Survivability

[Dalek-K]

Howdy Playground!

I'm about to go into a Dungeons and Dragons Layers game and I want to be an ultimate survivor :D

Well ok so I know that the point of it is to have a TPK on the party but I want to survive as long as possible and be able to pull off some cool feats.

I can basically refluff any ability I have so what I need to know is that by tier (heroic, paragon, and epic) what is the best class to survive?

I haven't played 4e is a while but was in a dungeon dive tonight and played an 4e.e paladin and loved being a take:D

Thanks!

[Surrealistik]

Play a Revenant, take Death Scorned, Periapt of Recovery, Haunted Armour, Disciple of Death (or just take Life Charm when you hit Epic), Superior Will, Belt of Sonnlinor Righteousness. Never fail a death save. Have wads of damage reduction vs all while dying. Save at the start of your turn to end the dazing Unnatural Vitality imposes. Watch your DM cry. Problem solved.

Bonus points if you can manage to lay down a Battle Standard of Healing so you auto stabilize, and eliminate all your negative hp whenever a party member spends a surge in its zone.

By class you mean race and by race you mean Revenant. Be a Revenant, abuse the above (obviously taking Ghostly Vitality for insubstantial come Epic), enjoy being immortal.

Oh, and take the broken ass Raven Consort paragon path if at all possible; behold, invincibility the Epic Destiny class feature:

Cycle of Life (24th level): Whenever you make a death saving throw, you gain a cumulative +2 bonus to saving throws and all defenses until the end of the encounter. Each time you make a death saving throw, the bonus stacks with any existing bonus from previous death saving throws.
Additionally, if you get a result of 20 or higher on a death save, you do not spend a healing surge but still regain hit points equal to your surge value.


Keep in mind that you can just bring yourself to 0 hp prior to an encounter and milk the feature so you get something insane like +20 to all defenses and saves before combat even begins. Then you can spend your actions doing the hammertime in parachute pants around the mobs using Acrobatics checks.

[JesterOfDoom]

Keep in mind that you can just bring yourself to 0 hp prior to an encounter and milk the feature so you get something insane like +20 to all defenses and saves before combat even begins.

Keep in mind out of combat encounters "end" after about 5 minutes, to prevent such things from lasting forever. It's what stops you from entering a daily based form or stance that lasts until end of encounter before the encounter starts. So unless you have good knowledge a enemy is just close enough to arrive after you wake back up you have issues. Also remember each time you succeed the save there is a greater chance of getting a 20, so if you already had +10 you'd have a 50% chance of waking up next save. Also remember 3 fails kills you. Yes the odds are better to get 3 successes, but 3 fails would be very easy.

[Surrealistik]

Keep in mind out of combat encounters "end" after about 5 minutes, to prevent such things from lasting forever. It's what stops you from entering a daily based form or stance that lasts until end of encounter before the encounter starts. So unless you have good knowledge a enemy is just close enough to arrive after you wake back up you have issues. Also remember each time you succeed the save there is a greater chance of getting a 20, so if you already had +10 you'd have a 50% chance of waking up next save. Also remember 3 fails kills you. Yes the odds are better to get 3 successes, but 3 fails would be very easy.

3 fails is actually impossible when you have a Life Charm (likely by the time you have the feature) because you literally cannot fail a death save; it doesn't allow you to. There's also no 'waking up', as you're a Revenant; you're always conscious.

Actually, the bonuses apply whenever you make a death save. While it's true that it becomes progressively harder not make a save and stay within negative territory (I believe it's not optional to spend one on succeeding), there's a Heroes of Shadow feat that allows you to prevent your target from regaining hit points so you can remain dying after 'spending' your Healing Surge.

While you have 5 minutes until the bonus wears off (less your set up time), it's usually easy to anticipate when you'll get into trouble in a dungeon or hostile areas within that time frame.

Any way you slice it, the feature is broken as hell. The only thing you ever have to be careful of really, are enemies that instant kill if their attack brings its target to 0 hit points or less.

[Kurald Galain]

Try an infernalock.

[Blazen]

Battleminds can get crazy amounts of resistances. Plus they are a Con based class, and can equip almost every armor making it very hard to hurt them.

[DragonBaneDM]

I'd go Warden! The Reverent idea's the way you should go race wise for sure, though.

I know it doesn't work too-too well with the Reverent, but then again, one of the plus sides of 4e is that almost any race can play any class.

Take Toughness and Durability, and pick up Dwarf as a past life to get your minor action second wind. Oh! And maybe multiclass Battlemind to get Psionic Toughness until you can pick up the Fighter Paragon Path Juggernaut to give you that extra 10 HP?

Maybe HP isn't what you're thinking of in terms of "survivability", but that's the maximum HP I've been able to figure out on a character.