C3 - The Character Creation Challenge

The blog must perish so the challenge may survive...

2009-11-09T19:14:00.000-08:00

Sooooo. I'm not too wild about how this blog is turning out. Just a bit too much depth here for the intended function.

It's ultimately good news, though, as I've decided to just go ahead and start a general D&D 4E blog...one more floating around the blogosphere couldn't hurt, right?

I'm still going to do this C3 thing over in my new digs, but I'll be doing it once a week instead (5 levels at a time so it will move at the same pace), and it'll have a few more columns to keep it company, too.

Today's new column: Saving Throw, in which I'll write up a chunk of (hopefully) useful material for DMs who get caught unawares. Hey, we all know how that goes.

Make sure to check it out - The Blog of the Beholder!

Challenge - The Minotaur Rogue, Level Five

2009-11-07T16:56:00.000-08:00

It occurs to me that coming up with an interesting image to go with thirty different articles about the same class/race combination is going to get tough! Should I go to a text-only format, perhaps? Start posting things only loosely related to the character (ahem)? Or maybe come up with an image that helps describe some spectacular quest the character completed between levels? I like that last idea the best, but I don't think I'll have the brainpower to do it every day...maybe next time!

Every five levels I'll be posting a .dnd4e file for anyone to copy into their character builder. That way you can go over the build a bit more thoroughly if you like...perhaps fiddle with it so you can comment on all the ways I screwed the character up. :) And, hey, maybe even use him in a game! If you do, please report back with how he fared.

Of course, I recognize that not everyone has an updated version of the character builder available to them, so you'll also find a list of references to go along with the file. I'm not going to bother to post page numbers, but I'll at least let you know the specific book or Dragon issue where you can find every power, feat, item etc. on the character sheet.

You'll find both the file and the reference list at the bottom of the post. Let's get down to it...

Level 5 Daily Power
Looks like we have eight daily powers to choose from. With one exception for both charisma and strength, there isn't any reliance on secondary attributes among our choices; this is actually true of the level 5 dailies for many (most?) classes. So, let's scratch compel the craven off the list straightaway (due to its charisma component) and start looking for reasons some of these other powers are clearly inferior for the minorogue; we'll aim to get the list down to 4 or 5 potential choices before looking at our options in depth.

Staggering assault is designed to keep the rogue's target at arm's reach; not something the minorogue will want to do too often and certainly not something worth wasting a daily power slot on. The same holds true for walking wounded, especially since we have a much more interesting and unique way to sweep our enemies off their feet! Clever riposte is somewhat interesting as a beefy version of riposte strike, but it is a little redundant for the same reason, and it adds an effect that relies on the character's immediate actions. It's not a terrible choice, but there are better ones for this character.

Here's where it gets a bit tougher to decide:

1) Deep cut is a fantastic power for us for a couple of reasons: it targets fortitude, which is frequently a vulnerable defense among most monster roles (brutes being the exception), and it leaves a nasty...well...cut behind that translates into 8 untyped ongoing damage. That's huge at this level of play! Sure, sometimes you get unlucky with saving throws, but at the very least, 8 guaranteed damage at the top of the enemy's next turn, perhaps even the next two or three turns, is a big deal.

It's not going to end up being my choice, though. Players typically like to hold on to at least one powerful daily to help whittle down a monster with a ton of hit points - in other words, elites and/or solos. With the elite saving throw bonus of +2 and the solo saving throw bonus of +5, that ongoing damage is unlikely to last beyond one or two rounds. Therefore, it's best to calculate the damage for this attack with the assumption that the ongoing damage will only be dealt once: 2[W]+12, damage range 14-28. That really isn't all that much more than the minorogue's first level daily, pommel smash: 3[W]+4, damage range 7-28. What's more, pommel smash tacks on -2 to hit (save ends), even if it misses, whereas deep cut completely loses its ongoing damage on a miss.

Looking beyond the math, though, deep cut isn't a great choice for our character concept. This rogue packs a mace - he bludgeons, he smashes, he crushes, he concusses...but he doesn't do much cutting. Pass.

2) I don't have nearly as much to say about downward spiral beyond the fact that it's a damn good power. From what I've seen, it's practically essential for strikers to have at least one burst/blast power to help take out minions and swarms (the bane of strikers everywhere). Its damage isn't so hot, but that really isn't the point. If the minorogue has a horde of baddies coming at him, this is just the sort of power he needs to take them out quickly. This is a great power, especially for groups without a controller.

3) I don't get driving assault. Perhaps someone can let me in on the usefulness of this power? It feels more like an avenger power; it's designed to isolate a target while remaining adjacent to it. That's not really something a rogue wants to do; you'd only want to use this if you can easily shift away, or if you can line the enemy up so another character (hopefully a defender) can flank it. Weak. This one is out of the running.

4) Flashy riposte is an outstanding power for the minorogue. It's effectively a setup power: it's an immediate reaction against a melee attack, it rattles, and it sets up combat advantage for us and every ally that attacks between the enemy's turn and the minorogue's turn. Last but not least, while it does still fall short of pommel smash's burst, it still does perfectly respectable damage.

It doesn't quite beat out downward spiral, but it might end up being a good power to swap in down the road. We only have one power at the moment that would benefit from the ability to cause rattling as an immediate action - enforced threat. At first, flashy riposte --> enforced threat seems like a good combination, but the benefit enforced threat would receive is redundant; flashy riposte already provides combat advantage on the minorogue's next attack. Enforced threat's rattling setup bonus works well as a follow-up to disheartening strike, but it would be meaningless as a follow-up to flashy riposte. Furthermore, we're looking at yet another power that takes up that precious immediate action (tired of hearing that yet?). It'd be worth it if we ever pick up another power that lays down an additional effect versus a rattled target, absolutely.

For now, however, picking up a burst attack is the better choice. Want an effective combo? Try agile footwork into downward spiral. Congratulations, you just waded into a throng of minions without provoking a single opportunity attack and unleashed a burst attack on the entire group. Don't get me wrong...this is a risky move! You might end up whiffing with downward spiral and find yourself surrounded by zombies, skeletons, etc. But hey, this game wouldn't be all that much fun if the people on your end of the table (i.e., the players) never took any risks. ;)

Magic Item
The tabletop gods smiled on us yesterday when they provided that much-needed boost to our secondary defenses. Alas! That smile has become a sneer. At level 5, the minorogue is at a point where his effectiveness is going to plummet without a magic weapon. He already gave up +1 hit by going with the ruthless ruffian build (mace proficiency grants +2 hit whereas most standard rogue weapons grant +3) and at this level, not having any kind of magic item is practically the equivalent of another -1. What's worse, with the exception of downward spiral, every single attack we've chosen targets AC. This is a big problem! Back at level 2 I said I'd invest in an expertise feat if the minorogue hadn't landed a magic item by level 4, but the buffed up goring charge combo was too much fun to pass up. Level 6, though, I'll really do it! Seriously!

So, you might have figured out by now that the #DM (the random number generator sitting in for a DM) didn't bestow us with a magic weapon this level. Perhaps he had a nice one tucked away somewhere; it wouldn't surprise me! This is why I'm always pulling my hair out when someone at my table is grumbling about equipment issues - typically, this comes up as they're walking past the room with the armor of uber +4 and the other room with the weapon of ridiculous awesome +6. Protip: if your group skips encounter areas that are clearly off the beaten path 9 times out of 10, don't come to your DM with gear gripes!

Anyway...turns out we landed another suit of magic armor. I'm going to miss our leather armor of sudden recovery +1, :sniff:, but the +2 this level 7 piece provides is going to help me get over it right quick.

There are thirteen pieces of level 7 armor in the leather category. We can immediately pick out four that clearly aren't suitable for the minorogue, because he doesn't have an aegis (armor of aegis expansion), he has a low constitution bonus (deathburst armor), he doesn't have any attacks that target will (irrefutable armor), and he doesn't have a spirit companion (warding spirit armor). Of the remaining nine pieces, three are comparitively mediocre: shipboard armor, slick armor, and veteran's armor.

You can never have too many resistances, although I'd seriously consider keeping the +1 version of sudden recovery over a +2 set of resistance armor; the latter's usefulness seems much more limited to me (unless you're in the midst of a themed adventure chock full of baddies who deal a certain kind of damage). Not to mention, it's just kinda dull.

Luring withdrawal armor would be much more tempting if its daily was actually an encounter power, if it was an immediate interrupt instead of an immediate reaction, if it worked regardless of whether or not the enemy missed, or if we had a bit more freedom to decide where the minorogue and the target ended up after the slide/shift. As it is, it simply doesn't hold up compared to the available options.

Rat killer's coat is an interesting piece (with a cool name) that could really help out against one of the trickiest monster types for melee strikers to deal with, but swarms typically aren't common enough to justify taking such a specialized piece. I'd guesstimate that 10-20% of the encounters I design feature swarms, and I'm willing to bet that's comparable to other DMs as well. This one would be nice to have stored away in a bag of holding or something, but this blog is more concerned with the best choice in general. Scrapped.

Sunleaf armor's resistance component is unlikely to do you much good; how often do you end up in combat against a monster with radiant attacks? Man, I can't think of a single occasion in my campaign thus far. The daily makes it a little tempting: being able to do radiant damage is a much better feature, and the damage gets a nice boost from the minorogue's high dex score. If this piece featured necrotic resistance instead of radiant (and I don't understand why it doesn't) it would be a bit higher up on the list, but the 1d10+4 radiant damage from the daily isn't enough to hold my interest...especially since it requires the character to get nailed by an opportunity attack to deal its damage! No thanks.

Here's what it comes down to: repulsion armor or marauder's armor. Repulsion is one of the best suits in the game for a rogue; the rogue player in my campaign has had it for quite awhile...and it's so good that I've toyed around with nerfing it (or even banning it!) on several occasions. I haven't been able to come up with a piece I could tempt him into swapping it out for until paragon tier...even then I wouldn't be surprised if he immediately starts to pine over repulsion. Of course, the effect itself is an immediate action, but I think I've made my point about that enough times this week that you've probably all gotten it by now, yes? Still, it's a cool enough effect that it's worth considering anyway.

In the other corner, marauder's armor is so well suited for this character concept that it's virtually impossible to pass up...yup, even for repulsion. We've made a pretty heavy investment in goring charge; the property on this piece is going to pay off big, and the daily is incredibly good for us, particularly given the fact that we actually have a choice between making a saving throw or healing, whichever we need more. If only there was a feat available that let us charge with the minotaur racial more than once in an encounter! Going to have to wait for paragon tier for anything like that, sadly.

That wraps it up for this week! The next post won't be up until Wednesday; I need to put my DM hat back on for a couple of days. Come back for level 6 on the 11th...for now, here's the character builder file and reference list for levels 1-5. Note that these will always replace, rather than supplement, the character summary every fifth level. Kind of interesting to see where the most attractive stuff for this character is...only one power from the Player's Handbook; zounds!

A note on the character builder file: the level 2 utility power of this character will always be blank, since our current selection, agile footwork, uses a power from an issue of Dragon that hasn't been integrated yet.

Minotaur Rogue, Level Five

References:
Class/Race - Minotaur (Dragon #369); Rogue (Player's Handbook 1)

Feats - Goring Shove, Opportunity Gore (Dragon #369); Warborn Fury Style (Dragon Magazine Annual 2009)

Powers - Riposte Strike, (Player's Handbook 1); Disheartening Strike, Downward Spiral, Enforced Threat, Guarded Attack, Pommel Smash (Martial Power); Agile Footwork (Dragon #381)

Magic Items - Amulet of Protection+2 (Player's Handbook 2); Boots of Adept Charging, Marauder's Leather Armor +2 (Adventurer's Vault 2)

In the event that this blog has any readers...

2009-11-07T10:50:00.000-08:00

...hey, I'm not being cynical, just realistic! It's only been up a week; I have high hopes but not THAT high. ;)

I've been kinda fiddle-faddlin' on what kind of schedule works best...and I think Wed-Sun. is where it's going to land.

Level 5 will go up today but level 6 won't go up until Wednesday.

Challenge - The Minotaur Rogue, Level Four

2009-11-06T12:04:00.000-08:00

Level four is one of the few levels on the path to thirty during which the character doesn't gain a new power. But that's okay...we're going to get two more attribute points and a third feat. We now have enough feats to play around with combinations, and I think there's a fairly obvious one here that's worth dropping one of our old feats for...

Attributes
The big question here is whether or not it's worth it to pump the minorogue's charisma as he levels up. This would have multiple benefits: it would give him access to cha-based powers and feats, support his weakest defense, and of course help him to not suck when the party needs him to pass a cha-based skill check.

I don't think it's worth it. There aren't really any cha-based feats that jump out at me for this character, with the exception of some of the multiclass feats (student of malediction and soul of sorcery are particularly attractive). I'm sure there are a lot of cha-based powers that would be nice for this character, but I'd rather have a higher strength to support the powers which are likelier to fit the build. More importantly, the minorogue's racial power is tied to his strength score, and that's about to become an intrinsic part of this build, as you'll see in the feat section below.

It would be awfully nice to have a better will defense, but it would take a lengthy commitment to make a difference. Since characters only gain one point of defense for every two attribute points in the associated category, we wouldn't see any benefit at all until level 8...and that would end up being one lousy tick. If we committed every single attribute bump to charisma - and I'm talking strictly about the attribute bumps where we choose two, not the two bumps to all attributes - we'd only end up with three extra will points. That's nothing to sneeze at, to be sure, but the opportunity cost to strength makes it too hard to justify.

Therefore, our choices for this attribute upgrade are going to be +1 to strength and +1 to dexterity - the latter being a given that isn't worth analyzing (see the ability section back in the level one post for a discussion on the importance of dexterity). That isn't really going to make a difference at this point, but it'll pay off big when we're able to add another point to each of these scores at level 8.

Feats
As I mentioned earlier in this post, we now have enough feat points to really play around with possible combinations, and there's one I love that I've been chomping at the bit to incorporate: goring shove and opportunity gore.

This character is going to be near the front line quite often due to his heavy melee focus. Even though he isn't even close to being able to provide "tanking" support to the ranged characters on the team, he can use opportunity gore to stop enemies dead in their tracks. This feat allows the minotaur to use goring charge as many times as he likes during an encounter as long as he's using it as an opportunity attack (and he still gets to use it as a charge ability once per encounter). The implication is significant: a successful hit will knock the enemy prone, leaving your back row buddies out of its reach.

There are two major disadvantages here, one being easy to address...the other, not so much. The latter is the fact that, by making an opportunity attack, the minorogue sacrifices his ability to riposte, making it kind of a tricky choice if he needs to keep his guard up against another opponent. This is a problem we can't solve, but it isn't actually a problem introduced by opportunity gore, since the minorogue would still have to choose between his riposte and an opportunity attack if an opponent tries to pass by. All it does is make the opportunity attack a better choice.

The other issue is more significant but, fortunately, easy to deal with - what do you think that extremely pissed off monster who just got knocked flat on his ass is going to do? Feel sorry for himself or devour a large chunk of our minorogue's respectable-but-not-great hit points? Yeah, I'm guessing the latter...and that's where goring shove comes in. Knocking an enemy down without an opportunity attack while keeping him at arm's reach is going to make the minorogue an incredibly potent second line of defense for his group, especially when the defender is too far away (or dead). It will require some careful staging, as the minorogue will need to be careful about fighting in an area with room to push, but that doesn't make it any less compelling.

Let's drop vigilante justice style so we can make this combination work, shall we? We can always pick it up again in a couple of levels.

Magic Item
This is such a huge find that it almost looks like I rigged it. Yep, you guessed it...the DM (aka my random number generator) has blessed us with a neck item. Not only that...it's a level 6 neck item, which means +2 to fortitude, will and reflex! It's a shame it didn't end up being a level 7 item, as the only level 6 neck piece in the game at the moment is the vanilla amulet of protection. That's okay, though...this is one gift horse I'll take without so much as a glance at his gums.

About those new rogue powers...
Avid Dragon readers have probably read about the new martial powers that dropped yesterday in Power Play: Martial, one of the articles available to DDI subscribers in this month's issue. Rogues scored a bevy of additional powers and feats today in a class act article. I've already sent both of these articles to the rogue player in my group, and I'm chomping at the bit to see them in play (assuming he picks any of them up). These are some cool powers! The build style introduced in the class act today are particularly interesting, as they introduce a rogue style that has been sorely missing from the game. Referred to here as the duelist build, it evokes images of the Three Musketeers and even pirates, to an extent.

As you might expect, though, this is a dex/cha build for artful dodgers, meaning the pickings for the minorogue are slim. That said, there are still a couple of things worth taking a look at...

-Duelist's prowess is a cool and unique level 1 daily stance power that allows the rogue to make a 1[W]+dex dmg attack as an immediate interrupt every time an opponent hits or misses the rogue while adjacent, and it targets reflex to boot! I'd take this for the minorogue in a heartbeat if...well, if he wasn't a minotaur. We already have two important abilities vying for every round's immediate action, so this power ends up looking kind of like a third wheel. Yes, it is superior to his riposte counter, but it's not worth giving up our only major "burst" attack in exchange for another power fueled by opportunity actions.

-Agile footwork is even more tempting. While the minorogue has plenty of tools to help discourage enemies from attacking him, he doesn't really have a good way to get out of an extremely dangerous situation when he needs to. This is a great utility power to use when the enemy moves up to attack unexpectedly. It can even be used in a fashion similar to our buffed-up goring charge to cause a monster with no ranged attacks to effectively lose his attack for a round: if the rogue was his only adjacent foe after his move, he'll have little to do but twiddle his thumbs for a round after agile footwork moves the rogue out of danger.

The power is even more valuable given the risk our feat-supported goring charge has introduced: if an enemy wants to get at the back line but knows the minorogue will keep him from getting there, he might simply choose to attack the minorogue instead. We could really use an escape ability now that the attention the rogue is drawing outweighs the threat of riposte strike and guarded attack - balancing these factors will be a constant challenge as the minorogue levels up. You'll get even more mileage out of this one if your DM really roleplays his monsters well during combat - after all, the enemy doesn't know agile footwork is an encounter power! Most will be fooled into thinking he'll simply zip away again once they move in for an attack.

For these reasons, we'll be using this level's power swap to replace adaptable flanker with the new agile footwork. Note that we won't be able to show this change in the character builder until Dragon 381 is integrated. No big deal.

That's all from the new goodies. We might take a look at blade and buckler duelist another time, but that's a ways off since we don't have shield proficiency yet (and I'm not sure it will ever be worth it).

Tomorrow - A new daily marks the halfway point to paragon tier and the end of this blog's first week! Whew! I have a newfound respect for bloggers everywhere. :)

Minotaur Rogue (Ruthless Ruffian)

Str 1 (+1) | Con 13 | Dex 19 (+1) | Int 8 | Wis 10 | Cha 10

AC 19 (+1) | Fort 17 (+3) | Ref 20 (+3) | Will 14 (+3)

HP 40 (+5) | Init +6 (+1) | S. Value 10 (+2) | S./day 7

Trained Skills: Athletics, Dungeoneering, Intimidate, Perception, Stealth, Thievery

Equipment

Weapons: Mace, throwing daggers
Armor: Leather Armor of Sudden Recovery +1, Amulet of Protection +2
Other: Boots of Adept Charging (heroic tier)

Attack Powers (Sneak Attack adds +2d6 to any attack made with combat advantage)
Values after "/" indicate ranged attack option
Riposte Strike (At-Will): +8 attack, 1d8+4 dmg; Riposte interrupt: +7 attack, 1d8+3 dmg.
Disheartening Strike (At-Will): +8 attack, 1d8+7 dmg / +10 attack, 1d4+4 dmg
Goring Charge (Encounter): +9 attack, 1d6+3 dmg
Guarded Attack (Encounter): +8 attack, 2d8+4 dmg; Secondary: +7 attack, 1d8+3 dmg
Enforced Threat (Encounter): +8 attack, 2d8+7 dmg / +10 attack, 2d4+4 dmg
Pommel Smash (Daily): +8 attack, 3d8+4 dmg
Note: Maces can be held 2-handed for an extra +1 damage.
Note: Guarded attack's secondary attack's +hit has been adjusted to reflect the proper value.

Utility Abilities - Agile Footwork (Encounter); Sudden Recovery* (Daily)
Passive Effects - Adept Charging*, Sudden Recovery*

* - Magic Item Power

Challenge - The Minotaur Rogue, Level Three

2009-11-05T06:48:00.000-08:00

Another day, another level for the minorogue. Today is pretty basic compared to the first couple of levels - there's no feat to worry about, for one thing, and 10 possible choices for his level 3 power (compared to 14 yesterday).

Will defense is still a problem, and it probably will be for some time. However, we did manage to snag some low-level magic armor: leather armor of sudden recovery +1. This is a very nice item from Adventurer's Vault 2; it has a property and a daily power which will both help stave off ongoing damage, one of the most significant threats our low-hp minorogue must face. Still holding out for that neck item!

Note that from now on I'll be listing potential damage of some attacks; these ranges assume the power is being used to its fullest and that the character's current "main" weapon is being used for the attack. The "range" of damage is the minimum and maximum damage the attack can do, and the numbers in parentheses indicate the additional damage the minorogue can add with sneak attack.

Encounter power discussion after the break...

Level 3 Encounter Power
Let's start by making a list of powers we are most unlikely to choose. First we'll glance at the powers with a component that relies on charisma to be effective: these are bait and switch, defender's cohort, flamboyant strike, and trickster's blade. Now we'll add all of the powers that receive a buff if the character uses either the artful dodger or brutal scoundrel rogue tactics (unless they're already on the list): nasty backswing and topple over. We'll come back to these powers later. For now, the discussion will focus on the four remaining powers: blade vault, enforced threat, low slash and setup strike.

-Blade vault has an interesting damage component: it adds str-modifier damage for each square shifted as part of the power - up to 2 squares, or +6 damage in our case. Since the minorogue is trained in athletics, he can even ignore difficult terrain during the shift, making this power a great opening move to help get him into a flanking position on the defender's main target. Assuming a full 2-square shift, the damage for this attack is 1d8+10 (+2d6); range 11-18 (13-30).

-Enforced threat brings a couple of nice things to the table - it has rattling and it works with a ranged weapon. It would be a shame to waste it on a ranged attack with this character, though; the 2[W] damage would be put to much better use in melee. The best feature, of course, is the one only ruthless ruffians gain - automatic combat advantage if the target is already rattled! Combat advantage is crucial for this guy, and there will certainly be plenty of situations where attempting to flank is a bad idea; we really want to keep an eye out for the ability to apply sneak attack damage at the drop of a hat. Damage for this attack is 2d8+7(+2d6); range 9-23 (11-35).

-The best thing about low slash is that it targets reflex instead of AC; AC is typically the most difficult defense to hit, and it is the target number for all of the attacks in the minorogue's arsenal so far. It also has a moderately good battlefield control function, but nothing to write home about. The damage isn't so hot, either: 1d8+7 (+2d6), range 8-15 (10-27)...and that's only if he's flanking, if not he loses 3 points of damage across the board. All that said, it's still worth considering due to the attack vs. reflex benefit.

-Setup strike is a pretty sweet, straightforward ability with a nice benefit; there's a reason you see it pop up in a lot of popular rogue builds. It virtually guarantees you'll do sneak attack damage two rounds in a row, without having to worry about whether or not you're flanking...and as I mentioned above, that can be crucial when you can't find the opportunity to slip around the opponent's back. Damage is 2d8+4 (+2d6); range 6-20 (8-32).

Now that we've examined each of these powers, I think I'm going to knock low slash out of the running. It's hard to justify taking it for the sole purpose of having an attack that can target reflex; if that's turning out to be a real problem in your campaign I'd advise you to swap riposte strike out for piercing strike. Furthermore, it simply doesn't fit the character concept; can you picture a minotaur swooping down low to slash at his enemy's ankles? Nah...we'll leave that particular brand of dirty pool to the halflings.

The three remaining powers all do comparable damage, and each brings a little perk in addition to that damage: shifting, rattling or guaranteed sneak attack damage for the next attack. Any of these would be nice for this character to have, but ultimately I think I'm going to go with enforced threat - it'll work quite well with the powers the minorogue already possesses, and it's the sort of attack that seems to fit the concept we're developing. The minotaur lets out a bone-chilling howl as he moves in for the kill. The bandit cowers before the massive rogue, exposing a weak point...his target acquired, the minotaur lifts his mace high above his head...you get the idea.

But not so fast! What about the six powers we didn't even look at? Before settling on enforced threat for good, let's see if they offer anything particularly compelling. Hmmm...not really. Topple over is pretty cool, especially with the brutal scoundrel bonus...which we don't have. In fact, if we had gone with brutal scoundrel back at level 1, I would probably be gazing at enforced threat with envy. It's definitely the cream of the crop as far as this character is concerned.

Magic Item
Blast....neither a weapon nor a neck item! Alas, we're stuck with a level 2 foot item...but, beggars can't be choosers, I suppose.

Actually, all of the level 2 foot items are pretty good: we could nab the ability to stand up from prone as a minor action (and that's at will!), shift a square after charging whenever it suits us, teleport away from a dangerous fall, teleport a square as a minor action, or resist forced movement in a manner similar to a dwarf's stand your ground racial trait once per encounter...and then fall prone afterward. Okay, so they aren't all good.

Anything that helps the minorogue remain mobile is good, especially something that can help in both defensive and offensive situations. For that reason, the teleporting shoes (boots of jaunting) are the first to catch my eye...but then, that's a daily power, and both the "de-prone" shoes (acrobat boots) and the charge --> shift shoes (boots of adept charging) have abilities that can be used as often as necessary. Ultimately, I think I'm most attracted to the boots of adept charging. We haven't been giving goring charge much love up until now; there were too many situations in which it was too risky to use. With these boots, though, and the ability to shift away after knocking the opponent on his behind, the minorogue can use his racial encounter power in virtually every encounter.

Well, that wraps it up for level 3! Tomorrow will see a third magic item added to the character, another feat and higher ability scores.

Minotaur Rogue (Ruthless Ruffian)

Str 16 | Con 13 | Dex 18 | Int 8 | Wis 10 | Cha 10

AC 18 | Fort 14 | Ref 17 | Will 11

HP 35 (+5) | Init +5 | S. Value 8 (+1) | S./day 7

Trained Skills: Athletics, Dungeoneering, Intimidate, Perception, Stealth, Thievery

Equipment - Mace, Throwing daggers, Leather Armor of Sudden Recovery +1, Boots of Adept Charging (heroic tier)

Attack Powers (Sneak Attack adds +2d6 to any attack made with combat advantage)
Values after "/" indicate ranged attack option
Riposte Strike (At-Will): +7 attack, 1d8+4 dmg; Riposte interrupt: +6 attack, 1d8+3 dmg.
Disheartening Strike (At-Will): +7 attack, 1d8+7 dmg / +9 attack, 1d4+4 dmg
Goring Charge (Encounter): +8 attack, 1d6+3 dmg
Guarded Attack (Encounter): +7 attack, 2d8+4 dmg; Secondary: +4 attack, 1d8+3 dmg
Enforced Threat (Encounter): +7 attack, 2d8+7 dmg / +9 attack, 2d4+4 dmg
Pommel Smash (Daily): +7 attack, 3d8+4 dmg
Note: Maces can be held 2-handed for an extra +1 damage.

Utility Abilities - Adaptable Flanker (Encounter); Sudden Recovery* (Daily)
Passive Effects - Adept Charging*, Sudden Recovery*

* - Magic Item Power

Challenge - The Minotaur Rogue, Level Two

2009-11-04T12:29:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, we established the foundation of the "minorogue." I made the decision to focus on getting his + hit and dmg up to a respectable level instead of his defenses. This has resulted in a character with what I consider to be all-around good starting statistics with one exception - Will defense. 10! Ugh.

But that's okay...today the minorogue hits level 2, and that means he's getting an extra tick in all of his defenses, a utility power, another feat and his first magic item. As the character grows up, I'll be keeping my eyes open for items that could potentially offset his most significant weakness. Other than that, though, the number one focus most strikers should make their priority is 1) how can I hit more often? and 2) how can I cause the most amount of damage when I land that hit? Let's start things off by looking over his level 2 power options...

Level 2 Utility Power

If we figure in the skill powers scheduled for release in PHB3 next spring - but available now in the character builder - most every character has a LOT of choices for utility powers. In addition to the seven class powers the minorogue could choose from, he has seven MORE to add to the list based on his skill choices. Never say you don't have options in 4E!

First, let's weed out the trash. Double take is the easiest to scratch off the list due to its reliance on a good charisma bonus (ours is 0). Ominous threat would be a terrible choice - we want to dissuade enemies from attacking the minorogue, not encourage it! Fast hands could be useful for certain types of characters, but right now the minorogue has all the hands he needs - one for his melee weapon and one for his ranged weapon. Bounding leap is sort of an inferior version of great leap - yeah, it comes with a +5 bonus, but it's also an encounter power; given this character's respectable +9 to athletics it's hard to imagine him ever needing it. In fact, given great leap's limited utility let's knock that one out of the running while we're at it, and scrap quick fingers and scrambling climb for the same reason. I can tell you from personal experience that those are the sorts of powers DMs despise: they are so specific that he'll need to find a way to incorporate potential uses into encounters, and half the time the PC won't even realize he finally has an opportunity to use it! Bleh, no thanks.

That takes care of half of our available choices, leaving us with -
Adaptable Flanker
Fleeting Ghost
Reap the Rattled
Sneak in the Attack
Far Sight
Obscured Avoidance
Otherworldly Lore

Any of these would be a good choice generally speaking, but some are better than others. Reap the rattled fits the character concept quite well, but the fact that it's a daily that uses a minor action means it's going to have limited use - if it were either free OR an encounter ability it would be a no-brainer; as it is there are better options. Far sight is a good power for a rogue focusing on ranged powers, but we want to get the minorogue into melee as quickly as possible, so that's out. Obscured avoidance is a nice utility power if your DM likes to throw lots of marking monsters at you, but from a "big picture" point of view it's a power that would only affect a small percentage of the monster population. Otherworldly lore needs to go for the same reason - it's a nice encounter power that fits the minorogue concept extremely well, but it's only effective against aberrant monsters. If you're playing in a campaign with heavy Far Realm action, though, I'd recommend taking it.

That leaves adaptable flanker, fleeting ghost and sneak in the attack. I'm going to kill fleeting ghost: he's not going to focus much on stealth; he'll be staying pretty close to the defender and when he's in a vulnerable position, he'll snarl tauntingly, smack the opponent with riposte strike and DARE them to attack. Of our two remaining choices, we have to ask - do we want to be able to apply sneak damage when he can't quite reach a flanking position, or give an ally a chance to double the sneak damage in a round? Personally I think adaptable flanker is the better all-around choice: you certainly won't be able to get into flanking 100% of the time and we already know it's the minorogue's job to dole out single target damage, whereas your sneak in the attack partner might end up being a defender or a leader...in other words, a character who may have chosen to focus on defenses over + hit. In a party with another melee striker or two, I would have gone with sneak in the attack...as it stands, adaptable flanker is going to be our level 2 power.

Feat
This is going to be a bit easier - all we have to do is go back over that level 1 list and pick out a feat that got left on the cutting room floor in favor of vigilante justice style: goring shove, opportunity gore, backstabber, ruthless injury, bloodhound style, powerful charge, and warborn fury style. We might also consider weapon focus/expertise; since the minorogue will almost invariably attack with a mace, he get get a lot of mileage out of one of those talents, especially if your DM is particularly stingy when it comes to magic item distribution. In fact, if the minorogue hasn't scored a magic weapon by level 4 I'll probably swap a feat out for expertise to compensate.

My first instinct is to take backstabber; it works nicely with our new utility power and a rogue can never do too much damage. After considering the options, however, I think warborn fury style is going to be our level 2 feat. We have to keep in mind just how fragile our character is - even minotaur rogues can go down in a flash of bad luck. As long as we hit with the riposte most of the time, warborn fury is going to act as a good "emergency button." It should keep us more comfortable in that vulnerable period of combat when the minorogue is trying to get into a solid flanking position while keeping off the enemy's radar.

Magic Item
Ah, loot. Sweet, sweet loot. While leveling from 1 to 2 our minorogue managed to net himself level 3 magic armor...which could turn out to be a lifesaving find (literally). Too bad we didn't get a much-needed neck item! Maybe next level...in the meantime, let's take a look at our choices and figure out what the best possible find in this category would be.

There are 16 possible choices here, and I'm not going to bother discussing all of them; I'd end up spending every waking moment working on this blog if I wrote my way through every single magic item in the game! In general, assume that I've eliminated these items because they're designed for other classes, their ability is mediocre, another available item does the same thing but better, and/or they're just too clunky for my tastes (i.e., armor of exploits).

Anyway...of the 16 available items, there are 7 worth taking a look at.

-Addergrease Armor - Another nice tool to discourage enemies from attacking the minorogue, although at +1 the shift ability associated with it is only so-so. At +2 or +3 this is a much better choice, and at +3 the ongoing damage jumps to 10.

-Armor of Sudden Recovery - Very nice item for us. Ongoing damage is potentially deadly for melee classes with low hp; I've seen the rogue at our table drop due to a series of unlucky saving throws on more than one occasion.

-Bestial Armor - Goring charge is lobbying hard for this one, but the utility might turn out to be too limited. If we ever spend a feat or two to improve goring charge it'll be a much stronger choice.

-Nightmare Ward - Did you take the otherworldly lore power because of all the far realm baddies in your game? This is the armor for you...otherwise, there are better choices.

-Serpentskin Armor - It would be really nice to be able to move into flanking quickly, especially when a monster needs to drop FAST.

-Skald's Armor - A personal favorite and perhaps the best "you really don't want to attack me" item on this list. Not much benefit from the + skill checks on this item, although it would help to not suck if the minorogue's group ever needed to make a group bluff/diplomacy check, making it a good pick in games with a lot of intrigue.

Stanching Armor - The saving throw bonus here actually isn't that good since most ongoing damage attacks have an associated type (i.e. poison, fire, etc.), but you can never have too many healing powers. This is a no-brainer if the minorogue's group lacks a leader.

As you can see, picking the "best" item for a character can and should be influenced by group composition and campaign style a lot more than power and feat selections. Assuming none of the factors listed above are in play, though, I'd say Armor of Sudden Recovery +1 is the minorogue's best choice. It grants you regeneration for the rest of the encounter, and the amount of regeneration you get is determined by the ongoing damage you had, not the item's armor bonus. What's more, unlike Stanching Armor, none of the healing from this effect is going to cost you one of your precious healing surges! I would say my group encounters at least one monster with an ongoing damage effect in at least half of their combat encounters, and that's a conservative estimate. As a rogue, any time you can regain health without using healing surges, you should snap it up.

Summary
That's it for level 2! Tomorrow we'll pick up a new attack power and our second magic item...with any luck, a magic weapon or a neck item. I'm crossing my fingers!

Here's a rundown of the minorogue so far, with a couple of additions I meant to include yesterday as well - an off-hand dagger for the occasional ranged attack (he has a few more strapped to his belt for easy access), and I'm going to list the +hit/damage of each attack with our current setup (although I won't be listing any effects the attack applies along with its damage). Note that the number in parentheses indicates the change in the relevant score since the last level.

Minotaur Rogue (Ruthless Ruffian)

Str 16 | Con 13 | Dex 18 | Int 8 | Wis 10 | Cha 10

AC 18 (+2) | Fort 14 (+1) | Ref 17 (+1) | Will 11 (+1)

HP 30 (+5) | Init +5 (+1) | S. Value 7 (+1) | S./day 7

Trained Skills: Athletics, Dungeoneering, Intimidate, Perception, Stealth, Thievery

Equipment - Mace, Dagger (off-hand thrown), Leather Armor of Sudden Recovery +1

Attack Powers (Sneak Attack adds +2d6 to any attack made with combat advantage)
Riposte Strike (At-Will): +7 attack, 1d8+4 dmg; Riposte interrupt: +6 attack, 1d8+3 dmg.
Disheartening Strike (At-Will): +7 attack, 1d8+7 dmg.
Goring Charge (Encounter): +8 attack, 1d6+3 dmg
Guarded Attack (Encounter): +7 attack, 2d8+4 dmg; Secondary: +6 attack, 1d8+3 dmg
Pommel Smash (Daily): +7 attack, 3d8+4 dmg
Note: Maces can be held 2-handed for an extra +1 damage.

Utility Abilities - Adaptable Flanker (Encounter); Sudden Recovery* (Daily)

* - Magic Item Power

Challenge - The Minotaur Rogue, Level One

2009-11-03T14:00:00.000-08:00

Fate has chosen a particularly interesting combination for our first challenge - a minotaur rogue. The traditional image of a minotaur - in or out of D&D - is that of a brutal, hulking warrior. Over time, minotaurs have evolved into a savage but noble and honorable race in fantasy literature and games, with a code of honor and strong loyalty to the minotaur's tribe. Sorta like Chewbacca with horns.

The 4th Edition minotaur is faithful to that duality; the opening passage of the Dragon feature on minotaurs in issue 369 describes them as the embodiment of "the tension between civilization and savagery...discipline and madness." Therefore, while the influence of World of Warcraft's tauren has softened the minotaur's image dramatically, the 4E minotaur is still strongly associated with the monstrous Greek legend from which all other minotaur stories arose. We'll keep the race's origin in mind as we build our minorogue...

Step One - Rogue Tactics
At the time of this writing, rogues have three choices to form the basis of their character's play style - Artful Dodger, Brutal Scoundrel and Ruthless Ruffian. The easiest to eliminate is Artful Dodger, as it is the only build that wouldn't be able to take advantage of the minotaur's strength bonus...not to mention, it's hard to picture a tall, broad half-bull with horns and hooves artfully dodging anything. Either of the other choices would work well, but it sure would be nice if we didn't have to worry about the disparate image of a minotaur wielding a dagger or short sword. Ruthless Ruffian allows the rogue to use clubs and maces in addition to its normal weapon proficiencies, so let's go with that one. Putting rattling powers to good use seems like a good fit for a minotaur; I'm starting to get an image of our character in combat, moving swiftly into a flanking position, finding a weak spot and whacking it with terrible force, leaving his foe literally quaking in his boots (i.e., rattling).

Step Two - Ability Scores
Here's my first pass at the minorogue's stats (including racial bonuses):
Str 16
Con 13
Dex 18
Int 8
Wis10
Cha 10
This gives us AC 14, Fort 13, Ref 16 and Will 10 at level 1, unequipped.

Two problems with this combination become apparent here - no dexterity bonus and a poor will defense. It's possible to address one of these issues, but not both. Since the rogue is a striker, I felt it was more important to get his dex up to 18 than to worry about his will defense. More than any other role, strikers need to make their +hit and +dmg a high priority, and the rogue uses dexterity with practically every attack power in his arsenal.

All that being said, I still would have found a way to bump that will score up a tick or two when building a rogue with a race that comes with a +dex bonus...here, however, I've decided to pay the exorbitant cost of a level 1 18 attribute - 16 points (ouch). Dex is just too important to a rogue to do otherwise, especially ruthless ruffians (using a mace instead of a dagger sacrifices the dagger's higher proficiency value for more damage).

Int is the minorogue's easiest attribute to ignore - it doesn't come into play in any of the rogue's powers, it shares the same defense association as dex, and none of the rogue's potential skills rely on int. Those 2 points can be put to much better use elsewhere.

Step Three - Skills
We have four choices to make in addition to the rogue's initial skill set (thievery and stealth). You can never have too many characters trained in perception, and minotaurs gets +2 here, making it an easy first pick despite the minorogue's low wisdom. Acrobatics and athletics are both logical choices, since both are somewhat rare among other classes and he has great scores in both strength and dexterity. We have one more choice to make; there isn't really a bad option here, but there are two obvious choices that emphasize what makes the minotaur special: intimidate and dungeoneering. I picked dungeoneering in honor of the minotaur's labyrinthine origins, but that leaves us with a small problem: the minorogue must be trained in intimidate or he won't be able to take advantage of the rattling keyword's effect. From a numbers standpoint, it makes more sense to ditch dungeoneering for intimidate, but from a character perspective, acrobatics feels like the right skill to scrap. A minotaur doing cartwheels around his enemy is a strange image indeed; intimidate is a more natural fit regardless of its effect on rattling powers.

That completes the character's basic framework! You might consider selecting a background at this time, but we won't be discussing them in this blog. Many DMs don't allow the associated bonuses, and the backgrounds themselves should be a personal choice to help flesh out your character's history.

Powers
At-will powers should always be carefully considered, since you'll use them in every battle throughout your character's lifespan. The minorogue's primary at-will is disheartening strike; he'll use it frequently to set up many of his encounter powers and dailies, as we'll be on the lookout for powers with additional effects against opponents suffering from the rattling effect. Furthermore, keeping that -2 hit penalty on the main target will be a boon to the party's defender and other melee combatants. What's more, it works with ranged weapon attacks - allowing the minorogue to keep that penalty up even when it isn't tactically sound to move into melee range - and it'll deliver his strength bonus as +dmg with every attack (just like any other power with the rattling keyword).

Clever strike and deft strike are both good choices for that second at-will, but it's impossible to resist riposte strike for this character. This will allow the minorogue to take advantage of his high strength, and it will help him dissuade enemies from attacking him while he's an available target; such powers act as a wonderful aid for marks. Your defender will love you for your ability to assist him in managing the front line, and you'll help to offset your low hp, surge value and surges/day scores by making yourself a less appealing target.

The minorogue's daily and encounter powers will often specifically target enemies already suffering from the rattling effect. Alas, several of these powers require a decent charisma score to use effectively, and the cost of raising that ability to a reasonably high level is too high for this character. Instead, I've decided to pick up guarded attack. It is somewhat redundant of riposte strike, which is fine...it's a more powerful version that can be used once per encounter. This is going to be particularly useful when either the minorogue or his opponent (or both) is low on hp. The enemy is going to be less likely to attack him, happily permitting him to waste the interrupt effect of the power...but also giving the minorogue the extra time he needs to get clear of danger. If it's the enemy who is low on hp, he wouldn't dare attack, and you and your party can save healing resources to get out of a jam later on.

I think I'm going to skip the daily rattling power as well. It's pretty nice, but the high damage of pommel smash makes it a very attractive alternative, especially since it applies an effect that is more or less identical to rattling...only in this case it requires a save to end and the effect is applied even if the attack misses.

Feats
These are the feats that caught my eye for this build: goring shove, opportunity gore, backstabber, ruthless injury, bloodhound style, powerful charge, vigilante justice style, and warborn fury style. So many choices, and we only get to keep one! Ultimately, I selected vigilante justice - the ability to further help the defender control a target with riposte strike is going to be extremely useful early in the game, although we might swap it out down the road once there are a few more encounter/daily powers in the minorogue's arsenal.

Keep in mind that the ruthless ruffian's ability to treat maces and clubs as light blades only applies to rogue powers, paragon paths and epic destinies, making feats like nimble blade, surprising charge and blade opportunist worthless to this character.

That about wraps it up for level one! Am I taking this character in the wrong direction? Leave a comment to explain your own choices, and come back tomorrow for the minorogue's first utility power...and his first magic item selection.

Minotaur Rogue (Ruthless Ruffian)

Str 16 | Con 13 | Dex 18 | Int 8 | Wis 10 | Cha 10

AC 16 | Fort 13 | Ref 16 | Will 10

HP 25 | Init +4 | S. Value 6 | S./day 7

Powers
At-Will: Riposte Strike; Disheartening Strike
Encounter: Goring Charge; Guarded Attack
Daily: Pommel Smash

Trained Skills: Athletics, Dungeoneering, Intimidate, Perception, Stealth, Thievery

Build #1 is...

2009-11-02T17:30:00.000-08:00

A Minotaur Rogue! Certainly off to an interesting start.

Level 1 will be up Tuesday.

Welcome to the Character Creation Challenge!

2009-11-02T15:30:00.001-08:00

I'm a dungeon master. I've always been a game master; within my first year of tabletop RPGs I found myself behind the screen.

While I enjoy being a GM, it robs me of the chance to partake of one of my favorite RPG activities - character creation and advancement. This has resulted in dozens, perhaps hundreds, of characters created over the last two decades that have never seen the light of day.

With the new edition of Dungeons and Dragons, I believe I have stumbled upon a unique opportunity. There are a LOT of critical choices to be made during character creation and with every single level up; with just one year under its belt the number of choices available is. Furthermore, magic item selection has become much more interesting; players are often encouraged to create "wish lists" of items they'd like to pursue. In many campaigns, players can even purchase most of these items with ease (DM's discretion, naturally). Therefore, one could feasibly map out a character's entire lifespan and have a good time… without even bringing him to the table.

So…why a blog, if I’m doing this solely for my own amusement? Well, this is where the “challenge” part comes in...

I’m no min-maxer, and I don’t think I’ll ever come up with a build I’d consider 100% optimal. I can practically guarantee that there will be something in these builds, somewhere, that you feel could use some improvement. As such, I’d love to get feedback from other 4E fans out there on how they’d change the current character. My objective is to generate an ongoing discussion about the character until it retires from the blog at level 30 and a new character begins.

I plan to focus on one character at a time, and to advance that character one level at a time, five times a week (one entry every day, Wed-Sun). To keep things interesting, the race and class of each character will be randomly selected…otherwise, I think I’d be too tempted to avoid the trickier combos (although I won't accept a result that repeats a race or class used within the last few builds). I don’t plan to do much research, either. While I can see the value in consulting the role-playing community for a character you’ll be playing for months or years, the characters here will almost certainly never see use. Character creation is the game on this blog, in and of itself; there’s not much point to this if I end up letting other people do my work for me.

In addition to selecting new feats and powers, I'll be picking up a new magic item with every level as well. Just like the race/class combo, the list I have to choose from will be randomized. The first roll will determine the slot, and the second will determine the level (based on the item levels available to the character according to the treasure parcels in the Dungeon Master's Guide). If you'd like to tell us what you'd equip the character with, please try to stick to the same level/slot.

Finally - while I recognize the importance of the "other" side of RPGs (you know, the actual role playing?), that's not what this blog is about...at least, not at this time. Everyone is welcome to post "fluff" for the character in the comments, and if we can throw some of that material together into something cool, perhaps I'll spend a day writing him up before retiring him. If you see a character you like, feel free to swipe it and come up with your own fluff...just be sure to come back and let us know how the character is doing at the table. If you post in a retired character's comments, I'll make sure to draw attention to it.

That’s it! I hope you enjoy the blog. Don’t be shy – comment as much as you like. All I ask is that you be respectful of others, stick to the ground rules in this post, and keep your discussion limited to the current character (making suggestions for future levels is fine).

Thanks for visiting!