Need help optimizing a 3 character party...

[Sneedd_Sneakily]

So I have recently returned to the game and two of my friends are considering trying DDO. I am wanting to put together a three person group that can handle as many quests as possible. Only one of the accounts (mine) will have access to drow but I don't have access to 32 point characters. These are the build combinations that I am thinking about but I want some input from seasoned players:

Group 1
Elf or Dwarf Fighter 14/Paladin 2-Longsword or Axe/Shield, Mark of Shadow (Displacement)
Elf Cleric 13/Paladin 3-Longsword/Shield, Sovereign Host
Drow Wizard 15/Rogue 1

Group 2
Elf Paladin 14/Fighter 2-Mark of Shadow (Displacement), Undying Court
Drow Rogue 14/Fighter 2-Dual Rapiers
Halfling Wizard 16-Dragonmark of Healing (all three) with enhancements for extra uses, Maximize/Empower/Extend

Group 3
Elf Paladin 14/Fighter 2-Mark of Shadow (Displacement), Sovereign Host, longswords
Drow Rogue 14/Fighter 2-Dual Rapiers
Dwarf Bard 15/Fighter 2-Warchanter, axes

What are your thoughts? Would a displacement heavy tank work well as the primary aggro holder? Do you think that we can get by with using bard/paladin healing in such a small group? Is cleric really a must if we are doing such a small group? The Rogue and bards will have high UMD for backup healing and Rez scrolls. Which group do you think will work the best?

[Cowdenicus]

If this were a static group...... and you plan on doing things low and slow (especially since they are new) I might go with the following.

WF Barbarian (16)
Drow Wizard 15 / Rogue 1
Elven ranger / bard (there are some intresting ranger bard builds coming out with the new ranger enhancements)

Your wizard can heal and buff the barbarian and do crowd control and direct damage when needed, your bard can obviously buff and with all of the new bow or melee enhancements for rangers + bard enhancements you can make a very mean secondary combatant, who can also wand heal the fleshier people (plus did I mention how many buffs would be on the barbarian), your barbarian would be able to play an almost traditional barbarian (although I would recommend highly him invsting in intimidate) and be your main source of dps.

just my thoughts but this three man set up would be able to do it all. dps, crowd control, survivability, buffing, healing, tanking. all of it. oh ad you can have 2 umd characters and a decent haggler in group too.

good luck and I will check back in here.

[Borror0]

I'd go with :

WF 15 Wizard/1 Rogue
WF 16 Barbarian
Warforgedchanter (http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=115924)

Wizard is CC/Rogue skills/Healing
Barbarian is DPS
Bard is DPS and backup healing/rezing.

[Sneedd_Sneakily]

Yeah, I don't think they are gonna want to be Warforged. Ranger/Bard you say? Hmm, interesting idea. What are your thoughts on the builds I suggested? Do you think any of them will work?

[GeneralDiomedes]

What I consider prereqs for making just about any quest run smoothly

Counter-buffs for just about any situation (between Cleric and Wizard you have them all)
Combat healing
Crowd control
Melee DPS
Situational caster DPS
Traps

So option 1 is your best bet. I wouldn't go 3 levels of Paladin with your battle cleric tho .. your Wizard can cast Greater Heroism for situations you need fear immunity (like Wiz King). In a 3 person group, I would concentrate more on CC than an aggro holding tank. The dragonmark Displacement is more situational due to limited uses.

[Borror0]

Then I'd say:

15 Wizard/ 1Rogue
Battle Cleric
THF Paladin

EDIT: Changed the whole make-up.. had another idea.

[Aesop]

I'd go with :

WF 15 Wizard/1 Rogue
WF 16 Barbarian
Warforgedchanter (http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=115924)

Wizard is CC/Rogue skills/Healing
Barbarian is DPS
Bard is DPS and backup healing/rezing.

I like this one myself

Aesop

[GeneralDiomedes]

Then I'd say:

Balanced Bard
Battle Cleric
15 Ranger/1 Rogue?

Undead quests are going to suck, as will elite Boss fights. I would favor a Sorc over a Bard for raw power any day. That group would have to pick their quests carefully.

[Borror0]

Undead quests are going to suck, as will elite Boss fights. I would favor a Sorc over a Bard for raw power any day. That group would have to pick their quests carefully.

Changed everything before I saw your reply, hehe

[GeneralDiomedes]

Changed everything before I saw your reply, hehe

Yeah, in a 4 person group I would take a Bard any day .. 3 person as only high DC caster is probably pushing it.

[Aspenor]

Warforged Barbarian, Warforged Sorceror and Warforged Battlecleric :)

[Maldavenous]

Funny this, my roomie and I just started playing again and we're going to be playing with a friend to make a 3 character party we'll be playing in. Right now my roomie is a WF Sorcerer handling CC and Heals and I'm a WF Barb/Rogue handling Tanking and Melee DPS. We'll have to see what our friend does. As of right now the only rule we have is that we're all going to play WF :)

[tc12]

Then I'd say:
15 Wizard/ 1Rogue
Battle Cleric
THF Paladin


With Drow unlocked for one of the characters, it'd have to be the Wiz/Rogue. Just too hard to pass on Drow for that one, given you can start INT and DEX at 16 or more for 2 less build pts than even any 32 pt races. So since you don't have 32 unlocked, this is way too many extra starting stat points to pass on I'd say. He'd of course be the squishiest of the 3 and have to be careful with agro, but since both others have healing for him he should be ok. Goes well too with a CC focus intead of trying to be a nuker, CC casters don't get into much agro problem.

Dwarf for the Battle Cleric as this really is a full-time melee char too. Might splash 1 F level to get a DWA, feat and tower when going defensive, but class-pure is solid too. (Debated on other threads already, let's just call this one up to your personal preference.)

WF for the Pally does sound good in a 3-man since he'd be immune to everything and could get 3-way healing (self, cleric and wiz), since at the worst of times he might need all 3 (elite / bosses). I agree he needs to be 2H for the DPS, and that means a lot of healing. In that light I'm also wondering if the Pally should be class-pure or splash something for some more SP to be a better secondary healer. I have a guildie that's Pal11/Cl3 and what this gives him is 700 SP, making him a strong secondary healer. I don't know about 3 levels here, but one level by 5th could really help. At high levels Pal saves are fine on thier own, but the additional +2 Will (and +1 Fort) early from a single Cl level early could be really nice, among the other benefits.

Just some thoughts...

[legonares]

16 drow sorc
16 WF wizard
12/2/2 human/drow bard/barb/rogue
all of these charcters are self sufficent you will have the accurate amount of DPS in a high level group with only 3 of you due to the sorc and wizard... the bard/barb/rogue will make up for the melee types with buffs and melee action, all 3 of them dont worry about ac... what is ac anyways?

[Xyfiel]

16 Warforged Sorceror
16 Warforged Sorceror
2Rogue/6Bard/8Fighter Warforged

2 self healing Sorcs only 1 dc from max can devastate most quests, especially if they have someone taking aggro, which the fighter does with intimidate.

The fighter takes 2 rogue for evasion and trap skills, 6 bard for spellsinger, fascinates, skill points for rogue skills, and the rest fighter for dps/defense feats.

[Geonis]

WF for the Pally does sound good in a 3-man since he'd be immune to everything and could get 3-way healing (self, cleric and wiz), since at the worst of times he might need all 3 (elite / bosses). I agree he needs to be 2H for the DPS, and that means a lot of healing. In that light I'm also wondering if the Pally should be class-pure or splash something for some more SP to be a better secondary healer. I have a guildie that's Pal11/Cl3 and what this gives him is 700 SP, making him a strong secondary healer. I don't know about 3 levels here, but one level by 5th could really help. At high levels Pal saves are fine on thier own, but the additional +2 Will (and +1 Fort) early from a single Cl level early could be really nice, among the other benefits.

Just some thoughts...

I like this line of thinking, but change Cleric to Sorceror.

You need a decent Cha anyway to get use out of the Paladin Grace ability, and take extend feat.

This should give very good SP, ability to wand Repair, a good debuff for boss fights (Ray of Enfeeblement), and Shield (ups AC by 4 while keeping DPS of a THF). You could even not take Extend, and only use shield in case of emergency, but the extend also helps with Pally spells (Divine Favor).

[Thrudh]

My two friends and I have done 90% of the quests with just the three of us....

11/3 Bard Rogue
14 Cleric
14 Barbarian

We really really missed having a wizard/sorceror in the higher levels :)

But properly using fascinate can make a HUGE HUGE difference in most quests...

We've done really well...

Basically, you want someone multi-classed with rogue... probably bard/rogue or wizard/rogue...

You'll want a battle cleric (our cleric is more of a healer cleric... it was his first character... a 13/1 cleric/paladin or cleric/fighter would be more useful for a small group)

And then a tank (fighter or paladin or barbarian)

[Shade]

Lvl16 Dwarf Barbarian - max dps to handle super strong bosses with high regen
Lvl16 Human Cleric - could be elf if you really want but humans much stronger and better for small groups as he can melee a little better
Lvl15/1 Drow Wizard/Rogue - Could alternatively be a sorcerer - still need a decent int but thats doable - my pure sorc has 22 int.

That nets you max dps, max healing dps, good CC and rogue skills. I don't think a single paladin can handle many of the high level bosses in DDO, at least not nearly as well as a barbarian can.