I'm making a 4e adventure that has a defiler agent of the sorcerer-kings infiltrating a Veiled Alliance secret base, and ending up fighting the PCs at the end of the adventure. The defiler would be a lurker, what with being an infiltrator, yet be a leader (i.e. Level 8 Elite Lurker (Leader)) who at the end fights against the PCs with the help of a bunch of templars and half-giant soldiers and templar knights.
All I've been able to come up with is your standard power set for an artillery role. I'm stuck at thinking wizards are either artillery or controllers.
Any ideas?
A Lurker (Leader)... there are two directions I would take in the situation you presented, which one taken depending on what you meant by "infiltrate".
If he was just a skilled martial spy who managed to find and penetrate the location of the Veiled Alliance base, then I'd an evasive melee whose attacks give his allies combat advatnage, literal with some of the powers but there is no reason not to be innoventive within the confines of the concept.
If he is a deflilier mage who inflitrated the Veiled Alliance by posing as one of their own, then you have a more interesting pool of powers to work with. I'd make him a teleporter who leaves behind the small necrotic burst when he teleports, and realitively weak damaging attacks (in comparison to artillery mobs) that buff his allies. Maybe with a coupe de grace power on recharge that drains healing surgers for additional buffs.
This kind of what you're looking for? I don't have enough expirience to feel confident trying to stat any of this out for you, unfortunetly.
Lurker Defiler = Illusion & Shadow, here an example I build with the Monster Builder:
Out of curiousity, Penn, is this for that partially completed adventure module you (or I think it was you) shared with me some time back?
Yes, Reverend. I hadn't touched it in months. With so much elapsed time I can see some of my errors and bad decisions, one of them making the particular NPC defiler an artillery powerhouse.
Btw, guys, he's a myrmeleon: infiltrating the VA, learning names, faces, locations, until he can reveal them later or personaly lead a crackdown team to take down the VA. In this case he's not faking being a preserver or some other class, but rather a defenseless slave...now that I think of it reminescent of Er'Stradi (sp?) from the Prims Pentad.
Mmm, ok, so I had an idea: this guy is an assassin, trained as a chasseur and myrmeleon. He's not a primary caster, he can kill without magic, but magic helps him do it better and face wizards - his targets.
This should finaly provide some aim to the character's stats: he's a striker, his powers look a lot like the assassin powers from the Dragon Magazine class, yet also has lurker abilities, turning invisible or gaining concealment, that kind of thing.
I'll be reading the assassin class while at work, taking notes.
I took a cue from the MM2's new Shadar-Kai for the following abilities, but I believe they could be better. The defiler rips away a PC's lifeforce, for lingering effects:
Reap (standard, at-will) ♦ Necrotic
Ranged 10; +x vs Reflex; xdx + x necrotic damage, and the target is life burnt (save ends).
Life Burnt
While life burnt, a creature takes a -2 penalty to attack rolls and gains only half the benefit of healing effects.