Viable Party?

[vhailor]

Right now in the party is a barbaria orc, a human ranger (balanced), human wizard. I ws going to take a shadar-kai swordmage, but now I don't know. Without a healer, or at least a leader, will this party be able to succeed? It seems very difficult to me. If anyone has played in a party like this please tell me.

 

[Black Knight Irios]

I play in a party (~ lvl18), our setup is:
human FTR FWT(2h) PP: Pit Fighter (my char)
human WIZ PP: Battle Mage MC CLR
human CHAladin PP: Hospitaler MC Warlord or CLR
dwarf FTR (axe&board) BR PP: Dreadnaught
genasi Darklock PP: Darkwalker MC WIZ
and sometimes a Tielfling CLR (STR and WIS)

Healing has so far not been a problem it is more about not getting a bonus to hit or an extra save or the like.
I have chosen many powers that heal and have equip that grants healing. The dwarven BR gets THP so he needs less healing.

But I prefer having our leader around, you have more and easier ways to get out of trouble.

I must add that we started at lvl17/18 so many issues that my arise at lower lvls I do not know about.

I'm not sure how viable your party setup is, but if you want to play like that you should make sure that your party uses good tactics in combat, that you choose healing powers if possible, and that some of you should MC into Leader classes.

Also note that there is no healer class. All Leader classes can heal and in an efficient way.

 

[vhailor]

I guess in my case the best choice would be a Paladin. That way, we'll have someone to take the hits in front, heal when needed, and there is also the marking.

But I guess I'll start with the swordmage and if it doesn't work, he'll havhave an accident and in his place we'll have the paladin. This could even be the theme of one of the adventures the party will have. We'll see.

 

[Blizzardb]

We play in a party without a leader. My character is a Paladin and has Lay on Hands twice daily. No problems so far, but I am multiclassing it with a Warlord, just to be on the safe side.

 

[Thanee]

Depends on how tough the encounters are.

Bye
Thanee

 

[OchreJelly]

There are some adjustments to be made. I had a group with no striker for a long time. They were durable but the encounters did grind a bit. For this group you may have the opposite going on. You may burn enemies down faster but have spikes of dangerous situations. One or two players multiclassing into a leader should go a long way to helping this.

 

[WalterKovacs]

The Barbarian can hypothetically act as a defender. One possibility is a bard as a leader/healer, thanks to his ability to turn the barbarian into more of a defender with misdirected mark. A shielding swordmage could work like a paladin by absorbing damage in place of healing.

Either way, the group is going to lack certain things. Without a defender, the monster is going to be able to go after just about any party member they want without much difficulty (the melee characters can cause some trouble, and opportunity attack abilities might be more likely to come into effect). Without a leader you'll need to make everyone else as tough as possible (and/or make sure the defender is VERY good at their role of being tough, but also drawing attacks towards him). You'll also be missing out on some of the boosting effects of leaders (having humans is helpful though, as they can get feats to give themselves those kinds of boosts). Luckily the barbarian and the ranger are self sufficient as far as strikers go (opposed to a rogue that needs to get combat advantage). The wizard is going to be the main person that has to be protected, but he can try for controller effects more so than being another pseudo-striker. Effects, like the illusion based at-will [one of the first 4e class act articles] can help replace a leader by debuffing the enemy (since there are less powers to buff the party).

 

[radja]

maybe a warlord is somethng.. both barbarian and ranger have decent basic attacks, so you're maximizing your strikers' damage. you can still multiclass to swordmage if you go int warlord.

 

[Ryujin]

Fortunately in 4e it would largely mean that the characters would need to take more long rests, if they didn't have a leader or healer. That doesn't help with healing DURING combat, but that can be balanced with potions of healing and healing surge magic items.

The biggest issue would likely be not getting extra attacks or attack bonuses.

 

[the Jester]

My regular campaign has 3 leaders (out of 8 pcs); the pickup game I run usually has none but sometimes has one. You really feel the difference, but a party without a leader is viable, they just have to play smart and have reasonable access to potions, use their second wind and the heal skill to help each other out if someone goes down.