Thanks for the reply! Avengers are probably my favourite striker, but the typical persuit builds bore me. Your feycharger is unique and flavourful as well as powerful, which is exactly the sort of character I love playing. A few more questions come to mind. Are boots of adept charging actually needed with overwhelming strike? Can't you just shift back one and then slide the target 0 squares (since all forced movement effects can be reduced by whatever amount the effect's originator wants)?
First of all: thanks! A lot of love went into that character and I played her for almost 2 years, the campaign only recently ended with her reluctantly becoming the new sun goddess. The whole story is descibed here on our campaign wiki, some of the other pages are in dutch I'm afraid but most of our world and the homebrew content I created for my character is in English as is the info about my character's goddess and religion. If you play in the standard setting you could always give the character a nice twist by letting her/him follow ioun instead of corellon. You'd still get the skill domain, but with a completely different roleplay angle!
As to the boots: you indeed do not need them for the reasons you gave, but the ability to shift 1/slide 1/shift 1 does wonders for your after-charge mobility! In epic I did away with the boots as I chose to trade polearm gamble in for slashing storm. This had several reasons, from an increased amount of reach and teleporting monsters to a desire to try a slightly different plastyle.
If you play in the standard setting you could always give the character a nice twist by letting her/him follow ioun instead of corellon. You'd still get the skill domain, but with a completely different roleplay angle!
I actually thought up a rather cool RP angle to take with an Avenger of Corellon. This character is modelled on Minsc from the Baldur's Gate series of games:
He suffered a head trauma when he was young (int 8), and shortly thereafter met his animal companion (exact type to be determined). He insists that the animal can talk, and is very wise and intelligent. The animal guides him into the service of Corellon and becomes his spiritual mentor.
His community understandably thinks he is insane, and gently try to talk sense into him. But then he begins to manifest divine power. He is taken to the community church of Corellon who insist that the animal is completely mundane, and that his claims otherwise are preposterous. Nonetheless they verify that the divine power he is channelling is indeed Corellon's.
They spend done time trying to initiate him into their church and teach him proper doctrine, but he tells the priests that his animal companion is far smarter and wiser in the ways of Corellon than they (a declaration that incenses them to no end), and is soon afterwards banished. But thats ok with him, for his animal companion has a mission for him... (insert plot hooks here, to be determined by the DM) :P
Basically he'll play like a kooky, slightly insane warrior who considers his pet to be the "brains" of their partnership. Since my Iounite staff avenger got denied by the DM (he took one look at the Simbarch's e11 power and refused), I've toned this avenger down somewhat and stuck to basic, obvious synergy.
He will be charge-oriented, taking the Ardent Champion PP and the Chosen ED. He starts with a 14 Str to qualify for Power Attack at paragon, and gets Versatile Expertise as a free feat. This is his build at level 7, which is when he would be joining the campaign:
====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ====== level 7 Elf, Avenger Build: Pursuing Avenger Avenger's Censure: Censure of Pursuit Versatile Expertise: Versatile Expertise (Heavy Blade) Versatile Expertise: Versatile Expertise (Bow) Background: Occupation - Hunter (Nature class skill)
FINAL ABILITY SCORES Str 14, Con 13, Dex 17, Int 8, Wis 19, Cha 10.
STARTING ABILITY SCORES Str 14, Con 13, Dex 14, Int 8, Wis 16, Cha 10.
ITEMS Adventurer's Kit, Hunter's Kit, Vanguard Falchion +2, Radiant Temple Uniform Cloth Armor (Basic Clothing) +2, Iron Armbands of Power (heroic tier), Badge of the Berserker +1, Boots of Adept Charging (heroic tier), Arrows (30), Potion of Healing (heroic tier) (2), Distance Longbow +1 ====== Copy to Clipboard and Press the Import Button on the Summary Tab ======
Build looks fine, I would MC fighter (battle awareness is godly!) and pick up Invigorating Pursuit (note that attack precedes damage so you get the bonus right away).
Grimmand, since Minsc is a charger, why not Whirlwind Charge instead of Angelic Alacrity for your L1? You want to be charging as much as possible to deal extra damage, and with Fury's Advance and Relentless Stride as your L3 and L7 encounters, you aren't wasting encounter powers even on turns when you charge.
Grimmand, since Minsc is a charger, why not Whirlwind Charge instead of Angelic Alacrity for your L1? You want to be charging as much as possible to deal extra damage, and with Fury's Advance and Relentless Stride as your L3 and L7 encounters, you aren't wasting encounter powers even on turns when you charge.
I've actually made some big changes to my Avenger build lately, to make him more Minsc-like. Firstly, neither Corellon nor Ioun really fits the flavor I want to achieve with this character, so I decided to suck it up and pick Kord as my deity, switching Power of Skill to Melee Training. His race has been changed to Human (since Minsc was human), and power selection has also changed to reflect more of a brute-force approach to combat.
His name is Mogg, and this is his story:
"Mogg was born and raised in a tribe of warrior-hunters known as the Uryd. He can no longer remember his parents, as both were slain by raiders from one of the neighboring tribes, the Rathyd, when he was only a few years old.
Some among the Uryd think that the spectacle of his parents' death unhinged Mogg. Others suspect that he suffered a head injury of some sort during the battle. Whatever the reason, it was clear from an early age that Mogg's cognitive ability left something to be desired, even by the standards of a warrior culture. While very agile and dexterous, his strength left something to be desired, and he didn't quite grasp the concept of "sparring". He kept insisting that he wouldn't fight his sparring partners because they weren't his enemies - the concept of just going though the motions of attacking were beyond him.
One instructor, exasperated with trying to explain simple concepts to Mogg, tried a different approach. He told Mogg that his sparring partner was in fact evil - he was the most evil person in the clan, and it was up to Mogg to defeat him. Nothing could have prepared them for the rage that was unleashed, as Mogg flung himself at his hapless sparring partner and almost killed him before a dozen Uryd warriors pulled the two apart. Instructors don't try that approach with him anymore.
Eventually Mogg grew into a man, and the night of his dajemma approached (his rite of passage into warrior-status). The clan leader knew that Mogg was in no mental shape to take his place amidst the clan's warriors, and so he set Mogg a quest... of sorts. At least, Mogg interpreted it as a quest. Mogg was told to venture deep into the wilderness, as far away from humankind as he possibly could, and to stay there until he discovered wisdom. Mogg departed feeling great pride at this solemn task, while the warriors of his clan breathed an audible sigh of relief at being rid of him.
Mogg of course soon became lost in the wilderness, and spent several years with naught but trees and animals for company. The skills of a hunter that his tribe had tried to teach him became refined through continuous use, and Mogg became in tune with the land. It was at this stage that he found "wisdom". Deep in the woods he encountered a talking possum. It claimed that their meeting was destiny, and that it would teach him the ways of the warrior beyond anything the Uryd tribe could. It would teach him to harness his inner rage and use it to vanquish the evils of the world, and become a hero such as legends are made of. It told him its name was Squee, and under Squee's tutelage Mogg indeed became a formidable fighter. He eventually found his way out of the woods and back to his tribe.
The Uryd were understandably exasperated that Mogg had returned, and even more so to learn of his "talking possum" named Squee which he fervently announced had brought him wisdom. The tribe leader subsequently banished him, but Mogg was not upset about that. He had found a true friend at last, a wise and worldly friend who would help him become the warrior he was always destined to be..."
And these are his updated stats, including starter equipment (he'll be starting at level 7):
====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ====== Mogg, level 7 Human, Avenger Build: Pursuing Avenger Avenger's Censure: Censure of Pursuit Versatile Expertise: Versatile Expertise (Heavy Blade) Versatile Expertise: Versatile Expertise (Holy Symbol) Human Power Selection: Bonus At-Will Power Background: Isolated (Nature class skill)
FINAL ABILITY SCORES Str 13, Con 11, Dex 17, Int 8, Wis 19, Cha 10.
STARTING ABILITY SCORES Str 13, Con 11, Dex 16, Int 8, Wis 16, Cha 10.
ITEMS Adventurer's Kit, Hunter's Kit, Sylvan Cloth Armor (Basic Clothing) +2, Vicious Fullblade +2, Distance Crossbow +1, Crossbow Bolts (20), Symbol of Divinity +1, Iron Armbands of Power (heroic tier), Amulet of Resolution +1 ====== Copy to Clipboard and Press the Import Button on the Summary Tab ======
Going forward, he plans on picking Deadly Draw at level 8, Battle Awareness at level 10 (training Endurance, and picking Reactive Surge as his L10 utility power), and then Painful Oath, Adept Power (Battle Fury Stance), and Power Attack at 14.
Build looks fine, I would MC fighter (battle awareness is godly!) and pick up Invigorating Pursuit (note that attack precedes damage so you get the bonus right away).
This was undoubtedly true before, but I'm not so sure anymore. In the Rules Compendium, they clarified that free action/no action triggers are timed like immediate reactions, and also that hitting and dealing damage is simultaneous, so the bonus from Invigorating Pursuit doesn't kick in until after the damage is dealt.
Build looks fine, I would MC fighter (battle awareness is godly!) and pick up Invigorating Pursuit (note that attack precedes damage so you get the bonus right away).
This was undoubtedly true before, but I'm not so sure anymore. In the Rules Compendium, they clarified that free action/no action triggers are timed like immediate reactions, and also that hitting and dealing damage is simultaneous, so the bonus from Invigorating Pursuit doesn't kick in until after the damage is dealt.
Ah, I see, good to know. For a dedicated avenger charger this really only effects your first attack as you will be charging every turn and won't miss anyway!
We'll see how it goes - but the tactic itself seems solid.
This all sounds very encouraging. If you also had had access to covering terrain, the attack-a-random-square tactic wouldn't even had worked because you could alternate between hiding closeby with concealment or some distance away behind cover!
That Cloaked Steps utility is also a nice find! Too bad this all won't work on my own avenger because of the immediate action usage (I have 5 immediate attacks/encounter) because I really like it!
Argh, ...doh!
Don't know why I didn't think about this before - but why couldn't you take something like Temple of Brilliance and/or Temple of Shadow to get the concealment for Persistant Tail?
Its a bit convoluted here, but both of these powers list the target as "creature" and then the zones stay centered on the target for the rest of the encounter...so why not target yourself? Sure, if you hit you'll take the damage, but you'll only be rolling one die, since you're not gonna be your own Oath Of Enmity target, and the zone effects happen on a hit or a miss.
You get TOS at lev9, and TOB at lev15, so you can start with Persistant Tail stealth strategies as early as late heroic. It'll take longer with Temple of Brilliance though, because you'd have to wait for the Blind condition to kick in on enemies at their end of turn.
Hello everyone been following this thread for awhile now while playing an avenger. Just have a quick question. While I'm charging around how do I get away from monsters at level 2 besides my teleport 3 squares power that I have. I must be missing something honestly. Trying to charge every turn isnt working out so well. Any help would be nice.
