High survivability class needed.

[mrendels93]

Hello, I am going to be playing my first 4e game this week, and I need a character for a campaign that is going to be brutally difficult. The expectations are that people will be dieing, possibly a lot. I am new to 4e, so I don't know what classes start with a decent chance at surviving. Later levels shouldn't matter as much, I just need a first character to last a couple levels so I can get used to the new system.

Not looking for a cheesetastic build, just something fun to play that can last in a fight. I was thinking of a blackguard from heroes of shadow (which removes some of the difficulty with not knowing the system because it picks a lot of powers for me). Any suggestions would be welcome =)

Oh, before I forget, standard point buy, and for classes I am open to play pretty much anything. I normally play rogues, fighters, rangers, and clerics in 3.5 and pathfinder (melee combatants are always a favorite of mine). Will roll up the occasional wizard or druid for fun though, so I'm pretty comfortable playing any roll.

[Wymmerdann]

Dwarven Earthstrength Warden is probably the toughest thing out there. Battlerager's can probably compete hit-point wise because of their invigorating abilities, but Warden's have great HP and surge value (so you can heal more often for more points), great defenses, and the Font of Life class feature, which makes them incredibly resilient against save-ends affects.

Pump Str and Con. Wis Tertiary (consider superior will down the track as this won't scale well).

Early feats should include Bludgeon Expertise (for accuracy), Crippling Crush (with slow/immobilise powers you'll be doing off-striker level damage) and sudden roots (keys really well with crippling crush and makes you sticky, which will help team-mates). Dwarven Weapon training will pump up the damage and give you proficiency with the craghammer.

Get Bloodcut armour when and if you can, and a defensive craghammer so that when you second wind (should be every encounter when you're surrounded) you're basically made of stone.

At this point you should be tough as a brick wall and keeping your allies alive with your defender abilities.

[Ashdate]

I think it honestly depends more on your party composition than in any particular character; you could play a defender (such as a PHB2 Warden) if you wanted a character that was tough and could take a beating, but it'd be less helpful in a party that already including a Fighter and Paladin, compared to a party lacking a leader (such as a Warlord).

90% of the time, the problem with groups surviving is that they don't have enough ways to spend healing surges. Multiclass feats that give you access to leader heals can help, as can having someone be a leader if one does not exist in your group.

The rest of the 10% of the time, you're probably playing something more akin to Fourthcore (http://intwischa.com/2012/06/a-player-review-of-fourthcore-dd/), where what really matters is player ingenuity rather than PC selection.

Without any further information, I'd recommend playing something like an Essentials Thief; strikers are always useful, and that class would be good to cut your teeth on I think. If he dies, who cares? By your description, you shouldn't be too attached to these characters anyway.

[NecroRebel]

The Warden is probably the toughest class in the game, but that's only a defender and you'll need other roles filled.

Of strikers, barbarians are relatively tough, but as they're melee-based their survivability is lowered somewhat, so I'd say the best striker would probably be a ranged Ranger or a stealth-based ranged Rogue, who survive simply by never being attacked.

Controllers tend to be squishy, but a staff Wizard can have more hit points than most and high AC (on par with a plate-and-shield Paladin, even), so I'd suggest that.

That leaves the leader role, which doesn't really have any particular class stand out as particularly durable, but Clerics are the best healers and so will compliment a high-durability party best.

[Epinephrine]

I'll third (fourth?) the Warden as probably the toughest class, and a Dwarf makes it even stronger. There are some hybrids that might manage to be a little tougher by having better defenses and pretty high HP as well. Another tough class might be a Battlemind; they can be very tough characters (Con primary! 6 HP/level, defender armour, and invested in two defenses instead of one), and you can pair it up with a race that gets a bonus to its durability (Mul, Dwarf, Goliath?); they have a few at-wills even at 1st level that can help keep you alive, and Battle Resilience is another source of resistance.

[mrendels93]

Thanks for the advice all!

I'm rolling up a warden and a thief to be ready to fill one of those roles (no clue what any of the other classes are going to be). Battleminds sound like a lot of fun, so I think I will spend some time making one after I have burned through a couple character sheets and I have a bit more knowledge about what we will be facing, and how 4e plays.

[Lord Haart]

Played a lvl 3 revenant Battlemind recently in an one-shot game, being fully aware that i'll be awesomely tough but my only way to enforce my mark will be constantly following enemies wherever they go, Benny Hill-style. We had two encounters with wights that game (fully expecting second to be TPK), and they exclusively targeted me and party's whirling barbarian (we also had a warlord and a ranged rogue), so after he went dead (in a surprise round of the second battle, since he was too impatient to rest after first battle left him with about three surges and at low hp) i didn't have to care about mark enforcing at all. I felt myself a Wobbuffet. Due to them vainly trying to beat me, we made it through and i hadn't even lost that many surges or used my second wind (which was usable as a minor action due to a low-level magical arnor) in what was supposed to be "they kill the warlord and the rogue and i have a very, very long last stand" scenario.

[Callin]

Yea my Dwarven Fighter|Warlord was tough as nails to kill. Battlerager Vigor for normal Temp HP upkeep to use as Damage Reduction and then when I needed it some Healing Attacks. Also the use of Inspiring Word 1/Encounter along with Second Wind helped a ton. Good feat support as well.

[Akodo Makama]

Hello, I am going to be playing my first 4e game this week,

Compared to 3.5, ALL 4e classes are expert survivors at first level. I think you're worried over something that won't be a problem.

[Daracaex]

Hey!

If you want to make any character hard to put down, choose the race as Revenant and take a feat called Superior Will. Revenants are awesome because, if they fall below 0 hit points, instead of falling unconscious, they become dazed and can still act normally until they fail one death saving throw.

Superior Will allows a save at the beginning of your turn to get rid of a dazed or stunned status, even if a save would not normally end it (and comes with a nice scaling Will bonus to boot).

So this combination (aided by some feat and item support for saving throws) effectively multiplies your hp by 1.5 and makes healing on you more effective when you're below 0 (since you get set back to 0 and then healed from there).

Unkillable Revenants may not be as effective in some roles because of the feat and item support needed to make them so, but playing an unstoppable undead beast is so much fun.

Note: There is also a way to make a character literally unkillable by any conventional means by using a magic armor that says, "You do not die until you fail 3 death saving throws," then stacking saving throw bonuses until you can't fail a death saving throw at all. This allows you to go past negative-bloodied value without dying. Unfortunately, it's also super cheesetastic and the game's not fun without at least some chance of dying, is it? :smalltongue: