Is it possible to be successful without leaders?

[Gort]

I'd certainly recommend to your fighter to take a shield and as many "hit something and get to spend a healing surge" powers as possible. Also, being a dwarf would probably help, for the "second wind as a minor action" racial ability.

Aside from that, healing potions, and a good head for when to retreat (personally as well as as a group) should help somewhat.

I think the guy that will die first will be the "martial artist". He's gonna run into a pack of monsters and get stabbed to death in short order.

 

[666Sinner666]

I'd certainly recommend to your fighter to take a shield and as many "hit something and get to spend a healing surge" powers as possible. Also, being a dwarf would probably help, for the "second wind as a minor action" racial ability.

Aside from that, healing potions, and a good head for when to retreat (personally as well as as a group) should help somewhat.

I think the guy that will die first will be the "martial artist". He's gonna run into a pack of monsters and get stabbed to death in short order.

Unless he has a class based bonus to AC for not carrying a weapon, like the Swordmage, wears leather or hide armor, so long as he gets his class bonus to AC still, and has a good dex bonus to AC. I have Swordmage wearing leather and an 18 in int and he has 20 AC at level 1. If not he will most likely be the first to die.

Can anyone link me to the Martial Artist so I can review the build?

 

[Mengu]

Out of 7 people, does no one wish to switch to a leader? It will make life much easier, both for the players and for the DM.

I think you need one defender and one leader in just about every party.

 

[Thanee]

For those who didn't read this part right...

The party would be made up of...
a controller: elemental shaman,
a defender: fighter,
and three strikers: dark pact warlock archery ranger and a martial artist.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Gort]

Unless he has a class based bonus to AC for not carrying a weapon, like the Swordmage, wears leather or hide armor, so long as he gets his class bonus to AC still, and has a good dex bonus to AC. I have Swordmage wearing leather and an 18 in int and he has 20 AC at level 1. If not he will most likely be the first to die.

Can anyone link me to the Martial Artist so I can review the build?

You're comparing apples and oranges, chief. Martial Artist's a striker (unless I'm wrong in which case disregard this) and the Swordmage is a defender. Hand to hand strikers are always less tough than defenders, that's the point of a defender.

 

[666Sinner666]

You're comparing apples and oranges, chief. Martial Artist's a striker (unless I'm wrong in which case disregard this) and the Swordmage is a defender. Hand to hand strikers are always less tough than defenders, that's the point of a defender.

Is he relegated to cloth armor only as well?

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Unless he has a class based bonus to AC for not carrying a weapon, like the Swordmage, wears leather or hide armor, so long as he gets his class bonus to AC still, and has a good dex bonus to AC. I have Swordmage wearing leather and an 18 in int and he has 20 AC at level 1. If not he will most likely be the first to die.

Can anyone link me to the Martial Artist so I can review the build?

The Martial Artist is available in the Advanced Player's Guide by Ari Marnel (Mouseferatu on these boards).

Back to the original question - it's doable, but as noted by other people it's likely that the group will feel like a glass cannon. They'll dish out lots of damage on attack, but will suffer badly when it comes to taking damage.

I would anticipate quite a few rests being needed.

 

[DMZ2112]

In my experience, balanced party construction is important in D&D4, although the adverse effects of the absence of a role can be mitigated by designing encounters around your PCs (much like the adverse effects of the absence of any sort of tactical ability on the part of your players can be mitigated by designing encounters with the help of a dartboard).

Personally, that's not my dungeon mastery style, so I try to convince my players to build balanced parties whenever possible. It's another thing D&D4 and I don't agree on -- I don't think monsters should stock their homes with treasure in a fashion that is both precognitive of and considerate to the psychopaths who are about to mass murder them, and I don't think they should deferentially agree to not field their strikers just because said psychopaths weren't smart enough to hire a warrior priest.

 

[-Avalon-]

Any thought as to maybe putting it out that there are adventurers' Guilds? Where one could hire a cleric/warlord merc? He would basically be just a Heal-Bot lol

 

[Mengu]

For those who didn't read this part right...

Ahh, that makes sense now.

Well, the point remains, having at least one defender and one leader in the party does make the DM's and PC's job easier. But if no one wants to play a leader, there is no point in forcing the issue, the DM may need to inject artificial elements to fill the role of the leader (via already suggested potions, items, etc). It's just a bit of extra work.