All-arcane party

[Klaus]

Today I was toying with the idea of an all-arcane party, in part inspired by the Arcane Legions thread over in General. The PCs would either be part of a standing army that regularly fields arcane soldiers, or are the last remnants of one such force. The party would be:

Leader - Bard
Defender - Swordmage
Controller - Wizard
Striker - Sorcerer

Anyone tried anything of the sort?

 

[Nifft]

I'm sure it'd work. You might want to throw in a Warlock as your 5th man... with Arcane Power, they seem quite playable.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Klaus]

I'm sure it'd work. You might want to throw in a Warlock as your 5th man... with Arcane Power, they seem quite playable.

Cheers, -- N

Yeah, probably a Starlock that serves as the "navigator". After all, who would want to serve alongside some dude who made a pact with the devil?

 

[Kinneus]

I play with a group over Maptools, and we almost made an all-arcane party by ourselves. It was:

Human Shielding Swormdage (me)
Human Artificer
Tiefling Starlock
Human(?) Beastmaster Ranger
Dragonborn Fighter

The Beastmaster Ranger dropped out after a few sessions, and was quickly replaced with a Human Wizard. Then the Artificer dropped out, and was replaced with a Gnome Bard.

Now all we have to do is get rid of that darn Dragonborn, and we'll be an all-arcane party!

 

[Nifft]

Yeah, probably a Starlock that serves as the "navigator". After all, who would want to serve alongside some dude who made a pact with the devil?

Err, maybe the guy with the Book Imp familiar?

Anyway, as I see it your alternatives are Vestige Pact (some Leader-ish effects), Hexhammer (Dwarf Infernal Warlock / Ftr -> Iron Vanguard), or taking another Wizard with a complementary power selection.

The Hexhammer would do a bit to make up for the group's thin front-line.

However, a properly built Staff Wizard could also hold his own on the front ranks, as mine tends to do (my Wizard has used the Charge action in 3 of his last 3 encounters). It all comes down to specifics.

I'm assuming that as a military unit, they're all expected to be capable at melee as well as ranged combat?

Cheers, -- N

 

[Ryujin]

Yeah, probably a Starlock that serves as the "navigator". After all, who would want to serve alongside some dude who made a pact with the devil?

And channeling Cthulhu makes him a more trustworthy ally?

 

[Remathilis]

Thinking...

Swordmage: You need to be up front and sucking up blows. Try defending or ensnaring to lay pin down foes.

Bard: As much as cunning seems tempting here, go valorous so that you have another front-liner (chain + longsword + shield prof)

Sorcerer: Either build is nice, but I like dragon-blood for OA support from Strength.

Wizard: Control, you must learn control! Try going either frost orb (slow + sucky saves) or summoning (more friends)

Warlock: Fifth man, I say go feylock and act as a trapfinder. Bonus points if a gnome.

 

[Mr. Teapot]

Sorcerer: Either build is nice, but I like dragon-blood for OA support from Strength.

Either of the Dex based Sorcerer options could easily take the at-will power that counts as a basic attack, then take Sorcerous Blade channelling to make it a melee basic attack, at which point their OAs and charges would be sorted out without needing any Strength. Or Melee Training, of course.


Dragon sorcerer might still be preferred, as they are probably the most melee capable of sorcerers (bonus AC when bloodied, lots of close bursts and blasts, etc.) But there are options.

 

[mach1.9pants]

I'd add a 2nd sorcerer as the 5th... more strikers, less grind.

 

[Quickleaf]

I play with a group over Maptools, and we almost made an all-arcane party by ourselves.

Same thing almost is happening to our forming party. Maybe arcane is just the more popular power source?