A few things before we get into combat. Bard (Skalds) work a little differently than normal Leaders. For instance twice per encounter healing is a little weird.
"Skald's Aura: You activate an aura 5 that lasts until the end of the encounter. If the aura ends prematurely for any reason, you can reactivate it during the encounter as a minor action.
Twice per encounter but only once per turn, you or any ally in the aura can use a minor action to spend a healing surge and regain 1d6 additional hit points. Alternatively, you or any ally can use a minor action to allow an adjacent ally to spend a healing surge and regain the additional hit
points."
So what this means is that, if I cannot move adjacent to you, you may be forced to spend a minor action to benefit from my healing.
Additionally, when we take a short rest, you gain an extra 4 HP on each surge you spend during the rest, thanks to my Song of Rest.
Finally, since the Skald is an Essentials class, he relies more heavily on At Will Attack power than other classes. He has two main attacking at will powers - one gives an ally +2 AC until the end of my next turn and one that gives an ally a +2 to his/her next attack roll until the end of my next turn. Both of these effects are added to my Skald's Aura, so to benefit from the effect you need to be within 5 squares of me.
In generally, I will use my +2 to AC attack when we are fighting big things and my +2 to next Attack Roll power when we need to deal more damage (by hitting more often). The former will go to the Defender most of the time while the latter will go to the Strikers (accuracy FTW!).
__________________ My Campaigns:
- Avengers: Heroic: TrackerICOOC
In terms of attack bonuses, you should consult with Surrealistik if it's a power bonus to avoid overlap in some situations. Grai is pretty good in terms of constant and burst damage, her encounter nova giving her CA against her chosen target for two rounds, targets AC with a +14 modifier and deals 6d6 (Brutal 1) + 1d6 + 1d8 + 15 damage (without buffs from Leaders).
Yeah, that attack bonus you provide could conflict with Warlord's Favour and Lead the Attack (both feature a power bonus). Otherwise there are no problems.
I especially like that your bonuses (and encounters) trigger upon attacking and hitting with your MBAs which makes you an attractive target for me to grant attacks to.
As far as I'm concerned, my shtick is in granting attacks, and massive bonuses to damage/attack rolls:
First off, Brutus, my elemental companion, has an aura 1 that grants a +2 power bonus to damage rolls against any enemies within it.
Commander's Strike gives one ally an MBA with a +5 untyped bonus to the damage roll, and a +1 item bonus to the attack roll.
Direct the Strike gives one ally a basic attack of any kind with a +1 item bonus to the attack roll.
Warlord's Favour is an encounter power that grants a +6 power bonus to attack rolls until the end of my next turn. Obviously has some powerful synergy with granted attacks.
Adaptive Stratagem gives one ally in a close burst 10 the choice between a +5 power bonus to damage rolls until the end of my next turn, or a +1 power bonus to saving throws.
When an ally spends an action point to make an attack, the first attack roll gains a +2 untyped bonus to hit, and _all_ attack rolls made with that attack gain a +5 untyped bonus to damage.
My heals are standard at this point. Hopefully I can prep before a combat and lay down a Battle Standard of Healing. This heals myself and every ally within a close burst 5 of it for 2 HP each time anyone spends a surge within that area. This will be very useful for optimizing out of combat healing.
I'd be down for it! The cart would only be 20 gp I think, although the real ruling is to how much the horses would cost / how many we would need. Each riding horse is 75 gp, so that could cut into the group funds a good bit.
Yes, thank you. I'm back now and caught up on work. Will resume big posting tonight.
I must say it is a pleasure to have such avid posters and involved role players! I get back from vacation and have a small novel awaiting. I hope I can keep up.
Haha, don't feel as if you've got to rush or anything! How was Vegas? I was thinking about taking a road trip over the summer and that'd probably be a destination on my list just to say I've been.
On foot it'll take us ~1.77 days of overland travel. With horses (speed 10), just over one day (1.06). This includes rest time.
Because carts in 4e are made of lead, they weigh 2000 pounds. This means, assuming each player and their gear weighs an average of 200 pounds each, we'll need 14 frikin' horses to heft us around at maximum speed (10).
Screw that. Better to just get a horse apiece if we're going that route, and if we are, it'll be hilarious having one of the things carry around Brutus.
Lastly in that event, I think we should attempt to get our employer to foot the bill with some Diplomacy checks.
As long as we don't get stuck riding ponies, I'll be happy!
Also, since when did adamantine become the standard material out of which people build carts? I can understand 2000 pounds for a gilded stagecoach but a wooden cart made out of two x fours with 2 wheels?
Spoiler
That does not weigh 2000 pounds!
__________________ My Campaigns:
- Avengers: Heroic: TrackerICOOC
Garithak: outside waiting for horses
Grai: outside waiting for horses
Barases: picked out a white one, then went to buy his own
Malikar: warming up outside, doesn't want a horse
Emberlyn: inside
Btw, for those who _don't_ want to ride a horse, it should be noted that we must travel at the overland speed of the slowest member of the party, which means there's no point to getting these horses if someone walks.
Btw, for those who _don't_ want to ride a horse, it should be noted that we must travel at the overland speed of the slowest member of the party, which means there's no point to getting these horses if someone walks.
yeah, I know....I'll get a horse I guess...
just so long as broken back from heavy rider is covered in the insurance.
Hmm, probably made a mistake while writing/building Grai. She's the daughter of a druid but only has Nature +2. Grai wasn't really eager to learn, but I think she would at least know a little about how animals tick (her mother likened her to a wild animal at times) and prefer to ride horses without a saddle. Retraining Weapon Focus to Skill Training (Nature) wouldn't really benefit the group since Malikar and Barases already have Nature +7, but losing one point of damage wouldn't really hurt Grai that much, either...
Grrr, also should have asked whether this game will reach Paragon levels or not while building the character. Didn't think about it back then because I was too busy trying to put together Grai.
Personally, I'd be thrilled if we had the dedication to take this into paragon. For PbP, I assign almost triple the XP to keep things interesting. No fun playing the same level for a year.
I'll allow liberal retraining, if necessary. Some experiences just change a person.
Since joining the boards, I've been in four games that surpassed the one year mark (with a decent amount of activity as well), of which three are still ongoing (the oldest one of those three started in December 2008). I'll pretty much be here until someone switches the lights off. And I'll probably try to find the light switch after that.
That's another interesting approach to PbP XP and I like what you're going for with that. Another 4e game I'm ingives out XP for every thread page (unless the majority of a page is filled with combat posts) as well as fights, basically also trying to speed things up. And hey, with having such a high op group, things might progress faster simply due to stronger enemies.
Some classes like the Fighter and Barbarian only getting three trained skills total at chargen is downright mean, but it can't be helped, I guess. With Paragon in mind, having a feat slot for Weapon Focus is pretty important and I'll qualify for the Barbarian multiclass feat by then, but Acrobatics seems like a more attractive skill to get then... I'll stick with my current build for now, since riding bareback shouldn't be too much of an issue (she's strong and swift enough to stay on an unruly horse, anyway) and most of Grai's interaction with animals can probably be boiled down to hunting, scaring them off or wrestling grizzlies. I'll keep that bit about retraining in mind though.
edit: Did change Grai's mundane backup weapon to a longbow, though. So focussed on bringing the pain in close combat that I forgot that she has 19 Dex.
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Re: [4E] Harken Unto Harken [OOC]
That does not weigh 2000 pounds! 
