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D&D 4E - Help with character building
SkynetSniper
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I'm working on my first D&D character using the 4th Edition Player's Handbook, an Elf Two-Blade Ranger. But, I can't seem to find anything in the class section for Ranger that would tell me how many Powers to choose at the first level. Could someone with the Handbook tell me where I could find this, or just tell me how many to choose?
SkynetSniper on
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You get 2 at-wills, 1 encounter, 1 daily.
Make sure one of the at-wills is Twin Strike.
Make sure that you do NOT pick Careful Strike.
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Twin Strike was an obvious choice for me, but why not Careful Attack? I didn't choose it (went for Hit and Run instead), but I'm still curious as to why it's something to be avoided.
Any recommendations for my one Encounter? The Handbook recommends Dire Wolverine Strike, but part of me is leaning towards Evasive Strike or Fox's Cunning, for the added movement abilities.
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/insider/characterbuilder
Also, look through this and this.
I would, but I'm a Mac user (and please, I don't want to hear anything about my use of Macs). I've found a different program for Macs, but I wanted to try and learn to do this by hand.
The Character Builder is so good at this, you really should find someone with a Windows machine and use it on it. It makes everything way easier and smoother.
I'm also a MAC user. The Character Builder is so good that I installed a Bootcamp partition to run it.
Honestly, I probably would have a Bootcamp partition, but I have a REALLY old Mac, so I'd have to run something like Parallels, but I'm not even sure if I could run that. One of the downsides to not having a lot of money.
There are two kinds of attack powers; those that add one of your stat modifiers to damage and those that don't. The former are good, the latter are less good because they don't scale with your level.
Careful Attack gives you an extra +2 to hit in exchange for losing +Str/Dex to your damage. On the surface, this sounds like a decent trade. But Twin Strike is pretty likely to hit at least once, and then you're doing the same damage as Careful Attack. If Twin Strike hits twice, you're doing double the damage.
So basically, Twin Strike with one hit/one miss is just as much damage as Careful Attack, and Twin Strike with two hits is more damage. Plus with two attacks you have two chances to crit. Plus with two attacks you get to add all your static damage bonuses twice (magic items, feats, etc), so the damage scale quickly begins to tip in Twin Strike's favor.
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If you're only using the PHB, I'd say your 1st level powers for a Two-Blade ranger should be:
At-Will: Twin Strike
At-Will: Hit And Run
Encounter: Two-Fanged Strike
Daily: Jaws of the Wolf
If you have Martial Power, take Off-Hand Strike over Two-Fanged Strike.
Basically Careful Strike is terrible because you only get a +2 on attacks, which just doesn't make up for losing the ability modifier damage that most attacks get.
As far as the other power choices go, Twin Strike is obviously excellent, and Hit and Run gives you mobility and damage. With only the PHB, your encounter power choices are fairly limited. As a Ranger, you're a particularly strong striker when making a lone assault on a single enemy, so powers that reflect those strengths are going to be particularly strong. Two-Fanged Strike is the strongest of those powers in the PHB, especially if you're Wisdom is fairly high. By the same principle, Jaws of the Wolf is the best level 1 Melee Encounter power available, even with Martial Power.
If you have Martial Power, substitute Off-Hand Strike for Two-Fanged Strike. As a Minor Action, Off-Hand Strike will allow you to make 2 strong attacks in a single turn, even without spending an Action Point.
Battle.net
My power list so far looks exactly like that, Alecthar, before choosing my Encounter power. But where is Off-Hand Strike? I don't see it in the Handbook. The only Encounters they have are Dire Wolverine Strike, Evasive Strike, Fox's Cunning, and Two-Fanged Strike.
And what is so omggreat about the Character Builder anyway?
It's in the Martial Power supplement, which I definitely suggest you pick up if you like playing Rangers, Rogues, Warlords and Fighters.
As far as the CB goes, it's an excellent convenience, and if you don't own all the books, you miss out on virtually none of the character building related content, which is most of what players pay attention to anyway.
Battle.net
Well, it fills out a character sheet for you, it does a ton of attack math, makes power cards, etc. It's very convenient. And, while I don't own Arcane Power, I can still make characters that utilize that supplement because I have an update CB.
Battle.net
Yep, just part of the awesomeness.
My only complaint that the Feat info that it puts on there is very limited/not all the helpful. You'll still need a book on hand to look up Feat Specifics and some Class Features.
Hmm? All the feats have their full Compendium descriptions, same with Class Features. You just have to be looking at the sidebar.
Battle.net
I meant on the sheet that you print out from the CB.
You can always edit the feat description when you look at the sheet before you print.