Calling on the playground help.

[Tegu8788]

Two builds I need advise on.

A friend of mine has expressed interest in trying out a game of dnd, but he can get somewhat overwhelmed. While I like lots of choices, he's more focused. I'm looking for advice for helping him build a character. He likes fire, and sword dual wielding. My first instinct was a fire blaster, but given the new elemental book, I wanted input on the new "best" set of fire powers. A fire based sorcerer using duel implement sorcerer daggers would let him mix it up in melee a bit. I don't know if a swordmage or bard has enough to make a pure fire build. The only other thing I can think of build wise would be a wizard MC warlock for twin pact blades. For race, I think any would work for him, but more human is better. Tiefling and Genasi come to mind. He would be a striker for certain, and given that both the arcane controller and defender can be built to be strikery, that would be fine.

My second one is much more complex. I started it in this thread, http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=230965 . I've made some notes below, based on flavor and the online handbooks suggestions to get rid of the reds and purples. I think that barbarian would do well for what I'm looking to do, but my question is, would a sorcerer hybrid give me good lightning and water type powers I want, or does that barbarian do it enough. I don't have a builder, but would barbarian agility and dragon spell source work together to get really high AC? I figure the vampire MC does what I need, picking up one power with swaps. I end up either picking revenant or vrykola if the vampire mc is out of range. I actually like the limits it imposes, forces me to be more creative. The other races, human always useful for the extra feat, and Genasi gives water or electric depending on what I need. It occurs to me that Dragonborn has good stats for what I'd need in the hybrid, and the breathe weapon and extra hp in each surge could be useful. An HP theme could help, and im thinking about Staff of knives to get the barbarian two-handers and sorcerer melee feat power.
This one is much harder, but thoughts welcome.

Bizarre
Get a cloak, focus on thps, regeneration, shift boosts, lightning damage, daze/stun/dominate, Str and Cha based powers, benefits for bloodying/killing/being bloodied.

Stats for hybrid, per-racial, level 1: 16, 12, 12, 8, 10, 16

Vrykola: Str/Cha, racials good, if can't mc vampire
Dragonborn: Str/Cha, lightning breath, good health, hurl breath, breath feats
Human: Str, feat bonus, defense bonus
Genasi (watersoul): Str, feats goods, gets water side across
Revenant: Dex, get Genasi feat, if cant mc vampire

Vampire powers: 2 multiclass feats, primal feat
2 utility: Charming Gaze (at 4)
9 daily: Dominating Gaze (at 10)

Barbarian powers: thaneblood
1 at-will: howling strike*(2-handed), pressing strike
1 encounter: great cleave, vault of the fallen, escalating violence, resurgent strike
1 daily: macetail's rage, swift panther rage
2 utility: combat sprint, feral rejuvenation*(daily), shrug it off
3 encounter: shatterbone strike, thundering howl
5 daily: thunder hawk rage
6 utility: loss of will, relentless surge, run rampant
7 encounter: curtain of steel, harbinger of doom
9 daily: oak hammer rage, white tiger rage, rage of the death spirit
10 utility: deny death, wellspring of renewal, barbaric instinct, barbaric offering, enraged surge

Sorcerer: dragon magic, dagger feat, armored sorcerer
1 at-will: dragonfrost, lightning strike, Ensorceled Blade*(dagger)
1 encounter: bedeviling burst, frostbind, thunderslam, pinning bolt, thundering roar
1 daily: lightning breath, ice javelins, shocking magnetism
2 utility: sorcerous sirocco
3 encounter: dancing lightning, ice dragon's teeth, lightning cuts*(dagger)
5 daily: thunder leap, glacial armor, moon and stars, thunder leap
6 utility: sudden scales,*lightning shift
7 encounter: rimestorm, blazing bolt, spark form, thunder wyrm's jaws
9 daily: adamanite echo,*ice stalagmites, season's malaise*(dagger), winds of change
10 utility: inverted resistance, fog form, sorcerous pulse

[Kurald Galain]

A fire based sorcerer using duel implement sorcerer daggers would let him mix it up in melee a bit.
No, not really. A sorcerer is not a capable melee combatant.


I don't know if a swordmage or bard has enough to make a pure fire build.
The swordmage would be a good idea. You say that he likes fire, but does that really mean every single attack has to involve fire?

[Tegu8788]

I wasn't sure if the high Str based AC would help. It was a thought. I would suggest he tries to be a skirmisher, but to handle the occasional baddie that gets through.

Yes, when I said fire build, I mean pure fire. In his mind, his character is constantly either on fire, or simmering. If he has a sword, he wants it on fire too. If everything has a fire keyword is preferred, but attacks that don't have element keywords could be refluffed easier.

[malachi]

Well, there is always the Flaming Weapon property, which will let him make all attacks deal fire damage and have the fire keyword. It can be put on a sword or dagger, letting swordmage or sorcerer use it well (or any other implement user with a MC swordmage).

[MeeposFire]

No, not really. A sorcerer is not a capable melee combatant.


The swordmage would be a good idea. You say that he likes fire, but does that really mean every single attack has to involve fire?

Well you can make make a melee sorcerer and it can be nasty and work well but it does require a bit of experience to do and I would not recommend it to a new player.

[Tegu8788]

I don't expect him to be doing more than two rounds in melee every, hopefully, but when he is I'd like him to not get instantly slaughtered. Two weapon defense would be an early feat, and dual implement. What has to be done to get the flaming weapon property, and does that extend to implement attacks? If so, that could solve a lot of problems for levels where there just aren't any fire spells.

I love to hybrid and multiclass and theme a character for maximum complexity and options. My friend would rather just pick between a few powers. The sheer amount of support the wizard has gotten he'd find daunting, and neither of us have access to the official builder right now. I'm sure I can find a fire blaster build, but with the new elemental book, I'm sure there are new flame powers worth looking at.