Hi!!! I'm a D&D 4e and DL fan. (I also like Ravenloft, and Oriental Adventures.) Ideally I would like all of the neglected CSings get some love and attention. But not before DL!!!
Maybe they will make newer settings too. The goal of this thread is to keep DL open and alive and current in the pubic's eye thanks.
I loved the pre-rolled characters but I struggle to see how some of the flavour could be retained in 4e unless they tweak them to depart from the standard rules, perhaps with themes. The original PCs were balanced against each other with a mix of class, level, stats, and magical items (although Raistlin was ridiculously weak). 4e sort of expects everybody to be on a more even playing field with equal stats, items, and powers.
Compare Laurana to Caramon or Sturm for example. Caramon (St18, Con17) could work as a slayer or a sword and board weaponmaster fighter but he had low dexterity and low wisdom. Sturm (St17, Con16) may work as a great weapon weaponmaster fighter or perhaps a knight but his highest secondary stat was intelligence (Int14) which might lead many 4e players to question optimisation issues. Tanis was perhaps a mix of a ranger and a tactical warlord, although his intelligence was only 12 and his charisma 15 (I think). Laurana had the highest overall stats in the game but her best stats were spread into areas not traditionally important for fighters. She had St13 and Con14 and used a short sword. Her role in the books might lead her toward an inspiring warlord but she would fail to inspire if she could never hit. An Essentials knight could work with melee training plus a new suit of elven ring mail or an elven chain shirt. Or should we cave to the 4e rules and build her as a houseruled rogue that has (mechanincally at least) trained out thievery in favour of diplomacy or a hunter ranger - if there are enough melee powers to make it work? I'd love to see what they come up with.
Attribute values as long as the character exemplifies the flavor of the stories might be somewhat different than you expect (I assume you are pulling the numbers from a game translation of the characters).
One way to hone in on a character that feels edgy is to hybrid ... rogue feels like fighting style but doesnt even use thieving? do some inspiring stuff in there but not in the hits em hard category use lazylord elements.
You wanted to mulitclass swordmage preq.int 13.
int/dex really affect reflex. It's no different form the figther fort. but the fighte doesn't HAVE to fight w/2 attb's. So at first your going to be subpar on your dailes accuracy. High dex inproves leather armorer, ausspicous birth let's you use highest ab scorce for hitpoints. And melee traing dex let you use your dex mod for bma's but 1/2 the damage. so if your 20 (+5) you get a (+2) to damgerolls. And high initative. so as it stands this character has 32 hip point's (+5) attk (+5)initiative. and 19 ac. All these things let it SURVIVE COMBAT. You will never get light blade mastery by epic. but that's o.k. so you can tell me what you think latter. goodnight.
Personally, I only use the general backgrounds that provide bonuses to skills because otherwise some are so much better than others and I'd prefer all the pcs to be on equal footing in terms of benefits. I also only use backgrounds that actually fit the character's novel background rather than just for a particular mechanical benefit. However, I can see a very strong argument for applying that background to Raistlin as an exception to my general rule.
I don't really understand how bladesingers need to be built to be effective but you are proposing taking melee traning Dex to override his class feature of Intelligence to hit with basic attacks to increase accuracy and reduce damage (which is then reclaimed via power riders)? I hadn't thought of using a rapier instead of a longsword (the disconnect between elves and eladrin now makes the 1e connection to longswords and shortswords more remote).
Still, Gilthanas' 1e stats were pretty grim. I don't remember them exactly but I think he was Fg5/Wz4, S12, I14, W10, D16, C12, Ch14 (or thereabouts). When we converted our own pcs to 4e we set a rule that no ability scores could bump up or down by more than one tier to retain as much of the character's earlier flavour as we could without neutering the build with the 4e mechanics (so no intelligent fighters suddenly becoming very dumb because they get nothing for it in 4e). Maybe that is a good ground rule (subject to level bumping stats)? On that basis, only charisma breaks the rule. Still, without auspicious birth more con would also be useful.
Order Adept or Wizards Apprentice are both reasonable themes for the character. I only went for Order Adept because it will allow him to obtain an extra wizard utility power to give him a bit more wizardy power and because I thought I'd prefer wizards apprentice for Raistlin and I didn't want to repeat myself.
I think you build has merit, although I'd prefer to see how the other PCs measure up before trying to optimise this one too much. I wouldn't want Gilthanas being much more effective than his sister or Tanis for example.
Personally, I only use the general backgrounds that provide bonuses to skills because otherwise some are so much better than others and I'd prefer all the pcs to be on equal footing in terms of benefits. I also only use backgrounds that actually fit the character's novel background rather than just for a particular mechanical benefit. However, I can see a very strong argument for applying that background to Raistlin as an exception to my general rule.
To balance backgrounds allow three general background benefits or one background benefit from World Specific areas (Scales of War or Forgotten Realms) .... its a pretty good balance and works great...
Beyond that an actual background is very flexible description that might correlate with one of these backgrounds exactly or similarly.
For instance I have a character in my sig called the faerie master I gave him a vengeful rival background from the scales of war.. because it best reflected his actual background ... he sometimes believes he is hunted because he lived through a purging where wizards were hunted down it resulted in him using stealth and a disconnect between him and his magic. I am saying as long as the effects work for the character use the mechanics which fit them.
Note backgrounds like unusual birth signs and strange luck to go with, were incredibly common in legend... so if they end up common in game ... well it doesnt cause me tears.
Does that just leave Elistan and Riverwind? Maybe I'll try them tomorrow. These are VERY rough drafts and it would be cool to hear of combos and feats and magic items that could simulate the characters and be better optimised. There might also be more recent powers or feats that only feature in the online builder that fit better (although I think I've tried to cover recent additions). Some characters might not have been given magic items that they had in 1e as I'm struggling to recall what equipment they had too.
All comments welcome - but try to avoid focusing too much on the ability spreads since they are intentionally designed to be reasonably similar to the 1e characters.
TO: Pauln6 Wow, you been busy!!! And single handedly continued the thread nice work!!! I personally haven't built anything higher than lvl 3. And w/items I really depend what you want them to do charge items, poison, etc.... Garth. probally has a better idea than me. You could try posting them in ch. opt. or there role and ask questions! But let them know they're unopt'ed. Just one question why are some lvl 5 and some 4? As for combo's and feats read the guides they are colour coded. Some aurthors are more detailed then others. I personally like LDB stuff. He's through.
there is allso another fan's interpretation of the hero's at the DL nexus forms,DL gaming, 4e. I think on the last page. I not sure how ...up to date but it might be fun to look at. compare. whatever. Anyway I was reading that GD thread...explain DL to a 4e guy? And 1 guy said he was playing a active 4e campaigne in DL. He was very descipted but it got me thinking DL has bunch of source books. They released...and I downloaded! So even if they give me one fry(Dragon article.) and call it a meal I'll be set anyway's. And if you haven't allready check the sight out!!
It might be more thematic to give Caramon scale mail and for Sturm to buy the feat for a suit of plate mail.
That is what I recall from artwork of Caramon and discussion of Sturm I think.