D&D 4th Ed. Character building

[Darth Wagtaros]

I'll be occasionally participating in another game and was looking for input on what kind of character to play.  It will start at lvl 5 and anything is open, from any sourcebook, except that the Evil alignments are out.

I was thinking about maybe a Gnome warlord or a Drow Paladin of Kelemvor.  Despite the destructino of the Forgotten Realms I'd like to play some of the original races like the Gnomes.

[Jacob]

Do you know what the other players are playing?

[crazy canuck]

Do you know what the other players are playing?

Yep, thats really the key.  Fourth edition needs groups put together as carefully as you would for a challenging MMO instance.

[The Brain]

WHERE THE HELL WAS HEAL

[Ed Anger]

Whatever gives you the most pluses.

[Darth Wagtaros]

I believe there is a warlock and a sword mage, and probably a bard, not sure about anybody else.

[The Brain]

and probably a bard

Gay.

[Neil]

Does it really matter?  No matter what, you'll be considered 'Artillery' or some such nonsense.

[Valmy]

I believe there is a warlock and a sword mage, and probably a bard, not sure about anybody else.

What the hell is a sword mage?

[Jacob]

I believe there is a warlock and a sword mage, and probably a bard, not sure about anybody else.

Looks like you got the bases covered, pretty much, and can make whatever you want.

The new Invoker and Avenger classes both seem pretty cool in how they work, though I'm not usually into divine type characters.  That said, whenever I'm making a character for 4E I tend back towards the fighter.

[ulmont]

What the hell is a sword mage?

Forgotten realms special.  There are some stats in the FR preview:
http://www.wizards.com/rpga/downloads/rpga4_frpgpreview.zip

It's an Arcane Defender type.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Does it really matter?  No matter what, you'll be considered 'Artillery' or some such nonsense.

Unfortunately. 

I just wanna kill things.  Wizards are teh suck now.  I just wanna be an elven multi-class fighter-magic user. 

[vinraith]

So the basic evolution is that, in 3rd, they gut multi class characters and then, in 4th, they introduce a bunch of new character classes that are basically hybrids of existing classes? In other words, we're basically back where we started but with sillier class names?

[Eochaid]

I play a rogue halfling and am having  lot of fun with him. He usually gets behind people and stab them to death.

Kevin

[ulmont]

So the basic evolution is that, in 3rd, they gut multi class characters and then, in 4th, they introduce a bunch of new character classes that are basically hybrids of existing classes?

They already introduced the hybrids in 3rd later on, since they fucked up multi-class casters so bad.