OOC--Our party so far... (some metagaming)

The basics: We have a Leader (Chris's Warlord), a Defender (Frosh's Swordmage), and 2 Strikers (My Warlock and James's sorcerer). Without knowing the nitty-gritty about builds, there's only so much tactical speculation that can be done, but so far, so good. This leaves our remaining partner(s) in a good position to play whatever they like.

Ability Scores: I'm a CON/int build character, and I deduce that Chris's warlord is a STR/int character. James is definitely a CHA/str build. As for Frosh, my guess is Assault Swordmage, which is a INT/str build, although this is based entirely off my impression that Frosh is metal and likes to play butt-kickers, and not based off any evidence whatsoever.

The implications of this party build puts us at a advantage at social skills, as pretty much everyone mentioned being a good talker, more or less, and at a disadvantage for physical ones, as nobody even bothered to mention the physicality of their character at all. Frosh would have been the exception, but for the fact that Swordmages have a decidedly mediocre skill selection when it comes to Physical skills.

Another implication is that this build likely has relatively low defense scores, as only one character (The Warlord) has access to heavy armor out of the box and INT/DEX is the primary score of only one character (The aforementioned Mikal, Frosh's Swordmage). Since we're fighting trolls and orcs, traditionally enemies that attack AC, they will likely hit more often than they otherwise would. This is further complicated by the fact that we've all selected classes that give bonuses to Will, yet we've mostly selected builds (by my speculation, at least) that don't utilize this bonus to generate a competitive WILL defense.

The exception to this would be Khar'Dan, who should have a good WILL and also a good AC and FORT. Being a Sorcerer, though, with low HP, this will only go so far. On the other hand, if I'm wrong and Frosh is playing a defensive character (although I doubt it) he could generate an AC of 29 or higher, assuming +3 warding, +5 armor, +6 ability score, and +5 level bonus. That might happen. I doubt it.

Finally, despite low defense skills and a lack of physicality, our party is more suited to melee than it initially appears. Infernalocks and Dragon Sorcerers do okay taking hits because of, respectively, lots of Temp HP granted by Warlock powers and good defenses and a variety of close blast powers. An INT Warlord, as recent experience shows, is a good friend to any defender, and time will tell with the rest of the party.