What are the traps in char design to beware of?

[Kichwas]

The testing the build to 20 is good advice.

I would definitely suggest making sure at level 1 that you know what feats and powers you will choose up to level 20. No need to stick to that list of course, but make sure you have a general list in mind, and then pick stats to fit it.

And think out how it will perform in combat. Know the weakpoints and strengths ahead of time. The two suggested builds for each class in the PHB are pretty much the -only- viable choices for each class, and for each build there is a very small list of races that will do well taking it. Figure them out. Play around with changing the build, and running that up in levels, you might get lucky and find another build that works.

This all also applies for weapons. Plan out what weapon you expect to be using at level 20, so you can pick the right stats for it at level 1 and at least get on the right feat and power path for it early.

Hopefully PHB2 will not just add back the missing core classes and races, but a whole slew of additional powers and feats usable by the current list. At present its just way too thin.

 

[frankthedm]

Or more specifically, check feat requirements when choosing your stats, as stats are one of the few things you can't retrain, and you don't want to find out you have no interesting feats to take.

Well said. It pays to plan at least a few levels ahead when it comes to feats and ability scores

What realy adds to this issue is that there are going to be new feats flowing in from new 4E material for a while. And if Spell Focus is any indication, there may be some nice feats that dump statting seemingly unneeded stats will cut you off from.

 

[Mal Malenkirk]

On the Fighter side of things...

Sure Strike: If you've got anything above a +2 Strength bonus, the trade-off is really hard to justify. You'd be better off taking Reaping Strike (guarenteed damage, even on a miss), especially if you're going 2-hander route. Although for Sure Strike, if going the 2hander route, you could effectively power attack for free, but it quickly becomes obsolete as your Strength bonus continues to increase (and if you're a Fighter, Strength bonus should be increasing as fast and as often as possible).

Sure strike is useful for a human fighter. I would never take it as one of my two at-will for another race, but as a sword/shield human fighter I found it more useful than reaping strike.

For those who can't see the obvious; if you are facing a single minion, use sure strike. Free +2 to hit, you don't need the damage. This will be just as true at epic level against devil legionnaires and such. As long as there are two minions, cleave, but for the last one, take the free +2.

It's too conditional to take if you are a dwarf fighter, for example, but humans are damn good fighter too.

 

[small pumpkin man]

Sure strike is useful for a human fighter. I would never take it as one of my two at-will for another race, but as a sword/shield human fighter I found it more useful than reaping strike.

For those who can't see the obvious; if you are facing a single minion, use sure strike. Free +2 to hit, you don't need the damage. This will be just as true at epic level against devil legionnaires and such. As long as there are two minions, cleave, but for the last one, take the free +2.

It's too conditional to take if you are a dwarf fighter, for example, but humans are damn good fighter too.

Yes, in this unlikely situation it would be better. On the other hand, in this situation you're in absolutely no danger, so it's not a big deal, is it?

Would I take it as my third ability as a Human S&B Fighter? Sure. But that's more an indictment of the lack of useful at-will for several classes than anything else.

 

[False Keraptis]

Traps in character design? Not having at least 18 in your main stat hurts a LOT. Heck, not having the 20 hurts, but you can deal, but 16, or god forbid 15, would be madness. The phb should be much more emphatic about this.

 

[Tervin]

Starting powers and feats are never traps - easy to replace over time if you don't like them.

The main traps are found in ability distribution and how abilities are tied to feats. I would make a 4th Edition character in this order:
1. Pick race and class.
2. Scan powers in the class and look for an angle - don't just think "general wizard" for example. The suggested builds are decent starting points.
3. Look at which abilities are used by the powers that you plan to build around - those are your prime ability scores (in some cases that will be only one!)
4. Now go to feats, and see which ones you will want to take, both in the heroic and paragon tier. (Unless you know that you will only play in the heroic tier, of course.) Look at the epic tier if you want to, but that is so far away in play time that it is not really worth it to plan your character build for.
5. Note which ability scores are needed for the feats you want, consider how many stat gains you will have before you plan to take a certain feat.
6. Put the points you need into the secondary stats that your build will need.
7. Fill up your primary stats with the rest of your points. If you have two prime stats then 16 in each (including race bonus) might be what you have to settle for. Less than that? Rebuild with less stress on secondary stats or only one primary stat. If you have one prime stat it should be possible to get it to 18.

There are more things to look out for - like keeping all your defenses high - but that is more about building for power than building for fun. Note that even if you are not min-maxing you should be real careful building the character, as there is a big risk it will either be too weak to be fun, or that you will not have the choices you want when the character grows.

 

[Cadfan]

Traps in character design? Not having at least 18 in your main stat hurts a LOT. Heck, not having the 20 hurts, but you can deal, but 16, or god forbid 15, would be madness. The phb should be much more emphatic about this.

Thinking this way is a trap in character design. There are lots of situations where a 16 in a main stat is acceptable.

 

[Blackbrrd]

Traps in character design? Not having at least 18 in your main stat hurts a LOT. Heck, not having the 20 hurts, but you can deal, but 16, or god forbid 15, would be madness. The phb should be much more emphatic about this.

If your primary stat gets a +2 from race, 19 is the sweetspot:
20 in your primary stat will hurt your other stats a lot
19 in your primary stat will give you 4 more points to put in other stats
18 in your primary stat will give you 3 more points to put in other stats
17 in your primary stat will give you 2 more points to put in other stats

If your primary stat doesn't gets a +2 from race, 17 or is the sweetspot:
18 in your primary stat will hurt your other stats a lot
17 in your primary stat will give you 4 more points to put in other stats
16 in your primary stat will give you 3 more points to put in other stats
15 in your primary stat will give you 2 more points to put in other stats

Remember you get a stat increase at level 4,8,11,...

If you start with 19 instead of 20 in your primary stat, you will be one behind for levels 1-3, 8-10, and equal in levels 4-7, 11-...

Having one higher bonus in your primary stat will make you do roughly 10% more damage (if you need 10 to hit on average). This is a lot.

If you compare a character with 16 and one with 20 in their main stat, the one with 20 will do ~20% more damage than the one with a 16.

That is a huge difference. 20 vs 19 comes out at approx 6% more damage for the 20, but that character has 4 less stat points to use, which it probably isn't worth. Secondary stats and tertiary stats are important.

If your main stat is DEX and you are wearing light armor, I would be tempted to push it to 20. You bet your dex bonus to: attack, damage, ac, reflex, initiative. You are only missing fortitude, will, hp, healing surges. (INT is also good in light armor, you are only missing initiative)

If your main stat is CON, I would be tempted to push it to 20. You get your con bonus to: attack, damage, fortitude, hp, healing surges.

STR, WIS and CHA are stats I would be more inclined to leave at 18, since they haven't got that many benefits...

A Con based warlock with 20 con would have 35hp, 12 healing surges, a really good fortitude defense and some really nasty attack spells. A 19 would be nearly as good, but an 18 if you get a bonus to CON isn't really making sense.