Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="mneme" data-source="post: 4290566" data-attributes="member: 59248">Well, except, for, if you're planning on epic levels, the +1s across the board (and, since there are 7 stat increases 1-30, the odd points from the last three boosts; if you want an optimized 30th level char, you need to take the last three round in a circle unless you started with odd stats).  This does mean that if you're planning for epic feats requiring a 13, you need to start with an 11, or a 12 for Paragon feats requiring a 13.Dragonbreath will nearly always be linked to a primary stat -- it keys off any physical stat, and -most- classes Dragonborn want to play have a physical stat they care about.  (exceptions: DB Fey Warlock, DB Cha paladin).  Also, don't forget that it A. attacks reflex, and B. autoscales by tier.  A 30th level, non-demigod character DB who started with an 18 in in a primary trait will have a +8 bonus in their primary stat, +6 for DB's inherent bonus, plus 15 = 29.  I don't think p42 is that useful, so I'll look at some l30 critters -- The Ancient Red Dragon has a reflex 43, so you hit it on a 14 (unless you're a fighter, and hit it on a 13); much more often than you hit its AC of 48 with the same bonuses plus a proficiency bonus.  The Tarasque has a more reasonable Reflex of 38, so you'll hit it on an easy 9.  Much more importantly, the highest level minion we have is the Lich Vestage, level 26, with reflex 40 -- a 26th level non-fighter can have a +8 stat bonus, so is at +27 base, hitting on a 13, without bonuses.  That's not that bad, but it's easy enough to boost with helper powers, I think.  (which given that minion's defenses, you might want anyway.  Vestages are pretty tough to take down!)Cha based paladins are an interesting beast, actually.  They do tend to attract attention, but as ranged defenders, their best bet is actually to challenge a foe in melee (but not marked by) another character, or ideally more than one.  The monster's then got the fun choice of charging past several defenders (drawing mutliple AoOs) to get at the happy paladin, or sit there, attack in melee, and take a pile of damage every round.  A lovely choice...for the PCs.  There are also a bunch of Cha melee/close attacks available to the Cha-based paladin -- all the paragon Cha attacks are melee or burst, frex.  Actually, going down the list, the -only- level where there -isn't- a melee or "close burst, enemies only" attack is 15. That's it, though there also isn't a 1st level Daily non-ranged attack (but both 1st level enounter attacks are not ranged, and the all the 1st level Paladin at-wills are melee).  The only needs a Cha-paladin has for Str are Divine Strength (after all, not -all- monsters drop saves you need to save Divine Mettle for) and AoOs.The defense question is interesting--a Cha-paladin -will- have a lower total set of defenses than a Str-paladin -- but they'll also be very, very flexible -- with big close (and -selective-) burst effects, healing, buffing (Divine Wrath FTW!), melee, debufs, etc--like a wizard, they trade defense for more flexible offense.  Really, the only thing they're missing is a Magic Missile equivalent--give them a Cha-based At-will attack that counts as a basic attack and they're G2G.  (beyond that, well, go with at least 14 Str, 14 Wis, and 18 Cha and they're decent enough, even with weak attacks of opportunity, particularly with great blast effects if enemies try to mob them, and ranged and marking if enemies ignore them).</blockquote>

Verification