Pursuit Avenger Help

[Merellis]

Hi there! Playing in a 4e campaign and we've just finished our latest piece of plot and will be getting into Paragon after the break.

I'm having a bit of trouble deciding where to go with my character for both feats and paragon path. Think I could get some help?

Spoiler: Current Books Available:

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Players Handbook
Players Handbook II
Martial Power
Adventurers Vault I & II

Spoiler: Current Party

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Level 11 Goliath Cleric (Strength based)
Level 11 Tiefling Warlock (Fey based)
Level 11 Dragonborn Fighter (Tempest)

Cleric has a bunch of little buffs for bonuses to attacks, that always seem to go to the warlock, so I made an Avenger for the higher accuracy and the ability to go off by myself and focus down problematic enemies.

Class: Avenger
Race: Elf
Censure: Pursuit
Paragon: Not sure yet

Ability Scores (Post Racial):
Str 14 Con 13 Dex 19 Int 12 Wis 21 Cha 11

Trained Skills
Athletics +11 Perception +17 Religon +11 Stealth +14 Thievery +17

Feats:
1 Armor Proficiency (Leather)
2 Weapon Proficiency ( Fullblade)
4 Improved Armor of Faith
6 Weapon Expertise(Heavy Blade)
8 Melee Training (Wisdom)
10 Battle Awareness (Athletics as skill trained)

Powers:
1W Bond of Pursuit
1W Overwhelming Strike
1E Angelic Alarcity
1D Aspect of Might
2U Distracting Flare
3E Sequestering Strike
5D Executioners Cloak
6U Oath of the Relentless Hunter
7E Inexorable Pursuit
9D Temple of Shadow
10U River of Life

Current Items:
Fullblade of Oath Fulfilled +2
Magic Drowmesh Armor +3
Cape of Montebank +2
Iron Armbands of Power
Belt of Nourishment
Burglars Gloves

[Yakk]

Worship a god of skill (by RAW you can worship more than one god), and take Power of Skill instead of Melee Training. Turns overwealming strike into a MBA.

IIRC, there are two 3E powers you want (both are effectively non-standard action attacks). I don't know if you did that, but consider taking the second 3E power as your 7E choice.

Look into radiant cheese. There is a paragon path that starts applying vulnerability 10 radiant. There is an avenger oath feat that adds +wis rad+nec damage to the first hit on your oath target each turn.

The general path for an avenger optimization is multi-tap crit fishing. Your oath gives you double crit chance (almost), if you can boost your crit range and crit yield you can generate some insane multiplication. Leverage in more taps for a 3rd term to the optimization equation (crit chance * crit damage * more swings = cubic return on investment).

This kind of thing may still be long term, because at paragon you don't have the feats to make (1+x)(1+y)(1+z) significantly better than (1+x+y+z) when each feat contributes a 0.1 term. (1.1*1.1*1.1 = 1.331 only slightly more than 1.3, while 1.5*1.5*1.5 = 3.375, way more than 2.5) But that is really abstract "why certain optimizations work".

Still, you have a 9.5%+ chance to crit per swing, unlike your allies who have a 5%, so you can get a touch more yield out of crit damage boosts (maybe not enough).

On the multi-tap front, there are gloves that grant a per encounter attack (when hit?), a tattoo that grants a per-encounter attack (when bloodied I think?), and maybe something that grants a per-encounter attack when missed (bracers?).

Weapon Focus is your baseline feat. Look at what it does to your percent damage on a hit. When looking at another feat, compare its yield to weapon focus.

Note that by current RAW Armor Proficiency (Leather) is useless for an avenger -- your AoW doesn't work with leather armor. That will save you a feat!

[masteraleph]

That set of books is really limiting. Avengers get big help in Divine Power, and also in Dragon Magazine. Morninglord, which is what Yakk was thinking of, is in the Forgotten Realm Player's Guide. Of the books available to you, the only one with any powers for Avengers is PHB2. Is there any chance of adding additional ones?

[Merellis]

I've already checked and there is no chance of other books being allowed for now. So Morninglord, Power of Skill, and that crazy Oath feat are off the table.

On the plus side, he also isn't updating Armor of Faith so I can still make use of the "no heavy armor or shield" wording. Got the same AC as our defender right now.

As for the items, so long as they're in the books I have listed, I should be able to work towards picking them up.

[Gilphon]

The lack of Divine Power really stings, but you're not left completely without options. And it's a good thing you picked up Fighter MC, because you'll need it for both things I'm about to suggest:

First, there's Kensei. Your STR is probably too low to get much use out of the powers, but the features are nice; essentially you get +1 to hit and +4 damage.

Second, there's Zealous Assassin, which is probably the best Avenger PP you have access to. Retrain your weapon feats until it looks like picking Surprising Charge would be a good idea to have reach it's full potential.

[Merellis]

The lack of Divine Power really stings, but you're not left completely without options. And it's a good thing you picked up Fighter MC, because you'll need it for both things I'm about to suggest:

First, there's Kensei. Your STR is probably too low to get much use out of the powers, but the features are nice; essentially you get +1 to hit and +4 damage.

Second, there's Zealous Assassin, which is probably the best Avenger PP you have access to. Retrain your weapon feats until it looks like picking Surprising Charge would be a good idea to have reach it's full potential.

Honestly, while Zealous Assassin looks fun as hell with Surprising Charge, I think I'm gonna go with Kensai. While the powers may not be perfect for me I still have my Oath to give them a higher chance of hitting. Plus, I really love using a Fullblade so far so kensai is both a solid advance in power and one to match her flavour.

Thanks so much for the idea there though!

[DragonBaneDM]

Quick question!

Why is your DM okay with having Martial Power available but not Divine Power? If it's a matter of not owning books or there not being any Martial PCs in the party I get it, but I feel like if you've got a Warlord or a Fighter that gives them a kinda unfair edge.

[Merellis]

Quick question!

Why is your DM okay with having Martial Power available but not Divine Power? If it's a matter of not owning books or there not being any Martial PCs in the party I get it, but I feel like if you've got a Warlord or a Fighter that gives them a kinda unfair edge.

I never really got an answer to that actually. But it was my first game that involved chatting with people in years, and was for a system I hadn't even touched before then, so I just shrugged and moved on.

Asked to have Divine Power added when I was making the Avenger, was told no, but also got to kept the original Avenger so I could be an off-tank striker who didn't need to rely on CA or Cleric buffs. Which is currently working out far better than my rogue with flanking and bonuses to hit from the Cleric.

Shift around the battlefield, speak of glory and battle with warrior god, SMITE THEM ALL IN THE NAME OF MY GOD WHILE TANKING AS MUCH AS THE FIGHTER.

... Yeah, I'm enjoying myself a ton more so far.

[Tegu8788]

That's the important thing.