Warpriest Info

[Tambryn]

One of my players is dying to know more about the Warpriest Paragon Path. We are playing the Curse of the Crimson Throne AP but the 4e books will not get here in Iraq for another couple weeks I am guessing.

Our intent is to convert the "Crunch" of the characters while maintaining their "Fluff". This has been the plan all along so everyone expects some significant changes to be made and I have modified my 3.5 game enough to make the transition easier. Changes like no iterative attacks, 1 for 1 diagonal movement and the like.

So can someone please give me a peak at the Warpriest so he will stop bugging the crap out of me.

Thanks

Tam

 

[Nifft]

Cleric powers are evenly divided between Wisdom-based attacks and Strength-based attacks.

A Wisdom Cleric doesn't need any Strength; a Strength Cleric does still benefit from Wisdom.

Warpriest is a paragon path for high-Wisdom Clerics who none the less want to get into melee. It gives the Cleric some benefits of the Defender role (including the ability to Mark opponents, which is normally the domain of Fighters and Paladins).

Cheers, -- N

 

[Sitara]

You select your PP at level 11. Here is some of the main stuff the WP gets; (should tide your player over until he has the PHB in his filthy little paws :

Warpriests get all the following at level 11;

Extra Damage Action: When you spend an action point to gain an extra action; all standard action attacks by you this round add 1/2 your level to damage.

Warpriest training; +1 AC when you wear heavy armor. (This is better than it sounds)

Warpriests strategy: 1/encounter when you or your allies roll a 1 with a melee or close attack, you can make them reroll.

Power:
Battlecry: 1/ encounter. Wis vs Fort, each adjacent enemy

Hit: 2[w] + wis mod damage AND you and all bloodied allies within 10 squares can spend a healing surge

 

[Rechan]

Your cleric firend might appreciate the Angel Avenger paragon path. It seems to be just as about the smack as the Warpriest, though it does have one ability that depends on will.

Here's some general Strength-based cleric powers.
Awe Strike (lvl 7, encounter): Str vs Will, 1(W)+Str damage, target is immobilized until the end of your next turn.
Divine Power (lvl 9 daily): Close burst 2, Str vs Fort, 2W+str, you push the target 1 square. Effect: You gain regen 5 and your allies within the burst gain +2 to AC until end of encounter.

 

[Mirtek]

I have to agree with Nifft and Rechan. Despite it's name, the warpriest is a path for wisdom clerics. For melee cerlics the angelic avenger path offers better powers.

 

[Cadfan]

Actually, in my opinion Warpriest doesn't require all that much wisdom. It cares more about strength. In fact, if someone in my group wanted to multiclass a fighter into the cleric class, I would recommend that he look at Warpriest for his paragon path. It matches almost seamlessly with a fighter who's first priority is strength, and who's second priority is wisdom for opportunity attack goodness.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Actually, in my opinion Warpriest doesn't require all that much wisdom. It cares more about strength. In fact, if someone in my group wanted to multiclass a fighter into the cleric class, I would recommend that he look at Warpriest for his paragon path. It matches almost seamlessly with a fighter who's first priority is strength, and who's second priority is wisdom for opportunity attack goodness.

All of the random abilities are good either way, Battle Favour and Challenge need melee attacks, but without good Wisdom, Battle Cry and Battle Pyres won't hit. It does work well for a Fighter with Str/Wis as the two highest in either order (or a similar Cleric).

 

[Cadfan]

Right, it doesn't need zero wisdom. I was disagreeing with those who feel that its a class for Wisdom clerics rather than strength clerics. It works just fine for someone with Wisdom as a secondary ability score.

I can imagine a very fine Fighter multiclassed into Cleric, who did something like the following:

Fighter, Strength first, Wisdom second, focus on attacks of opportunity (probably a heavy blade for +2 OA feat), take the cleric multiclass feat, cherry pick a good cleric utility power like Bastion of Health (I think that's the name, the books are in my car), then go into Warpriest for your paragon path. You'd have all the combat powers of a decent fighter, plus a fair amount of healing (particularly with bastion of faith), plus a good mix of combat-cleric abilities and team benefits.

Best of all, it uses ability scores you already care about. I'm thinking that this is how 4e multiclassing truly works. If you want to be a fighter/cleric, go fighter, then take the most fightery cleric paragon path. As more paragon paths come into existence, I suspect that paragon path multiclassing (in the sense of taking powers directly from another class) will recede in prominence in favor of paragon paths that directly accomplish your goals.

In fact, paragon paths can sidestep the need for multiclassing entirely. Imagine a rogue paragon path for rogue/wizards, where the class has a prereq of being trained in Arcana, and grants roguery related magical powers. It could accomplish a much greater synergy of base class with multiclass than the present system can, since it could bypass problems of ability score distribution.

There's so much design space there. I hope it gets used well.

 

[Mirtek]

Right, it doesn't need zero wisdom. I was disagreeing with those who feel that its a class for Wisdom clerics rather than strength clerics.

it is a class for Wisdom clerics rather than Stengthr clerics.

It works just fine for someone with Wisdom as a secondary ability score.

That someone with lower Wis can also get benefits from it still doesn't give him as much benefit as someone with a high score in the stat it's designed for.

I can imagine a very fine Fighter multiclassed into Cleric, who did something like the following:

Fighter, Strength first, Wisdom second, focus on attacks of opportunity (probably a heavy blade for +2 OA feat),

Such a fighter most likely has Str as first stat and Dex as second stats (to get the fun heavy blade OA feats), thus his wis will only be his third stat.

So what would he get: +1 to AC, 1 reroll and one encounter and one daily who are not only based on Wisdom, but based on Wisdom and use an implement. Thus he will not only hit less often because of his low Wisdom, he will also miss more often because of the lack of an "state of the art" implement (or he buys one and thus has less money for his primary magic items).

The dependance on an implement, even more than the dependance on Wis, is the reason why I come to the conclusion that this PC is not good for melee clerics and melee fighters in general.

Best of all, it uses ability scores you already care about.

There's not so much reason for a fighter to care about Wis. It improves his hit chance or OAs, however his combat challenge doesn't even grant OAs but normal attacks. And making the most of OA requires a rather high Dex score, so it all leads to Str primary, Dex secondary and at best Wis would be tertiary (if this place is not taken by Con)

As a matter of fact, the main reason for a high Wis score would be the Pit Fighter paragon path (which is really nice, but then you can't go Warpriest).

Just judging from the name I thought the warpriest would be the best path for melee clerics, yet the path has not a single melee attack (the angelic avenger is the only paragon path with a str based melee attack)

 

[Zaruthustran]

Actually, in my opinion Warpriest doesn't require all that much wisdom. It cares more about strength. In fact, if someone in my group wanted to multiclass a fighter into the cleric class, I would recommend that he look at Warpriest for his paragon path. It matches almost seamlessly with a fighter who's first priority is strength, and who's second priority is wisdom for opportunity attack goodness.

For an example of that exact build, check this out:

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=229207

Fighter, multiclassed into cleric for the Warpriest paragon path.

Nifft mentioned that Warpriests can mark, and that's true, but the Warpriest's mark differs in two ways (as explained in that thread I mentioned).

Fighters, paladins, and especially rangers* should all give a close look at warpriest.

-z

* heavy rangers, that is. Dump Dex, pump Str, Con, and Wis, and go with heavy armor. Rangers tend to have multiple attacks per power, and would therefore get the most benefit out of the Extra Damage Action feature, and more likely to activate Battle Favor.