Pimp My Warlord!

[cignus_pfaccari]

Had a thought about action economy, that if a character had the ability to take a lot of Immediate action attacks, that would increase damage output considerably, since one could then use At-Wills or even basic attacks on one's standard actions to keep up the output. Looking around, the Insightful Warlord seems to be the most obvious build for this, and, well, I already have a warlord in our Dark Sun game, so that seemed like a good match.

So, chose Goliath for my race, due to the Str/Wis combo, and I always had a soft spot for them from 3.5 (being the only "Races of..." race that actually stuck). The bard and warlock are more social-skillsy, but a party can always use more Perception (and I took Detective so I could get Perception and Insight in-class). I'd actually kind of prefer a minotaur, but those are much less common in Dark Sun, and I just got done playing one.

Also, Goliath allows me to take Goliath Greatweapon Prowess, which encourages martial weapon use. I'll be making a lot more low-[W] attacks, so it'll be just easier and save a feat. Needing a reach weapon (as the party is melee-heavy), I can use a Longspear, which in turn encourages Spear Expertise, which in turn encourages charging...which actually, now that I thought about it, is a perfectly good way to spend my turn's standard action, assuming we're not in tunnels, especially using a Vanguard spear and the Horned Helm, that turns into 2d8+1d6+15 on a charge hit.

I considered a Gouge, and in fact if this were going to be a slayer or barbarian that's what I'd go with, but Reach is more important to me than having higher damage.

Thoughts? Anything that I'm obviously missing? Help pimp this thought experiment-warlord!

====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ======
Thotham, level 12
Goliath, Warlord (Marshal), White Raven
Build: Insightful Warlord
Warlord Option: Combat Leader
Commanding Presence Option: Insightful Presence
Dark Sun
Detective (Detective Benefit)

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
STR 21, CON 12, DEX 9, INT 15, WIS 20, CHA 11

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
STR 16, CON 11, DEX 8, INT 14, WIS 15, CHA 10


AC: 19** Fort: 25 Ref: 24 Will: 26
HP: 79 Surges: 8 Surge Value: 19

TRAINED SKILLS
Athletics +17, Endurance +11, Insight +17, Perception +17

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics +4, Arcana +8, Bluff +6, Diplomacy +6, Dungeoneering +11, Heal +11, History +8, Intimidate +6, Nature +13, Religion +8, Stealth +4, Streetwise +6, Thievery +4

POWERS
Basic Attack: Melee Basic Attack
Basic Attack: Ranged Basic Attack
Goliath Racial Power: Stone's Endurance
Warlord Feature: Inspiring Word
Wild Talent Cantrip: Thought Projection
Warlord Attack 1: Direct the Strike
Warlord Attack 1: Intuitive Strike
Warlord Attack 1: Powerful Warning
Warlord Attack 1: Leader's Instincts
Warlord Utility 2: Cunning Adjustment
Warlord Attack 3: No Gambit Is Wasted
Warlord Attack 5: Exemplar of Action
Warlord Utility 6: Reassuring Gesture
Warlord Attack 7: Fierce Reply
Warlord Attack 9: Force of Fellowship
Warlord Utility 10: Defensive Rally
White Raven Attack 11: Inspirational Assault
White Raven Utility 12: Order from Chaos

FEATS
Level 1: Goliath Greatweapon Prowess
Level 2: Lend Strength
Level 4: Spear Expertise
Level 6: Inspirational Attacker
Level 8: Lightning Reflexes
Level 10: Lend Might
Level 11: Fight On
Level 12: Agile Opportunist

ITEMS
Veteran's Stonemail Armor +3 x1
Amulet of Protection +3 x1
Vanguard Longspear +3 x1
Horned Helm (heroic tier) x1
Iron Armbands of Power (heroic tier) x1
====== End ======

** - I'm almost positive the character builder's broken IRT calculating AC. I know chainmail sucks, but that's ridiculous.

Brad

 

[Tony Vargas]

I pulled a similar trick with a Bravura at low level, it works pretty well. He was more of a 'combat accellerator,' though, since he not only had immediate actions, he also gave out free attacks to allies and attracted free attacks from enemies.


The AC of 19 is your AC for just holding a shield. You probably just failed to 'equip' the armor.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

The AC of 19 is your AC for just holding a shield. You probably just failed to 'equip' the armor.

Nope, armor is in the equipped slot. And I've got a longspear equipped, so no shield.

Hrm, this is even weirder after experimentation.

Nekkid, he should have an AC of 18, for 1/2 level and Int. Putting on +3 Braidmail or +3 Stonemail changes it to 19, which seems to indicate that it's overlapping with the 1/2 level to AC, and not stacking like it should.

Putting on +3 chainmail, though, gives me a 27. Which, while adding the armor bonus (6) + enhancement bonus (3), also includes the Int bonus, which I shouldn't be getting. I should be getting 25 (10 + 6 + 6 + 3).

I noticed this earlier on an avenger, it wasn't giving the paltry AC bonus from the masterwork cloth, but I didn't really think much of it. This does appear to be a bug.

Brad

 

[Neonchameleon]

For the record, I've taken No Gambit is Wasted and so have a couple of other warlord players I've seen. We've all ended up training it out as it doesn't get used.

 

[MerricB]

The current version of the Character Builder is giving masterwork armour a +0 armour bonus - it's a known bug. And rather stupid.