chriton227
Explorer
I've been playing 4e for about a year now, and in that time Cormax, my Resourceful Warlord, has progressed from level 1 to level 9. He is wonderfully effective, dishing out healing, attacks, saves, init bonuses, and damage buffs (the Wizard in the group especially likes the +10 damage on action point attacks). There is only one problem - playing him is about as interesting as watching paint dry.
First, a little background. The party consists of 5 characters: a Half-elf Charisma Paladin (MC Warlock), an Eladrin Dex Rogue, an Eladrin Wizard, a Human Polearm Fighter, and my Human Resourceful Warlord. The party has plenty of forced movement (three other party members have forced movement abilities, two of them at-wills). The group has been pretty stable since the beginning, the campaign is fairly combat heavy, and our tactics tend to work really well. About the only thing we are really short on is ranged damage. Outside combat, the Paladin tends to be the face of the party. Cormax's main role is keeping everyone standing and boosting the party's damage output.
My problem is that playing Cormax is the D&D equivalent to having the dummy hand in Bridge, I'm just there in body, but I give all my actions away to someone else to use. The vast majority of the time, my turn amounts to "if someone is bloodied, use a healing power. Then move into melee with a target and either use Commander's Strike to have the fighter hit it, or use Opening Shove to push the target to the fighter and have him hit it". In every situation, it is better to effectively give up Cormax's standard action to give the fighter a basic attack instead of Cormax attacking, as once you factor in the bonuses Cormax gives the fighter's attack is +4 better and does about 8 points more damage on a hit (meaning that the fighter's basic attacks average more than my encounters, and are only a couple points behind my dailies). Occasionally, if someone is under an obnoxious save-ends effect I use Inspiring War Cry, or if several party members have save-ends conditions I use Stirring Force to give everyone saves. If I don't need to move, I use Knight's Move to give away my move action too. His dailies (attack and utility) are held in reserve for their specific situations.
It's gotten to the point where don't even bother to pay attention during combats, I just play solitaire and when my turn comes up, I look to see what target would be best to have the fighter hit, tell him to attack ("Yul, hit it"), then go back to playing solitaire.
Does anyone have any advice on how to make this character fun to play? Or advice on what to play instead, keeping in mind that there is very little healing in the party other than my warlord?
First, a little background. The party consists of 5 characters: a Half-elf Charisma Paladin (MC Warlock), an Eladrin Dex Rogue, an Eladrin Wizard, a Human Polearm Fighter, and my Human Resourceful Warlord. The party has plenty of forced movement (three other party members have forced movement abilities, two of them at-wills). The group has been pretty stable since the beginning, the campaign is fairly combat heavy, and our tactics tend to work really well. About the only thing we are really short on is ranged damage. Outside combat, the Paladin tends to be the face of the party. Cormax's main role is keeping everyone standing and boosting the party's damage output.
My problem is that playing Cormax is the D&D equivalent to having the dummy hand in Bridge, I'm just there in body, but I give all my actions away to someone else to use. The vast majority of the time, my turn amounts to "if someone is bloodied, use a healing power. Then move into melee with a target and either use Commander's Strike to have the fighter hit it, or use Opening Shove to push the target to the fighter and have him hit it". In every situation, it is better to effectively give up Cormax's standard action to give the fighter a basic attack instead of Cormax attacking, as once you factor in the bonuses Cormax gives the fighter's attack is +4 better and does about 8 points more damage on a hit (meaning that the fighter's basic attacks average more than my encounters, and are only a couple points behind my dailies). Occasionally, if someone is under an obnoxious save-ends effect I use Inspiring War Cry, or if several party members have save-ends conditions I use Stirring Force to give everyone saves. If I don't need to move, I use Knight's Move to give away my move action too. His dailies (attack and utility) are held in reserve for their specific situations.
It's gotten to the point where don't even bother to pay attention during combats, I just play solitaire and when my turn comes up, I look to see what target would be best to have the fighter hit, tell him to attack ("Yul, hit it"), then go back to playing solitaire.
Does anyone have any advice on how to make this character fun to play? Or advice on what to play instead, keeping in mind that there is very little healing in the party other than my warlord?
