new drow player

[Kotter]

so 31 points from earning my drow woot woot... thinking about starting a wizard/fighter kinda based off the orig elf class/race in the orig d*d.
Think this is viable? just picture this elf with shield and long sword shooting off spells as needed laying waiste to the enemy in defence of my guild. think I will be disapointed?

so far the toon that I have got the farthest with is my warrior who is fifth level and a lot of fun..

alt thinking ranger/wizard

help and hugs

Drow in kansas city

[Varr]

If you are getting close to unlocking drow for the first time Im taking this is early on in you DDO playtime. I think you will find as you level advance your drow caster fighter either you will have to low an ac and hit point total in a 8/8 fighter/wizard type of split or you will eventually find you never melee in a 14/2 wizard/fighter type of split due to your caster being much more potent. If I might suggest you consider for a drow a 14/2 Wizard/Rogue. Level 1 rogue then 7 or more levels of caster and at some point the second level of rogue. This is a very attractive combo for drow and as your first bigger toon will let you really participate in alot of aspects of the game. Also suggest that you focus your melee attacks as more of a ranged base. Damage lower level and paralysing is fun at higher levels. Can do some damage, gets evasion, will be able to do 95% of all the rogueing your parties needs, and will cast very well for buffs/croud control/ and damage. Warforged 32 pters tend to be a tad better for the wizard/fighter combo in that they can self heal and over come the ac/hit point short comings better.

[Kotter]

thanks for the advice and taking the time out to post it. very friendly of you and thanks again.

[wolfy42]

There is a big post on the general board about this right now. It's called something like "If your bored with the grind then you need to try THIS" and breaks down many different melee mage builds.

Drow make decent melee mages especially if you go the finess route since you get +dex and +int/cha.

"most" melee mages do not try to keep their primary casting stat maxed and instead concentrate on their primary damage/ab bonus stat).

For a Drow you might want to try a finesse based TWF build......maybe combine ranger with wizard levels.

You need 5 wizard lvls minimum to get your most important buffs (displacement and haste).

11 ranger lvls gives you greater TWF for free along with improved precise shot.

It's a great melee/mage combo that has both short term and long term potential.

Finesse builds though require good weapons to work.....and are more long term. You might want to go with a different build based on strength for a wiz fighter early on. Even without 32 point builds you can make them quite well (I have a pure lvl 15 WF wizard who melees quite well).

I personally like a barbarian 1/rogue 2/wizard 13 WF build since you can self heal, boost your strength up extremely high, boost your attack speed up to the max (rogue attack speed + haste) at a very low lvl, self haste/displacement, use Wall of Fire, fire shield...and still get pretty much every useful spell in the game.

You have tons of mana with the build as well, decent hp (nab toughness as a feat and then take barbarian toughness 1....snag 2 con enhancements from WF etc).

Starting stats with a 28 point build:

Str 18 (16)
Dex 08 (00) (this is easily buffed to 12 which is all you need)
Con 16 (06)
Int 14 (06)
wis/cha 06 (00)

I suggest going with adamantium armor at the early lvls....you'll be able to keep a high enough AC that way to walk through most quests. The WF enhancements give you some very nice DR until you get Stoneskin which is very important with your low health for melee fights. The WF enhancements reduce your spell failure % and you can quickly get 5% and then 10% arcane docents to switch to before casting spells (which are mostly buffs). Switching docents is instant btw.

Also many of your spells (blur/masters touch etc) have no somatic component so there is no spell failure chance anyway.

Add all level up stats to strength as you go. At lvl 1 this means with bulls strength (30 min buff) you have a 22 running strength constantly. You have shield spell at lvl 1 so can run with a 2 handed weapon and can obliterate enemies you come across (many fighters are using weapon/shield so they do less then half your dmg at this point).

Anyway read that thread I mentioned it's got plenty of good info!!

[FluffyCalico]

Drow melee caster is the jack of all trades or the master of none. Pay attention to the 2nd half of that. :D