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<blockquote data-quote="Xipe_Totec" data-source="post: 5481240" data-attributes="member: 6671547">Hey guys, first time poster and I'm REALLY hoping some of you will be&nbsp; willing to help me out.&nbsp; First, I'd like to give you a little background&nbsp; about me and my party members.&nbsp; We've been trying to get into D&amp;D&nbsp; for some time.&nbsp; We started a couple years back with several 3.5&nbsp; campaigns, but seems we never made it very far before the campaign&nbsp; fizzled out for some reason or another.&nbsp; Seems we gave up for awhile,&nbsp; then about 6 months ago, we decided to try 4e.&nbsp; We had a great campaign&nbsp; going with an interesting story, however we lost 2 members and it just&nbsp; kind've fell apart.&nbsp; Well, we're at it again, shrinking our party to&nbsp; core members and hoping to get a good thing going.I think the&nbsp; biggest problem we've had in the past is a lack of RP.&nbsp; It's difficult&nbsp; for most of us to really get in the character and instead seem to treat&nbsp; it more like a board game, so we're making a new rule this time around&nbsp; that once we sit down at the table to play, we're in character and have&nbsp; to act accordingly.&nbsp; All that to explain that we're going to try and&nbsp; make this a more RP heavy session so the DM will give us a little slack&nbsp; on build perfection and is willing to help us out a bit.&nbsp; However, I&nbsp; still want to make the strongest build I can while still keeping it easy&nbsp; to RP.&nbsp; In any case, I'm hoping that maybe I can get some suggestions&nbsp; and help on my build on maybe some things to look at, and more&nbsp; importantly, why I should.&nbsp; I don't want to take a power/feat just&nbsp; because someone says it's good, but I want to know why.&nbsp; If I don't know&nbsp; how to use it correctly, it might end up being useless.&nbsp; Anyways,&nbsp; moving on....To help with RP and fix some problems we seemed to&nbsp; find in sticking together as a party in the past, in this campaign, we&nbsp; will already have a history of being a team.&nbsp; We will all be crew&nbsp; members on a &quot;pirate&quot; airship and have been working together for some&nbsp; time.&nbsp; Even though we are more &quot;anti-hero's&quot;, it will grow into a&nbsp; typical &quot;save the world&quot; kind of thing.&nbsp; My party members are a&nbsp; Barbarian, Rogue, and Cleric.&nbsp; Needing to fill the defender role, I&nbsp; decided to play a Warden.&nbsp; I suppose I'm not 100% closeminded to any&nbsp; other classes, but on paper, the Warden interested me the most.&nbsp; On&nbsp; races, it seems the Warforged would be the most powerful race for a&nbsp; Warden, but I just didn't like the flavor of them, so I wanted to go&nbsp; with a Goliath.&nbsp; They seem a pretty close 2nd, and I think I could&nbsp; create a good story with them.&nbsp; I know a Dwarf is strong, but&nbsp; personally, I've just never been fond of dwarves, so that's pretty much&nbsp; out for me.In any case, we will all start at level 8 (although&nbsp; might push for 9 to get a +2 weapon, lol) and are able to pretty much&nbsp; deck ourselves out with any magic items we want.&nbsp; The DM gave us full&nbsp; reign on that with hopes that we will be a pretty OP group and he wanted&nbsp; to tone down the number of magic items we get as rewards, so several of&nbsp; the ones I choose might have to tide me over for awhile.&nbsp; Here's a&nbsp; sample lvl1 build I put together, and I'll discuss more below...======&nbsp; Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&amp;D Character Builder ======Cthulak,&nbsp; level 1Goliath, WardenBuild: Earth WardenGuardian Might:&nbsp; EarthstrengthBackground: Geography - Forest (+2 to Perception)FINAL&nbsp; ABILITY SCORESStr 18, Con 18, Dex 12, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 8.STARTING&nbsp; ABILITY SCORESStr 16, Con 16, Dex 12, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 8.AC:&nbsp; 19 Fort: 15 Reflex: 13 Will: 13HP: 35 Surges: 13 Surge Value: 8TRAINED&nbsp; SKILLSNature +8, Endurance +6, Perception +8, Athletics +8UNTRAINED&nbsp; SKILLSAcrobatics -2, Arcana, Bluff -1, Diplomacy -1, Dungeoneering&nbsp; +1, Heal +1, History, Insight +1, Intimidate -1, Religion, Stealth -2,&nbsp; Streetwise -1, Thievery -2FEATSLevel 1: Weapon Proficiency&nbsp; (Craghammer)POWERSWarden at-will 1: Strength of StoneWarden&nbsp; at-will 1: Weight of EarthWarden encounter 1: Roots of StoneWarden&nbsp; daily 1: Form of Winter's HeraldITEMSHide Armor,&nbsp; Adventurer's Kit, Heavy Shield, Craghammer====== Copy to Clipboard&nbsp; and Press the Import Button on the Summary Tab ======Ok,&nbsp; couple of things; One, before anyone yells at me, I HAVE done as much&nbsp; research as I could on other builds and things.&nbsp; Sudden Roots, I know&nbsp; it's taken to be one of the best feats for a Warden, and I'll probably&nbsp; pick it up, but I'm unsure as to how useful it will be with an all melee&nbsp; group?&nbsp; I view battles to be a big cluster around me anyways, so not&nbsp; sure exactly how useful it will be, especially since the DM typically&nbsp; keeps marked targets attacking the marker (although this could change).&nbsp;&nbsp; I was thinking it would be a feat better spent on Mark of Warding&nbsp; (although I plan to pick this up ASAP either way).Second, on the&nbsp; weapon.&nbsp; In my head, I view this gigantic guy covered in patches of&nbsp; stone slinging a huge maul over his shoulder.&nbsp; However, I want to&nbsp; optimize, and there are some great feats for hammers (and hammers are&nbsp; cool, too), so I thought it was worth spending a feat on the craghammer&nbsp; (not to mention I like the Brutal 2).&nbsp; If it didn't work out like I&nbsp; envision it, I figure I could always retrain later, but anyone has any&nbsp; better suggestions, I'm certainly open.Multiclass, I've read&nbsp; where it's very popular to MC Barb or Fighter.&nbsp; I tried looking into&nbsp; both, but maybe I was missing the big secret for them.&nbsp; For Barb, I saw&nbsp; people saying it was getting the ability to rage (still not sure I&nbsp; understand the mechanic).&nbsp; If I'm reading correctly, you rage when you&nbsp; use a barb daily power?&nbsp; If so, doesn't it kind of hurt to give up the&nbsp; Warden daily powers to gain something from a barb?&nbsp; Maybe it's something&nbsp; only for higher levels?&nbsp; As for fighter, I saw some nice abilities in&nbsp; there, but what is it exactly that you're looking for in going Fighter?&nbsp;&nbsp; Or is it just to be able to pick up their powers as well?&nbsp; Also, I&nbsp; swear I thought I saw someone post that MC fighter got an additional use&nbsp; of Second Wind?&nbsp; If that's the case, that seems like it would be HUGE&nbsp; for a Warden, but I couldn't find how that happens?&nbsp; Any advice here is&nbsp; VERY welcome!Powers, I chose Roots of Stone over the seemingly&nbsp; more popular Thunder Ram Assault since a knockback seems to be the&nbsp; opposite of what I'm trying to accomplish (although when you need a&nbsp; break from damage, I can see the power of slowing and knocking back to&nbsp; buy you some time).&nbsp; Roots of Stone seemed to be a better choice to me&nbsp; to make sure at early levels, if enemies try to ignore my mark and&nbsp; attack an ally, they can't shift away from me to attack and instead have&nbsp; to pay the price (and pay dearly they shall!).&nbsp; If anyone has any&nbsp; better suggestions or anything, I'm wide open.Magic items, I'm&nbsp; currently trying to sift through all the books to put together a good&nbsp; list of items I feel would be good on my Warden (for now and in the&nbsp; future).&nbsp; If anyone has any suggestions, PLEASE let me know and let me&nbsp; know what book it's in.RP suggestions; as I stated earlier, we&nbsp; are all new to RP, so if any of you have had this problem in the past or&nbsp; know of any good ideas that might help the group RP a little more,&nbsp; PLEASE let me know!Sorry, I was hoping to have time to go ahead&nbsp; and spec out what I envision my Warden looking like at level 8 (so maybe&nbsp; I could get some suggestions for that) but I ran out of time for the&nbsp; night.&nbsp; I'll definitely put something together tomorrow and post one up&nbsp; and see what you guys think.&nbsp; In the meantime, any critique or&nbsp; suggestions are VERY welcome!&nbsp; Thank you in advance for ANY help you can&nbsp; give a newbie!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Xipe_Totec, post: 5481240, member: 6671547"] Hey guys, first time poster and I'm REALLY hoping some of you will be willing to help me out. First, I'd like to give you a little background about me and my party members. We've been trying to get into D&D for some time. We started a couple years back with several 3.5 campaigns, but seems we never made it very far before the campaign fizzled out for some reason or another. Seems we gave up for awhile, then about 6 months ago, we decided to try 4e. We had a great campaign going with an interesting story, however we lost 2 members and it just kind've fell apart. Well, we're at it again, shrinking our party to core members and hoping to get a good thing going. I think the biggest problem we've had in the past is a lack of RP. It's difficult for most of us to really get in the character and instead seem to treat it more like a board game, so we're making a new rule this time around that once we sit down at the table to play, we're in character and have to act accordingly. All that to explain that we're going to try and make this a more RP heavy session so the DM will give us a little slack on build perfection and is willing to help us out a bit. However, I still want to make the strongest build I can while still keeping it easy to RP. In any case, I'm hoping that maybe I can get some suggestions and help on my build on maybe some things to look at, and more importantly, why I should. I don't want to take a power/feat just because someone says it's good, but I want to know why. If I don't know how to use it correctly, it might end up being useless. Anyways, moving on.... To help with RP and fix some problems we seemed to find in sticking together as a party in the past, in this campaign, we will already have a history of being a team. We will all be crew members on a "pirate" airship and have been working together for some time. Even though we are more "anti-hero's", it will grow into a typical "save the world" kind of thing. My party members are a Barbarian, Rogue, and Cleric. Needing to fill the defender role, I decided to play a Warden. I suppose I'm not 100% closeminded to any other classes, but on paper, the Warden interested me the most. On races, it seems the Warforged would be the most powerful race for a Warden, but I just didn't like the flavor of them, so I wanted to go with a Goliath. They seem a pretty close 2nd, and I think I could create a good story with them. I know a Dwarf is strong, but personally, I've just never been fond of dwarves, so that's pretty much out for me. In any case, we will all start at level 8 (although might push for 9 to get a +2 weapon, lol) and are able to pretty much deck ourselves out with any magic items we want. The DM gave us full reign on that with hopes that we will be a pretty OP group and he wanted to tone down the number of magic items we get as rewards, so several of the ones I choose might have to tide me over for awhile. Here's a sample lvl1 build I put together, and I'll discuss more below... ====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ====== Cthulak, level 1 Goliath, Warden Build: Earth Warden Guardian Might: Earthstrength Background: Geography - Forest (+2 to Perception) FINAL ABILITY SCORES Str 18, Con 18, Dex 12, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 8. STARTING ABILITY SCORES Str 16, Con 16, Dex 12, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 8. AC: 19 Fort: 15 Reflex: 13 Will: 13 HP: 35 Surges: 13 Surge Value: 8 TRAINED SKILLS Nature +8, Endurance +6, Perception +8, Athletics +8 UNTRAINED SKILLS Acrobatics -2, Arcana, Bluff -1, Diplomacy -1, Dungeoneering +1, Heal +1, History, Insight +1, Intimidate -1, Religion, Stealth -2, Streetwise -1, Thievery -2 FEATS Level 1: Weapon Proficiency (Craghammer) POWERS Warden at-will 1: Strength of Stone Warden at-will 1: Weight of Earth Warden encounter 1: Roots of Stone Warden daily 1: Form of Winter's Herald ITEMS Hide Armor, Adventurer's Kit, Heavy Shield, Craghammer ====== Copy to Clipboard and Press the Import Button on the Summary Tab ====== Ok, couple of things; One, before anyone yells at me, I HAVE done as much research as I could on other builds and things. Sudden Roots, I know it's taken to be one of the best feats for a Warden, and I'll probably pick it up, but I'm unsure as to how useful it will be with an all melee group? I view battles to be a big cluster around me anyways, so not sure exactly how useful it will be, especially since the DM typically keeps marked targets attacking the marker (although this could change). I was thinking it would be a feat better spent on Mark of Warding (although I plan to pick this up ASAP either way). Second, on the weapon. In my head, I view this gigantic guy covered in patches of stone slinging a huge maul over his shoulder. However, I want to optimize, and there are some great feats for hammers (and hammers are cool, too), so I thought it was worth spending a feat on the craghammer (not to mention I like the Brutal 2). If it didn't work out like I envision it, I figure I could always retrain later, but anyone has any better suggestions, I'm certainly open. Multiclass, I've read where it's very popular to MC Barb or Fighter. I tried looking into both, but maybe I was missing the big secret for them. For Barb, I saw people saying it was getting the ability to rage (still not sure I understand the mechanic). If I'm reading correctly, you rage when you use a barb daily power? If so, doesn't it kind of hurt to give up the Warden daily powers to gain something from a barb? Maybe it's something only for higher levels? As for fighter, I saw some nice abilities in there, but what is it exactly that you're looking for in going Fighter? Or is it just to be able to pick up their powers as well? Also, I swear I thought I saw someone post that MC fighter got an additional use of Second Wind? If that's the case, that seems like it would be HUGE for a Warden, but I couldn't find how that happens? Any advice here is VERY welcome! Powers, I chose Roots of Stone over the seemingly more popular Thunder Ram Assault since a knockback seems to be the opposite of what I'm trying to accomplish (although when you need a break from damage, I can see the power of slowing and knocking back to buy you some time). Roots of Stone seemed to be a better choice to me to make sure at early levels, if enemies try to ignore my mark and attack an ally, they can't shift away from me to attack and instead have to pay the price (and pay dearly they shall!). If anyone has any better suggestions or anything, I'm wide open. Magic items, I'm currently trying to sift through all the books to put together a good list of items I feel would be good on my Warden (for now and in the future). If anyone has any suggestions, PLEASE let me know and let me know what book it's in. RP suggestions; as I stated earlier, we are all new to RP, so if any of you have had this problem in the past or know of any good ideas that might help the group RP a little more, PLEASE let me know! Sorry, I was hoping to have time to go ahead and spec out what I envision my Warden looking like at level 8 (so maybe I could get some suggestions for that) but I ran out of time for the night. I'll definitely put something together tomorrow and post one up and see what you guys think. In the meantime, any critique or suggestions are VERY welcome! Thank you in advance for ANY help you can give a newbie! [/QUOTE]

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