So... I need help thinking of a fifth man for this party. It consists of a "Magic Warrior" (either a Hexblade or a Swordmage - I'm assuming he's going to be a striker, even as a Swordmage), a Pixie Sorceror, an Elven Scout, and an undecided fourth. He's probably gonna be a defender (not a very good one). I'm the only person in the party that does any optimization, so I'd like to have a character that could actually make this work. The DM has been known to (read: often does) put us in situations our level can't handle. We'll be starting at level 1, and I've never seen anyone level in his campaigns, so I need a character that can pretty much handle anything starting at level 1. I was leaning towards Chaladin, but I'm not sure.
Side note: lots of stupidly complicated skill challenges might pop up as well, so having a variety of skill checks wouldn't hurt.
Any help would be appreciated, and just in case, could the suggestions be up to level 11? (If by some miracle we make it that far)
Sounds to me like you need a leader. I'd be inclined towards a Warlord, what with that Scout knocking around. But from the sound of it, you don't need a 5th man, you need to balance up the party with any role that is missing, almost certainly leader.
If you also want to cover defender, I'd suggest looking at a Paladin|Cleric hybrid. You can run Str/Cha as dual primaries for a decent mark, and you'll have Scale armor from Battle Cleric's Lore. Hybrid Cleric alone throws out a lot of healing while Hybrid Paladin keeps the majority of its features without losing functionality. The only real thing it gives up is Hands.
You need a leader more than anything else. You don't have strength or con skills covered possibly, but you might depending on what your allies go as. You don't have a controller either.
I say go for either a bard, cleric, warlord, or shaman. I lean towards a worldspeaker shaman since you need help with skills and it can do both enabling and control while filling up your front line and giving you decent skill help. Cunning or valorous bard would be my next choice followed by resourceful warlord and either str/wis or wis/con templar with a mix of ranged and melee powers with an emphasis on burst/blast wisdom ones.
Thanks for the advice, guys. I was actually thinking Killswitch might fit well when I made the thread, so I think I'm gonna go with that to try and end the encounters before they become a problem. And I'll still have a few heals, just in case.
EDIT: On second thought, I've decided to back out of the game, because I was only going for a friend. I've never enjoyed any of this DM's campaigns, and he fragrantly abandons the rules and screws the PC's.
I'll second the suggestion of Cunning Bard or a Genasi Battle Cleric (STR primary, CHA secondary, INT tertiary, Swordmage multiclass for sword as implement and decent religion skill) to balance out the front line. It looks/sounds like a super-tweaked character would be out-of-place in that party.
