Leaders: More Than Healbots

A lot of people play Leaders because the party needs healing, but in 4th Edition the Leader classes are so much more than that. If you are thinking of playing a Leader you currently have four options: Cleric, Warlord, Bard or Shaman. All of them play differently and I'll be getting to the last two in some of my upcoming articles, but regardless of which one you pick, you have a lot more to offer the party than just healing. I wanted to write a shorter article and bring up just a few things that Leaders do that can be taken for granted.

Saving Throws: An Oft-Ignored Resource

Many different Leader classes have abilities that can give players extra saving throws or make bonuses on their next saving throws. Some classes have feats or Paragon Paths that allow them to add extra saving throws to their current abilities. Regardless of how you get the bonuses and extra saves, they're invaluable.

While there are more status effects that are detrimental to your melee characters, all characters can be debilitated and it happens fairly often once you make your way into Paragon tier. Melee Strikers can have their damage halved by a weaken, their actions limited by a daze, become dangerous to your party by being dominated or lose their turn altogether to a stun. All of those translate into one thing: the bad guys stay alive longer. Less turns under the effect means more success for your party, and every Leader class can help with this to some degree. However, nobody is as easily gimped by a status effect as your main defender (well, unless they're a Warden, but that's for another time). If your main defender can't get in close with a monster because of slow or daze, that's a turn the monster is free to attack your squishier party members. So if you are a leader and you notice that the monsters are throwing down a lot of status effects, you should have some situational abilities ready for this moment. If you haven't breached level ten with your campaign yet, this may make less sense, but trust me when I say that Paragon Tier monsters mean probably double the number of status effects for your party.

Tactical Positioning

Sometimes characters can't get into the best positions by themselves and those pesky monsters may not stand in just the right spots for your team to really excel. This is where you come in. With push, pull, slide and even teleport effects you can move around both friend and foe and find a better situation for everyone. You can give your strikers combat advantage by moving the targets into flanking, position somebody to be bull rushed into a hazard, or arrange it so that your controllers can hit with their close and area attacks without making it painful for your melee characters.

Tactical Warlords were the supreme rulers of this particular Leader discipline, but Bards have given them a run for their money. Even Shamans and Clerics can push enemies around and shouldn't be afraid to make use of this ability. Everyone in your party can benefit from it, but if you have a Rogue, Wizard, Invoker, or Druid in your party it is especially nice for allowing them to maximize their efficiency and minimize collateral damage. Combine it with close burst attacks from a fighter or a Warden's free action marking and you can even help the Defender be better at his job.

Buffs: All About The Timing

Buffs are something that all Leaders can do, but both using them and making use of their effects is really all about the timing. If you have a defensive buff that only lasts one round and you win out initiative over the dragon you are fighting, use it. Its likely it will help some of your team avoid taking as much damage from a breath weapon, and if the DM doesn't use the breath weapon just because of the buff, well, that gives you a free turn to wail on him before his best ability even makes an appearance. In all likelihood that translates into less breath weapons over the course of an encounter.

In the same way other party members might wait for an attack buff from you before they attempt to hit with a daily. If several of your characters are bunched up in the initiative order, don't underestimate the power of holding your turns and rearranging into the best possible sequence of actions. You can do it every round with no penalty as long as you don't hold past any of the enemy's turns.

Secondary Roles

Almost no Leader build is just a straight up buffer and healer. Most have a secondary role of some kind. Tactical, Resourceful, and Inspiring Warlords all make decent off-tanks and secondary defenders while Bravura Warlords can deal a decent amount of damage and be secondary strikers. Wisdom-based Clerics have plenty of controller-like abilities that hit multiple enemies or give them debilitating status effects. These are not the only examples.

Regardless of what your secondary role is, recognize it and make use of it. If all you do is make your teammates better and don't do anything on your own, chances are you aren't going to have as much fun at the table. Don't be afraid to throw out some damage, status effects, or tanking powers in an encounter. Your allies won't need a heal, buff, or repositioning every single round anyway.

Barbarians: They're All The Rage

I apologize for the title but its the best i could come up with. Anyway, having finished my Avenger write-up, I have decided to move on to the next class ahead of schedule so I can get everyone's favorite class done in a reasonable amount of time. So, in pretty much the same format: Barbarians.

Just What Is A Barbarian?

Have you never watched Conan or played Diablo 2? Barbarians, traditionally, are just like that in pen and paper RPGs. Big, muscle-bound warriors who use the powers of both anger and wearing nothing but a loincloth to overcome any obstacle. Who needs discipline when you can just get really mad? In 3.5 Barbarians were pretty much just that: angry, less disciplined fighters. In 4th Edition they have been altered a little to come in line with the rest of the primal classes. Barbarians are the primal power source's strikers, and their "Rage" is actually them calling primal spirits into their bodies. They wield big weapons, deal lots of damage, and inspire with their courage.

Mechanically Barbarians are can be a deceptively deep class. Some may dismiss them as simple glass cannons because of their armor proficiencies and ability score requirements, but there is more to it than that, and that will be the point of this write-up. Barbarians can give groups some really excellent bonuses and buffs, and learning when to use your daily powers is different for them than any other class. Their two builds play drastically different from each other, and riding the fence between kicking ass, and getting yours kicked is harder to do with them than one might think.

To help with their low defenses they get the class feature Barbarian Agility, which gives them a +1 bonus to both armor class and reflex. This bonus improves to +2 in paragon tier, and +3 in epic. The extra reflex defense is nice, especially if you are planning on using a sword or spear because you already have some investment in dexterity for just that reason and then you will probably have at least two decent defenses. Barbarians gain a flat +2 bonus to fortitude, and they have a lot of hit points, so don't be too afraid about throwing them into the fray. They can't deal any damage sitting on the sideline.

All Barbarian daily powers have the Rage keyword. Once you use them, they are not only an attack but a buff that lasts until the end of the encounter. While under the effect of these buffs you are considered to be "raging" and that confers benefits to other feats and powers, besides just the buff the rage itself gives you.

At fifth level Barbarians gain an ability called Rage Strike, which is a daily power that you must sacrifice one of your rages to use, though you must already be raging to use it. The higher level daily you sacrifice, the more damage Rage Strike does. The damage is usually ahead of the curve for a daily of that level, but it has no secondary effects, just damage. Because of this many people say they'll never use it but it is a great panic button if you get in over your head and need to burn a troublesome enemy down. You also can't benefit from two Barbarian daily powers fully at the same time anyway, and if you make it to an extended rest with a daily power still in reserves, that's a potential Rage Strike wasted. The solution is to not plan on using Rage Strike, but to recognize when its time to break it out.

Rampage is a passive ability that can grant barbarians further bursts of damage and it makes the "Mastery" feats in epic tier look very attractive. Whenever a Barbarian scores a critical hit with a Barbarian attack power, they get to make a melee basic attack as a free action. That attack does not even have to be against the same target, which is what makes it such a good feature.

Rageblood vs. Thaneborn

Much like the Avenger's Censure, Barbarians have a feature which requires you to make a choice between two different options. This choice will pretty much define your character's playstyle more than anything else you choose, and the gap in style here is larger than it was for the Avenger. The choice is your Feral Might class feature, and it comes down to what you want your character to focus on.

The Rageblood Vigor feature is the choice to make if you want to be all about the damage. You will also gain more temporary hit points, and be able to take hits better, but the main focus here is the damage. The Rageblood Vigor feature grants you an encounter power called Swift Charge, which is a free action triggered by reducing an enemy to zero hit points, and allows you to charge another enemy right then. The fact that it doesn't even use your immediate action for the turn makes it very useful, especially combined with powers that allow you to use them during charges in place of melee basic attacks. Encounter powers used as free actions? Sign me up.

In addition to Swift Charge, Rageblood Vigor grants you a passive feature as well. Whenever you reduce an enemy to zero hit points, you gain temporary hit points equal to your constitution modifier. This increases by five in paragon tier, and by five more in epic tier. This ability helps them take hits which they are definitely going to be doing a fair bit of.

The other Feral Might option is Thaneborn Triumph, which is the option you should take if you'd like to inspire your allies as well as just beat up the bad guys. Thaneborn Barbarians don't deal as much damage as their Rageblood counterparts, but they do give their group a lot more buffs, and in many groups this utility may be worth the trade-off in damage.

Instead of Swift Charge, you gain the Roar of Triumph encounter power. It is also a free action triggered by when you reduce an enemy to 0 hit points but it is instead a close burst 5 that automatically gives all enemies in the burst a -2 penalty to all defenses until the end of your next turn. In a striker-heavy team, this power can give a lot of help, and it opens up the opportunity for some well-timed dailies and encounters from your party over the course of the next round without spending anything but a free action on your part.

The passive feature for Thaneborn Triumph is a bonus given whenever you bloody an enemy. The next attack that enemy by you or an ally gets a bonus to its attack roll equal to your charisma modifier. Again this ability characterizes the difference between the two builds. Thaneborn Barbarians are still strikers, but they also have many leader-like abilities. I will go over the different strategies more in a later section.

Many powers have additional benefits depending on which Feral Might option you have chosen, but in general they are based on either giving small buffs to your allies and debuffs to your enemies for Thaneborn Triumph or dealing more damage and taking hits better for Rageblood Vigor.

Ability Scores

All Barbarian powers use strength to make their attacks, so it should be the primary focus of your build. It is also a requirement of most weapon feats, and these are something you could definitely go for later down the line in paragon and epic tiers. Your secondary ability score depends on your build choice.

Rageblood Barbarians use constitution as their secondary score, which gives you a nice hit point and healing surge boost, as well as helping many of the Rageblood type powers be more effective. The only downside is that this score, like strength, boost your fortitude defense, which means that your other defenses are going to take a hit because of it. However, both axe and hammer related feats require strength and constitution, which means it is much easier to qualify for weapon feats.

Thaneborn Barbarians use charisma as their secondary score which makes it harder for them to qualify for weapon feats since no weapon type uses it to qualify, but it benefits will defense, giving Thaneborn Barbarians a second high defense other than just fortitude. It is also gives them bonuses to many of their powers.

As for where to spend the rest of your points, I nominate dexterity. This will allow you to improve your AC without having to take any armor feats. You also need dexterity to qualify for sword or spear feats later on, and it helps your initiative, which is always good. You could also take constitution or charisma as a tertiary (assuming you took the other one of them as a secondary) to gain access to powers from the other build if you prefer, but at that point you should really think about taking the feats for heavy armor since you aren't getting much of an armor class bonus from your ability scores, if any at all.

Race Choices

The only races released in books that have perfect ability scores for Barbarians are Goliaths and Dragonborn. However, these are not the only races that make good Barbarians and some would argue they aren't even the most optimal choices. Dwarves, Half-Elves, Halflings, and Tieflings from the Player's Handbook, Drow and Genasi from the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide, and Half-Orcs and Longtooth Shifters from the Player's Handbook 2. I will go over what all of these options bring to the table.

Goliaths, a new race detailed in Player's Handbook 2 get their ability score bonuses to strength and constitution making them ideal Rageblood Barbarians, though in truth either build will work fine for them. Both of their skill bonuses are in the Barbarian skill list, they get improved will saving throw and are roll twice when using the athletics skill, something you will probably be doing often. Their racial power gives you resist 5 to all damage (scales to 10 in paragon tier and 15 in epic tier) until the end of your next turn, which brings some added resilience to a class that could definitely use it. In almost every way the race and class have excellent synergy. It gets better when you look to feats. While Goliath Weapon Proficiency only helps if you don't plan on using a superior weapon (which is not something I recommend), Markings of the Victor is a feat that has great benefit to Barbarians. As a Barbarian you are going to drop dailies as early in a fight as possible to keep the benefit of the rage for as much of the encounter as possible, and Markings of the Victor lets you roll twice on the first attack of an encounter. With other classes, this is not going to be a daily all the time, but for a Barbarian it will be in many encounters, especially after you get to level 9 and have three daily powers. Markings of the Blessed is also good, granting you two rolls on your first saving throw. Barbarians become much less effective when hit with many status effects, so any feat that helps them save against such effects is very useful.

Dragonborn get +2 Strength and +2 Charisma which puts them perfectly in-line with Thaneborn Barbarians, but in truth they are just as viable as Rageblood Barbarians too. In addition to Dragon Breath, which gives them some minion killing power, they also are more effective when bloodied, and have bigger healing surges due to their class features. Unfortunately, not many of their racial feats have use as a Barbarian. The standout exception is Dragonborn Frenzy, giving you +2 damage while bloodied. As a Barbarian you are likely to spend a fair amount of time bloodied, so this is a nice bonus, but not a totally necessary feat choice.

While Dwarves don't get a bonus to strength and their bonus to wisdom is largely wasted on Barbarians, they still make decent candidates for the Rageblood build. They get a +2 bonus to constitution, and can use their second wind as a minor action. Not having to stop with the hack n' slash to heal themselves is pretty useful for Barbarians, as is their resistance to push, pull, slide and knock prone effects. They also get Dwarven Weapon Training, which can help them become proficient with a Mordenkrad or Executioner's Axe, the Rageblood weapons of choice. In Paragon tier they can also get Dwarven Durability, gaining more healing surges and raising their surge value by their constitution. The one major downside is that Dwarves have a measly five speed, and that makes it tough to get to their opponents as fast as other races.

I put Half-Elves and not Humans on the list, and that may surprise some people, but let me explain the choice. Humans don't get two ability score bonuses, and in exchange get an additional feat, an additional at-will power, and an additional skill. Unfortunately, Barbarians really need their ability score points, have no need for three different at-wills, and their skill list is sub-par. Even though you get +1 to reflex, fortitude, and will as a human, that bonus doesn't scale very well, and the extra feat, while making you awesome at first level, quickly becomes unnecessary. Humans do have awesome racial feats, including Human Perseverence for +1 on saving throws and Action Surge for +3 on attacks after spending an action point, but Half-Elves can take these feats too, and their other bonuses are more useful to Barbarians. With bonuses to both constitution and charisma they can work equally well as either Rageblood or Thaneborn Barbarians and strength is a common ability score for attacks to key off of so there are plenty of excellent choices for your Dilettante powers. Standout choices differ depending on the build but Barbarians might take Righteous Brand from Clerics, Cleave, Brash Strike or Footwork Lure from Fighters, Valiant Strike from Paladins, Hit and Run from Rangers, Wolf Pack Tactics from Warlords, Guiding Strike or Warsong Strike from Bards (Thaneborn only), and Thorn Strike from Wardens. The only downside to Half-Elves is that you don't get a bonus to Strength, which puts an 18 either out of reach, or so costly that you won't be able to invest in dexterity at all, which means you'll have to spend valuable feat slots on armor proficiencies if you want a decent Armor Class.

Halflings are an odd choice for Barbarians, and one you probably won't find recommended by many others. Its not that Halflings emphasize the strengths of the Barbarian class particularly well, it is instead that they shore up the weaknesses better than almost any other option. The downside is that Halflings are small sized, which means they can't use two handed weapons which limits them to versatile weapons weilded two-handed. There are plenty of choices that work for this like Waraxes, Triple-headed Flails, Broadswords or Bastard Swords. Since Halfling really only works for Thaneborn Barbarians and you may as well make use of the dexterity bonus, I recommend the Bastard Sword or the Flail since their feats use dexterity. This hurts your damage a little, but the bonuses you get more than make up for it. You get +2 to armor class against opportunity attacks, which you will incur to remain mobile. You also get Second Chance forcing your enemies to try twice as hard the first time they attack you in an encounter. The feats make it even better, with Lost in the Crowd giving you +2 to AC whenever two medium size or larger enemies are adjacent, and Underfoot in paragon tier allowing you to move through the squares of large sized or larger creatures without provoking opportunity attacks. A Halfling Thaneborn Barbarian is probably the "safest" build for a Barbarian if you want all the fun without the fun without the tragically low defenses.

Tieflings only really work as Thaneborn Barbarians, and even then they are not a great choice, but they are passable, and if you think about the flavor, there's opportunity there for a really unique and memorable character. The charisma bonus is nice, and while not as useful as dexterity, their intelligence bonus does help their armor class. Fire resistance is nice since it is one of the most encountered damage types, and Bloodhunt will help you finish off bloodied foes. Infernal Wrath is pretty useful right from the start, but with the paragon tier feat Fiery Rebuke, adding 5+ one half your level fiery damage to the attack from Infernal Wrath is going to mean that the attack will add something like 15 extra damage. That is more than an orc's furious assault would add. It will be hard for a Tiefling Barbarian to get the weapon feats at the same level other races could, and the lack of a strength bonus hurts them, but Tieflings still make passable Barbarians.

Although I'm not sure how you would explain the existence of one, Drow make surprisingly good Thaneborn Barbarians. Their ability scores bonuses are the same as Halflings, but they are medium sized meaning a Fullblade is within the realm of possibility for them. They can get combat advantage easily with Darkfire, and Cloud of Darkness works well both offensively and defensively. Most of their useful feats just expand the capability of their racial powers, but all-in-all they are a good option.

Genasi make good Barbarians of either build. They are one of only four races that get a bonus to strength, and while Dexterity would be better, Intelligence helps their AC a little bit. I recommend choosing Earthsoul or Firesoul for your manifestation. Especially since Earthsoul gives you +1 to saving throws and fortitude, and its power can knock all adjacent enemies prone, and Firesoul gets you Reflex, fire resistance and the ability to strike back at an enemy who damages you. Again the downside is that it will be harder to get weapon feats with no bonus to dexterity or constitution, but combined with some of the more elemental themed Barbarian powers, the idea of a Genasi Barbarian is pretty damn cool.

Half-Orcs are another race that can be effective at either build. Their dexterity bonus influences their choice of weapons towards spears, flails or heavy blades if they choose Thaneborn, but I prefer them as Rageblood Barbarians due to a couple small synergies. The obvious one is that Furious Assault increases damage and Rageblood is the damage dealing build, but the +2 speed while charging Half-Orcs get opens up more possibilities with your Swift Charge power, and makes it useful even in wide open areas. As far as feats go the options aren't astounding, but Thirst for Battle remains one of the best racial feats there is, so I'd take advantage of of it.

Longtooth Shifters gain a bonus to strength which is always nice, but unfortunately their Wisdom bonus is largely useless except for giving you a +1 to your will defense. However, as a Rageblood Barbarian you are likely to become bloodied every encounter, and their racial power is really nice giving you +2 damage for the rest of the encounter afterward, and regeneration as long as you're bloodied. The Gorebrute Charge feat gives you +3 more damage on charge attacks while your shifting is active and in Paragon tier you can get 2 resist all during it with Beasthide Shifting as well.

Skills

You only get three choices and the list isn't that expansive. Also, of the eight choices, three of them key off of wisdom, which is an otherwise useless ability score for you. Make sure to take either Acrobatics or Athletics so that you can climb and jump easier. After that it is largely up to you, though my top three choices are Endurance, Heal and Intimidate. Perception is also a viable option, especially if you don't have a Ranger or Cleric in your party to be really good at it. Heal is nice because you don't have to be really good at it to make the easy check to stabilize fallen allies, and having that utility is always good. Endurance is a skill that doesn't come into use in every game and is often overlooked, and Intimidate is hard to use because of the penalty for using it against hostiles, but otherwise take what you think fits your character best.

Feats

Barbarians are a class that can get plenty of use out of the current feats, but I can tell will have many more options once Primal Power comes out. Right now you will still probably have to make some tough decisions though.

For defensive feats your options are kind of limited, but I do recommend Defensive Mobility so you have less to fear from opportunity attacks first and foremost. If you don't have a decent score in Dexterity or Intelligence to help your low AC, you are probably going to want to head for plate armor proficiency by the time you get to Paragon tier. Toughness is another feat I would aim to have no matter what, and Durability might be a necessity if there are a lot of encounters in between extended rests during your campaign. Timely Respite might be another option just because you don't have many other ways to get free saving throws, but if the leader in your party is doing a reasonable job feeding you saving throws you can skip that too.

When it comes to offensive feats there are similarities between the Barbarian and the Avenger. Since you are also a striker that uses his weapon to deal damage, you are probably going to want to grab some kind of superior weapon proficiency early. Unlike the Avenger though, polearms and spears are acceptable weapon choices so consider the greatspear amongst your choices. Others include a Fullblade, Mordenkrad, or Executioner's Axe. You also want to hit as often as possible so Weapon Expertise is pretty much a requirement. Weapon Focus and Blade Opportunist are two other options that bring entirely different strengths to the table, but depending on the specifics of your build, you could skip them entirely.

For utility you are going to want Improved Initiative if at all possible since your character is going to be charging into battle a lot, but there aren't many other great options. If the other melee characters are falling unconscious and you took heal as a trained skill, Combat Medic could be an option, but the better option is to tell your DM to tone down the encounters and quite being a sadist.

What a lot of your feat slots could be spent on though, are the Barbarians outstanding class specific feats. Deadly Rage grants +1 damage per tier as long as your raging, and it stacks with other feats that are similar because its bonus is untyped. As you gain more daily powers you'll spend more time raging, so don't grab it at level 1, wait until level 8 or 10 to pick up this feat so you can get more use out of it while you have it. Improved Rageblood Vigor gives you 5 extra temporary hit points whenever you trigger its passive feature, which is astoundingly good at low levels and at least decent all the way to level 30. Improved Roar of Triumph extends the burst radius of the power by your charisma modifier and gives you +2 damage while it lasts. Both are must-haves for their respective builds. The only heroic tier feat that's not that great is Rising Fury which gives you +2 damage for a turn after you kill an enemy. Better for Rageblood than Thaneborn, but not required for either.

Power Selection

Just as I did with Avengers, I will only be doing the level one and two powers, but if you want more leave me a comment and perhaps in the future I will do some extensions to these class write-ups that continue further in levels.

Starting with the At-Will Powers we have Devastating Strike. It is the most damaging at-will power that Barbarians have dealing 1[W]+1d8+Strength modifier damage. It does give any attacker a +2 bonus to attack rolls against you if you aren't raging though. This power is one of the only times I will honestly say a power just isn't very good. If you absolutely must squeeze every last point of damage you can out of your character you can take this power but otherwise I'd pass. You can add a second d8 to the damage at level 11 and a third at level 21.

Howling Strike changes out the d8s for d6s on the damage from Devastating Strike but doesn't have the horrendous downside. In addition it can be used in place of a basic melee attack when charging, and furthermore if you are raging you can move 2 extra squares as part of the charge. If you are a Half-Orc this means you can charge 10 squares with this power if you are raging. This power will likely be your bread and butter.

Pressing Strike doesn't deal as much damage as either of the abilities normally, but it allows you to shift 2 squares before the attack and you can even shift through an enemy's space with with it. You also deal 1d6 extra damage if you are raging but this portion of the damage doesn't scale up with level. This is a good power. It can let you close a small gap to a monster initially, avoid opportunity attacks, or gain flanking position with an ally. It is another solid at-will choice.

The last at-will is Recuperating Strike which doesn't have any extra die added to the damage but it does give you temporary hit points equal to your constitution modifier if you hit, and five more than that if you are raging when you do it. For a Rageblood Barbarian its hard not to take this power, but Thaneborn builds are unlikely to have the constitution for it to be really useful. If you are a Rageblood build it will be hard to pick between this and Pressing Strike, but I think I'd base it off of my party's composition. If you are needed to give flanking situations to a rogue so he can get his sneak attack damage or if you have a warlord you need to stay close to so he can feed you extra attacks, then forgo this power, but otherwise I'd say this edges Pressing Strike out, and you can always take Defensive Mobility as a feat to help mitigate the opportunity attacks.

Your first encounter power option is Avalanche Strike, the most damaging of the bunch at 3[W] damage to a single target. It deals extra damage equal to your constitution modifier if you chose Rageblood Vigor, but the problem with it is that whether you hit or miss, anyone who attacks you gets +4 on their roles until the start of your next turn. I would say the consequence far outweighs the benefit in this situation. While it would be good if you could guarantee you'd only get attacked once, chances are that leaving yourself open like this is going to put you in a world of hurt before your next turn. I would probably never take this as my level one encounter power.

Bloodletting is another single target attack but it only deals 2[W] damage. You do get to add your constitution modifier to damage if the target is bloodied though. This is a possibility for Rageblood Barbarians, but not a necessity. If you really want to focus on the single-target damage this is probably the power to take, but if you want more variety there is another option.

And that option is Great Cleave, a close burst 1 that deals 1[W], but gets a bonus point of damage for each enemy adjacent to you. This is probably my choice for a Rageblood Barbarian, even though their constitution doesn't give it any benefit. Being next to multiple enemies is a situation more likely to occur every battle at 1st level than fighting a monster who's bloodied but still needs to be targeted with a 2[W] damage attack.

The last option, and the only one tailored towards Thaneborn builds specifically is Vault The Fallen. It targets one or two creatures, and you can shift one square between the attacks. It deals 1[W] to each, but you get 1d6 bonus damage on the attacks as well. If you have taken Thaneborn Triumph you can shift your charisma modifier squares between the attacks, which makes it infinitely more useful. I can't fathom the number of times I've played a striker and been torn between finishing a near dead enemy off and going to help an ally with a monster they were having trouble with. This power is built for those situations specifically and either it or Great Cleave work fine for a Thaneborn Barbarian's level one encounter power.

Daily powers are where Barbarians really stand out from the crowd, and almost none of their daily powers are totally useless. All four of the level one options have their benefits, and it largely depends on your playstyle for what power will work best for you.

Bloodhunt Rage hits for 3[W] on a single target, half damage on a miss, and while you are under the effects of the rage you can add your constitution modififer if either you or your target is bloodied. While this is more consistently giving you its rage bonus than some of the other options, it's my least favorite just because its bonus isn't anything special.

Macetail's Rage is another close burst 1 attack, again for 1[W] to each target, though this one deals half damage on a miss. In addition, you gain temporary hit points equal to your strength every time you hit with an attack until the rage ends. This is a great bonus that you can theoretically apply every turn and since its based on strength, its one of only a few opportunities for a Thaneborn Barbarian to get a decent number of temporary hit points at all. It would probably be redundant to choose both this and Great Cleave though, unless your party was really hurting for area attacks.

Rage Drake's Frenzy is another 3[W] single target attack. It gains a +2 bonus if the target is bloodied, and it deals half damage on a miss. Its rage is my favorite for a Rageblood Barbarian, and it gives you a melee basic attack whenever you reduce an enemy to zero hit points. Combined with Swift Charge this can add a lot of auxiliary damage. Unfortunately its rage benefit is lost against a solo monster, and greatly diminished against elites since it will be more difficult to kill them.

Swift Panther Rage, the last option is again a 3[W] single target attack that deals half damage on a miss. Its rage gives you +2 speed and lets you shift two squares as a move action. This is a really great option for either Rageblood or Thaneborn barbarians who's parties use a lot of positioning. You would take it for a lot of the same reasons you might take Pressing Strike.

Once you level and gain a utility power, you again have four choices. Combat Sprint lets you move your speed +4 and you get a +4 bonus to defenses against the opportunity attacks. It is an encounter power, which is great, except that it doesn't seem like the kind of power you could use every encounter. How often do you need to run betwixt several enemies? It's probably not that infrequent, but unless your DM has a penchant for tiny rooms, it's probably not that frequent either. Regardless, as a Thaneborn Barbarian its almost your only real solid option.

Primal Vitality is a daily power and grants temporary hit points equal to one-half your level plus your constitution modifier. If you are raging you get to add your constitution modifier again. This can be a lot of temporary hit points, but the build that benefits from it, Rageblood, has plenty of other ways to gain the same effects.

Stonebreaker gives you a +5 bonus to strength checks to break objects for a turn, and you deal double damage to those objects. Great for breaking down locked doors down, but locked doors usually mean that there is a key of some kind around and keys don't take up a power slot on your character.

Tiger's Leap is a jump enhancer, allowing you to jump as though you had a running start and without the cap of your normal speed with regards to said jump. It definitely has its uses, but I doubt this kind of situation comes up in the majority of encounters for most players.

Multiclassing

Barbarians can multiclass to a number of classes effectively though you will probably not want to trade out your daily powers since Barbarians have some of the best there are. Options include Cleric, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Warlock, Warlord, Bard, Sorcerer, and Warden. Some of these grant you limited ranged attack power, others boost your abilities as an off-tank, but all are viable.

Combat Strategies

As where Avengers brought an enemy out from the chaos of battle to kill them one on one, Barbarians throw themselves into the fray. The real general skill of Barbarians is to learn how to mitigate the number of attacks against them. Don't be so reckless that you are using up most of your leader's healing powers because no amount of damage dealing is worth that. You also need to ration out your daily powers for your encounters, but that becomes easier the higher level you become. Aside from that general strategy, here are some specific things to think about.

Rageblood Barbarians can use a minion as a quick heal. If you know minions are in the fight be sure to use them as a surefire trigger of Rageblood Vigor, and possibly even to close a gap with Swift Charge after you kill one. Thaneborn Barbarians are probably less excited about minions, though they can be used to trigger Roar of Triumph.

Status effects are going to cause you problems if your leader doesn't help you mitigate them. Daze, Stun, Weaken and Dominate all cripple your character's effectiveness, and if you become dominated it is easy for you to deal a hefty sum of damage to one of your allies as well. Try to avoid fighting these monsters if at all possible.

Warlords can grant attacks to their allies, and no ally is better at this than a Barbarian, especially a Rageblood Barbarian. With big two-handed weapons you can hit much harder than any warlord could themselves, so you will be a warlord's preferred partner in crime.

Many people seem to think that Thaneborn Barbarians are worse than Rageblood Barbarians, but this simply isn't the truth. Remember that even though you are a striker, this is a cooperative game, and the boosts Thaneborn Barbarians can offer you with many of their abilities could very well cause more damage overall when you take the rest of your party into account. Don't get so caught up in dealing tons of damage that you don't see the utility in your class as well.

Unlike Avengers, Barbarians can work fairly well as a character for a new player. Although it is easy for them to become overwhelmed, the sheer amount of damage they do will make them fun for new players, and if they read this guide or any comparable guide they might even be able to make a fairly well built one without any help at the table.

Monster Spotlight: Level 1 Terrors

Player's Handbook 2 has come out and released such a flood of new player options into the game that many of your players are going to want to start new characters. What I'm hoping to give you in this article is a few level one monsters that are interesting alternatives to the standard kobolds and goblins, that will either be more challenging to an already tactically minded party, or at least more interesting to players who have seen that before.

The Monster Manual is difficult to read front to back, and now there are several other books with monsters in them too, so it is hard to know which monsters are challenging and fun to play as the DM and which monsters are on the opposite end of the scale if you haven't looked at it too deeply. Once a week I will highlight a few monsters that I think are fun additions to encounters and point them out here and give possible strategies for them as well. Since so many people are going to be starting new campaigns right now, I figured that starting with the lowest level monsters there are would be a good choice.

Gibberling Bunch

Gibberling Bunches are level one brutes, and can be found on page 257 of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide but they are easy to import into any setting. Flavor-wise they are nocturnal creatures that either live in the Underdark or burrow into the ground during the day and then hunt in large packs at night.

Mechanics-wise the first thing you'll notice is that this monster is a swarm. If you are unfamiliar with swarms, the way they generally work is that they take half damage from melee and ranged attacks, and they have a vulnerability to close and area attacks. This is nice because its one way to make your controllers feel useful without using minions, even if it will frustrate you melee characters a little. Swarms also get to make basic melee attacks against adjacent creatures at the start of those creature's turns.

In addition Gibberling Bunches have an aura which gives their enemies a -1 penalty to all defenses if they are within 10 squares. Their basic attack is +4 against AC and it deals 3d4+2 damage, but you can lower the damage by 2d4 to knock the enemy prone. In addition they have an at-will attack against fortitude with the same +4 bonus that also knocks prone. Knocking your enemies prone is pretty much what these guys do.

Other than those attacks they have two passive abilities, one of which allows the Gibberling Bunch to make opportunity attacks against adjacent creatures who stand from prone and the other passive simply allows them to deal an extra 2d4 damage against prone targets.

That's a lot of different abilities, so lets put them together into a strategy in case it isn't immediately recognizable. The Gibberling Bunch gets its free swarm attacks, so you immediately want to put it in melee against as many targets as possible, a charge attack against a target works pretty good for this usually. Next on the agenda is knocking enemies prone. If you can knock somebody prone with your initial charge attack, at the beginning of their turn you get to make a free attack for a total of 5d4+2 damage. This is a lot on level 1 and if you have a tactically minded group, this encounter will challenge them just based on this. After you make that free attack you can then attack them when they try to stand up from prone, and should you hit, knock them prone again, causing them to use their standards to get back to their feet.

The Gibberling Bunches do have weaknesses. They only have +4 on their attacks which isn't wonderful, and characters with high ACs and decent Fortitudes will be able to avoid getting knocked prone by them very much as will dwarven characters. They also have really really low defenses but this is actually good because even the melee characters will consistently hit them, since nothing makes a player feel lame like repeatedly missing. However, even with these weaknesses I think I should put a disclaimer on this monster. I would honestly say that this monster is probably the hardest level 1 that is currently in the game. Don't make your party fight more than a few of them and don't enclose them in a small place with them because it will kill your players in a pretty unfair way. I recommend using these guys for an "ambush on the road at night" type scenario, where the players can spread them out and not get massacred by them. These also aren't a good monster for players who are just learning the game. The number of extra attacks they get will confuse new players, and make it feel like the game is stacked against them.

Fire Beetles

Found on page 30 of the Monster Manual, the Fire Beetle is another level 1 brute. They are pretty much just what the name suggests: beetles that breathe fire. I recommend using them as pets of whatever kind of monsters run the dungeon your party is exploring or possibly as parasites who took over a certain room and are closed in there, but be careful putting these guys in enclosed spaces.

Probably not the most stand-out interesting creature in the low level bracket of the monster manual at first glance, but this monster packs a punch. Their bite attack is nothing special but their breath fire hits a close blast 3 for 3d6 fire damage and it recharges on a 5 or 6. This monster has the same tactical requirements as the Gibberling Bunch, in that the players will need to keep them spread out to succeed, but it isn't a swarm so it doesn't take half damage. However the beetles do have 10 fire resistance, so don't be afraid of having them breathe on each other.

I think Fire Beetles really shine amidst other types of creatures. I once used them as the pets of a kobold boss I had made and it worked as a fairly memorable encounter even if it was a bit on the difficult side. These can be a good creature to use against new players to teach them the value of obstacles in the terrain. Building the encounter in a room where they can use columns and walls to prevent anyone from being caught in two fire breath attacks or something similar. You could also have them fight near a well or watering hole so that particularly creative players could retreat to the water if they became too injured.

Stormclaw Scorpion

This one is a soldier, not a brute, and as such has higher defenses. They are man-sized scorpions with claws that crackle with electricity and venomous stingers which makes them pretty memorable if you build them into a good encounter. It might even be cool to catch the players in between a clash between a den of Stormclaw Scorpions and Fire Beetles, but the scorpions work well in almost any context.

The scorpions have 32 hit points, and decent defenses for a level 1 monster. They have two main attacks, one is a grab attack. Once the enemy is grabbed by the Scorpion it takes 5 lightning damage a turn until it escapes, and it can then attack the grabbed creature with its other main attack, its sting. The sting attacks fortitude, deals 1d4+3 damage, an ongoing 5 poison damage and immobilizes the creature (save ends both). This means that it is imperative to escape the grab for a player as soon as possible to avoid taking 10 damage each turn. This isn't a huge obstacle for a fighter, but for a caster it becomes treacherous. You can make an encounter with these that will quickly emphasize to your defender the importance of marking creatures so that your casters do not get carried off by scorpions.

Before you brand me as a murderous DM though, I want to point out a unique opportunity that you have with creatures that grab. If you have a player playing an Eladrin, or who has some kind of teleport power, you can make them feel good about their character here. The time your wizard was grabbed by a scorpion and he teleported away to leave the creature bewildered while he blasted it with a ray of frost will be a memorable moment, particularly for characters new to the game. Try to give your players some of these moments where they can be really proud of their characters for more than just dealing damage.

Wisp Wraith

I love undead creatures, so I couldn't do this post without one. I was kind of limited in my options, but this is actually a pretty cool creature. You can find them on page 192 of Open Grave. They are level 1 minions, which means don't be shy about putting a lot of them in an encounter. Flavor-wise they are basically wraiths that failed to come into being correctly, but feel free to improvise them into whatever kind of ghosts or guardians you'd like them to be.

Minions die as long as you hit them, so controllers will shine against these creatures, as will clerics with turn undead. These wraiths are by no means really powerful, but they have a few abilities which can make them interesting to fight, which is better. They slow with their attacks, can shift their full movement speed and are phasing which means they can walk through solid objects. If you don't take advantage of the phasing with the encounter setup there is almost no point.

My suggestion is to include them in a room with lots of obstacles and sub-walls for them to walk through, perhaps a library with tall shelves. Have them come out of the walls themselves when the players approach an item they're searching for or the door to the next chamber. Use them to hit and run, darting through a wall to attack a target and then slinking away through another wall when they next act. If your players start chasing after them, it'll make the encounter even better.

That's it for my first DM article. Again, feedback is appreciated. Thanks for reading.

So You Want To Make An Avenger, Huh?

This is the first in a series I plan to do on the new classes offered in the Player's Handbook 2. We're going to start with one of my favorites, and the first class in the book: The Avenger.

Just What Is An Avenger?

Avengers are the dedicated servants of various churches, who instead of being defenders of the faith like paladins, or healers and priests like clerics, are weapons of their divine masters. They are meant to strike quick against their god's enemies, and they need no armor to protect them.

In game terms, the Avenger is the divine power source's striker. They are built to attack with two handed weapons and single out targets. Their features makes their chief strategy a personal war of attrition, choosing a vital part of the enemy force and fully eliminating it before they move on. This obviously frees up their allies to take on the larger forces. They can only wear cloth armor at first, but they get a +3 bonus to Armor Class when not wearing heavy armor or using a shield.

They also get a class-defining encounter power called Oath of Enmity. It is kind of like a warlock's curse or a ranger's quarry, but at the same time its very different. Once you have targeted an enemy with your Oath of Enmity, you are able to make two attack rolls with any attack you make against it, as long as you are not adjacent to any other enemies. This obviously increases their accuracy quite a bit. Even though it is an encounter power, Oath of Enmity recharges when its target is reduced to zero hit points.

They also get Channel Divinity, like all divine classes and start with two uses of it. Abjure Undead is a single target radiant damage spell that targets an undead creature within close burst 5. Despite the name it actually pulls the undead closer and immobilizes them until the end of your next turn. This works better for avengers than turn undead would, since they need to close to melee and isolate their targets from groups. They also get Divine Guidance which gives a second attack roll to an ally when they attack your oath of enmity target.

Avengers use wisdom as the ability for all of their attacks, and then intelligence or dexterity as their secondary scores depending on their build. More on that in the following sections, but lets start at the beginning of building an Avenger.

Isolating vs. Pursuing

Your definitive character building choice as an Avenger is which Avenger's Censure you choose. Censure of Pursuit gives you a damage bonus equal to two plus your dexterity modifier each time your oath of enmity target willing moves away from you. The bonus lasts until the end of your next turn, and increases to four plus the modifier at eleventh level, and six plus the modifier at 21st level.

Censure of Retribution gives you a bonus to your damage rolls equal to your intelligence modifier each time an enemy other than your oath target hits you. The bonus lasts until the end of your next turn, and doesn't get anymore effective as you level, but it is cumulative for every time you are attacked.

Each ability also upgrades various powers along the way. Pursuit powers focus on mobility and not letting your target escape while isolating powers focus on separating your target from its allies and keeping them away. I have seen people proclaim that either pursuing or isolating are just flat out better than the other option, but I think they are both equally useful.

Censure of Pursuit makes it very hard for your target to get away from you, especially on low levels where plus five or six to the damage of your next attack is a big deal. In all likelihood, targets aren't going to move away unless they know you absolutely cannot get to them next round. However, this does nothing to ensure that other creatures will not attack you, and it may be harder to maintain your Oath of Enmity rolls sometimes because of this. I recommend picking some defensive powers and feats early if you choose pursuit, since you are more likely to take enemy attacks than an isolating Avenger would.

Censure of Retribution is totally different. Its bonuses will often keep other enemies out of melee, and make it easy to maintain Oath of Enmity's conditions. However, to get any damage bonus against your target you yourself will have to take damage. This won't happen that often because of your high defenses, and besides the point, I don't like banking on taking damage. In reality, you may not get the damage bonus that often, but it does serve to keep other monsters from even attacking you once they realize it will only bring pain to their allies.

Ability Scores

As I said Wisdom is the ability that all Avengers use for their powers, whether implement or weapon. Starting with at least a 16 in this stat is a good idea, and if you are a race that gets a bonus to wisdom, it would be in your favor to buy an 18. After that your next choice depends on whether you want to be a pursuing avenger, or an isolating avenger. I will go over these more in a few paragraphs, but for now we'll simplify it to the ability scores. Pursuing Avengers use dexterity as a secondary ability, while isolating avengers use intelligence. You definitely want to put your second highest score here.

The real question is what to do with the rest of your points. As a default, constitution is a good score since in all likelihood fortitude will be your weakest defense and this will help boost it, as well as give you a few extra hit points. Even though avengers use weapons to deal most of their damage, it is hard for them to make the ability score requirements for things like Deadly Axe or Hammer Rhythm although if you want to make Strength your tertiary score it puts Heavy Blade Opportunity within reach and the Avenger has some great at-wills to use as opportunity attacks. The other option is to drop it into whichever secondary ability score your build doesn't use, just to make it viable to take some powers from the other build. Many optimizers will warn against this regardless of the class, but there are times this may be appropriate, usually to meet the flavor of the character.

Race Choices

Depending on your build there are three races that have the ideal attribute bonuses to make an Avenger: Elves, Razorclaw Shifters, and Devas. These are by no means the only races that make good Avengers though. I also like Dwarves, Eladrin, Drow, Half-Orcs, Genasi and Humans. The other races could all be Avengers, and there may be some great flavor reasons you could make one (a Dragonborn Avenger of Bahamut or Tiamat for instance), but their mechanics don't work out in favor of choosing this class. Let me go over the options you have.

Elves are my personal favorite race for avengers. They have the perfect ability scores for a the pursuing build, gain even more accuracy with their racial power, and have a seven speed. In addition, they can shift over difficult terrain. This mobility is great for avengers since they need to close to melee to take advantage of their oath of enmity. There really aren't any substantial downsides for this racial choice.

Both Shifter races have good attributes for the Avenger class. Razorclaws have perfect ability score bonuses for pursuing avengers. They also get a +2 bonus to stealth if you want to make your Avenger stealthy, which is definitely an option. Their racial power is good, but only activates when you are bloodied, and that may not happen to you in every fight with your above average defenses, good hit point progression, and tendency to face off against a single foe. They also don't have the 7 movement that elves do. However, they may be an ideal choice flavor-wise if you want your avenger to worship a god of nature, or a more warlike deity like Kord or Tempus. Longtooth Shifters get a bonus to wisdom, but not dexterity or intelligence, however their bonus to strength can be useful. If you choose to spend your points on both a sixteen wisdom (increased to 18 with your bonus) and sixteen dexterity or intelligence, you can still buy a twelve or thirteen strength and with your bonus you would get access to heavy blade opportunity in paragon tier without having to spend any ability points on it at fourth or eighth level. Unfortunately, their ability also only activates when bloodied, and while the +2 damage is nice, the regeneration is a pretty insubstantial amount if you are already taking enough damage to become bloodied.

Devas are the only race with the ideal ability score bonuses to make an isolating Avenger. Their racial ability is also incredibly useful because it not only helps with accuracy like the elf ability does, but it can be used to help save against any debilitating status effect you come under, or even help with a skill check. The flavor of the Deva race also lends itself well to Avengers, since they are divine beings, and it even points out that they are not shy about violence in the name of what they believe is right. They also get two types of resistances and their defenses go up against bloodied creatures, which is also a decent compliment to the avenger class. However, other than Auspicious Lineage in Heroic, and the other lineage feats in paragon and epic, none of their racial feats synergize particularly well with Avengers. They have the ability to make a power attack type trade off with their implement powers with Radiant Power, but the real meat of your powers are going to be weapon attacks, and I can think of many better feats.

Dwarves get bonuses to wisdom and constitution. They are harder to push away from their oath targets, and they can second wind as a minor action. Even though they can't easily start with an 18 in their secondary ability, Dwarves can play well as either type of avenger. Also, in a class that uses two handed weapons, Dwarven Weapon Training is a great feat choice, allowing your avenger to take up a Mordenkrad or Executioner's Axe and get +2 damage with them in a single feat. The downside is that you have only a 5 speed, which is going to hurt your ability to close to melee easily. If you choose dwarf as your race, I recommend grabbing more than just the at-will ranged attack, because there will be fights where it takes more than a single round to close to melee range in all likelihood.

In the D&D/Penny-Arcade podcast that is up right now on the wizards website, Wil Wheaton is playing an Eladrin Avenger. Although I find his build questionable, it is not an inherently poor choice. Eladrin get a bonus to Intelligence and Dexterity, and can thus make good Avengers of either build. You are probably only going to start with a 16 wisdom this way though, so make sure to either take Weapon Expertise, use weapons with +3 proficiency, or both to help out your accuracy. The real reason that I like Eladrin as Avengers though, is Fey Step. If by chance you do get in a situation where you can't get to your oath of enmity target, you now have a built in solution to use once per encounter. Eladrin also get a +1 bonus to will, to increase their already high defense in that department. In my opinion this is the best race if you want to make an avenger that uses both pursuit and isolating type powers since you can have decent scores in both abilities.

Drow are a bit harder to form into an avenger, but they are by no means bad at it. With bonuses to dexterity and charisma, so you would definitely be more inclined to the pursuing build. Drow have darkvision which is always useful, but the real reason I like them is Cloud of Darkness. Against a creature without darkvision, it allows you to force a creature you have targeted with Oath of Enmity to move if they want any real chance of hitting you, which activates your Censure of Pursuit class feature and gives you a damage bonus next turn, which would be a great turn to use an action point and attack twice to grab 10 bonus damage. It also can be used to deter ranged units from pestering you while you attempt to kill your oath of enmity target, plus in an evil campaign a drow avenger of Lolth would be a great character to roleplay.

Half-Orcs are another good choice if you want to use a two-handed sword and grab Heavy Blade Opportunity in paragon tier since they get a +2 to strength, and their dexterity bonus makes them great for the pursuing build. In addition, they get a damage enhancing racial and can charge farther. Since Avengers aren't the heaviest hitting strikers, and charging is something they do a lot if played optimally, both of these bonuses work out well. They even have decent racial feats, especially Thirst for Battle. Overall this is another less obvious, but great choice for Avengers.

Genasi are another race that can grab Heavy Blade Opportunity with their strength bonus, but unlike Half-Orcs they are inclined towars the Isolating Avenger build. Plus, what's better than a fire and brimstone spirited avenger who looks like they are made of actual fire and brimstone. Any manifestation you choose except stormsoul works pretty well for Avengers, but the watersoul power Swiftcurrent, and the earthsoul +1 bonus to fortitude and saving throws are the standouts for me. Again you probably are only going to have a 16 wisdom, so use +3 proficiency weapons or feats to improve your accuracy.

The reason I like humans as a race for avengers is largely because of their extra at-will power. Avengers are one of a handful of classes that have such great at-wills that I really want to have more than two of them, and only with a human is that really possible. Besides that you get bonuses to your already great defenses, a racial feat to improve saving throws, and an extra feat at first level. There are a lot of good feats for Avengers, so this bonus doesn't go to waste like it does on some classes.

Skills

You start with religion, which will help you make monster knowledge checks on undead creatures, as well as be a boon in many skill challenges, and you have a pretty good selection of other skills to choose three from. But you need to make sure you have some bases covered.

Take either acrobatics or athletics. You need to be mobile, and leaping across pits or hazards might come into play in getting to your opponent and locking them down, and it gives you a method to realistically escape a grab.

Perception is something you want at least two people in your party to be really good at. With a high wisdom score you should think about being one of these people, especially since you'll be out in front a lot of the times.

The other skills are probably dependent on how you see your character. Does he stare down his enemies with an icy-cold glare while threatening them with his god's damnation? Take intimidate. Does he look to help his allies when they fall to an enemy's blades? Take heal. Does he sneak around the battlefield to stick his blade in an enemy's back? Take stealth.

Feats

There are a lot of feats that are great choices for Avengers. I'm going to stick to only your first few choices in this article, and if people want an article on the full progression later, I can do that too.

Leather Armor Proficiency is a good feat for Avengers, granting two AC for a single feat. If you took this feat at first level you could be looking at an eighteen or nineteen AC right off the bat. In the same vein, I recommend picking up Improved Armor of Faith which increases the AC granted by Armor of Faith by one for each tier. I would say this feat is pretty much a no-brainer at some point, regardless of your avenger build. Other good defensive options include Defensive Mobility or Toughness, though they might be overkill. You could also go up to Hide Armor which may become worth it when you get into masterwork armors, but the requirements might take valuable ability score points away from your main abilities.

On a more offensive tip, my chief suggestion is to take Weapon Expertise. The Avenger's damage isn't done in bursts, its done by consistently hitting their target, and ruling out misses as much as possible will definitely help. Righteous Rage of Tempus probably won't work for everyone, unless your DM allows you to reskin it for another deity, but its automatic critical hit is an amazing ability for Avengers. They get a 9[W] damage attack at 29th level, if they could auto-critical with that, the damage would be insane. Weapon Focus can also help them deal more damage, as can some racial damage enhancing feats. However, there are two feats which are must-haves for an Avenger to aid in their damage dealing. The first is some kind of superior weapon proficiency. You'll be hitting with your weapon on most of your attacks, so this feat is largely a necessity if you want to be really effective. The Mordenkrad and Executioner's Axe both deal a lot of damage, especially if you pair the axe with Righteous Rage of Tempus, giving you a high crit d12 weapon that gets a surefire critical once an encounter. The Fullblade is also an excellent choice, especially if you are able to get heavy blade opportunity later on. Reach weapons are not as good on avengers as most other classes because you have to be adjacent to get your two rolls with oath of enmity anyway. The other really necessary feat is Melee Training so that you can key your opportunity attacks to wisdom instead of strength.

For more general utility, Improved Initiative makes a great feat, allowing you to get out and separate your target from its allies before they make it difficult for you. Another Channel Divinity feat, Mielikki's Fleetness, from the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide, can really help you close the distance to an enemy when heading over difficult terrain.

Both Censure of Pursuit and Censure of Retribution have a feat to improve them in heroic tier. Guaranteed Retribution gives you a +1 feat bonus to attack rolls whenever a monster other than your oath target hits you. This is definitely good, but I'm not sure its a must-have. If around eighth level you are out of obvious feats to take, than this is definitely a good option, but otherwise I'd consider skipping it. Invigorating Pursuit on the other hand, is much better. Whenever you charge your oath of enmity target, something that you will probably do often, you gain plus two to both damage and armor class until the end of your next turn. There are many Avenger attacks that you can use in place of a melee basic attack with a charge, so charging is something you will do often. Eventually you will probably charge almost every target you use Oath of Enmity on once. Its still not as urgent as Melee Training or a superior weapon proficiency, but its something to add to the roster around level six or eight.

Power Selection

I will be going over all of your options for level one and two powers. If you want something farther than that, let me know and I will do a sequel to this article in the near future. Here though, we will cover only the very beginning of your journey as a weapon of the gods.

Your first choice of powers is your at-wills, and it will be one of the toughest. Avengers at-will powers are all really good, which cannot be said for some classes. The only power you can probably eliminate straight away is either Bond of Pursuit or Bond of Retribution, depending on which build you chose for your character. You probably just won't have the ability scores to make the opposite ability really useful.

Overwhelming Strike is excellent for pulling the enemy away and making sure your Oath of Enmity is paying out in hits. Technically it is really the same power as Footwork Lure, but that was a good power for fighters and its a great power for Avengers.

The last power is Radiant Vengeance, which is a ranged 10 single target bolt that deals 1d8 plus wisdom modifier damage and grants temporary hit points equal to your wisdom modifier. This power is really great on low levels as something you fire off before closing to melee, giving yourself a shield of temporary hit points for the next round when you'll be in the fray. The downside of this power is eventually the amount of temporary hit points will be negligible, but you can always retrain out of it. It also isn't as good for a pursuing avenger, since you are more likely to use a charge and close the gap faster than sling a bolt from range in many situations. If you are a human, it is definitely a valuable addition as your third at-will, otherwise I would say that the Bond attack aligned with your build, and Overwhelming Strike are probably your best bets for being an effective Avenger.

Your next choice is going to be your level one encounter power. I'll be honest, I'm not thrilled about the options here for isolating avengers, but lets start at the top of the order with Angelic Alacrity. This power allows you to shift two squares before the attack and deals 2[W] plus wisdom modifier damage. However, if you chose Censure of Pursuit, you can instead shift one plus your dexterity modifier squares before the attack. This bonus makes the power a pretty obvious choice to me, giving you a safer alternative than charging to get to your opponent. As a pursuit avenger, this would be my number one choice.

Avenging Echo is really great if there are enemies that you absolutely know are going to move next to you and/or attack you. However, if using this ability means that your Dungeon Master is just not going to move any enemies near you, it becomes less useful. It deals just as much damage as Bond of Retribution, and if Avenging Echo would deter your DM from attacking you, it's likely that Bond of Retribution would as well. You could get some nice damage out of it, but I'd probably choose a different power.

Shared Madness is a ranged implement attack power. If you hit one target it automatically deals identical damage to a second creature you can see. This makes it a decent situational ability, but I think the opportunity to make use of it is going to be rare and it won't be as accurate since your Oath only affects melee attacks. One thing to point out though, is that this is the only attack Avengers can get that targets the Will defense, which is the most commonly low defense, until level thirteen without multiclassing.

Whirlwind Charge is the only other power that deals 2[W] damage in this bunch and it would be my first choice for isolating avengers since it allows you to use it in place of a basic melee attack during a charge, giving them a good initial strike when they head into battle. In addition, you get plus four to your defenses against any opportunity attacks you incur, which is a mixed blessing truthfully. Its good because you are safe, but it would be nice to get the extra damage from your Censure of Retribution if you are hit on the way. If you do get hit on the way to your enemy more than once with this ability, this would be an excellent round to use an action point and take advantage of the damage bonus.

As for level one daily powers, we'll start with Aspect of Might. The first thing I notice when looking at it is that its the only level one daily to hit for 3[W] damage (half on a miss). On a striker, this alone makes it a solid choice. The fact that it also gives you plus two to speed and damage as well as a plus five bonus to athletics checks until the end of the encounter makes it a very real option. If you are really enjoying the idea of instant critical hits with Righteous Rage of Tempus that I pointed out earlier, then this is probably the power for you. I am trying to keep walls of equations out of my thread because I think they're myopic and intimidating, but let's get into the numbers for just a second. If you were a level one human avenger using this daily combined with righteous rage of tempus, you would be dealing 1d12+40 damage without any magical items. This is assuming that you are using an executioner's axe and eighteen wisdom, but that's entirely possible. Even if you are not doing that particular character build, this is a good power for either build, but probably shines for pursuing Avengers a bit more thanks to the speed bonus.

Oath of the Final Duel is a great power for keeping yourself next to a particularly mobile enemy. It deals 2[W] plus wisdom modifier damage (half on a miss) and until the end of the encounter or until you end a turn more than three squares away from it, you may use a minor action at the start of your turn to teleport within three squares of it. Pursuing Avengers probably don't need this power, as they have an at-will that should function fine at keeping them within melee range, but isolating Avengers may find their prey escaping from time to time, and this power could come in handy during those situations. The fact that its movement is teleportation should definitely not be overlooked in considering your options. However, there are monsters which have reactions that allow them to move away from you after being attacked or approached. This can make for a premature end to your effect and essentially waste your daily power.

Renewing Strike is a good power to introduce a point I will make on this blog over and over again. And that point is that Dungeons and Dragons is a team game. The party is the entity that has to succeed not an individual player. A lot of optimizers don't understand this very well and instead just build really narrowly focused builds that excel at one thing and one thing only. In a party setting, these builds often fail. This daily power is a ranged attack that targets reflex and deals 2d10+wisdom modifier lightning damage, half damage on a miss, and grants you a healing surge use regardless of whether it hits or not. Most people aren't going to want to waste a daily power on a ranged attack for a primarily melee class, but this power can be useful as both a novelty retrain or to shore up the weaknesses of a group. Not every group has a perfect balance of roles, and if your group doesn't have a leader to heal, this is probably an excellent choice for you. It deals lightning damage, which is not a common enemy vulnerability, but its nice to have a way to deal multiple types of damage anyway. It also targets reflex rather than armor class. Even if your group does have a leader, it may be worth retraining into this later once you have better daily melee powers open to you just so you have a good ranged attack and a way to heal yourself.

The last level one daily power option is Temple of Light. It is a very decent power, but it has its downsides as well. It deals 2[W] plus wisdom modifier damage and creates a zone in a burst 2 centered on the target. The zone moves with the target, and anytime you hit a creature in the zone with an attack you deal an extra 1d6 radiant damage. First off, the flavor of this power is really cool, and the mechanics are neat and pretty unique especially amongst striker classes. Even if I don't think this is the most optimal power, it sure makes for some fun tactical situations. The one immediately noticeable downside is that its the only level one daily Avengers have that doesn't deal damage on a miss, but it does create the zone regardless. Even though the zone is burst 2 though, it isn't too likely that you're going to get to use its 1d6 damage bonus for attacks on other creatures since that would mean taking your attention off of your Oath of Enmity target. Regardless 1d6 damage per attack isn't a bad bonus at level one, and its also radiant damage, which will be great if you know you're going up against some undead early on since most of them are vulnerable to radiant damage.

Once you've hit level two, you can get a utility power. This is another time to make a good point about building a character. When choosing utility powers, don't forget the weight of an encounter power versus the weight of a daily power. You'll likely be using the encounter powers at least three times as often as the dailies. Take this into consideration, because getting to use cool powers more often is not only a way to make a better character overall, its also going to help you have more fun playing your character.

That being said the first power is Blessing of Vengeance, a daily power that is a free action. It is triggered when your Oath of Enmity target drops to zero hit points, and it allows you to gain temporary hit points equal to your healing surge value. It is very good, and scales pretty well even up into high levels, but the fact that it is a daily keeps me from endorsing it as the best choice.

Distracting Flare is a move action that allows you to turn invisible and then move your speed, becoming visible again afterwards. This is a good way to escape from a bad situation, or to close the gap to your intended target, but honestly there are no shortage of ways to do that as an Avenger. If you don't have one yet, or feel that you need more help doing it, then taking this power might be a good option for you. If you are building a stealthy avenger, this choice is definitely a good decision flavor-wise.

Refocus Enmity is definitely useful, because there will be times when additional enemies join the fray and you want to change targets, or you will second guess your original oath choice. However, if I am needing to change my Oath of Enmity target every single encounter, than the problem is I need to rethink my initial oath choice, not that I need this power.

Resonant Escape is my favorite utility power choice for Avengers at this level, and the reasoning is simple. Teleporting 3 squares as an immediate reaction whether I'm hit or missed by an attack, can allow me to get adjacent to my oath target on the opposite side of it from the enemies. This means I can continue getting two attack rolls without having to use my own movement on my own turn or provoke any opportunity attacks. For the pursuing Avenger this is great since they don't have as many ways to keep foes away from them as isolating avengers do.

Multiclassing

The Avenger is definitely a class that can benefit from multiclassing just as well as sticking to its own powers and paragon paths. Some possibilities include Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, and Wizard from the original Player's Handbook, Swordmage from the Forgotten Realm Player's Guide, and the Invoker, the Druid or the Shaman from Player's Handbook 2. I am going to refrain from talking at length about multiclassing in these guides because there are so many different options that I could write another article just as long as this one only about multiclass choices for the Avenger. Also, choosing which class to multiclass into goes far beyond the lower levels and that is where this is centered.

In general though, choosing a class to multiclass into should be all about what you want your character to be good at and what your party needs. If you need more heals, consider taking Initiate of the Faith so you can grab a cleric utility power, as well as use Healing Word as a daily. If you need more crowd control or are having a hard time dealing with minions, consider Wizard, Invoker, or Druid as options. If you want to sneak around and add some burst damage, Rogue is a viable option as well.

Combat Strategies

By now you have a good idea of what the Avenger class does. It singles out an enemy, separates it from the main battle, and kills it. Wash, rinse, repeat. Your choice of build determines how you do this, but there are some specific strategies I wanted to point out.

Avoid enemies who can mark you, especially if those marks do something besides a simple minus two penalty to your attacks. These types of monsters will make it a nightmare for you, either forcing you to target them, and thus not getting to roll twice for each attack, or penalizing you for continuing to pursue your oath target with attack penalties or damage. While isolating avengers have some abilities to mitigate this type of enemy, pursuing avengers are very susceptible to them, and try to avoid being pulled off your main target by them.

Twice as many attack rolls mean twice as many critical hits. If you are the type that plans your character far ahead of time you might have realized that it is hard to get into the mastery feats on an Avenger in epic tier, and thus it will be hard to get critical hits as often. However, the fact that you will be rolling twice for most attacks means that natural twenties will come up twice as often right from the start.

Opportunity attacks are better for isolating avengers than regular attacks. If you are going to get attacked by targets other than your oath target as an isolating avenger, it is better to get hit by opportunity attacks than any other kind and the reason is simple. The bonus to damage that you get from being hit lasts until the end of your next turn, if you get hit with an attack during your turn for moving, you can use the bonus in that turn, and the next one. If an enemy hits you during his own turn, you only get the bonus through one turn of your own.

Avengers do not play the same as any other strikers. If you played another melee striker before you played an Avenger, it is an entirely different ballgame. You will not deal as much damage in bursts as you would with a two weapon ranger or a rogue. You will hit often though, and get more critical hits during heroic tier. You will be more resilient than any other damage dealer in your party.

Finally, Avengers are not a great beginner class. Avengers are a strategy-heavy class and are probably not something someone first playing the game should use to learn the workings of the game. Oath of Enmity is not easy to maintain if you are unfamiliar with the rules, and all the tactical movement and micromanagement that can be required to be a really effective party member are not something that usually comes to a new player right away. If a new player wants to play an up-close damage dealer, consider suggesting a two weapon ranger instead.

And that's it for the first one of these. Feedback would be appreciated, but I prefer the constructive kind to the destructive variety. If there's something you want to see me cover in future updates, go ahead and let me know.

What's This All About Then?

Not everyone who runs a 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons game, or plays in one, has as much free time to spend on the game as I do. This is not some weird kind of nerd bravado, I just have a compulsion to re-read every bit of source material until I feel like I've wrapped my brain around everything and the book and the synergies between them. I also run two regular games, as well as several online games, so I feel like I have figured out 4th Edition pretty well.

In 4th Edition, the concept of System Mastery is still present, though its not as much of a headache as it was in 3.5 or AD&D. Whether you are putting together an encounter as a dungeon master, or building your first character of a new class, there are choices that you are going to have to make, and being informed about them can help you build an effective character. This isn't all about min/maxing or being a munchkin either, there is a way to make the best character you can without compromising your concept, and I will discuss both mechanics and flavor when I go over something on this blog.

So what you may be wondering is what specific things I will be going over here. The short answer is whatever anyone who happens to read asks for. I will be happy to solve problems that pop up in your games or to answer questions about game balance. I do not proclaim to be some guru though, so at the end of the day all you're really getting is a second opinion besides your own. But here are some of the things I plan to cover:

- Character Options: from things to keep in mind when building an assault swordmage, to highlighting the uses of commonly overlooked powers and feats, to addressing the pros and cons of character classes and other additions to the game, I plan to be an informed resource for any player who reads this blog.

- DM Options: from pre-built encounters you are welcome to borrow, to tips on making your sessions run smoother and even in-depth looks at individual monsters, there will be posts useful to DMs as well.

- Problem Solving: Do you have a player who is difficult to challenge in encounters? Is your character less effective than you want him to be and you are wondering what choices could possibly make him more effective? I will answer any and all questions people ask me.

While I do these things, I also plan to keep my two main goals in mind. My first goal is to never come off as a condescending asshole. It would be an easy trap to fall into giving that I'll be discussing the pros and cons of every part of the game, but I will do my best to always come off as wanting to inform, not wanting to gloat. Besides, where's the glory in bragging about this anyway? My other goal is that I will try and have some kind of content up at least 5 times a week. I will try and update daily, but I can't make any promises as to that.

Anyway, I have the first few updates planned out already. So before I end this introduction, here is what you can expect coming soon:

- So You Want To Make An Avenger, Huh? I plan to go through all the new classes just added in the Player's Handbook Two, and the choices you have when making one. Avengers will be up first.

- Monster Spotlight: Level 1 Terrors If the members of your party are experienced with the game and are starting new characters, you might want to look at some of these monsters to really challenge them during the early portion of the game.

- Old And New With all the new material in Player's Handbook 2 you might forget the older material even exists. I want to highlight some interesting ways to combine the older material with the new to make a cool character.

If you have any other features you'd like to see, leave a comment and I'll see what I can do.