Help Me Make an Awesome Character for Lair Assault (Spoilers)

[Retreater]

Okay. I'll admit it. There are a lot of new players (and not tactically-savvy ones) that are playing Lair Assault locally. A more experienced player and I are joining the table to give them a little power boost. (The other experienced player plans on bringing a leader.)

I'm looking at a controller. The most bad-assed combination for going nova in a single encounter in the middle of a volcano.

So far I have a human wizard with a lot of icy-type spells, incl. Bigby's Icy Grip (if that's the right name). 20 Int, Heat Adaptation feat (though the Resistance is lowered to 2), Staff Expertise. Possessions include wavestrider boots, winter staff, cloth armor (that automatically ends ongoing fire damage - can't remember the name).

Can you help me munchkin it out more?

 

[Ferghis]

I'd look over here: Whoops! Browser Settings Incompatible

In addition, there was a recent thread in which another player was given lots of advice on an essentials mage that focused on flexibility (thanks to expanded spellbook and a lot of power-swap features). I'm talking about this post: http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-discussion/309978-relearning-4th-edition.html#post5651080 but the whole thread is good.

 

[jodyjohnson]

I'd do Fire Beetle Potion for the Resist 5 plus 5 hp instead of spending the feat.

Edit: Fire Beetle Potion is Level 6 and not purchaseable. Doh!

 

[Saagael]

The trick to beating the Lair assault is a synergistic team, not just one optimized player. Also, from what I've seen, not a lot of the enemies are vulnerable cold, just resistant to fire.

Some things to ponder:

Since the entire assault is considered a single encounter, pick dailies, utilities and items that have encounter long effects or sustain abilities.

Probably one of the best combos I can think of is a Brawler fighter with the Pin Down and Headsman's Chop feats, then focus on getting enemies prone and dealing massive damage with Headsman's Chop. All strikers should take Headsman's Chop as well.

You'll be in cramped spaces, so picking powers that are party-friendly will be great. Winged Horde and Beguiling Strands are the two at-wills you'd want, I think for that.

Powers that daze or immobilize will be invaluable, since you can limit how many enemies you're facing at one time. Also, conjurations to place in doorways are always nice.

Grab the Wizard Apprentice theme; you get an extra level 6 magic item (level 5 feature) and an awesome encounter power that dazes.

 

[On Puget Sound]

If you want a controller, you probably want a different definition of "going nova". Damage is not the important factor, locking down or neutralizing opponents does. Keep in mind that, though it is a single encounter, it moves from room to room, so encounter-long effects that you can't take with you are not as good as those you can. Still, it's hard to beat Visions of Avarice for a game-breaking wizard daily.

 

[Saagael]

Oh, also you might consider going hybrid, since wizards lose very little, and you can gain some very nice encounter-long daily buffs from other classes (Invoker and Battlemind have some nice level 1/5 dailies).

 

[Retreater]

As it turned out, the wizard was pretty pointless. Only one out of the 4 rooms we encountered had more than one villain. So don't bother taking zones, bursts, blasts, etc. Strikers and leaders are the only necessary character types for Assault IMO.

 

[On Puget Sound]

there may be some variation there; I hear that GMs can choose from a mix of monsters and traps. Yours chose single powerful monsters, but other GMs may have more groups. The game I watched part of had more monsters on the table than players at one point.

 

[SkullThrone]

I have to say I build a Human Warden, multi-class Cleric, With an Avalanche Maul with form of Mountains Thunder (5d6+15 dmg on a charge), we ran it with four of these guys and the DM was merciless, maxed out every room three creatures and a statue.

Even losing init, and having one of us nearly go down in the first round we were unstoppable...we made it to Mordai Vel in 5 rounds, and only three of us got to attack on that round...we Bloodied him, and he teleported into the lava...which didn't matter, we all charged him on the sixth round and killed him.

For this adventure Warden is the class to go with, I'd post my build but I might be DM'ng tomorrow night, so I'm going to hold off, but if you want a guarenteed win...that's the guy to play...You get reduce push/pull/slide by 2, and when you become bloodied, you get regen 5, resist all 5 (or 10 by spending a surge)...plus boots of adept charging allow you to charge Vel, then get out of the way for the next guy to charge.

We could have beat it in 5 rounds if we would have just abandoned the fire elemental in the first room.

 

[KarinsDad]

there may be some variation there; I hear that GMs can choose from a mix of monsters and traps. Yours chose single powerful monsters, but other GMs may have more groups. The game I watched part of had more monsters on the table than players at one point.

It must have been a room of minions. Without minions, the PCs would outnumber the NPCs (shy of traps) based on how many monsters the DM is allowed to place. Course, a DM could pull monsters from other rooms.