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
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