1 vs 1 PVP style arena character ideas

[kingzanus]

Hi, I'm still fairly new to table top rpgs, especially compared to the rest of my group. Our GM is wanting to do a 1 on 1 style arena, where he pits us against each other and/or a few of his characters he created. It's been difficult trying to decide what sort of character to build seeing as i've really only experienced D&D as a group dynamic situation.

For the arena we :
Start at lvl 30 with paragon paths but not elite.
can be hybrid/multiclass
can't use healing but can gain Temp HPs
the arena is essentially a day, we get a short rest after each fight, but no extended rests.

Any character ideas and such would be helpful. I thought a Vampire/ranger would be neat because I like the vampire idea for arena but most reading i've done has said to stay away from hybriding and especially vampires. I wouldn't mind a small edge on some of the more experienced players.

[Wymmerdann]

It's worth noting that the asymetry between monster/pc health/damage makes it a really bad system to use 4e for. 4e is essentially a team game and pitting PC's against each other will make 1/3 of builds essentially ineffectual and another 1/3 much, much less effective.

Leaders generally build towards healing and enabling allies, so they're out.

Defenders tend to be framed around their marking or aura abilities. As there's no way to activate them in 1 on 1 fights, they're pretty much out too (though some fighter multi-classing might be appropriate depending on the build you eventually go with.

Most controllers are built around changing the shape of the battlefield through de-buffing and area affect damage. This doesn't seem particularly useful in a 1 on 1 contest so I'd hazard a guess and say they're out too.

That leaves strikers. Vampires are generally considered a truly pathetic class, and I can see them having a lot of problems in this format, without even considering the lack of specialist healing. Some striker builds (rogues/blackguards) get strong bonuses from combat advantage, and it's worth noting that without flanking that can be hard to achieve at low levels (though by 30, it should be a cinch). Avengers will, on the one hand, not have to worry about people interfering with their OOE target (yay) but have no real way to trigger their damage feature. They're also a fairly low tier striker. A secondary leader barbarian build, or whirling slayer build, would be largely wasted in this setup, but a classic Rageblood (possibly with some polearm/charging shenanigans) could be quite effective. Monks usually spread the damage around, and so probably wouldn't be too effective in a 1 on 1.

A bow ranger is going to struggle maintaining distance from quite a few opponent builds, but a twf melee ranger should be a very high tier damage outputter, and is melee, so doesn't have to worry about range.

Generally, Hybrids aren't a great idea in 4e unless you're either quite experienced at building characters, or you're following a scripted build from the charop forums. Even then, by and large they're going to be less effective than a single class build. Hybrids are great when you don't really have a clear role to fill in the party, but want to dabble in 2 or three. Realistically you have a clear role: Kill your enemy quickly, so go ahead and build a single classed striker.

[MunkeeGamer]

I wanna second the idea of using a striker. Considering there will be no extended rest, that leaves out pretty much anyone who relies on dailies to do the big stuff (I'm thinking wizard here). A striker who maximizes the damage of At-wills sounds the most efficacious in this setting.

That said, this set-up doesn't sound fun. Or rather, it's so over the top that the only way to have fun is going to be not taking it seriously. By level 30, there will be potential damage combos that will definitely one- or two-shot another level 30 hero. So if you're playing to win, it's gonna come down to who fires first.

On the other hand, if this is primarily a story-based event kinda of like a Chuunin Exam, then you could pretty much roll whatever you think would be cool. In this case, a wizard could be great. Saving up sleep as the ultimate finisher. Or a Battlemind, dashing around the battlefield like he's in an anime or something.

[Kurald Galain]

The main thing to do is optimizing initiative. If you win initiative, then any decent striker should be able to take down his opponent in one round (and no, the vampire doesn't qualify as a decent striker).

[Tegu8788]

You want to do damage: Striker.

You want to win Initiative: Rogue, Ranger, Slayer, Thief, Scout

Would you like to kill the enemy before he reaches you, using non-standard actions to up your Nova?


All this leads to a Bow Ranger. Fire several arrows into your first target, it will die. Use your AP, use everything, just unload.

I PvP at lvl 2 because it's a great deal better at balancing things, and there aren't a million options. But a trick that would be useful, if you have to go more than one round, is to be a voidsoul genasi. Basically, you can take yourself off the map as a minor action.


And a special note for the elementalist. I have no clue how it holds up at 30, but it's insanely brutal at downing multiple guys when I played against one. Good defensive utilties, and Con secondary never hurts.


Also, what are the win conditions? How large is the map, what sort of terrain exists? Can you purchase items, and if so, what rarity? The more info you can give, the better our responses will be.

[kingzanus]

Thanks for the posts guys.
The only loot we get is lvl 30 weapon/implement and a lvl 30 armor piece.
We haven't been given much information on the terrain although he did say there would be obstacles, traps etc. It sounds like a sort of roman coliseum style.
The reward for winning the tourney is one million gold pieces, which none of us will see because we won't be playing our current characters.
Our GM has set up a half level system to attempt to allow us a fair chance of using our current toons (lvl 12 to 21) against the GMs lvl 30 characters or anyone else who rolled a new lvl 30. As of now none of us are using our current toons for the arena.
We're rolling with it mainly because no one else has wanted to GM.
But i'll be taking those reigns soon enough, although im a tad nervous having only 10 sessions as a player under my belt.

I do like the Bow ranger suggestion. One of the things i have been looking at is what class has powers that target varying defenses.

I've been trying to find a way include vampire into my character because a) it feels difficult to play a vampire with a group and still have fun and b) the powers/skills/feats they do have are neat and powerful.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

[kingzanus]

on the initiative comments

We are allowed to access most all 4e material including the dragon magazines.
that said, I wouldn't mind someones input if they've already done the research on what race, background, etc to choose for pumping that initiative. I have plenty of time to create this character so I can do the research but hey, if someones already built an initiative whore might as well use that knowledge!

[Epinephrine]

A dex-based striker would already have a solid initiative; alternatively, there are races that get an easy way to get a non-dex attribute to initiative.
Warlords have a solid boost to initiative, and if you hybrid you might be able to steal it without too much loss of striking power.

Theme: Haunted Blade rolls twice for initiative at 5th level, and at 10th can use Charisma in place of Dexterity.

A few backgrounds have +1 initiative, and one can reroll and take the new result.

The Bluff skill power Stall Tactics lets you reduce an enemy's initiative by 10 once a day, which could be helpful.

Superior Initiative is a good choice

You can pick up racial bonuses to initiative and item bonuses, too.

For all that, if you attack first you may still find yourself in trouble due to immediate interrupts. If I were to build a 1v1 character, I might consider ways to prevent that ruining my day. The Vampire utility Charming Gaze has no attack roll (and thus won't set off any "if hit" interrupts itself) and deals no damage (preventing any "on damage" interrupts) with only an effect line of "Until the end of your next turn, the target cannot make opportunity attacks or take immediate actions."

With no immediate actions to worry about, you could then unload on the poor enemy.
I might consider a Tiefling Water Elementalist using fire spells with bonuses to fire attacks.
Feats:
Multiclass Vampire (to qualify for Charming Gaze)
Acolyte Power (retrain a level 2 power to Charming Gaze)
Stall Tactics (sink enemy initiative by 10)
Imperious Majesty (Get +Cha to initiative, enemy you hit takes a -Cha penalty to attack you)
Superior Reflexes for CA on the first turn.

Max out your attack roll so you don't miss, use a weapon of speed to get an additional basic attack in the opening salvo. Elemental Escalation at level 30 is +3d10 damage, daze, prone, so if you win initiative (which you likely will, if the enemy is at -10 and you've buffed yours) you:
1. Get within range to use Charming Gaze
2. Use Charming gaze to prevent any immediates until the end of your next turn.
3. Action point nova on him, using elemental escalation to ensure that he's dazed, prone, and at -10 to attack you.
4. If he lives, he'll have trouble connecting. Take a power like Warp in the Weave as an interrupt, since it goes beyond what most interrupts do, actually causing the attack not to target you or your square; this prevents you getting targeted by something that might hit an area with an effect, take other immediates if needed (fog form, etc.)
5. Smack him around some more, but you're running out of steam, you'd better wrap things up. Still no immediate reactions against you. This round you can use that dagger of speed for the extra attack.

Another option for the Elemental Escalation might be the Air version, which blinds; but really any of them are going to be more controlling than the Fire version that just does damage. You can still pick fire attacks, and Arcane Admixture can add fire to your RBA.

[kingzanus]

Excellent advice. Thanks!! I'm still fairly new but really enjoy delving into the books and finding new ways to define and empower my character.
It'll be loads of fun investigating everyones ideas and seeing which fit my play style and scenario.

[georgie_leech]

A thought occurs that if you're getting armor and a weapon but not a neck slot item, NAD's will be a full 6 points lower than they should be; aiming for those instead of AC might help your hit chances.

[kingzanus]

A thought occurs that if you're getting armor and a weapon but not a neck slot item, NAD's will be a full 6 points lower than they should be; aiming for those instead of AC might help your hit chances.

Wow, very good point. I should also look into feats to cup my NADs, as it were.