Anointed Knight in 4E

[BladeSingerXIV]

So, my girlfriend has come up with a character concept that she wants to make happen at some point. It was originally put together for a 3.5 campaign she was going to join, in which the idea was to make a Knight 6 / Anointed Knight 10 / (she never got that far) 4.

For those of you that don't know, the Knight is a class out of the PHB 2 that is frankly more similar to the 4E Fighter class than the 3.5 Fighter was. It forces enemies to attack it, makes them harder to escape, and so on.

The Anointed Knight is a prestige class out of the Book of Exalted Deeds, which is built around the feat Ancestral Weapon. Basically, the AK can enchant one specific weapon with a ritual instead of a crafting feat, and over the course of the class progression she anoints herself and the weapon with oils that have various effects. She can gain Damage Reduction, an extra attack on her attack routine 1/day, and cause her blade to act as Good for the purposes of DR and eventually make it Intelligent.

In terms of personality, she was going to act sort of like a cross between Robert (warrior time) and Brienne from A Song of Ice and Fire. Honorable, friendly, but brash and with getting drunk as one of her favorite leisure activities.

Sadly, there is no 3.5 campaign in my area, but there is a 4E campaign that she wants to join and play the Defender role. Something roughly akin to this character concept is her first choice, and I'd like some help to make it happen.

I've considered using the Swordmage as the base class for it. She'd be able to enchant her own sword with a ritual (up to her level), and it does combat stuff kind of like what she was hoping for. It's a Paragon tier campaign, though, and I would need some help figuring out what Path would work best for this concept because I don't actually own the Forgotten Realms campaign setting (or Arcane Power). I could get both when it came time to put together the character, but I'd like to know what I'm looking for before I go to that trouble.

[Tengu_temp]

Sounds like Fighter with the Kensei paragon path, which focuses on fighting with one specific weapon. If you want to be able to enchant it, take the multiclass feat in Cleric, Swordmage, Avenger or Sorcerer, pick Arcana or Religion as the skill you learn, and take the Ritual Caster feat.

[BladeSingerXIV]

That's a good thought. I didn't really look at the Fighter because this is a large group, and there is already a Fighter in it. Guardian type going into Dreadnought, specifically. The Kensei does sound like the closest approximation I've come across, though.

Any thoughts as to how well two fighters work together, as opposed to a Fighter and any other Defender?

[Tengu_temp]

Two fighters work very well together, as long as at least one of them is built for damage - and with Kensei, that's pretty easy. Grab a fullblade or another two-handed weapon and pick high-damage powers and feats, and you have a character who hits hard and is pretty good at tanking at the same time.

[BladeSingerXIV]

Thanks, I appreciate the help. I'm still open to other options, but it looks like the Kensei is going to be the way to go. Probably multiclass either Cleric or Sorcerer, though I'm not actually sure what Swordmage multiclass feats give.

This calls for more digging around, but I've got a good place to start with. Thanks for the help.

[Tengu_temp]

I'm not actually sure what Swordmage multiclass feats give.

Swordmage Warding 1/day as a free action for an encounter (+1 AC, or +3 if you have a free hand), and gives you training in Arcana. Requires 13 int.

[MeeposFire]

There is an anointed champion paragon path for the cleric class you could use though it would require the character to have a fair wisdom score to use the powers (it even uses the old anointed knight art work).

[BladeSingerXIV]

Yeah, that's true. That Anointed Champion is the closest thing to the Anointed Knight that I've seen, but she really doesn't want to be a leader. She had some bad times playing a Cleric in 3.5 and doesn't want to be a heal-stick ever again. And yes, I have tried to tell her that all the healing powers are minor actions and won't interfere with her ability to contribute to the fight.

I'm thinking probably the best thing to suggest to her is a Greatweapon fighter. I don't think there's another build that does the same damage. Alternatively, the one from MP2 that focuses on grabbing people with a free hand. That might go well with the Swordmage Multiclass feat, though that one doesn't do so much for the dealing damage thing like Sorcerer would.

[Blazen]

She could multiclass into Cleric. This shouldn't be too hard since Wis is always either a secondary, or tertiary trait for fighters.

[Tengu_temp]

Basing your paragon path on a tertiary stat and implements when you normally use weapons is a pretty bad idea, though.

The grabbing fighter is pretty bad as far as damage goes - that variant gives you more control, not damage. A two-hander fighter is best in terms of straightforward damage (grab one of the superior weapons from Adventurer's Vault, they're really good), while a dual-wielding fighter can outdamage him with a proper build.

[WitchSlayer]

There's also a few themes that may have potential, although I can't pull them up for you.

[MeeposFire]

If you allow her to use inherent bonuses she can feel like she is boosting her weapon. Then you could allow her to take ritual caster or that martial practices and allow her to use those to give her weapon an "enchantment". If she uses the cheapest version of the weapon and let her inherent bonuses do the rest she can get the feel and mechanics of the old stuff.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

If you allow her to use inherent bonuses she can feel like she is boosting her weapon. Then you could allow her to take ritual caster or that martial practices and allow her to use those to give her weapon an "enchantment". If she uses the cheapest version of the weapon and let her inherent bonuses do the rest she can get the feel and mechanics of the old stuff.
This is exactly what I would suggest.

[Tengu_temp]

Isn't that favoritism, letting one player use inherent bonuses and not the rest? And if you let everyone use them, then the character will not really feel any different.

[MeeposFire]

Isn't that favoritism, letting one player use inherent bonuses and not the rest? And if you let everyone use them, then the character will not really feel any different.

Well there is several ways around that if you want to go through the trouble

1. Give everybody inherent bonuses but tell everybody that it is the anointing character boosting the characters.

2) Go through the difficulty of figuring out how to dole out treasure so that the one character is receiving the standard one less parcel than the others.

3) Just use the martial practices or ritual caster idea alone and just have her enchant her weapon the standard way.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Isn't that favoritism, letting one player use inherent bonuses and not the rest? And if you let everyone use them, then the character will not really feel any different.
Not if they don't take any other magic weapons. If you compensate for the inherent bonuses in the treasure parcels, you wind up with a party which all has roughly the same attack bonuses for items, and one character who keeps the same weapon while the other characters swap around magic weapons.

[nightwyrm]

One of the suggestion in Adventurer's Vault 1 is to allow the enchant item ritual to add pluses to magic weapons by paying the difference in cost. Just give the PC a modified version of the ritual that she can only use to improve her chosen weapon. It's not gonna be gamebreaking or anything.

Or you know, just drop a feat into ritual casting and buy the actual enchant item ritual.

[Badgerish]

There is also the "warsmith" (I think that's the name) background from Scales of War, this lets you act as if you had the the 'Enchant Magic Item' ritual but only for weapons/armour.

Personally, given the costs and limitations, I would let a Kensai enchant/upgrade their own weapon as per the Ritual, without costing a feat or background. It's only a tiny advantage.