What's MAD?

[calimedic911]

MAD= Mothers against Dragons

 

[HeinorNY]

The best magazine evah.

 

[HeinorNY]

Sadly the 4E pally still suffers from a bad case of MAD.

If everybody is crazy then nobody is crazy.

 

[boolean]

Sadly the 4E pally still suffers from a bad case of MAD.

Because of the way attributes advance, I wouldn't consider a class "MAD" in 4e until you've built a three attribute dependence.

I see two good non-MAD pally builds: STR/WIS and CHA/WIS.

The STR build gets better OAs, while the CHA build gets better damage from Divine Challenge. As long as you're willing to dump one of these two "stickiness" bonuses, the paladin is not MAD

The biggest problem is the lack of powers for each build. At many levels the only power available to a particular build isn't very good, and at 9th there are no STR powers at all. (And all three are implement powers, contributing to the previouly mentioned MID.)

This can be overcome via multiclassing, such as using fighter or warlord powers for a STR build, and fey or star warlock powers for CHA. (Although this has even more MID, now needing a warlock implement.) (Hmm, SWP:rapier, using a +X pact blade rapier might be interesting)

 

[bardolph]

The biggest problem is the lack of powers for each build. At many levels the only power available to a particular build isn't very good, and at 9th there are no STR powers at all. (And all three are implement powers, contributing to the previouly mentioned MID.)

I didn't see the hole at 9th. Yuck.

 

[Tony Vargas]

MAD was a 3e phenomenon. Some classes needed several stats to be as high as possible to be really effective. Monks, for instance, needed high STR to be effective offensively, high DEX /and/ WIS to have good AC, high CON to have adequate hps for melee, and even a little INT since they had a good skill list. You couldn't afford all that, making the class less effective than it might apear at first glance.

4e doesn't have that so much - or, rather, everyone has it to a small extent. In 4e, most 'builds' have a 'primary' stat that you must take as high as possible, a 'secondary' stat that it's nice to have pretty high, and a tertiary stat you want to at least not suck. You get to boost two stats substantially as you level up, so it more or less works in that basic sense.

Where 4e runs into trouble is that part of the design philosphy seemed to include an abhorence of 'dump stats.' So, while your three good attributes are enough to take full advantage of your class, you probably end up missing out on desireable feats or having a particularly low defense. In addition, 4e stats are in pairs, the higher of each pair adding to a defense. So if any two of your three desireable stats are in the same pair (as with a Cleric wanting both CHA and WIS or a hammer-fighter wanting both STR and CON), you run into some inefficiency. If you spread your stats around to avoid missing out on feats and so forth, you primary suffers, /and/ you run into the 'stat polarity' problem.