Last night, my lvl5 Teifling inspiring Warlord died. Which apart from sucking massively, has left me with a conundrum of what to play next.
At the moment our party is
Human Tempest Fighter
Human Retribution Avenger
Human Archer Ranger
DragonBorn Ruthless Ruffian Rogue
plus my new character.
My DM is heavily pushing me to play another teifling as its kind of required for the story line, but at the end of the day its up to me, and while I dont really like teiflings, im going to go with this request for the sake of the story.
Now I know this party is crying out for a leader, but ive played the f*****g healer for SIX SOLID YEARS and im fed up with it. I just want to roll a bucket of dice and eat some faces.
Does anyone have any advice about what works well with a Teifling that isnt a leader (or a warlock - we used to have one in the party and I wasnt at all impressed with them).
Well, who is going to heal, though? It is generally a necessary party role. That said, you don't have a controller either.
Honestly, I dont know. Six years is long time playing the only healer though, and as I said, im TOTALLY fed up with it (although its nowehere near as bad in 4e as it was in 3.5).
I've played a Paladin before in 4e and had a ton of fun with them, so its a possibility. Especially if I dump STR for CHA. I'd rather try something new, but its a good choice if i dont find anything else i like.
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Gah, post got ate
Quick run down of what I posted
Strikers:
Chaos Sorcerer are just awesome. Chaos Bolt will become a mainstay and it target Will. Roll an even number on the attack, and hit, you can attack again and again and again... For fun think about sorcerous blade channeling to use ranged powers as melee powers, and reapers touch to use acid orb and dragonfrost as melee basic attacks.
Thaneborn Barbarian: Strength is primary but charisma is secordary.
Avenger: Wisdom is main but look at that +3 to AC. You can even improve it through feats. Bond of Retributions and other powers reward you for a goo Intelligence. And you can use reaper's touch to make Avenging Light a melee basic attack
Leader:
Bard benifits from a high Charisma and intelligence
Controller:
Wizards of course. For fun take reaper's strike to make Magic Missle a melee basic attack
Invoker sure Wisdom is main, but a good intelligence goes along way.
Defender:
Swordmage are great! I can't recommend them enough
Other than that play what you want or what fits the character. Perhaps he has a class that doesn't play up on his ability modifiers (Fighter, Shaman, Warden , etc)
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 8
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I'm going to tell you to definitely NOT play a leader.
Not that there's anything wrong with them, I'm playing a Tiefling Warlord myself at the moment.
But you're already being pushed into a race you don't want to play, and I think letting them push you into a class (or a role at the very least) is going just a little too far.
Have you looked at Warlock? A Fey Pact, Star Pact, or Dark Pact Warlock would fit best mechanically, but even the Con based Pacts like the Infernal or the Vestige could do well, since Intelligence is the Secondary stat for all of them, and having a good Charisma for your Will defense and skills is always handy.
And some of those Vestige Pact powers look fun, and even a little leaderish at times.
Your party does already have a ranged striker, but only one of them, as opposed to the two melee strikers and the defender, so I don't think it would unbalance you guys too much.
Conversely, you could always say Nuts to a Tiefling, and play a something that works well as a Druid. Druids are way fun.
I'm going to suggest you let things cool off just a bit as you sound a little angry. Obviously thats something of a requirement in a game like this - you don't get a lot of the tension at the table if your characters can't die and death has to represent a real loss to the player or its meaningless.
This sense of loss and anger usually fades after a few days and is replaced by the excitement of making a new character. Once that kicks in you can work with your DM to see if other character concepts besides leader type Tieflings could be made to fit in with the plot.
I would go bard personally, you can nudge them away from the healer box but still keep your party alive in a pinch. Maybe talk to your dm about making him an alchemist so you can keep your party supplied with healing pots without unbalancing things?
Let me see if I have this right, GM kills your character and then strong arms you into a specific race/class/role?
No one else’s Spidey Sense tingling?
Let me see if I have this right, GM kills your character and then strong arms you into a specific race/class/role?
No one else’s Spidey Sense tingling?
To be fair, The GM didnt kill my character. The d*mned greatbow weilding elves did (I hate elves, damn then) it was fight we had ample chance to get awat from, we just kept pushing it as we thought just abit more and we would get the upper hand.
The campiagn has really been based around an invaded teifling empire, and the various political back and fro-ing that is going on, as well as the resurgance of the Teifling resistance (something my character used to be a big part of). The original party was 50% teifling, until one guy left and another decided a few sessions ago that he didnt want to play a warlock anymore and arranged a new character. His character also died in the same fight I did, but as he had already aranged a new character he swapped to playing this one (which I must admit annoyed me a bit).
The leader role is me really not wanted to play another healer BUT not wanting any of the other characters in the party to die. Our sole defender has already lost a character he really liked, and I dont want him to lose another, becuase his new character is very cool and he really enjoys him. With the layout of the party being as it is the sole defender really is going to be the first one to die in any difficult fight.
2 days til have to make a decision...
I sympathise. In our two home campaigns I am the healer in both. Now I like the cleric/shaman role just fine, but there's a reason so many of my pbp characters are splatty lunatics.
We are a seven player group, so someone with a decent grasp on the mechanics needs to be there on the healing front and so far I haven't managed to talk anyone else into really testing it. One way forward might be to suggest that other party members multi-class into something which can heal. It spreads the load a bit and allows you the option to play something a little more front line if that's what you want to do.
Alchemist is a good call and so is ritual caster. Get some of the others to burn a few feats so you can supply yourselves with a decent stock of potions and healing rituals. Come to think of it, I might try that myself.
Forcing players into roles they do not want to play just seems like a recipe for disaster in my opinion. And demanding 'balanced' parties inevitably leads to this.
I concede it requires more work from the GM to base the campaign on the characters but it just seems so much more rewarding than inserting tab A into slot B.
This also brings back character death issues. I understand people really need character death to enjoy the game. But when a role is so vital that the vacuum caused by a character death necessitates that the replacement be a thinly veiled clone of the original character, aren't you just fooling yourself?
Forcing players into roles they do not want to play just seems like a recipe for disaster in my opinion. And demanding 'balanced' parties inevitably leads to this.
Every character I have ever made has been a product of this, and trust me it sucks. Do not let them get away with this. One of the characters that I played and grew to love, was forced out of the group, because we needed another class in the group, and the rest of the group decided they were much to attached to their characters and drove mine out of the story. I have not been happy playing since, but I refuse to give up playing. My brother and I are always forced to play the healer or controller role, while we do like 4th edition more for the freedom this gives. It gets kind of old playing the same character over and over. The rest of the people in our group are either uninterested, totally opposed, or too dim to play these types of characters, and only want to play melee characters, which sucks.
And to top it all off our DM/GM only does printed campaigns, and will never change it to suit a group with out a controller or leader. So if we do not play these types player death is rampant. So just letting you know you are not alone.
Just for a example one of the groups we currently have is 2h paladin, 2h fighter, 2h fighter, 2h barbarian, rogue, cleric (me) it seems like it would kill them to roll a defensive or ranged character
Just for a example one of the groups we currently have is 2h paladin, 2h fighter, 2h fighter, 2h barbarian, rogue, cleric (me) it seems like it would kill them to roll a defensive or ranged character
Is your GM/DM sympathetic at all to your issues? If so, ask him to create a Cleric NPC that he can play. No one should have to play a character that they don't want.
Start playing your Cleric dumb...use sub-optimal spells/tactics. Try to get across the idea that the party would get a greater benefit out of a PC played well and with enthusiasm is better than a forced PC Class.
The DM/GM sure does like to make NPCs he is thinking of making a warforged fighter to go along with these guys :( he is the biggest idiot of the group
In a group of his that I am not a part of they have this.
2h paladin, 2h fighter, rogue, 2h battle cleric, and a bow ranger, which frankly shocked me that anyone picked ranged of any kind, but in order to compensate for the lack of versatility they have obscene stats to just power through stuff. Just as an example the cleric has 3 18s after mods from the race
he is the biggest idiot of the group
This statement does not throw up any red flags for you?
If you have this much respect for the GM, I have to wonder why you are in this group. Regardless of whether it is warranted or not, there is obviously a personality clash.
Role playing is supposed to be enjoyable. If it is not, you need to ask yourself some serious questions.
he is the biggest idiot of the groupThis statement does not throw up any red flags for you?
If you have this much respect for the GM, I have to wonder why you are in this group. Regardless of whether it is warranted or not, there is obviously a personality clash.
Role playing is supposed to be enjoyable. If it is not, you need to ask yourself some serious questions.
He is my cousin :(, so while I really do like him personally, when it comes to dnd which he has been playing for over 20 years he is pretty dim
I have no issues with any of them personally, they just are just kind of thick when it comes to any type of problem solving
If you've made it clear you don't want to play a character of a particular type and the group still expects you to, then you've a problem. You could stop playing with this particular group, but that might not be something you want to do. If that's the case, I suggest turning up to a session with the character you want to play, regardless of what they expect. Tell them that you want a break from playing clerics/wizards/paladins/whatever. That's what I did with my group, and I had fun with a crazy rogue for a while and the group tried to manage without the wizard-types I normally provided. There's nothing wrong with saying that while the group might want a particular type of character, you don't want to do that right now. Most importantly, don't act as a "consultant" for someone else if they take on the role, at least not at the table. I did give some advice to the person who took over providing the arcane magic, but if they asked me at the table I took the line that as a rogue I knew nothing about what spells were useful. Otherwise, it ends up being you playing a wizard again by proxy, and that's no fun for anyone.
In this specific case, I almost wish I could swap a few players around. Three of the people I play with like making clerics or similar, and our group has a Sword & board Paladin, Melee Cleric, and a Warlord, plus a Rogue and my wizard. We really could do with some heavy hitters, but we certainly aren't short on Leader-types.
Thanks for the advise, I will try just showing up with something different next time around.
I have no issues with any of them personally, they just are just kind of thick when it comes to any type of problem solving
I still stand by my assertion. Role playing is supposed to be enjoyable. If it is not, you need to ask yourself some serious questions.
If they are friends, they will take your concerns seriously.
I am in Rosey's home groups (DM in one, player in another), and I can testify that Rosey is the only player who likes being the healer. I have started playing an artificer (replacing my deceased warlord - 2 crits from rage drakes!) so she isn't all alone on the healing front.
Hence the user name. I like clerics a lot, but there's no denying I'm glad of Fabe's artificer. In a seven strong group, your actions are pretty much dictated by who is likely to die first.
Ironically it was me.
/end thread derailment.
:D