4e First Character- Opinions and Advice?

[Elricaltovilla]

OK, this is my first time ever making a 4e character on my own (I've used the free version of the character creator a couple times but that never really taught me how to make a character in 4e, it just did it for me). Ideally I'd like to see him in play, but I'm unsure when or if I'll be able to join a 4e game any time soon.

Please take a look and let me know how you think it turned out. I used the standard 22 point buy.

Leokul Ankrav (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=635383)

[Kurald Galain]

First suggestion: focus on two stats, not three, and mind that your primary stat is much, much more important than anything else (for most builds, at any rate). So start with an 18 int, you'll be glad you did.

[Elricaltovilla]

First suggestion: focus on two stats, not three, and mind that your primary stat is much, much more important than anything else (for most builds, at any rate). So start with an 18 int, you'll be glad you did.

What do you recommend I lower then? Strength, Constitution or something else? (I have a personal dislike for stats lower than 10).

[NecroRebel]

What do you recommend I lower then? Strength, Constitution or something else? (I have a personal dislike for stats lower than 10).

I'd drop your Con down to 12 to boost your Int to 18. Con doesn't really give you that much all things considered - just a few hit points and an extra surge or two, which don't really matter in the long run, while Int will improve your hit rate and AC. You won't find your survivability significantly decreased from doing this, due to killing things faster and more reliably, and will do your job as a Defender better due to being a bigger threat. The few extra damage from Dragon Breath also aren't really important; that power is mostly for clearing minions unless you optimize it out (which involves being a Sorcerer anyway).

Speaking of hit points, yours are much lower than they should be. Your hit points should be equal to 15+ your Constitution score, while you have them recorded as... I don't know how you came up with 17, actually. With 16 Con you should have 31 max HP, while if you drop your Con to 12 you'll have 27.

I'd also recommend dropping Booming Blade, especially if you reduce your Con. It might sound like a lot of damage on a target moving away, particularly since it technically gets your static modifiers due to having a damage roll, but the trigger is so restrictive that it just won't be applicable more often than not - if you move away from them, or if you're force moved away, or if they're forced move away, it does nothing, and they can skirt around you freely so long as they don't actually leave adjacency, so it really doesn't matter.

[Elricaltovilla]

I'd drop your Con down to 12 to boost your Int to 18. Con doesn't really give you that much all things considered - just a few hit points and an extra surge or two, which don't really matter in the long run, while Int will improve your hit rate and AC. You won't find your survivability significantly decreased from doing this, due to killing things faster and more reliably, and will do your job as a Defender better due to being a bigger threat. The few extra damage from Dragon Breath also aren't really important; that power is mostly for clearing minions unless you optimize it out (which involves being a Sorcerer anyway).

Speaking of hit points, yours are much lower than they should be. Your hit points should be equal to 15+ your Constitution score, while you have them recorded as... I don't know how you came up with 17, actually. With 16 Con you should have 31 max HP, while if you drop your Con to 12 you'll have 27.

I'd also recommend dropping Booming Blade, especially if you reduce your Con. It might sound like a lot of damage on a target moving away, particularly since it technically gets your static modifiers due to having a damage roll, but the trigger is so restrictive that it just won't be applicable more often than not - if you move away from them, or if you're force moved away, or if they're forced move away, it does nothing, and they can skirt around you freely so long as they don't actually leave adjacency, so it really doesn't matter.

I did 15+ constitution modifier, and I used to have 14 CON instead of 16. I forgot to change it, which doesn't really matter since I screwed that up anyway lol. I think I'll take Lightning Lure instead of Booming Blade then.

[eggabubu8e]

You stated that you have a personal dislike for stats under 10, but I would like to put my 2 cents in anyway. Using the rarely remembered subtraction form of the customizing scores section you can put your Charisma down to 8. Since you are probably not the parties face and there is really no use for your Charisma score anyway. And putting your Charisma down to 8 gives you 2 more points to use. This could bump your Wisdom up to 12 giving you a higher Will score, as well as allowing you to put your Constitution score up to 13 giving you more HP and opening you up to Con-based MC's. You don't have to take these suggestions, but I believe they are for the better.:smallwink:

[shamgar001]

Are you going with an Assault Swordmage? Even so, I'd recomment putting your points in Con instead of Str. Once you take the Intelligent Blademaster feat, Str isn't that important, even for the Str-based build.

[Elricaltovilla]

My charisma was 8. It got bumped up by racial modifiers.

As far as Con vs. Str, you make a good point. I should probably switch them and take intelligent blademaster instead of escalating assault.

I have to recheck the house rules, but I may not need intelligent blademaster at all, since I think I can just use my int for attack/damage from the get go.

[shamgar001]

I have to recheck the house rules, but I may not need intelligent blademaster at all, since I think I can just use my int for attack/damage from the get go.

This is true; that advice was for people playing by the book. IBM does let you make RBAs with Int, which is useful if you have a Farbond Spellblade, but that's a lot of specifics.