4E: Your Favorites

[ImperiousLeader]

Hee hee. Thanks for the idea, I'm a Bard with "Song of Discord" (one round Dominate) and we have an Executioner in the party.

[LOTRfan]

I love Shardminds (if we are only going with stuff original to 4e), and Banderhobb

[lordmarcoos]

I love Shamans, just for their versatility in flavoring. My friend was in a campaign where her shaman was a 9 year old girl, who the spirits had chosen as their vessel. Crunch-wise, she had no melee abilities, and fluff wise, she was a frightened child trying to help the spirits do what needed to be done.

Another friend of mine recently built a shaman as his backup character (I'm a DM who enjoys coup de gras) who's not flavored as a shaman at all; he's a necromancer, and his spirit companion is his once dead brother, a cleric, whom he's brought back from the dead as a ghost (protector spirit, crunch wise). All of his healing powers, flaor-wise, would be cast by his ghostly brother, while all attack powers, even the spirit companion melee ones, would be flavored as the necromancer shooting blasts at enemies adjacent to his brother, because he wants to make sure to protect his brother, unlike last time...

[Jaidu]

I love Shamans, just for their versatility in flavoring.

In a Dark Sun game, I was playing an Elementalist Shaman and we had to go through a pass between two hills to get to our destination. A family of wild crodlus who just had babies were living in the small pass, and the parents looked to be aggressive. My shaman pleaded with his companions to find another way around, but they didn't listen and attacked the crodlus. I asked them to not kill the animals, but they did lethal damage anyway. I helped in the fight but always used nonlethal damage, and at one point I dropped a minion baby crodlu. It turned out to be the only one the party didn't kill. I tried to nurse it back to health as we traveled, but it died in my arms. So, guess what my spirit companion was from then on?

Also, I played with a hybrid shaman/wizard who believed his spirit companion was his deceased wife (it wasn't) and would bicker with it despite getting no response from it.

[Renchard]

Class: Executioner Assassin, Sentinel Druid, Hexblades, Ardents.
Race: Kalashtar. Telepathy 5 is beast. Awesome Eberron fluff, and easily adaptable for other settings.
Power: I think it's Dark Wanderer, but the utility power that lets you pick any spot in the multiverse and get there in 24 hours.
Monster: Banderhobb. My favorite Monster Manual illustration since some of the 2e Planescape stuff.
Item: Boons. Items are one of my least favorite aspects of 4e.
Setting: Eberron is still my favorite, but boy, did they do a good job on 4e Dark Sun.
Bit of Fluff: Chernoggar and Tytherion. Those are places for epic dungeons!
Tier of Play: Heroic and Epic. Looking at 4e design with 3 years of hindsight, I would rather have seen Paragon Paths closer in design to how Themes ended up. Epic Destinies are still awesome, though.

[amaranth69]

Class: Avenger, I just love the flavor of a divine enforcer, mechanically I think the Oath of Emnity is awesome.

Race: I have to say that Dwarves have great score bonuses and racial powers, not to mention great feat support.

[Trog]

Class: Bard or Cleric. A Leader, anyway.
Race: Good old human, as always.
Power: That bardic singing ability that gives everyone a +1 to hit
Monster: For whatever reason I have a soft spot for the Spriggan. I just like their look and fluff. Otherwise dragons.
Item: Hero's Belt I think it's called? Something like that. Gives you a healing surge. Handy stuff.
Setting: Homebrew and Points of Light
Bit of Fluff: Bane as an unaligned deity. Really opens up the whole idea of war as something much more real world and grey. Also Erathis as a deity I love.
Tier of Play: My players like Paragon though I still have a soft spot for heroic.

[Mando Knight]

Class: ...They're like Lay's potato chips. I can't just have one. Paladin, Swordmage, Warlord, Psion, Sorcerer, Battlemind, Avenger... Let's just put this down as "yes."

Race: Dragonborn are one of my perennial favorites, though most of the other player races are pretty cool, too... though I'm not particularly fond of playing short characters (unless it's a Fullmetal expy) since I've never been ecstatic about being just slightly shorter than average...

Power: Fist of Force is cool. So is Wrath of the Gods. And Dragon Breath. Actually, I could probably find at least one power of each class that I really like.

Monster: Dragons. Even though Blacks are jerks that should never be thrown against lower-level players. Beholders and Mindflayers are also cool in an awesome-alien-monster kind of way, but they're also jerks.

Item: Depends on the character. Ever play a teleporter swordmage with the Cloak of Translocation (+2 AC/Ref after teleporting)? I am. Classics like the Vorpal Sword and the Holy Avenger are also good, and I'm fond of the Masterwork armors and Superior Implements.

Setting: None in particular... though Eberron's silent gods and Dark Sun's lack of them are a little off-putting for me.

Bit of Fluff: The history of the default setting... and Bahamut as one of the two big LG deities. The Platinum Dragon really syncs with me (and is a freaking dragon), even though he's still a cold-breather (I'm a whole lot more partial to warmth). In the new FR, Amaunator is my preferred deity, since he's a god of JUSTICE and THE SUN.

Tier of Play: All of it. Except level 1. I've had too many failed campaigns that get stuck at that level, and I'm tired of it. I like to have enough cash for some cool stuff and access to the neat higher-level powers and feats.

[Daftendirekt]

Just put together my first Battlemind (haven't actually played it, as my Ranger is still alive), and I must say, on paper (well, on-screen in the CB) it looks pretty cool. I like the fluff of it too.

Related, Lightning Rush is a frakking awesome power.

[Surrealistik]

Yeah, of all the Defenders I've played, I find the Battlemind the most fun, and yes it is.

[Makiru]

Class: I've only ever played a wizard in one game of 4e, but I really like the flavor of the brawler fighter, swarm druid, executioner, and thunderborn barbarian. Brawler fighter is the first time I can think of that makes a grappling build not only viable, but actually easy to understand. The fact that the executioner is almost entirely mundane in nature makes the feats that it can pull off that much more impressive. The thought of a barbarian that yells at enemies to force them into bad positions while beating them up is an amusing one that tickles my fancy. Finally, the swarm druid just clicks with me for some reason (not sure)

Race: Warforged and shardmind, mostly for how you can justify them being any class due to weird skips in logic.

Power: Phantom Chasm is a pretty funny standout. Making people fall on their face and freak out about a hole that just opened under them has been pretty good the few times I used it.

Monster: Nothing stands out for me personally, but I do second the Silt Horror for conveying the feel of an enormous beast without breaking the game mechanics and actively encouraging teamwork

Item: Reading Spectacles. Dirt cheap and takes all the guesswork out of those ancient scrolls.

Setting: I was a big fan of Eberron in 3.5, but I've been warming up (heh) to Dark Sun quite a bit.

Fluff: The war of the gods and primordials and how that laid the groundwork for all the classes to come, as well as providing limitless endgame bosses.

Tier of Play: Heroic, since it's all I've ever played.

[Dust]

Class: The grappling Fighter variant from Martial Power 2. There's something enormously satisfying about grabbing a hydra in a headlock and dragging it around the battlefield.
Race: Everything is better with gnomes.
Power: Subjective Gravity, which is a level 10 utility power for the Battlemind in Psionic Power. It's a STANCE that lets you walk on walls and ceilings and whatnot.
Monster: Anything that causes disease. The rot grub swarms jump immediately to mind. Once you nail a PC with a disease, they look at every encounter differently, forever. Also, Lamias are neat.
Item: Adventurer's Vault 1, Dust of Creation. Toss the dust in the air, it turns into any mundane item up to a certain weight. Then transforms back whenever you want. Repeat daily.
Setting: Normally I'd say Dark Sun, but I really prefer homebrewed worlds over anything WoTC has come up with so far.
Bit of fluff: Every single one of the Equipment Sets listed in the second Adventurer's Vault. They reminded me of WoW gear sets until I actually sat down and read the fluff. Kudos to those writers, man - you can base entire chunks of story around that equipment.
Tier of play: High-level Heroic, low-level Paragon.

[VeliciaL]

Ooh, ooh, I have some...

Class: I think I'll have to go with Warlord as my first favorite class. I love how you don't have to play a magic class to be a healer any more, and I love the whole battle captain feel of the class.

Branching from that, I really love what they've done with all the martial classes this time around. Fighters especially.

After Warlord, though, I think I'd go with Swordmage. I love the idea of an arcane swordfighter.

Race: I'm a high elf at heart, so Eladrin is my 4e fave. And I love being able to teleport. :D

Besides that, though, I love how they've added some of the monster races as PC races. Always bothered my how there were hundreds of intelligent races in D&D, and about 99% of them were "monsters."

I'm still waiting for a proper writeup for Goblins and Kobolds, though.

Power: Wolf Pack Tactics, for the Warlord. I love positioning my allies and setting up flanking positions. At will, no less!

Monster: I love what they've done with some of the earlier newbie fodder races this time around. Kobolds are a special favorite; shifty makes them a very tactical to play. Goblins are pretty neat too this time around.

Item: I haven't gotten to do this, since the defenders in my group are ******* and I've found myself stuck in the mob's face most of the time, but I still want to build a warlord around a longspear. Especially with that weapon fighting style in MP2 that lets me shove enemies around.

[PhallicWarrior]

Class: All of the Martial ones. I love the way each class (especially the fighter) can be built so I could have a whole party of fighters, and each would fight differently. Also, Warlords shouting other party members back to health is pure gold for rp.
Race: I've always been a fan of Warforged, and they line up with playing a fighter or warlord perfectly.
Power: Weaponsoul Dance, the Kensei lvl 20 daily. It's great for multimarking, does nice damage, and has great lockdown effects. (Knocked down and immobilized!) Plus it has awesome flavor.
Monster: The good old gelatinous cube, especially when perfectly situated in a 10x10 ft corridor. Insidious!
Item: Delver's Armor. Saved my PCs lives at least once each. (Literally. One of my players convinced me to let him add it to his last death check that would have killed him.)
Setting: I loved Dark Sun in 3.5 and I love it even more now. Now that I'm making a free-roaming adventure game based on the Points of Light setting, it's starting to grow on me too.
Bit of Fluff: The Primal Power source being an expansion pack to the Dawn War, and the Primal Spirits forcing those involved to sit down, shut up, and listen to them. Plus, Barbarians and Shamans are cool.
Tier of Play: I'll take a rare stance and say mid heroic, from about 5th level up to 10th. Nice variety of monsters you can fight, everyone's repertoire of powers and items are a nice size but there aren't any paragon paths or epic destinies to worry about yet. The game can keep with the gritty "realistic" feel as well that works well with my love of martial characters.

[Eliort]

Class: I've always liked bards, myself, and the 4e bard is badass!

Race: I like that Tiefling's a PC class now, so let's go with that! I like the IDEA of half elfs with their Dilettante, but I can never find anything that fits exactly with my character.

Power: Hands down Prestidigitation. LOVE the RP value in and out of combat. Wish that wizards came up with more powers like this for other classes.

Monster: Meh.

Item: I am biased towards songblades :¬P

Setting: Homebrew and also I like the sound of Darksun.

Tier: I suppose late Heroic?

Anyone have favourite Epic Destinies? I find that reading through them's my favourite part of the handbooks, though my favourite is probably the homebrew I'm coming up with for my bard :¬)

[Cartigan]

Class: Invoker. Ardent close second.
Race: Dwarf. Everything is better with Dwarves
Power: I don't know enough powers
Monster: There is some monster our DM pulled out of his ass probably that copied the form of a character and then could offload damage taken to the character being copied on every hit (Of course, that is probably supposed to be once a round or something - our DM usually doesn't read very thoroughly)
Item: Looking through magic items the other day I saw a wondrous item that was "The Mug of Neverending Ale" or something - you can use it to find the location of the nearest source of alcohol or, once per day, can use it to find the location of the nearest INGREDIENTS to MAKE alcohol.
Setting: Aren't they all the same? Or same as they were previously except for Forgotten Realms
Bit of fluff: The ale item sounds fluffy
Tier of play: The mid range one is looking OK.

[Sipex]

Class: Artificer, hands down. I love the idea of spreading around healing surges and love the idea of the 'potion master/inventer' the Artificer can be.

Race: Tough, Humans are always a nice choice though, also half-elves. I think Dwarf wins it though, I'm just partial to Dwarves.

Power: Any utility power really, I love the idea behind utility powers.

Monster: Any of the gibbering beasts, nice little horrors which piss off players via control.

Item: Any wonderous items, I love these things.

Setting: Homebrew or Ebberron.

Tier: Mid-Late Heroic. Have yet to play beyond that.

[Mando Knight]

New one.
Favorite Tables: the ones on pages 9 & 10 of this Dragon article. Tables for randomly generating deities.

[hoff]

Deity

Choose Type of Deity roll a d100:
1-10: Dragon Split one of Tiatmats head (refer to table 3)
11-20: Emotion Based (refer to table 4.5)
21-30: Environment Based (refer to table 4.6)
31-40: Race Based (refer to table 4.7)
41-50: Son/daughter of Godess X (refer to table 5.1) and God Y (refer to table 5.2)
51-75: Insert Force of nature here (refer to table 6)
76-80: Ascended archmage
81-85: Ascended Champion
81-85: Ascended Cleric/Paladin
86-90: Ascended Devil (AKA Klingon Promotion)
91-99: Don't ask, don't tell
100: Clown Puppet

The odd thing is I wouldn't be surprised if it were exactly like this...

[Mando Knight]

The odd thing is I wouldn't be surprised if it were exactly like this...

Actually, it's a set of four tables: a 1d10 table with Alignment, Origins, Goals, and two columns each for Personality and Appearance (the latter allowing you to roll tentacles twice); a 1d5 (well, ½d10) table with degree of Bloodthirstiness (from Gentle to RIP THEM TO SHREDS), enemies (including similarly-aligned deities), attitude towards worshipers/the world in general, and sphere of worship (from a secret club to world religion); a 1d20 table with Significant/Odd interests (including innocent mortals, as either objects of purity or delicacies), Main Flaw (the classic Seven Deadly Sins, as well as things like senility or being theatrical), and a roll twice column for followers' odd behaviors/superstitions (avoid mirrors, talk to people who aren't there, play Three Dragon Ante to solve any disputes...); and finally a d66 (that is, 2d6, with one for each digit) table for domains (roll 2-3 times... more if you want to be silly).

Of course, the tables aren't complete (such a table would either break the spine of the internets or at least take a bucket of dice to resolve), so they're accompanied by the author saying that you should feel free to tweak the results a bit ("followers fear cats" could be changed to "worship cats" or "fear hippopotami" or something).

[MeeposFire]

Class-I like a lot of classes but my three favorites so far are thief (jack of all trades so many skills), lazy warlord, and my slayer. My slayer is just so much fun to use after a long day.
Race-Kobold but human is good when I can't use them
Power-Reorient the axis-so much changing the battlefield so little time. It always opens the tables eyes.
Monster-Dark SUn Dragon
Item-rhythm blade spiked shield for my lazy warlord. He needs the AC and free hand.
Setting Eberron
Bit of fluff-I want to read Heroes of Shadow more before I decide this one
Tier of play paragon. The paths make the game for me.

[WitchSlayer]

Actually, it's a set of four tables: a 1d10 table with Alignment, Origins, Goals, and two columns each for Personality and Appearance (the latter allowing you to roll tentacles twice); a 1d5 (well, ½d10) table with degree of Bloodthirstiness (from Gentle to RIP THEM TO SHREDS), enemies (including similarly-aligned deities), attitude towards worshipers/the world in general, and sphere of worship (from a secret club to world religion); a 1d20 table with Significant/Odd interests (including innocent mortals, as either objects of purity or delicacies), Main Flaw (the classic Seven Deadly Sins, as well as things like senility or being theatrical), and a roll twice column for followers' odd behaviors/superstitions (avoid mirrors, talk to people who aren't there, play Three Dragon Ante to solve any disputes...); and finally a d66 (that is, 2d6, with one for each digit) table for domains (roll 2-3 times... more if you want to be silly).

Of course, the tables aren't complete (such a table would either break the spine of the internets or at least take a bucket of dice to resolve), so they're accompanied by the author saying that you should feel free to tweak the results a bit ("followers fear cats" could be changed to "worship cats" or "fear hippopotami" or something).

I saw those tables and I had to put them in .jpg format. Those are the best tables.

[Lord Vampyre]

Class? The original Assassin
Race? Changelings (they make the perfect assassins)
Power? Shadow Step (mobility is probably the most important thing when I play)
Monster? Dragons (always Dragons)
Setting? Dark Sun
Bit of fluff? The Raven Queen (perfect diety for assassins)
Tier of play? I still haven't gotten past Heroic, although I really want to play Epic.

[Gralamin]

Class? Warlords, Invokers, Avengers, and Wardens.
Race? Shardminds are the best new race.
Power? Invoke Obedience
Monster? Zombie Cactus
Setting? Dark Sun
Bit of fluff? Too much to choose, maybe Ioun.
Tier of play? Paragon
Table? Random God generation

[Reverent-One]

Table? Random God generation

Wait, what?

[Mando Knight]

Table? Random God generation

Wait, what?

He means this.

New one.
Favorite Tables: the ones on pages 9 & 10 of this Dragon article. Tables for randomly generating deities.

[Darth Stabber]

Race - Human or Dwarf. The extra feat doesn't go as far in 4e as it does in 3.5, but the extra encounter is great for certain classes (especially fighters after martial power came out), and I just really like having skills. Dwarf is also good, the feats are great, and second wind as a minor is awesome.

Class - Fighter, but that is true in nearly every rpg. Its also the only defender I like in this edition. I love the simplicity of marking while doing what you were going to do anyway, really intuitive that way. Battlerage vigor or 1h would be the prefered specialties.

Power - footwork lure, simple, does what you need it to, as many times as you need.

Monster - Illithids, as always.

Setting - I want greyhawk back, so until then eberron, just for giving us warforged.

[Sception]

So then, what, in 4e, is your favorite...

Class: Gosh, that's hard. There are several great ones. I guess Warlord (lazy tac or brave lords in particular), but it's a tough call.

Race: Again, there are several I like. I guess I'll go with Shadar-Kai

Power: Twin Strike. What? Why are you looking at me like that?

Monster: Yeah, beholder. Just about the only solo they got right in the monster manual. Iconic, challenging, threatening yet silly. Good times.

Item: Frost Weapon. What? What is it? You're giving me that funny look again.

Setting: Eberron. It's where the fun's at.

Bit of fluff: the Juiblex article from dungeon a while back. That was great.

Tier of play: Paragon. You've got a full set of toys, but the game hasn't gone all ridiculous yet.


Honorable mention:

Classes: Shaman, Paladin, Hexblade, Blackguard, Mage. Ossassin, despite its crippling flaws, also has a place close to my heart.

Races: Revenant, Drow, Tiefling, Human, half elf, changeling