[RPG] Faerie Fire

[stevekenson]

So after our latest installment of D&D 4e, I’ve decided to try a different character for a bit. My rogue/warlock is a bit too much rogue and too little warlock; he really lacks some of the oomph of the other characters and I miss having “kewl p0werz” – his Eyebite warlock power is, frankly, kind of lame and never works (although that’s more bad die-rolling than anything). Plus I seem to have terrible luck with my Thievery rolls; just a couple adventures and the character is already getting a rep for not being able to disarm traps or open locks.

So I’ve mostly worked up an eladrin wizard. As things progressed, he has become more warrior-like, building on the automatic eladrin longsword proficiency to add the Eladrin Sword Wizardry feat from Arcane Power that lets him use the sword as an implement (a tool for casting his spells). I also wanted to give him training in Stealth (I still want some sneakiness in my character) but it’s not on the wizard class list. So that meant spending a feat and, if I was going to do that, then why not a multiclass feat, giving him the skill and something else? (Seriously is there any reason not to multiclass vs. taking Skill Training, if the class happens to provide the skill that you want?) So I added Warrior of the Forest and Armor proficiency (leather), since the character is 2nd level, making him a halfway decent fighter (albeit one with a low Strength score) along with his wizardly powers, kind of an eladrin “special forces” war wizard.

Naturally, I had to tinker with said powers a bit. I made all of his flame-based spells a ghostly green “faerie fire” and his Flaming Sphere more of a fey “fire salamander” he summons to bedevil his foes. (Yeah, joke all you like about “flaming fairies”...) I’ve just got to run him past our DM for approval. I’m looking forward to the prospect of giving him a try, since we haven’t had a controller character in our party thus far. It should round things out nicely with our two leaders (cleric and warlord), striker (ranger), and defender (paladin), possibly a warlock as another striker, if an absent group member joins in.

Comments

[righteousfist.livejournal.com]

By far one of the worst things about 4E are the WRETCHED spell/power descriptions. Like you, I tend to re-conceive mine to take the awful out. Special extra-cruel diss to whoever wrote the ones for the Bard powers.

[guyinsf.livejournal.com]

Wow. I find it amazing that you had no controller in your group. In the groups I play it seems everyone wants to be the controller. I got myself stuck in the defender role, and it hasn't worked out for me so far. The DM finally relented and allowed me to change to a different defender, so I'm about to give Warden a try. Wish me luck.

It seems to me that every time I split my focus and try to be multi-talented, I get punished by not being able to get my bonuses high enough to be reliably successful. I'm not sure, but I begin to fear that 4E more or less punishes you for not "playing to type." Thus, I will be very interested to hear how your experiences go with your war wizard.

Eladrin Education

[77im.livejournal.com]

Eladrin get one free skill which does not need to be on their class list (see "Eladrin Education" in the main eladrin entry) so you could use that to get Stealth and not need to take a feat on it.

You might also check out Combat Training (a feat in PHB2) which can allow you to use Int instead of Str with your melee basic attacks so that you can actually hit and damage things with the sword instead of just whiffing due to low Str.

Re: Eladrin Education

[xomec.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I already used his Eladrin Education for something else. What I should have said was "Stealth, in addition to the class and race skills I already picked out."

Thanks for the heads-up on Melee Training. I'll have to see if it's cool with my DM!

Re: Eladrin Education

[walkerscrown.livejournal.com]

Are you using the Backgrounds from PHB 2? Those would allow you to get Stealth as a class skill.

Re: Eladrin Education

[xomec.livejournal.com]

No, we haven't been using Backgrounds. Besides, it's not just having it on the class skill list, but the number of trained skills I want the character to have.