Rolling two level 4 chars for side-story

[JW86]

Hi,

As part of the epic game I'm involved in now, we're taking a break from our optimised level 18-22 characters to view a battle we're currently engaged in.. from the viewpoint of some common soldiers.

We're to create two seperate level 4 characters. Limited to the very basic races from SRD, and only fighter/rogue/ranger allowed.

I have rolled two very different sets of stats, using 3d6 and "go with what you got" as these are meant to be basic soldiers only.
First set - 16, 15, 12, 11, 11, 8
Second set - 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6

So it would appear we have one competent member of the military, and one bumbling inept sidekick. " :smallbiggrin:

I'm trying to anticipate how this session will pan out - I understand that the choices and actions our level 4 characters make in this session will have an effect on the overall campaign and how well our main epic characters fair. Very excited to see how this develops!

If I make them both rangers... I get two animal companions.. increased odds of survival? Who knows!

I'll be planning the characters out now - please, contribute creative ideas whether roleplay or mechanical - I bet some of you could come up with some shockingly useful or fun level 4 builds just using the basics!

[bekeleven]

I'd go either 2 rangers, or 1 ranger and 1 rogue. Do you know what types of encounters you expect them to be in? Should you be statting for melee, ranged, fliers, social, traps, etc.?

[JW86]

All I know is that they are common soldiers who will be attempting to defend a small section of wall from invading troops, but there will be much more to come.

It's all mysteries to me, really. I think that social will be unimportant, due to how these are just temp characters for a war scene. Fliers will be likely unimportant - the battle does feature a single HIGH-level enemy flier, but we are talking 600hp, AC 37, not even worth trying to stat a level 4 ranger out to be fighting.. so let's say 'no' to fliers... more melee/ranged combat, sneaking.. POSSIBLY? traps (part of the city is trapped). but the only certain skills I'd say would be COMBAT and SNEAKING.

If I go 2xRanger, or Ranger/Rogue, I'm tempted to let the animal companion and other fighters tend to the melee, and stand back shooting and sneak attacking.

So perhaps lets go with ranged (crossbow or archery) ranger/rogue, points in hide and move silently.. animal companions to the front, shoot from behind, strategem?

Any ideas appreciated - I'm going to bed now but look forward to see anything written tomorrow. Session is tomorrow late afternoon.:smallcool:

[bekeleven]

Makes sense. Consider Wold Cohort (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a) as a potential alternative - or addition - to animal companions. You know, if you're going beastmaster/meatshield and focusing on archery.

[HalfQuart]

Hmm... for the low stat one I was thinking you could make it Fighter 4 with Full Plate, Tower Shield, Combat Expertise, Shieldmate, and Improved Shieldmate.... that way you could have roughly a 26 AC and give +3 AC to the more optimized character when adjacent. The problem is that to qualify for Combat Expertise you need a 13 Int, and there aren't any standard PHB races that give +2 Int. You might be able to pull it off with Fire Elf... it is SRD. Gray Elf is closer to standard, but gets -2 Str and if you don't have a 10 in Str you can't wear Full Plate and a Tower Shield (and even then you'd be at max load). But if you can pull it off somehow, you'd probably just want to use Aid Another to try to help the better character hit. You'd have to be Fighter 4 to get Improved Shieldmate (MH).

For the better character I was thinking you could get Adaptable Flanker (PHB2) and Vexing Flanker -- that would let you flank while being adjacent to the shield fighter, and get +4 to hit. Tack on about a 50/50 chance of getting another +2 from Aid Another, and +3 from Str, or maybe +4 as Half-Orc?, would get up to +10 to hit. That's pretty decent for 4th level. Wield something big like a Greatsword. The only real problem with this is you'd have to do Fighter 4 on this one too to get Adaptable Flanker.