So...D&D be awesome

[searron]

I personally like the Ravenloft setting. I'm a sucker for Victorian literature inspired worlds

 

[Korhal]

We roll with a half-elf rouge, a elf paladin (leader), revenant barbarian and human cleric.
So yeah i essentially charge in to set up the barb for all his death dealing glory while the rouge and our fearless leader kite the enemies around the edges in order to keep them compact.

So while an integral member of the party no i'm not the leader and i'm glad not to be, ours keeps getting blamed for all of the parties screw ups. we walk down the stairs instead of leaping across a bridge (which only three members can pull of with an easy athletics check), then it turns out that there's mega enemies down the stairs and its somehow the leaders fault. (we vote on where we should go rather then take orders).

And thanks i'll look into the strategy guide. on a side note have you played GURPS?

In my current game, I play a Goliath Wrathful Hammer Runepriest, which is, in a lot of ways, something like your Warlord. I wear scale armor, my primary weapon is a maul, I dish out and take a lot of hits, and I have some healing powers. So I know where you're coming from.

And I don't mean Leader in terms of who's calling the shots, I mean Class Role: Leader, which is to say you're a healer and buffer. The Cleric is a Leader, and you as a Warlord, are a Leader. The Paladin is a Defender, whose job is to protect everyone else. The rogue and the Barbarian are Strikers, which means their main job is to deal damage while avoiding it themselves as best as they can. Your group lacks a Controller, but no class role is 100% vital.

A Warlord is still a Leader, regardless of how you play it. You do lots of buffing, setting up power plays for the strikers, and you have your healing powers. Now, since your group has that Cleric, hopefully they're focused on healing powers mostly, but they may not be. If your group is low on the heals, grab one or two. Or spend a feat when you can to pick up a new favorite of mine that my Runepriest has, a Skill Power called Inspiring Fortitude. All allies within burst 5 (including myself) receive 10+my Con mod temporary hit points when I use my second wind, in addition to the normal effects of a second wind (All it requires is that you're level 2 and trained in Endurance). That skill alone saved my party from a total party kill last session.

If you're lamenting having to play healer at all, don't be! Just because you're not doing the most damage at the table doesn't mean you don't have a vital role to be playing, or that you can't have fun with it. You may also benefit from focusing more on accuracy of your attacks, rather than pure damage, to ensure that the effects you want occur when you want.

A potential problem I do notice is that your group is all melee, unless that rogue of yours is the new sniper rogue from Martial Power 2. As a DM, I know I'd exploit the hell out of that. So maybe you or one of your strikers should consider changing to Ranger, or Wizard, or Seeker, or Sorcerer, or something to round out your party in that regard.

And yeah, I'm familiar with GURPS. It's not bad, but I'm not nearly as familiar with it as some other rulesets.

And honestly, don't be mad at the group when you walk into a bad situation like that. Odds are there was a just as tough encounter on the other side of that bridge When you don't have the privilege of scouting ahead, sometimes you just have to take that chance. Also, not every fight needs to be fought to the death, sometimes the best strategy is to run, or to try to get the enemy to back down (assuming they're intelligent creatures of course). Remember, your character shows no real negative signs of damage unless bloodied, so bragging that you've slaughtered half their men but you'll spare the rest by your grace when your party starts running low on heals can work well (unless your DM is a douche, or a bad DM, or you just really flub the rolls on it). Even amongst the rest of the party, your characters can't identify how many hit points someone has left, only: Uninjured (full health), Injured (above bloodied), Bloodied, Dying, or Dead.

 

[arsenicCatnip]

In 4.0 I had a 3rd level half-elf warlord who was useless in actual battle but made a great healer and often got the morale of our little troop up enough to win.

yeah that the only problem i've found with mine is that although i did build him correctly he sometimes has to fall back as support rather then being the CHARGE! type which is what he was made to do. But that said i can't complain, our DM is an inventive bastard who likes to throws us into bullshit situations to see if we can fight our way free.

Mine is... oh, what's the name of the type that's meant to be more encouraging and healing? I can't remember. But my dice never fail to roll horridly in battle... yet the moment we're out I'm rolling 17s and 18s.

 

[ace_of_something]

I've being playing D&D for 20+ years with 4 different additions. I can't even remember all the characters I've been.

My first divine character was Melvin Larrick the Elven cleric i'm pretty sure of Corellon Larethian. My most recent divine character was a Warforged Paladin of Onatar named Anvil. Used a Warhammer and Shield. My most recent character all around is a Changling named Rooke he's Bard/Rogue Hybrid he's level 16 and has the 'jack of all trades' paragon. With all my feats and such the lowest modifier Rooke has on any skill check (endurance) is +14. His bluff is the highest with a plus, i think 21.

 

[Katnap_Devikat]

And I don't mean Leader in terms of who's calling the shots, I mean Class Role: Leader, which is to say you're a healer and buffer. The Cleric is a Leader, and you as a Warlord, are a Leader. The Paladin is a Defender, whose job is to protect everyone else. The rogue and the Barbarian are Strikers, which means their main job is to deal damage while avoiding it themselves as best as they can. Your group lacks a Controller, but no class role is 100% vital.

Ah Sorry small confusion there.

If you're lamenting having to play healer at all, don't be! Just because you're not doing the most damage at the table doesn't mean you don't have a vital role to be playing, or that you can't have fun with it. You may also benefit from focusing more on accuracy of your attacks, rather than pure damage, to ensure that the effects you want occur when you want.

I don't really have problem with it, sometimes it just becomes inconvenient (especially if the fighting's heavy and my guys needed for combat)

A potential problem I do notice is that your group is all melee, unless that rogue of yours is the new sniper rogue from Martial Power 2. As a DM, I know I'd exploit the hell out of that. So maybe you or one of your strikers should consider changing to Ranger, or Wizard, or Seeker, or Sorcerer, or something to round out your party in that regard.

Both the rouge and cleric plan on multi classing at level ten, and yeah the DM certainly loves to throw encounters that include magic users and ranged enemies into the mix. The rouge did however spend a feat to gain proficiency in ranged weapons, i cant remember what it was though (the feat that is).

And honestly, don't be mad at the group when you walk into a bad situation like that. Odds are there was a just as tough encounter on the other side of that bridge When you don't have the privilege of scouting ahead, sometimes you just have to take that chance. Also, not every fight needs to be fought to the death, sometimes the best strategy is to run, or to try to get the enemy to back down (assuming they're intelligent creatures of course). Remember, your character shows no real negative signs of damage unless bloodied, so bragging that you've slaughtered half their men but you'll spare the rest by your grace when your party starts running low on heals can work well (unless your DM is a douche, or a bad DM, or you just really flub the rolls on it). Even amongst the rest of the party, your characters can't identify how many hit points someone has left, only: Uninjured (full health), Injured (above bloodied), Bloodied, Dying, or Dead.

I am never mad at the group for these situations, its mainly we all decided to take a certain route (which everyone voted for), then of course the party leader (paladin) takes the lead and suddenly the DM decides to ambush us. Then everone forgetting that we all agreed to take this route decides to blame the party leader for the team wipe. (i'm generally to busy giving the DM the 'i hate you sometimes look')

All in all our party is generally well equipped to take down most enemies and it is pretty much an enjoyable experience. In the case of team wipes or deaths in general the DM normally confiscates sixty percent of the parties gold and wipes the parties experience gain for the last hour or so.