Maedhroc, Pathfinderized

I'm sure nobody's ever done this before, ever, in the entire history of gaming. I mean, c'mon, doing a D&D* writeup of your MMO character? That's just crazy talk. This is a game-legal build using a standard 15-point buy.

Maedhroc Thornhollow, Troll-Kicker
Male Halfling Fighter (Phalanx Soldier) 6 Rogue (Scout) 5
LG Small Humanoid (Halfling)
Init +3; Senses Perception +13

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AC 27, touch 16, flat-footed 23 (+6 armor, +5 shield, +3 Dex, +1 size, +1 deflection, +1 dodge)
hp 113 (6d10+5d8+44)
Fort +11, Ref +12, Will +7
Defensive Abilities Evasion, Trap Sense +1

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Spd 25 ft.
Melee +2 Keen Spear +15/+10 (1d6+5/19-20/x3)
Ranged +1 Returning Javelin +14/+9 (1d4+4/20/x2)
Special Attacks Befuddling Strike, Bleeding Attack +3, Phalanx Fighting, Ready Pike +1 (1/day), Scout's Charge, Sneak Attack +3d6

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Str 14/16, Dex 16, Con 14/16, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 10
Base Atk +9; CMB +11; CMD 29 (31 vs. Bull Rush, Overrun, Pull, Push, Trip)
Feats Critical Focus, Dodge, Iron Will, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Rogue Weapon Proficiencies, Saving Shield, Shield Focus, Shield Specialization: Heavy Shield, Toughness +11, Weapon Focus: Longspear
Traits Deft Dodger, Militia Veteran (Survival)
Skills Acrobatics +8, Bluff +5, Climb +5, Diplomacy +7, Disable Device +6, Intimidate +10, Knowledge: Dungeoneering +5, Knowledge: History +1, Knowledge: Local +4, Perception +13, Perform: String Instruments +5, Perform: Wind Instruments +5, Ride +5, Stealth +7, Survival +14, Swim -1
Languages Common, Halfling
SQ Fearless, Stand Firm +2 (Ex), Trapfinding +2
Combat Gear +1 Determination Scale Mail, +2 Heavy Steel Shield, +2 Keen Spear, +1 Returning Javelin; Other Gear Belt of Physical Might: STR & CON +2, Boots of Striding and Springing, Cloak of Resistance +1, Potion of Cure Serious Wounds (2), Ring of Protection +1

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Befuddling Strike (Ex) Sneak attack imposes a -2 penalty for 1d4r if opponent wants to attack you.
Bleeding Attack +3 (Ex) Sneak attacks also deal 3 bleed damage per round.
Critical Focus +4 to confirm critical hits.
Evasion (Ex) If you succeed at a Reflex save for half damage, you take none instead.
Fearless +2 morale bonus vs Fear saves.
Phalanx Fighting (Ex) Polearms and spears are one-handed if weilded along with a shield.
Point Blank Shot +1 to attack and damage rolls with ranged weapons at up to 30 feet.
Precise Shot You don't get -4 to hit when shooting or throwing into combat.
Ready Pike +1 (1/day) (Ex) +1 to hit and damage if you ready a brace weapon.
Saving Shield As an immediate action, add a +2 shield bonus to an adjacent ally's AC.
Scout's Charge (Ex) Charge attacks deal sneak attack damage.
Shield Focus +1 Shield AC
Shield Specialization: Heavy Shield +2 bonus to your AC against critical hit confirmation rolls, add your shield bonus to CMD.
Sneak Attack +3d6 +3d6 damage if you flank your target or your target is flat-footed.
Stand Firm +2 (Ex) +2 CMD vs. Bull Rush, Overrun, Push, Pull, Trip, save vs. trample.
Trap Sense +1 (Ex) +1 bonus on reflex saves and AC against traps.
Trapfinding +2 +2 to find or disable traps.
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*And of course, by D&D, I mean Pathfinder, the real D&D in exile.

Some Notes: There are a lot of concepts key to LotRO Wardens that just don't map to Pathfinder, especially "building aggro" and "heal-tanking," so I tried to match the philosophical nature of the class as "tank" rather than going for mechanical equivalency. He protects allies with his "Saving Shield" ability, is harder to hurt thanks to Evasion, Befuddling Strike, et al. but is still a bit on the "squishy" side for a tank, and does damage-over-time with Bleeding Attack. Two more levels of Fighter will also get him the Bleeding Critical feat, which will be an even bigger DoT. The closest I could come to a warden's self-heal is the Determination armor, which immediately casts Breath of Life on Maedhroc if he is taken to 0 hit points.

Mechanically, I could probably recreate the self-heals and tiny party-heal by bumping his Wis to 11 and giving him a level of cleric, but that has so much "conceptual overhead" that I didn't think it was worth doing. If I had a really forgiving GM I might be able to swap out a seriously gimped "cure spells only" ability for Trapfinding, which Maedhroc is not likely to ever use anyway (something like: cure light wounds on self only at 1st level, moderate self only 3rd, serious self only 5th, cure light wounds, mass 7th, and stop there). But if I was going to get into customizing class abilities, I'd be better off to write up "Warden" as a base class from scratch and just go with that.

...which would be fun, but isn't the point of the exercise. ;)

-The Gneech

Fictionlet

“Ralph Bellamy,” said Greg.

“Hmm?” said Brigid.

“And for that matter, Don Ameche,” said Greg.

“Okay, so now we’ve got Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche,” said Brigid. “What about them?”

“They were great,” said Greg.

“Yeah, I suppose they were.”

“A couple of real class acts. Classics.”

“True,” said Brigid. “Very true.”

“They were great in Coming to America.”

Brigid blinked. “Not where I thought you were going with this,” she said.

“What giant talents.”

“Hold on,” said Brigid. “They were barely in Coming to America. It was just a shout-out to Trading Places. They were in Coming to America for all of fifteen seconds!”

“Yeah,” said Greg, “but what a fifteen seconds it was.”

“You just sit around thinking this shit up, don’t you?” said Brigid.

“You know what they say, there are no small parts, just small actors.”

“Your brain is a small part.”

-The Gneech

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Originally published at gneech.com. You can comment here or there.

LotRO Developer Diary: Radiance -- What Went Wrong?

Orion Talks Radiance

As you can see, our intentions were good. We wanted to do something new for the game and not create a new grind mechanic that ultimately resulted in running the same content over and over to acquire a “key”.

Somehow, this is exactly what we ended up making. None of us were pleased.

How could something like this happen?

-The Gneech