Leader Suggestion

[mlund]

You're bored. You only get to do like 1 thing a round and it doesn't seem like much. I can feel you there.

Here is my advice: become a Half-Elf Valorous Bard.

Take 18s in Constitution and Charisma. Pick bonus power from the Sorcerer or Warlock as you like. Hit things with a Longsword and take your pick of handing out debuffs to the enemy or bonuses to the rest of the party. Get hit in Melee a lot. Heal people. Cast rituals. Trigger free actions whenever enemies get bloodied or dropped.

That'll keep you busy while keeping you there on the front lines.

- Marty Lund

 

[KarinsDad]

It's easy to get bored with 4E.

Use the same old few encounter powers, than use the same old two At Will powers over and over and over again. Oh, tough encounter? Throw a Daily or two out.

It can be extremely repetitive.

One solution is to talk to your DM and convince him to allow you to switch in a different PC with a different class every 3 levels or so.

Another is to convince the DM to add in some house rules. We have house rules for swapping in "unprepared" extra powers that allow the players to be more versatile and we have house rules that allow for certain Rituals to be cast in combat.

Finally, you can try to find a class that seems less repetitive (the Wizards spellbook capability helps a little here). But, most classes are that way because they all (except for class/racial powers) have 2 At Will powers, x Encounter attack powers, y Daily attack powers, and z Utility powers. It's the same thing each adventuring day.


So, my suggestion is to talk with your DM and switch this up where possible. You probably will not find a class that actually does what you want within the core rules. Or, maybe you will find such a class, but if you are bored with a Paladin, there's probably a fair chance that you might be bored with most any class.

 

[AngryPurpleCyclops]

Gee, thanks. Maybe you're right, I'm not sure. But I think you're making assumptions about what makes a class "boring" without figuring out why the OP is bored in the first place. FWIW, I'm never bored to play Balasar of Azgaroth, Black Talon of the Honorblood Legion.

Anyway, to the OP, I'd recommend trying to pin down what your exact play style and preference is like. Warlords (and leaders in general) are not known for their own damage-dealing capabilities, so if that's your plan, I'd like to cut you off right now and suggest a striker would be better.

I didn't mean to be offensive to warlords just that relying on others to do the damage can be a lot less fun for some/many players. It's also a little ineffective. Using an at-will to trigger a basic attack is doing a little less than using an at-will for instance though the shifting and such is nice. I don't hate warlords and there's lots of power creep in martial power so we haven't been using it in our group.

Says who? I'll say this: Clerics are also less effective than warlords in a lot of situations. So, there!

LOL, ok point taken. My point is that in most encounters a cleric will perform as well or slightly better than a warlord. Slightly more damage, slightly more healing, and roughly similar amount of perks for the troops. Once in a whil a warlord will outperform a cleric but I think this will be few times and i also think it will usually not be by much. On the other hand there are NUMEROUS encounters where a cleric will massively outperform a warlord. The bonus saves from sacred flame are the difference between TPK and a challenging encounter for a lot of creatures with debilitating effects (stun, daze, sleep, ongoing damage etc)

Well, I've read reports that the US is controlled by aliens. Of course I totally believe it

Now you're being a little absurd. Power creep is a near inevitability. Martial power is full of it for instance.

Whenever a new supplement comes out there are people screaming power-creep. So far, in 4E it hasn't happened (with the possible exception of the Battle Rager).

This is denying reality. There are at least 10 feats in martial power that aren't well balanced.

In fact, I think with 6 players, 4 strikers is way too many. With a party that size, I would recommend at least 2 leaders or 2 defenders.

have to agree, 4 strikers is "fun" for the focus fire encounters where they pile it on but just wait until you're in that large encounter with lots of creatures with bonus effects for flanking.

In general, my advice is to play what you want; that being said, though, I do think your party as a whole needs to have a discussion about its composition. If everyone wants to play a striker, then you'll need to be sure your DM knows to build encounters that won't be too difficult with your party's current makeup.

Or the dm should just go one building reasonable encounters and if the party struggles perhaps someone who gets killed will realize that it's the party build that's hurting your performance.

 

[Jhaelen]

Now you're being a little absurd. Power creep is a near inevitability. Martial power is full of it for instance.

I'm not, it isn't and I disagree

Let me say this: I don't have the PHB2 yet, but judging from what I've read about it so far, there's no obvious power-creep (let's exclude the much-discussed Expertise). At least the bloggers who received free advance copies seem to be in agreement on that.

This is denying reality. There are at least 10 feats in martial power that aren't well balanced.

Nope you're denying reality! To be more specific you're ignoring MY reality which is of course completely different from yours or everyone else's

Well, in a way, Martial Power effectively results in power creep. But that isn't necessarily because it actually represents power creep. If you're calling increased flexibility, more options or better synergistic effects power creep, then I agree. But that's not my definition of power creep: Imho, power creep is the addition of options that are strictly better in every respect to previously available options.
All in all, I think it will be easier to judge the effective power creep once the other Power supplements are out.

Anyway, care to open a thread discussing your top ten 'least balanced' feats from Martial Power? Or is there already a thread about them?

 

[vhailor]

My advice: Keep playing the Paladin and watch the rest of them die as your impressive durability outlasts their glass cannon backsides. Then see what they roll next. If they all roll strikers again, watch 'em die again.

I like how you think. First I'll try to convince on of them to choose either a Taclord. He could be very helpful, since from the next week we'll have a paladin, a barbarian, a rogue, and the warlord. If he doesn't want a warlord, maybe he'll consider the cleric (I don't see that happening). The next step will be for me to choose a battlerager (at least have the temp points to keep me alive). Let's see how they like that.

Thank you all for yourn ecouraging words. I needed that

 

[twilsemail]

This is denying reality. There are at least 10 feats in martial power that aren't well balanced.

Any chance you can provide some examples for us (preferably at least 10)? I can think of maybe two feats in MP that might be amping up the power a bit. Otherwise, as another poster said, they're just increasing flexibility which is nothing but good.

 

[jorrit]

It's easy to get bored with 4E.

Use the same old few encounter powers, than use the same old two At Will powers over and over and over again. Oh, tough encounter? Throw a Daily or two out.

Well I don't agree with that. Up to now I have played mostly premade encounters and a few that I made myself: KotS, a bit of Thunderspire, some bits of Open Grave. And we find that the kind of creatures you encounter and the type of the terrain can make a HUGE difference on how the encounter feels. Have a few creatures that can grab and others that benefit from that and you have a totally different kind of tactical encounter compared to one with lots of minions and one boss were no grabbing takes place. Similarly a few hazards (pits or traps) here and there can significantly alter the tactics you need.

Greetings,

 

[vhailor]

You're bored. You only get to do like 1 thing a round and it doesn't seem like much. I can feel you there.

Here is my advice: become a Half-Elf Valorous Bard.

Take 18s in Constitution and Charisma. Pick bonus power from the Sorcerer or Warlock as you like. Hit things with a Longsword and take your pick of handing out debuffs to the enemy or bonuses to the rest of the party. Get hit in Melee a lot. Heal people. Cast rituals. Trigger free actions whenever enemies get bloodied or dropped.

That'll keep you busy while keeping you there on the front lines.

- Marty Lund

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I am really greatful for the support you're showing and the advices you have provided.

I will take a closer look at the Bard build when I get PHB II

For now, I think I'll keep the paladin util level 3 and see how things are going.

 

[vhailor]

I forgot to thank all the others for the options you have offered me.

Thank you for the time you've spent answering and all the advices.