Hello all,I have a bit of a problem,I have a leel 14 character who is about to be brought back to life as a Revenant. The character is very charisma based and acts as the parties main (only) healer.She was a cunning Bard before her demise and will be - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Hello all,I have a bit of a problem,I have a leel 14 character who is about to be brought back to life as a Revenant. The character is very charisma based and acts as the parties main (only) healer.She was a cunning Bard before her demise and will be

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
Twalford
Aug 02, 2013 10:03:51 Hello all,

I have a bit of a problem,

I have a leel 14 character who is about to be brought back to life as a Revenant. The character is very charisma based and acts as the parties main (only) healer.

She was a cunning Bard before her demise and will be switching to a melee focused build when she returns. I want to keep her as the parties main source of Charisma based skills as well. Obviously I can switch her to a Valorous bard but I also have the choice of a charisma based.

I have not played either a Valorous Bard or any type of Warlord and am curious as to how they stack up against each other.

Relevant info is that we have quite a melee focused party so extra MBA's will work well. Also Our DM has certain restrictions on what material we can use. For the Warlord this is fine since I have access to PHB and MP 1 and 2. However the Bard is a little more limitted as PHB2 is the only allowed material for Bards.

From a character point of view I am inclined to say that the Bard fits the character better and I like that the high charisma will help with many of my skills. While I do not want to metagame I am concerned that sticking with the Bard will gimp the character in the long run, especially since I am the only healer in the party and Warlords seem very good at maintaining healing. I know the Valorous Bard can give temp hit points out as their 'thing' but the ability seems a little limited to stand up long term.

I apreciate you all reading the huuuuge wall of text and thankyou in advance for any advice.

Regards

t
#2
iserith
Aug 02, 2013 11:03:26 Check out the Character Optimization forum and read the Bard's Handbook. That should give you an assessment of the class options and may even say which books what comes from to make it easy for you to see what is and isn't permitted by your DM.

I've played all the types of bards and I think they're all just fine. Leader is my favorite role.

Don't worry about metagaming. It's nothing to concern yourself with, and often quite helpful to the game experience.
#3
crimsyn
Aug 02, 2013 11:43:06 I've played Warlords and Bards, and they're both good - I'd echo Iserith's advice about checking out the character optimization guides to get an overview of what the character is like.

Incidentally, that is a curious restriciton. As a DM, I'm not a fan of any restriction on source material because it is completely unnecessary in 4e. Perhaps you can ask your DM to allow you to at least use Arcane Power if you want more options - it seems a tad odd that Martial chracters are allowed splatbooks while Arcane characters aren't allowed the equivalent splatbook.
#4
masteraleph
Aug 07, 2013 1:55:20 Agreed that restricting to PHB2 for Bard seems rather unfair, given the fact that you can use the Power books for the Warlord (and even more silly given that Revenant is a Dragon Magazine race!)

As far as character building is concerned- a Bravlord (Bravura Presence), from MP, is CHA secondary, which would work fine with the Revenant (you'd probably want to go 18 STR and 14 CHA as starting stats, presuming that you're allowed to change them around). Warlord also has the advantage that there's an awesome power available to you, at every level, from one of the 3 books you're allowed to use for it, many of which grant MBAs (Warlords are the king of granting basic attacks). Its best PPs are also available from those books.

The Bard (as you probably know at this point) loses a lot from being PHB2 only- many of its best powers are from something else, especially Dragon but occasionally AP. It's also not going to be as good with granting attacks or healing. Valbards do, however, get a ridiculously good PP in PHB2, War Chanter, which helps greatly in the granting/empowering. It also does great stuff with the THPs you mentioned- you gain THP equal to the ones you grant from your class feature, and (assuming a 16/16 array that has you with a starting 18 in CHA and 16 in CON), at level 14 grants 10 THP to an ally every time you kill or bloody an enemy. If you end up being allowed to use stuff from AP, grab Heart of the Blade as your multiclass and use a longsword as your implement, so that you still have melee flavor even when using an implement power.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Twalford Aug 02, 2013 10:03:51	Hello all, I have a bit of a problem, I have a leel 14 character who is about to be brought back to life as a Revenant. The character is very charisma based and acts as the parties main (only) healer. She was a cunning Bard before her demise and will be switching to a melee focused build when she returns. I want to keep her as the parties main source of Charisma based skills as well. Obviously I can switch her to a Valorous bard but I also have the choice of a charisma based. I have not played either a Valorous Bard or any type of Warlord and am curious as to how they stack up against each other. Relevant info is that we have quite a melee focused party so extra MBA's will work well. Also Our DM has certain restrictions on what material we can use. For the Warlord this is fine since I have access to PHB and MP 1 and 2. However the Bard is a little more limitted as PHB2 is the only allowed material for Bards. From a character point of view I am inclined to say that the Bard fits the character better and I like that the high charisma will help with many of my skills. While I do not want to metagame I am concerned that sticking with the Bard will gimp the character in the long run, especially since I am the only healer in the party and Warlords seem very good at maintaining healing. I know the Valorous Bard can give temp hit points out as their 'thing' but the ability seems a little limited to stand up long term. I apreciate you all reading the huuuuge wall of text and thankyou in advance for any advice. Regards t
#2 iserith Aug 02, 2013 11:03:26	Check out the Character Optimization forum and read the Bard's Handbook. That should give you an assessment of the class options and may even say which books what comes from to make it easy for you to see what is and isn't permitted by your DM. I've played all the types of bards and I think they're all just fine. Leader is my favorite role. Don't worry about metagaming. It's nothing to concern yourself with, and often quite helpful to the game experience.
#3 crimsyn Aug 02, 2013 11:43:06	I've played Warlords and Bards, and they're both good - I'd echo Iserith's advice about checking out the character optimization guides to get an overview of what the character is like. Incidentally, that is a curious restriciton. As a DM, I'm not a fan of any restriction on source material because it is completely unnecessary in 4e. Perhaps you can ask your DM to allow you to at least use Arcane Power if you want more options - it seems a tad odd that Martial chracters are allowed splatbooks while Arcane characters aren't allowed the equivalent splatbook.
#4 masteraleph Aug 07, 2013 1:55:20	Agreed that restricting to PHB2 for Bard seems rather unfair, given the fact that you can use the Power books for the Warlord (and even more silly given that Revenant is a Dragon Magazine race!) As far as character building is concerned- a Bravlord (Bravura Presence), from MP, is CHA secondary, which would work fine with the Revenant (you'd probably want to go 18 STR and 14 CHA as starting stats, presuming that you're allowed to change them around). Warlord also has the advantage that there's an awesome power available to you, at every level, from one of the 3 books you're allowed to use for it, many of which grant MBAs (Warlords are the king of granting basic attacks). Its best PPs are also available from those books. The Bard (as you probably know at this point) loses a lot from being PHB2 only- many of its best powers are from something else, especially Dragon but occasionally AP. It's also not going to be as good with granting attacks or healing. Valbards do, however, get a ridiculously good PP in PHB2, War Chanter, which helps greatly in the granting/empowering. It also does great stuff with the THPs you mentioned- you gain THP equal to the ones you grant from your class feature, and (assuming a 16/16 array that has you with a starting 18 in CHA and 16 in CON), at level 14 grants 10 THP to an ally every time you kill or bloody an enemy. If you end up being allowed to use stuff from AP, grab Heart of the Blade as your multiclass and use a longsword as your implement, so that you still have melee flavor even when using an implement power.