Feypact Binder (Why don't you play a Fey Pact Warlock instead?)
Difficulty: *** / **** Playstyle: Controller
You're an offshoot of the Warlock class, who trades out Warlock's Curse for... I'm not quite sure what. But basically, you're a full on controller disguised as a Warlock, with no Warlock's Curse. You still get Shadow Walk at least...?
Your at-wills and encounter powers are a set progression. You get Shadow Claws (single target vs. fortitude and an autodamage effect if it moves next turn) and Fascinating Shadows which is a blast 5 but targets any 2 creatures in it, and is against Willpower. You pull hit targets 2 squares, and if they attack you before the end of your next turn, you hit them for a little retribution damage.
You specialize in forced movement and charm, making enemies go where they don't want, and attacking their allies. We went with the Ooze Master theme for a minor action attack with a slow, since you won't be needing your minors for much as a Binder. Noble Adept is also an excellent choice.
Tiefling is the choice for Charmers in Paragon, but any number of races would work well in Heroic.
SHADOW TWIST You gain a +1 bonus to ranged attack rolls and area attack rolls against any enemy that has no other creature adjacent to it.
SHADOW WALK On your turn, if you move at least 3 squares away from where you started your turn, you gain concealment until the end of your next turn.
PACT BOON When you kill a creature, or a creature adjacent to you dies, you can slap a -5 attack penalty (against you only) on to a creature within a burst 5 radius. Limit of 1/round.
Went with rod expertise for the little shielding bonus, though wand/white lotus/war wizardry would all work here. Decree of Khirad is just hilarious as a daily, try to combine it with a paladin mass sanctioning or some other defender mark punishment goodies.
More accuracy and initiative from feats, because a good controller wants to go first, and actually hit. Roaring Storm of Cania is some impressive battlefield rearrangement. Ethereal Stride is always good to have in your pocket for getting around some battle field obstacles or out of combat utility in teleporting 15 feet. Lure of Loyalty lets you use a monster as a shield, and hit or miss, it can't attack you until your next turn.
FEATS Level 1: Rod Expertise Level 2: Superior Implement Training (Accurate rod) Level 4: Imperious Majesty Level 6: Warlock's Wrath Level 8: Superior Will
ITEMS Accurate rod of Divine Retribution +2 x1 Deep-Pocket Cloak +2 x1 Gloves of Eldritch Admixture (heroic tier) x1 Summoned Leather Armor +2 x1 ====== End ======
When the Binder article came out, people were incredibly excited about one thing: Touch of Command. An immediate domination attempt, for someone attacking you? Oh yeah. This is the only redeeming facet of the Binder, and it only comes on Fey pact binders. Walk Through Darkness is pretty awesome as a daily utility. Shift 10, and phasing/insubstantial during it. So you can get around some of those pesky teleport line-of-sight restrictions and just waltz right through the door. Great combat/out of combat value. Warlock's Wrath is taken, even without the curse support, because it's incredible. An untyped +ChaMod to all defenses until the end of your NEXT turn, for a minor action you wouldn't be using much with anyway? And anyone who does attack you takes damage. Gloves of the Eldritch Admixture are also taken, sans curse support, because adding extra damage is never bad and can be useful for bypassing resistances and immunities.
Difficulty: *** (have to track a few things, like two different marks, the penalties you pose to enemies, and have to remember a few non-obvious bits like extra damage from holy symbol on mark punishment)
Tiefling has some great support for the build. From level 1, with good initiative he charges into the thick of things, marking, and giving big attack penalty to an enemy. That enemy's best option is to typically walk away, and you can simply prevent that by knocking them down. Great start to an encounter, particularly if you had an action point to Valorous Smite and mark in a burst 3. Your allies will be quite happy with what you do. You have one mass marking tool, and after that you can mark up to two things, positioning allowing, with Ardent Strike and Divine Challenge. With Lay on Hands, you can survive a while without taxing your leader too much, just save one in case your leader goes down. And when someone needs an important save, you can hand it out with a hefty bonus using Divine Mettle.
ITEMS Longsword x1 Plate Armor x1 Heavy Shield x1 ====== End ======
At level 5, you have more tools to protect your allies and punish your enemies. (It's what a paladin does). Tactically, you want to try and use mass mark tools in the first couple rounds. Probably try for Call of Challenge in the first round, and hand THP's to your allies with Righteous Smite, and go for Valorous Smite in the second round to keep stuff around you marked. From there, you're back to one or two marks through use of Divine Challenge and Ardent Strike. Hopefully your strikers and controllers have weeded out the enemy numbers by then. You also picked up another skill and a ranged attack (a weakness of the paladin) through Warlock multiclass.
For equipment, a Vanguard weapon both gives you a better charge attack, and a nice daily buff for your party thanks to your high Charisma. The rest is fairly standard issue.
ITEMS Heavy Shield x1 Vanguard Longsword +1 x1 Dwarven Plate Armor +1 x1 Amulet of Protection +2 x1 Iron Armbands of Power (heroic tier) x1 ====== End ======
As a level 8 build there are some changes. You pick up a native basic attack, so no longer need Virtuous Strike. It is replaced with Enfeebling Strike, a nice debuff on the enemy. You pick up a Sun Blade and a Shard of Radiance for more consistent damage. You improve your mark punishment with a holy symbol. And you have a tool for crowd control in Astral Thunder. Being Dazed or Stunned makes you a poor defender, and Superior Will reduces that chance.
FEATS Level 1: Imperious Majesty Level 2: Devout Protector Expertise Level 4: Pact Initiate Level 6: Superior Will Level 8: Wrath of the Crimson Legion
ITEMS Heavy Shield x1 Vanguard Longsword +1 Amulet of Protection +2 x1 Iron Armbands of Power (heroic tier) x1 Sunblade Longsword +2 x1 Dwarven Plate Armor +2 x1 Symbol of the Champion's Code +2 x1 Siberys Shard of Radiance (heroic tier) ====== End ======
One future plan for this build could be to grab a utility power swap from warlock for an at-will teleport at level 10 to defeat mobility challenges (it is incredibly difficult for charisma paladins to get out of grabs), and at mid-paragon find some items for increasing that teleport (Acolyte Power Ethereal Sidestep and Eladrin Ring/Boots).
I like grabbing one of either Virtue for a U2, or Deliverance of Faith at U6 for a paladin. Giving yourself a big stack of temps at the start of the fight helps out a lot for keeping you up, and you've got surges to spare!
I like it too. Virtuous Recovery and either one of those powers is nice on round 1. But I went a different direction with this build. At heroic, you just can't have it all.
EDIT: Same for Witch and Sha'ir. Just play a Wizard, grab a familiar, and refluff.
That 'grab a familiar' part is an opportunity cost. If you're in a really feat intensive build and you want a familiar for implement swapping, you might not actually have a feat slot for it. If you're doing practical play builds who have a familiar, Wizard is not necessarily superior.
That's different from the Binder, which is just pure awful - mainly because the Warlock has strictly better access to the powers and curse is almost a better status effect by itself than most of the riders available to the Binders.
Particularly because two of the boons are only really valid if the Binder is convincing opponents to attack it over other choices in the party. Which seems...implausible. I think encouraging people to play builds that will punish them later on(Vampire, Binder) isn't a great idea for new players.
EDIT: Same for Witch and Sha'ir. Just play a Wizard, grab a familiar, and refluff.
That 'grab a familiar' part is an opportunity cost. If you're in a really feat intensive build and you want a familiar for implement swapping, you might not actually have a feat slot for it. If you're doing practical play builds who have a familiar, Wizard is not necessarily superior.
That's different from the Binder, which is just pure awful - mainly because the Warlock has strictly better access to the powers and curse is almost a better status effect by itself than most of the riders available to the Binders.
Particularly because two of the boons are only really valid if the Binder is convincing opponents to attack it over other choices in the party. Which seems...implausible. I think encouraging people to play builds that will punish them later on(Vampire, Binder) isn't a great idea for new players.
Maybe, but I think how Maltese went about it is the right way to go about it. There are a lot of people who when they hear "just dont play this" they will want to play it just cause. The best thing to do, in my opinion, is to go "This is what this can be. Its not as good as the rest, but still ok. Now, to advance further than this point you need to pick a class that doesn't suck."
Currently working on making a Dex based defender. Check it out here Spoiler:Show
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Some of it is the difference between playing a Warlock, and then playing a Binder. You know what you've lost. For a new player, I suppose it isn't that bad.
I still view Binder, Sha'ir, and Witch as trap options, because you're giving up incredible class features (Curse, or School of Magic, or Arcane Implement Mastery) for a very minimal return (Arcane Familiar as a free feat, or I don't know what for a Binder). And the parent class outperforms them in every way, AND can still pick up their tricks (Touch of Command for Warlocks, or Familiar for Wizards here). Yes yes, Sha'ir gets fancy familiars, but it's still a familiar.
I think the Curse mechanic, once Paragon hits, provides more control than any Binder feature or rider. And the School of Magic bonuses far outperform badly scaling resistance for the Sha'ir, etc.
Some of it is the difference between playing a Warlock, and then playing a Binder. You know what you've lost. For a new player, I suppose it isn't that bad.
I still view Binder, Sha'ir, and Witch as trap options, because you're giving up incredible class features (Curse, or School of Magic, or Arcane Implement Mastery) for a very minimal return (Arcane Familiar as a free feat, or I don't know what for a Binder). And the parent class outperforms them in every way, AND can still pick up their tricks (Touch of Command for Warlocks, or Familiar for Wizards here). Yes yes, Sha'ir gets fancy familiars, but it's still a familiar.
There are three specific in-play issues that make Witch and Sha'ir not trap options: 1) They're fun if you want to experiment wildly with Daily powers. As in select a new dark blue/sky blue daily every single day. CharOp generally prefers that you take specific options and be happy with them because the build has the best possible power choice for the build. Unless you're in a CharOp group, that's not actually a real problem. And you likely have a DM who won't screw you over completely with Augury if you're a Witch. 2) You wanted a familiar anyway and you're in a feat-intensive Wizard build. This is actually a big deal for many Wizard builds. 3) You do get to pick Wizard powers. When people call Witch a trap, that's like saying a Cha-based Warlord is a trap over an Int-based one. Sure, Cha aren't quite as good. Doesn't mean they're bad.
Some of it is the difference between playing a Warlock, and then playing a Binder. You know what you've lost. For a new player, I suppose it isn't that bad.
I still view Binder, Sha'ir, and Witch as trap options, because you're giving up incredible class features (Curse, or School of Magic, or Arcane Implement Mastery) for a very minimal return (Arcane Familiar as a free feat, or I don't know what for a Binder). And the parent class outperforms them in every way, AND can still pick up their tricks (Touch of Command for Warlocks, or Familiar for Wizards here). Yes yes, Sha'ir gets fancy familiars, but it's still a familiar.
There are three specific in-play issues that make Witch and Sha'ir not trap options: 1) They're fun if you want to experiment wildly with Daily powers. As in select a new dark blue/sky blue daily every single day. CharOp generally prefers that you take specific options and be happy with them because the build has the best possible power choice for the build. Unless you're in a CharOp group, that's not actually a real problem. And you likely have a DM who won't screw you over completely with Augury if you're a Witch. 2) You wanted a familiar anyway and you're in a feat-intensive Wizard build. This is actually a big deal for many Wizard builds. 3) You do get to pick Wizard powers. When people call Witch a trap, that's like saying a Cha-based Warlord is a trap over an Int-based one. Sure, Cha aren't quite as good. Doesn't mean they're bad.
OH-NO, can of worms opened. It's not my thread and i'm not the thread police but these are discussions better left in the respective handbooks and not as a distraction to this thread. Making a note in the build sections of the classes in question such as the Witch and Sha'ir should be enough. Just building the "best" possible versions as pre-gens of those sub-types should be the only real focus of this thread.
EDIT: Same for Witch and Sha'ir. Just play a Wizard, grab a familiar, and refluff.
That 'grab a familiar' part is an opportunity cost. If you're in a really feat intensive build and you want a familiar for implement swapping, you might not actually have a feat slot for it. If you're doing practical play builds who have a familiar, Wizard is not necessarily superior.
That's different from the Binder, which is just pure awful - mainly because the Warlock has strictly better access to the powers and curse is almost a better status effect by itself than most of the riders available to the Binders.
Particularly because two of the boons are only really valid if the Binder is convincing opponents to attack it over other choices in the party. Which seems...implausible. I think encouraging people to play builds that will punish them later on(Vampire, Binder) isn't a great idea for new players.
Somewhat off-topic: Just out of curiosity, where does the vampire start to seriously lag behind other strikers (as in, not just a suboptimal choice, but an actual hindrance to the party)?
