Races

Feywild

• Eladrin
• Elves & Half-elves
• Humans (Winterkin Feat)
• Shifters
• Halflings
• Gnomes
• Other Fey (Wilden, Pixies, Hamadryad, Satyrs, etc?)

Shadowfell

• Humans (DuskElf Feat)
• Tieflings
• Dwarves
• Drow
• Shifters
• Other Shadow (Shadarkai, Shade, Vryloka, etc)

Elemental Chaos

• Dragonborn
• Genasi
• Humans (Forgeborn Feat)
• Tieflings
• Goliath

I have given humans access to certain heritage feats based on what region they are located in. Humans are vastly adaptable and have carved out kingdoms for themselves in each of the planes.

The image at the top of the page is a heraldric symbol of sorts that I created to represent the world. It is likely recognizable as a bio-hazard symbol, which is self-explanatory by reading the background. Each of the surrounding symbols represents the mirror planes (Feywild at the top, Shadowfell at bottom left, and Elemental Chaos at bottom right) with the center dot representing the plagued prime material plane left behind.

Ability Scores: Str 18/Con 11/Dex 12(racial)/Int 8/Wis 10/Cha 16(racial)
Strength and Charisma are most important for this build, so they naturally get the 18 and 16. Constitution came next in order of importance, just to help with staying alive. Unfortunately, that means it gets the 11, not much you can do to get it higher with this build. I put the secondary racial bonus into Dexterity because of the Virtue that I chose. Had I been building a Sacrifce Cavalier, I would have put the 12 into Wisdom to boost the Heal and Insight skills. But, since I chose the Valor route, I wanted to get that extra +1 to initiative. Intelligence was also, not high on my list. My Dex keyed into my Reflex Defence and since I'm looking for Valor through combat, being smart kinda seemed less than important.

Skills: Athletics, Diplomacy, Endurance, *Intimidate, *Stealth
It's always simplest to pick the skills from your list that you have the best ability scores in. In this case, that would be Athletics, Diplomacy, and Intimidate. Endurance has a slightly better score than the other skills on the list, plus it fits with my concept of the tough guy who's looking for a fight better than the other skills. I also love the fact that I'm getting both Diplomacy and Intimidate simply because it's another way to portray his struggle with his values that he was raised with. Does he try to play nice and use Diplomacy? Or, does he give in to the temptation to brow-beat people into submission? It can be a tough choice, especially since Intimidate has the better overall modifier due to the racial bonus.

Features: Spirit of Valor
The only feature for this class is which Virtue you choose to follow. I've already given my reasons for choosing this one, so +4 initiative and +2 to healing surge value.

Powers: Defender Aura, Righteous Radiance, Valiant Strike, Vengeful Strike, Holy Smite, Righteous Shield
There are a lot of powers here, but really very little choice. Once you've picked your Virtue, everything else just fills itself in. Even at second level you don't have a choice in powers, you just get Restore Vitality which is a good power, even though it is a daily. So, without any real choices to make, this section kind of gets skipped.

Feat: Swift Recovery
This was kind of a toss up. Improved Initiative is a close second for this character and it's the feat I would choose at second level. Both of these add in to the bonus you already get for the Spirit of Valor class feature. I'ts nice to have a defender that goes early in the initiative round. But it's even nicer that he can get healed easier, especially since he has the habit of taking damage for the other characters in the group. Swift Recovery also aids in the Restore Vitality power you get at second level, since it is based off of your surge value, rather than your allies.

Equipment: Plate Armor, Heavy Shield, Long Sword, Adv. Kit, Hand Axe x2
Well, this time it was rather easy to spend all the starting gold. Heavy Armor tends to do that though. Equipment was pretty straightforward, get a good weapon, and get the best defense money could buy.

Next up: Dragonborn Hunter

For those new to this blog series, this is about creating effective characters from Race/Class combinations that don't have synergy ability scores. These are created mostly for use in D&D Encounters, so I focus on the low levels. First up is the Tiefling Sentinel. Sounds odd. A race typically associated with Demons and all things Arcane is jumping into a Primal class and protecting the woodlands and natural places. Sound kinda crazy, but I imagined him running into forest fires and trying to put them out from within, thanks to his fire resistance. It seemed like an amazingly fun idea.

Ability Scores: Str 10/Con 16(racial)/Dex 10/Int 8/Wis 18/Cha 13(racial)
Wisdom and Constitution are your main scores for the Sentinel. With the Con racial bonus, I could build a typical 18 primary/16 secondary ability character. Most of the other abilities suffered, since I only have one eleven, a couple of tens and an eight to distribute among the rest. I'm very unconcerned with Initiative as a healer, going last gives me the opportunity to assess better who has been hurt and is in need of healing. But since my two race skills are Dex and Cha, I decided to keep those as higher. And since Str would be needed for any melee basic attacks (opportunities and such) I decided to let Intelligence languish. Which also made an interesting departure from many Tiefliings, giving this one a little more of a "wild" feel.

Skills: Nature, Athletics, Endurance, Perception, *Bluff, *Stealth
Nature is the gimme here, so no choice and no brainer on that one. I wanted to give this character more of a wild feel, so I focused on skills that reinforced that theme. Athletics for climbing and jumping through the wild's terrain, Endurance for sustained travel and resistance to the elements, and Perception to notice the hidden dangers of the natural world. Bluff and Stealth are listed simply as the racial bonuses for this character (+2 to each). You may consider switching one of these skills to Heal if no one else in your party has it, but then you lose a little of the flavor that is being injected into this build. Of course, if you wanted to lean more towards the Tiefling feel, you could switch the abilities around some and focus on Arcana(odd for a primal class), History, and Diplomacy, but I won't focus on that for this build.

Features: Druid of Summer, Herb Lore, Mountain Guide
I chose Druid of Summer to focus on damage, mainly because I had already created and played a Drow Druid of Spring. Also It gives him a feel of rugged strength as opposed to the sleek accuracy of the Spring build. The Bear has a pretty low AC at beginning levels, so I would keep him back and use him more for his defensive aura. It's not a bad idea to hang around the party defender to try and limit the amount of creatures attacking you via the defender's aura or mark. When you do use combined attack with the bear, try and save your move action to allow him to shift back to his second line position. Mountain Guide was, again, chosen for flavor. Summer build gives +2 to Athletics so you should be in good shape for making those climb checks. Herb Lore won out over Watchful Rest simply because it's a better way to conserve resources. Any time you can reduce the number of surges that the party has to spend, you are increasing the survival rate of the team.

Powers: Healing Word, Combined Attack, Reap the Harvest, Shillelagh
Again, we have a couple "gimmes" in Healing Word and Combined Attack, but both are pretty nice so I'm not going to complain. I decided to focus on damaging powers for this character, making him a secondary striker role. Reap the Harvest is a good way to help ensure the enemy will take some damage when your allies attack(another good reason to hang near the defender). And while Vexing Overgrowth is certainly more damaging in one shot, Shillelagh fits the Summer build and feels more powerful each time you knock an enemy to the ground. As for leveling this build up, I'd take Bear's Strength at 2nd level as it's the only one that can provide any extra damage (though you have to attach it to an ally to get the most from that benefit). 3rd level simply gives you another use of Combined Attack, so nothing to really choose there.

Feat: Weapon Focus: Mace
As I said, I'm kind of focusing on damage with this build and this seems the easiest way to do it. Upon leveling up, I'd probably take Cold Adaptation because it would fit someone who spends a good amount of time in the wild where it can get bitterly cold part of the year. Also it matches up well with the Tieflings own Fire Resistance. Though after playing the class, you may find his to-hit bonus lacking, in which case Bludgeon Expertise is probably the way to go.

Equipment: Mace, Hide Armor, Adv. Kit (without Sunrods), Climbers Kit, Everburning Torch, Sling, 9sp
This book has been kind of odd in the equipment section since I usually have a lot less necessities to spend my starter 100gp on. I picked up a mace as it's the most damaging weapon I could get with this build. Summer build makes it a 1d12 weapon when you use two hands to wield it, and it's still a versatile weapon, which means an extra +1 to damage. Hide Armor is the best you could get, and after purchasing an Adv. Kit I realized I had just enough gp left to be able to afford an Everburning Torch (one of my favorite items). If I purchased a Torch, I naturally would have less use for the Sunrods, so I ditched them and was able to purchase a Sling for my ranged attacks (though he isn't very good with it) and a Climber's Kit to further increase my Athletics checks for climbing. and I still had 9sp left over (curse that 1sp bedroll in my non-standard Adv. Kit).

I would have made him a barbarian, but at the start we had only a Bard and Sorcerer in the party with a Warlock waiting in the wings to join. The group needed a defender, and since PHB2 had so recently been introduced I figured I'd try out the Warden.

His ability scores were done with point buy(required for LFR) Strength and Constitution being his focus on race I decided to make him an Earth Warden. As previously mentioned, I had a Bard and a Sorcerer in the party already. Both Charisma based classes and both Half-elfs to boot. I chose to stay out of their way and make Charisma my dump stat. As a Primal character I wanted to emphasize Wisdom over Intelligence so I left my Intelligence intentionally low and raised my Dexterity and Wisdom scores. My starter stats were Str 18(racial bonus)/Con 18(racial bonus)/Dex 12/Int 10/Wis 12/Cha 8. Level four and eight bumps went straight to Str and Con bumping both up to 20's.

Skills. Did I mention that I had two half-elves in the party when I was making this character? I chose to stay well away from Charisma based skills (I had already made it my dump stat, remember?). Nature was a gimme, and my racial ability for Athletics made it a pretty simple choice. I figured him to be the strong sentinel type so I gave him Endurance and Perception at first level as well.

As for powers, well they went through a lot of retraining. Some due to party abilities not meshing (the bard gave me temporary hp as often as I was trying to with my Strength of Stone at-will) and some were due to new options becoming available as we played (I created this character right after PHB2 came out and Primal Power added some really nice new powers). In the end I came up with Thorn Strike to give me reach and some control with my marking ability and Tempest Assault for a bit of extra damage power. Gale Strike is a favorite encounter power since it has 2 Weapon damage and it damages all the rest of my marks as well (I love to get as many enemies marked as I can with this guy). It deals a good amount of damage even though I can't take advantage of the Stormheart power, so I chose to keep it. Form of Mountain's Thunder was a given as soon as I saw it. Damage reduction, AC bonus, and extra damage all rolled into one power, I couldn't pass it up.

By level 2, I realized that I couldn't rely solely on the party healer to keep me standing as I was constantly surrounding myself with enemies and taking a beating from them. Triumphant Vigor was my Utility of choice for healing. At level 3, Earthgrasp Strike was fantastic. Basically doing 2 weapon damage for me, and also giving control by keeping an enemy grounded and granting CA for a full turn has been extremely powerful and versatile (I love using it against flying enemies or ones that like to move a lot). Level 5 gave me another daily, but I didn't like that there were no guardian forms, so I stuck with level 1 dailies (I got better use form my equipment for this too). I picked up Form of the Walking Conflagration mainly for party cohesion. We had a Tiefling Warlock who liked to burn everything in his path, including allies. I get DR against his attacks, and I give him extra damage against enemies that I have marked, worked out all right. It also helped me make other choices as we continued to gain levels and buy equipment. Level 6 saw me pick up Bear's Endurance for some much needed last stand healing when things get desperate and level 7 gained me Forge of Fire and Smoke, fire damage for my conflagration form and area attack doing slightly better than 2 weapon damage. (Area attack that also targeted all creatures and so let me get a little bit of payback on my tiefling companion...)

So, for my feats I started with Weapon Expertise: Hammer (which got switched out for Bludgeon Expertise with the Essentials release) just to give an extra boost to my attack rolls. As I mentioned before, at 2nd level I was wanting more healing, so I picked up Student of Battle and trained in the Heal Skill. At 4th level, I chose Weapon Proficiency: Craghammer for the Brutal ability since it seemed I was rolling a lot of lower damage rolls. At 6th level I now had two daily guardian form powers and I was wielding a hammer, so Crushing Guardian was a nice fit. By 8th level I had been using an Obsidian Steed item, and I was enjoying mounted combat, so I chose the Mounted Combat feat and bought myself a more substantial mount...

Which brings me to my equipment. Much of which was taken from the LFR adventures, so I won't go into that, it's nothing terribly special. I have only purchased 3 items for this character (not counting mundane). I purchased a Maw of the Guardian Craghammer +1 since I spend a good portion of my time in guardian forms (let's not forget that this is a LFR character so he typically only has four encounters before an extended rest and there's been a really good chance that at least one of those is a skill challenge). I purchased a set of Flame Bracers shortly after that to go with my Form of the Walking Conflagration power, just one more way to deal fire damage and help max out my own usage of the fire vulnerability provided by it. And finally at 8th level I sold a couple of magic items so I could purchase my Rage Drake mount. The +2 bonus to attack and damage was even better than upgrading my Craghammer.

All told, he's  become an interestingly balanced character... even though he's a little confused about what his role is in the group. He marks people like a defender, when in guardian form he damages like a striker, he heals like a leader(at least on himself), and he has several control-like powers with Furnace, Earthgrasp Strike and Thorn Strike. He's certainly proven to be a fairly important part of the team though, and he's been a blast to play.

I was originally going to do one of my home play characters, but since this one took so long, and we have another season of Encounters starting I think I'll begin with my next series of challenging race/class combos based on the Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdom book. Look for a Tiefling Sentinel, a Drow Cavalier, a Dragonborn Hunter, a Half-elf Scout, and a Half-orc Hexblade. If you have a preference for which one you want to see first, feel free to let me know...

Getting into the Halfling Slayer... I chose this combo because I liked the idea of a strength based halfling. It seemed a little unusual to say the least. But since Dexterity was a secondary ability, it seemed an alright fit.

Ability scores were pretty simple with this Halfling. Constitution is my stat choice since he is a front line fighter. He has scores of Str-18/Con-13(race bonus)/Dex-16(race bonus)/Int-10/Wis-10/Cha-8.

Since Charisma became my dump stat, it seems like a no brainer  to take Athletics, Endurance, and Heal. They also work well for some of the nicer utility powers you'll get access too at 2nd and 6th levels.

Powers didn't seem as obvious to me at first with this character. I ended up choosing Duelist's Assault and Mobile Blade. I felt this made the character a "hulking" damage dealer, and gave him the ability to move towards the opponent of his choice. I almost chose Measured Cut for this, but it seemed easier and more appropriate stick with the powers listed in the Slayer class, even if he may have to draw attacks of opportunity occasionally.

I always hated the weapon options for smaller characters. I figured that if I'm given the option of choosing between a two-handed weapon that is +3 and does 1d8 damage (longsword) and a one-handed that does the same thing (rapier), why not choose the one-handed option. So, with this in mind I figure I might as well get some use out of my open off hand. I chose Shield Proficiency: Light as my option. Two weapon defense looked like a nice option to carry a throwing dagger in my off-hand, but I wanted to take Heavy Shield Proficiency at second level and increase my defense just a smidge more.

I bought Scale mail and a Light Shield for my armor choices and a Rapier for my weapon. After purchasing an Adventurers Kit I had 10 gold left, so I picked up a couple of Throwing Axes to round out my arsenal.

As it turned out, I was not the only one who thought that a Halfling Slayer sounded fun. One of my players showed up with a slightly modified version of this character. She focused on Dexterity and Constitution and took Melee Training with Dexterity. With a Dex of 20, this gave her a +5 to hit and a +7 to damage (half score from Melee Training and full score from Heroic Slayer class feature). At second level she took Small Warriors Defense feat. I'm not sure about going with the Melee Training route, though it does give her plenty more HP and a couple of extra Healing Surges, I probably would keep my stats and take Small Warriors Defense and then go with Scrappy to get the most out of the versatile weapon of your choice (be that longsword or battle axe).

This concludes Character Concepts for the Heroes of the Fallen Lands book. Feel free to let me know if you enjoyed it and come back for next time when I start pulling in my home game characters.