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1 year ago ::
Jan 11, 2012 - 3:46AM
#1
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Hi there, this is my first time crreating a character and hope I've done it right. I did my statlines using the dice rolling method. Any advice or tips would be appreciated as I found this element of creation rather fun and if I made any mistakes, I shall hopefully know better for next time  Nail: Unaligned Warforged Fighter (Tempest Fighter Build) Level 1: Str: 15 +Racial 2 =17 Con: 15 +Racial 2 =17 Dex: 17 Wis: 13 Int: 10 Cha: 9 HP: 32 Surges: 11 Surge value: 8 Speed: 6 -Armour 1 =5 Defences: Fortitude: 10 +Str 15 =25 Reflex: 10 +Dex 17 =27 Will: 10 +Wis 13 +Racial 1 =24 AC: 10 +Armour 6 =16 Trained Skills: Athletics: 5 -Armour 1 =4 Endurance: 5 +Racial 2 -Armour 1 =6 Intimidate: 5 +Racial 2 =7 Powers: Racial: Warforged Resolve At-Will: Dual Strike, Cleave Encounter: Funneling Fury Daily: Villain's Menace Feats: Two-Weapon Fighting Two-Weapon Defence (Tempest Fighter bonus feat) Equipment: Main hand: Longsword Off-hand: Short sword Armour: Chainmail
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1 year ago ::
Jan 11, 2012 - 4:24AM
#2
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OK, you really shouldn't use rolled stats in 4e. It just doesn't fit the game math for numerous reasons I'm not going to repeat here. Anyway, here are the things you should fix on this guy at the moment:
Defenses: All of your defenses are wrong. You're forgetting about class and feat bonuses, but setting your fortitude and reflex way too high because you don't seem to know that you do not add your stats to your defenses, but rather add your stat modifiers. Your fortitude, for instance, gets +3 from your strength, as your strength modifier is (17-10)/2 = 3.5, rounded down to 3.
Armor: you will get equal AC but less penalties by wearing hide than chain. At 4th level when you raise your DEX a point, you will have more AC as well.
Weapon selection: the longsword is not an off-hand weapon, and as a tempest fighter you therefore shouldn't use it. Tempest fighters are designed to use off-hand weapons only. Change to dual-wielding short swords, a +4 1d6+1 weapon is more accurate and equally damaging to a +3 1d8 weapon.
Feat selection: you already have two-weapon defense, so two-weapon fighting is not useful for you to pick up until you're near paragon (at which point it'll be a prerequisite for two-weapon opening). Instead, take light blade expertise, which makes you more accurate and more damaging for the cost of a single feat.
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1 year ago ::
Jan 11, 2012 - 4:41AM
#3
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Date Joined:
Jul 28, 2011
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Well, since you're going with stat rolling, you should put your 17 into strength, as that is your main stat, giving you a 19. A 15 in Dexterity is still good enough because it's a secondary. Also, you should use a light blade (such as a short sword) in your main hand as well as your off hand. This way you get the Tempest Fighter bonus for both weapons.
If you do go for two short swords (or other light blades), consider taking light blade expertise in the next few levels (probably at level 2). It gives an attack bonus with light blades and a damage bonus when you have combat advantage. If not, take Master of Arms. It gives you expertise with any weapons, and the ability to stow and draw a weapon as a free action.
As far as powers, Dual Strike serves the same basic function for you as Cleave, so you might want to consider using something else.
On another note, if you're willing to change races, something with Strength and Dexterity bonuses, such as the half orc or thri-kreen, would be better from an optimization stand point. If you're set on warforged, that will work out just fine.
Also, for your defenses, you don't add the full score, just the modifiers. So for Fortitude, it would be 10 (base) + 3 (modifier) +2 (from being a fighter) = 15.
Edit: Ninja'd
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1 year ago ::
Jan 11, 2012 - 5:53AM
#4
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Warforged is fine as a racial pick, actually, at least when you get ludicrously high base stats like you see here. Warforged Tactics and Superiority in particular are both excellent racial feats Warforged Fighters get, and will be appreciated by a tempest fighter more than most, since tempest is relatively lacking in the tricks that the other builds rely on for good lockdown.
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1 year ago ::
Jan 11, 2012 - 5:58AM
#5
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Date Joined:
Jul 28, 2011
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Fair enough. With the rolled stats it'll be more than fine. But yeah, I would go with light blade expertise instead of two-weapon fighting for the reason Erachima stated. And definitely go with short swords. (Although would spiked chain be a viable option with the mc feat? That way you save money on weapon enhancements later on. And it's 2d4 in each hand.)
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1 year ago ::
Jan 11, 2012 - 7:10AM
#6
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Only one half of the spiked chain is off-hand for whatever reason, so it's worse than dual short swords and costs a feat and your MC slot. Just explain to your DM that you need two weapons to be as effective as a normal character with one and ask for them to come in pairs, I suppose.
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1 year ago ::
Jan 11, 2012 - 7:35AM
#7
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Hi guys, thanks for the tips so far. I'm still new to this, so just a matter of learning really.
Where the defenses were concerned, I think it was just a misunderstanding as in the book (or pdf's in my case), it says like the greater of your Strength or Dexterity for example, guess I need to re-read bits to make sure I understand them.
I was under the impression also that longswords were main hand weapons and you could still use an off hand weapon in the off hand, but again, maybe I misunderstood and need to re-read.
And as far as the stat rolling goes, is there a standard way of setting them out or would I have to ask my DM how he'd like it done?
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1 year ago ::
Jan 11, 2012 - 7:40AM
#8
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I was under the impression also that longswords were main hand weapons and you could still use an off hand weapon in the off hand, but again, maybe I misunderstood and need to re-read.
You can, but you shouldn't. Using two off-hand weapons is better for you as a tempest fighter because 1. you have class features that make you more accurate and damaging with off-hand weapons and 2. the game penalizes using weapons from different weapon groups because your feats won't apply to them. Using two short swords and light blade expertise makes you 10% more likely to hit and lets you do slightly more damage than if you tried using the longsword and short sword.
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1 year ago ::
Jan 11, 2012 - 9:32AM
#9
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Date Joined:
Mar 21, 2006
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I was under the impression also that longswords were main hand weapons and you could still use an off hand weapon in the off hand, but again, maybe I misunderstood and need to re-read.
Tempest Fighters work almost exclusively with "offhand" weapons - here, meaning weapons that literally have the Offhand property, like Short Swords. As such, because of your Tempest feature attack and damage boost, they soar over even Rapiers at first level, and with the Shocktrooper paragon path, become leagues better than Bastard Swords.
And as far as the stat rolling goes, is there a standard way of setting them out or would I have to ask my DM how he'd like it done?
There is indeed a standardized method.
You have at your disposal 22 points to spend on ability scores, starting out with a score spread of 8, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10. You can spend your points to raise your scores one at a time, and past 13 it starts costing more points to add one extra to your score.
As a quick reference:
Starting from 22 points -
To go from 8 to 10 costs 2 points, and must be done if you wish to increase the 8 further.
10 to 11 costs 1 point.
10 to 12 costs 2 points.
10 to 13 costs 3 points.
10 to 14 costs 5 points.
10 to 15 costs 7 points.
10 to 16 costs 9 points.
10 to 17 costs 12 points.
10 to 18 costs 16 points.
One of the most common point-buy spreads ends you up with a 16, 16, 13, 11, 10, 8 spread. For you as a Tempest Fighter, you'll want your 16s going into Strength and Dexterity (to fuel your attack and damage bonuses on the Strength side, further increased by the option for Warforged to bump Strength; and on the Dexterity side, your initiative, AC, Acrobatics, and commonly used Light Blade feats.) Your 13 can go into Constitution (and be bumped by your Warforged's static bonus to Constitution), not only for HP but to qualify for Armor Specialization (Hide) at Paragon, since you'll really need all the AC you can get; and the rest can go wherever you wish, perhaps sticking the 11 in Wisdom or Charisma to be sure you have at least some Will defense at Paragon. Bump Strength and Dexterity every level, as they're vitally important to how you function, grab Agile Superiority when you can, and have fun. :3
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1 year ago ::
Jan 11, 2012 - 10:20AM
#10
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Ok, so far I need to redo my stats and defenses, change my equipment and redo my feats. Looking at Dual Strike and Cleave, what I come to understand is that Cleave hits one enemy and another adjacent to it as long as it within my reach. Dual Strike, though, is a two strike attack on one creature. Here's what it says: Target: One creature
Attack: Strength vs. AC (main weapon and off-hand
weapon), two attacks
Hit: 1[W] damage per attack.
The other thing I don't understand which I couldn't seem to find is what the [W] means
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