Elementalist/Arena Champion

[Epinephrine]

Hey all;
I may get a chance to play in a campaign soonish, so I've started planning out a character. After some dithering on how to build an arcane assassin-type (of the bluff/subterfuge/infiltrate variety) I had settled on a (IMO pretty decent) rogue/sorcerer hybrid. The campaign is going to be very light on magic items, and the DM wants us to keep things simple, so I have scaled it back to be an Changeling Elementalist MC Rogue going for Arena Champion (for additional attacks, I gotta get my striking somewhere).

Part of the fun of the character (eventually) will be the extra RBA it can use 3 rounds of any encounter (Arena Champion allows a basic attack when you use bluff to gain CA; I will do this as a minor action (Bregan D'arthe theme), as well as via the Changeling Trick racial power (minor action) and probably via an arcane familiar (Greenspawn Banespeak). Reserve Maneuver(?) will retrain the crappy encounter power from the Champion path to be something better (perhaps Lightning Cuts, for a minor action attack).

Obviously I'll bump up my damage, take a defensive feat, an expertise feat, etc - but I'm wondering whether there is anything fun I should be looking at. Not strictly optimizing, but things that will make it more fun to play the at-will-hurling,bluffing, elementalist infiltration specialist. Feats that could work well, utility power choices that could make for neat ideas (for example, I'm thinking of City Rat as the level 2 power, to allow melting into a crowd) etc.

Thanks!

[Tegu8788]

Encourage a friend to play a shaman. They make for great fun with an elementalist.

[GPuzzle]

Especially Eagle Shamans. Get a Dex-based Ranger or an Elementalist and they're really great leaders.

[Tegu8788]

If you can get an Incendiary Rebounding Dagger, do it. I know you'll be not getting many items, but that's a wonderful one as well. Yes, it does another RBA which can get dull, but turning a miss into a hit, and giving you another chance to trigger your encounter power is fun. Arcane Spellfury seems like a perfect choice. Champion of the Bloody Circle could be handy if you are the face in a game where Streetwise is ever useful. White Lotus Enervation, Evasion, and Riposte are all solid options. What element are you using?

[Epinephrine]

If you can get an Incendiary Rebounding Dagger, do it. I know you'll be not getting many items, but that's a wonderful one as well. Yes, it does another RBA which can get dull, but turning a miss into a hit, and giving you another chance to trigger your encounter power is fun. Arcane Spellfury seems like a perfect choice. Champion of the Bloody Circle could be handy if you are the face in a game where Streetwise is ever useful. White Lotus Enervation, Evasion, and Riposte are all solid options. What element are you using?

Element is somewhat undecided, I'm torn between air and water at present. If there is no decent controller I'll probably go water; the slide with the RBA and the fact that their base attack is an area slow is nice. At 17 the encounter adds daze (daze and slow is decent). If I went this route I would likely take the white lotus hindrance tree feats to make it very hard for slowed foes to get near people, and encourage taking the World Serpent's Grasp for easy prones.

Air, on the other hand, starts with the only party friendly area attack available to the elementalist (making the early levels a bit easier) and looks like it could be fun, with the interesting way that Static Charge allows spiking a single target (providing you get the positioning right; get an enemy in the middle of a bunch of his allies and you can put a lot of damage on him.) Also works well with the Lancing dagger for an easy bonus to damage, and fits going with a storm theme/thunder admixture later for bigger blasts.

Yes, if we get any item choices I can ask for something like that; my impression is that the DM will perhaps throw us items he thinks may be useful, but not really looking for our choices. The spellfury feats seemed weak (conditional bonuses), but Riposte looked good for discouraging them from hitting me.

[Tegu8788]

Don't forget, every attack is an at-will attack, so once you hit somebody, they are easier to hit. It would apply practically every turn.

[masteraleph]

Note that if you do go Water because of a lack of controller and expect to get to high Paragon, finding a way to get access to rods, grabbing an Ironscar Rod, MCing Fighter and grabbing Dizzying Mace makes you a pretty solid controller as well as a competent if not amazing striker.

[Epinephrine]

Don't forget, every attack is an at-will attack, so once you hit somebody, they are easier to hit. It would apply practically every turn.

Yes, that's true; I'll certainly consider them, the +1 to hit is probably the strongest. The +2 damage bonus on ranged/melee attacks if I hit 2 or more enemies previously is less tempting, but could still add up. Weapon Focus or element-based damage (e.g., the +1/2/3 to lightning/thunder) is beating it in Paragon, but they do stack.

Note that if you do go Water because of a lack of controller and expect to get to high Paragon, finding a way to get access to rods, grabbing an Ironscar Rod, MCing Fighter and grabbing Dizzying Mace makes you a pretty solid controller as well as a competent if not amazing striker.

I think that's the type of thing the DM wants to avoid - powerful, item-dependent builds. But yes, throwing a -Con penalty to hit on groups of foes (admixture thunder and resounding thunder for burst 2) would certainly work.

[Waddacku]

I think that's the type of thing the DM wants to avoid - powerful, item-dependent builds. But yes, throwing a -Con penalty to hit on groups of foes (admixture thunder and resounding thunder for burst 2) would certainly work.

Well, the only item dependency is in getting to use a mace as an implement. It's also possible to accomplish by giving up your PP for Traveler's Harlequin (not an option with this concept, obviously) to take more mc feats and get Monk implements.
If DM allows the use of a ki focused weapon for implement attacks (i.e. the only way the Water Splitting Stone feat could be used without inherent bonuses) getting Ki Focus proficiency would be enough (just use it through a mace), but that's completely in the DM call zone.

[Tegu8788]

So, without one item working in a way it wasn't intended, the build doesn't work? That still seems pretty item specific, and the exact thing the DM is trying to avoid.

[Waddacku]

Normally I'd agree, but on the other hand they actually printed Water Splitting Stone, which specifically reads "When you score a critical hit using your monk unarmed strike, [...]". It came out half a year before Internalize the Basic Kata and Master of the Fist, at that, meaning the only ones that could use it were Stone Fist monks and those who took Melee Training, and even then only on off-turn crits (and whatever MBAs your items grant you). Even after the advent of those feats, it's really only usable by multiclass characters (or hybrid, but you'd have to spend a feat on Unarmed Combatant...) in anything resembling a sensible manner.
In short, everything points at things not working this way, except the one glaring spot in the rules that heavily implies otherwise.

As for the ruling being item specific, it's to an implement type as a whole.