Character building exercise

[Herschel]

With a number of posts about how race/class combos are “needed” based on stat bumps, here’s an exercise I’m wondering if people will like. We have 21 classes and 21 races. Using each class and race only once, try to assign combos to make the best overall group of characters. Please write a blurb as to why you made a particular character/race combo if it doesn’t seem like an obvious option.

The classes: Ardent, Assassin, Avenger, Barbarian, Bard, Battlemind, Cleric, Fighter, Invoker, Monk, Paladin, Psion, Ranger, Rogue, Runepriest, Seeker, Swordmage, Warden, Warlock, Warlord, Wizard

The Races: Changeling, Deva, Dragonborn, Drow, Dwarf, Eladrin, Elf, Genasi, Githzerai, Gnome, Goliath, Halfling, Half-Orc, Human, Kalashtar, Longtooth Shifter, Razorclaw Shifter, Shardmind, Tiefling, Warforged, Wilden

I'll be adding my own either tonight or tomorrow.

 

[Bold or Stupid]

Group of five or apply each class to a race?

 

[Larrin]

so far you're missing druid and sorceror in that list....

 

[Aulirophile]

There are 25 classes (not counting hybrids), and 36 races (counting all available races in the CB, 28 of which came in a book or have a full Dragon writeup).

Would you care to try again?

 

[Gradine]

Changeling- Assassin
With the Dex boost, the Changeling makes a nice Nightstalker. The Changeling's disguise makes for some wonderful synergy, if nothing else flavor-wise.

Deva- Invoker
Natural fit.

Dragonborn- Barbarian
Thaneborn, obviously, though if you cared more for flavor Thunderborn could be a fun choice.

Drow- Paladin
Paladin got the short end of the stick here, but a Drow Paladin is just a funny thing to think about. Go Protecting or (or maybe Virtuous) here.

Dwarf- Battlemind
Dwarves make solid defenders in general, and this may be the Dark Sun fanboyishness in me, but I thoroughly enjoy a good psionic dwarf.

Eladrin- Rogue
Make for excellent Shadowy rogues. If you like melee you've got plenty of options to get yourself out. Eladrin Education synergizes well with Rogues as well, possibly more so than the human's extra skill.

Elf- Seeker
Well... yeah.

Genasi- Swordmage
Flavor to your elemental preferences.

Githzerai- Monk
You can tell I had this particular stretch of races pretty easily.

Gnome- Psion
Gnomes flavor better as Arcane, but can make fun Telepaths nonetheless.

Goliath- Warden
Halfling- Bard
Half-Orc- Ranger
These were all fairly obvious fits.

Human- Warlord
With the right build and prestige classes, every time you use an action point, you win the battle.

Kalasthar- Cleric
Doesn't necessarily feel right going non-Psionic here, but they do generally make excellent blaster clerics.

Longtooth Shifter- Fighter
Grab a polearm and go to town. You're not quite as sticky but you're tough as nails to bring down.

Razorclaw Shifter- Avenger
Another solid, perfect fit.

Shardmind- Wizard
You have a pretty decent get-the-hell-away-from-trouble racial power, and with your stat boost choices you have plenty of choices to go with, though I'd tend to favor illusionist.

Tiefling- Ardent
Probably one of the goofier choices on the surface, but Ardents do enjoy the Charisma boost, and the "controlling emotions" flavor of the class does have some fun role-play opportunities with typically fiery Tieflings.

Warforged- Runepriest
Great synergy in general, and the idea of a Warforged covered in runes just seems right to me. Go Wrathful, obviously.

Wilden- Warlock
Take Con as your second stat boost. You'll probably want to stick with aspect of ancients or hunter. Go Vestige to mesh with the whole ever-shifting persona.

Definitely a fun exercise, and it certianly gives you a ton of ideas for characters.

 

[Gradine]

I presume he left the four classes (Artificer, Druid, Shaman and Sorcerer) and six supported races (Bladeling, Gnoll, Half-Elf, Minotaur, Revenant and Shadar-Kai) off for a reason. I suppose you could do the full class list and hack two of the races off (I'd go with Revenant and Gnoll, probably).

 

[Prestidigitalis]

Human- Warlord
With the right build and prestige classes, every time you use an action point, you win the battle.

You mean Paragon Path, not prestige class.

And I have to say, though I mean no disrespect to you personally, that I hate this kind of rhetoric. It's like the claim that as soon as the Wizard pulls out Flaming Sphere, the battle is over. It's just not true. There is no auto-win button in D&D, not even for vanilla situations. If the encounter is well designed and at or above level, there is always the chance that bad luck will prevail.

 

[Gradine]

You mean Paragon Path, not prestige class.

And I have to say, though I mean no disrespect to you personally, that I hate this kind of rhetoric. It's like the claim that as soon as the Wizard pulls out Flaming Sphere, the battle is over. It's just not true. There is no auto-win button in D&D, not even for vanilla situations. If the encounter is well designed and at or above level, there is always the chance that bad luck will prevail.

My bad. Haven't spent much time on Paragon level in 4e, and I still fall back on a lot of my 3.x experience.

Also, it's simply a matter of hyperbole. Obviously there's no "win the battle" button, but, in my experience anyway, there is such a thing as a "turn the tide of the battle" button, which is a far more accurate but naturally a less impressive term. My only paragon character (from a non one-off adventure) was a Human Warlord who did certainly turn the tide of the battle when he pulled out an action point; and this was back when there was just a PHB.

 

[Prestidigitalis]

Also, it's simply a matter of hyperbole.

Hyperbole is just one of my pet peeves. I really shouldn't have been so hard on you. I just get tired of hearing bald assertions that I have seen falsified over and over again in my own games.

 

[Aulirophile]

Would you take "outside of rolling a single 1 in ~9 attack rolls, I can kill any elite in the game in one round if I had two minors the previous turn to set up self buffs"? By myself. If a leader gives me any kind of buff that thing is dying unless I roll 3-4 ones on the attack rolls (and even then, Dice of Auspicious Fortune).

There are certainly "I-win" builds. Usually just for one/encounter day, but they exist.

Killswitch on CharOp is actually a perfect example.