OOC: In the Beginning...

Thanks a lot for letting me join the fun ... er... slavery. I'm sort of busy today, though. Will be more active starting tomorrow.

I would love to have a harsh songblade, and have used it with the valorous bard/shout of triumph combo to basically daze the whole enemy party while moving all of our fighters in position in one action. Even with no upgrades to the area of the shout, you can basically get every enemy in a blast 5 to be dazed! Alas, it doesn't really fit well into the story. I sincerely doubt that they would let Eduardo have a weapon that is that damn good at court. Also, the harp is pathetic enough to make it pretty fun.

So I won't be able to daze folks right off the bat, but it is on my list of things to have, no worries. Then again, if DannoE really wants us to be as optimized as possible, Eduardo can take the harsh songblade. I just thought the harp was would be fun for a bit of roleplay, and in case the party ever wants to be stealthy.

As for Staggering Note, the simple fact of the matter is that I don't have a subscription to the Insider, so I didn't know about it. Misdirect mark is good for us when we are lacking defenders, as the Bard can act as a bit of a defender with that power, Vicious Mockery gets the Psychic keyword for Psychic Lock later on, and guiding strike is just a good attack for when you're in melee and have no other options.

Hey guys, I apologize for my late start. I just finished my 7th straight day of bartending. I'll have my sheet finished asap, and a brief synopsis/history up as well for Dannoe to go over with some teasers for the rest of you.

A quick overview will be a changeling nightstalker assassin, favoring being the party face and getting others to do his bloodshed full scale for him, though he'll be able to handle himself as well.

Dannoe, one question for you: If a target is unaware of me/unaware I'm a threat to him, will he be aware of me putting shrouds on him or not? This is a debated topic and is basically left up to DM discretion it seems.

I've more or less finished my character, but there are some points which I'm not completely sure about.

As I wrote in the ad, I've given more weight to the backstory than pure optimizing, but I'd say it's pretty optimized anyway. I've never played this type of controller before, though. I've always relied on forced movement, immobilization, slowing and the like to do my duties. She's practically made to take Psychic Lock at Paragon -- all her powers are psychic damage.

I'm very unsure about the level 1 daily. I might still change it to Living Missile, sacrificing some fluff. Perhaps she has some hidden talents she's not aware of.

As for defenses: Fortune has a starting AC of 16, an immediate interrupt which gives her +3 on one attack, an encounter item power that lets her shift 5 as a move action, and the Memory Hole power (makes you invisible to one enemy you hit). She's built on the "offense is the best defense" idea, with maximum +hit and targeting the usually weakest defense of melee-fighters, Will.

I am not, however, completely sure it's a good idea to rely on that alone. I could take Unarmored Agility for +2 AC, sacrificing +1 hit. The problem with that is that +1 hit is always (as long as you attack) useful, while +2 only helps when someone is attacking your AC. It's not a good idea to have a super-defense controller that can't affect the enemies much.

I could also take Staff Expertise rather than Orb Expertise. I have no use for the orb expertise bonus effect: +1 on forced movement. I do, however, find the orb I've chosen incredibly useful -- basically an extra encounter power + initiative bonus. Staff expertise, on the other hand, negates all OA from standing in melee, which is very useful in cramped quarters, difficult terrain, or when we're getting overrun. Fortune is pretty much useless if she's surrounded as she is now. The main reason I chose orb expertise is that I found it much easier story-wise to conceal an orb rather than a staff. If any of you have a suggestion on how she could have smuggled in (and kept) a staff, I'm all ears.

Also, I've taken Bluff, Diplomacy, Insight and Perception as trained skills. I can easily drop Diplomacy for Arcana, but if any of you have Arcana already, I'll keep Diplomacy. It fits better with the story.

You might consider a crystal orb instead of an accurate orb. Since all your current attacks his Will and have the Psychic keyword (effectively the same bonus to hit with a +2 to damage). But that might be short-sighted if you plan on getting more non-psychic powers in the future.

I agree with your logic though of focusing on attack bonuses over Unarmored Agility.

I thought there was a feat for that. Isn't there a feat for that?

If there's no feat, then my default answer is that if you've succeeded with a Stealth, Bluff, or whatever kind of check, then you can place shrouds without your target noticing.

Tarner has Arcana. It's good that you're good at Bluff and Diplomacy; You can usually be the party face, but if we need to frighten someone out of their wits, that'll be Tarner's job, with his +10 Intimidate.

Also, DannoE, can you clarify? Do I get the Student of the Plague feat for free for choosing Spellscarred as a theme? That's what Shadeus told me, and if it's true, it would certainly open up a lot of options for me.

Yeah, that's right. Or you can take the actual Spellscarred Theme, which is also pretty interesting... but completely different.

BTW, I've been wrestling with a migraine all morning. I'm slowly but surely feeling better, but the downside is that I'm a little behind on what I'd planned to do game-wise today. So I doubt we'll get started until this weekend. I've got maps to draw for both this game and Sellswords and a few other things as well, and it's gonna take me some time to get it all set up.

By the by, if anyone has a nice map of a throne room that they want to post, feel free. That'd save me having to draw one for my other game.

Alright, made the executive decision to dump the full blade in favor of a great axe (which he's already proficient in). I might pick up a superior weapon later on, but for some better battlefield control, I'm going to need to pick up World Serpent's Grasp (knocks slowed targets prone) at level 4.

DannoE: do a google for "throne room map"; I think there were 3-4 usable ones in there. Depends if it's a monsterous throne room or a civilized throne room.