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AtwasAwamps
2009-08-26, 10:16 AM
::Wave:: HI GUYS!

::nervous::

So. I am a sort of weird dork. Y'see, I grew up playing my video games and stuff. It took me a long time to try my first console "JRPG" (Final Fantasy IV) and I fell in love with it. I devoured it and wanted more. Game after game came into my grasp, and it was awesome.

I was 16 before I'd even heard of DnD. I looked into it briefly and went back to my Magic cards.

I was 19 before I saw a handbook. It was to Mage: The Ascension.

I flicked through it, grunted, and went back to my Counterstrike and (illegally obtained hooray college!) beer.

Meanwhile, HILLARIOUSLY, I was an active member of freeform RP boards, busily designing fantasy worlds for my characters and others, running freeform RPs for people, and doing all sorts of nerdy things...including reading comics like OotS and Erfworld. I knew all sorts of things about DnD and tabletop games...but never played them. People would ask me what my favorite tabletop system was and I'd just shrug and say "Huh? I never played those," causing geek fits.

Then, graduated and years later, a friend of mine called me and said "Fourth Edition is right up your alley."

Months later, I actually looked at the books he sent me. I was up all night. Brief searching on the internet brought me in contact with great stories of people playing DnD...including one here (ARMY OF COMMONERS. HORROR STORY. FLUTEFINDER. SO GENIUS.)

I made a 4e warlord. A friend of mine is potentially running a game and has approved the character without really seeing it, assuming I can handle it. I thought I'd ask you guys if I've got the right idea as far as numbers are concerned. I'm not really scared about characterization and RPing...that I can do. But systems are scary for me, as much as I love to play with them, so..umm...lemme know if I've got the right idea?

(And yes, I know Warlord isn't really a beginner class, but I fell in love with it immediately and love my character concept so very much...)

Bare Bones sheet in the spoiler tag!


Sciane Harley
Human Resourceful Warlord

Str: 16 Dex: 10 Con: 10 Wis: 10 Int: 15 Cha: 16

Powers:
At-Will: Furious Smash (Blow? Whichever...), Wolf Pack Tactics, Opening Shove
Encounter: Hammer Formation
Daily: Daring Rescue (or..umm...something. The thing where you charge an enemy who just 0-hp'd or lower one of your allies, smack him in the face, and heal your ally extra for all the Attacks of Opportunity you incur running to him and a healing surge)

Feats:
Weapon Training: Bastard Sword
Toughness (Endurance? the one with the extra HP?)
Saving Inspiration (Is this as cool as I think? If someone has a poison or other malaise on them, I can use inspiring word to give them an extra save against it, right?)

So yeah...am I doing it right?

Dublock
2009-08-26, 10:24 AM
Hello :). Glad your getting into DnD :D The great thing about 4E unlike 3.5 is you really can't make yourself ineffective. The build you have isn't the most optimized, normally people like a 18 or 20 in their main stat although when you are a leader you can let that slide more then if you were a striker.

Pretty good power choices. Decent feat selection as well, you shouldn't have any major issues with what you picked at all :).

Tiki Snakes
2009-08-26, 10:29 AM
Hello :). Glad your getting into DnD :D The great thing about 4E unlike 3.5 is you really can't make yourself ineffective. The build you have isn't the most optimized, normally people like a 18 or 20 in their main stat although when you are a leader you can let that slide more then if you were a striker.

Pretty good power choices. Decent feat selection as well, you shouldn't have any major issues with what you picked at all :).

Eh, I'm playing with a partially pre-genned Warlord myself, currently. 14 strength. ^_^'
Hopefully won't be too combat based a campaign, but man, It's going to be tricky getting and keeping that attack bonus up and competitive.


The build looks okay, sure. Just remember that when you level up you can change a feat, skill, power or etc each time, so if something doesn't prove to be working out as you play, you can tweak as you go, a little. :)

AtwasAwamps
2009-08-26, 10:29 AM
Well, I figured with Resourceful Presence working off both Int and Cha, I wanted a decent score in both, and since I still need to smack stuff, I wanted decent strength. But yeah, I figure strikers and similar have to be more "GRR I AM STRONG" or "I am leaf on the wind...with pointy things!" and so on.

I just really enjoy the concept of yelling at people to heal them. Yes, I understand the basis behind it, but I am planning on yelling "GET BETTER AND STAB HIM" fairly often. Perhaps in variations.

"DON'T BE A SISSY IT WAS ONLY A GREAT AXE!"

"Put your arm back on, you pansy!"

"If you kill him I will buy you fudge!"

I'm going to be so good at this game. Yes I am more concerned about what I will yell during combat than actual combat stats.

Tiki Snakes
2009-08-26, 10:43 AM
One thing you may wish to consider as you level; Intimidate.

Personally, with my own high-charisma, low strength warlord, I intend to eventually pick up a few feats and/or items to help with it, because used correctly and with a bit of luck, it can end tricky situations in ways that my feeble Warlord couldn't otherwise.

Particularly there's a feat that gives you a +5 to intimidate till the end of any encounter you crit in. With intimidate training and a semi-decent charisma, it makes forcing bloodied oponents to surrender a decent combat option (admittedly it's a 1/encounter per foe affair).
I think the target for forcing bloodied to surrender was something like will-defence +10 if they are hostile, +5 if merely unfriendly. Additionally you take a -5 penalty if you don't speak any language they understand.

In full on to-the-death combat against creatures whos language you don't speak, at 1st or second level, with training and a good charisma, you're talking an outside chance of success, needing basically 19/20 most likely. With that feat, and/or careful play, your chances improve quite nicely. If you can get some good-cop-bad-cop going, to drop their attitude to merely unfriendly first, then you're golden. :)


[edit] Also, I heartily endorse your motivational phrases.

AtwasAwamps
2009-08-26, 10:50 AM
Hehehe. Tiki, you basically hit the nail on the head for what I want to do with this character (but I did not know about that feat which I must find!)

One of my possible thoughts was to dump the Saving Inspiration talent and pick up Skill Training: Bluff instead to give myself a bonus to it.

I want my warlord basically to be yelling constantly in battle about his and his party's exploits (talking is a free action!), most of which are lies (So I'd need high bluff and intimidate for it to work, I think...)

Example:

Party faces off against group of angry goblins.

Sciane says:

"Foolish half-men, scum of the earth! Do you know who stands before you?! Do you have any idea of the ire you've brought upon yourselves? We are the Red Five, the blood-drenched warriors of the dread fortress of Angeran. We have slaughtered armies in our path, shred the hearts of dragons, and torn asunder the walls of fortresses and the cliffs of mountains. Think you that you've any chance against the oncoming storm? Think again, pathetic mortals. You face power overwhelming!"

Party Members in the background:

"Didn't we just meet this guy at a bar five minutes ago?'
"Shh, he's good at this!"
"Aren't their six of us?..they dropped their weapons."
"...really good at this."

...so yeah, I'm also wondering if I should take a level in bard or something.

Mando Knight
2009-08-26, 11:08 AM
For your at-will, I definitely would consider swapping one of them out for Commander's Strike, which can let a Fighter mark another target, allow the Barbarian to deal monstrous damage again, etc. With a bonus to damage equal to your Intelligence modifier.

Instead of Skill training, look into multiclass feats. They all give you a free skill, and some allow you to pick the skill from the second class's list.

Optimystik
2009-08-26, 11:18 AM
I was 16 before I'd even heard of DnD. I looked into it briefly and went back to my Magic cards.

*cough**cough**nudge* (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=119615)

AtwasAwamps
2009-08-26, 11:23 AM
*cough**cough**nudge* (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=119615)

Sorry, friend, I stopped playing magic in any form of seriousness about 8 years ago. It was an expensive habit and my fellow players had moved away.

I can talk about how awesome Visions was. That's about when I stopped playing. A little while ago a friend and I both bought pre-made decks and played for a while. Mine was full of aurochs. I'm not sure I can quite get across the excitement I felt playing cows against his deadly samurai. But that was it.

So Commander's Strike is really worthwhile? I guess I wasn't sure about it. But I suppose letting a striker take an attack is better than letting me do so, and it gives me a chance to hurt things even when I'm not in range myself, huh?

I guess dropping Furious Smash would be agood call?

And I don't know much about the whole cross-class thing. I wanted to look at rogue/bard stuff and see if I couldn't pick something up from there, cause it sort of matches with my conceptualizations...

Mando Knight
2009-08-26, 11:35 AM
and it gives me a chance to hurt things even when I'm not in range myself, huh?

Depends on the DM's adjudication. Most say that you have to be within melee reach of the target yourself, which makes sense (you're harrying the enemy so the other guy can get an extra slice in). The other thing it does besides letting the Striker make another attack is to (somewhat) ease the burden of a Resourceful Warlord's multi-ability dependency, as you now have an attack that generally uses the basic attack of some character that started with an 18 in their attack stat instead of 16. (though the +3 proficiency weapon does make up for the slack in your case... still not quite as good as the 18 Str Fighter with a Fullblade, but workable)

Grabbing a hand axe, throwing hammer, or javelin is a good idea, as it gives you a ranged option (for when move+charge isn't enough). If you get Weapon Expertise (Heavy Blade) and have access to the Eberron Player's Guide, it might be worth an extra proficiency feat to grab the Drow Long Knife, or if you go with spears, the Tratnyr (Adventurer's Vault) is also a good throwing weapon.

Personally, I'd only go with spears if you decide to switch to Eladrin, though, as the Eladrin Soldier feat grants access to both the Greatspear (Longspear with +1 proficiency, Adventurer's Vault) and Tratnyr. The extra at-will from being human is really good for a Warlord, though, since it grants extra options...

AtwasAwamps
2009-08-26, 12:19 PM
Ooo, didn't realize that about Commander's Strike. Still might be worthwhile, though!

As far as changing races go, nope. I am utterly in love with my concept (a runaway noble with natural leadership abilities turned into a tall-tale teller and barroom brawl instigator, essentially) and it just doesn't work as well for anything other than a human. Plus, elves are sissies and eladrin are just sissier elves.

Sipex
2009-08-26, 12:28 PM
Everything I would've said has been said.

Although kudos on the phrases, those will make battles more interesting and lighten the mood a bit :)

sofawall
2009-08-26, 12:30 PM
Am I doing it right?

You appear to be having fun, so yes. Yes you are.

AtwasAwamps
2009-08-26, 12:40 PM
Thanks folks! I am looking forward to it.

Really, the phrases are almost the entire reason for running with this class and concept. I like to roleplay and this sort of forces it on me. I know my friends who are running the game enjoy it as well. So the end result is going to be a lot of abuse of talking as a free action and/or simultaneously saying things while hacking people to pieces.

I'm not sure if we have a caster-type in the group but at one point when I can afford to waste turns, I'm going to give him commander's strike opportunities. just to cause trouble.

"Hit it!"
"What, with my stick?"
"DON'T ARGUE WITH ME, WIGGLY FINGERS. DO IT."

DragoonWraith
2009-08-26, 12:51 PM
Am I doing it right?

I just really enjoy the concept of yelling at people to heal them. Yes, I understand the basis behind it, but I am planning on yelling "GET BETTER AND STAB HIM" fairly often. Perhaps in variations.

"DON'T BE A SISSY IT WAS ONLY A GREAT AXE!"

"Put your arm back on, you pansy!"

"If you kill him I will buy you fudge!"

I'm going to be so good at this game. Yes I am more concerned about what I will yell during combat than actual combat stats.

Oh yes. Yes, yes you are.

Mando Knight
2009-08-26, 02:37 PM
As far as changing races go, nope. I am utterly in love with my concept (a runaway noble with natural leadership abilities turned into a tall-tale teller and barroom brawl instigator, essentially) and it just doesn't work as well for anything other than a human. Plus, elves are sissies and eladrin are just sissier elves.

Get PHB2, and multiclass Bard. Do it. Do it now. :smalltongue:

AtwasAwamps
2009-08-26, 02:45 PM
I shall look into it!

Are the rules for multiclassing in one of the books? I have PHB 1, PHB2, and Martial...something...the martial book...at ready access.

Thajocoth
2009-08-26, 02:49 PM
Well, I figured with Resourceful Presence working off both Int and Cha, I wanted a decent score in both, and since I still need to smack stuff, I wanted decent strength. But yeah, I figure strikers and similar have to be more "GRR I AM STRONG" or "I am leaf on the wind...with pointy things!" and so on.

I just really enjoy the concept of yelling at people to heal them. Yes, I understand the basis behind it, but I am planning on yelling "GET BETTER AND STAB HIM" fairly often. Perhaps in variations.

"DON'T BE A SISSY IT WAS ONLY A GREAT AXE!"

"Put your arm back on, you pansy!"

"If you kill him I will buy you fudge!"

I'm going to be so good at this game. Yes I am more concerned about what I will yell during combat than actual combat stats.

Commander's Strike will definitely give you more of this. "Hit him again!"

Remember, anything other than base stats you can retrain over time (1 thing per level) if you dislike, so don't fret too much about it.


I shall look into it!

Are the rules for multiclassing in one of the books? I have PHB 1, PHB2, and Martial...something...the martial book...at ready access.

All of them.

To multiclass, you take a multiclass feat as one of your feats. It will tell you what you get (1/2 of one class feature. Multiclass Cleric, for example, gives you 1 Healing Word/day. Or multiclassing Rogue gives you sneak attack 1/encounter. They also each give you training in one skill. You can only take one unless your base class is a Bard.) If a book has feats for a class, it probably has multiclass feats for it too. Once multiclassed, you can take that class's feats and can take more feats to replace powers from your primary class with ones from your new one.

It's ok... Not usually all that great.

Bardic Dilletante (The PHB2's Bard multiclassing feat, there's a different one in Arcane Power), gives you training in one of the Bard's class skills and Majestic Word 1/day. It's a little different than Inspiring Word. You should look it up if interested.

Mando Knight
2009-08-26, 02:55 PM
PHB1. You take a multiclass feat to enter the other class, which grants a skill and an ability. Bardic Dilettante from PHB2 grants you the Bard's healing power 1/day.

AtwasAwamps
2009-08-26, 03:22 PM
I will have to look into. Mainly I would really like to be able to train Bluff and pick up some interesting inspiring bard type abilities, but I shall dig around.

...Oh god. I just imagined what this characters would be like if he had a musical instrument.

I have to find a recorder.

warrl
2009-08-26, 05:27 PM
If you're worried about system stuff, or even if you aren't...

Go get Wizards' character builder (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/insider/characterbuilder) - at least the free demo version. Personally I think it'd be worth, bare minimum, $10 once a year to get the current full version and a month's access to all the other stuff. I paid for a whole year and am going to buy a second one-year membership for my DM.

If you pay attention to the on-screen prompts, you can't accidentally build an illegal* character or forget to select something. And as others have said, if you don't forget to select anything then you won't accidentally build a hopelessly ineffective character in 4E. (Some characters are, of course, more effective than others. But hopelessly ineffective is pretty much out of reach unless you're really trying for it - stuff like taking a bunch of shield-dependent powers and then wielding a pair of daggers.)

Caveat: if your DM has restricted the available sources, then yes you can build an illegal character. There is a setting somewhere in there to restrict the sources, so if your DM isn't allowing stuff that's still only in Dragon magazine you can set it to simply not show that stuff at all. On the other hand if your DM is allowing everything from this source except this one item, you get to manage that yourself.

* The character builder doesn't recognize "illegal" characters. It has "houseruled" instead.

AtwasAwamps
2009-08-27, 08:54 AM
I wasn't informed of any restrictions, but I think we're all just working off whatever we can lay our hands on. Hell, from what I know, there's a little bit of houserules homebrew whatnot going on (I think someone is trying to convince them to let him have a Martial Familiar...basically a remarkably resilient herald type fella).

Speaking of which...I spent a long time looking stuff up and messing with the character creator that Warri mentioned. A couple things came to my notice:

1) I added an extra stat point by accident, so my Int would actually be 14, not 15.

2) I added an extra feat, so I would only have 2, not three

3) Bards have an at will where you insult someone. For damage.

So naturally my sheet needs adjusting. However, I have to find a way to convince my DM to let me replace one of my Warlord at-wills with the bard at-will Vicious Mockery. Because it is neccessary for me to have this ability. I want to kill a zombie by telling it I slept with its mother, its father, its sister, and its pet, and none of them were particularly good. I want to ask a dragon if it really is a dragon, or just what happens when a fat ogre drinks too much near an obese alligator on a lonely night...AND THEN ROLL DAMAGE.

If I ever get a critical hit with the ability, I will pause for a long moment after the insult, and then say "...Bi***."

The question is, which at-will do I give up for this? I've been urged to take Commander's strike (I agree), and my other two are Opening Shove (hehe!) and Wolf Pack Tactics (helps me move my party around). I'm thinking I should probably keep Commander's Strike and Wolf Pack Tactics, though a big part of me wants to drop Wolf Pack, take opening shove, and just have a hell of a time pushing people around, telling my companions to hit people, and insulting someone so bad their spleen ruptures.

Man, I hope the game is as fun as all the potential enjoyment I'm getting out of this character.

Myshlaevsky
2009-08-27, 09:08 AM
If I remember rightly, your only options for picking up an At-Will from another class are to either play a Half-Elf (and thus get it as an Encounter power), to multiclass in the Paragon tier or to make a hybrid class out of the Warlord and Bard classes.

Or just ask your DM, of course. It's an implement ranged attack so it's quite different from all the other Warlord powers - don't be surprised if they turn you down.

AtwasAwamps
2009-08-27, 09:12 AM
...

::ignorance rears head::

Hybrid class?

And I think I could convince my DM to work something out purely on the basis of his interest in seeing me insult everything in the game.

Myshlaevsky
2009-08-27, 09:15 AM
...

::ignorance rears head::

Hybrid class?

And I think I could convince my DM to work something out purely on the basis of his interest in seeing me insult everything in the game.

Hybrid classes are something available online. It's a process whereby you combine certain core elements of two classes and then pick one or two other features to include. Bard (focusing on bard melee powers) and Warlord would probably work quite well, I imagine.

If your DM is fine with it then that's cool. You have no use for an Implement as a Warlord, however, so see if you can get that criteria removed from Vicious Mockery. You should ask him if he'll let you use your Weapon Proficiency for the attack roll to replace the lost bonus from the Implement - this doesn't really make sense with it being a Ranged 10 Charm power, though.

AtwasAwamps
2009-08-27, 09:20 AM
I'll look into this hybrid thingy. Sounds fun.

I am probably severely overdoing it with this, it being my first character and all. I probably should have picked something simple, like a fighter, and just smacked stuff, instead a warlord *** bard with a great deal of yelling to do.

...

Do any classes make throat lozenges?

Myshlaevsky
2009-08-27, 09:23 AM
I'll look into this hybrid thingy. Sounds fun.

I am probably severely overdoing it with this, it being my first character and all. I probably should have picked something simple, like a fighter, and just smacked stuff, instead a warlord *** bard with a great deal of yelling to do.

...

Do any classes make throat lozenges?

All the classes in 4e are relatively simple to make and organize. Your starting character was pretty good, I wouldn't worry about stuff like that.

AtwasAwamps
2009-08-27, 09:27 AM
Maybe I can convince my DM to just let me trade an at-will power for the insult thingy. I don't even need a bonus. I just want to hurt people with insults.

I mean, I'm going to yell insults during this game no matter what. It would be great if those could cause a skeleton's head to explode or something, but still...

tcrudisi
2009-08-27, 09:59 AM
The hybrid idea is a good one, though I do not let my players use those rules (as I believe it is still in the "playtesting" stage). However, here's another suggestion for you:

Play a Half-Elf Bard. Half-Elves get an ability called "Dilletante" which lets them pick another classes at-will and use it as an encounter power. Choose the Warlords Commanding Strike, so you'll get to use that power 1/encounter. At level 11, this can become an at-will for you.

Bards still can do what you want to do, except better: Virtue of Cunning would let you make snide comments about the enemy not being able to keep up with your allies. Words of Friendship makes you a better diplomancer: You infuse your words with arcane power, transforming even the simplest speech into complling oratory. Majestic Word is how you would heal: You utter words laden with preternatural inspiration, restoring your ally's stamina and making wounds seem insignificant. As a couple of people have said, Vicious Mockery: You unleash a string of insults at your foe, weaving them with bardic magic to send the creature into a blind rage. War Song Strike makes sense: You sing a song of war and victory, invigorating your allies as they press the attack. A lot of the Bard powers are like that ... a lot of opportunities to RP them out. Plus, if you did Virtue of Cunning, you would have a high Intelligence, so Commanding Strike would work well.

Did you really want to do a Warlord? Well, multi-class into it. It only requires Str 13 and you'll get a free skill training and their healing power 1/day. Or you can pick one of the others, but that's the one I'd go with.

The role of the Bard and Warlord are basically the same: to improve the efficiency of the group. Warlods tend to lead from the front, whereas Bards tend to lead from wherever they wish. You want to melee? No problem, take a Harsh Songblade (level 3 magic item). It's a magical sword (light or heavy) that let's you use it as an implement. Bam - it's both a sword and implement.

Personally, I think this character works out a little bit better than the Warlord in terms of what you want to do. Plus, Bards can still be the jack-of-all-trades, so you'll always be useful.

If you want help creating a Bard, I'm more than willing to help. Either post here or send me a message. If you decide to go with the Warlord, well, I can't fault you that. The Warlord is a solid class, and many people referred to it as the Bard before the Bard was released.

Whatever you play though, just have fun with it.


Maybe I can convince my DM to just let me trade an at-will power for the insult thingy. I don't even need a bonus. I just want to hurt people with insults.

Just an fyi - that's a bad way of looking at it. You do want a high bonus, because if you can't hit the target, you won't make any skeleton's heads explode. Plus, that ability does sorta lame damage, so even when you hit, not too many heads will explode. Though it is a lot of fun when you get the killing blow with Vicious Mockery.

AtwasAwamps
2009-08-27, 10:04 AM
I do like the idea of bards, but my only issue with them is the heavy magical flavor.

90% of what I do is for the flavor, when it comes to almost any game I play. And while a bard does exactly what a warlord does, essentially, he also does it with a sort of arcane twist, which isn't what I'm looking for in the end. I really want a guy who just shouts endlessly. To me, this is awesome. I know, I'm insane.

I'll probably fall back on my original character anyways, since I sent that char sheet to my DM already, but I would love to take it further because I am having too much fun in this system.

Deme
2009-08-27, 11:14 AM
Well, if you were planning on multi-classing Bard anyway, right? Or, at least, it's been suggested. Maybe ask your DM if, instead of getting majestic word 1/day, you get Vicious Mockery 1/encounter.