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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6256272" data-attributes="member: 42582">Some thoughts.Knowledgeable = needs decent INT. There are INT options for wizards (obviously), warlocks (but they're pretty complex to play well), swordmages, invokers, avengers, bards, psions and warlords. (And maybe others I'm forgetting.) But I don't think avengers have any knowledge skills on their class list, so you'd need a background option to swap in a new class skills (there seem to be plenty of backgrounds that have History as a skill, which is the most generic way of being "knowledgeable").If he's inclined to defender, then swordmage is viable. So is a bladesinger wizard (from the Neverwinter supplement) - I've seen it criticised, but  [MENTION=6696971]Manbearcat[/MENTION] is a big fan I think. Your party looks like it could use a striker or else combat might grind, and swordmages have a reputation for being pretty low damage, whereas the bladesinger has some damage buffs, so perhaps it could be worth looking at.Avenger and warlock are both strikers, but both at the more complex end to play well. The warlock is a low damage striker with good control and mobility. The avenger is also generally quite mobile and some builds can have some control - the class is based around locking down a single target in combat - but I wouldn't consider it very defender-y.A bladesinger is INT/DEX and so would work well as an eladrin (naturally!). An avenger would be INT/WIS and would work well as a deva. Deva's also have a racial buff to two knowledge skills (History and Religion) as well as a racial power Memory of 1000 Lifetimes which certainly emphasises knowledgeability. In my game - which has a deva invoker/wizard who is a Sage of Ages - I use Memory of 1000 Lifetimes to flavour a lot of the character's knowledge checks ie instead of recalling stuff that the character studied up on out of play, the PC recalls some relevant detail from one of those 1000 prior lifetimes.A different option again is an INT-based warlord who emphasises conferring buffed attacks on allies (probably the fighter) as a free action. This could be a way of getting a knowledgeable PC  who also can function well on the front line and will help keep party damage up. A warlord is a leader, but if your friend went down this path I'd say be cautious of a party with two leaders - too much healing relative to output will mean that in combat things take forever as the PCs never go down but whittle away their foes at a depressingly slow pace. So other than the base Inspiring Word healing I'd suggest ways to try and buff attacks at every opportunity to try and emulate the effect of a striker: say Commander's Strike and Opening Shove (a little bit of control there), Warlord's Favour (for landing dailies), perhaps Flash of Insight at 2nd level to combine with Opening Shove (prone gives +2 to hit), perhaps Battering Command or Inspire Resilience at 3rd level, etc. (I don't know of any STR/INT race, but you could go human and start with Lend Might and Improved Tactics at 1st level to stack those to-hit bonuses.)</blockquote>

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