The striker role in 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons is the master of damage. Whether it is up close and personal with an avenger or ranger, or from a distance with a sorcerer or warlock; strikers are there for one reason and one reason only – damage. Players of defenders, controllers and leaders often sigh wistfully when they hear the damage being dealt by a striker but getting all that damage out there isn’t as easy as it seems.

While playing a striker may not require as much tactical thought as playing one of the other roles, strikers do require a lot more planning to be effective damage dealers. Feats, equipment and power choices are very important for strikers. Not only do they need to eke out every last bit of damage from their powers, they need to ensure that they hit every time to do that damage.

Melee strikers are more focused on feats and equipment. Bigger weapons often mean bigger damage. Feats allow them to hit more often and survive going toe to toe with monsters. Feats like Weapon Focus and Powerful Charge enhance your ability to hit and deal damage. But, defences also play an important role. As the old World of Warcraft adage goes, “Dead DPS does no DPS.” The same applies here. A dead striker is not striking anything. Defensive Mobility and Toughness help keep you going until the defender can get the creature off of you.

Ranged strikers, especially spellcasters, need to pay careful attention to their feats and power selection. Feats that increase the damage type you are dealing are a must. Every little bit counts. Some players try to specialise in a damage type and while this can work it is a bit of a gamble. Against creatures with a resistance or immunity to your damage type you are seriously handicapped and probably forced to fall back on at-will powers or basic attacks to deal damage. It is better to branch off into damage types that are rarely, if ever, encountered together. Fire and psychic or lightning and acid, for example.

The feats that provide damage bonuses to type attacks give you an idea of what type combinations are usually found together. Radiant and fire resistance are often found together and the same applies to thunder and lightning resistances. Always ensure that you have equal amounts of powers of different damage types to cover all your bases.

As with melee strikers it is important to make sure you can always hit your opponents. While you are usually aiming at the weaker defences like Fortitude, Reflex and Willpower, some creatures have surprisingly high defences in these areas. Your own defences are also important but since you tend to hang back, focus rather on the defences targets by enemy spellcasters.

Most players think playing a striker doesn’t require any real effort but a badly built striker is about as useful as a sword made of cheese. Feat and power selection is very important and you need to be thinking several levels ahead if you want your striker to have a chance at making a mark on the hit point totals of epic level creatures.