Whats a good solo class 4.E

[Stryke]

Whats a good character class/race for a solo adventure, i could pick out good combos in 3.5 but i'm still some what of a novice in 4.0

[Draz74]

Bard, with secondary ability score Constitution and the Bard of All Trades feat.

[Hal]

Paladin works, too. Reasonable defenses and self-healing can be useful.

Really, most defenders or leaders will suffice; leaders will have more self-healing, but defenders will have better defense (though with some means of restoring their own health).

The real trick is to build the character to make soloing feasible.

[demidracolich]

What about a hybrid defender/leader or other combo? Then you could fill multiple roles and have more survivability.

[Swordgleam]

Leaders have a lot of stuff to buff allies, so I'm not convinced that they're a great idea. You can build a leader without any buffing powers, but it limits your options a lot. I'd go with a striker, and just take Toughness and carry a bunch of potions. Strikers (except rogue, who likes flanking to get CA) don't especially rely on anyone else and quite a few of them are skillmonkies. Maybe multiclass into Cleric or Warlord to pick up a heal and an extra skill.

[Fuzzie Fuzz]

I second the Striker motion, though I think that rogues actually do make good soloists, as they have lots of powers that can grant them CA.

I also advise against bards, as a large majority of their powers deal with granting various boons to allies.

Paladins can be nice, but can also result in lots of standing still and stabbing until someone falls over, which isn't much fun.

[balistafreak]

Last I checked, 4th edition was not a solo-conducive game, but I think the suggestions given work out just fine.

Just hope your DM is careful about having you randomly die. Solo encounters tend to end like that all. The. Time.

[greenknight]

I think the best Solo character is a Elf Centered Breath Monk. Here's what you get:

* High damage single target at-will (Dancing Cobra).
* Useful burst attack at-will for clearing out minions (Five Storms). Since the goal is to clear minions with this, you could retrain in Epic, but it's still good even then.
* Good scouting skills, and the ability score support you need to use them. Perception, Stealth and Thievery are key here. Your fourth skill could be any of: Acrobatics, Athletics, Heal, Insight. You can also pick up Religion if you want to go with the Radiant Fist PP.
* Good ranged attack ability thanks to your ability to use Longbows.
* Very fast movement (18 squares per round at level 1 with a double move if you have Dancing Cobra). And that's without running or using an Action Point.
* Shift ignoring difficult terrain.
* High initiative score - you'll be able to act before most foes, most of the time.

[Swordgleam]

Elf is good. I would also suggest human. You get an extra skill, feat and at-will, for added versatility, and you can take a feat that gives you +1 to saving throws, which will be important with no leader to grant you extra saves.

[Draz74]

I second the Striker motion, though I think that rogues actually do make good soloists, as they have lots of powers that can grant them CA.

I also advise against bards, as a large majority of their powers deal with granting various boons to allies.

Paladins can be nice, but can also result in lots of standing still and stabbing until someone falls over, which isn't much fun.

Yeah, I still say Bard can work well, but I won't deny that mixing in some other classes is even better. I'm debating whether Bard|Rogue with a Paladin multiclass or Bard|Paladin with a Rogue multiclass sounds cooler. (Hybrid Bards unfortunately don't inherit the ability to multiclass many times.)

[Thajocoth]

Fighter. There are a lot of Fighter powers that let you spend your surges, you can build them to deal a lot of damage, they're excellent defenders, and a lot of their stuff has some short range control.

[Kurald Galain]

Really, most defenders or leaders will suffice;

It strikes me that many leader powers and defender powers are rather pointless without an ally around to buff or to defend. Although yes, the ability to heal yourself is rather important.

[WoodenSword]

I say Warlord who multiclasses into fighter for better weaps and armor. Use those heals to your advantage and smack back!

[ImperiousLeader]

I'm curious why defenders seem to top the list ... they're designed to defend the party by drawing attacks ... as a solo player, aren't you getting all those attacks anyway?

Hybrids would top the list for me for solo play ... especially striker/leader combinations. Artificer/Swordmage or Artificer/Warlock has some nice options. Avenger/Cleric or Barbarian/Warlord. Sorcerer/Bard, though I'd be more tempted to do Sorcerer with Bard multiclass, then the Sorcerer

For pure classes, Assassins and Druids could both work in solo situations. I played a Druid through the solo adventure that WotC published and found it quite good. In a solo campaign, I'd consider anything really stealthy, better to avoid encounters when you don't have backup.

[Draz74]

I still say Bard of All Trades or, at the very least, Jack of All Trades is a requirement for any decent solo build. Combat isn't the whole game, and making all the skill checks for your whole party is rough.

Fighter is a pretty decent solo class for combat situations (since it's almost like a Striker, but with Defender HP and Surges and self-healing), but it's terrible in the skills department on its own and has trouble qualifying for either of the above feats.

I'm curious why defenders seem to top the list ...

Because they have more Hit Points and Healing Surges.

[Theodoric]

I'm curious why defenders seem to top the list ... they're designed to defend the party by drawing attacks ... as a solo player, aren't you getting all those attacks anyway?

Well, they're not only good at drawing away the attacks, they're also (rather crucially, I might add) in taking damage, which is what you're doing anyway in a solo game. Admittedly, marking and other such effects (Sanction, Challenge, Mindspike, Agis) are completely useless, unless the Dm uses a lot of NPC allies at times (which would make for igger fights, considering you have a very low XP budget, and using only minions leads to huge swarms of enemies)

Though I'd personally go with a hybrid, like Sorceror/Paladin or Swordmage/Wizard, to have more blast and burst powers; a solo-defender is rather lacking in 'crowd control'.

[Meta]

I still say Bard of All Trades or, at the very least, Jack of All Trades is a requirement for any decent solo build. Combat isn't the whole game, and making all the skill checks for your whole party is rough.

Fighter is a pretty decent solo class for combat situations (since it's almost like a Striker, but with Defender HP and Surges and self-healing), but it's terrible in the skills department on its own and has trouble qualifying for either of the above feats.



Because they have more Hit Points and Healing Surges.

Actually if you're a bard, jack of all trades is the last feat you want. Because bards can multiclass like crazy (and if youre soloing probably should: a con bard can pickup a lot of useful powers from every class like rain of steel, blur, etc.) and each feat is giving you skill training in another skill, which makes jack of all trades worse and worse.


EDIT: If I had to pick one character that could solo most effectively I'd say a Con druid that focuses on summoning. Very effective all around and withering henge is perhaps the best power in the game right now

[Swordgleam]

Because they have more Hit Points and Healing Surges.

Why should this matter? We have to assume that the DM is a reasonable person and is scaling the adventure to the party size, even if that size is one. We don't need to help build a character that's going to be taking on a 4 person party's worth of monsters. Being able to access healing in combat is probably important just so half of all combats don't end with the character bloodied and running away, but total number of healing surges shouldn't really matter.

That said, skill are important, because it's hard to scale away situations which require more than 4 skills. I'd take a base class with a lot of skills, a multiclass feat for another one, and make puppy eyes at the DM for a free skill or two to make life easier.

[Kurald Galain]

I say Warlord who multiclasses into fighter for better weaps and armor.

Multiclassing doesn't do that.

I'm curious why defenders seem to top the list ... they're designed to defend the party by drawing attacks ... as a solo player, aren't you getting all those attacks anyway?

Yes. Also, your prime two powers of attack penalties and retaliation strikes to people who attack your allies don't work any more. That doesn't weigh up to slightly more hit points and surges. Primal characters get more of those anyway.

Hybrids would top the list for me for solo play ... especially striker/leader combinations.

TBH I'm not convinced of that either. With some explicit exceptions, most hybrid combinations end up being sub-par at both of their roles, and that's precisely what you don't want as a solo.

For pure classes, Assassins and Druids could both work in solo situations.

Druid I can imagine working well. Assassin I'm really not convinced of.

I still say Bard of All Trades or, at the very least, Jack of All Trades is a requirement for any decent solo build. Combat isn't the whole game, and making all the skill checks for your whole party is rough.

Absolutely. That's why rogue and bard are good choices, for instance. Rogue is also a very good combatant, and bard can self-heal (but is admittedly not that great when fighting).

Being able to access healing in combat is probably important just so half of all combats don't end with the character bloodied and running away, but total number of healing surges shouldn't really matter.

This, too. It's only very rarely relevant how many surges you actually have in total. You can generally choose to rest long before that.

[NMBLNG]

I think you'd need a class that can fill a number of roles, though not the exact roles outlined in the PHB.

Offence: As a solo, you're the only one there to take care of enemies. I don't care how you do it, but you have to be able to sneak/talk/teleport/fight your way out of situations without any help.

Defence: No one is there to save you. Should you be dazed/flanked/out of surges, you need a way to mitigate threats.

Now that I think about it, those are kinda the same thing.


You'll want something that can take a few hits, has a useful skill selection, can attack melee, and can hit multiple targets. Skill selection will really depend on the campaign the DM has in mind. (Nature is a must when trying to survive in the wilderness) Maybe ask the DM if you can get some multi-class abilities so you can cover some weak spots. (healing for strikers, better armor for casters, etc)