Race/Class Synergy in 4e: Revised Analysis

At less than a week old, Race/Class Synergy in 4e: An Analysis is already the second-most-viewed post in my blog's history. That probably means I should take a break from my riveting campaign logs and write a followup. Also, Incredible Vehicle has posted a followup to the article that inspired my first article. Interestingly, his definitions of top, second and bottom tiers exactly match the definitions used in my first post.

What I call a top tier combination is where a race’s bonus attributes map directly to a class’ primary and secondary. ... A second tier combo is one where a race has one attribute that maps to a primary or secondary. ... When a race has no attributes, or only a tertiary attribute, it’s third tier.

Matthew at I.V. also analyzes "the preview/playtest classes (bard, barbarian, druid, invoker, and warden), Martial Power, and the Forgotten Realms Player’s Guide". I find analysis of the preview classes premature and I don't own Martial Power or the FRPG, so I won't be adding these classes. When I get PHB2 (which I plan on picking up as soon as it's out) I plan to post similar analysis of its classes and races.

Matthew has also done what xero commented on my first post to say I should do, which is to consider Wisdom the secondary ability for rangers instead of the tertiary as stated in the PHB. Matthew also made Wisdom the secondary ability for both paladin builds, which robs the dragonborn of their 3-top-tier-build status. I'm going to redo my table with these changes, since they make sense to me. Again, I'll color every top tier match green and bottom tier red, leaving second tier white. I'm also removing the human column because it's boring.

		Dragonborn	Dwarf	Eladrin	Elf	Half-Elf	Halfling	Tiefling
		Str, Cha	Con, Wis	Dex, Int	Dex, Wis	Con, Cha	Dex, Cha	Int, Cha
Cleric	Str, Wis	1	1	0	1	0	0	0
	Wis, Cha	1	1	0	1	1	1	1
Fighter	Str, Con	1	1	0	0	1	0	0
	Str, Dex or Wis*	1	1	1	1	0	1	0
Paladin	Str, Wis	1	1	0	1	0	0	0
	Cha, Wis	1	1	0	1	1	1	1
Ranger	Dex, Wis	0	1	1	2	0	1	0
	Str, Wis	1	1	0	1	0	0	0
Rogue	Dex, Str	1	0	1	1	0	1	0
	Dex, Cha	1	0	1	1	1	2	1
Warlock	Cha, Int	1	0	1	0	1	1	2
	Con, Int	0	1	1	0	1	0	1
Warlord	Str, Cha	2	0	0	0	1	1	1
	Str, Int	1	0	1	0	0	0	1
Wizard	Int, Wis	0	1	1	1	0	0	1
	Int, Dex	0	0	2	1	0	1	1
	Synergy "score"	13	10	10	12	7	10	10

That simple change made a drastic difference. Dwarves, eladrin, halflings and tieflings are suddenly dead even in their synergy, with the dwarves leaping over the poor half-elves (who were second-lowest in the first analysis anyway and had their score drop as Cha became Wis for the avenging paladin). The elven wisdom bonus and the new emphasis on wisdom make them now second only to the dragonborn instead of third from the bottom in the first analysis.

Another thing I find interesting here is that even though no race is first tier for the laser cleric or pretty paladin build (Wis/Cha), every race except eladrin is second tier for them. Also, every race but dwarf is at least second tier for artful dodger rogue.

* I should have noted before: The PHB is clear about which abilities are primary/secondary/tertiary for every build except the guardian fighter. After strength as primary it just says "prioritize your Dexterity to take advantage of weapons that can be improved by Dexterity-based feats, or your Wisdom to make the most of the combat superiority class feature." For this reason I've awarded any race with a bonus in either Dex or Wis with a point for mapping to a secondary. However, the elf only gets one point** because Dex and Wis can't both be the secondary.

** I've also abandoned the fractional points I used in the first post as useless*** and nitpicky.

*** About as useless as all these endnotes.