[4E] Charging feats and items

[Goonthegoof]

I'm making a level 30 swordmage/sword of assault/arcane sword who has Dimensional Charge as an at will and I'm planning to use it pretty much constantly, so I'm trying to find things that boost charge attacks. I've already found the Horned Helm and the Powerful Charge feat, does anyone know about any other charge boosters?

Also is there a feat that increases a swordmage's crit range somewhere? Pretty much everyone else seems to have a way to, am I missing the feat or does it just not exist?

[Mando Knight]

You're level 30. Just spam Vorpal Doom until it hits, then charge everything.

[Goonthegoof]

Huh, I never noticed the crit thing was an effect not a hit property. Is there any way I can take 1 on an attack roll?

So, anyone know of some other feats/items?

[Goonthegoof]

Any ideas for ways to get a guaranteed miss with vorpal doom? Is there anything in the rules that lets me attack the air?

[Pramxnim]

There's no need, yo. An Effect line always goes off regardless of whether you hit or not, so you just need to use Vorpal Doom once, and regardless of whether or not it hits, you get to spam your at-wills at 19-20 crit range.

Unless of course you plan to do this every single encounter... but if that's the case, just get a jagged longsword and call it a day :P

[Goonthegoof]

I have a different weapon setup planned, I can't do the jagged part. I'd like to use the vorpal thing every encounter, know of a way to consistently miss?

[Goonthegoof]

Wait never mind, got an easy way. I'll just equip a non magical weapon I'm not proficient with and smack an ally on total defense with basic attack. Is 20 still an auto-hit in 4e?

[Edge of Dreams]

You're missing the point. The effect of Vorpal Doom happens regardless of whether you hit or miss.

EDIT: WAITAMINUTE, you're trying to miss every time you use it because it's reliable so you can get the buff every encounter? That's....well, I'd almost call it abuse. I'm not sure if I would allow you to do that as a DM.

[Goonthegoof]

I have a very RAW dm. I know they're much maligned, but it will still work. Anyways, now that I have the crit problem solved (assuming 20 isn't an auto hit anymore, I think I read that somewhere) does anyone know of any charge boosting feats/items?

[absolmorph]

You need to attack something?
How 'bout the ground? Technically, it's an object...
Tell us what happens if you crit, please.

[Edge of Dreams]

(assuming 20 isn't an auto hit anymore, I think I read that somewhere)

20 is in fact still auto-hit. However, if your total attack roll on a 20 is still not enough for it to otherwise have hit, it does not crit, it merely auto-hits for normal damage.

Hope your allies are okay with being decapitated by you in 5% of your encounters.

[Goonthegoof]

Hmm, not worth it in that case, the hit will waste the power.

[Goonthegoof]

HA! I have an idea. If you're attacking blind and get the wrong square, you miss no matter what. Therefore I equip my character with a blindfold and try to hit my team mate and hit the wrong square. Would that work?

[Edge of Dreams]

HA! I have an idea. If you're attacking blind and get the wrong square, you miss no matter what. Therefore I equip my character with a blindfold and try to hit my team mate and hit the wrong square. Would that work?

You're dangerously close to "I attack the air" territory. I'm pretty sure there's even a line in the DMG or PHB about not being able to use powers against something that's not a threat just to gain a secondary benefit. They didn't want to allow bag-of-rats style abuses which open up infinite out-of-combat healing and other such things.

EDIT: Also, you're gonna have to deal with the actions required to equip and un-equip the blindfold, not to mention you're using up a turn at the start of combat just to do this that you could have used to attack.

[Goonthegoof]

It'll still be one turn. Minor equip, standard attack at the wrong square at ally, minor unequip. In terms of game mechanics is that legal?

[Edge of Dreams]

It'll still be one turn. Minor equip, standard attack at the wrong square at ally, minor unequip. In terms of game mechanics is that legal?

Only in the absolutely most "lawyers are sharks in human form" sense of legal. If I, as DM, had a player try to do this, I'd throw his PHB at him (not mine, wouldn't want to damage it).

[Goonthegoof]

Saving it for a rainy day, I'm mostly just gonna buy jagged swords. Still useful to know though.

So, back to the original purpose of the thread, anyone know of any items/feats that improve charging?

[BobTheDog]

Pure swordmage? Charging Aegis (ArcPow) lets you mark the target of a successful charge as a free action and gives an additional -1 penalty (to a -3 total) if it attacks someone else.

Other than that, it depends if you're going to multiclass and what race you are. Multiclass barbarian gives you plenty of charging feats (some only useful for full-classed barbarians, tho), of which Overpowering Charge is nice (knock prone on a charge attack). Eladrin get a paragon feat to fey step during a charge and not expend it if the charge hits. Primal classes get Reckless Charge, -2 AC to get a further +1 attack on the charge.

For the crit range, I'm guessing Heavy Blade Mastery is not good enough? It really depends if you're gonna use a lot of Implement attacks or not.

[tcrudisi]

Saving it for a rainy day, I'm mostly just gonna buy jagged swords. Still useful to know though.

So, back to the original purpose of the thread, anyone know of any items/feats that improve charging?

I'm away from my home country at the moment, so I'm as far away from my books as I can be. However, I do remember a couple of things:

Thundergod or Vanguard Weapons both deal extra damage on a charge.
There's a ... Fighter or Barbarian feat that let you take the rest of your actions after a charge. It's epic level.
I think there's a Barbarian feat which lets you knock the target prone on a charge attack -- Overpowering Charge?
There's Boots of Adept Charging which let you shift 1 square as a free action after charging.
Boots of the Mighty Charge are also really, really nice.
There's an amulet which lets you ignore opportunity attacks resulting from movement when you make a charge attack (Berserker Badge?).
Power Attack is a useful feat, since you get a +1 bonus to hit from charging, so you will net -1 attack for +9 damage.
There's another feat which gives you an extra +1 to hit when charging. I think it's called Reckless Charge. There's a minor drawback to it, but I don't remember what it is. This feat is still worth it.
Iron Armbands of Power are always a must.
Gauntlets of Destruction are also a requirement.

And you didn't say what race you were playing. May I suggest... Warforged? I can't remember the name, but it's a racial paragon path from Eberron Player's Guide that improves your ability to charge and gives you a little bit of defense too.

That's all I can remember off-hand without being near my books.

[Goonthegoof]

Heavy blade mastery taxes me a bunch of agility I don't need to lose and fey charge is unnecessary because the charge is already a teleport. The rest of those are really useful though, thanks.

To clarify: Due to the path choices I have dimensional charge as an at-will power and can use it in place of an attack of opportunity or of an aegis of assault attack, meaning I'm going to be using it constantly. One minor problem is that using it as a charge ends my turn(meaning I won't be able to attack with it multiple times per turn), anyone know of a feat or something that gets around that?

Edit: Actually looking at my build I only need 2 more dex to get heavy blade mastery, might get it.

[tcrudisi]

One minor problem is that using it as a charge ends my turn(meaning I won't be able to attack with it multiple times per turn), anyone know of a feat or something that gets around that?

...
There's a ... Fighter or Barbarian feat that let you take the rest of your actions after a charge. It's epic level.
...

The post thinks I'm being snarky, so they are forcing me to type at least 10 letters.

[Goonthegoof]

Found it, it's an epic fighter feat that needs 21 str 17 con. I will need 15 dex to get heavy blade opportunity and so should probably just bite the bullet and get 17 dex and heavy blade mastery.

I suppose if I drop my starting int down to 16 I could get those. Assuming Genasi...
16(18)>26
15(17)>21
13>17
13>17
Alas my poor int.