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Boulder
Dwarf Warden(Earthstrenght)/Warlord/Earthfast Brigadier/Legendary General

Ability scores:

STR 18 -> 26
CON 16 -> 24
DEX 10 -> 12
INT 10 -> 12
WIS 13 -> 15
CHA 8 -> 10

Background: Raised among the mountains(+2 Endurance).

Trained skills: Athletics, Dungeoneering, Endurance, Heal, Nature

Feats:

1 - Dwarven Weapon Training
2 - Sudden Roots
4 - Revitalizing Font of Life
6 - Crushing Earthstrenght
8 - Thougness
10 - Student of Battle

11 – Weapon Expertise
12 – Dwarven Durability
14 – Hammer Rhythm
16 – Ehnanced Font of Life
18 – Armor Specialization (Hide)
20 – Paragon Defenses (retrained to Robust Defenses at level 21)

21 – Enduring Font
22 – Epic Recovery
24 – Stonehearth Warrior
26 – Bludgeon Mastery
28 – Primal Resurgence
30 – Epic Resurgence

Level 30 powers:

At-will Evocations: Warden's Fury, Warden's Grasp, Thorn Strike, Weight of Earth.

Encounter Evocations: Screaming Wind Strike, Nature's Ally, Eager Vine Strike, Earthfast Assault, Mountain Lion Step (Utility), Earthstride (Utility), Cleansing Earth (Utility), Press the Advantage (Utility).

Daily Evocations: Form of Spring Renewal, Form of the Blood Wolf, Form of the Charging Boar, Stonechannel Strike, Inspiring Word, Bear's Endurance (Utility), Wellspring of Life (Utility), Legendary Exploits (Utility).

Statistics:

HP: 24(CON)+17(Starting)+203(Level)+15(Thoughness)= 259
Healing Surges: 18 Surge Value: 65(base)+7(Dwarven Durability)= 72

Second Wind: 72*2(cloak of the walking wounded)= 144 - 167 while bloodied (+23 from Earthfast Recovery)

AC: 25(10+Half Level)+11(Any Elderhide +6 Armor)+1(Hide Armor Specialization)+2(Heavy Shield)+7(CON)= 46
FORT: 25(10+Half Level)+6(Cloak of the Walking Wounded +6)+2(Robust Defenses)+1(Warden)+8(STR)= 42
REF: 25(10+Half Level)+6(Cloak of the Walking Wounded +6)+2(Robust Defenses)+2(Heavy Shield)+1(DEX)= 36
WILL: 25(10+Half Level)+6(Cloak of the Walking Wounded +6)+2(Robust Defenses)+1(Warden)+2(WIS)= 36

To Hit Bonus: 15(Half Level)+3(Weapon Expertise)+2(Proficiency)+6(Any Craghammer+6)+8(STR)= 34

Tactics:

Very solid defender (minor controller) and a terrific secondary healer/leader. The only mandatory item is the Cloak of the Walking Wounded.

Second Wind Benefits:
Whenever Boulder uses second wind (as a minor action) he gains: 144 hp (or 167 if bloodied), +2 to all defenses, +7 AC and Damage until the end of the next turn and an ally within 20 squares can spend an healing surge.
Whenever a bloodied ally within 5 squares uses second wind he regains 23 more hp.
Has 2 second winds per encounter, and has a daily that let him and all his allies recover second wind.

Saving Throws Benefits:
Boulder make 2 saving throws with a +1 bonus at the start of each turn and if at least one is successful he gains a +2 to all the other saving throws.

AP Benefits:
When Boulder spend an action point he and each ally within 5 squares make a saving throw.
Any ally can spend an action point from Boulder's reserve, breaking the once per encounter rule.

Defender Benefits:
Beside the obvious, each time an enemy miss Boulder he can choose one ally as a free action. That ally gains a +7 bonus to damage rolls until the end of his next turn.
While Boulder is alive (has more than 0 hit points) his allies can't fall uncontious (they still need to make death saving throws, tho).

 

Bumping this 'cause it's awesome

Nobody has anything to say?

I like it. I've never really read the Warden, but it sure seems tough enough.

I'm currently playing Drax, the Dragonborn Dragon Magic Sorcerer. Lots of fun too.

Awesome! I love the healing-surge shenanigans, making him incredibly hard to kill.

And while he's standing, even harder for his friends to be killed!

Wow, very nice!

Don't forget to have the rest of your party use life charms: Now they cannot fail death saving throws, and can fight with negative hitpoints forever - that is, until you go down. And with your defenses/surges/surge value/healing, this is quite unlikely. .D

SongNSilence wrote:

Wow, very nice!

Don't forget to have the rest of your party use life charms: Now they cannot fail death saving throws, and can fight with negative hitpoints forever - that is, until you go down. And with your defenses/surges/surge value/healing, this is quite unlikely. .D

Thanks!

I'm currently playing Boulder (only level 4 tho) and it's great. I'll treasure the Life Charms suggestion, might come in handy in... a year or 2 probably

Boulder sounds awesome. You should calculate the DPR. Although it is not primarily a damage dealer I'd like to see how it stacks up in terms of damage.

Great character, was looking at something like that myself, but decided to start working on a Warden with MC in Bbn. It is on the drawing board at the table ATM.

The one thing that I have been looking at the Warden and worrying about is why are the bad guys bothering to stick with you. I don't do all the calculations on DPR and such that other people do, but from all reports on various Defenders that I read the -2 Mark isn't enough to keep the mobs on a Defender unless they are a truly credible threat. It would look to me like a lot of guys might avoid you and take the OAs when they attack your friend. Just wondering about actual play experience on it.

I know that fear was making me look at a 2 hander which made my AC and Reflex hurt, and possibly a reach weapon to try and make sure that I kept stuff on me.

Thanks for any thoughts or insights.

Llarish

Llarish wrote:

Great character, was looking at something like that myself, but decided to start working on a Warden with MC in Bbn. It is on the drawing board at the table ATM.

The one thing that I have been looking at the Warden and worrying about is why are the bad guys bothering to stick with you. I don't do all the calculations on DPR and such that other people do, but from all reports on various Defenders that I read the -2 Mark isn't enough to keep the mobs on a Defender unless they are a truly credible threat. It would look to me like a lot of guys might avoid you and take the OAs when they attack your friend. Just wondering about actual play experience on it.

I know that fear was making me look at a 2 hander which made my AC and Reflex hurt, and possibly a reach weapon to try and make sure that I kept stuff on me.

Thanks for any thoughts or insights.

Llarish

The damage of the Warden in general is certanly less than that of a fighter (then again, even some strikers have less damage than a well built fighter ) but you got three things going for you: good "controller" moves, Nature's Wrath and the Sudden Roots heroic tier talent.

Here is an example of what happened in one of our weekly sections a few days ago (Boulder is level 4 at the moment):

a group of five zombies (some strange, fast moving zombies; think 28 days later) emerges from a grain field and try to attack our group (most of 'em attacked Boulder and the nearby barbarian).
Boulder got in the fray and shifted to be adjacent to four out of five enemies, used Thorn Strike to pull the last one and marked them all.
Since that was a though fight (and probably the last of the day too, but that's metagaming :cool he popped the daily he was reserving for special occasions: Form of Winter's Wrath (minor action).
Now we have: 5 marked enemies who treat all terrain adjacent to Boulder in close burst 2 as difficult (cannot shift), if they move away they get whacked with a slowing opportunity attack, and if they attack someone else (with the usual -2) they take 1[W] more and grant combat advantage to everyone. Though luck uh?

It's hard being more defendery than that, even without some crazy damage.
Besides, I've been careful not to bump my defenses too high, gotta give 'em the illusion they can win :D

You have 30 levels of +7 HP gained; it should be 29. Therefore, your HP should be a still impressive value of 260.

Also, the healing surge value isn't exactly accurate, as Earthfast Recovery only applies to your second wind while bloodied (though I like the synergy with Cloak of the Walking Wounded). I would suggest a Belt of Mountain Endurance to beef it up by +8.

His to-hit and damage are rather low for a Defender, though. Consider Iron Armbands of Power to make your damage a little stronger. Also consider Demigod for that ability score bump; spending lots of AP's is only good when you have lots of ways to generate them, like a Demigod Battlefield Archer with Archer's Glory.

lordduskblade wrote:

You have 30 levels of +7 HP gained; it should be 29. Therefore, your HP should be a still impressive value of 260.

Also, the healing surge value isn't exactly accurate, as Earthfast Recovery only applies to your second wind while bloodied (though I like the synergy with Cloak of the Walking Wounded). I would suggest a Belt of Mountain Endurance to beef it up by +8.

His to-hit and damage are rather low for a Defender, though. Consider Iron Armbands of Power to make your damage a little stronger. Also consider Demigod for that ability score bump; spending lots of AP's is only good when you have lots of ways to generate them, like a Demigod Battlefield Archer with Archer's Glory.

Thanks for the HP and Surge corrections.

The build doesn't have any "specific" magic items equipped (only the essential cloak of the walking wounded, as noted), so there is a lot of room for improvement and personalization.

To-hit seem right where it should be to me, the +1 from demigod is good but not essential IMHO. The other features are still pretty strong, but it bores me to death using that ED nowaday .

Damage can be improved greatly with items, iron armbands as you suggested and a bloodclaw craghammer should do the trick (got enough hp and surges to make it work, that's for sure). The pp encounter and daily attacks add CON to damage, and each attack after second wind add CON to damage too.
Not to mention the damage I'm adding to the other group members (the ranger and barbarian in my group will love that feature, with all the multiattacks they get).

Thanks for the feedback, keep it coming!

I'm coming up with some totally different numbers than you have

HP = 24(Con)+17(Lvl1)+203(7*29Lvls)+15(Toughness) = 259 (129 Bloodied)
Surge Value = 64(base)+7(Dwarven Durability)+22(15+7 Earthfast Recovery) = 71 base, 93 when bloodied
Second Wind= 71 base or 186 when bloodied (Cloak of the walking wounded only let's you spend 2 when your bloodied)

I wonder if epic tier's not the time to switch your weapon to something with +3 proficiency then retrain Dwarven Weapon Training to weapon focus.

Sorry it took so long for me to notice this, but this build is being added to the Bastion of the Boondocks.

So how well does this play as a defender? I have a 4 man LFR coming up and I'm wanting to build a warden, and I never thought of going with a warlord MC.
How sticky are you?
How much healing do you require?
How is the damage output (for sake of monsters actually wanting to kill you, over ignoring you because you don't do anything)?

Looks really nice! I wanted my next character to be a melee Dwarf, and this build benefit both his wis and con bonuses

But I wondered. Why MC Warlord? Only to get another skill and "Inspiring Word"? Or are there some other benefits?

What PP did you take? And Epic destiny?

Earthfast Brigadier is his PP. It's from MP and requires Warlord.

Legendary General is his ED. It's from MP and requires Warlord.

On the topic of damage. "Craghammer" is versatile... So you could drop your heavy shield when you want to deal more damage. Then the enchantment damage with Bloodclaw will triple, and you get an additonal +1 to damage for wielding a versatile weapon in both hands (PHB 217). "Bloodclaw Craghammer" level 27 would then give an additional +7 damage compared to having it in one hand.

"Jagged Axe", "Reckless Craghammer", "Subtle Weapon" enough to choose from

MeNsInSaNa wrote:

Second Wind Benefits:
...
Has 2 second winds per encounter, and has a daily that let him and all his allies recover second wind.

I don't see how he can use two second winds per encounter without using the daily power. Anybody?

The feat, epic recovery, from Martial Power. Requires a martial class, and allowes you to use Second Wind twice per encounter.

Epic feat, right?

Edit: Damnit, scooped!

By the way, I love this build. Wardens in general, really - WotC really aced them. I'm slightly concerned about the level of stickiness, but I guess that can always be solved through Form of Winter's Herald/Salves of Power. Also, you don't have to be all that sticky if your allies won't go down anyway.

ff6shadow wrote:

The feat, epic recovery, from Martial Power. Requires a martial class, and allowes you to use Second Wind twice per encounter.

Ahhh, stupid me. I looked at all the other feats :P Thank you

The build still need a bit of polish, I'll upgrade it sometime soon (hopefully)

I've been looking at this to help my own Warden Character I have. So to get some better ideas of what I might want to look at in a Warden.

Anyways, I found on the HP bit, the +210 to be a bit inaccurate. As ye start with 17, then it's 7 every level after 1st, thus making it +203, not +210, I do believe, as 7 * 29 = 203. I could be wrong somehow, but I thought to point that out, in case it might make some difference somewhere in your calculations.

Also, for HP, I'd also like to suggest the "Brooch of Vitality" on page 149 of the Adventurers Vault. Assuming of course ye don't already know about that, and have it as an item and such, if so, my bad there. As I'm sure Warden's can enjoy the HP bonus from that much yes.

Meesa like it.

Nice ! I'd have never noticed Earthfast Brigadier for Earth Wardens but for you, and I really like this combination.

Nice build. I love the legendary general epic destiny and it looks crazy good with the toughness of the warden. I may have some input when the Cubs aren't playing.

As promised, I've rewritten Boulder, working out the minor kinks and changing some details (but the basic concept didn't change at all).

Next update: Primal Power I guess...

Reckon it would be mighty handy to throw up a level by level progression for powers too. One thing I would imagine is that you would want to swap out some of the saving throw feats earlier to get weapon expertise.

Love this build! Could you swap out the dwarf for goliath and not lose too much?

• Armour of Enduring Health
• Ring of Fallen

Really good items for Boulder

Bump. Would be cool if you updated this in the light of Primal Power's release

Not just Primal Power, but PH3 as well! Wonder if anyone would be interested in taking on such an update, especially given it is linked to the Warden Handbook....

Bump again...

"Overwhelming Impact" seems like a good choice for Wardens overall. That could exclude the Warlord part though... But that would upgrade his controllerness and stickyness.