D&D 4E Running player commentary on PCat's 4E Campaign - Heroic tier (finished)

[Rechan]

To do this I used two sets monsters: one set of stats for the cultist priest (a lvl 9 human hexer, I think)

The one that turns people into tiny animals?! How'd that go?

 

[Sagiro]

Also for your perusal, here's what Cobalt's character sheet looks like at 8th level:

Cobalt Cartwright, Rogue

I'll be encouraging the other players to update the wiki with their own 8th-level sheets.

 

[Piratecat]

The one that turns people into tiny animals?! How'd that go?

Exactly as I expected it to; he got to say half a sentence before he was stabbed in the face, quickly killed, and was possessed by a demon. He got one attack and rolled a "1". Sigh. I rolled a lot of 1s.

I wouldn't have used nature-related powers anyways; he was a cleric of the God of wanton destruction and chaos. I change all that stuff on the fly. It's just nice to have a baseline for hp, defenses and damage.

 

[Legildur]

Also for your perusal, here's what Cobalt's character sheet looks like at 8th level:

I play a halfing Artful Dodger Rogue 9 who does reasonable damage, but no doubt that Cobalt is set up purely to do a lot of damage in one round!

I keep eyeing off the Slaying Action feat but find it hard to justify when you only get to use an AP once every 2 encounters at best, and that's assuming you are using your AP to make an attack.

So with Combat Advantage, Cobalt could get what, 3 attacks (including Low Slash as a minor action) in a round at about +18 per attack (ignoring Action Surge) and 2 lots of sneak attack at +2d8+5 on top of the regular damage!

Must be a lot of fun.

 

[Sagiro]

I don't typically blow an entire wad in a single round. I like to save Low Slash for when I miss with my standard action, so I can still get my sneak attack damage in for the round.

At 7th level, I was usually doing 1d4+5+2d8+3, for about 20 points of damage in a typical round. Occasional crappy dice notwithstanding, I was at +16 to hit with CA (which I almost always had), so i was hitting most of the time. Still, 20 damage per round doesn't seem particularly high to me for a 7th level striker.

At 8th level I'll be doing 1d4+7+2d8+5, for typical damage of 24. So, in your scenario, if I blow Low Slash and an Action Point in the same round and I have CA on the enemy, and I hit with all three attacks, I rate to do (1d4+7+2d8+5) x2, plus another 1d4+7+5 for low slash, which is an average of 62 points.

If one of the other attacks is Bloodbath, I would do an additional 1d4+7, and then ongoing 2d8+5. That would be an expected 71 points + an additional 14 at the start of the enemy's next turn. Neat!

Also, regarding Slaying Action, we usually have non-combat encounters between combats, so with most combats we earn a Milestone and an additional Action Point.

 

[Piratecat]

Note to self: make enemies tougher.

 

[Sagiro]

Note to self: make enemies tougher.

Don't be misled by the worst case scenario!

Given that a typical enemy we'll be facing will have about a 22 or 23 AC, Cobalt rates to hit about 75% of the time, for an expected damage per round of only about 18 points. And he's just about at the top of the party's damage-dealing potential.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Note to self: make enemies tougher.

Attack them with one of these monsters. Vicious!

 

[Legildur]

Still, 20 damage per round doesn't seem particularly high to me for a 7th level striker.

I sympathise with you. Part of the problem in my opinion is that the sneak attack damage scales poorly. I can't figure out why it starts at +2d6 (+2d8 with Backstabber) and doesn't increase again until 11th level! The designers should have added an additional die around 6th level.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I sympathise with you. Part of the problem in my opinion is that the sneak attack damage scales poorly. I can't figure out why it starts at +2d6 (+2d8 with Backstabber) and doesn't increase again until 11th level! The designers should have added an additional die around 6th level.

Doesn't it depend a bit upon build though? and taking more than just the damage into account?

After all, Cobalts damage is a little lower because he is using a dagger, but that gives the extra bonus to hit (as does nimble blade etc), so his total average damage per round is going to be that bit higher - Especially if using Piercing Strike to attack Ref, or Riposte Strike to get the extra riposte damage.

I imagine that a Cha Rogue with the at-will that adds Cha to damage could be built to have a fair bit of average damage, if willing to forego some of the benefits of attacking lesser defences.

Cheers