Need party opinions

[SSquirrel]

Whoa, that's a lot of variables!

Is anyone running an essentials build or a basic attack optimized PC besides the blackguard?

Yeah it was a few, I'm pretty open personally and things weren't quite nailed down yet heh.

On the other hand, if the party's defender isn't a paladin (and your PC isn't a leader), then going as an all-out healer cleric would be good to compensate for the lack of secondary role leaders.

Do you have access to Dragon #373? Schwalb had a good article on party building.

Rachel seems reasonably set on Shaman (I think) so probably no Cleric. I do have that Dragon, I'll poke around at the article.

As it stands your party of 5 seems balanced, a ranged striker & melée striker, a wizard, a tank, and a leader. Since the party will be facing lots of big bags of HP in the module, I'd recommend another damage-dealer. Or go really wild and make a fullblade wielding paladin with optimized damage - that way you get some healing and tanking too. Plus RP-wise it would make a nice foil to the blackguard.

That would be fun. Actually in talking w/the other experienced player today, we bounced a lot of ideas around. Then later his gf texted my wife and said he would be willing to run, he was just worried about offending me. I was only running to make sure my wife would be able to get in a game, so I'm fine. I doubt he's going to run one of his own, so now I'll likely either play a very defensively minded Fighter or Paladin. I'll just hang onto teh Minotaur for later

 

[Colmarr]

My first recommendation would be, don't use a DM PC. You already have 5 players, they can cover all roles. If one is absent, you can run their PC. And it's already a somewhat easy mod, except a couple odd encounters,

Unless the OP imports the MM3 math (he says he will), in which case - believe me - it's not.

My group isn't even halfway through and we've had two near-deaths (the Roc encounter), 1 near-TPK (the behir), and have been forced to abandon the quest to kill the army commander because we've run out of resources.

 

[S'mon]

So, given that we will have 6 players and the general lineup discussed above, I'd like to stay focused on the question at hand.

They'll still have less fun than if you didn't include a DMPC, though.

 

[Kerranin]

I imagine this has already been said but starting out at 12th level will make it much harder for people not used to 4e.

Your minotaur fighter is configured as a striker - you sure you wouldn't just rather play a barbarian?

The reflex defense of your minotaur is a serious weakness, a score of only 20 at level 12 is pretty low.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Ok so I decided I'm going to run Revenge of the Giants for my wife and some of our friends and a group is in the works. I plan on running a DM PC as well, and this is what I know about our group's plans so far:

All level 12.

Rebecca - Tiefling Infernal Warlock
Ricky - Vryloka Fury Blackguard
Rachel - Some sort of Leader (not Bard, maybe Shaman)
Drew - Defender or Controller, probably Defender
Chris - Willing to fill slots, wants to try a Wizard tho, so probably Controller

Me - Currently thinking one of three options:
Gnome Cunning Bard;
Dwarf Shield Fighter;
Minotaur Charg-o-taur He's a Minotaur Fighter w/Beastblooded Minotaur PP and he has a bunch of Charge related options. With his weapon and an amazingly lucky damage roll, he could potentially crit for 100 damage on a charge, absolute minimum of 45.


So my question is, if we end up w/a Fighter, Paladin or Warden for a tank, what sort of Leader would be best for Rachel to run and should I throw in a 2nd tank or leader or a 3rd DPS? Too bad I can't get the Bard paired up w/my Minotaur, he has Unicorn's Charge to toss on the Minotaur

If you must run a DMPC, I'd suggest a Dwarf Knight. Easy to run, handy, and very easy for other people to play off the knight's aura. Slots in well to a team.

And Warlock? Ranged basic attack. Blackguard? Decent melee basic attack. Knight? Decent melee basic attack. I'm seeing a warlord here - whether inspiring, tactical, or bravura depends on the player's personality.

Edit: The first rule of DMPCs is not to do them. The second rule is that if you must (and if you're at 5 PCs there's absolutely no reason you must or even should) then you must make them more on the level of a skilled hireling than a full PC. The charge-build minotaur is set up to grab more than his share of the glory. It's putting you on both sides of the table - and deliberately making you cool on the PC side. As DM, you get the world. Overshadowing the PCs at what they get is just annoying and should not be done. A knight on the other hand (if you must) - and preferably one a level down on the PCs and with vanilla equipment - is there to help the PCs but is mostly unlikely to glory-hog. He'll be at his most effective when the PCs are playing off him and his defender aura rather than when trying to be cool (which is when DMPCs move from OK to potentially gamewreckingly annoying; your Charge-o-taur starts in the potentially gamewreckingly annoying camp).

Edit2: Kerranin's right. Starting at low levels will probably work better.

 

[S'mon]

The first rule of DMPCs...

'You must spread some XP around'...

If the DM wants to include a character in the group for roleplay purposes, the DMG2 rules for Companion NPCs are decent. Including a flashy full-stats DMPC in what's already a 5 PC group is sucky DMing.