Dungeons and Dragons: 4th Edition

[Dark Holy Elf]

Dungeons and Dragons 4e stat topic

It's D&D~

Anyway, this stat topic is meant to showcase the 22 classes in the three Player's Handbooks (as of 2010, anyway) for Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition, and how they might fight in a duel. Although a tabletop game, D&D plays enough like a square-grid SRPG to be quite interpretable in the DL.

What this is NOT is a stat topic for any specific campaign. You won't see any named characters here. It's a class stat topic, like the one for, say, Final Fantasy 5.

Before getting into the classes themselves, I've written a lot of stuff (a) listing the many assumptions I've made for making this topic, and (b) explaining the mechanics of the system so that the stat topic will make sense. If you just want to see how the characters turn out, then by all means skip down to them, but you may want to read the sections on D&D mechanics and/or status effects if you find things confusing (possibly some of the stuff on stats as well). On the other hand, people who know the 4e system well will probably find those sections a waste of time, but may find the sections on the assumptions I've made worthwhile reading.


Key assumptions

D&D is a big game, with many sourcebooks for stuff. Just drawing on what I did made the task of this topic rather daunting, and for my own sanity I had to draw lines and not consider everything.

I drew on eight different sourcebooks for this: Player's Handbook 1-3, Martial Power 1-2, Arcane Power, Divine Power, and Primal Power. If it's not in one of those books, it's not in this topic. Mainly, this means I've ignored 3 classes and a host of powers that have only appeared in settings books (Forgotten Realms, Eberron) and Dragon magazine articles. I could be convinced to muck around with my character builder and add Swordmage, Assassin, and Artificer if anyone really wants to see them, but I really lack patience to go through Dragon magazine articles looking for potentially worthwhile attack powers, so don't hold your breath.

Magic items: D&D has a slew of magical items of every type you could imagine. I decided to ignore them entirely. First of all, the items are typically not class-specific, and hence arguably illegal anyway in a DL type setting. Second of all, which ones are available is something that varies notably from campaign to campaign. I made one, single exception, and that was that I permit the Bard class to use the basic songblade, which is necessary for her to use both her physical and magical attacks unless she wants to take a -45% penalty to the hit rate or she takes some feat that allows her to draw and stow weapons as a free action (which exists! I just don't allow it). I also do allow generic +6 magical versions of each type of weapon, implement (think "mage weapon"), armour, and amulet (magic evade booster) otherwise characters will not be competitive with endgame enemies at all. I also allow shields for the characters who can use them, obviously (but not magical ones).

Paragon paths and epic destinies: These are basically secondary and tertiary classes that characters can take. A paragon path imparts a few class features and powers between Levels 11 and 20, an epic destiny does the same between 21 and 30. Technically many of these are unique to the class, but I'm still ignoring them, because of the massive headache involved in choosing them, and they really kind of are a second and third class layered on the first, so I can and will argue them illegal by technicality. The one exception I am making is that I am allowing each class to boost two of their stats by +2, which is a common feature of many epic destinies, and allows the characters to scale up to expected endgame stats a little better.

Races: For simplicity's sake, all characters are assumed to be human. It's a race that works for absolutely everyone (every other race boosts certain specific stats, humans get to choose one and the choice is always obvious), and makes the topic about the class, instead of racial powers (some of which are quite potent) which work with the class.

Feats: Feats are basically passive special abilities, and D&D characters get 18 of them by the time they hit Level 30 (+1 if they're human). I allow feats which are unique to a certain class. Otherwise, I generally don't, since as non-unique abilities they register as illegal. However, there are a few exceptions I make, feats which provide some simple stat boosts which allow a class to remain competitive and scale up with monsters properly. Those feats are:

-Weapon/Implement/Versatile Expertise: This provides a +15% boost to hit rate, and is needed to not whiff way the hell too much. Everyone benefits equally from this.
-Robust Defences: This provides a +10% boost to fortitude, reflex, and will, and is needed to remain competitive with increasing enemy hit rates.
-Armour/Shield Specialisation: Although only a +5% boost, this is allowed for a character's armour type (shield takes precedence, it's better as it also boosts reflex) on similar grounds to Robust Defences. Unlike the other two, all of these have a stat requirement (15 DEX for chain, scale, and shield; 15 CON for Hide and Plate) so characters have to make sure they meet them. CON and DEX are desirable stats for other reasons, though, so this isn't a problem.
-Unarmoured Agility and Hide Armour Proficiency: Since I handed out an AC (physical evade) feat boost to everyone else, it'd be unfair to screw over those who don't have access to them because they have cloth or leather. So, those with cloth get Unarmoured Agility (pretty much Cloth Specialisation, only it's +10%), and those with leather settle for Hide Armour Proficiency (+5%, requires 13 STR and CON), but don't get Hide Specialisation on top of that. This conserves the uniqueness of differeing base armour proficiencies.

In theory, you could also toss Superior Initiative (+8 initiative) in here, but unless you scale initiative against the enemies in some way this doesn't actually matter.

Miscellaneous: If anyone actually cares, the gender pronoun I refer to each class by is based on the art shot used for the character in the main introduction of the class in the PHB. Cuts down on a lot of ugly "s/he" usage this way.


Class roles

I'll refer to these a few times in the comments, so basically: there are four broad class roles in D&D. These are Striker, Leader, Controller, and Defender. Classes in certain roles have a few things in common, as well as ways they tend to function in the game. Every class has a few things associated with it, some which translate to the DL, and some which don't! The great news is this actually ends up fairly balanced. Every role has one game feature which translates to the DL, and one which does not.

Strikers: Strikers are about damage (good in the DL) and mobility (not so much). Most of the top characters on the damage curve are strikers, with only two falling below average damage, and most well above. The strikers are Ranger, Rogue, Warlock, Avenger, Barbarian, Sorcerer, and Monk.

Leaders: Leaders are about healing (good in the DL) and making their allies better (not so much). Many Leaders have a multitude of powers which serve no purpose in the DL, either because they target allies or because they have special effects if allies do certain things. On the other hand, Leader healing is actually quite cool. In general, it doesn't even stop them from attacking on their turn. It's not broken, though, because it can't be used that many times, and tends to heal less than half of their HP. The leaders are Cleric, Warlord, Bard, Shaman, Ardent, and Runepriest.

Controllers: Controllers are about status effects/debuffing (good in the DL) and large area-of-effect attacks and generally controlling the battlefield (not so much). I'm sure you're all HORRIBLY SHOCKED to hear they're my favourite role. They generally have poor HP, but their tricks make up for it. The controllers are Wizard, Druid, Invoker, Psion, and Seeker.

Defenders: Defenders are about having high durability (good in the DL) and forcing enemies to attack them and not their allies (not so much). These guys are tanky. A couple of them even have the ability to force ranged characters to take extra attacks just for trying to get away from them. The defenders are Fighter, Paladin, Warden, and Battlemind.


Core stats

There are six core stats. Different classes make use of the different stats in different ways. With a few exceptions, stats are effectively divided by 2 and rounded down, so there's no difference between 16 and 17 in a stat. (The main exception is that feats have odd stat prerequisites, sometimes.) Every class has one core stat (occasionally they may choose between two) which determines their accuracy and damage and is crucial to how they perform; you'll be able to spot it easily. Every two points are worth +5% hit rate and +1 damage at minimum, and often have a lot of other effects on the class' abilities. Every class also has 1-3 stats which function as secondary stats for the class, powering some secondary effects (such as how good a buff or debuff is). Otherwise, the stats have the following general uses:

Strength (STR): This stat determines how good your basic physical attack is, unless you're using a bow or a light thrown weapon. Every 2 points are worth +5% hit rate and +1 damage. This is important because of a D&D mechanic called opportunity attacks (see below). Many classes have only basic attacks for their opportunity attacks, so their strength matters. A few classes can make opportunity attacks using their own class-specific attacks, however, which run off their primary stat.

Constitution (CON): This stat determines how high your HP is, with each 1 point (not 2) adding directly onto HP. It also determiens the maximum number of times a character can be healed in a day (this number is always high enough for a single battle, more or less, so I'm going to ignore it).

The higher of STR or CON determines your fortitude evade, with 2 points = 5% fortitude.

Dexterity (DEX): Pretty much the most important stat in the DL for a D&D character, and the three who can use it as a primary are very happy. It determines accuracy and damage with basic attacks using a bow or light thrown weapon (which never actually matters unless a D&D character is hit with FF Berserk, say). More importantly, every 2 points are worth +5% reflex evade, +1 initiative (speed!), and, if the character is using light armour (cloth, leath, or hide), +5% physical evade. Because of this stat's importance, everyone wants it as at least their second highest stat, except Psion who has INT primary (see below) and gets way too much damage from CHA as a secondary to ignore.

Intelligence (INT): DEX's effects on evasion can be taken over instead by INT if INT is higher, but DEX's effects on initiative can not be, and it's a prerequisite for far fewer feats, so nobody can just safely dump DEX for INT.

Wisdom (WIS) and Charisma (CHA): The only direct effect these stats have, besides being the most common pair for a primary stat, is to affect will evade. Much like the other types of magical evade, it's simply 2 points = 5%, and only the higher stat matters.

So, how are the stats assigned? Generally speaking, the most efficient stat set for a Level 30 D&D character in the DL, where secondary effects are less important or eroded somewhat by higher levels (see CON's effect on HP) and feat prerequisites are of minimal concern, is to use the following array: 18, 13, 13, 10, 10, 8. 18 is the highest number allowed, and optimising the primary is always good because missing means you suck in the DL (not so true for defenders and leaders in-game at least). Humans get +2 to one stat, making the primary 20. The other two stats start at 13 typically because it costs more to raise stats above 13. 10/10/8 are the lowest allowed for the last 3.

Then, at two levels throughout the game, all stats go up by 1. At six other levels, characters can choose to raise two stats, so they'll choose their two highest and focus on them, except that this would involve the secondary stat finishing at 23 (pointless), so one stat point goes over to the tertiary. Finally, the two highest stats get an additional +2. So in general, characters end up with stats of 30/22/16/12/12/10, but that 16/12 can be made into 15/13 or 14/14 easily enough if needed, and sometimes it is.


Derived stats

HP: Obvious. The only real ripple to mention is that minimum HP is not 0. At or below 0 HP, a D&D character enters the "dying" status (similar to unconscious) and can be considered the end of a duel, although technically they have a 5% chance to revive to 25% HP each turn... but it happens at the end of their turn, so it doesn't do them much good even if you do consider it. The minimum HP is the negative max HP divided by 2, and if a character ever hits -that-, then they're well and truly dead. All status effects persist through the "dying" condition.

Initiative: The closest stat to speed in most console RPGs. When a D&D battle starts, everyone rolls a d20 (that's a 20-sided die, for those of you who are reaaally clueless about tabletop RPGs) and adds their initiative. Characters with high initiative go first more often, but it's rather unreliable (except Rogue, who gets +20 over anyone else with a special ability). This stat only affects the first turn; doubleturns are not possible unless a character purposefully delays their turn.

AC: To make the topic clearer I refer to this as physical evade. Most characters have 25-60% physical evade against assumed average monster hit stats (+35, for the record, which results in every point past 36 being worth 5%). I wouldn't take this too literally since D&D uses evade the way most RPGs use defence. Instead I'm inclined to average it and use it for durability. For instance, since average evade is about 45%, a character with 60% evade is hit 23% less often than average, and hence has about 38% more durability. Your milage may vary.

Fortitude, reflex, and will: Like AC, but for magical attacks. Actually, some physical attacks hit these too, but it's better to think of those as simply more accurate attacks than normal, since that's how they function in-game (monsters have less of these than they have AC, but weapon hit stats are higher). Otherwise, magical attacks will hit one of these evade stats, depending on the attack. Generally speaking, damaging magic hits reflex, magic that attacks the mind (psychic, mental status) hits will, and magic which inflicts physical status (as well as draining and forced movement) hits fortitude. Reflex should certainly be regarded the most important of the three in the DL. (For the D&D fans: Assumed monster to-hit against these stats is +33, so each point beyond 34 is worth 5% evade.)

For those curious, assumed average enemy defences are: 45 AC, 44 Fort, 42 Reflex, 41 Will. These are pretty much the average of epic tier monsters scaled to Level 30. Most weapons get +2 hit rate compared to magic, but most weapons that people in the DL actually want get +3, since accurate weapons are better than damaging weapons for raw offence, especially one-handed weapons. They mean that, in general, will attacks > reflex attacks and physical attacks >> fortitude attacks for accuracy, with each > being a 5% difference. Obviously, some classes have abilities which modify these.


General D&D mechanics

Some of these are a little different than most console RPGs, so listen up.

At-will, encounter, and daily powers: D&D characters have three broad types of abilities. At-will powers can be used as often as turns allow. Encounter powers can be used once per encounter (battle). Daily powers can only be used once per day. Every character can choose three encounter attacks and three daily attacks (with one more of each granted by a paragon path, which I'm ignoring). They also choose up to 5 "utility" powers, which are special abilities (such as healing) which are not used to attack enemies. For encounters, simple enough, I've listed what I think are the three most useful that are legally available to the character. Dailies, though... well, big assumption here: I don't think it's reasonable for a character to use all their daily powers in a single fight. This would greatly overstate the importance of daily attacks in a system which is designed for 3-5 battles per day. In order to ensure that encounter attacks and even at-will attacks matter, I impose an arbitrary restriction of only one daily attack power and one daily utility power can be used in a DL duel. This allows signature moves to shine through, but the character has to choose which ones and reflects the advantage encounter powers have.

Other notes on powers... not all characters even have 4 useful encounter utility powers (many are not combat-oriented or team-oriented), so a few will be listed with less. Also, many classes get abilities above and beyond the maximum number of utility powers, such as Cleric's Healing Word. Thirdly, Paladin is a rare case in that they have a pseudo-daily class power, Lay on Hands, which can be used (Wis-10)/2 times per day (I allow it to be used once per battle, and it doesn't count towards paladin's daily utility limit). Finally, under OPB powers, encounter powers will be noted with a dash, while dailies are noted with a star.

"Magic": I should note that, mechanically, "magic" doesn't strictly exist in D&D. Oh, sure, there are attacks that are based off implements instead of weapons, and hit one of the "magical evade" stats, and that's what I'm treating as magic. However, it should be noted a few weird things would then become magic, namely the attacks of a Monk (who use a ki focus for their psionic powers to punch things) harder and beastform Druid. I'll leave it up to the reader to decide how to interpret these against magic defence and evade of other casts.

"Defence": It doesn't generally exist. Actually, the game uses the term "defence" but uses it to refer to what we'd more naturally call evade rates. HP and evade form durability. However, the game does have damage reduction, usually temporary, which takes X damage off each hit sustained. Damage reduction can apply to individual elements or all damage. Usually it doesn't stack with other damage reduction, though there are exceptions depending on wording.

Weakness: Elemental weakness in D&D tends to be "take X extra damage when hit by element Y", regardless of how big the base damage is. It doesn't stack with itself. This means elemental weakness is much more potent against a bunch of small hits than one big one (just like damage reduction). A few characters can force weaknesses onto enemies, which is why this is relevant.

Hit/evade: Note that, because a d20 is used to calculate hit rates, that -all- hit rates are multiples of 5%. From this, you should be able to conclude that, when an attacker with 60% hit rate gets "+10% hit rate" that means that hit becomes 70%, not 66%. Same applies to evade rates. It's worth noting that hit rates in D&D can never be 0 or 100... they cap at 5% and 95%.]

Critical hits: These have a 5% chance of occuring on any attack. They're checked on the same roll as the one used to hit, so it's effectively 5% and made before the hit check (meaning that if you're very evasive, more of the attacks that hit you will critical, relatively). The exception is that if you're so evasive that you would have 100% evade before the cap, you can't be criticalled. This shouldn't happen too often. With a single exception, critical hits are not factored into damage averages - they do about double damage of normal hits (though the truth is more complicated), if you care.

Combat advantage: "Combat advantage" refers to a situation in which one character has an advantageous attacking position over another. This translates to a +10% chance to hit with any attack. Either you have combat advantage or you don't - you can't stack combat advantage effects. A few abilities let D&D PCs get combat advantage and these will be listed as such, but the most common way to get it is to subject the target to a few status effects. Which status effects allow combat advantage will be listed.

Turns and rounds: A turn refers to a single turn got by a single character. A round refers to the amount of time in which every character in the battle gets a turn.

Action types: Every D&D character gets three actions a round (normally): a standard action, a move action, and a minor action. These are in descending order of importance, and an action slot can always be used for a "less important" action (e.g. moving twice instead of attacking and moving, or using three minor actions and doing nothing else). Most attacks are standard actions. Most forms of moving are of course move actions. Certain abilities are minor actions; these will be noted. When attack and utility powers are listed in the individual character entries, by default you should assume they are standard actions; they will be indicated in parentheses as a move action (rarely), a minor action, or a free action (which can be something done any time, or have a specific trigger).

Action points: At the start of each day, and again after every two encounters (which can be battles or non-combat challenges), PCs earn what is called an action point. They can use one a battle, as a free action on their own turn, and whenever they do, they get an extra standard action immediately. Technically speaking these can't be used every battle, but they can be used in the majority, so I'm certainly going to be allowing them. In short, every D&D character can double-act once per battle. Pretty potent. Obviously this will be factored into damage averages (I pretty much feel obliged to use a three-turn average for this cast).

Opportunity attacks: In D&D, if you're adjacent to an enemy, certain things you do will provoke opportunity attacks, which are basic melee attacks (usually). These things are (a) using a long-range attack, or (b) moving away or past the enemy (moving towards them if you aren't yet adjacent is fine, mind). (b) can mostly be gotten around by using a move action to "shift", which is when you only move 1 square. So if there's an enemy adjacent to you and you want to use a ranged attack, the usual course of action is to shift away, then attack, ignoring any opportunity attacks. However, in certain situations (especially some status effects) this strategy may be impossible.

Duration of effects: Most effects last one round. When I say something lasts "one round", what that actually means is until the end of the next turn of the character who applies it, after the turn on which it is applied. So if a character inflicts an elemental weakness on someone that lasts one round, they'll be able to benefit from it on their next turn, but it ends immediately after that. Some effects have shorter durations, these will be noted.

Saving throws: Some effects last longer than a round. Those that last the entire battle are obvious enough. However, negative status effects which last longer than a round usually behave as follows: every round, at the end of the turn of the afflicted character, he or she has a 55% chance to recover from the status. This is referred to in the game as making a saving throw (roll a d20, and if it's a 10, you recover). This "55" can be modified by a few abilities. This is such a common mechanic in D&D that many PC status-healing abilities say "make a saving throw against an effect", which I interpret as "have a 55% chance to recover from a status".

Seems a good chance to head into our last topic!


Status effects

Most D&D status is not immunable. The game is designed such that PCs don't get randomly screwed over if they decide to build a character based around dazing or slowing enemies, or whatever. Flipside, statuses usually aren't that game-breaking, with the most powerful one that commonly makes no immunity check being a simple turn-cancel.

There are exceptions. Some enemies are immune to sleep, because sleep is -scary-. Also, some effects are tagged with "fear" or "charm", and some enemies are immune to these effects. Status immunity aguably should get them. The fear and charm tags will be noted when they're present; they don't apply specifically to statuses, but instead to effects made by specific moves.

D&D has a few status effects besides what will be listed here (petrify and diseases) but PCs generally can't inflict them.

The following statuses all cause anyone who attacks someone with them to have combat advantage, so they all come with a -10% penalty to evade in practice:

-Sleep/unconscious: The target can't do anything on its turn. Also, attacks made against it have a +25% hit rate (stacks with combat advantage to +35%), and on a hit, automatically critical if the attacker was adjacent to them. Additionally, if a critical hit made against a sleeping target deals damage over half the target's max HP, the target is instantly killed.
-Dominate: Nerfed in the DL. Almost always a "charm" effect, so the other status which is often immuned. Dominated characters have their actions chosen by the person who inflicted the status. The catch? They only get one action a turn (minor, move, or standard), it has to be a legal action, and it has to be an action that is inifinitely available, so no "I make Tir use Judgement on that rock over there" as a resource-wasting strategy. D&D characters generally can't attack themselves (except with long-range area-of-effect spells); up to you if this is a property of the system alone or should carry over into dominate. Two things that dominate does let you do in D&D, though: have the character run past the dominator, provoking a free basic attack (unfortunately most people with dominate have terrible opportunity attacks, but hey) and the cooler option, have them drop their weapon (or anything else carried, but not worn) at the dominator's feet. So at worst it's stun + disarm.
-Stun: Now, here's a status effect that most anyone who can get wants to use. Simply, the target does not get actions while stunned, and it's not generally immunable (same with everything else from here on in).
-Daze: Daze reduces the target to a single action. This means they can't move and attack, notably, so it's a good idea to, when using this, run away from melee characters, or run up to ranged characters so they take opporunity attacks (if those are worth noting). However, D&D allows basic attacks to be used on a charge (move+attack in one turn), so daze's melee spoiling could be better. Also, the target can't make opportunity attacks.
-Blind: Blinded characters have -25% hit rate, but only to singletarget attacks.
-Restrain: The target can't move, can't be moved, and also has -10% hit rate. This time the penalty applies to all attacks, at least.

Now on to statuses which don't cause automatic combat advantage. Unless your name is Rogue, then you still get it, due to a feat:

-Immobilise: The target can't move. No other properties of Restrain apply.
-Slow: The target's move is reduced to 2.
-Weaken: All damage done by the target is cut in half. Effects besides direct damage (including poison damage, and healing) still work in full.

And the status effects which don't cause combat advantage (or not always, anyway):

-Ongoing damage: Sorta like poison, but it can be of different elements. The target takes X damage at the start of his or her turn. X varies and will be stated in each specific case. Ongoing damage of the same element doesn't stack.
-Prone: The target is lying on the ground. While on the ground, the target has -10% hit rate, grants combat advantage ONLY to singletarget melee attacks, and has +10% evade against long-range singletarget attacks. Prone doesn't wear off naturally; the target has to spend a move action to get up. Other move actions are denied to the character, except Crawl, in which the character moves at half normal speed, and triggers opportunity attacks while doing so. As such, this status has some of the same repercussions to attack ranges as daze.

D&D is also quite capable of making up status effects for individual moves ("can not attack" as an example) and those will be detailed when appropriate.

Whew. If you read all that, I'm impressed. Hopefully it made sense!

[Dark Holy Elf]

Cleric

Equipment:

Morningstar +6, Holy Symbol +6, Chain Mail +6, Amulet +6

Stats:

12 STR, 12 CON, 22 DEX, 10 INT, 30 WIS, 16 CHA
169 HP, 21 initiative, 5 move

Physical evade: 40%
Magical evade: 5% (fort), 30% (reflex), 60% (will)

Physical hit rate: 15%
Reflex hit rate: 65%
Will hit rate: 70%'


Class Feats relevant in a duel:

Battle Healer, Defensive Healing Word, Healer's Implement, Beatific Healer (already factored in)
Radiant Advantage: Causes a combat advantage effect (-10% to all evade rates) for one turn after Cleric hits a target with a holy attack. Note that this does not stack with the combat advantage effect of daze and stun.


At-will powers:

Lance of Faith: Range 5, reflex magic. 25 holy damage, and one ally gets +10% to hit with his or her next attack against the target.
Priest's Shield: 13 physical damage (at pathetic accuracy), and Cleric (along with one adjacent ally) gets +5% physical evade for one turn.

(Cleric's at-wills are pretty much all built around helping allies, and as such not very useful in the DL.)


OBP powers:

*Astral Storm: Range 20, burst 5, enemy only, reflex magic. 49 ice/fire/lightning/sound damage (half on a miss). On every turn Cleric gets after this one, he can spend a minor action to make another attack, targetted at the same area, which does 27 damage of the same element (again, half damage on a miss). If Cleric ever passes a turn without doing this, he loses the ability to do so thereafter.
-Divine Contempt: Range 10, will magic. 23 psychic damage, and the target is stunned for one turn. The turn after, the target is dazed and takes a -20% hit rate penalty.
-Healing Torch: Range 10, burst 5, enemy only, will magic. 30 holy damage. Cleric heals 64 HP and gains +15% physical evade for one turn. Any allies in the area of effect also gain these boons.
-Enthrall: Range 10, burst 3, enemy only, will magic. 27 psychic damage, and the target can neither move nor attack Cleric for one turn (charm effect).
*Cloud Chariot: Range 2. Conjures a cloud chariot. Cleric can use a move action to shift into the chariot, and thereafter can use move actions in order to move the chariot, which can fly. While in the chariot, Cleric has +10% evade to attacks made outside of it (although a flying enemy could fly into it easily).
-(minor) Word of Vigor: Cleric and any adjacent allies heals 68 HP.
-(minor) Bastion of Health: Range 10. One target heals 64 HP.
-Divine Aid: Range 5. 70% chance to heal one negative status effect with a duration longer than one turn.
-(minor) Healing Word: Range 15. One target heals 83 HP and gets +15% evade for one turn. If Cleric has used a holy attack this turn or last, +7 to the HP healed. Can be used three times per battle, but only once per round.
-Turn Undead: Burst 2, will magic, targets undead only. 49 holy damage, the target is pushed 6 squares and immobilised. Half damage on a miss.
-(free) Divine Fortune: Cleric gets +5% to his next attack's hit rate, or to his next chance to recover from a negative status. Can not be used in the same battle as Turn Undead.


Optimum 3-turn damage:

(Divine Fortune, Divine Contempt, Astral Storm), Enthrall, Healing Torch: 183 damage, 156 if Enthrall's charm effect is immuned. 153/130 with accuracy factored in.

Comments: Don't dismiss Cleric as a healbot. Sure, he's the best healer in the game with the oodles of minor healing spells (i.e. they don't take a turn), but his real money is in his disabling moves (Divine Contempt's myriad effects can't even be immuned). Combine those with the repeated attacks from Astral Storm and he will fuck you up without giving you much chance to strike back. Against melee enemies, Cleric can even spoil them with Cloud Chariot, although he'll want to stun them first if they're faster lest they get an attack of opportunity from his use of it. Take Cleric out fast or better hope you're tanky.

Other builds:
-Cleric can swap a lot of DEX for CHA, lowering his initative and reflex evade but making his healing abilities slightly more potent and his accuracy/evade related buffs considerably more potent, in general. A solid choice for a longer fight against a physical opponent, but his blitzing ability is such that optimising DEX as a secondary stat made sense.
-Cleric can opt for a STR-based physical build. It's fairly similar overall, but lacks the same controlling powers, so it's generally worse unless Cleric expects to fight someone magic-resistant. A balanced STR/WIS build is also possible, but would have to come at a large penalty to DEX, as well as not being optimised for either offensive area.
-If Cloud Chariot isn't useful, Ramparts of Light is a good option, as it offers 25 resistance to damage for a round as a minor action.
-CON is a good stat for Cleric in-game because it governs healing surges (as well as Fortitude if Cleric doesn't have STR) but this isn't really necessary in a duel.



Fighter

Equipment: Longsword +6, Heavy Shield, Scale Mail +6, Amulet +6

Stats:

30 STR, 12 CON, 22 DEX, 10 INT, 16 WIS, 12 CHA
201 HP, 21 initiative, 5 move

Physical evade: 55%
Magical evade: 60% (fort), 45% (reflex), 15% (will)

Physical hit rate: 70%


Class Feats relevant in a duel:

Striking Resurgence, Offensive Resilience, Shield Defence: Already factored in.
Marked Scourge: +3 damage to enemies marked by Fighter's Combat Challenge. Typically this applies to every single hit Fighter makes except his very first in the battle, so this is already factored in. As a result, his first attack in the battle does 3 less damage.
Take Measure, Reckless Attacker: When Fighter scores a critical hit (5% chance per hit), he can make an extra melee basic attack (28 damage) OR get +10% to all evade for one turn.


At-will powers:

Reaping Strike: 33 damage, 5 on a miss.
Tide of Iron: 33 damage, and Fighter gets +10% physical and reflex evade for one round.
Brash Strike: 33 damage, +10% hit rate. Fighter's evade drops by 10% for one round.

(free) Combat Challenge: Fighter has the ability to mark his opponent when he attacks (he doesn't have to hit), forcing them to attack him or take a -10% penalty to hit rate. More relevant in a duel, a marked enemy who shifts away from him will be countered by a melee basic attack. This means that anyone who wants to use a long-range attack on fighter will provoke an attack from Fighter (28 damage) before he or she is able to use this attack, either by attempting to shift away or by using a ranged attack at point-blank.


OPB powers:

*(minor) Force the Battle: For the next 50 rounds, Fighter does an extra 4.5 damage per hit (already factored in, since he basically always wants to use this first turn). Also, if an enemy starts its turn adjacent to Fighter, he can immediately use an at-will attack on it as a free action, unless he is affected by a disabling status.
-Adamantine Strike: 42 damage, +15% hit rate, and the target takes a -10% penalty to physical evade for one round. This penalty doesn't apply to Exorcism of Steel.
-Skullcrusher: 42 damage, and the target is dazed for one round.
-Exorcism of Steel: 33 damage, +15% hit rate, and the target loses one of its equipped weapons (its choice if it has two).
*(free) Unyielding: Fighter heals to full. Counterattack to any hit from the enemy (can be used in the middle of a multi-hit attack, even), Fighter chooses when to use it.
-(minor) Fighter's Grit: For this turn and the next, Fighter ignores the effects of daze, immobilize, slow, and weaken (statuses that limit actions, movement, or damage).
-(free) Unbalancing Dodge: Counterattack to being missed by a melee attack. The enemy takes a -10% penalty to hit rate and evade for one round.
-(free) Unbreakable: Counterattack to being hit. Fighter reduces the damage of the hit by 6.
-Second Wind: Fighter heals 50 HP, then attacks for 30 damage. If Fighter is below half HP before using this, he gets +5% hit rate for this attack and any others made before the end of his next turn.


Optimum 3-turn damage:

(Force the Battle, Adamantine Strike), (Skullcrusher, Reaping Strike), Exorcism of Steel; 3 free Reaping Strikes: 246 damage, 204 with accuracy factored in.

Comments: Well, Dual Strike's errata means he's not as good as I thought. Still, he's the most damaging non-striker, and is very tanky, so he's still excellent. He can heal once for free as a counter, and once while getting in an extra attack, all while the damage piles up every turn due to Force the Battle. Disarm's a great trick too, as is the bonus damage for opponents who rely on long-range attacks.

Other build options:
-Fighter can drop the shield for a two-handed weapon or two weapons, both of which should result in him getting slightly more damage, but at a large cost to durability (10% physical evade, 10-15% reflex evade).
-Fighter can juggle DEX for WIS, giving up speed and reflex evade for more raw damage.



Paladin

Equipment: Longsword +6, Holy Symbol +6, Heavy Shield, Plate Mail +6, Amulet +6

Stats:

12 STR, 12 CON, 22 DEX, 10 INT, 16 WIS, 30 CHA
201 HP, 21 initiative, 5 move

Physical evade: 60%
Magical evade: 10% (fort), 50% (reflex), 55% (will)

Physical hit rate: 65%
Fortitude hit rate: 55%
Will hit rate: 70%


Feats relevant in the DL:

Paladin's Truth: Paladin ignores any resistances or immunities.
Virtuous Recovery: Paladin reduces all damage by 3 for one turn after being healed for 50 or more of his HP.
Honoured Foe: Paladin gets 3 temporary HP each time he takes damage.


At-will powers:

Enfeebling Strike: 25 damage, and -10% to the target's hit rate for one turn.
Bolstering Strike: 25 damage, and Paladin gains 3 temporary HP.
Virtuous Strike: 25 damage, and Paladin gets a +10% chance to recover from any negative status effects this turn.


OPB powers:

*Even Hand of Justice: Range 5, will magic. 44 damage (full damage on a miss). If this attack hits, the target receives a condition in which he or she receives the full effects of any attacks he or she makes (even if they miss, but only once if the attack is multitarget). This backlash damage and/or status ignores any resistances or immunities the target may have. The target has a 45% chance to recover from this at the end of each of his or her turns.
-Astral Thunderbolt: 34 sonic damage at +5% hit rate, and the target is slowed and takes a -10% penalty to hit rate. If this attack hits, then a second attack is made, range 10, fortitude magic, which does 30 sonic damage and inflicts a further -10% penalty to hit rate (these stack).
-Demand Respect: 30 damage. Paladin (as well as one adjacent ally if any) chooses either to heal 53 HP or take a 62.5% chance to recover from one status.
-Reassuring Strike: 30 damage, and Paladin heals 53 HP.
*(free) Return to the Living: Paladin fully heals. Used as a counter to being reduced below 1 HP, can not be used if the fatal damage would drop Paladin to -101 HP.
-(minor) Cleansing Spirit: Range 5. The target has a 65% chance to heal from one negative status of his or her choice.
-(minor) Guiding Verse: Paladin has a 75% chance to heal from one negative status of his choice.
-(minor) Virtue: Paladin gains 50 temporary HP.
-(free) Divine Counter: Can be used when Paladin is hit by a magic attack, and reduces the damage of said attack to half.
*(minor) Lay on Hands: Paladin heals 50 HP.
-(minor) Divine Mettle: Paladin heals from one status effect.


Optimum 3-turn damage:

Demand Respect, Reassuring Strike, (Even Hand of Justice, Astral Thunderbolt): 168 damage, 118 with accuracy factored in.

Comments: Well, Paladin isn't impressing anyone on damage, or tieing enemies up, really. However, he simply does. not. die. Game-best physical durability, and quite tough against magic too (fortitude is a good defence to dump). Oh yeah, and he fullheals once unless you overkill him, and can heal himself while attacking for four turns, and can make his enemy's already low hit rates against him lower. Even Hand of Justice is a terrific capstone trick and buys him time to kill those who rely on high damage or fatal status. Stallers may pose a problem for him, though.

Other build options:
-Paladin has a STR-oriented build which is capable of more raw damage, but loses the awesome that is Even Hand of Justice (which usually will end up doing more damage anyway, just in a way that can't be considered in averages). Paladin can also opt for a two-handed weapon but this is really stupid, woo an extra 2-3 damage in exchance for 15% physical and reflex evasion. No.



Ranger

Equipment: Longbow +6, Hide Armour +6, Amulet +6

Stats:

12 STR, 16 CON, 30 DEX, 12 INT, 22 WIS, 10 CHA
188 HP, 25 initiative, 6 move

Physical evade: 55%
Magical evade: 20% (fort), 55% (reflex), 30% (will)

Physical hit rate: 70%
Physical range: 20 (or 40, at a -10% penalty to hit rate)

Feats relevant in the DL:

Lethal Hunter, Predatory Action, Improved Prime Shot, Bleeding Precision: Already factored in

At-will powers:

(minor) Hunter's Quarry: Designate target as quarry, doing 14 bonus damage per attack (already factored in)
Twin Strike: Two hits for 23 damage, 14 if either hits = 60 total.


OPB powers:

*Five-Missile Dance: 5 hits, each for 33 damage, 14 if even one attack hits = 179 total. If all five attacks hit, the target is immobilised. The target has a 55% chance to recover from this status after each of his or her turns. If even one attack hits, the target takes 5 ongoing damage at the start of each of his or her turns, and likewise has a 55% chance to recover from this at the end of each turn.
-Dazing Volley: 52 damage at +10% hit rate, and the target is dazed for one turn.
-Manticore's Volley: 3 hits. 41 damage if one hits, 74 if two do, 107 if three do.
-Pounding Barrage: 3 hits. 41 damage if one hits, 72 if two do, 100 and the target is immobilised for one turn if three do.
*(minor) Master of the Hunt: Ranger gains +6 damage to each hit for the next 50 rounds. Already factored in, since she will pretty much always use this immediately.
-(free) Agile Escape: If an attack would inflict slow, daze, restrain, or immobilise upon Ranger (statuses which restrict movement/actions), reduce its hit roll by 20%.
-(move) Invigorating Stride: As part of movement this turn, Ranger can heal 47 HP and increase all evade rates by 10% for one round.
-(free) Unbalancing Parry: Counter to being missed by a melee attack. The opponent who missed takes a -10% penalty to evade for one turn (does not stack with daze).


Optimum 3-turn damage:

(Dazing Volley, Five-Missile Dance), Manticore's Volley, Pounding Barrage: 447 damage, 352 with accuracy factored in.

Comments: Ranger is pretty much 4e's damage queen, and it shows. Her strategy is pretty simple, barrage you with arrows until you die. Which usually happens fast, 145% PCHP on turn one alone. Immobilise and daze are swimming around there to spoil melee opponents, and she's fast and shockingly tanky (DEX is a cool stat to have as a primary). She doesn't have much in the way of tricks, but hey, one free shot of 25% healing isn't terrible for slugfests if she needs it.

Other build options:
-The big one is a two-weapon melee build, which resembles the two-weapon fighter already seen in this topic, only more frail (but extremely accurate, and has a stun attack). It's not bad, but loses offence and durability both to the archer version, due to maining STR instead of DEX and lacking the raw awesome that is Five-Missile Dance.
-The archer version has a more accurate immobilise (similar in damage to Dazing Volley) if she wants to spoil people that way.



Rogue

Equipment: Dagger +6, Hide Armour +6, Amulet +6

Stats:

22 STR, 13 CON, 30 DEX, 12 INT, 10 WIS, 15 CHA
170 HP, 25(45) initiative, 6 move

Physical evade: 50%
Magical evade: 25% (fort), 60% (reflex), 10% (will)

Physical hit rate: 70% (+10% with combat advantage)


Feats relevant in the DL:

Backstabber, Expert Sneak, Brutal Wound, Slaying Action, Bleeding Backstab, Brutal Advantage, Evasive Footwork: Already factored in.

Cull the Weak: Rogue has +2 damage with melee attacks against targets below half HP.
Surprise Knockdown: Rogue's critical hits knock the target prone. If Rogue used a ranged attack, then he won't be able to be hit by melee attacks this round.
Lasting Advantage: Rogue's critical hits cause the target to grant combat advantage for an extra round, if he already had combat advantage.
Rogue Weapon Mastery: +8 damage on a critical hit.
Disheartening Ambush: If Rogue has combat advantage, he can give up 5 damage on a hit (except with Disheartening Strike) in order to lower the target's hit rate by 10% for one round.
Unerring Ambush: Rogue can make two hit checks, using either, against enemies who haven't yet acted in battle.
Into the Fray: +5% hit rate with melee attacks during the first round.


At-will powers:

(free) Sneak Attack: Sneak Attack is utterly key to Rogue's damage output. It requires him to have combat advantage, and raises his damage output by 29 per attack (already factored in). If you pay attention, you'll notice that Rogue's damage without Sneak Attack would be terrible especially for a striker. That said, he has enough tricks to pretty much always have combat advantage. Firstly, due to his First Strike ability, Rogue has combat advantage on anyone who has yet to act in battle (and he's ludicrously fast). Secondly, he has combat advantage over anyone suffering from most any status effects (ongoing damage is a notable exception), and the ability to inflict a few of these himself. Finally, his Perfect Feint ability gives him two turns of combat advantage, as does his Preparatory Shot at-will attack. Note that any combat advantage gives Rogue +10% hit rate, just as it does everyone else.

Deft Strike: 50 damage, +15% hit rate.
Disheartening Strike: Melee or range 5. 50 damage, and -10% to the target's hit rate for one turn.
Preparatory Shot: Range 5. 46 damage, and Rogue has combat advantage on the target until the end of his next turn.


OPB powers:

*Assassin's Point: Melee or range 5. 85 damage, or 34 without combat advantage. If Rogue had combat advantage, then the target also takes 10 ongoing damage at the start of each turn, and has a 55% chance to recover from this status at the end of each turn.
-Perfect Strike: Melee or range 5. 55 damage, +15% hit rate. If this attack would hit with only a +5% hit rate, +2 damage. If this attack would hit with a normal hit rate, the target is stunned for one turn.
-Steel Entrapment: Blast 5. 52 damage, +5% hit rate, and the targets are immobilised for one turn.
-Dragon Tail Strike: Melee or range 5. 52 damage, +5% hit rate. If the target attacks Rogue during the next round, Rogue can make a pre-emptive counterattack for 27 (-6 without combat advantage) damage at +35% hit rate.
*(as battle begins) Seize the Moment: +20 to Rogue's initiative (Factored in), and Rogue gets +4 speed and +10% hit rate for the first round.
-(free) Anticipate Attack: Reduce the hit roll of an attack against Rogue by 20%.
-(minor) Daring Gamble: If Rogue is attacked this round, the enemy(s) that attacked him grant combat advantage to him for the rest of the encounter.
-(minor) Perfect Feint: Range 1. Rogue has combat advantage against one target for this turn and next.
-(move) Tumble: Instead of moving, shift 3 squares, and gain +5% physical and reflex evade for one turn.


Optimum 3-turn damage:

(Seize the Moment, Perfect Feint, Assassin's Point, Dragon Tail Strike), Perfect Strike, Deft Strike: 262 damage, 248 with accuracy factored in.

Comments: Rogue specialises in getting as much accuracy as possible due to combat advantage and various other effects, then pounding the enemy hard while disabling them with effects such as stun and immobilise. He's also quite dodgy (and can trade about 10% of his damage for 10% more dodginess, which is a winning trade against the non-ITE), and this is quite nice, since he doesn't have even one shot of the off-action healing many D&D characters sport.

Other build options:
-Rogue can get a little more in the way of immobilise if he wants, and can trade about 30 damage off his daily attack in order to get a 2-turn stun instead, which is quite nice and I'm wondering if I didn't make the wrong choice right now, but eh, didn't want to sell his damage potential too short.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Warlock

Equipment: Rod +6, Hide Armour +6, Amulet +6

Stats:

14 STR, 30 CON, 22 DEX, 12 INT, 10 WIS, 14 CHA
187 HP, 21 initiative, 6 move

Physical evade: 30%
Magical evade: 50% (fort), 35% (reflex), 15% (will)

Fortitude hit rate: 60%
Reflex hit rate: 70%
Will hit rate: 75%

Feats relevant in the DL:

Dooming Action, Warding Curse, Ephemeral Stride, Empowering Shadows: Already factored in.


At-will powers:

(move) Shadow Walk: If Warlock is able to move at least 3 squares this turn, she gets +10% to evade against all singletarget attacks for one round, any attacks she makes for the rest of this turn and next do +1 damage (already factored in), and any opportunity attack she provokes on her next turn does half damage on a hit. Note that melee opponents can move next to her and get opportunity attacks if she tries to benefit from this... but see Wakeman's Invocation for Warlock's solutions to that problem.
(minor) Warlock's Curse: Curses a target, raising all damage Warlock does to it by 11 per attack and giving her +10% evade against its attacks. Lasts until the target dies.

Eldritch Blast: Range 10, reflex magic. 39 damage.
Hellish Rebuke: Range 10, reflex magic. 35 fire damage. If Warlock takes damage this turn, then the target takes an extra 24 damage after that occurs.
Eyebite: Range 10, will magic. 27 psychic damage at -40% hit rate. If this attack hits, Warlock becomes invisible to the target for one round. Any attacks she makes this turn have +10% hit rate due to combat advantage, and her enemy can't hit her with non-multitarget attacks this round. This attack counts as a charm effect.


OPB powers:

*Hurl through Hell: Range 10, will magic. 66 fire damage, and the target vanishes from the battle until the end of Warlock's next turn. After it returns, it is stunned (this is a fear effect), and has a 55% chance to recover from stun at the end of each of its turns. Half damage on a miss, and none of the cool effects.
-Shattering of the Sword: Range 10, reflex magic. 40 damage, and the target is stunned for one turn.
-Awaken the Dragon: Range 10, burst 1, will magic. 41 dark damage, and any damage the target takes until the end of Warlock's next turn is increased by 5.
-Life Force Reclaimed: Range 10, fortitude magic. 41 damage, and Warlock heals 46 HP.
*(minor) Wakeman's Invocation: Warlock gets +10% evade against ranged singletarget attacks. Once per round on any turn but her own, if an enemy would hit her with a melee attack, she can teleport them away instead, so that they auto-miss. These effects last until the end of the battle.
(move) Infuriating Elusiveness: Warlock teleports 4 squares instead of moving (this activates Shadow Walk), and becomes invisible for one round. Any attacks she makes this turn have +10% hit rate due to combat advantage, and her enemy can't hit her with non-multitarget attacks this round.
(free) Destiny Inversion: Counter to being damaged. Warlock takes no damage from this attack. Instead, half the damage it would do is dealt to her as ongoing damage at the start of each of her turns. She has a 55% chance to recover from this at the end of each of her turns. On average it only slightly reduces the damage she takes, but at least it delays half of it for another turn.
(move) Ethereal Stride: Warlock teleports 3 squares instead of moving (This activates Shadow Walk) and gets +10% evade for one turn.
(minor) Fey Bargain: Warlock gets +10% hit rate with her next attack, but automatically fails to recover from a status effect the next time she has a chance to do so (doesn't stack well with Destiny Inversion).
-Second Wind: Warlock heals 46 HP, and +10% evade for one turn. (Yes, everyone has this command, but it's a good use of Warlock's turn gained from Hurl through Hell.)

Optimum 3-turn damage:

(Infuriating Elusiveness, Warlock's Curse, Shattering of the Sword), (Awaken the Dragon, Fey Bargain, Hurl through Hell), Eldritch Blast: 191 damage, 165 with accuracy factored in.

Comments: For a striker, Warlock's damage is quite disappointing, mostly because she has no real way to buff her bonus damage effectively compared to some tricks Rogue and Ranger have. That said, she makes up for that with a host of gimmicks, the nastiest of which make her immune to melee attacks and incredibly obnoxious to hit with anything singletarget (Shadow Walk, Invocation and Curse add up to a permanent 30% boost once she gets a turn, before any invisibility tricks). For everyone else? Stun is a bitchy status effect, and she'll typically have you under it for three rounds.

Other build options:
-Eyebite. It runs off CHA instead of CON. I built Warlock for CON because it had clearly better powers overall, but if Warlock ever faces someone reliant on singletarget attacks (that aren't melee, since she already spoils those), she may want to swap her CHA and CON (raising Eyebite's hit rate by 40% and its damage by 8) and Eyebite Spam her way to victory.
-If Warlock is looking to scrounge up more damage, there's Doom of Delban, which does 55+ fortitude damage and can be used every turn, although uses beynod the first do 11 damage to Warlock. I found Hurl through Hell's more accurate damage and 2-turn stun hard to ignore, though.
-Another alternative daily power would be Tartarean Tomb, a less damaging, reflex-based version of Hurl through Hell which entombs instead of stuns (similar in practice, but the target can still self-target and thus heal. The main reason to make this swap is to get around fire resistance.



Warlord

Equipment: Longsword +6, Heavy Shield, Scale Mail +6, Amulet +6

Stats:
30 STR, 12 CON, 22 DEX, 12 INT, 10 WIS, 16 CHA
169 HP, 21 initiative, 5 move

Physical evade: 55%
Magical evade: 55% (fort), 45% (reflex), 20% (will)

Physical hit rate: 65%

Feats relevant in the DL:

Fight On, Directing Inspiration, Improved Inspiring Word, Inspirational Attacker, Armoured Warlord: Already factored in.

Bold Spirit: If Warlord is damaged after he is already below half HP, he gains 3 temporary HP if the attack fails to kill.


At-will powers:

Basic attack: 25 damage.
Intuitive Strike: 16 damage, +20% hit rate.


OPB powers:

*Stand Invincible. 48 damage. Regardless of whether or not this attack hits, Warlord (and each ally within 5 squares) gets +20% to all evade rates and reduces all damage taken by 5 until the end of his next turn. As a minor action, this effect can be sustained for an additional turn on any turn in which it would otherwise wear off.
-Brutal Setup: 25 damage, and the target is dazed for one turn. Before making this attack, Warlord can shift 3 squares as a free action. Note that dazed enemies making ranged attacks provoke a free basic attack from Warlord.
-Stunning Display: 21 damage, and the target is stunned for one turn.
-Bloody Termination: Can only target enemies below half HP. Two hits for 33+28 = 61 damage, the second hit made at +15% hit rate.
*(free) Heroic Surge: Range 5. The target heals 45 HP. Used as a counter to Warlord or an ally taking damage.
-(free) Inspiring Reaction: Warlord heals 45 HP. Used as a counter to taking damage.
-(minor) Rousing Words: Range 5. The target heals 84 HP.
-(free) Flash of Insight: Used after hitting an enemy with an at-will attack, the hit enemy is knocked prone.
-(minor) Shake it Off: Range 10. 70% chance to heal the target of one status effect.
-(minor) Inspiring Word: Range 15. One target heals 66 HP and chooses to either get +5% hit rate or +5% evade against ranged attacks until the end of Warlord's next turn. If Warlord has already made a melee attack this turn, +10 to the HP healed. Can be used four times per battle, but only once per round.


Optimum 3-turn damage:

(Inspiring Word, Brutal Setup, Stand Invincible), Stunning Display, (Inspiring Word, Bloody Termination): 155 damage, 122 with accuracy factored in.

Comments: Constructing Warlord's entry is kinda painful, as the vast majority of its moves require allies to be of any use; he is literally the most team-oriented character in the game. Fortunately there's just enough good stuff that he can use solo to give him a decent strategy. Stand Invincible is a great buff even though it eats his minors, upping his already excellent defences and turning him into a monstrous tank, and then he has plenty of healing for his opponent to carve through. Offence isn't really his thing, but one turn of stun never hurt, and Bloody Termination makes a decent finisher.

Other build options:
-Warlord can trade some durability (10% physical/5% reflex) for a boost to initiative. Given his slow, plodding strategy that relies on dodging most things, this probably is ill-advised.
-If Warlord makes the above trade, he may consider dropping his durability further (5% physical/10% reflex) for about 10% more damage by using a greatsword. Again, not really recommended.
-One minor annoyance for Warlord is that ranged enemies can shift away from him each turn, leaving him without enough actions to heal AND sustain Stand Invincible AND attack on the same turn. Brutal Setup does let him get around this for two turns (dazed enemies can't shift), and both Stunning Display and Flash of Insight earn him another each, but beyond that, he'll often have to between healing or attacking, or drop his defensive buff. He can get around this problem further by using a polearm, which is a reach weapon; however, this is two-handed. It functions similarly to a greatsword (and requires the same trades), but with -5% to accuracy, which erodes the offensive advantages.



Wizard

Equipment: Staff +6, Cloth +6, Amulet +6

Stats:

10 STR, 14 CON, 22 DEX, 30 INT, 12 WIS, 14 CHA
140 HP, 21 initiative, 6 move

Physical evade: 50%
Magical evade: 15% (fort), 55% (reflex), 25% (will)

Fortitude hit rate: 55%
Reflex hit rate: 65%
Will hit rate: 70%

Feats relevant in the DL:

Spell Focus, Improved Staff of Defence, Focused Wizardry, Phantom Echoes: Already factored in.

Arcane Mastery: When Wizard spends an action point, he can choose to regain the use of a daily attack power (e.g. Prismatic Spray) instead of getting an extra action.


At-will powers:

Magic Missile: Range 20. 21 fixed damage, always hits and never crits.
Illusory Ambush: Range 10, will magic. 23 psychic damage, and -10% to the target's hit and evade rates (combat advantage effect) for one turn.
Phantom Bolt: Range 10, will magic. 25 psychic damage, and -10% to the target's evade rate (combat advantage effect) for one turn.


OPB powers:

Note that Wizard has the unique ability to prepare multiple utility spells and choose one in battle. As such, I have no problem with assigning him both Fly and Blur, though I don't allow him to use both in one fight.

*Prismatic Spray: Burst 5, enemy only, magic attack against all three defences with +10% hit rate. A single hit check is made against all three defences. If fortitude is hit (65%), the target takes 28 poison damage and is slowed. If reflex is hit (75%), the target takes 28 fire damage, and ongoing 15 fire damage at the start of each of its turns. If will is hit (80%), the target is stunned (fear effect). At the end of each turn the target gets, it has independent 45% chances to recover from each of these negative effects.
-Steal Time: Range 20, will magic. The target is stunned for one round, and Wizard gets to take an extra action.
-Staffstrike Shock: Range 20, fortitude magic. 33 lightning damage. Whether this hits or misses, it activates a special version of Staff of Defence Mastery (see below).
-Force Volley: Range 20, reflex magic. 27 force damage at +20% hit rate, and the target is dazed for one round.
*Fly: Wizard can fly for the next 50 rounds. This translates to immunity from melee, or indeed anyone with less range than Wizard (which is a lot of people, see Magic Missile). Wizard must use a minor action on sustaining this each turn.
*(minor): Blur: Wizard gets +10% to all evade rates for the rest of the battle. This increases to +35% against singletarget attacks made from over 5 squares away.
-(free) Displacement: Counter to being hit with a singletarget attack. The attacker must make a second hit check or the attack misses.
-(minor) Emerald Eye: Wizard has +10% hit rate with will magic for this turn and next.
-(free) Shield: Reduce the hit roll of a physical or reflex-target attack against Wizard by 20%. Does not stack with Displacement.
-(free) Staff of Defence Mastery: Reduce the hit roll of an attack against Wizard by 10%. Does not stack with Shield or Displacement. If Staffshock Strike has already been used this battle, then Wizard does 10 lightning damage to the attacker, and teleports 5 squares away before the attack can hit (meaning only true multitarget will actually get a chance to hit).


Optimum 3-turn damage:

(Emerald Eye, Steal Time, Prismatic Spray), Force Volley, Prismatic Spray: 181 damage, 151 with accuracy factored in.

Comments: Wizard is a controller, which means lots and lots of status. Stun, more stun, daze, slow, nulling enemy attacks... rest assured there are many more options than what I listed. Good times. Sadly, Wizard doesn't translate too well since he's so based around multitarget, but he's still got enough oomph to status his opponent out and then try to grind out a win. Oh yeah, and Fly for a cheap-ass win against the short-ranged is quite hilarious. HP and speed both need work, which is never a great combination, but at least his durability rises a bit once he gets a turn. Too bad he has no way to heal.

Other build options:
-Wizard can permanently sacrifice 5% durability to get a slight accuracy boost or a slight penalty to one attempt of an enemy to recover from one of his status attacks. He also loses Staffshock Strike's escape feature, too. No, it's not really worth it.



Avenger

Equipment: Greataxe +6, Holy Symbol +6, Cloth +6, Amulet +6

Stats:

16 STR, 12 CON, 22 DEX, 12 INT, 30 WIS, 10 CHA
200 HP, 21 initiative, 6 move

Physical evade: 45%
Magical evade: 20% (fort), 35% (reflex), 55% (will)

Physical hit rate: 60% (84% in practice)
Reflex hit rate: 65%
Will hit rate: 70%

Feats relevant in the DL:

Enmity Shared: Already factored in.

Eager for Blood: Avenger does an extra 6.5 damage with each attack he makes in the first round.
Vegeance Recalled: If Avenger misses (except with a basic attack), he gets +5 to damage with his next attack.
Censure's Grip: If Avenger hits a target while he has combat advantage, the target becomes unable to shift for one turn, forcing it to provoke an opportunity attack if it wants to use a long-range attack.


At-will powers:

(minor) Oath of Enmity: Avenger declares one enemy his oath. Until that enemy dies, whenever Avenger has no enemies adjacent to him except his oath, he makes two hit/crit checks against the target when making melee attacks, and uses the better outcome. If the target ever moves away from Avenger, Avenger gets +12 damage to his next attack against the target. The target also grants combat advantage (-10% evade) until the end of Avenger's next turn after the one on which this is used.

Bond of Pursuit: 29 damage, and if the target moves away from Avenger on its own turn, he can shift adjacent to him as a free action (nullifying the need to move next turn).
Radiant Vengeance: Range 10, reflex magic. 25 holy damage, and Avenger gains 10 temporary HP.
Basic attack: 22 damage at -35% hit rate (30% = 49% in practice). Can be used as an opportunity attack, which Avenger actually provokes.


OPB powers:

*Final Oath: 75 damage (half damage on a miss). For the rest of the battle, Avenger and the target gain +25% to hit rates against each other.
-Death Stroke: 55 damage, +20% hit rate.
-Chains of Fate: 36 damage, and for one round, any damage dealt to Avenger is halved, with the target of his Oath taking the other half.
-Lethal Intersection: 36 damage, and -10% to the target's hit rate for one round. If this attack misses, it can be used again. If Avenger can take an attack of opportunity, he can use this instead, but it counts towards its OPB use.
*(free) Oath of the Final Strike: Used as a counter to being reduced below 1 HP, can not be used if the fatal damage would drop Avenger to -101 HP. Avenger is immune to damage, but does not die until the end of his next turn. He gets +20% to hit rate and is immune to damage until then.
-(free) Battle Blessing: Avenger does +6.5 damage with an opportunity attack.
-(minor) Channel Endurance: Any damage Avenger takes this round is reduced by 5.
-(move) Aspect of Agility: In addition to moving this turn, Avenger gains +10% to physical and reflex evade for one round.
-(minor) Enduring Spirit: Avenger gets +20% to all evade rates for one turn. Can only be used below half HP.
-Abjure Undead: Range 5, undead only, will magic. 60 holy damage (half damage on a miss), and the target is pulled adjacent to Avenger and immobilised for one round.

A note on Avenger and critical hits:
For all other classes, I've ignored them. The short way to think of D&D 4e crits is that they double damage, although this technically isn't quite true (it's close enough). And they occur 5% of the time, so everyone's average damage is actually 5% higher than I've listed. Thaaat said, Avenger instead crits 9.75% of the time, and his weapon-based crits are more potent (about 2.4x damage) because of the high-crit property of his Greataxe (a weapon that isn't worth it to most because they need accuracy more). Thus, Avenger instead does 13.6% more due to crits. This translates to 8.2% more than most, so I've listed a "Crit-adjusted" damage for him.

Optimum 3-turn damage:

(Oath of Enmity, Final Oath, Lethal Intersection), Chains of Fate, Death Stroke: 215 damage, 207 with accuracy factored in, 224 adjusted for his higher critical rate.

Comments: Avenger is a very different kind of striker than most, focusing on accuracy (with a side of crit rate). He doesn't have much in the way of sneaky effects, and instead is all about an honourable duel to the death. Fortunately he's quite good at it, although he'll probably want to save Final Oath for a finisher because its effect helps his opponent more than him much of the time. Durability is competent, and though he lacks much healing, he can buy himself an extra turn with Oath of the Final Strike. Oh, and you don't really want to be long-ranged against him, as he gets quite a few ways to make you pay for trying to keep your distance from him.



Barbarian

Equipment: Greatsword +6, Hide Armour +6, Amulet +6

Stats:
30 STR, 16 CON, 22 DEX, 10 INT, 12 WIS, 12 CHA
205 HP, 21 initiative, 6 move

Physical evade: 50%
Magical evade: 60% (fort), 45% (reflex), 5% (will)

Physical hit rate: 65%

Feats relevant in the DL:

Deadly Rage, Raging Bloodcut: Already factored in

Enduring Rage: Barbarian does not die until he is at -103 HP, provided he is raging. (So it's possible to one-shot or status him before he gets a turn, but thereafter he effectively has 1.5x HP.)


At-will powers:

Recuperating Strike: 34 damage, and Barbarian gains 9 temporary HP if he is raging (4 otherwise).
Howling Strike: 38 damage.
Devastating Strike: 41 damage. If Barbarian is not raging, he gets -10% evade for one round.
(free) Rampage: Once per round, if Barbarian scores a critical hit on his own turn, he can make a basic melee attack for 27 damage.


OPB powers:

*World Serpent Rage: 55 damage (half damage on a miss). On a hit, Barbarian can lower the damage dealt by 17 in order to do 15 ongoing damage at the start of each of the target's turns, with the target having a 55% chance to heal from this at the end of each turn (this is usually worth it). Hit or miss, Barbarian begins raging. For the rest of the battle, Barbarian's damage increases by +3 per hit, or +8 per hit for attacks on his turn if the target was adjacent to him at the start of his turn. If any enemy shifts away from Barbarian for the rest of the battle (ranged attackers will want to do this), Barbarian attacks for 27+3 = 30 damage as a free, pre-emptive counter.
-Hurricane of Blades: Four hits of 27 damage = 108 total (120 while raging).
-Staggering Strike: 27 damage at +5% hit rate, and the target is stunned for one round.
-Devastating Blow: 38 damage, and -10% to the target's physical evade for one round.
*(free) Battle Lust: Usable only if Barbarian is at 0 HP or below (and not actually dead, see Enduring Rage). Barbarian's HP immediately heals to 54 (regardless of how negative it was). Barbarian gets +10% hit rate and +4 to damage for this turn and next.
-(free) Scent of Blood: Counter to being reduced below half HP. Barbarian gets +3 damage for one round.
-(free) Barbaric Offering: Counter to reducing an enemy below half HP. Barbarian has a 60% chance to recover from one status effect of his choice.
-(free) Loss of Will: Counter to being missed by an enemy attack (can't be used on the same turn as Scent of Blood). The enemy has -15% hit rate for one round.
-(free) Shrug it Off: Counter to being statused by an effect that lasts longer than one turn (can't be used on the same turn as Scent of Blood or Loss of Will). Barbarian has a 55% chance to heal from said status.


Optimum 3-turn damage:

World Serpent Rage, Staggering Strike, (Devastating Blow, Hurricane of Blades): 286 damage, 222 with accuracy factored in.

Comments: Note that the above damage is a slight underestimate in practice because Barbarian does more if the opponent wants to use ranged attacks or lowers Barbarian's HP. Otherwise, it's quite amusing seeing him and Avenger side-by-side. Both are strikers with good HP, and end up with similar offensive outputs, but the two could hardly be more different otherwise. Avenger is accurate, while Barbarian smashes off somewhat shaky accuracy. Fortunately, one turn of stun (which is cool for its own merits) and an evade debuff let him unleash his monstrous Hurricane of Blades with reasonable accuracy. Oh, and there's the whole "doesn't die until below negative half HP" thing, on top of surprisingly good durability.



Bard

Equipment: Harmonic Songblade Longsord +6, Light Shield, Chain Mail +6, Amulet +6

Stats:

12 STR, 16 CON, 22 DEX, 12 INT, 10 WIS, 30 CHA
173 HP, 21 initiative, 5 move

Physical evade: 45%
Magical evade: 15% (fort), 45% (reflex), 55% (will)

Physical hit rate: 65%
Will hit rate: 70%

Feats relevant in the DL:

Improved Majestic Word, Majestic Rescue: Already factored in.

Disheartening Presence: If Bard is above half HP, adjacent enemies who are below half HP take a -5% penalty to hit rate.


At-will powers:

Guiding Strike: Melee. 25 damage, and the target loses -10% to one evade rate of Bard's choice for one round.
Vicious Mockery: Range 10, will magic. 23 psychic damage, and as a charm effect, the target takes a -10% penalty to hit rate for one round.

Basic attack: 16 damage at -45% hit rate. Bard can have a dominated enemy provoke one of these if she really has nothing better to make them do.


OPB powers:

*Spellbind: Range 10, will magic. As a charm effect, the target is dominated. It has a 55% chance to heal from this at the end of each of its turns. When it does, it takes 27 damage and is dazed for one round. If the attack misses, or the foe immunes charm, the target is dazed (55% chance to heal) instead of dominated, and when the aftereffect damage kicks in, 27 damage and no further status is applied.
-Crescendo of Victory: Melee. 30 damage, and Bard (along with any allies) gets +10% hit rate against the target until the end of her next turn.
-Song of Liberation: Melee. 34 damage at +15% hit rate, and allies are healed of any status which limits movement.
-Inescapable Fate: Melee. 30 damage, and each attack the target takes until the end of Bard's next turn has its damage rolled twice and the higher value is used (~13% more damage using D&D's random variance).
-(minor) Invisible Troupe: Bard and any allies within 3 squares become invisible until the end of Bard's next turn, which means they have combat advantage (+10% hit rate) and can only be realistically hit by multitarget attacks.
*(minor) Haste: Range 10. The target gets an extra standard action which he or she must immediately use.
-(minor) Majestic Word: Range 15. One target heals 71 HP and gets 10 temporary HP. The target also has a 55% chance to recover from one status effect. Can be used three times per battle, but only once per round.


Optimum 3-turn damage:

(Invisible Troupe, Inescapable Fate), (Haste, Guiding Strike, Crescendo of Victory, Song of Liberation), Spellbind: 158 damage, 133 with accuracy factored in.

Comments: Like Warlord, Bard is very, very team-oriented. Offensively, she has enough accuracy buffs to land what she needs, but has very few tricks to tie enemies up, beyond dominate. Dominate is quite cool, since even if the enemy can't damage itself, she can still make them drop their held equipment. So spoiling potential exists there. Otherwise, she can heal herself a few times and hope to slug fights out.

Other build options:
-Bard can drop her shield (5% physical evade, 10% reflex) in exchange for about 8% more melee damage (the magic is not affected). She's probably the most likely person (along with Runepriest) with a shield to actually consider this option, but it's still a shaky one.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Druid

Equipment: Totem +6, Hide Armour +6, Amulet +6

Stats:

12 STR, 16 CON, 22 DEX, 12 INT, 30 WIS, 10 CHA
173 HP, 21(25) initiative, 7(9) move

Physical evade: 35%
Magical evade: 15% (fort), 35% (reflex), 55% (will)

Fortitude hit rate: 55%
Reflex hit rate: 65%
Will hit rate: 70%

Feats relevant in the DL:

Agile Form, Swift Predator, Hunting Wolf Form, Enraged Boar Form, Quick Wild Shape, Predator's Burst, Pouncing Form, Vital Form, Wild Surge, Primal Summoning Expertise: Already factored in.

Ferocious Tiger Form: Druid and her summons deal +2 damage if Druid is in beast form and Druid has combat advantage.
Primal Fury: Druid's hit rate increases by 5% against enemies who are below half HP.
Stalking Panther Form: Druid gets +4 initiative while in beast form. Not assumed as default because Druid's optimum attack strategy has her starting the battle in human form, but this is certainly a nice option for her.
Primal Aspect Form: At the start of her turn, Druid regenerates 2 HP if she is in beast form and below half HP.


At-will powers:

(free) Wild Shape: Druid changes to and from her beast form. She can start out in either form. When Druid uses this, she can shift (7 squares if turning into beast form, 1 if turning into human form) as a free action. When she shifts into human form, she has the option to heal 43 HP, and if she does this, she gains +10% to all evade rates for one round. This healing/buffing is only available twice per battle. Druid can only use Wild Shape once per round.

Fire Hawk (human): Range 10, reflex magic. 25 fire damage, and if the target moves or uses a ranged attack this round, a second reflex attack is made, dealing 21 fire damage.
Storm Spike (human): Range 10, reflex magic. 25 lightning damage, and if the target doesn't move at least 2 squares this round, it takes 10 more lightning damage.
Grasping Claws (beast): Melee, reflex. 25 damage, and the target is slowed. Can be used as an opportunity attack if Druid is in beast form. Can be used on a charge, in which case it has +10% hit rate and does +3 damage.
Pounce (beast): Melee, reflex. 25 damage, and the target has -10% evade (combat advantage effect) for the next attack it takes. Can be used on a charge, in which case it has +10% hit rate and does +3 damage.


OPB powers:

*Summon Storm Behemoth (human): Range 10. Druid summons a Storm Behemoth which has 86 HP, 8 move, and all other stats identical to her own. Upon being summoned, Behemoth makes a melee attack (see below) if in range to do so. Until Behemoth dies, Druid can give it any of the following commands as minor actions:
---Melee attack: Melee reach 2, reflex. 33 damage.
---Lightning attack: Range 20, burst 2, reflex magic. 25 lightning damage.
---Move: Behemoth can move wherever Druid directs it to go, within 8 squares.
---Dismiss: Behemoth vanishes from the battle and can not be resummoned.
If Behemoth is not given any commands by the end of Druid's turn (except the one on which it is summoned), it will act automatically, defaulting to attacking a melee enemy if one exists, and otherwise using its lightning attack on as many targets as possible (including Druid, though defaulting to an enemy if it has to choose).

-Thunder Claw (beast): Melee, fortitude. 22 sonic damage, and the target is stunned for one round.
-Grasping Earth (human): Range 20, burst 2, will magic. 23 damage, and the target is immobilised for one round, and any beast-form attacks Druid makes until the immobilise wears off are made at +30% hit rate.
-Hungry for the Kill (beast): As part of the attack, Druid shifts up to 6 squares. Melee, reflex. 29 damage, and if either the target or Druid is below half HP after the attack resolves, Druid can heal 43 HP and has a 55% chance to recover from one status effect of her choice.
-(minor) Stonebones (human) Druid takes 15 less damage per hit from all attacks for one round.
*(minor) Howl of the Wild (beast): Druid heals 57 HP.
-(minor) Camouflage Cloak (human): Range 5. Druid becomes invisible until she moves (so she can't hide from singletarget attacks) or until the end of her next turn. During this effect she has +10% hit rate (combat advantage effect), +25% evade against singletarget attacks, and she can't be the target of opportunity attacks. (She will still provoke an opportunity attack if she activates this at melee, however.)
-(free) Swarm Dispersal (human): Used as a counter to a singletarget attack. Druid takes 10 less damage per hit from all attacks until the end of her next turn, including the triggering attack. Does not stack with Stonebones.
-(minor) Barkskin (human): Range 5. The target gains +15% physical evade for one round.


Optimum 3-turn damage:

(Camouflage Cloak, Grasping Earth, Wild Shape), (Thunder Claw, Wild Shape, Summon Storm Behemoth, Command Behemoth Attack x2), (Wild Shape, Command Behemoth Attack x3): 249 damage, 200 with accuracy factored in.

Comments: D&D 4e has a few classes who make decent summoners, but at high levels Druid is by far the best due to being able to command them with minor actions. Letting a Storm Behemoth run wild on her enemies really hurts, though she'll want to watch when she summons it because it dies pretty easily. Druid's durability as a whole is quite poor, but she has some healing and damage avoidance tricks, as well as the trademark controller stun option (okay, about half the characters have this, and Druid's is actually worse than most), as well as the option of more speed if she starts out in beast form.

Other build options:
-If Druid faces someone melee reliant, she has another summon, the Elder Pack Wolf. It's less damaging by quite a bit, but it knocks the enemy prone with each hit AND stops them from getting up while adjacent, so they can't possibly chases after Druid and hit her from melee. In practice, this just forces the enemy to spend a turn or two killing the wolf, but the extra time it buys her could be valuable on top of the immobilise/stun/invisibility options.
-Druid also has a daily attack that inflicts domination, similar to the one used by Bard. It's a serious blow to her offence to use this, but if she can totally screw over someone by making them drop their shiny sword at her feat, it may be worth it...



Invoker

Equipment: Staff +6, Chain Mail +6, Amulet +6

Stats:

12 STR, 16 CON, 22 DEX, 12 INT, 30 WIS, 10 CHA
142 HP, 21(+3) initiative, 5 move

Physical evade: 40%
Magical evade: 20% (fort), 35% (reflex), 55% (will)

Fortitude hit rate: 55%
Reflex hit rate: 65%
Will hit rate: 70%

Feats relevant in the DL:

Invoked Devastation, Scouring Wrath, Armour of Burning Wrath, Focused Wrath, Invoker's Control, Speaker of the Gods, Invoker's Aura: Already factored in.

Invoker's Blaze: Invoker gets +3 damage with holy and fire damaging attacks (already factored in). He gets a further +3 damage with said attacks below half HP.
Invoker Defence: Invoker gets +5% evade rate for one round if he hits a target within 3 squares. This bonus does not stack with itself.
Resonating Covenant: Whenever Invoker uses a daily or encounter attack power, he gets +5% hit rate with his next at-will attack. This bonus also does not stack with itself.


At-will powers:

Mantle of the Infidel: Range 20, will magic. 26 holy damage.
Visions of Blood: Blast 3, will magic. 23 psychic damage, and the target's evade is reduced by -5% for one round. Fear effect.
Grasping Shards: Range 10, burst 1, fortitude magic. 25 holy damage, and the target is slowed for one round.


OPB powers:

*Invoked Devastation: Range 20, burst 4, magic attack against all three defences. A single hit check is made against all three defences. If fortitude is hit (55%), the target takes 22 force damage and ongoing 5 ice damage. If reflex is hit (65%), the target takes 22 lightning damage, and ongoing 5 fire damage If will is hit (70%), the target takes 24 holy damage, and ongoing 5 psychic damage. The ongoing damage is taken at the start of each turn the target gets. At the end of each turn the target gets, it has independent 55% chances to recover from each form of ongoing damage. Whenever it fails to recover from even one source of ongoing damage, Invoker gets +10% hit rate on his next attack (effect does not stack). Additionally, because this description isn't yet long enough, this attack creates a permanent 9x9 zone centred on the target, even if it misses. Moving through this zone costs double the normal movement cost, and anyone who starts his or her turn inside it takes 10 damage. The target will need two move actions to get out of this zone, unless he or she is unusually mobile (and dazed targets can't move and act on the same turn).

-Word of Annihilation: Blast 4, will magic. 39 damage.
-Word of Bewilderment: Burst 3, will magic. 23 psychic damage, and the target is stunned for one round. Invoker is dazed for one round.
-Deadly Doubt: Blast 6, enemy only, will magic. 26 psychic damage, the target has -15% evade to the next attack made against it, and if the target is hit again before the end of Invoker's next turn, the target is dazed.
*(minor) Invoke Angelic Form: Range 10. The target can fly for the next 50 rounds. This translates to immunity from melee, or indeed anyone with less range than Invoker (which is a lot of people, see Mantle of the Infidel).
-(free) Demand Justice: Counter to an enemy recovering from ongoing damage. The enemy must make a second check to attempt to successfully recover from the damage and use that result.
-(minor) Divine Protection: Invoker does not provoke opportunity attacks this turn or next.
*(free) Shroud of Warning: Used at battle's start. Invoker and his allies have +3 initiative for this battle. Due to this stat topic's restriction on daily utility powers, can't be used in the same battle as Invoke Angelic Form.
-(free) Armour of Wrath: Counter to being hit by an attack against an attacker no more than 5 squares away. 17 holy/fire damage, and the target is pushed 2 squares, has his chance to recover from status effects reduced by 5% for this turn, and takes 2 extra damage from each hit until the end of Invoker's next turn. Invoker's next attack has a 15% critical rate instead of the usual 5%. The next turn the enemy gets, if he or she makes a melee attack against Invoker or ends his or her turn within 2 squares of Invoker, he or she takes 15 additional damage.
-Rebuke Undead: Blast 6, will magic, targets undead only. 49 holy damage, the target is pushed 2 squares and dazed for one round. Half damage on a miss. Invoker's next attack has a 15% critical rate instead of the usual 5%. The next turn the enemy gets, if he or she makes a melee attack against Invoker or ends his or her turn within 2 squares of Invoker, he or she takes 15 additional damage. Can not be used in the same battle as Armour of Wrath.


Optimum 3-turn damage:

(Word of Bewilderment, Deadly Doubt), Invoked Devastation, Word of Annihilation: 199 damage, 169 with accuracy factored in.

Comments: Invoked Devastation layers on lots of damage, there's stun and daze to make sure said damage lands, and he can even pull wizard's trick and fly to own sissy short-range types. The durability is bad and he has no healing powers or other notable survival tricks besides flight, but he can get his speed above average if he isn't trying for said flight, so that's something.

Other build options:
-There's the malediction invoker, which trades some damage (along with Armour of Wrath and Deadly Doubt's cool bonus) in order to cause most every attack he makes to reduce enemy hit rate by 10%, but tanking isn't ever really going to be Invoker's thing.
-Invoker has two high-level multitarget domination powers if he really wants to mess with enemies that way. The one that doesn't do damage is even an encounter power, which is pretty crazy.
-If Invoker is really crazy for offence and doesn't care about speed, swapping CON and DEX will make his Deadly Doubt's accuracy boost 30%, which leads to one hell of an accurate Invoked Devastation. Flipside, if Invoker desperately wants more speed, swapping CON and INT will give it to him along with Shroud of Warning, but the offensive loss is pretty notable.



Shaman

Equipment: Totem +6, Hide Armour +6, Amulet +6

Stats:

13 STR, 15 CON, 22 DEX, 12 INT, 30 WIS, 10 CHA
172 HP, 21 initiative, 6 move

Physical evade: 30%
Magical evade: 15% (fort), 30% (reflex), 55% (will)

Fortitude hit rate: 55%
Reflex hit rate: 65%
Will hit rate: 70%

Feats relevant in the DL:

Nimble Spirit, Vigourous Spirit, Rejuvenating Spirit: Already factored in.


At-will powers:

(free) Call Spirit Companion: Shaman conjures her spirit companion within 20 squares of her. She can also use this command to teleport it, or a minor to dismiss it. The spirit has many helpful effects on her allies, but those aren't relevant in the DL, and it's needed to use a few of her attacks. If the spirit ever takes 20 damage from a singletarget attack (it is immuned to anything with an area of effect), it is dismissed and Shaman takes 25 damage. Shaman has a bunch of feats and tricks to protect her spirit companion, and since it matters all of never, I won't be listing them. Just assume the enemy attacking the spirit companion is a waste of time, if it's even an option.

Defending Strike: Melee attack by spirit, reflex magic. 25 damage, and Shaman gets +5% physical evade while adjacent to her spirit companion for the next round.
Watcher's Strike: Melee attack by spirit, reflex magic. 25 damage, and Shaman gets +5% hit rate while adjacent to her spirit companion for this turn and next.


OPB powers:

*Sunder Spirit: Range 10, will magic. 33 dark damage, and the target falls unconscious. This effect leaves the target vulnerable to a +35% hit rate and 100% critical hit rate, with any critical dealing 50% of the target's max HP killing it instantly (as well as cancelling actions), but is checked by sleep immunity. The target has a 55% chance to heal from it at the end of each of its turns... if it lives that long. Should this attack miss, it deals half damage and inflicts daze intead of sleep, with the same duration.
*Spiritblood Vines: Shaman conjures four vines within 5 squares (presumably surrounding her enemy), and all four vines attack, melee, reflex magic, and do 30 damage on a hit, restraining the enemy (immobilise along with -10% to all hit and evade rates). Only one vine can hit a turn, but they can all make hit checks until one does hit (overall 98.5% chance of at least one hitting). The target has a 55% chance to escape at the end of each of its turns. At the end of every turn besides the one on which they are conjured, Shaman must spend a minor action or the vines will vanish. As long as the vines persist, Shaman can use a standard action to have them repeat the initial wave of attacks.

Both Sunder Spirit and Spiritblood Vines are daily attacks, so I don't let her use both in one battle. I don't even like listing both, but if I don't she's too swingy based on sleep immunity, so I felt I had to.

-Blood Reaper Spirits: Range 10, fortitude magic. Three hits of 30 damage = 90 total. (This attack's critical hit deals 183, and thus instantly kills a sleeping target with 367 max HP or less.)
-Blood-Red Bonds: Melee attack by spirit, reflex magic. 30 damage, and any enemies adjacent to Shaman's spirit companion take a -20% penalty to evade rate until the end of Shaman's next turn.
-Hunt and Return: Melee attack by spirit, reflex magic. 30 damage. If Shaman is at least 4 squares away from the target, then instead 34 damage at +10% hit rate.
*(minor) Doorway to the Spirit World: Range 10, burst 1. Shaman creates a 3x3 zone that lasts the rest of the battle. While in the zone, Shaman and her allies half all damage received.
(minor) Twilight's Veil: Shaman and any adjacent allies become invisible until they next attack, or one round, whichever is longer, and thus are pretty much immune to singletarget attacks.
(minor) Spirit Call: Shaman can move all her conjurations and zones 5 squares.
(minor) Healing Spirit: Range 15. One target heals 53 HP. The target also has a 55% chance to recover from one status effect. Can be used three times per battle, but only once per round.


Optimum 3-turn damage:

Spiritblood Vines, (Twilight's Veil, Blood-Red Bonds), (Command Vines, Blood Reaper Spirits): 180 damage, 159 with accuracy factored in.

Comments: For all that I had some headaches figuring her out, Shaman is actually quite simple. First of all, immune sleep? If not, you're pretty much dead when Shaman gets a turn unless you have ludicrous durability. Second of all, melee reliant? Whoops, Spiritblood Vines tie you up forever, you lose. Get around both of those gimmmicks, and you all you have to do is beat down the worst healer among the D&D leaders... except she halves damage and you have endless -10% accuracy, so easier said than done. She's pretty fragile before she gets a turn, though, so the best way to deal with her is clear enough.

Other builds:
-For once I can't think of any. Most of her varied options come from the different ways her spirit companion can aid her allies.



Sorcerer

Equipment: Dagger +6, Cloth +6, Amulet +6

Stats:

12 STR, 16 CON, 22 DEX, 12 INT, 10 WIS, 30 CHA
173 HP, 21 initiative, 6 move

Physical evade: 25%
Magical evade: 15% (fort), 30% (reflex), 60% (will)

Fortitude hit rate: 55%
Reflex hit rate: 65%
Will hit rate: 70%

Feats relevant in the DL:

Sorcerous Blade Channelling: Already factored in.

Arcane Spellfury, Rising Spellfury: When Sorcerer hits an enemy with an at-will attack, he gets +5% hit rate against that enemy until the end of his next turn. This bonus increases to +10% if the attack used is a burst or blast.
Tempest Magic: Sorcerer gets +3 damage with lightning and sonic damaging attacks (already factored in). He gets a further +3 damage with said attacks below half HP.
Fury of the Storm: Sorcerer deals an extra 15 damage with criticals.
Ruthless Spellfury: If Sorcerer criticals with an at-will attack, he can make another at-will attack as a free action once per turn.
Storm Soul: Sorcerer lowers lightning and sonic damage by 15. Also, any reduction to his damage (e.g. elemental resistance) with lightning and sonic damage is itself reduced by 15. If Sorcerer would be hit by an attack, once per battle he can raise his evade rate by +20% until the end of his next turn as a pre-emptive counter. If he does this, he loses his elemental resistance and resistance-ignoring until the end of the battle.


At-will powers:

Lightning Strike: Range 10, reflex magic. 38 lightning damage.
Acid Orb: Range 10, reflex magic. 37 acid damage.
Chaos Bolt: Range 10, will magic. 37 psychic damage.


OPB powers:

*Doom of Chaos: Melee or range 20, will magic. 35 psychic damage, and the target takes 20 ongoing psychic damage at the start of each of its turns, with a 55% chance to end this effect at the end of each of its turns. While this ongoing damage persits, the target takes 15 extra damage from any other sources of psychic damage, and once the effect ends (or if the attack misses), the target takes 10 extra damage from any other sources of one non-psychic/holy/dark element of Sorcerer's choosing for the rest of the battle.
-Overpowering Lightning: Melee or range 20, reflex magic. 38 lightning damage, and the target is stunned for one round.
-Sun and Stars: Melee or range 20, fortitude magic then reflex magic. First hit does 33 psychic damage and inflicts slow for one round, second does 37 holy damage.
-Thunderstroke: Range 10, burst 1, reflex magic. 38 sonic + 14 lightning (the latter dealt only to one target) = 49 damage.
*Flight of Dragons: Sorcerer can fly. This translates to immunity from melee, or indeed anyone with less range than Sorcerer (which is a lot of people, see Acid Orb). Sorcerer must use a minor action on sustaining this each turn.
(free) Narrow Escape: Counter to being hit by an attack. Sorcerer takes half damage from that attack, and immediately teleports up to 16 squares. Can't be used on the same turn as Storm Soul or Sudden Scales.
(free) Fate's Chaos: If an attempted hit from an attack Sorcerer makes immediately after spending an action point misses, Sorcerer can make the hit check again with a +15% hit rate.
(free) Sudden Scales: Counter to being hit by an attack. As Storm Soul (and does not stack with it), except the bonus only applies to the triggering attack, and Sorcerer can keep his elemental resistance.


Optimum 3-turn damage:

(Doom of Chaos, Fate's Chaos, Sun and Stars), Overpowering Lightning, Thunderstroke: 253 damage, 190 with accuracy factored in.

Comments: It's a wizard/invoker-style controller trading some controlly-stuff for a bit more damage (above average). Actually, he should be happy for Fate's Chaos massively boosting his most inaccurate yet damaging attack, or he wouldn't even have that over them! That said, one turn of stun is cool, flight is cool... game-worst physical durability and below average speed are not. He can half the damage of one attack he takes, at least, so if it's just a matter of a melee blitz, he can usually survive it.

Other build options:
-If Sorcerer decides he hates the idea of being a glass cannon, he can sacrifice about 10% of his damage to get a shot of 25% healing and some situational evade boosts (haha, lost cause there) with the Cosmic Magic build.



Warden

Equipment: Longsword +6, Heavy Shield, Hide Armour +6, Amulet +6

Stats:

30 STR, 16 CON, 22 DEX, 10 INT, 12 WIS, 12 CHA
236 HP, 21 initiative, 6 move

Physical evade: 45%
Magical evade: 55% (fort), 45% (reflex), 10% (will)

Physical hit rate: 65%

Feats relevant in the DL:

Enhanced Font of Life, Endring Font, Crushing Earthstrength, Earthstrength Resilience, Earthstrength Defences, Earthstrength Might: Already factored in.


At-will powers:

(free) Font of Life: At the start of her turn, Warden has 60% chances to recover from up to two different status effects on her of her choosing, provided they can last longer than one turn.

Earth Shield Strike: 25 damage, and Warden gets +5% physical evade for one round.
Strength of Stone: 25 damage, and Warden gets 3 temporary HP.
Basic attack: 25 damage.


OPB powers:

*(minor) Form of the Thunderstorm: For the rest of the battle, Warden can teleport instead of moving (notably, this does not provoke opportunity attacks). Whenever Warden teleports, any enemies adjacent to her at the teleport's end take 10 sonic damage.
-Thunderstorm Attack: 30 sonic damage at +15% hit rate, and the target is stunned for one round. Can only be used during Form of the Thunderstorm.
-Screaming Wind Strike: 25 damage at +15% hit rate, and the target is stunned for one round.
-Desert Winds: Blast 3. 25 fire damage at +15% hit rate, and the target is blinded for one round. The target can end this effect by moving out of the zone (though if a ranged attacker wants to do this, it will provoke an attack of opportunity), but if it does so, it takes 11 more fire damage.
-Earth Hold's Rebuke: 30 damage, and Warden heals 59 HP.
-Second Wind: Warden heals 59 HP. Until the end of her next turn, she takes 8 less from all damage and has +25% to all evade rates, and does +3 damage with physical attack. Warden then makes a free basic attack for 25+3 = 28 damage.
*(minor) Renewal: Warden heals 59 HP, and can use one of Screaming Wind Strike, Desert Winds, or Earth Hold's Rebuke a second time in this battle if she has already used it.
(free) Cleansing Earth: Counter to being hit by a status effect which lasts longer than one turn. Warden heals from said status.
(minor) Elemental Warding: Warden reduces damage from one of her choice of fire, ice, or lightning by 15 for one round.

Optimum 3-turn damage:

(Form of the Thunderstorm, Screaming Wind Strike, Second Wind), Thunderstorm Attack, Desert Winds: 141 damage, 123 with accuracy factored in.

Comments: Warden has a lot of HP, but not a lot of damage. However, she has three turns of stun at her disposal, and three shots of effectively minor healing, so she'll usually have the time to make her damage stick. Also, unlike most D&D characters, she's a massive pain in the ass to status out, nice on a tank. Wishes her evade rates were better, but such is life.

Other build options:
-Warden can swap DEX for CON. This loses her 3 initiative and 20% reflex evade, both of which are a big deal, but gives her +5% physical evade, a small amount more HP and healing, and makes her Second Wind ridiculously good (40% evade buff/+6 damage buff). It's an overall loss for sure, but against someone reliant on physicals, it might be useful.
-Warden can use a two-handed weapon, but it comes at a steep penalty to durability, just like anyone else with a heavy shield, for not much of a damage boost.
-Warden's will evade is quite miserable, and although she has builds that salvage it (35% instead of 10%), they involve sacrificing a lot of initiative, reflex evade, and the entirety of her Second Wind's usefulness. Given will isn't likely to be hit much in-game or in the DL, this really isn't worth considering.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Ardent

Equipment: Greatsword +6, Chain Mail +6, Amulet +6

Stats:

12 STR, 16 CON, 22 DEX, 10 INT, 12 WIS, 30 CHA
173 HP, 21 initiative, 5 move

Physical evade: 40%
Magical evade: 20% (fort), 30% (reflex), 55% (will)

Physical hit rate: 65%

Feats relevant in the DL:

Heartening Surge, Imprved Ardent Surge, Endangering Outrage, Martyr's Surge, Suppressive Surge: Already factored in.

Mantle of Readiness: Ardent has +2 move during her first turn.


At-will powers:

Note that each at-will attack Ardent has comes with augment options. To use these, Ardent must spend power points (PP), of which she has 15 at the start of each battle. She can only augment each at-will power once each time it is used (so no stacking augment options).

Revealing Strike: 22 damage, and the target takes a -10% penalty to evade rate until the end of Ardent's next turn.
Augment (costs 2 PP): As the base version, except damage is 27 and the target can not become invisible or concealed for one turn.
Augment (costs 6 PP): As the previous version, except damage is 38 and the penalty to evade rate is -15%.

Temporal Strike: 22 damage, and Ardent takes half damage from opportunity attacks for one round.
Augment (costs 1 PP): As the base version, but the half damage effect applies to reflex attacks (most attack magic) instead.
Augment (costs 4 PP): As the base version, but the damage is 27 and the half damage effect applies to all incoming attacks. In all cases, damage halving occurs before any further damage reduction (important since Ardent has a lot of damage-reducing abilities).

Confusing Strike: 22 damage, and the target takes a -10% penalty to hit rate for one round.
Agument (costs 4 PP): As above, but the target is also dazed for one round, and this attack can target multiple enemies adjacent to Ardent.

Energising Strike: 22 damage.
Augment (costs 2 PP): The damage is instead 27, and Ardent or one ally within 5 squares heals 43 HP.


OPB powers:

*Image of Doom: 44 damage (half damage on a miss), and the target has -10% hit rate for the rest of the battle as a fear effect.
*Mind over Matter: Range 5. The target gains 43 temporary HP.
-(minor) Insensate Mind: Ardent or an adjacent ally reduces all damage by 15 for one round.
-(minor) Detach Mind: Range 5. Ardent chooses a negative effect which lasts longer than one round the target is suffering from. The target does not suffer from that effect for one round, but its duration is increased to compensate for this. The target has a +10% chance to recover from that effect the next time he or she has the chance to do so.
-(free) Reactive Resistance: Counter to Ardent taking damage. The damage is reduced by 30. Does stack with Insensate Mind.
-(minor) Body Adjustment: Ardent or an adjacent ally gains 17 temporary HP.
-(minor) Ardent Surge: Range 10. One target heals 74 HP (78 if Ardent is below half HP when this is cast) and gets +10% hit rate until the end of Ardent's next turn. Enemies within 5 squares of Ardent when this is cast can not recover HP for one round. Can be used three times per battle, but only once per round.
-(free) Ardent Outrage: Counter to being dropped below half HP. All enemies within 5 squares of Ardent at the time of this power being used grant combat advantage (-10% evade) and take 3 extra damage from any attacks for one round.


Optimum 3-turn damage output:

(Ardent Surge, Revealing Strike 6 PP), (Revealing Strike, Revealing Strike 6 PP), (Ardent Surge, Image of Doom): 147 damage, 131 with accuracy factored in.

Comments: Revealing Strike and Ardent Surge combine for a character who knows how to make her hits land, which is good as her damage is otherwise quite poor and her only debilitating effect is daze. Her real game comes in when she lets up on the offence just a little and starts playing with Temporal Strike's damage halving, which stacks beautifully with her healing, permanent accuracy debuff, and multitude of damage reducing effects which make her very hard to kill. Ardent Surge spoiling enemy healing is quite a boon and helps her deal with others of her kind.

Other build options:
-If she's willing to give up Ardent Outrage entirely (and it's only good against short-range types anyway), she can trade the 10% hit buff from Ardent Surge for 10% evade. Stacking that with Image of Doom and Confusing Strike spam leads to permanent 70/60% effective evade rate, which is quite scary, and certainly hoses the inaccurate. Against melee folks, she has a daily utility which can give her a further, ongoing +10% evade effect. I defaulted to the build which was always useful (evade twinking fails against some, while hit twinking helps against everyone the way D&D works), but this is quite a viable choice even so.
-All of Ardent's at-wills are quite cool, so here's a fifth worth noting: a 22-damage counter to melee attacks which costs 2 PP (Unsteadying Rebuke).



Battlemind

Equipment: Longsword +6, Heavy Shield, Scale Mail +6, Amulet +6

Stats:

12 STR, 30 CON, 22 DEX, 10 INT, 12 WIS, 16 CHA
219 HP, 21 initiative, 5(6) move

Physical evade: 55%
Magical evade: 50% (fort), 45% (reflex), 25% (will)

Physical hit rate: 65%

Feats relevant in the DL:

Demand's Reach, Harried Recovery, Harrier's Control, Battlemind Menace, Invigorating Demand: Already factored in.

Iron Propulsion: +1 move while Battlemind has at least 1 PP.
Unstoppable Speed: Battlemind gets a free move action of up to 6 squares when he drops below half HP.


At-will powers:

Note that each at-will attack Battlemind has comes with augment options. To use these, Battlemind must spend power points (PP), of which he has 15 at the start of each battle. He can only augment each at-will power once each time it is used (so no stacking augment options).

Cage of Cowardice: 21 damage.
Augment (costs 2 PP): 25 damage. This version of the attack can be used as an opportunity attack.
Augment (costs 6 PP): 25 damage, and the target is stunned for one round.

Spring Assault: 21 damage. This attack has +10% hit rate (combat advantage effect) if Battlemind wasn't adjacent to the target at the start of his turn.
Augment (costs 2 PP): As above, but 25 damage and Battlemind can shift 3 squares after the attack.
Augment (costs 6 PP): As the base version, but 30 damage, and Battlemind becomes invisible to the target until the end of his next turn, granting him combat advantage on attacks, +25% evade to singletarget attacks, and, should he move, his opponent will have to guess where he is, making him almost impossible to hit with singletarget attacks.

Brutal Barrage: Three hits for 10 damage each = 30 damage, and if at least two hits connect, the target falls prone, giving it -10% hit rate and evade rate (combat advantage) until it spends a move action on its turn to get up.
Augment (costs 1 PP): As above, but four hits instead = 40 damage.
Augment (costs 4 PP): As above, but +3 damage per hit = 52 damage.

Twisted Eye: 21 damage.
Augment (costs 1 PP): As above, but this version of the attack can be used as an opportunity attack.
Agument (costs 2 PP): As the base version, but the target is blinded for one round.

Basic attack: 16 damage at -45% hit rate. This is terrible, but Battlemind's only option for an opportunity attack if he is unwilling or unable to spend PP.

(minor) Battlemind's Demand: Battlemind marks a target within 5 squares for the rest of the battle. Battlemind
Augment (costs 1 PP): Battlemind gains 10 temporary HP.

(free) Blurred Step: If a marked target shifts away from Battlemind, he can shift too. In this way, ranged enemies will always provoke opportunity attacks from Battlemind. Battlemind also gets +10% evade until the end of his next turn.


OPB powers:

*Psychic Hammer: 30 psychic damage at +20% hit rate, and the target is dominated (charm effect). The target has a 55% chance to recover from this at the end of each turn. If the attack misses, it still does half damage and inflicts daze instead of dominate, with the same duration.
*(minor) Immortal Endurance: Battlemind gains 109 temporary HP.
-(move) Psionic Ambush: Instead of moving, Battlemind can teleport adjacent to a marked enemy, and has combat advantage on it this turn.
-(minor) Psionic Vigour: Battlemind gains 8 temporary HP.
-(free) Persistent Harrier: Counter to being attacked for the first time in a battle (infinite range). 21 damage, and Battlemind teleports adjacent to the target. The target is marked for one round and Battlemind slides it one square (even on a miss). Battlemind regains the use of this counter (once) when he drops to 0 PP.


Optimum 3-turn damage output:

Psychic Hammer, Brutal Barrage 4 PP, (Psionic Ambush, Brutal Barrage 4 PP, Brutal Barrage 4 PP): 186 damage, 140 with accuracy factored in.

Comments: Brutal Barrage saves Battlemind from having... well, brutal offensive output. Aside from that, his ability to counter ranged attackers at a small PP cost is helpful, domination is always sweet, and he has fairly spammable stun, blind, and invisibility to make his opponent's attempts to kill him fail completely. Some of the highest durability in the game doesn't hurt, either.

Other build options:
-Battlemind can swap his DEX and CHA if he feels like trading reflex evade and initiative for another 12 damage per 4-PP Brutal Barrage.
-Dropping the shield for a greatsword is suicide, since the extra damage doesn't even help Brutal Barrage. I feel compelled to mention it anyway.
-Mind of Mirrors probably deserves a mention, since it's nearly identical to Cage of Cowardice, but does slightly more damage with the 6-PP augment and does dominate instead of stun. Yes, three shots of dominate! The two reasons I didn't opt for it as the default is (a) losing the 2-PP opportunity attack makes up for most of its damage advantage in many cases, and (b) since it's also a charm effect, it leaves Battlemind helpless against the status immune, while there's no protection from stun, and Battlemind already has a shot of dominate with which to rape the enemy.



Monk

Equipment: Dagger, Ki Focus +6, Cloth +6, Amulet +6

Stats:

12 STR, 22 CON, 30 DEX, ?? INT, 16 WIS, ?? CHA
179 HP, 25 initiative, 8 move

Physical evade: 65%
Magical evade: 35% (fort), 55% (reflex), 20% (will)

Fortitude hit rate: 55%
Reflex hit rate: 65%
Will hit rate: 70%

Feats relevant in the DL:

Brutal Flurry, Fluid Motion, Iron Parry, Whirling Iron Defence, Improved Monk Unarmed Strike, Unarmed Combatant: Already factored in.

Effortless Motion: Monk gets +5% physical evade on any turn which he uses an at-will or daily attack power (i.e. Stunning Fist), and moves during his turn.
Simple Precision: If Monk hits with an at-will attack, he gets +5% hit rate with his next at-will attack.
Still Water: If all Monk's encounter attacks are used up and he hits with an at-will attack, he gets +10% physical evade for one round.
Form Mastery: Monk regains the use of one encounter attack when he spends his action point.


At-will powers:

Dancing Cobra: Melee, reflex. 27 damage.
Lion's Den: Melee, reflex. 23 damage, and Monk any enemy who moves adjacent to Monk takes 6 damage until the start of Monk's next turn. Additionally, if Monk shifts this turn (either before or after this attack), he gets +5% evade for one round.

Basic Attack: 18 damage at 20% hit rate, crit rate is 10% instead of 5%. An enemy making a ranged attack after being hit by Flurry of Blows provokes this. Too bad it sucks.

(free) Iron Soul Flurry of Blows: Whenever Monk hits a target, he can choose to do 12 damage to it, in addition to the attack's existing effects (which need not even be damaging). The target can not shift, and Monk gets +5% evade against the target's attacks for one round. This can only be used once per round.


OPB powers:

*Strike of Perfect Clarity: Melee, will. Monk gets to make two hit checks and hits if either one succeeds (91% overall hit rate against average). 47 damage, 13 of it psychic.
-Heart-Sundering Strike: Melee, will. On a hit, the target is dominated for one round. When the effect ends, the target takes 27 damage. Not a charm effect.
-Hungry Ghost: Melee, reflex, 33 dark damage, and Monk gains 16 temporary HP.
-Overpowering Strike: Melee, will. 33 damage, and the target has -15% hit rate for one round.
*(minor) Superme Parry: Monk has +15% physical and reflex evade for the rest of the battle.
-(free) Altered Awareness: Monk can trigger this after hitting with a melee attack. Monk becomes invisible to the target for one round. (+10% hit due to combat advantage, +25% evade against singletarget, or effective immunity to singletarget if he moves after using this.)
-(free) Iron Dragon Defence: Counter to taking damage. Monk reduces this damage by 13.
-(minor) Purifying Meditation: 70% chance to recover from one status effect.
-(minor) Harmonious Discipline: Monk gains 3 temporary HP. The next time Monk takes damage, he gets +3 damage to his next attack.


Optimum 3-turn damage:

(Strike of Perfect Clarity, Altered Awareness), (Overpowering Strike, Heart-Sundering Strike), Overpowering Strike: 188 damage, 157 with accuracy factored in.

Comments: Nobody was more improved by Psionic Power. Monk still has unimpressive damage for a striker (emphasising mobility and multitarget more), but now he has simply amazing durability. 65/55 is pretty much game-best evade from the getgo, but give him a turn and those figures rise by 15-25 depending on what he does. Yeah, good luck killing him. Otherwise, he has two turns of dominate to help tie up his enemies while he kills them, or he can just lower their hit rate even further if they're the accurate type. His flurry damage boost and Simple Precision keep his damage output high over a long fight, if need be.


Other build options:
-Monk can swap his dagger for a club and pick up the Crashing Tempest Style feat, which gives him +2 damage on Flurry of Blows in exchange for -5% evade boost from Supreme Parry.
-Monk can squeeze a further +1 damage out of his flurry with a STR over CON build, but this loses him 10% physical evade, though it does gain him +30% hit and +6 damage on his basic attack.
-Monk has a daily attack that inflicts stun, though its hit is much lower (standard reflex attack) and it does 4 less damage on top of that, so it's about 20 less damage in practice. If he needs to keep enemies tied up even longer, it's not a bad choice, but it will make him miss three-shotting average.
-Alternatively, instead of the stunning daily, he has one that does similar damage and inflicts Weaken... but this attack also gives him one turn of damage-halving later in the battle.



Psion

Equipment: Staff +6, Cloth +6, Amulet +6

Stats:

10 STR, 12 CON, 16 DEX, 30 INT, 12 WIS, 22 CHA
140 HP, 18 initiative, 6 move

Physical evade: 45%
Magical evade: 5% (fort), 50% (reflex), 40% (will)

Feats relevant in the DL:

Discipline Adept, Dominating Mind, Vicious Intrusion, Confusing Distraction: Already factored in.

Precise Mind: Whenever Psion spends at least 2 PP on an attack and hits with it, she gets +5% to unaugmented at-will attacks until the end of her next turn.
Predictive Defence: Whenever Psion hits with an unagumented at-will attack, she gets +10% evade against melee attacks for one round.
Psychic Bastion: Whenever Psion scores a critical hit with a psychic attack, she gets +20% evade for one round.
Resilient Shield: Whenever Psion scores a critical hit with a force attack, she reduces damage from any hits she takes by 10 for one round.
Bloodied Concentration: Psion has +5% hit rate on any augmented attacks when she is below half HP.
Power Cascade: After hitting with a daily attack, the next unaugmented attack Psion makes against the target deals +3.5 damage, as long as this happens before the end of Psion's next turn.
Battle Psion: Psion has +3 damage with force or psychic at-will damage (already factored in). She gets a further +1 damage on these attacks if she has 0 PP remaining.
Power Surge: Psion can expend the use of her daily attack to regain 6 PP. This is a free action.
Psionic Staff Focus: Psion's ranged singletarget attacks do not provoke opportunity attacks.


At-will powers:

Note that each at-will attack Psion has comes with augment options. To use these, Psion must spend power points (PP), of which she has 15 at the start of each battle. She can only augment each at-will power once each time it is used (so no stacking augment options).

One of Psion's specialties is making enemies weak to her attacks. How weakness in D&D works is that every time a target takes damage of a type it is weak to, it takes +X extra damage of that same type. Weaknesses can not be stacked.

Concussive Detonation: Blast 3, reflex magic. 24 force damage, and the target is slowed for one round.
Augment (costs 2 PP): 28 force damage, and the target becomes weak +1 to force for one round.
Augment (costs 6 PP): 28 force damage, and the target is stunned for one round.

Daggers of Pain: Range 10, burst 1, enemy only, will magic. 24 psychic damage, and the target becomes weak +6 to psychic for one round.
Augment (costs 2 PP): As above, but 28 psychic damage.
Augment (costs 6 PP): 37 psychic damage, and every time the target moves 1 square on its own turn, it takes 6 psychic damage.

Psychic Brand: Range 20, will magic. 25 psychic damage.
Augment (costs 1 PP): As above, and the target grants combat advantage (-10% evade) until the end of Psion's next turn.
Augment (costs 4 PP): 30 psychic damage and the target becomes weak +6 to all damage for one round (doesn't stack with elemental weakness).

Thought Guardian: Range 10, burst 1, will magic. 24 psychic damage, and the target has -20% hit rate for one round.
Augment (costs 1 PP): As above, and the target takes 6 psychic damage each time it attacks Psion.
Augment (costs 4 PP): As the base version, and if the target attacks Psion or moves during the next round, Psion makes a pre-emptive attack (also will magic) as a pre-emptive counter, and does 11 psychic damage and inflicts daze for one round on a hit.

Mind Break: Range 10, will magic. 24 psychic damage, and the target becomes weak +6 to psychic for one round.
Augment (costs 1 PP): As above, but the the weakness is +5, and the target also loses any psychic resistance for one round.
Augment (costs 2 PP): As the base version, but the damage is 28 psychic and the weakness is +11.


OPB powers:

*Thrall: Range 20, will magic. The target is dominated as a charm effect. It has a 45% chance to recover from this effect at the end of its first turn while statused, then 55% chance at the end of each subsequent turn. When it "recovers", it immediately takes 27 psychic damage, and remains dominated for one last turn, after which it recovers. Should this attack miss, it inflicts daze with the same recovery pattern, except that when the target recovers it takes only 12 damage and the bonus turn is a simple granting of combat advantage. Very importantly, if this hits, Psion's best strategy is to hit the enemy with Daggers of Pain, preferably stacked with Mind Break, and force them to move as their turn. This translates into fairly crazy damage (number of squares moved times 16). Damage output below assumes an enemy with 6 move, but if the enemy is more or less mobile, this changes.

*Mind Switch: Range 20, will magic. 25 psychic damage, and the target is stunned and takes 10 psychic damage at the start of each of its turns. It has a 45% chance to recover from the stun+ongoing damage at the end of its first turn, then a 55% chance at the end of each turn thereafter.

Both Thrall and Mind Switch are daily attacks, so I don't let her use both in one battle. I don't even like listing both, but if I don't she's too swingy based on charm immunity, so I felt I had to.

*(minor) Mind over Earth: Psion can fly for the rest of the battle, spoils people with less range than Psion (see Psychic Brand).
-(free) Psychic Chirurgery: Counter to being hit by a status. The status does not affect Psion until the end of her next turn, nor does its duration begin counting down until then.
-(free) Energy Mitigation: Counter to being hit by an attack which isn't singletarget. Psion takes half damage from the attack.
-(minor) Mind Shroud: Psion has +25% to all evade and is slowed for one round.
-(free) Intellect Fortress: Counter, used when an attack would hit Psion. Psion gets +30% evade for the purposes of the attack.
-(minor) Distract: Range 10. Psion gains combat advantage (+10% hit) on an enemy until the end of her next turn, and deals +3 damage with her next attack against the target. The target also can not take opportunity actions (i.e. spammable counterattacks) for one round. Can be used twice per battle.

Optimum 3-turn damage output, if she can dominate the taget:

(Distract, Thrall), (Mind Break 2 PP, Daggers of Pain 6 PP), (Distract, Daggers of Pain 6 PP): 256 damage, 205 with accuracy factored in. This assumes the target saves from dominate as quickly as possible, or it rises by about 20%.

(Distract, Mind Break 2 PP, Mind Switch), Mind Break 2 PP, (Distract, Daggers of Pain 6 PP): 192, 154 with accuracy factored in.

Comments: Far from the only D&D character with domination, but certainly the best at abusing it. She'll make you wander around taking so much psychic damage it isn't funny (okay, okay, it is funny), assuming she can't make you destroy yourself some other way. If that strategy fails, she... actually doesn't have that much, she can stun you for a couple turns in there (and really wishes that the stun attack were psychic) and otherwise just does her best Mewtwo impression and blasts away with her main element. Game-worst initiative (because CHA helps psychic attacks just that much) and poor HP are her main failings, but a couple nice survival tricks (one against status, one against evadable attacks) mean she'll tend to get a turn. Oh yeah, and she's the fourth (and last) class who can cheap short-range enemies out with flight.

Other build options:
-If Psion really wants to not have terrible speed, she can swap CHA for DEX, but all she gets is that speed (not even reflex evade), and her methods of inflicting psychic weakness or movement-based damage drop by 3, and Intellect Fortress loses its potency. A suicidal option if she's planning to go the Thrall strategy, and a suspect one in general, since she's good at getting that first turn as is.



Runepriest

Equipment: Warhammer +6, Light Shield, Scale Mail +6, Amulet +6

Stats:

30 STR, 16 CON, 22 DEX, 12 INT, 12 WIS, 10 CHA
173 HP, 21 initiative, 5 move

Physical evade: 50%
Magical evade: 50% (fort), 45% (reflex), 15% (will)

Physical hit rate: 60%

Feats relevant in the DL:

Rune of Hope, Rune of Torment, five other Rune feats: Already factored in.

Rune of Vengeance: The first time Runepriest is dropped below half HP, he gets +8 damage until the end of his next turn.
Wrath of Defeat: As a pre-emptive counter to being dropped to 0 HP by a melee attack, Runepriest can make a basic attack at +10% hit rate. This doesn't prevent Runepriest himself from dying, so it's debatable if this attack is even useful in a pure duel.

At-will powers:

(free) Wrathful Hammer: Whenever Runepriest takes damage, he gets a +3 bonus to damage for one round. This bonus does not stack with itself.

Word of Diminishment: 21 damage, and the target either takes 6 extra damage from each attack it takes, or does 6 less damage with each attack it makes, for one round. (Runepriest's choice)
Word of Exchange: 21 damage, and the target has -10% evade for one round.
Basic attack: 27 damage.


OPB powers:

*Rune of Pacifism: 44 damage at +20% hit rate, and the target can not make any sort of attack. The target has a 55% chance to recover from this effect at the end of each of its turns, but every time it fails to do so it takes 8 damage. If the attack misses, it does half damage and the target can't attack for one turn.
-Mark of Untamed Wrath: 33 damage at +20% hit rate, and the next turn the target gets it must either choose not to attack, or to be dazed until the end of its turn after that.
-Tide of Victory: 36 damage at +20% hit rate.
-Symbol of Cowardice: 27 damage at +20% hit rate, and as a fear effect the target takes a -5% penalty to hit rate.
*(minor) Rune of Hero's Resolve: Runepriest (or an ally) gains temporary HP equal to his current HP, and can take an additional standard action this turn.
-Rune of Preservation: Runepriest heals 43 HP, and reduces all damage taken by 5 for one round.
-(minor) Rune of Mending: Range 15. One target heals 61 HP and gets 8 temporary HP. Can be used three times per battle, but only once per round.


Optimum 3-turn damage output:

(Rune of Hero's Resolve, Word of Diminishment, Rune of Pacifism), (Symbol of Cowardice, Mark of Untamed Wrath), Tide of Victory: 166 damage, 137 with accuracy factored in.

Comments: He really doesn't have much in the way of good options. His main strategy it to stop his enemy from attacking, and that works well enough. Rune of Hero's Resolve is ridiculous, doubling his current HP (ridiculous if he goes first) AND giving him an extra action? Either would be worth it alone. Besides that, the usual healing to cut through, and he's the tankiest of the main healers (shut up about Paladin), even if his healing isn't all that amazing.

Other build options:
-Dropping the light shield for a maul (two-handed hammer) is a fairly practical option, although probably only worth taking against those with evade-ignoring attacks. Basically it's a 9% offence upgrade (roughly) in exchange for 9% less physical durability and 15% less magical. Pretty close; I mainly stuck him with the shield to be consistent with my other default class builds.



Seeker

Equipment: Longbow +6, Hide Armour +6, Amulet +6

13 STR, 15 CON, 22 DEX, 10 INT, 30 WIS, 12 CHA
172 HP, 21 initiative, 6 move

Physical evade: 30%
Magical evade: 10% (fort), 35% (reflex), 55% (will)

Physical hit rate: 60%
Physical range: 20 (or 40, at a -10% penalty to hit rate)

Feats relevant in the DL:

Primal Eye, Bloodbond Wrath, Ruthless Price, Strengthened Bond, Bloodied Elusion: Already factored in.


At-will powers:

(minor) Shift: Seeker can move 1 square without provoking opportunity attacks as a minor action instead of a move.
(free) Bloodied Elusion: Seeker can shift for free as a counter to being lowered below half HP.

Biting Swarm: 33 damage, and -10% to the target's hit rate for one round.
Elemental Spirits: 27 damage, which is either fire, ice, lightning, or sonic elemental.
Grappling Spirits: 33 damage, and the target is slowed and can not shift for one round.


OPB powers:

*Slavering Sentinels: Seeker conjures 4 sentinels anywhere within weapon range. At the start of any enemy's turn, one sentinel (and only one) can attack that enemy for 30 damage at +15% hit rate provided it is at melee range of the enemy. The sentinels vanish at the end of Seeker's turn (except the one on which they are summoned) unless she spends a minor action to sustain them. She can also spend a move action during her turn to teleport one of them.

-Devouring Arrow: 33 damage at +5% hit rate, and the target is weakened for one round.
-Sinking Earth: 33 damage, and the target is restrained for one round.
-Wasp Sting Shot: 31 poison damage, plus 10 more poison damage at the start of the target's turn = 41 total.
-(minor) Guiding Spirit: Seeker gets +25% hit rate on her next ranged attack this turn.
-(minor) Bramble Hide: Seeker gets +10% physical evade for one round, and any enemy who hits her with a melee attack this round takes 20 damage for each attack.
-(minor) Earthbond Gift: Seeker gains 20 temporary HP. Can only be used below half HP.
-(minor) Encaging Spirits: All enemies within 3 squares of Seeker are pushed 1 square then immobilised for one turn, as well as granting combat advantage (-10% evade). The first time Seeker drops below half HP, she regains the use of this ability for a second use in a single battle.


Optimum 3-turn damage output:

(Guiding Spirit, Sinking Earth, Slavering Sentinels), (Encaging Spirits, Devouring Arrow, sustain Sentinels), (Wasp Sting Shot, sustain Sentinels): 197 damage, 155 with accuracy factored in.

Comments: Kinda lacking on tricks overall by D&D standards, but she has some melee spoiling at least, with immobilise and restrain. This is especially useful to her since her physical durability is pretty bad. Not much she can do to prevent opponents from killing her otherwise, and she will usually need three turns to win. It's a shame, because her longterm offensive potential, between competent basic attacks and sustainable sentinel damage, is quite solid, but she doesn't have the build for long fights to make this worthwhile.

Other build options:
-Seeker can trade damage and range for accuracy by opting for a throwing dagger instead of a bow. I'm not actually sure if this wins out for average damage, and am too lazy to check because this build gives up Encaging Spirits, which is very helpful to Seeker's game.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Averages

Damage, 3-turn, accuracy factored in: 172
Kill point: 143
Ranger: 352
Rogue: 248
Avenger: 224
Barbarian: 222
Fighter: 204
Druid: 200
Sorcerer: 190
Invoker: 169
Warlock: 165
Shaman: 159
Monk: 157
Seeker: 155
Psion: 154
Wizard: 151
Battlemind: 140
Runepriest: 137
Bard: 133
Ardent: 131
Cleric: 130
Warden: 123
Warlord: 122
Paladin: 118

Initiative: 21.4-22.7, depending on what you factor into the average
Rogue (using Seize the Moment): 45
Ranger, Rogue (base), Druid (beastform), Monk: 25
Invoker (using Shroud of Warning): 24
Everyone else, including Druid (human) and Invoker (base): 21
Psion: 18

HP: 180
Warden: 236
Battlemind: 219
Barbarian: 205
Fighter, Paladin: 201
Avenger: 200
Ranger: 188
Warlock: 187
Monk: 179
Bard, Druid, Sorcerer, Ardent, Runepriest: 173
Shaman, Seeker: 172
Rogue: 170
Cleric, Warlord: 169
Invoker: 142
Wizard, Psion: 140

Physical Evade: 45%
Monk: 65%
Paladin: 60%
Fighter, Ranger, Warlord, Battlemind: 55%
Rogue, Wizard, Barbarian, Runepriest: 50%
Avenger, Bard, Warden, Psion: 45%
Cleric, Invoker, Ardent: 40%
Druid: 35%
Warlock, Shaman, Seeker: 30%
Sorcerer: 25%

Fortitude (physical status/draining) evade: 28%
Fighter, Barbarian: 60%
Warlord, Warden: 55%
Warlock, Battlemind, Runepriest: 50%
Monk: 35%
Rogue: 25%
Ranger, Avenger, Invoker, Ardent: 20%
Wizard, Bard, Druid, Shaman, Sorcerer: 15%
Paladin, Seeker: 10%
Cleric, Psion: 5%

Reflex (traditional magical damage) evade: 42.5%
Rogue: 60%
Ranger, Wizard, Monk: 55%
Paladin, Psion: 50%
Fighter, Warlord, Barbarian, Bard, Warden, Battlemind, Runepriest: 45%
Warlock, Avenger, Druid, Invoker, Seeker: 35%
Cleric, Shaman, Sorcerer, Ardent: 30%

Will (mental magic/status) evade: 36%
Cleric, Sorcerer: 60%
Paladin, Avenger, Bard, Druid, Invoker, Shaman, Ardent, Seeker: 55%
Psion: 40%
Ranger: 30%
Wizard, Battlemind: 25%
Warlord, Monk: 20%
Fighter, Warlock, Runepriest: 15%
Rogue, Warden: 10%
Barbarian: 5%

Effective physical durability (higher is better)
Monk: 1.56
Paladin: 1.53
Battlemind: 1.48
Fighter: 1.36
Warden: 1.31
Ranger: 1.27
Barbarian: 1.25
Warlord: 1.14
Avenger: 1.11
Runepriest: 1.05
Rogue: 1.04
Bard: 0.96
Ardent: 0.88
Cleric: 0.86
Wizard: 0.85
Warlock: 0.81
Druid: 0.81
Psion: 0.78
Shaman: 0.75
Seeker: 0.75
Invoker: 0.72
Sorcerer: 0.70

Effective magical (reflex) durability:
Warden: 1.37
Rogue: 1.36
Ranger: 1.34
Paladin: 1.29
Battlemind: 1.28
Monk: 1.23
Barbarian: 1.19
Fighter: 1.17
Bard: 1.01
Runepriest: 1.01
Wizard: 1.00
Avenger: 0.99
Warlord: 0.98
Warlock: 0.92
Psion: 0.90
Druid: 0.85
Seeker: 0.85
Sorcerer: 0.79
Ardent: 0.79
Shaman: 0.79
Cleric: 0.77
Invoker: 0.70

[Dark Holy Elf]

Reserved post, just in case.

Oh yeah, and to finish things off: as I've mentioned, D&D has lots and lots of options. It's quite possible that, somewhere, I've missed one that would be very valuable to a character. If you find something that you think I've missed, let me know! Or if you see anything where you think my interpretation of a move is wrong, let me know that, too (given the nature of tabletop gaming, there is more than one way just to decide how a given power works, in some cases...). And regardless, thanks for reading.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Nerd alert, nerd alert~

Not that I have anything meaning to contribute, I am just a jerk. <3

[Pyro]

Cleric Utility 22, Angel of the 11 Winds, grants Flight I think? Melee immunity is always welcome I suppose.

Just to note, I think two classes might want to opt for utilizing two Daily Utilities instead of a Daily Attack+Daily Utility.

Wizard may want to use Blur and Fly to become an effectively invisible flying type. This is pretty mean, actually.

Invoker may want to use Shroud of Warning and Invoke Angelic form to get the jump on a melee foe that might otherwise OHKO him, if they were that good at doing so.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Added Cleric's melee immunity trick (it's less good than the rest for a few reasons, but still a good enough option to go in the default set) and also updated Fighter to a more traditional sword-and-shield build since post-errata, Dual Strike can't focus which reins in Fighter's damage quite a bit. Fighter still does a bit more damage with two weapons, but it's now no longer worth the durability tradeoff, so Fighter actually looks like a Defender now!

EDIT: Also Psionic Power is out, so I'll be updating Ardent, Battlemind, Monk, and Psion with anything useful that comes out of that sometime this month.

[Captain K.]

4th edition scares me.

[Excal]

That's because your Will save sucks.  Sadly, the Ugly Old Man Class is a Str/Con class with no Will bonuses, so I'm not sure there's much hope for you.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Dun dun dun... Psionic Power update!

-Ardent gained the ability to spoil enemy healers with her own healing move.
-Battlemind gained a 1-2PB (kinda) 21-damage counterattack to any damage.
-Monk gained a whole bunch of cool stuff: 10% base physical evade (so he's now game-best), better evade-buffing (his evade is nuts, frankly), and even a little more offence. Definitely the most improved class overall.
-Psion gained a little damage via a couple new feats, as well as a one-turn evade buff.