[4e] [hypothetical] Paladin/Barbarian

[Gamerlord]

So, I was playing with the Character builder, and a thought came to me:

Hypothetically,how powerful would a ardent paladin/barbarian be?

To be more specific, a Duergar ardent paladin/barbarian.

[CrazySopher]

I couldn't quite tell you off the top of my head; opening my books up right now as we speak. But I'll tell you right now, the idea of an Ardent Paladin using Barbarian dailies and keeping the rage going afterward to fuel their normal stuff is quite the tempting prospect.

[Hashmir]

A Paladin/Barbarian, or a Paladin|Barbarian? I wouldn't know whether either is better, but it does matter.

As for whether they synergize, I would imagine so -- to an extent. A Paladin will need either STR or CHA, with WIS as a secondary. A Barbarian will want STR, with CON or CHA as a secondary. As a Duergar (with +CON and +WIS, I believe?), you would presumably go with a STR primary and WIS and CON secondaries.

This will be a little MAD, but I think you can squeeze three 16's out of that pretty easily. Or you could focus on either WIS or CON and only pick stuff without riders from one side or the other.

Also, I seem to recall Duergars being generally inferior to Dwarves. Any particular reason you wanted to play one?

[Fortuna]

Why duergar? Both can depend on CHA and STR, so surely it would be ideal to base the build off those as much as possible?

[CrazySopher]

After looking at it, I'm going to say it'll work not too badly, at least! Ardent paladins need Str first, Wis second, Cha third, and I know that the Thaneborn Barbarian build from PHBII needs Str, first, Cha second, so it should at least sort of work out if you go Str first, Cha/Wis as secondaries. Duergar gives you your Wis, and Con is always nice for anyone losing hitpoints here and there or if you'd like to pick up some Non-Thaneborn barbarian powers here and there, but I'll mention that a good few Barbarian rages will help regenerate HP, and most of them are Thaneborn, which is Str and then Cha as a secondary. Given that Ardent Pallies use Cha for any powers they could use to give them a bit of a health boost in case they need to drain themselves, I'd say it's a pretty good synergistic combo...

Which makes me question why you picked Duergar, along with what Hamshir says about Dwarves possibly being a superior race pick. Con is always nice for smashy types, and Wis has obvious benefits to a Paladin, but why pick a race that doesn't give you a Str/Cha bonus? Dragonborn could work wonders here, and Longtooth Shifter wouldn't be far behind either (though you might want your Cha to be as high as your Wis if you really wanna take advantage of the multiclass, otherwise it might be easier if you just took feats to boost your Ardent Pally). Do you already have a character concept in mind? Or is there something I'm completely missing about Duergar, which is a possibility?

[Gamerlord]

I picked Duergar Because of their racial power, but......If we pick a race that has better energizing bonuses.....


This could be 4es pun-pun....


MWHAHAHA!

[Gamerlord]

I've got it! Dragonborn Paladin/Barbarian!

[Yakk]

No, this isn't pun-pun.

It does look viable, however.

[Gamerlord]

It is as close as we can get though.

[Gamerlord]

Also, by Paladin/ Barbarian I mean a Paladin who takes the multiclass feat for barbarian, as well as taking the power feats that let one switch powers.

[Mando Knight]

It is as close as we can get though.

Nowhere close. Closer would be the lockdown wizards, but 4e by design has nothing that even comes close to the win-button of Pun-pun.

[ocdscale]

This could be 4es pun-pun....

I do not think this means what you think it means.

[Gamerlord]

Sorry, I'm not much of a optimizer......