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P.d0t posted:Yeah, for sure. I hit a 113 radiant at level 13 last night. It blows when I miss with Righteous Rage, though.
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May 2, 2014 23:54
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Yeah I'm not too concerned about our party getting smoked or anything, everyone at the table has played a lot of D&D, including 4E (just not for a year or so). And the DM is a smart guy and his style is definitely more "make sure everybody has fun" than "make the players deal with whatever monsters my world demands". I agree controller is generally the least required role in a typical party, but the DM's wife loves playing those roles so not much to be done. Obviously D&D isn't going to work well in situations where the party has poor composition and the DM doesn't account for it. But I think if the DM takes the weird composition into consideration then it should be all good. Yeah we won't be able to have fights with as many powerful enemies etc. but I doubt it will be a disaster.
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May 3, 2014 00:04
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GOONS ARE MEAN
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I did 27+39 damage in an AP round on my level 2 avenger and the table (composed of like me, total newbies to 4e) was pretty shocked. It's probably not going to get much better though.
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May 3, 2014 00:05
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A Blackguard with a full charge kit and/or Frostcheese is a very effective striker, they're just deadly loving dull to play.
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May 3, 2014 03:13
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fatherdog posted:A Blackguard with a full charge kit and/or Frostcheese is a very effective striker, they're just deadly loving dull to play. This is one of many reasons I won't ever run 4e with pre-Essentials full magic item crafting/buying/selling, and why I mostly prefer inherent bonuses now. 
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May 3, 2014 03:34
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dwarf74 posted:Make that "any character at all" and you're still right. You aren't wrong, but Blackguards are actually pretty effective strikers even with neither thanks to Power of Strife.
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May 3, 2014 04:17
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fatherdog posted:You aren't wrong, but Blackguards are actually pretty effective strikers even with neither thanks to Power of Strife. Divine Power owns so hard. My gray guard is rolling with Power of Skill (we're in an evil campaign so I went with Bane for my deity, because he owns) Is there a particular one of these feats that benefits especially well from using a reach weapon?
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May 3, 2014 04:26
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P.d0t posted:We're running a "skills are important" campaign, so my Gray Guard is a STR|WIS Deva build for charge-spamming, but we've mostly been fighting solo dragons for the past like... 4 sessions, so YMMV. Skills are important campaign? What does that mean?
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May 3, 2014 05:10
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Arivia posted:Skills are important campaign? What does that mean? It means the DM said "skills are important" at the start of the campaign. Suffice it to say, if past experience is any indication, there will be 6 GREAT TRIALS (skill challenges) that each one of the party members has to solo through to get magic MacGuffins needed to win the campaign. So, I started off with a Blackguard but we also had a Bard-MC-Everything as The Charisma Guy Who Does Thievery, so I made a Deva for my alt, who handles INT/WIS skills. Other party members are Fighter (alt: Elementalist), Druid (alt: Artificer), Wizard|Warlock (alt: Barbarian)
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May 3, 2014 05:28
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fatherdog posted:You aren't wrong, but Blackguards are actually pretty effective strikers even with neither thanks to Power of Strife. But don't you have to be a human blackguard to get Ardent Strike?
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May 3, 2014 05:47
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Kurieg posted:But don't you have to be a human blackguard to get Ardent Strike? If you're playing a non-human blackguard, you're doing it wrong.
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May 3, 2014 06:54
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P.d0t posted:Yeah, for sure. Here is my "using a defender to defend? Pssshaw" paladin. ====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ====== Brom the Bloody, level 14 Minotaur, Paladin, Gray Guard Inherent Bonuses Holy Killer (+2 to Insight) Theme: Ordained Priest FINAL ABILITY SCORES STR 22, CON 12, DEX 11, INT 9, WIS 22, CHA 14 STARTING ABILITY SCORES STR 16, CON 11, DEX 10, INT 8, WIS 16, CHA 13 AC: 30 Fort: 30 Ref: 21 Will: 30 HP: 105 Surges: 12 Surge Value: 26 TRAINED SKILLS Endurance +11, Insight +22, Intimidate +14, Perception +20, Religion +13, Streetwise +14 UNTRAINED SKILLS Acrobatics +5, Arcana +6, Athletics +11, Bluff +9, Diplomacy +9, Dungeoneering +13, Heal +13, History +6, Nature +15, Stealth +5, Thievery +5 POWERS Basic Attack: Melee Basic Attack Basic Attack: Ranged Basic Attack Ordained Priest Attack: Smiting Symbol Minotaur Racial Power: Goring Charge Paladin Feature: Divine Mettle Paladin Feature: Divine Strength Paladin Feature: Divine Challenge Paladin Feature: Ardent Vow Feat Utility: Righteous Rage of Tempus Paladin Attack 1: Ardent Strike Paladin Attack 1: Holy Strike Paladin Attack 1: Divine Pursuit Paladin Attack 1: Blood of the Mighty Paladin Utility 2: Bless Weapon Paladin Attack 5: Frenzying Smite Paladin Utility 6: Aspect of Ferocity Paladin Attack 7: Resurgent Smite Paladin Attack 9: Death Angel Endurance Utility 10: Enter the Crucible Gray Guard Attack 11: Debilitating Smite Gray Guard Utility 12: Relentless Justice Paladin Attack 13: Radiant Charge FEATS Level 1: Righteous Rage of Tempus Level 2: Headsman's Chop Level 4: Two-Handed Weapon Expertise Level 6: Weapon Proficiency (Execution axe) Level 8: Superior Will Level 10: Weapon Focus (Axe) Level 11: Critical Targeting Level 12: Superior Fortitude Level 14: Devastating Critical ITEMS Horned Helm (heroic tier) x1 Viper Belt x1 Dagger Adventurer's Kit Grappling Hook Climber's Kit Hunter's Kit Dowsing Rod Dagger boots Delver's kit Devotee's kit Writing case Cold-weather clothing Backlash Tattoo x1 Forgemaster's Gloves (heroic tier) x1 Vanguard Execution axe +3 x1 Badge of the Berserker +3 x1 Iron Armbands of Power (paragon tier) x1 Boots of the Mighty Charge x1 Ebon Gith Plate Armor +3 x1 ====== End ======
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May 3, 2014 07:53
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fatherdog posted:A Blackguard with a full charge kit and/or Frostcheese is a very effective striker, they're just deadly loving dull to play. Very effective is pushing it. Able to meet CharOp benchmarks is accurate. Very effective is, for instance, a firewind blade-wielding flamesoul genasi Ranger|Cleric/Morninglord/Radiant One. For instance. Blackguards can do high single attacks for high single damage (with Dread Smite tacking on quite a bit more) but they have no native access to multi-attack standard actions or minor-action attacks, so they're never going to ascend to the heights of very effective. Also, definitely dull. E: STRaladins tend to have a VERY strong secondary in striker, moving into outright primary in places. thespaceinvader fucked around with this message at 08:05 on May 3, 2014 |
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May 3, 2014 08:03
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Blood of the Mighty is such a cool attack goddamnit. I wish I could poach it on every class.
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May 3, 2014 10:27
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Is Amazon the best place to buy the required books? I'm in Australia, so anywhere else will need international shipping.
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May 3, 2014 14:42
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thespaceinvader posted:STRaladins tend to have a VERY strong secondary in striker, moving into outright primary in places. I can't help but think that's at least partially intentional, since Divine Challenge and Sanction work off of Cha, and there's only a feat fix for Challenge (unless you're a half orc)
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May 3, 2014 15:05
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Kurieg posted:I can't help but think that's at least partially intentional, since Divine Challenge and Sanction work off of Cha, and there's only a feat fix for Challenge (unless you're a half orc) That one's just dumb writing, tbh. Making the fix feat for challenge work on sanction should be a given, given that it only doesn't because it was published before Sanction existed an no-one bothered updating it. But tbh, the damage isn't the scary thing about challenge/sanction anyway, at least at higher levels.
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May 3, 2014 17:13
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EvilElmo posted:Is Amazon the best place to buy the required books? Depending on where you are there might be a gaming store nearby, but either way Booko.com.au will give you the best prices from online book stores including shipping.
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May 4, 2014 01:04
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One of my players was wondering the earliest he could get 'true' flight permanently, something like Favored Soul's level 16 thing. Without digging into specific god/domain feats it looks like Scion of Arkhosia is the closest, but I'm not sure, anybody know of anything else? He's a dragonborn paladin worshiping the Raven Queen if that'll help any.
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May 4, 2014 01:54
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The draconian subraces in Dragon #421 can get flight right from 1st level instead of adding their Con mod to their surge value, but it's altitude limit 1 and you have to land at the end of your turn.
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May 4, 2014 02:42
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Favoured Soul is the earliest RAW way without requiring him to land, I believe. Though, for my money, you should let him take Summon Celestial Steed as a utility, then he can take a feat at 11th to make it a Pegasus.
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May 4, 2014 09:50
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So... I don't know if this is the right place to be asking this sort of question, so if I am in the wrong place kindly redirect me! Anyways, I have been playing Dungeons and Dragons games for forever on the computer but never got around to playing the pen and paper version. I just moved to a new state with my wife and don't know anyone, so in figure now is a good time to make some nerdy friends and get into this hobby! So as a completely new player where should I begin? Do I walk into a game store and explain my plight to the salesman? Should I hound meetup.com and try to go to board game nights? I don't know where to begin!
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May 5, 2014 00:16
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Probably the advice you'll get around here is to sign up for D&D Insider; the online character builder gives you access to everything in the 4e universe for a lot cheaper than buying book-by-book. Probably check out the WotC Char-Op forums to give you the basics of how not to make a crappy character and end up hating the game. After that, yeah I'd say hit up meetup or kijiji to find some people to play with. Depending on your FLGS, the salesman might be some grognard who tells your that 4e is bad and what you really want is Pathfinder.
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May 5, 2014 00:22
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Hot Dog Day #82 posted:So... I don't know if this is the right place to be asking this sort of question, so if I am in the wrong place kindly redirect me! Anyways, I have been playing Dungeons and Dragons games for forever on the computer but never got around to playing the pen and paper version. I just moved to a new state with my wife and don't know anyone, so in figure now is a good time to make some nerdy friends and get into this hobby! Look up D&D encounters. I don't know where they are in the schedule right now, but they play an ongoing campaign once a week for a couple of months at a time. It should be a good way to get into the pen & paper side and meet some people.
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May 5, 2014 02:44
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Just an update, our DM put us up against a level 2 elite brute (we were level 1), plus 3 level 1 minions and a level 1 sniper. Our striker kept rolling like poo poo and did almost nothing during the fight other than off-tank. Even with a +2 to death saves I failed my 3rd one (3 failed out of 3 attempted) on the last round of combat, JUST AFTER the last enemy had been dropped. Yaaaay dice!
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May 5, 2014 03:20
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That sounds like an balanced-to-difficult encounter, and you got unlucky (plus, first level can be super-swingy). Did no-one heal-check you (or just heal you)?
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May 5, 2014 08:27
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So, I started playing 4E for the first time with a group of 6 friends a couple months ago, and I love it. I replaced a guy who had no clue what the gently caress he was doing, and I've picked it up pretty drat quickly and I've been having a lot of fun. The DM told me today that he thinks I'd be able to DM a game pretty well, and he asked if I'd be willing to do a side quest of my own creation (totally separate from main quest) and run it for the group. (DM loves to step down and play when he's able.) I told him I would, and now I'm kinda worried because I've never done this before. I'm good at workign with established stuff, but I'm often clueless when I have to design my own things. I have a vague idea forming in making a short side quest set in a swamp with three witch-type monsters kidnapping an NPC and the heroes storming off to rescue her, only to find out after killing the kidnappers that the NPC was a rival witch who wanted to get rid of her competition, and wants to celebrate by snacking on her would-be-rescuers. Ideas are great, but I have no idea how to go about this. He gave me access to the Wizard site tools, but I'm kind of overwhelmed by it all and I have no idea where to start looking for monsters that approximate what I'm looking for, how many monsters and what types I should use so that I don't automatically kill the group,other creation stuff like that. My group size is 6, we all just hit level 10, and they love challenging encounters where they can barely hang on to win. (We did a Beholder encounter a few weeks ago that the group was ecstatic about afterwords.) Any help, or nudges in the right direction, would be greatly appreciated.
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May 5, 2014 08:35
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Some advice I can give you that doesn't really have to do with the actual construction of encounters but DMing at large. Don't ever fall so in love with your plans that you rail road your players. If they are anything like mine they will find a hundred new ways to screw up what you had planned. It might be better to go in with a very loose idea of what you want to happen instead of planning out every detail and go with the flow with what the players want to do (not necessarily what happens but how they solve it might be very different than what you had in mind.) specially for a side quest. Some other advice I can give you is stay away from monsters that can stun or take away turns from players. No one likes that poo poo. Also let your defenders punish monsters with their mark from time to time. Its no fun if the second they get marked they never attack anything but the defender so they never trigger it. Vire fucked around with this message at 09:00 on May 5, 2014 |
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May 5, 2014 08:49
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I just had my first ever true pen and paper D&D game (baptised into true nerddom, finally!). Dwarf mages in D&D Next seem surprisingly powerful. Not only do they get weapon proficiency, as a mountain dwarf you can wear medium armor (which in Next doesn't affect spellcasting ability???) and get +1 to wisdom (and constitution). Even after using my two daily spells I had no problem cleaving two kobolds and a kobold alchemist WITH MY AXE.  Then again who cares just play human and get +1 racial bonus to EVERY STAT.
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May 5, 2014 10:16
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thespaceinvader posted:That sounds like an balanced-to-difficult encounter, and you got unlucky (plus, first level can be super-swingy). Did no-one heal-check you (or just heal you)? I had 1 failed save from earlier in the encounter. My initiative was right after the elite, and last in the round so he dropped me on his turn, I failed again. Then the last round we knew he was almost down, so both the other players focused on him since we knew he had an area attack power that appeared to work on recharge so if he had that and they didn't drop him it could have been a total wipe. I think we could have handled it had the striker not literally missed every attack other than the one in the last round. It was very close, even when I was dropped he only just barely dropped me, to -1.
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May 5, 2014 13:25
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You don't have a leader, or you are the leader? With only three that's a much more difficult encounter than I first thought.
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May 5, 2014 13:29
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I was the leader.
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May 5, 2014 13:37
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With a small party in particular, it can often be worth the non-leaders investing in a MC heal (usually Warlord is the best one to start off with) for precisely this situation.
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May 5, 2014 13:48
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cbservo posted:Any help, or nudges in the right direction, would be greatly appreciated. Insider makes building the encounters super easy. Just reskin like a madman. First though, ask your DM how he's been tuning the encounters so far. Does he need to hit the high end of a Hard encounter with level +2-3 monsters just to make you guys break a sweat? Or are Normal encounters still a good challenge/warmup? For the first encounter, look through the Monster Vault, MV: Nentir Veil, and MM3 monsters for a few elites with "witch-y" powers in the 9-13 range. It looks like there are actually quite a few good ones in Nentir Veil. For some variety though, don't be afraid to pick out a melee monster for one of them as well. Maybe one of the witches really likes her obsidian sacrificial knives. If three elite monsters isn't looking hard enough based on what your regular DM says (it should come out to be roughly a Normal encouter for 6 players), don't be afraid to throw in a pet Manticore or something. Or even a 4th elite. A Charnel Otyugh would make sense in a swamp. For the boss encounter, for a really memorable fight, maybe have the witch transform halfway through into something really nasty. Maybe she starts off as a reskinned Beholder, hovering a few feet above the swamp and shooting beams everywhere. Then when she gets bloodied, she could transform into a Flamekiss Hydra or the dragon Vestapalk (don't forget to use the Bloodied Breath attack as part of the transformation sequence). Feel free to add a pet for her too if you think she might need it. Lastly, pick out a few minions to sprinkle in if things are looking too easy. Maybe one of the three has some dryad blood and some tree minions start popping in. Or the boss witch could call up the spirits of the dead witches (and anything else that had been killed in the area) to fight for her.
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May 5, 2014 17:01
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My group and I have picked up 4th edition after playing first edition D&D almost exclusively (we're old)... We're having a great time and really enjoying the balance and structure. That said, the next group of encounters that my party is going to face are going to be challenging and I'm not sure they'll survive. How do you guys handle party wipes? I'm ok having everyone roll new characters but I don't want to crush the momentum. Any thoughts?
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May 5, 2014 17:52
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Knucklebear posted:My group and I have picked up 4th edition after playing first edition D&D almost exclusively (we're old)... If a party wipes, you can always say "Well, actually, you were captured by the bad guys" and work from there.
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May 5, 2014 17:55
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You could also have them just wake up in the Shadowfell and have to fight their way out the afterlife. There's a million options.
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May 5, 2014 17:57
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Or maybe Death has a task for them in the world of the living and is willing to cut a deal. 
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May 5, 2014 18:01
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Knucklebear posted:I'm ok having everyone roll new characters but I don't want to crush the momentum. Any thoughts?
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May 5, 2014 18:20
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Alright well apparently one of our players is dropping out, so now we have 3 people including the DM. We have another player who might be joining in a month or so, and obviously the ultimate goal would be to have more players, but does anyone have any ideas for handling a D&D campaign with very limited players?
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May 5, 2014 18:21
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