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View Full Version : Starting a 4E game this saturday, advise needed



elliott20
2009-11-10, 01:44 AM
My new group has decided to give the regular GM a break and have someone in the group run 4E for us.

I've decided to play a orator/politician type character who leads from behind. The GM suggested I play a Warlord, which I thought was very fitting.

Any tips on what things I should keep in mind?

Hashmir
2009-11-10, 02:11 AM
Well, I would suggest that you check out the WotC wiki (http://community.wizards.com/wiki/Dnd:CharOp/Leaders), especially guides by lordduskblade (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19648630/Prepare_for_Glory_The_Warlords_Handbook). A quick look through a couple of the guides will give you a decent idea of what's generally considered good or bad, and what's disputed. I wouldn't worry overly much about following any one of them to the letter, though; 4e's pretty lenient about suboptimal builds.

cupkeyk
2009-11-10, 02:55 AM
that would be an inspiring warlord. You will want to have a whip because not only is it optimal, its also hilarious.

Thajocoth
2009-11-10, 03:00 AM
that would be an inspiring warlord. You will want to have a whip because not only is it optimal, its also hilarious.

If you grab a whip, might as well multiclass whip. Same cost either way (1 feat), and you gain some benefits.

Guinea Anubis
2009-11-10, 07:07 AM
IIRC Bard from PH2 can fit what you are looking for to.

Kol Korran
2009-11-10, 09:13 AM
^: +1. i agree- the bard could fit your role well, even better than the warlord i think. warlord's powers are more about helping your friends hit the nemy better, while the bard has various ways to hinder the enemy.

plus- most of the warlord powers require you attack with your weapon, while about half of the bard powers rely on your speech/music/wand alone...

plus- the bard is the ultimate diplomacy expert in the game.

in short, if you can, with your concept idea, i'd advise bard.
hope this helped,
Kol.

Guinea Anubis
2009-11-10, 09:52 AM
Any tips on what things I should keep in mind?


As for tips the biggest one I can give you is print out power cards. They help you keep track of your powers well and let you pick what power you will use next faster.

Not Five
2009-11-10, 10:43 AM
Download the Character Builder demo (http://www.wizards.com/DnD/TryDnD.aspx), if you're playing at level 3 or below.

elliott20
2009-11-10, 09:34 PM
Campaign will start at level 1. So I think the demo builder will definitely come in handy. And printing out the power cards seems like a good idea too. Will do that!

I'll look into bard. I just got my grubby lil' hands on the books last night. I'll take sometime to pour over them today.

Thajocoth
2009-11-10, 09:58 PM
Bard does sound like it matches quite well with what you want. A charismatic character who leads from the rear. Sounds like a perfect fit. Though you said a politician type character? There's a feat that lets you use your words of friendship bonus for bluff. Normally it's just for diplomacy. It's a must-have for any bard politicians.

cupkeyk
2009-11-10, 09:58 PM
Yes the whip mc feat lets you dole out a -2 penalty with every hit.

elliott20
2009-11-10, 10:23 PM
the whip just brings in too many weird images to my head. So as tempting as it is, I'll pass on it for now.

But I'm going to give the bard a look. If I had to do this in 3.5, it would definitely be a bard too.

Volin
2009-11-10, 10:48 PM
You can do warlord though. You will find yourself pretty limited on power choices, but I made a warlord concept once for a character who didn't really do much fighting. I found powers that did little weapon damage and focused both my at wills on powers that let my allies hit. It was honestly a lot of fun and really represented the role of the commander type very well.

This is especially if you don't want the character to be an arcane type.

Asbestos
2009-11-10, 11:25 PM
Yes the whip mc feat lets you dole out a -2 penalty with every hit.

I think the MC feat only works if he's martial though, which Bards aren't... unless he MCs into a martial class first.

Oracle_Hunter
2009-11-10, 11:39 PM
the whip just brings in too many weird images to my head. So as tempting as it is, I'll pass on it for now.

But I'm going to give the bard a look. If I had to do this in 3.5, it would definitely be a bard too.
I'll echo the bard comments - it is exactly what you are looking for. Specifically the Cunning Bard, I'd imagine.

Don't even bother carrying weapons - just have a wand and some light armor and orate the heck out of those bad guys! :smalltongue:

Any preference on race, fluff-wise? CHA and INT are going to be your two main stats, so the natural races would be Gnome or Tiefling (both stats) and, if your DM allows it, Doppleganger (both stats - and quite amusing!). Humans are always good, of course.

In addition, 4E races generally get skill bonuses - on that score you'll be looking for Diplomacy & Bluff. Half-Elves get Diplomacy & Insight (Insight = Sense Motive) and +CHA; Tieflings also have +Bluff.

Let us know how it's going!

Mando Knight
2009-11-10, 11:54 PM
Don't even bother carrying weapons - just have a wand and some light armor and orate the heck out of those bad guys! :smalltongue:

Conduct the heck out of the bad guys. :smalltongue:

elliott20
2009-11-11, 12:17 AM
Well, the GM has instructed me to stick to humans for now. For what reason he hasn't told me but I suspect there is a narrative reason for this. The only one who was allowed to be a non-human was the player who was to play a barbarian slave... he's a half-orc. I'm guessing there's some kind of racial class divide or something.

Anyway, I think I will give bard a try. The GM said I can either just do 28 point buy or roll up stats (4d6 drop lowest, best 6 out of 7) when I get to the session. But I'm not sure if he's going to ok the PHB2 right off the bat since I don't think he has the book. (And neither do I)

So I'll probably just stat up a bard and warlord respectively, and just see if he's cool with the bard. I do hope to try out the bard though, since it means I can totally play the fop.

cupkeyk
2009-11-11, 01:24 AM
For a human bard, consider the feats weapon Proficiency (Drow Long Knife) (from Eberron campaign setting), Arcane implement Proficiency (heavy blade) (from arcane power) at level 1; you take focused expertise at level 2. This will allow you to cherry pick the best power, crunch-wise or fluff-wise, regardless of its keywords because you now have a heavy blade with the heavy thrown property that you can use as an implement. Although i recommend taking the virtue of cunning bardic virtue i recommend an array where int ties with con and wis not far behind. The best powers are scattered among the three virtues and shutting them out is a bad idea; and the way they are written lets you use them regardless of your chosen virtue anyway. Try the 8, 14, 10, 14, 12, 18 array, putting your human +2 on cha. lastly, consider the feats human perseverance and stubborn survivor and eventually timely recovery. this lets you recover from status effects and save your party from them too. For at will powers, i recommend cutting words, vicious mockery (because they fit your fluff) and guiding strike as a odd third from being human.

Oracle_Hunter
2009-11-11, 10:09 AM
Anyway, I think I will give bard a try. The GM said I can either just do 28 point buy or roll up stats (4d6 drop lowest, best 6 out of 7) when I get to the session. But I'm not sure if he's going to ok the PHB2 right off the bat since I don't think he has the book. (And neither do I)

So I'll probably just stat up a bard and warlord respectively, and just see if he's cool with the bard. I do hope to try out the bard though, since it means I can totally play the fop.
The free character builder goes up to level 3 - that should hold you for plenty of time. All the rules on in the program (and get printed on the character sheet), so it's easy to check. Also - no balance problems so far with the Bard (IIRC) so he should just let it go.

EDIT: You will need a sword if you don't have access to Arcane Power (which, IIRC, is not in the Free Builder). I highly recommend paying $10 to download the full version - it won't be updated when the month expires, but it'll keep everything else.

And tell your DM to be lenient with allowing Book material in his game. Unlike 3.5 the splatbooks are fairly noncontroversial - particularly at low levels. I'm currently running a high Heroic 4E game in which I imposed hard restrictions on published materials and now I'm regretting it; the published stuff is just so much fun and it adds great variety.

Ah, but do encourage him to restrict setting specific stuff (see the Eberron suggestion above) since it may conflict with the flavor he wants. And a lot of the Eberron stuff doesn't make sense outside of the setting anyhow - people just take it for the power.

Oh, and make sure he's up on the Errata (http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/updates) - it's extremely important.