Need some defender help

[RandomCitizenX]

Yesterday one of my players surprised me by suggesting that he would be willing to run some games in my urban slightly sandbox game so I can have a chance to sit on the other side of the screen. Because of the way the games must be scheduled the swordmage who is the only defender will be out during these side games, and I've already decided that I would make my character to fill that gap. The problem I am having is that I can't seem to come up with a decent character idea at the moment. The only thing I know for sure is that I want to avoid a Dwarven Warden since that was what I played the last time I actually had a pc. If it helps with some ideas the rest of the party is made up of two starpact hexblades, a tk psion, a bard, and a vampire who occasionally shows up. (There is a slightly gothic/horror nature to the game and setting)

 

[fba827]

well, the defenders (in overly simplified listing) come out to: fighter, paladin, battlemind, swordmage, and warden.

taking warden and swordmage off the list (the former you did before the later would be too similar to the other player) and you're left with those first three.

A fighter would probably be the one you could easily write up with any sort of personality and backstory (i.e. not so strictly bound to backstory as a paladin or battlemind might imply with the church and/or explaining psionic awakening/discovery within himself, etc).

On the other hand, a paladin might (depending on choices) be able to provide a backup heal or two if that is something that you would want to explore. And having radiant damage and/or church connections might not be a bad thing in a horror setting. Though i will say the couple times I did play a paladin I felt underwhelmed... but that's a personal bias.

I'm not much into psionics, so i can't say much about the battlemind. Though I have seen one player use one and it's been pretty handy. Looking at your party, you do has a psion. How prevalent is psionics in the setting and/or does that player take delight in being some unique psionic person? or is it common enough that it isn't a big deal for that player?

 

[RandomCitizenX]

I think I have decided on either a shadar kai tempest spiked chain fighter or some sort of arena fighter, just not sure which.

 

[shamsael]

Yesterday one of my players surprised me by suggesting that he would be willing to run some games in my urban slightly sandbox game so I can have a chance to sit on the other side of the screen. Because of the way the games must be scheduled the swordmage who is the only defender will be out during these side games, and I've already decided that I would make my character to fill that gap. The problem I am having is that I can't seem to come up with a decent character idea at the moment. The only thing I know for sure is that I want to avoid a Dwarven Warden since that was what I played the last time I actually had a pc. If it helps with some ideas the rest of the party is made up of two starpact hexblades, a tk psion, a bard, and a vampire who occasionally shows up. (There is a slightly gothic/horror nature to the game and setting)

Assuming the bard has Misdirected Mark, you can consider Avenger and Barbarian as well.

 

[Argyle King]

How about a Half-Elf Fighter? Use Dilettante to pick up Vengeance Strike from Blackguard.


A Wilden fighter might be interesting. Their racial paragon path seems like it has some good potential for a fighter.

 

[tiornys]

I think I have decided on either a shadar kai tempest spiked chain fighter or some sort of arena fighter, just not sure which.

On a rules note, the primary head of a Spiked Chain does not gain the Off-hand property from Spiked Chain Training, so it gains no benefit from Tempest Technique. You'd probably be better off with Weapon Talent for a Spiked Chain Fighter (1-handed if you wanted to use it as a double weapon, 2-handed otherwise).

t~

 

[Herschel]

I was thinking a Battlemind would fit best in this group flavor-wise. A Halfling Harrier maybe that can slide in and out of shadows.

 

[Estlor]

Here's a quick snapshot of defenders, FWIW.

Fighter: They play out like soldiers (e.g. high defense, high attack bonus) with either a secondary striker or controller lean. With a spear + shield style you can get into all kinds of push/prone fun with polearm momentum. If you have the Con for a hammer, as you go up in level you can layer slow and daze on your attacks. Brawler fighters are more single target lockdown since they can grab and easily get prone off of World Serpent's Grasp.

Battlemind: They are quintessential brutes. The lack of a good MBA pulls them down a bit, but spamming lightning rush helps your stickiness and you can tank and tank and tank away and keep on tanking and then tank some more. Once upon a time it was the battlerager fighter that couldn't be bloodied; now it's the battlemind.

Paladin: They minor in healing. They're pretty meh through heroic, but the feat support in paragon and epic cranks it up. Chaladins in particular become insane save-granting machines, have lots of multi-mark options, can become a font of self-generating THPs for themselves, and if you worship Erathis you hand out damage resistance to adjacent allies. Then you hit epic and weakening challenge makes their mark vicious to ignore. However, if you don't have access to Divine Power, they are very, very weak.

Honorable Mention 1 - Knight and Cavalier: Both of these classes are very simple to run out of the box and do a great job in heroic, but the aura in place of a marking mechanism and the poor scaling on the Cavalier's mark punishment makes it very hard to actually defend in late paragon and epic tier play.

Honorable Mention 2 - Blackguard: Yes, I know he's a striker, but if you start with an 18 Str/18 Cha split after racial you can cherry pick a lot of mass Divine Sanction powers from the core paladin and the sanction-boosting feats to give you a mark with fair to okay punishment. You've already got the defenses, this gives you respectable striker damage and a way to generate THP for yourself on top of it.

So, in summary:
Fighter if you want big damage or more control.
Battlemind if you want to tank.
Paladin if you want to off-lead, have Divine Power, and will play in paragon/epic tier or can access Erathis's feat support.

 

[Ahrimon]

One of my favorite defender theoretical builds (as in haven't actually played it) is the knight mc warden. The mc is just to get hammer shock (or whatever it is to add +con damage on a slow). Heavy defense of the knight + really decent damage makes for a really good catch 22.

Mul makes a decent race because you can keep your speed up there and still get access to some of the better stay on your feet feats like the one that lets you spend your second wind as a reaction. And you can even get your speed up to 7 in heavy armor with a couple of feats.

I know you didn't want a dwarven warden and this dips into both a bit, but I thought I'd throw it out there.