Party Advice Needed

[patha787]

Greetings,

I'm here on behalf of my five-person party - we're plotting out our characters for a homebrew 4e campaign and are trying to optimize and synergize. We have a few ideas for the direction we'd like to go in, but a couple of players aren't sure what to play and would greatly appreciate your advice and suggestions. Since I've decided on my character/concept and no-one else has definitively decided yet I've listed me first then tried to divide it by role (though some characters may cover multiple roles).

LEADER
I'll be playing a Human Lazylord/Psion hybrid focused on granting actions and some control (Int and Cha).

STRIKER
This player is looking at playing a female Ranger, and as the main party striker we want to maximize our synergy together. Would she be better off Dual-Weapon or Archer, and any specific build ideas?

DEFENDER
This player is thus far pretty undecided and kind of baffled by all the choice. He really wants to play up his role to the max and be as sticky/tank-like as possible. So far, he's considering a Goliath Stoneblessed with a polearm. Suggestions?

CONTROLLER
As the party's main controller, this player will most likely be a Wizard. Any specific build ideas given the rest of the party composition?

SECOND STRIKER
Our final party member has decided to be a second party striker, but she has no idea which road to go.

We'd be very grateful for any input in optimizing our party - thanks in advance.

[Alan_Pehnereas]

For my current striker build, I'm going with a really odd Blackguard/Ranger combo that will boost mostly Dex and Cha. This might seem pointless, as it doesn't allow for you to optimize with Str based attacks with the Ranger. However, there's a catch.

Take MC Bard, and then at Paragon, take the Daring Blade PP. It allows you to use any melee weapon attack with Cha instead of Str. So it might be a hard build until level 11, but then you're golden. The only thing you'll really need to worry about is what your starting array. Cha and Dex will be the ones to boost, and everything else, you'll need to figure out based on feats.

But wanna know what can really sell this build?

"Throw and Stab" as your Ranger At-Will, and "Virtuous Strike" as your Paladin At-Will. Throw and Stab lets you throw a thrown weapon with Str, and then lets you move up to speed and make a MBA on a different opponent. This, of course, lets you focus your Quarry damage on an opponent.

Virtuous Strike can be used in place of a MBA. This can be done as the secondary attack after your Throw and Stab, AND can have your Fury Damage applied from the Blackguard.

This build is honestly a little bit complex, and kinda rough. But if you're willing to dig deep, it could have some cool stuff.

[Tegu8788]

If your defender wants stickiness, and the leader is a hybrid warlord, I'd definately say warden. Maybe paladin.

I'd stick with a pure ranger to max dpr. The blackguard|ranger has a good nova, but it's a one trick pony that will lose out on feat support.

For the second strike, could I suggest bard|blackguard? The extra healing will help, the striker feature is good, and even though it's an essential striker it has the full AEDU package. Holy symbols are great implements, and so are the defenses are stellar. Just grab whatever Cha powers looks good, and go for it. I'm working on a level 10 build right now, but I can give directions for a low level build, as wanted.

[Dimers]

STRIKER
This player is looking at playing a female Ranger, and as the main party striker we want to maximize our synergy together. Would she be better off Dual-Weapon or Archer, and any specific build ideas?

Definitely dual-weapon, or one of the other Strength-based options from the Martial Power books. A lazylord offers a lot of MBAs, which benefit from Strength. Dex makes a great secondary stat but if you want the most synergy with the least hassle then you should stick to Strength.


DEFENDER
This player is thus far pretty undecided and kind of baffled by all the choice. He really wants to play up his role to the max and be as sticky/tank-like as possible. So far, he's considering a Goliath Stoneblessed with a polearm. Suggestions?

Goliath defender whose player is not overly difficult to baffle? That sounds like a warden to me. Their stats are more SAD than a fighter's are, they can take more punishment than a fighter, and their mark mechanism is simpler. (I was confused for months about the action types used for Combat Challenge and Combat Superiority effects.) The Constitution-secondary warden works well for goliaths. And again, with a high-Strength class, your warlord would have more opportunities to do what he does best. Of the two Constitution options, "Stormheart" is more controlling (fits well with polearm feats) and "Earthstrength" is more huge and untouchable (fits well with goliath race). The only problem I see here is that it's tanky but not optimally sticky. True stickiness requires some familiarity with the system, the flow of the game.


SECOND STRIKER
Our final party member has decided to be a second party striker, but she has no idea which road to go.

The party would benefit from a rogue's skills, and rogue is one of the few classes that can do a good job with both ranged and melee attacks. In fact, if she goes for "Brutal" rogue, she too would have high Strength for your warlord to take advantage of.

Y'all might be a little short on healing with only half a leader. Warden would help make up for that, but if you want to get the most synergy, you might push the last player toward a hybrid striker|leader ... say, a warlock|bard or runepriest|barbarian or ardent|sorcerer.