even really looked at all the essential feats and stuff, so not sure what kind of goodies there are, but hopefully between the two I can come up with a competent build. With that in mind, I'm really torn on what race to choose between Dragonborn and Eladrin. I'm leaning more towards the Eladrin to be able to pick up Arcana and the Int bonus, but just not sure... I know how important Str is to pack as much +hit as possible, but so many of the powers I was thinking of taking seem to either have an effect by themselves or a miss effect, so maybe only taking a 16 in Str would be ok?
As for the all the cleric suggestions, I appreciate all your help, but I'm just not interested in playing a cleric. The whole flavor of them is just boring to me, so I'd rather play something that interests me. Thanks for the suggestions, though, I really do appreciate any input.
In our first 4e game, one of the players took an Eladrin Warlord and multiclassed heavily into wizard and had a blast. We didn't have a proper controller, like you, and the encounter aoe attacks helped a lot. 16 primary can still be okay; I would recommend going for accuracy over damage with weapon choice. And Commander's Strike will be awesome.
Xipe_Totec
First Post
Yea, the multiclassing Wizard does sound interesting... I'll have to look into it and adding that bit of extra control might help quite a bit.
And yea, I was thinking of just using a longsword and saving the feat for bastard sword (since I'm not worried about damage I do in the least as long as I can pump the damage of others).
And yea, I was thinking Commander's Strike would pretty much be my bread and butter with a pretty much guaranteed hit from the rogue with an extra 2d8 sneak attack.... should be almost as good as having two strikers
Xipe_Totec
First Post
Well, here's what I've come up with so far... let me know what you think!
====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ======
Riardon Skyhawk, level 1
Eladrin, Warlord
Build: Tactical Warlord
Warlord: Combat Leader
Commanding Presence: Tactical Presence
FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 16, Con 12, Dex 10, Int 18, Wis 8, Cha 14.
STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 16, Con 12, Dex 8, Int 16, Wis 8, Cha 14.
AC: 18 Fort: 14 Reflex: 15 Will: 14
HP: 24 Surges: 8 Surge Value: 6
TRAINED SKILLS
Arcana +11, History +11, Intimidate +7, Athletics +7, Endurance +5
UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics -1, Bluff +2, Diplomacy +2, Dungeoneering -1, Heal -1, Insight -1, Nature -1, Perception -1, Religion +4, Stealth -1, Streetwise +2, Thievery -1
FEATS
Level 1: Eladrin Soldier
POWERS
Warlord at-will 1: Wolf Pack Tactics
Warlord at-will 1: Commander's Strike
Warlord encounter 1: Warlord's Favor
Warlord daily 1: Lead the Attack
ITEMS
Adventurer's Kit, Longsword, Light Shield, Hide Armor
====== Copy to Clipboard and Press the Import Button on the Summary Tab ======
I'm also in the process of planning out the character to about level 6, so once I get that finished I'll post what that looks like so you can get an idea where I'm going. Any comments so far?
====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ======
Riardon Skyhawk, level 1
Eladrin, Warlord
Build: Tactical Warlord
Warlord: Combat Leader
Commanding Presence: Tactical Presence
FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 16, Con 12, Dex 10, Int 18, Wis 8, Cha 14.
STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 16, Con 12, Dex 8, Int 16, Wis 8, Cha 14.
AC: 18 Fort: 14 Reflex: 15 Will: 14
HP: 24 Surges: 8 Surge Value: 6
TRAINED SKILLS
Arcana +11, History +11, Intimidate +7, Athletics +7, Endurance +5
UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics -1, Bluff +2, Diplomacy +2, Dungeoneering -1, Heal -1, Insight -1, Nature -1, Perception -1, Religion +4, Stealth -1, Streetwise +2, Thievery -1
FEATS
Level 1: Eladrin Soldier
POWERS
Warlord at-will 1: Wolf Pack Tactics
Warlord at-will 1: Commander's Strike
Warlord encounter 1: Warlord's Favor
Warlord daily 1: Lead the Attack
ITEMS
Adventurer's Kit, Longsword, Light Shield, Hide Armor
====== Copy to Clipboard and Press the Import Button on the Summary Tab ======
I'm also in the process of planning out the character to about level 6, so once I get that finished I'll post what that looks like so you can get an idea where I'm going. Any comments so far?
tiornys
Explorer
Eladrin Soldier is a great feat, but its real value to the TacLord is granting Greatspear proficiency, which you don't care about since your DM isn't allowing the Greatspear. I'd recommend an immediate multiclass into Wizard (gives you the ability to train Religion alongside Arcana and a couple of great AoE options), an Expertise variant to help you land Warlord's Favor and Lead the Attack, or Toughness to help with survival.
t~
t~
Xipe_Totec
First Post
Well, we just had our first adventure tonight, and so far what I'm noticing is that at this point at least, I don't attack very much. Probably 80% of the time, I was just commanding strike to the rogue and letting her do all the damage. So the problem with feats like Eladrin Soldier/Weapon Expertise, Etc is that I don't actually attack much, although I agree that I think Weapon Expertise might do me more good. I considered toughness, however I already have a decent AC/HP pool and for whatever reason (and maybe this will change) but the DM didn't attack me much at all. Mostly, he kept going after the rogue, and when that wasn't logical, went after the Paladin. We struggled a lot with healing though. With only 2 Inspiring Words per encounter, it was difficult (although he was using a 4 PC encounter when we only had 3 PC's). He ended up having to nurf them a little bit on the spot. I'm hoping once I get that extra heal per encounter with my Utility at lvl 2, that will help.
So with that in mind, I don't really see any one feat as being an advantage over any other, although I think I will talk to him about letting me swap out to the Heavy Blade Expertise to at least help out a bit on landing Lead the Attack when I use it. I might also consider swapping out my encounter power since I didn't really find any good opportunity to use it since just using Commanding Strike did more damage and gives a bigger bonus to attack roll. Any comments or any help on what I could be doing to play better?
So with that in mind, I don't really see any one feat as being an advantage over any other, although I think I will talk to him about letting me swap out to the Heavy Blade Expertise to at least help out a bit on landing Lead the Attack when I use it. I might also consider swapping out my encounter power since I didn't really find any good opportunity to use it since just using Commanding Strike did more damage and gives a bigger bonus to attack roll. Any comments or any help on what I could be doing to play better?
tiornys
Explorer
First, I think you may be misunderstanding Commander's Strike, since it doesn't boost the attack roll at all. It gives a damage bonus only. That said, Warlord's Favor might be a little weak in your party right now, since your striker's encounter power already has a power bonus to the attack, plus he doesn't have a daily power. Still, it can effectively boost the Paladin, and it's also nice to combine with an action point of your own (Warlord's Favor, make the Thief almost incapable of missing, action point Commander's Strike, plus Thief attacks and maybe action points, and you're in the vicinity of killing an elite).
That said, Powerful Warning might be significantly better right now, with the Thief is taking the brunt of the enemy assault.
If you're having trouble with healing, consider changing your feat to Tactical Inspiration. An extra +4 HP on your Inspiring Word is a huge boost at low levels.
t~
That said, Powerful Warning might be significantly better right now, with the Thief is taking the brunt of the enemy assault.
If you're having trouble with healing, consider changing your feat to Tactical Inspiration. An extra +4 HP on your Inspiring Word is a huge boost at low levels.
t~
Xipe_Totec
First Post
Wow, you're right, I guess I read that completely wrong and thought it was +attack not +damage. Actually, I think that's even better cause the rogue really isn't needing +attack.
As for Powerful Warning, yea, that would be nice except that I'm stuck using PHB1 only stuff, so Warlord's Favor seems like the best option, but I see what you're saying in chaining with with Action Points to really get the most out of it and I was trying to build combo's like that last night and the rogue was doing pretty insane damage, but being the focus of attacks, I was just struggling to keep her alive.
The same goes for the feat Tactical Inspiration. It would be a great feat and I would certainly take it, but I'm limited to PHB. /sigh.
As for Powerful Warning, yea, that would be nice except that I'm stuck using PHB1 only stuff, so Warlord's Favor seems like the best option, but I see what you're saying in chaining with with Action Points to really get the most out of it and I was trying to build combo's like that last night and the rogue was doing pretty insane damage, but being the focus of attacks, I was just struggling to keep her alive.
The same goes for the feat Tactical Inspiration. It would be a great feat and I would certainly take it, but I'm limited to PHB. /sigh.
