Finally getting to play in a 4E game again.

[FuzzyDan]

... and I have waaaaaaaayyyyyy too many mechanical/fluff concepts.

If the DM allows PH3 classes and support, I'd really like to play an psionic class with power points (not monk), just to see how they play out, but all in all I really want to play something slightly outside of my usual comfort zone. 

So those of you that know the types of character I have been playing on the APs, any thoughts on new things I should try?

[Moondog]

Pathfinder

nope.

[Flawless P]

You could make a Sword Mage those seem fun...although I havent played much 4E

[Dom]

I've always wanted to play a Gnoll, but never got the chance to.

Swordmages are fun, you'll likely be jumping all over the place and act as both defenders and controllers.

The fighter builds are good too. I tried the two-handed build (can't remember the name, but I think it was shown in PHB2.) and it was really great, a bit less strong than a double-wielding Ranger, but the ability to mark more than makes up for it. (you'll still be doing a lot of damage.)

Assassins look fun, as do Monks. I haven't seen nor tried the Brawler build for the fighter which was introduced with Dark Sun, but that looks cool as well.

As for a Leader, maybe a Warlord? I played the Bravura Warlord, and it could be either a god-send if you have a few melee allies and a DM that roleplays enemies, or very bad if you have lots of ranged allies and a DM that plays "optimally".

If you're looking for something completely different, try a Hybrid build. There's a few good examples on the D&D 4e forums of awesome builds.

[Tadanori Oyama]

I'd suggest playing a less common, small race as a Battle Mind. They use psionic points and act as Defenders with Striker secondary abilities (or maybe it's the other way around...). By playing a small one you could extoll the virtues of mind over matter and intellect over mass. A kobold would be good since they normally tend to be presented as ranged fights, agile dodges, or magic users. Having a kobold in heavy armor who holds his ground and maintains rationality in combat would be interesting to me.

[Mckma]

In my experience with psionics, the power points are fun and interesting, but most of the augment 1 additions never really seemed that great.  But it's been a long time since I've played any 4E, so I don't really remember.  I can see why they wanted to streamline it in a sense like this (as opposed to the 3.5 psionics), but I kind of liked the flexibility of the 3.5 more...

In any case having 3 (or 4 if human?) At-Wills that scale with level is kind of fun in and of itself...

[Setherick]

Outside your comfort zone, eh? So whatever class you play, you really have to play it as chaotic and evil (or as CE as 4E will get you).

[FuzzyDan]

Outside your comfort zone, eh? So whatever class you play, you really have to play it as chaotic and evil (or as CE as 4E will get you).

I thought the standing assumption (despite my protests otherwise) was that Kuthin was Chatoic Selfish Bastard (evil), and my character in Ross' playtests for Road Trip were Lawful Selfish Bastard (Rich).  And the Character I one-shotted in the WoD Hunters game was Neutral Selfish Bastard (Scientist).

Playing against my own personality type isn't very difficult, but lately it feels my characters follow a theme (Selfish Bastard).

I'd suggest playing a less common, small race as a Battle Mind. They use psionic points and act as Defenders with Striker secondary abilities (or maybe it's the other way around...). By playing a small one you could extoll the virtues of mind over matter and intellect over mass. A kobold would be good since they normally tend to be presented as ranged fights, agile dodges, or magic users. Having a kobold in heavy armor who holds his ground and maintains rationality in combat would be interesting to me.

That's the kind of feedback I'm looking for.  My only issue with this is that while I like the theme, small races and melee do not mesh well, especially since the really fun Battlemind builds I've toyed with involve Polearms, knockbacks, and more or less pretending to be Sauron from the first 10 min of Fellowship of the Ring, and small characters can't use two-handed weapons in 4e, IIRC.  That no-downsizing weapons for small characters rule has made it annoying for those races to pull off melee, but I'm sure I could find something that fit. 

Oh, Kobold Charisma Palladin could be a small defender, maybe?

[Flawless P]

Outside your comfort zone, eh? So whatever class you play, you really have to play it as chaotic and evil (or as CE as 4E will get you).

I thought the standing assumption (despite my protests otherwise) was that Kuthin was Chatoic Selfish Bastard (evil), and my character in Ross' playtests for Road Trip were Lawful Selfish Bastard (Rich).  And the Character I one-shotted in the WoD Hunters game was Neutral Selfish Bastard (Scientist).

Playing against my own personality type isn't very difficult, but lately it feels my characters follow a theme (Selfish Bastard).

I'd suggest playing a less common, small race as a Battle Mind. They use psionic points and act as Defenders with Striker secondary abilities (or maybe it's the other way around...). By playing a small one you could extoll the virtues of mind over matter and intellect over mass. A kobold would be good since they normally tend to be presented as ranged fights, agile dodges, or magic users. Having a kobold in heavy armor who holds his ground and maintains rationality in combat would be interesting to me.

That's the kind of feedback I'm looking for.  My only issue with this is that while I like the theme, small races and melee do not mesh well, especially since the really fun Battlemind builds I've toyed with involve Polearms, knockbacks, and more or less pretending to be Sauron from the first 10 min of Fellowship of the Ring, and small characters can't use two-handed weapons in 4e, IIRC.  That no-downsizing weapons for small characters rule has made it annoying for those races to pull off melee, but I'm sure I could find something that fit. 

Oh, Kobold Charisma Palladin could be a small defender, maybe?

A buddy of mine made a character he loves more than anything, his name is Sir Orrick and he is a Goblin Paladin.
He was a good defender and mechanically sound because every time someone misses him in melee he would be able to shift as a reaction for better positioning.

Plus Goblins get a bonus to Cha in 4e.

[Tadanori Oyama]

Oh, Kobold Charisma Palladin could be a small defender, maybe?

You could go that way with the same problems. You can still use a Versatile weapon with two hands. Hmm... Spears and tridents are Versatile weapons, but their spear class, not polearm. Oh well.

Well, you could go with one of my personal favorite themes: The Leaping Lizard.

You play a Kobold Barbarian and use a nasty weapon (say, the Craghammer (Brutal 2, Versatile)) and get alot of Charging powers (like At-Wills you can use when Charging). Kobolds can Shift as a minor action and if you combine that with Shifting as a move action you can get two full squares of distance between you and your enemy which is the minimum required distance to Charge or you can get around your current enemy and Charge someone else. Thematically you have a tiny lizard person with a spiked hammer leaping around the battle field, screaming and striking creatures twice it's weight class at eye level.

[Moondog]

What. Non-Humans (excluding Saurials) can't be Paladins!

[Setherick]

Oh, Kobold Charisma Palladin could be a small defender, maybe?

You could go that way with the same problems. You can still use a Versatile weapon with two hands. Hmm... Spears and tridents are Versatile weapons, but their spear class, not polearm. Oh well.

Well, you could go with one of my personal favorite themes: The Leaping Lizard.

You play a Kobold Barbarian and use a nasty weapon (say, the Craghammer (Brutal 2, Versatile)) and get alot of Charging powers (like At-Wills you can use when Charging). Kobolds can Shift as a minor action and if you combine that with Shifting as a move action you can get two full squares of distance between you and your enemy which is the minimum required distance to Charge or you can get around your current enemy and Charge someone else. Thematically you have a tiny lizard person with a spiked hammer leaping around the battle field, screaming and striking creatures twice it's weight class at eye level.

+1 this. I would totally play this character.

[FuzzyDan]

I'd suggest playing a less common, small race as a Battle Mind. They use psionic points and act as Defenders with Striker secondary abilities (or maybe it's the other way around...). By playing a small one you could extoll the virtues of mind over matter and intellect over mass. A kobold would be good since they normally tend to be presented as ranged fights, agile dodges, or magic users. Having a kobold in heavy armor who holds his ground and maintains rationality in combat would be interesting to me.

That's the kind of feedback I'm looking for.  My only issue with this is that while I like the theme, small races and melee do not mesh well, especially since the really fun Battlemind builds I've toyed with involve Polearms, knockbacks, and more or less pretending to be Sauron from the first 10 min of Fellowship of the Ring, and small characters can't use two-handed weapons in 4e, IIRC.  That no-downsizing weapons for small characters rule has made it annoying for those races to pull off melee, but I'm sure I could find something that fit. 

Oh, Kobold Charisma Paladin could be a small defender, maybe?

Ok, so someone pointed out that there is a heavy bladed pole arm that a small character can use.  It's an exotic weapon, and may not have reach (depending on how you interpret the rules as written), but even without the reach, all that means is that the danger zone is reduced, and options to make reach OAs are eliminated, which all that means is I get some bits of my feat budget back to pick up the weapon proficiency.

So yeah, the Talenta Sharrash is a Two-Handed weapon with High-Crit and Small properties listed, and belongs to the Heavy Blade and Polearm weapon groups.  The reminder text of Polearm weapons says that all Polearms have reach.  So does the Talenta Sharrash have reach?

In either case, Kobold Battlemind is what I'm going to pitch to the DM, backstory writeup to follow.

[FuzzyDan]

Okay, so here is a "backstory" for "Sizable" Raoul, Kobold Battlemind.  Excuse the horrid writing style, I'm rusty and I was trying to portray some of it through his sub-10 INT score.

Raoul's broodmother always called him a noisy child.  Apparently this stemmed from his earliest days as an egg.  It was not a normal egg, it started as a dull gray, that began to shine as time went on.  It was a fabled ringing egg, and thus the Broodmother was ordered by the High Sycophant to hide the egg, lest the Dreaded Beloved Master discover it and destroy the entire warren for producing such an accursed offspring.  She hated this task each day, as the slightest bump, ding, or scrape would cause the egg to let loose a powerful, singular tone.  The egg also proved to be larger than normal, making the task both cumbersome and annoying.  But she tended to the egg as well as any other, and Raoul was able to hatch and join his clutch cousins.

The oversized egg was a portent for Raoul's appetite.  He needed to eat more that the average hatchling, and was growing to be larger than any of his cousins.  He was not as quick or sly as his kin, constantly fumbling over lies, unable to keep pace in races, and could not hide well enough to set an ambush or spring a trap.  However, he kept trying, and he was capable of shaking off quite a lot of pain and had a habit of not dying.  Eventually he found his place as the kobold who could test traps and carry the new treasures for the Dreaded Beloved Master.  It seemed that what Raoul was doing was helping his Warren, and he was happy to be able to help.

It was a day like any other.  Treasures were carried, the new spike trap hurt more, so Raoul guessed it was a good day.  He came back with some treasure and brought it to the Master, who was entertaining guests.  Their heads were funny, no scales, purple-ish, and no mouths that Raoul could see.  Looking at them and their tentacles for too long made Raoul's head hurt.  The Dreaded Beloved Master was speaking about something or another regarding a drawing, and how the tentacle-heads would destroy the draw city, and the Master would then destroy them.  Raoul felt oh so very clever now that he knew art was so important to the Dreaded Beloved Master.  Next time he would tell the hunters and raiders to steal art from the humans, elves, and dwarves, and the Master will be happy with them and the Warren will be happy with Raoul.  Raoul liked being useful to the Warren.

What Raoul saw that night he still cannot forget.  He watched as the snake-faces raised their hands and a sickly light blasted the Dreadful Beloved Master.  The Master fought back, letting loose a searing cone and following it with fang and claw.  Raoul went to go call for help, to bring the entire Warren on the Mind-Flayers and share in the Master's glory.  Raoul found the Warren under siege.  Horrible, ugly things chasing his kin, floating balls of eyes burning homes to piles of ash, and the proud warriors of his people reduced to screaming piles of shame, cut down by an assortment of humans, elves, dwarves, and so many others with blank, dead eyes.  Raoul didn't know if he could help the Warren.

It.  Wasn't.  Right.  In that moment, Raoul knew he had to do something, to make things right.  He realized he had the power to do it.

A halfling with a blank stare was running down the Broodmother, carrying a bundle of eggs.  The thing carried a long pole with a heavy hook on one end.  As the hook raised for a final strike to the Broodmother's back, Raoul screamed in rage, and found himself underneath the hook.  It struck the armor plate Raoul had on his shoulder, snapping it away and revealing the darkened grey scales underneath.  The kobold grabbed the polearm, wrested it from the halfling, and began to hack away at it, each strike landing true.  A lot of blood was spilled that night, most of it belonged to kobolds and the Dreaded Beloved Master, but the Warren survived.  Raoul was glad he managed to save some of the Warren.

Raoul led his people away, going deeper into the caverns, searching for a new home.  Every kobold there now looked to him for protection, looked to him to lead, and Raoul didn't know how.  He decided that they needed a new master, one that lived in the deep caves, one powerful enough to protect them from the squid-heads.  He took some trinkets that the scavengers were taking to the Master's hoard during the attack and traded them with a caravan for food.  The strange man in charge of the caravan talked about how he saw treasures like these going to a great dragon well into the deep caves, to somewhere called the Shallows in a place called the Underdark.  Raoul was confused, there was a Master living on the edge of a pond in the deep caves?  What was the Underdark?  Isn't everything under the ground dark?  Why won't the man sell any of his little yellow birds?  They looked tender, and he had seven of them, so plenty to share.  But still, Raoul came back to the tribe with dried meats, and everyone rejoiced.  Raoul was still useful to the Warren.

After days of hiding, fighting, and walking through the deep caverns, until they were captured and brought before a Master.  Raoul's people cowered in terror, for this was a metallic master, an Adamantine Master, a sworn enemy of the Dead Beloved Master.  The Warren sat in judgement, as the Master asked many questions about the Squid-heads, the Dead Master, and Raoul.  Raoul's cousin was very helpful, Reejax was always smart and knew many things.  Reejax also told many stories, and the stories he was telling of Raoul were very nice, they made Raoul sound strong, and brave.  Reejax said that Raoul was the mightiest of kobolds, the most sizeable, and if he were to die then someone even mightier would take his place.  Later Raoul would think that Reejax was making Raoul sound stronger than the Master, so the Master would want to kill Raoul.  At least if that happened then the Master would take the Warren, and Raoul wanted the Warren to be safe.

But the New Master did not kill Raoul.  The Master thought that Raoul being so “sizeable” (Raoul is not sure if this is an actual word, maybe it is a fancy title.) would make him a good commander.  If Raoul agreed to lead his people in the Master's Army, then he would teach Raoul many things, make him a great warrior.  Raoul agreed, and the Master would brand him with the same mark as all of his other Knights.  Raoul would slowly grow to learn and emulate the Master, for the Master was strong, and Raoul would be strong for the Warren.

One day Raoul returned to the home the Master set aside for him and his Warren.  It was quiet, and usually Raoul's part of the Master's Realm was busy with the sounds of making things, mostly traps.  Raoul's people traded traps with the other parts of the realm for food and whatnot.  But no traps were being made today.  Nothing was being made today.  Nobody was here today?  Raoul could not find his Warren.

Raoul looked around, and began to see some familiar things, Kobolds cut down, homes destroyed, and dead thralls.  Raoul did not find the Broodmother or Reejax, and while looking around Raoul saw that his people escaped again, and Reejax had led them away.  Raoul went to search for his people, and return them to his part of the Realm.  If any squid-heads had hurt his people, Raoul would bring the caves down on their heads.  Raoul was marked by the Adamantine Master, and Raoul's fury would make his Master proud.  Raoul will find the Warren.

http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/25855973/The_Thunder_Titan_-_An_at-will_close_burst_2blast_4_Battlemind is the framework of the build I want to use, modified for my own preference (mostly nerfing my combat effectiveness for the super-fun Kobold Defender flavor)

Thoughts?