Making new characters

[Ipissimus]

I thought I'd try my hand at making some different characters to what's already out there and see how things pan out. Please be aware: I've only used info from the PHB Lite and a little from the H1 pregens but the basic shape is there. There's still a few calculations to be done on them (attacks, skill and such) and you'll still need the PHB lite but there's enough to be getting on with.

1. Dwarf Paladin
[sblock]Name: Durghuld Timanus
Sex: Male
Race: Dwarf
Class: Paladin 1

Str: 10
Con: 20
Dex: 9
Int: 10
Wis: 12
Cha: 14

AC: 19
Fort: 16
Ref: 12
Will: 13
Init: -1
Spd: 5sq.

HP: 39
HSp/D: 15

Racial Abilities: Cast Iron Stomach, Dwarven Resilience, Stand Your Ground, Low-Light vision.

Feats: Toughness

Features: Channel Divinity, Divine Challenge, Lay on Hands

Powers: At-Will: Bolstering Strike, Valiant Strike; Enc: Shielding Strike; Day: Paladin’s Judgement

Trained Skills: Endurance, Heal, Intimidate, Religion

Equipment: Longsword, Scale Armour, Heavy Shield

Recommended Tactics: This Dwarf is all about the hit points, whether his own or his allies. Stick to the squishier characters like glue so that you can Lay on Hands when you have to and attract as much attention to yourself as possible. Beware enemy casters, call for their destruction at range whenever feasible. Take the Dwarven Weapon Training feat (or substitute it for Toughness now if you want to be better at fighting) and Martyr’s Blessing at level 2.[/sblock]

2. Fey Pact Eladrin Warlock
[sblock]Name: Wilnouna Nauridar
Sex: Female
Race: Eladrin
Class: Warlock 1 (Fey Pact)

Str: 9
Con: 10
Dex: 16
Int: 12
Wis: 10
Cha: 18

AC: 16
Fort: 10
Ref: 14
Will: 16
Init: +3
Spd: 6sq.

HP: 22
HSp/D: 6

Racial Abilities: Eladrin Will, Fey Origin, Trance, Low-light vision, Fey Step.

Feats: Student of the Sword.

Features: Misty Step, Prime Shot, Shadow Walk, Warlock’s Curse.

Powers: At Will: Eldrich Blast, Eye Bite; Enc: Witchfire; Day: Curse of the Dark Dream.

Trained Skills: History (+2 race), Perception, Thievery, Diplomacy, Insight.

Equipment: Dagger, Leather Armour, Wand.

Tactics: Hit and Run. Back up the defenders as they charge into the fray, mark an opponent, then Fey Step away. Eyebite as much as possible, particularly if you get into trouble. At second level, pick up the Eladrin Soldier feat for better weapons and damage close in. With a spear in hand, you should be able (with reach) to back up the defenders more easily and keep foes at a greater distance.[/sblock]

Note: These characters are designed to work together. I don't know if the Warlock has access to Perception or Diplomacy, you may want to substitute Bluff and Streetwise there (however, that doesn't really make the best of the Warlock's Cha mod, I'm hoping that these two skills are accessible to the 'Lock).

Eladrin might not be the best choice for Warlock but Student of the Sword should make up for the 2pts of Cha with it's +1 attack bonus. Plus it gives you a better shot at surviving in close-medium quarters (or that's the theory).

They took me about a half hour each to create. If anyone else has their own character concepts they'd like to share, ideas or suggestions for these, or if you use these in a playtest, please let me know I'd love to hear how they did. I'm going to try them out soon in a few test battles, when I do the attack bonus calculations I'll put them up with a report.

edit: Sorry, I used the 32pt buy from PHB Lite for the stats, forgot to say that.

 

[Fiendish Dire Weasel]

Both your Paladin powers are based of melee attacks to hit (Str+Proficiency), with a 10 Str you'll struggle to hit anything, so they will be mostly useless. I don't think this is a viable build at all honestly.

Not being able to land any of your powers due to only having a +2 to hit isn't worth the trade off. Sure you have 15 surges but you're only going to have 3 (very likely only 1, as it seems to be based off of your Wis mod) Lay Hands per day.

I suppose you can absorb some fair damage, but I'm willing to bet dropping your Con to an 18 or even a 16, giving up only 2-4hp and 1-2 Healing Surges would be worth those points into boosting Str and Wis.

(Consider Bolstering Strike alone, every hit would give you Cha temp hp, during a long fight this can be worth a lot more than those extra hit points and Surges, but only if you can hit.)

 

[Ipissimus]

-sigh- Ok, you got the weakness I forgot to mention. I'll admit, this is one of the reasons I hate point buy but I didn't want to do something too overpowered.

There's been rumors that Hammers might be able to use Con for attack somehow... I know that doesn't help with powers but it might be something, in which case Dwarven Weapon Training (assuming Paladins aren't trained with hammers... they probably are, actually, but still) might be a better option for the build.

This was partly the reason I put in Valiant Strike. This is a character who not only wants to be surrounded but NEEDS to be surrounded. No, he's probably not going to deal much damage with a Str score that low.

I concede the point though. I still think it's a viable build, however. Lemme play around with it a minute and I'll re-post to compare.

 

[Ipissimus]

So, Dwarven Paladin #2

[sblock]Name: Durghuld Timanus
Sex: Male
Race: Dwarf
Class: Paladin 1

Str: 14
Con: 18
Dex: 9
Int: 10
Wis: 14
Cha: 14

AC: 19
Fort: 15
Ref: 12
Will: 13
Init: -1
Spd: 5sq.

HP: 37
HSp/D: 14

Racial Abilities: Cast Iron Stomach, Dwarven Resilience, Stand Your Ground, Low-Light vision.

Feats: Toughness

Features: Channel Divinity, Divine Challenge, Lay on Hands

Powers: At-Will: Bolstering Strike, Valiant Strike; Enc: Shielding Strike; Day: Paladin’s Judgement

Trained Skills: Endurance, Heal, Intimidate, Religion

Equipment: Longsword, Scale Armour, Heavy Shield[/sblock]

It does look a bit more even. I don't think I'll be giving up dicing for ability scores, but still.

Hmmm... I hate to say it, but again my reaction is 'Student of the Sword would work well here'. I hope that won't come up every time I do a build. Dwarven Weapon Training might be better but so much depends on the Paladin's weapon proficiencies here. I'd squeeze a little more Int and Dex out of him, but that'd just get me up to 15 on one of those 14s. Not much point and I dislike low Int Paladins.

 

[Piratecat]

I'll slide this over to the correct forum.

 

[Ipissimus]

-winces- Sorry, PC. What I get for hanging around the 4E forum so much... can't see the trees for the wood.

 

[Piratecat]

No apologies necessary. It's easy to forget.

One thing to remember is that a high con isn't quite as important nowadays as it was in 3e. It matters more at first level - a wizard with a 10 con has 20 hp, while one with a 20 con has 30 - but at 20th level there's still going to just be 10 hp difference between the two builds instead of the huge 100 point difference you'd see in 3e. As a result, I think I'd sink more points into stats other than con for a paladin.

 

[Fiendish Dire Weasel]

I think your new build is a over spent on points using the new "type b" or whatever it's called system.

I agree with Piratecat, I don't think Con is as critical as it used to be, you may be applying 3.5 thinking to a 4E character (which is a problem for many people still). I don't think base attacks with a hammer will be based off of Con, though there may be Fighter Powers like that.

I will agree that the Fighter Multiclass Feat does seem very strong and worth a Feat for +1 to hit with everything, so I'm guessing there is something we're missing about it. Because as-is, almost everyone should get it.

 

[Ipissimus]

16, 14, 14, 12, 10, 9 = 11+7+7+4+2+1 = 25+7 = 32; Dwarves get +2 Con and +2 Wis according to PHB Lite.

I'll agree that Con no longer serves the same purpose as it once did but I think it's a bad idea to underestimate the importance of those extra HP, particularly for Defenders. This Paladin isn't really built for damage, I'll admit. I designed him to be a Defender first and foremost capable of soaking lots of hits and tying up a bunch of opponents while the team strikers and controllers deal most of the damage.

I know it's an alien concept, but I really didn't make him to hit things. Yeah, I know what you're thinking: where's the fun in that? You're right, it might not be that fun to play, but tactically, for a full party, it's a sound concept.

I hope that there are more Wiz and Cha based powers for the low Str Paladin. I wouldn't like to see classes that were solely based around a couple of stats without some wiggle room otherwise everyone's Paladin is going to end up Str 18.