Critique my MAIN

[axemurderer]

Cataklyst
11 fighter/3 pally
Currently using:
+5 mith fp
+5 mith steel shield
+6 dex boots
+6 str gloves
+5 con neclace
+1 holy burst kopesh of pg
Chaosgaurd
Heavy fort ring
Chattering ring (+3 dodge bonus)
Greater false life belt
Protect +5 cloak
Battle coin (to-hit bonus +1)

Base AC: 46(without defensive fighting)
Base hp: 475


Stats:
28 str
18 dex
28 con
8 int
8 wis
6 cha

Enhancements:
Dwarven armor masterie 1
Dwarven con 2
Dwarven tactics 2
Dwarven toughness 4
stunning blow 2
trip 2
paladin bulwark of good(+! ac)
paladin resistance of good (+! saves)
fighters str 3
fighters toughness 4

Feats:
Khopesh proficiency
greater weapon focus slashing
improved crit slashing
power attack
power critical
stunning blow
toughness x3
weapon focus slashing
weapon specialization slashing

Saves:
Reflex +16
Fort +21
Will +5


Tomes:
+1 str/dex/con

[Jarlaxel]

I'm curious why do you want to be critiqued?

do you need confirmation from people to tell you your uber?

[axemurderer]

i was thinking about rebuilding.... just wanna know if there is a better way to do it that i have not thought about...
also this toon was not planned out i just kinda did stuff as i went along. so there could be things i missed

[Averroes]

i was thinking about rebuilding.... just wanna know if there is a better way to do it that i have not thought about...
also this toon was not planned out i just kinda did stuff as i went along. so there could be things i missed

Well...

If you change your gear around a bit you could add 3 to all your saves with a +6 charisma item. 4 if you add a +1 tome and paladin charisma 1.

The 2nd and 3rd toughnesses aren't doing anything for you. You could swap them for iron will and luck of heroes and get another 3 to will and 1 to fort and reflex.

You could gain 2 AC with a mithral tower (or with the madstone shield and tower mastery 1), and you won't notice the -2 attack most of the time, even with power attack on.

As you're not wearing a resistance item, you could also wear the helm from black anvil mines for a nice will save boost...


Beyond that, I'd say the holy burst khopesh of pg is a pretty marginal weapon at this point. Those can be up to +4 now... A +4 holy burst khopesh of pure good would be awesome.

Hope that helps.

[bandyman1]

Gotta agree with Averroes on this one.

You didin't list your saves on the build, but with no resistance item mentioned, only 6 Chr. and 8 Wis., your saves, will especially, really suffers. One hold or greater command, and you'd be outta the fight.

Since you have the pally lvls anyway, boosting your Chr. for the save bonus is definately a good idea. The BAM helm as mentioned is +5 will, it also is +2 Wis., so it will net you a +6 boost to your will save off one item.

Other than that...pretty solid build man.

[Riorik]

Overall, I don't like your build because of how focused it is - and I don't really see that it helps you that much really. Some of the earlier suggestions are excellent.

First - I wouldn't bother with doubling up the Dwarven & Fighter Toughness enhancements. Hit Points are good - but pretty much anything 300+ is sufficient. It's ok to have more, but 475 is overkill in my opinion. Swapping out the extra pair of Toughness Feats would be right there on my list also.

Power Critical - you do know the AP's you free up from Fighter Toughness could give you an equal or superior bonus to confirm criticals. Aka, ditch this one also in favor of an enhancement.

The rest would be hard to fix without a re-roll, your stats are too low for the build design. Take mine for example, that matches your class structure.

Fighter11/Paladin3
Str 30 (+2 tome +3 enh +6 item +3 levelup)
Dex 22 (+1 tome +2 enh +6 item)
Con 14 (+1 tome +4 item)
Int 16 (+2 tome)
Wis 12 (+1 tome)
Cha 22 (+2 tome +5 item)
HP 264 (no false life item)
AC 48/50 (highest I've seen party buffed is AC62 w/CE on)
(+5 dex +13 MFP +7 MHS +2 Nat +5 Deflect +2 Dodge +2 Aura +1 Dodge)

Dodge
Combat Expertise
Exotic: Khopesh
WF: Slash
GWF: Slash
WS: Slash
ImpCrit: Slash
ImpCrit: Bludgeon
LuckOfHeroes
PowerAttack
Toughness

Base Equipment:
Helm +5 Cha
Goggle Sandstorm Goggles
Body +5MFP
Bracer Chaosgarde
Ring1 Ring of Balance
Ring2 Ring of Protection+5
Belt Belt of the Mroranon
Cloak (Rotates thru Greater Resists, Jungle Cloak, Cape of Roc)
Trinket Mummified Bat
Necklace +4 CON
Gloves +6 Dex
Boots Golden Greaves
Shield Kundarak Delving Shield (for the +2 Resist sword & board)

Base Saves are only 23/21/16 - however, if I ever swapped in something better with my trinket slot...

Future Goals:
With DrowDex2 & +6 Dex item, can get +2 Dex (add enhance and get +1 AC)
With SealOfEarth can get another +1 Natural Armor "standing"

Note: just added +6 dex gloves

[Blazer]

OP, what has happened that has made you think about re-rolling? Do you feel your character is lacking in some way?

If so, people can probably help you out more with suggestions/observations. Otherwise, all you are going to get is a list of where things could have been done overall better (too much CON and Toughness, not enough WIS/CHA, for example), but if these changes don't serve your purpose, then what's the point, right?

Also, now that you've got time since we may or may not see a level cap increase again in 2007, how do you envision your character developing through level 20?

[Vinos]

Blazer,
I can see why the OP would think about re-rolling. My main(darheel) is an absolute monster and while I'll never delete him I did re-roll him as a 32 point human. Given the lack of any kind of skill or level respec coupled with the fact that while Dar is powerful he's not all he could have been so re-rolling is something I am sure people think about. Heck I wish my wiz had a few more points in CON instead of Dex for that matter. Besides with no level increase since april and not another one till november(at best) what else are we do to?

[axemurderer]

well i did forget saves i am planning on adding those in next time i log onto him... but his will save is not very good and as of now i have no resistance item on

[axemurderer]

[QUOTE=Averroes;1303281]

You could gain 2 AC with a mithral tower. [QUOTE]

if i had something to trade for a mithral tower right now.. trust me id be all over it :p

[Blazer]

Blazer,
I can see why the OP would think about re-rolling. My main(darheel) is an absolute monster and while I'll never delete him I did re-roll him as a 32 point human. Given the lack of any kind of skill or level respec coupled with the fact that while Dar is powerful he's not all he could have been so re-rolling is something I am sure people think about. Heck I wish my wiz had a few more points in CON instead of Dex for that matter. Besides with no level increase since april and not another one till november(at best) what else are we do to?

Oh, I understand the desire to re-roll characters. Everyone wants to be as good as they can be. My point was, more often than not I see people re-roll simply for the sake of re-rolling. If the character is working well as it is, doing everything the same - save for an additional 4 build points - won't make a huge difference. Also, if he's not planning on deleting the original character, all the better. Often re-roll = delete + re-roll to keep the name.

Now, if he's serious about making some changes to the character, well then to that end...

OP, your CON is too high (yes, that's possible) and your WIS and CHA are too low. Take advantage of that Divine Grace and LOH and put some points into CHA. Also, as pointed out, you are not gaining a whole lot from the extra Toughness feats. Investing them elsewhere would serve you better. I'm also not really sold on Power Critical. With both Weapon Focus and Greater WF, coupled with a full BAB and 28 STR, I can't imagine you having difficulty confirming crits.

Riorik's build is good, but for having a 22 CHA and the Luck of Heroes feat, his saves are pretty low across the board. But, that's the trade-off since he pumped points into INT. The higher INT cost him in CON and WIS.

My elven fighter/paladin is sort of similar to Riorik's build, but where he built for AC (via INT and CE), I built for saves and HP (via CON and WIS). Riorik's highest save (23) is my lowest, for example. However, his AC is about 2x mine. ;)

So basically, pull some points off of CON and redistribute them into WIS and CHA. Only dip into Toughness once; diminishing returns and all that. Maybe ditch Power Critical for something better. If on paper your Will save is still lacking, look to take Iron Will for sure. Maybe even Luck of Heroes, too.

[axemurderer]

OP, what has happened that has made you think about re-rolling? Do you feel your character is lacking in some way? How do you envision your character developing through level 20? Well, the thing that has made me think about re-rolling is that when i run through PoTP i take near the same damage with or without armor on.... And in the future unless they add some new enhancements/feats for AC, there really isnt much to boost it. But the mobs BaB will continue to increase. AC has pretty much been nerfed in my opinion. As of now i envision my character to have just enough AC to get by, but mostly HP so that he can survive most everything.

[axemurderer]

Saves:
Reflex 16
fort 21
will 5

will sucks, i know

[Blazer]

Well, the thing that has made me think about re-rolling is that when i run through PoTP i take near the same damage with or without armor on.... And in the future unless they add some new enhancements/feats for AC, there really isnt much to boost it. But the mobs BaB will continue to increase. AC has pretty much been nerfed in my opinion. As of now i envision my character to have just enough AC to get by, but mostly HP so that he can survive most everything.

Heh, welcome to the jungle...er, Gianthold rather. You're experiencing the same thing the majority of the population has experienced. AC, barring some extreme cases, is more or less irrelevant for the average player when they get to the level we are currently. If we only played on normal, our 40-45ish AC would probably be acceptable, but given that so many people play on elite, the emphasis shifts from defense to offense - for most people anyway. There are still defensive pundits out there, however. But for the average person who doesn't build so heavily for defense, we're going to get hit and hit often. Having heavy fort and DR helps us not get hit so hard, but we're still going to get hit.

Oh, and you're going to take near the same damage with or without armor in PoTP anyway. It's mostly spells being thrown at you, so obviously AC won't help you there. It's not a place full of melee heavy mobs. Madstone, Crucible, Trial by Fire - more melee heavy so you can more accurately gauge the worth of your AC.

I think you could make a much better fighter/paladin hybrid if you actually invested in his WIS and CHA and pulled back on the CON. My elven fighter/paladin has 336/350 HP (unraged/raged) and it has served to be more than sufficient out in GH. If you're not going to build for AC, you need to build for saves and HP, but with better moderation in each, not super-high in one area and very low in another.

Good luck.

PS - your dwarf should be embarrassed that his Fort save is 9 points less than my elf's. :p

[Shade]

Your not any good.

too much hp, overkill mana sponge.
horrible saves
AC too low to matter (50minimum these days like u noticed in prison)
poor strength, 30 minimum these days to do reasonable dmg as ftr (you can get up to 40 on a ftr)

Imo u look like a tank build with no real tanking focus, just way too much hp. Pick what u like to do and specialize in that, going halfway doesnt work that great.

[Slayer918]

You can only get 40 str as a fighter if your a human, and have a +3 str tome from the reaver... or I guess you could count the madstone rage they cast on you in madstone (quadruple stacking rages :D)... dwarves are stuck at 38 which isn't too bad since THF 38 str is +21 compared to +22 since you wont hit that extra X1.5

[Averroes]

AC has pretty much been nerfed in my opinion. As of now i envision my character to have just enough AC to get by, but mostly HP so that he can survive most everything.

This is why you're feeling like AC has been nerfed -- because you haven't committed to it.

There's no such thing as "just enough AC to get by" -- you either build for it, or you don't. If you've built for it, you can situationally drop a few points when you decide you'd rather have something else, but if you haven't, there's nothing you can do about it.

And I tend to agree with Shade, that as a general rule you need to pick something and specialize in it or you wind up being mediocre at everything.

That being said, here's a character I play that has a similar level split, but focuses on defense rather than offense:
Drow 12f/2p (from right when drow were introduced, even)
30 str -- 16 base +3 level +3 enhance +2 tome +6 item
22 dex -- 16 base +2 enhance +4 item
12 con -- 6 base +1 tome +5 item
14 int -- base
10 wisdom -- +2 item
26 cha -- 17 base + 1 enhance +2 tome +6 item

AC:
10 base
13 mfp
9 mts
6 dex (FAM 3, FTM 2)
1 dodge
5 CE
3 deflection
1 aura
=48
3-5 natural (potion, ring, ranger)
1 haste
1 deflection (SOF from 12 cleric)
=53-55
3 aura (full pally)
2 recitation (can wand this)
=60 in ideal circumstances

Saves: 11/4/4 base + 1/6/0 attributes + 8/8/8 cha = 20/18/12
+0/0/2 iron will +1/1/1 luck of heroes = 21/19/15
+2/2/2 luck (reaver trinket) + 4/4/4 resistance = 27/25/21
+4/4/4 greater hero = 31/29/25

Hitpoints: 230 (1x toughness, fighter toughness 3)
Skills: jump self-buffs to 39, balance self-buffs to 25-ish, UMD self-buffs to 28 (raise dead on an 8, greater teleport on a 16, shield 10 wand on a 12), intimidate 40 base, 44 with greater hero.



In any case, try playing a character with a high AC before writing it off as nerfed. I assure you it still serves its purpose.

[Stonebread]

12 con -- 6 base +1 tome +5 item


A melee with 6 starting Con? You're crazy!

:)

[Riorik]

Riorik's build is good, but for having a 22 CHA and the Luck of Heroes feat, his saves are pretty low across the board. But, that's the trade-off since he pumped points into INT. The higher INT cost him in CON and WIS.

My elven fighter/paladin is sort of similar to Riorik's build, but where he built for AC (via INT and CE), I built for saves and HP (via CON and WIS). Riorik's highest save (23) is my lowest, for example. However, his AC is about 2x mine. ;)

So basically, pull some points off of CON and redistribute them into WIS and CHA. Only dip into Toughness once; diminishing returns and all that. Maybe ditch Power Critical for something better. If on paper your Will save is still lacking, look to take Iron Will for sure. Maybe even Luck of Heroes, too.

Yep - mine actually started as the classic intimitank - about 2 months after TRIP was changed, I learned I needed Toughness and swapped a few feats to get over to more DPS and general survivability.

The remnants of the intimitank would be the AC - I still have some upward mobility available including the possibility for adding in a False Life item (waiting on Jerky for 8 months). I'm really tempted to go for a Bloodstone OR a Kardin's Eye.

My experience on saves - up until recently, even my lowest will save has been sufficient for my needs. Now, I've seen some failures (usually when unbuffed) on rolls of 1-5 or so...which might be fixable with a Kardin's Eye, additional charisma and/or finding a way to slip in a Wisdom item.

Overall, my build is a second tier DPS melee - the character clearly stands out when playing with mediocre builds, and quite often, I'm the last character standing during wipes (or I'm the one that collects the stones). It's an extremely versatile build - but definately a hybrid of capabilities.

An option I do have (but do not normally do) is to drop my protection item for the spectacular optics (-2 AC) in favor of something else, such as a Wisdom item. I would have to say I'm very happy with the performance of the character - does exactly what it's supposed to do - I'm not the top DPS, however.

[Averroes]

A melee with 6 starting Con? You're crazy!

:)

Remember when drow first came out and con was a dump stat?

If I had it to do over again I probably would have gone 16/16/9/13/8/16 -- really, even with 12 modified con, I have more than enough hitpoints.

Being able to use greater teleport scrolls with no rogue or barb levels is worth dumpstatting con, I think. ;)

Every time I think about rerolling as a dwarf I remind myself that my UMD would take a huge hit...


And for what it's worth, Riorik's build is only giving up greater weapon spec and 1 strength modifier on the one-handed DPS front. My build has GWF, but lacks power attack (although I'll likely grab it at 16, or swap out SF: intimidate or iron will to get it before the level raise).

So the opportunity cost of achieving significant defense on a sword and board build isn't high -- you can still very nearly max out 1-handed offense. Of course, 1-handed offense is by its very nature 2nd tier offense -- there's no competing with 44 strength barbs with the two handed fighting feats, or with dual-wielding fighters with multiple ranks of haste boost.

[Blazer]

Being able to use greater teleport scrolls with no rogue or barb levels is worth dumpstatting con, I think. ;)

We all know you meant Bard and not Barb. :D

[Blazer]

My experience on saves - up until recently, even my lowest will save has been sufficient for my needs. Now, I've seen some failures (usually when unbuffed) on rolls of 1-5 or so...which might be fixable with a Kardin's Eye, additional charisma and/or finding a way to slip in a Wisdom item.

Based on this list:


Base Equipment:
Helm +5 Cha
Goggle Sandstorm Goggles
Body +5MFP
Bracer Chaosgarde
Ring1 Ring of Balance
Ring2 Ring of Protection+5
Belt Belt of the Mroranon
Cloak (Rotates thru Greater Resists, Jungle Cloak, Cape of Roc)
Trinket Mummified Bat
Necklace +4 CON
Gloves +5 Dex
Boots Golden Greaves
Shield Kundarak Delving Shield (for the +2 Resist sword & board)

Base Saves are only 23/20/16 - however, if I ever swapped in something better with my trinket slot...

If you can, pick up a +4 resist cloak to boost your saves by two over the Kundarak Warding Shield. And of course, if you can get lucky enough to land the Head of Good Fortune from the Reaver Raid, that's another +2 luck bonus to saves. That boosts you from 23/20/16 to 27/24/20 - much better. :) Not that you were looking for equipment advice, I know, but just my unsolicited suggestion.