So, you created your Dungeons & Dragons 4e character. You’re ready to rock and roll in your DM’s new campaign. A couple sessions in though, you’ve realized your character isn’t quite as good as your thought he would be. Your one buddy seems to be doing more damage than you, the second one is a tanking beast that just can’t be killed, and the other has more utility in his character than you’ll ever hope to have. You’re already too entrenched into the campaign to just magically switch characters. So what do you do?

Fear not, there is a way to transition your character from an ultra-gimp to a lean, mean, dungeon crawling machine. Here are a few suggestions on how to transform your character into the character you always thought he could be.

Decide What You Want And Make a Plan – Let’s say you started out with a Devoted Cleric. You planned on healing your allies, but after you started playing you realized that you just couldn’t help yourself from getting right into the thick of combat. The Devoted Cleric prefers to stand back and heal his allies, while the Battle Cleric jumps right into the melee with all of the other fighters. So you decide that you’re going to start transitioning him from a Devoted Cleric to a Battle Cleric. Now at least you’ve got a direction for your character, let’s see how you get there.

Retrain Your Skills, Feats, and Powers – Each time you gain a level, you can change either a skill, feat, or power. Check out page twenty-eight of the Player’s Handbook for complete details. You should change one of these each level so you can gradually transition towards what you want your character to be.

Continuing with our previous example, if you were a Devoted Cleric changing over to a Battle Cleric you can start changing your At-Will Powers. Change your Sacred Flame or Lance of Faith power to one that you can get right into the melee with, like Righteous Brand or Priest’s Shield.

Get Gear to Support Your New Character Type – Different classes and class-types will benefit from different sets of gear. Obviously if you’re a damage-dealing character, you will want to focus on anything that gives you +’s to hit or damage, or allows you to gain some sort of advantage over your target. If you’re a tank or healer, you’ll probably want equipment that help keeps you alive.

If you were moving from a Devoted Cleric to a Battle Cleric, you may want to start looking for better armor or weaponry as you’re going to be fighting more often in close-quarters combat. A Devoted Cleric can get away without even using a melee weapon, but for a Battle Cleric a melee weapon will be one of the most (if not the most) important item in his arsenal.

Ask Your DM If You Can Modify Your Character – Your DM may allow you to make small modifications to your character that would fit your new character type. Maybe he will allow you to slightly shift some of your attributes in such a way to fit your new character style. In the example of changing from a Devoted Cleric to a Battle Cleric, he might allow you to shift some points from Charisma into Strength.

Do your best to try and justify in-game the changes to your character. If your character became physically stronger and his charisma lowered, maybe he started using elixirs that increased his might but made him a more irritable person to be around.

Start Playing Your Character Differently – Sometimes changing your character is as simple as playing him differently. If you’re a defensive character, you can start being more aggressive. Drop that shield and start wielding a big two-hander. Or maybe you are primarily a ranged character switching to melee (like an Archer Ranger switching to a Two-Blade Ranger). Drop the bow and switch to melee mode.

Make sure to keep the other players aware of your shift in how you play your character. If you changed from a Devoted Cleric to a Battle Cleric, tell the other members of your party to start playing a little more defensively since you’ll be focusing more on offense. They may have thrown caution to the wind with a dedicated healer at their back, but now that you’re fighting right next to them you may not have the time to continually bless them with your healing powers. Make sure they are aware that you’ll be playing your character differently.

So to recap…
(1) Decide what you want and make a plan.
(2) Retrain your skills, feats, and powers.
(3) Get gear to support your new character type.
(4) Ask your DM if you can modify your character.
(5) Start playing your character differently.

What strategies would you utilize to fix a character that isn’t working out for you?