Higher tier or more effective classes for each role? [4e]

[ninja_penguin]

Hey all, our DM and his brother are planning to do some sort of major delve competition at Gencon this year, and they wanted us to basically do a playtest of the general idea of the event. We're running a level 6 delves (usual items, a 7/6/5/Money for a 5), and we can only have two healing potions, and we'll be unable to take an extended rest. His brother has one character, one of us will be running the build for a Dragonborn Fighter of some sort, and the rest of us are supposed to try and be as optimal as we can.

So, basically:

1. What are some good race/class combos for the striker/controller/leader roles at level 6? Everything that is character builder legal is allowed, I don't know the exact bits and pieces of what is and isn't in there. If all the dragon magazine stuff is in there, I guess I'll have to take a look at the character builder sometime to figure out what to do.

2. Any traps (things that look excellent on paper but don't work out in theory) to avoid?

3. Aside from the orbizard, any special wizard things to look at, or does the orb wizard not shine as much at level 6?

[Ninetail]

Hey all, our DM and his brother are planning to do some sort of major delve competition at Gencon this year, and they wanted us to basically do a playtest of the general idea of the event. We're running a level 6 delves (usual items, a 7/6/5/Money for a 5), and we can only have two healing potions, and we'll be unable to take an extended rest. His brother has one character, one of us will be running the build for a Dragonborn Fighter of some sort, and the rest of us are supposed to try and be as optimal as we can.

So, basically:

1. What are some good race/class combos for the striker/controller/leader roles at level 6? Everything that is character builder legal is allowed, I don't know the exact bits and pieces of what is and isn't in there. If all the dragon magazine stuff is in there, I guess I'll have to take a look at the character builder sometime to figure out what to do.


You'll want to choose a race that has a bonus to at least one pertinent ability score, preferably (although not necessarily) the one you use to make your attacks.

Aside from that, the race doesn't matter too much -- racial features can often make up for the lack of a "perfect" set of ability bonuses.

The differences between the classes mainly boil down to areas of focus. The invoker, the druid, and the wizard are all good controllers, but they do it in different ways. The bard, the warlord, and the cleric are all good leaders, but the bard does a lot of moving enemies and allies around, the warlord does a lot of attack-granting and attack buffing, and the cleric does a lot of defense buffing. Figure out what you want to do and do it.

As far as strikers go, the two-weapon ranger generally does the best damage (although the brutal rogue is up there too). However, the sorcerer tends to do the best damage at range and isn't reliant on combat advantage or Quarry -- he can pick his targets. I'd go with one of those three.



2. Any traps (things that look excellent on paper but don't work out in theory) to avoid?


Probably, but it depends on what you're building. The only general piece of advice I'd give here is, don't let the ability score bonuses blind you. You may well be better off starting with a 16 in an ability rather than an 18, especially if you pick a race that boosts that ability.



3. Aside from the orbizard, any special wizard things to look at, or does the orb wizard not shine as much at level 6?

The orb wizard doesn't really shine until paragon levels at least. At level 6, you don't have much of a Wisdom bonus, nor much in the way of other saving throw penalties to stack.

The illusionist's orb ability is pretty good, if you choose a wizard focused on illusion spells. Otherwise, Staff of Defense may be what you're looking for -- it's not a great bonus in a lot of games, but in a survival-focused endurance marathon... well, it's all about survival.