Short Story: A Son Damned

Meet Emil Volkhart, an entirely ordinary businessman. His graying hair caused from the stress of running his three businesses properly, and the wrinkles disfiguring his face are all too soon earned. Emil has a wife, and three children. He's a good husband, having stayed faithful to his wife throughout the years, supporting the family on his back alone. This was not always the case, for there was a time when Emil lacked not only a family of his own, but also his mediocre success in life. Yes, in fact Emil was never much of a level-headed person before his success, nor did he ever have the head for running an establishment. He still doesn't. Emil merely happened upon things man shouldn't.

In a drunken daze, a cold october night, Emil agreed on various committments and deals to a single, very helpful man. For a long time, he couldn't remember what. It didn't matter, for as early as the next day, when the headache still laid thick over his mind, his estranged grandfather passed away, and as the only Volkhart alive, Emil was left the old man's continental transport service. It made a meagre two gold a year, what with travel costs and repairs. The lack of customers that had plagued it didn't help. But everything seemed to work out. A new assistant asked to work beneath him, and after he took her under his wing, the business came back to Volkart Transports. Customers came in every day with something to send, and the weak old horses proved to have more fight in them then ever before. Business looked good.

A year later, Emil married his assistant, the both of them no longer content with nights of passion in the man's office and home. The workers didn't mind, they'd known them both for a good eleven months, after all. Sierre was as good a wife as she was his assistant, faithful and loving, waiting for him each day with food ready. He gave her larger responsibilities as the offer came to buy out both of his competitors, and suddenly, Volkhart Transports spun over the entire nation.

Emil couldn't stay in one place, always having to go to new cities, look over his offices, and buy out new locales. Still, fate didn't seem to be satisfied, and the offer in his home town came for him to uphold the bank as well. He took to the task with glee. He'd lived his entire life in that city, and the bank was one of it's defining features. His father worked in there, after all.

Business yet again flourished, and his wife looked over the bank whilst Emil was forced out on trip after trip. He returned to find his wife bearing his child, and was ecstatic with the idea.

The world had no intention of slowing down however, and the reputation of this up and coming businessman soon spread to the main city, wherefrom he was soon offered to buy up the the postal delivery, it being in great need of some major aid, a cheap affair for the man. Small change almost. That business too, flourished in short time. His wife finally birthed his child. A son. Emil was a little torn about not being there when it happened, but such are the woes of a travelling man. He came home, nonetheless, and spent more time with his lovely wife.

They named their son Lucien. His wife seemed to love the name, and Emil didn't mind. It was a nice enough name. Years begun to pass, and Emil ever more begun to regret missing large halves of each year, only half getting to see his son grow. Four years later, his wife bore another child, much to Emil's rejoicing. A little daughter. Emil didn't mind a daughter, of course, but he would much rather have another son to grow up strong, and continue his legacy in one of his three businesses, all of them fairly successful.

Another six years, young Lucien was ten, and his sister six, and another sister joined the family. Emil was, again, not all too excited. He still did not mind his daughters, he loved them just like young Lucien, but they were still destined to take another name. It was simple tradition.

At age fourteen, Lucien began helping his mother at the bank, showing an incredible head for numbers and business, his father and mother into the marrow, Emil thought. As the years passed, and Lucien grew to become a fine young Volkhart, Emil began planning for him taking over the bank entirely, his gift for coming of age. When Lucien came of age, however, it was an entirely different story. A man came knocking at the door, a man Emil had met before, but could not place. He met thousands of people every year, how could he hope to remember one man? The man claimed Lucien would come with him.

The night became to come back, for whatever reason Emil could not explain. He had met this man before, his great benefactor. A promise of wealth and love, in the simple exchange for his firstborn son. Emil, who would obviously never have kids, had recklessly agreed. Lucien seemed to accept the idea without much hassle, and his wife said nothing. Emil saw her for what she was that day, and the way she looked at the man who came to his house.

The loss of his son tore at Emil like a knife to the heart. His businesses began to fail, slowly but surely. The bank still ran well, but it alone could not support either of the other two, and they were both sorely lacking customers, or repairs.

Emil hasn't tried for a new son. It isn't in him anymore. Whatever Lucien is doing, he knew this was coming.

Classical: Fighters

That smarmy homonculus! Daring to log onto my database, and provide reasonably accurate information? Pah. Luckily, ladies, gentlemen and otherwise, I've caught the offender red-handed, and whilst he's making his way into my painfully slow death trap, I'll spend my time talking about a -real- D&D class. So let's get down to Fighters!

The Fighter is a defender. What's that mean, you ask? It means they defend their party, and make the bad, evil monsters attack them instead. Such is the default class, anyway! There is a type of Fighter for everyone, and regardless of what your schtick is, you're bound to at least look twice! Let's have a look see, shall we?

Ways of Fighting?

Fighters differentiate from one another by specializing into so-called talents. How talented you can be with intelligence as your dumpstat is questionable, but our brawny heroes seem to manage!

The first talent off the bat is Battlerager Vigor, it gives you temporary hit points, and they even stack with the power! Hell, even better, if you use an Invigorating power and manage to miss every single target (should've practiced on that barn, boy), you still get temporary hit points equal to your constitution modifier. Right then, next in l-.. Wait, there's more? Egads. Battleragers ALSO get +1 to damage with melee and close attack -while- wearing light armor or chainmail, IF they have temporary hitpoints, something you should never be without. This damage increases if you wield an axe, a hammer, a mace or a pick, so stick a twohanded Greataxe in there, and go wild, baby.

Second up on the pitch is the Tempest Technique. Despite sounding like something out of a bad Steven Seagal movie, it is in fact another talent, and it's perfectly acceptable! Tempest Technique gives you +1 to attack rolls if you're dual wielding. BUT - my muffled assistant notes - they have to have the offhand property, meaning they're more obviously than not somewhat gimped in damage, sadly, and you rely on powers to make that better. Don't worry, the wizards tried to make this up. They're also giving you Two-Weapon Defense, even if your scrawny self can't get it normally. So that's nice. You also get +1 damage when you dual wield, +2 if they're offhanders. Haven't I heard something like this before? Consistency is nice, at least!

Third up are the two talents simply called Weapon Talent! (One-handed and Two-handed, respectively.) These are the simplest of all the talents. No-nonsense cousins to their flashy comrades, the Weapon Talents simply give you a flat +1 bonus to attack rolls with the chosen group of weapons, regardless of how you wield it, or what colour it is. If you want to wear sick armor, and stick a shield on there, this is what I recommend, so you don't miss out on the features of Battlerager or Tempest.

Fourth, and last on the field is the hilarious buck-toothed stepchild of the Tempest Technique, namely the Brawler Style... talent. What's the Brawler do, then? Well, they brawl. Let's get a piece of this craziness. When a brawler holds a weapon in his main hand, and has -nothing- in his off hand, he gains +1 to AC, and +2 to Fortitude. So that's pretty nice, right? No, because you're giving up a shield, and miss out on both AC, and magic properties. Well, let's move on! What else does the brawler-man get? You gain a.. profiency with unarmed attacks.. yay.. and a +2 bonus to grab attacks and attacks to move a creature grabbed by you. Egads. I know where this is going. To be total dicks, wizard decided to add the fact that you cannot use a spiked gauntlet to boost your damage, because you don't get the proficiency. You do however get the grab bonus. -2 to hit for 1d2 more damage? Your choice. *snickers*

Features of Fighting

That's talents down. Let's get right down to the meat of the class. But wait, what's this? Another choice you say? Sigh. Right! All warriors nowadays get the choice of their defining feature, namely Combat Superiority or Combat Agility. Combat Agility was added in to appeal to those of you whom take the Tempest Technique, boost your dex instead of your wisdom, and have terrible riders on your powers. They're pretty close in the end. Superiority gives a bonus equal to your wisdom modifier to all your opportunity attacks, and forces your opponent to lose his move action, if that's what provoked the attack from you. Combat Agility IS an opportunity attack, and lets you shift up to your dexterity modifier towards the man who just ran away, and then smack him silly with the power in question. They're also knocked prone. Note that unless you pump Dexterity to 18 in the start, this is often worse than superiority, due to the fact that Superiority is automatic, and that you might not always be able to get to the aggressor with the shift on this power, leaving you useless where you would've stuck him with the attack otherwise.

Right, let's get down to it! All Fighters get something called Combat Challenge. Firstly, whenever you attack an enemy, it gets marked, giving it -2 to attack unless it targets you. Sweet, right? It gets better. This mark is applied regardless of whether or not you hit, so people who like the Brawler Style above, rejoice. As part of this feature, you also get an Immediate Interrupt (Also named Combat Challenge), that allows you to use a melee basic attack against an adjacent, marked enemy if he tries to shift OR attack someone but you. Sweet right? It is. Of all the defender, only the paladin has nicer features, when it comes to punishment, but we'll get to that in the paladin talks.

All Fighters also get the ability to wear every armor sans Plate, and start with the best weapon proficiencies in the game, able to handle any military or simple weapon. For those superior ones (and yes, they are better in theory), you'll still need a feat. You get a +2 bonus to fortitude for being the scrappy sort, and your power source is martial like the Warlord, meaning you actually practiced to get this good, instead of reading pamphlets on magic, or asking the nice gods/spirits for help. Atop this you get sweet amounts of hitpoints, about the same as every other defender, and a godly amount of healing surges. Only the paladins get more by default, and only by one, so it doesn't really matter. You get three skills from the following list:

Athletics

Endurance

Heal

Intimidate

Streetwise

So, not only do you get busted for a skill less than everyone else, you also have pretty bad choices up there. I suggest any fighter take Athletics, it keys off Strength. Endurance or Heal depending on how much you've boosted your Wisdom/Con, and then pick which one of the two last you want to be the least bad at. Or just skip them all together and pick up Heal. Humans would do well to pick another skill. Perception comes to mind.

Fighting Feats

Now we've come to the stuff that makes you. Feats are dangerously essential, and there are bucketloads of them, so I won't even start to scrape the surface. I instead have compiled the smallest of lists to serve you on this day.

• Shield Push (PHB): If you're using a shield, consider getting this feat on level 1. If you don't pick it up on level 1, consider getting it on level 2. If you didn't, you're making kittens cry. This is a staple of shield fighters.
• Forceful Opportunist (Dragon 379): Any weapon talent fighter should consider this feat, because pushing the battlefield around is crazy good. Even funnier if you use a polearm, and push them over the entire battlefield, or off a cliff. Always hilarious.
• Agile Superiority (Dragon 378): This takes Combat Superiority, and keys it off Dexterity instead of Wisdom, so if you're a dex based fighter, and think you could do without the so-so opportunity attack of Combat Agility, you should take this.
• Mobile Challenge (Dragon 378): A feat that lets you shift 1 step after attacking with your Combat Challenge feature. Very interesting, and lets you shift after the people who try to flee.

Fighting Powers

So what can you actually do? Again, I won't list everything, just scratching at the surface for you. There are a plethora of powers, at least two for every style, and some that are compatible with almost whatever talent you had in mind.

• Tide of Iron (At-will, PHB): If you're a shield fighter, you want this. It does damage, pushes, shifts you, and does your laundry on sundays.
• Dual Strike (At-will, Martial Power): This is for the dual-wielders out there, and it lets you bring the pain to two enemies at the same time. Remember, even if you miss, they're still marked.
• Weapon Master's Strike (At-will, Dragon 382): This is an interesting power, with something for almost anyone. Before the attack, it allows you to draw another weapon if you want, so you can use it to shift your gear around for added hilarity. It does basic damage, and then something extra depending on which weapon you're using. Highly recommended for spear fighters, humans, and anyone who can't find something to fill their at-will slots.
• Rain of Steel (Daily 5, PHB): Why am I bringing up a level 5 daily? Well, this is a pretty major gig. If you get to level 5, you should seriously consider this power, as enemies will take damage for starting next to you. Just watch out for being dazed or stunned, and watch the damage skyrocket more than a raging barbarian in big fights.

Who Fights?

Who makes a good Fighter? Well, that's a simple equation. Look at the race list. Now look at the class. Look at the race list again. Remove gnomes, changelings, goblins, kenku, githyanki, deva, and tieflings. Kalashtar also. There, everyone else, you can make it work. Here's my four favorites:

• Dragonborn: They're f-ing dragons, man. Of course they're good at fighting. So the Charisma doesn't help you (still wondering why they don't have constitution), but EVERYTHING else does. The breath will let you mark everyone you target, hit or miss, which is insane. Add hurl breath and enlarged breath respectively for extra sinister laughter moments.
• Dwarf: These guys make up for the lack of strength with a super-hard determination. Constitution and Wisdom means they make rock hard shieldwalls, and the racials only affirm this fact. Slap on a hammer or an axe. Go to town. They also like beer. And fighting.
• Warforged: ROBOTS. If you're still not sold on the idea, how's about the plus to Strength and Constitution? No? Well, look again, because these miniature godzillas have a truckload of fighter feats, including a sick feat on first level, letting them knock people prone with their opportunity action. Have we heard this before? Best of both worlds.
• Human: These guys make funnily sick warriors. You might not win the competition for biggest stats, only having a plus to one ability, and I'll hate you if you don't put it in strength. Besides that, humans get +1 to all the non-ac defenses by default, as well as a bonus feat, which will help your career considerably. The extra skill is icing on the cake, but the extra at will power you can make great use of. Combine with some of the best feat support in the game for any class, and you've got a solid pick.

So that's that. The Fighter class. I won't get into Paragon Paths, nor will I Epic Destinies. Such things are for the future, my dear readers. It seems my assistant managed to escape during my monologue. Blasted paperclips! I shall leave you now, and hunt him down. I best reconstruct my death-machine too. Why does it even have ventilation shafts?

SRM

Classical: Warlords

I don't have much time. I managed to crack the shady review mans password (really. SRMFTW IS a bad password, no numbers or special characters at all) and I have a chance to spread the truth to you poor misguided fools. SRM does not know squat about true power in D&D, I bet he'll start off by writing about something silly. Like fighters. No real imagination! It is my task, as the Shady Review Mans Shady Assistant to enlighten you!

Warlord

Few classes in D&D 4.0 makes my mind race as much as the Warlord. Just taste the word, what ideas, what concepts does it bring into your mind? A powerful captain yelling at his troops to hold the line? A mighty general leading his troops towards victory? Or perhaps the sergeant keeping his group focused towards their goal?

Me, I think of the frontline fighter, standing toe to toe with the evil hordes. Yelling "Hold the line", "Stand Fast" and other cliché phrases.

In many ways, that is what the warlord of D&D is. He's not the tough Fighter, keeping the enemies attention on himself. He's not the nimble Rogue dancing around, stabbing into vital organs. And he's not the powerful Wizard raining down destruction on the heads of the foes (and sometimes, friends aswell).

He is the leader, the one standing in the fray, being an inspiration to them all, he can't take as much punishment as the Fighter, he can't do damage like the Rogue. He can however hold his own. He'll stand by the Fighters side, beating on the enemies and aiding his allies.

The warlords strength is in the so called Enabling. Enabling means that he enables his party to reach the pinnacle of their potential. He can still heal, with his "inspiring word" and he can still buff his allies in various ways. And in a party with physical characters. He's at his best.

Let's take a look at the different types of Warlords.

First, let's have a look at the different kinds of leadership they bestow.

Battlefront Leader

My favourite type. He's truly the one standing on the frontline next to the defender. He gets the ability to wear heavy shields, and a power that allows one ally to shift half his/her speed when the warlord rolls initiative, perfect for getting the defender into position, or move a weaker squishy out of the fray in case of an ambush.

Canny Leader

It gives any ally in your vicinity who can see or hear you a +2 bonus to insight and perception. Great if the party is low on those skills, but otherwise, nothing fancy. I don't like it at all.

Combat Leader

The original of them, only one to come in the core book, and gives a solid +2 bonus to initiative to the allies in your vicinity who can see or hear you. It's decent. But I still prefer the Battlefront Leader.

Now, you can also chose to lose your ability to use chainmail and shields, in return for being an archer. It even allows you to use strength instead of dexterity for bows. It's an interesting concept, that definately helps when you find yourself in a party of whimpy flappyears with their uncannily efficent bows. There's also alot of new powers to utilize in these cases. If that's your cup of tea, go ahead and try it out.

There's also several presences to choose from. These control alot of which stats will be useful for you, and which powers you want to take. I'll give you a short rundown about what they are.

Bravura Presence

Nothing wagered nothing won is the lifeblood of the Bravura Warlord. It's all about taking extra risks and getting better rewards in turn. Those among you addicted to gambling, or just like the wild magic sorcerer should go with this. It's a great way to get an extra edge in a pinch. But beware, it might just push you further down that slippery slope towards death.

Insightful Presence

Do you like chess? Well, this could be the path for you. You take extra advantage from the enemies weaknesses. and make sure to point these out to your allies. You give up your own attacks to command your allies to strike out in the right place. Not for those who want to do feel the shudder of the enemy as you drive your blade through them. But rather stand back and have a clear view of the battlefield, allowing your party to reach ever higher.

Inspiring Presence

Now this is the classical charismatic leader. Truly, and insiration to us all (pun intended) You encourage your allies, making them believe their missing hand is nothing, and their missing leg is nothing more then a flesh wound that won't even slow them down. They will look up to you, clinging to your words like drowning men cling to a lifeline. You are the warlord who excels in healing, and giving your party the chance to get rid of other conditions who might be disadvantageous, not to mention uncomfortable.

Resourceful Presence

You always have an ace up your sleeve, if you're facing overwhelming odds, you see the opening allowing you to route them, if you're in a pinch, you have the right words to set the blood of your allies alight with courage and strength. Your not as good at either thing as other warlords, but you can do them all. But it is as they say, Jack of all trades, master of none.

Skirmishing Presence

Surrounded by longeared whimps with bows, too afraid to face their opponents face to face? Do they prefer whine (Or wine for that matter) to ale? Well, here's the path for you. If you can't beat them, join them. That's what my commander always used to say, sadly... We fought the undead. Anyhow, you stand behind the frontline, directing your allies arrows. Allowing your shadier party members the chance to sneak around to strike at the enemies backs. Mobility is your keyword.

Tactical Presence

Where the Insightful warlord quickly adaps his strategy as the battle unfolds. You already knew what could happen, and planned for it beforehand. You lure the enemies to move, making better targets of themselves, command your allies to strike just as the opportunity reveals itself.

Races

Not all races are suitable for a warlord. A warlord want Strength, and depending on your specialisation charisma or intellect (or both) So look for that when you choose what race you pick. I'll mention a few noteworthy races to look at.

Dragonborn

Nothing says get out of my way as a big draconic humanoid. With their bonuses to both Strength and Charisma they make excellent warlords. They can breathe fire (or whatever other element/substance that catches your fancy) There's even feats for them that allow you to avoid harming your allies, instead granting them bonuses to hit. Or even that makes the enemies take more damage from your allies that hits it.

Human

Humans work well for every class, an extra feat, and an extra at will attack goes a long way. You get a +2 bonus to the attribute you want, but you only get bonuses to one attribute instead of the normal 2, it's a price you have to pay. The advantages outweigh the disadvatages though.

Tiefling

Tieflings make good resourceful warlords, with their bonuses to both intelligence and charisma. However brought down slightly by lack of strength bonus (as strength should almost always be your highest attribute)

Genasi

Genasi make great warlords, +2 strenght and +2 intelligence, and depending on what element you are, you can get some quite powerful powers to boot.

Some noteworthy powers

• Commander's strike (at will): An ally makes a melee basic attack on the target, and adds your int modifier to the damage. Great if you have allies who have powers they can use as a melee basic attack.
• Rousing Assult (at will): 1[w] + str mod damage and you can add your charisma modifier to any warlord healing powers healing until the end of your next turn. Perfect for getting some extra healing done on the next turn. It's not much, but if you don't need to heal this turn, do some damage and get a bit of extra healing next turn.
• Lead the Attack (level 1 daily): Hell, 3[w] + str modifier damage, and until the end of the ENCOUNTER allies within 5 squares of you get 1+ your int modifier extra to hit. That's an insanely good level 1, might even keep it around until level 30!

Some noteworthy feats

• Armored Warlord (Gain ability to use scale armor and 1 extra healing surge. Battlefron Leader only)
• Inspired recovery (when an ally spends an action point, the get a saving throw with your cha modifier as a bonus, inspiring presence only)
• Lend might (If you grant an ally an attack to an oppnent adjacent to you, they get +1 to the attack roll)
• Battering shield (when you are using a heavy shield, and push or slide an opponent with a melee attack, add 1 square to the distance. Good if you use alot of powers that does this)

This is a short introduction of the Warlord, enough to give you a basic idea of what the warlord is, and some basic advice if you want to actually make one. I not played warlord more then once, but I quite enjoyed playing it that time. It's as I said, a leader quite capable of taking a few hits, who can still do a little bit of damage, and who can provide sufficient healing. And more importantly, enables your partys melee characters to perform at the height of their potential.

So if you have a fighter, a melee striker or two and any kind of controller, you can't go wrong with a warlord. The fighter will love you as you can enable him to get an extra mark, the barbarian will offer to have your babies (and even to refrain from eating them) for the extra attacks you can grant him. And the rogue will not empty your pockets at his earliest opportunity as you can enable him to get combat advantage, or help him flank his opponent.

The sorcerer won't give a rats ass about what you can do for them ofcourse. As long as they can position you in the way of the dragon, he'll see a point in letting you live. But love you? Nah, he saves the love for bards and clerics and other such whimps.

Be strong, be tough, be an inspiration, be a warlord!

Damn, I hear him coming... I should have locked the door... Curse you gnomish keyboard! Curse you typogremlins! I took too long. He won't catch me though... I have a paperclip, and I'm not afraid to use it! Charge! To arms! Death to the TYRANT!