Alesk, 2nd Level

[bryant]

Danger, Will Robinson! D&D post! (I know. But I can’t bring myself to clog up the community with boring crap about a character nobody actually plays with. Er, clog it up more than once, anyhow.)

So Alesk is your typical melee cleric — not super-twinked, he doesn’t have a reach weapon, although I know that’d be more efficient and he may have to swap over to that at some point. He hit level 2 and picked up a +1 lightning bastard sword to replace his old mace at the same time. Woo, +3 more to hit than he had a moment ago!

I am giving into the siren call of roleplaying and taking Bless over Cure Light Wounds. I figure since I have Healing Strike, I’m still in the ballpark as far as overall healing throughput goes compared to a laser cleric. I do have 16 Wisdom and a +1 Symbol of Life, so I’m down a point or two of healing from the laser cleric but I have some nice burst capacity.

Since he plays in Living Forgotten Realms, I have another leader in the party as often as not anyhow. Am I nuts for not maxing my healing? Alesk just likes hitting things more…

Originally published at Imaginary Vestibule.

Comments

[jeffwik.livejournal.com]

When/where do you do LFR? I'd like to try it sometime.

[bryant]

Pandemonium, Mondays, 6 PM to 10ish PM. I'd be happy to give you a ride back home afterwards.

This week's level 1-4 game is full. I recommend registering on Warhorn and joining the mailing list so you can hop on it when a game is posted. The games do fill up pretty quickly.

Let me know if you have any questions on character creation.

[jeffwik.livejournal.com]

Hmm, warhorn.net doesn't seem to like me. But I signed up for the mailing list.

[bryant]

It is down too often. Boo.

[jeffwik.livejournal.com]

Am I misunderstanding, or would I have to make a 1st-level character, which means that adventures aimed at characters above first level would be out of reach for me until such time as I leveled up my first-level character?

[bryant]

That is correct. The adventure level ranges are 1-4, 4-7, 7-10 and so on.

For each level range you can play low or play high, which is a group decision. Playing high means more experience. I expect 400 xp from playing low, and 560 from playing high. If you have a couple of people at level 3 or 4 in your group, playing high seems wise. If you have bad players, playing high is less wise. I've had one success playing high and one failure on the last fight, but even then we got more experience for the failed high than we'd have gotten otherwise.

[maps-or-guitars.livejournal.com]

melee cleric
twinked, super
cleric w/sword?
healing strike?
&c

I ain't played D&D since 1st edition, and boy, does it show. Y'all have just hit me between the eyes with a Level 3 Generation Gap, and I failed my save.

*IDEA...* that'd be a decent T&T spell:
Generation Gap: Level 2, Costs 5 ST, +1 ST per point drained (see below). Range 10' Instant effect.

Generation Gap allows the caster to reduce the target's IQ OR CHA on a temporary basis by making him feel stupid or old; the target loses 1 point of the desired attribute for every 2 points of strength expended. The lost IQ or CHA returns at a rate of 1 point per turn (5 combat rounds) regardless of the target's level of activity; it can also be reversed by magic (Curses Foiled, &c)The spell ONLY works when the target is OLDER than the caster; if the target is actually younger, the intended IQ or CHA loss is inflicted on the caster. (An elf mage would be well advised not to try this one on a human...)

[maps-or-guitars.livejournal.com]

I gotta edit that, re: spell cost... which option looks better, the one in the initial blurb, or in the body description?

[bryant]

Bwah. Hey, I had the original blue box... I'm a greybeard.

Nice writeup, though.

Your basic D&D 4e breakdown: first level characters get two at-will powers, which are the bread and butter attacks. Alesk took one power that allows him to give someone else a bonus to hit when he hits with his sword, and one power that calls down holy ranged vengeance on his opponents and has some other nice side effects. This means I'm never reduced to just going "eh, I hit him." I always get a nice effect to go with it.

You also get one encounter power, which can be used once per fight. Alesk likes to channel his holy energy through his MIGHTY SWORD and Torm rewards his aggressiveness by healing someone as a result. WHACK. "Good dragonborn. Here, heal Bob."

AND you get a daily power, which is a once per day thing. Alesk does some fun stuff there too.

Note that none of this is my bread and butter healing as a cleric; it's boring to give up all your other fun stuff in exchange for healing. Alesk can heal people twice per fight. It doesn't even mean he can't attack on that turn.

[maps-or-guitars.livejournal.com]

Blue box! Me too. What was in there, Keep on the Borderlands, right?

Interesting stuff - it's not gonna get me to run out and buy the new books, but interesting.

[head58.livejournal.com]

Woo Blue Box!

[death-by-monkey.livejournal.com]

Ah, the blue box.

Wait. 2nd Level and he's got a +1 Lightning Bastard Sword? What kinda magic level is this campaign playing? Maybe I just played too many campaigns where the GM was stingy with the magic items, but that seems pretty generous for a 2nd level character!

[bryant]

Standard 4e. The expectation for 4e is that a group of five PCs will get four magic items among them each level; those items will range from one to four levels above the party level. A +1 lightning weapon is level 5, so that's well within the appropriate range.

In Living Forgotten Realms, you can expect to get one magic item per level period (not counting anything you buy). Since the +1 weapon was available in the adventure in which I hit level 2, I grabbed it -- there's nothing that'll improve him more than that, and I'll worry about magic armor later. I should have enough cash to buy a decent suit in a couple of sessions anyhow.