Light Armor Users

[Ahrimon]

My game hasn't gone beyond 2nd level yet so I was wondering if anyone who has gone further could share some observations. Bassically, I'm wondering if a light armor wearing melee character that uses str to attack (i.e. 2w Ranger) really starts to suffer AC wise if they focus on str for that all important +hit? Obviously they'll be behind the pure dex guy, but will it start to become a handycap for him?

It seems that a lot of threads I've seen suggest keeping your attack stat as high as possible. But it seems like in doing so you will end up with the weakest AC of all the melee class options.

Would splitting between str and dex be recommended to keep up on both fronts?

 

[Tony Vargas]

You get bonuses to two stats, so you can keep both your attack stat and your light-armored-AC-stat maxxed. If you do that, you'll be kneck-and-kneck with the heavy-armor guys for AC, and have a high REF save. Whichever save your attack stat doesn't add to though, will probably be on the low side.

 

[mlund]

Well, stat increases come in pairs so always bumping your Attack stat shouldn't put an undue burden on your progression of Dexterity or Intelligence as the case may be.

- Marty Lund

 

[tombowings]

The only real problem is Star warlocks, whom need both Con and Cha as attack stats, neither of which contribute to AC.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Another option is spending the feats for heavy armor proficiency. I'd go with Scale: there's no check penalty, and you can buy off the movement penalty with Specialization at Paragon levels.

 

[Plane Sailing]

You get bonuses to two stats, so you can keep both your attack stat and your light-armored-AC-stat maxxed. If you do that, you'll be kneck-and-kneck with the heavy-armor guys for AC, and have a high REF save. Whichever save your attack stat doesn't add to though, will probably be on the low side.

Mind you, the archer ranger can bump his Dex and his Wis, keeping his attack and defence stats the same as the twf ranger but getting additional benefit from the 13 encounter and 1 daily power which factor Wis bonus into their effects.

Doesn't seem quite fair...

 

[Ahrimon]

I've been looking at the heavy armor option.

I think my biggest hangup is thinking the character will need a good con for the extra HP's in order to survive melee. I can see that there is very little differance (2hp and 1 surge) between a 12 and a 14, but I'm having a hard time accepting it. Having not played 4e beyond the lowest levels I haven't grasped that paradigm shift yet. hehe.

That and the character I've been toying with is a dragonborn ranger and I don't want to trivialize the healing surge bonus.

 

[Mengu]

If you don't have a good dex to begin with, you may want to go for the heavier armor, as long as you have the high enough strength and constitution. Don't forget to pick up Two Weapon Defense. Durable may also be a good feat to think about if you find yourself out of surges quickly.

The only high level ranger I played was an 8th level archer ranger, so his fairly decent AC hardly ever came into play, but his good Reflex defense was quite handy whenever we faced Controllers.

I think whichever way you go, you will need some help from your party for protection, and obviously for healing. Evasive Strike or Fox's Cunning, Yield Ground, Cut and Run or Disruptive Strike will be good powers to help you be a bit more defensive.

 

[KarinsDad]

I've been looking at the heavy armor option.

I think my biggest hangup is thinking the character will need a good con for the extra HP's in order to survive melee. I can see that there is very little differance (2hp and 1 surge) between a 12 and a 14, but I'm having a hard time accepting it. Having not played 4e beyond the lowest levels I haven't grasped that paradigm shift yet. hehe.

That and the character I've been toying with is a dragonborn ranger and I don't want to trivialize the healing surge bonus.

The Ranger in our group bumps Dex and Str and uses Light armor.

She attacks with a Longbow most of the time, then only goes to melee when necessary.

The hit points and healing surges matter less then since she is not in melee as often. She took the Melee Ranger path which also boosts hit points.

The downside is that she has to take feats for both ranged and melee, but there really are few important feats for one or the other. Most feats are Meh anyway for her, so this helps fill out her feat list.

But, she is really a TWF Ranger who typically doesn't do that until part way through an encounter (sometimes not at all).

The advantages of doing it this way are:

1) She gets to use cover more often.
2) She gets to wipe out bloodied foes from across the field early on.
3) She doesn't need as many hit points or healing surges.
4) She can protect the squishier back rank PCs anytime by just switching over to melee.
5) She is one less PC that the Cleric typically has to use Healing Word on.
6) This incentivizes enemies to attack the higher AC Paladin Defender (who does have more healing surges) instead of splitting their attacks between two PCs.
7) If the situation calls for it, she can immediately become a front line melee combatant (even at the beginning of an encounter).


Downsides of this are that she won't be using her Paragon Path Encounter powers early on in combats and she also doesn't give flank to the Paladin that often. On the other hand, often having just one melee attacker in the group makes it easier for him and the Wizard to coordinate the Wizard's AoE attacks on multiple enemies attacking the Paladin. Only the Paladin has to move out of the way.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

I think in any case you will be fine through the heroic tier with your character.

Consider at level 11 you get +1 to all stats. If you have a 12 con that'll give you a 13 allowing you to qualify for chainmail and scalemail. Your dexterity will proably be a 15, so qualifying for specialization in either armor will be possible too.