Offensive casting-armor class cleric/monk

[Nomical]

This is Fanatik. I have had this character for a while, but I've had a few people ask about the build, so here it is.

This is a flexible build that can accomodate a range of goals: Offensive casting with 38-40 wis at current cap, up to high 70s AC with raid party buffs. Evaision and strong saves.

Original build by Rachna, I've done quite a bit of tailoring and updating. I have put a lot of time into planning, playing and gearing this character seriously and I love her.

Taking the time to gear this character is what really lets it shine on the upper ends, but it's fun all the way up. You'll see my gear suggestions below.

In my original build post, everything was designed to defend the build and justify the splash to critics. How times have changed! I took 2 monk for access to evasion, more mobility in general, high armor class, 2 free feats, and +2 wisdom from water stance.

For the most part, this is a casting and healing cleric built for survivability and fun(good AC and can withstand those delayed blast fireballs in the face).

Right now, I use weapon finesse and two weapon fighting to play with vorpal kamas to help save mana and make play more varied. Anyone else could switch out the feats for dodge, insightful reflexes, heighten, spell focus, or mental toughness. I'm still playing with the options.

I chose halfling because it fit the themes of the build (they look crazy crouching in robes), they have racial dex and +1 ac bonus, and the potential for taking enhancements for flanking and saves.

Spell penetration is important to this build. Many people who play this level splash show off their spell DCs but play worse than most other clerics because they skip the feats and enhancements to bypass SR.

The build has been super fun to play. I used to get very weird looks, but now it is considered normal.


Fanatik
Level 16 Lawful Good Halfling Female
(2 Monk / 14 Cleric)
Current stats:
Hit Points: 337 (this is with gfl, 6 con item, and 10 hp shroud item. Crafting a full hp item and squeezing in minos legens would get hp close to 400.)
Spell Points: 1414 (w/ ring of thelis, 150 exceptional from shroud, no mental toughness)

Starting Feat/Enhancement:
Abilities Base Stats Modified Stats
(32 Point) (Level 1) (Level 16)
Strength 9 11 (16)
Dexterity 16 20 (26)
Constitution 14 16 (22)
Intelligence 9 10 (16) - includes stormreaver napkin
Wisdom 18 27 (38) - with +3 wis shroud kama and water stance. A +3 tome or litany of the dead will = 40 wis when the cap goes up.
Charisma 8 8 (14) - swap on +6 cha item when shrining for DVs

Saves:
-Functional armor class gear (+3 item, haste, resistance ritual, gh, and recitation)

30 fort
28 reflex
37 will

-Standard daily gear (my preference) (see below):
31 fort
31 reflex
39 will

Tomes Used
+2 Tome of Strength used at level 3
+1 Tome of Intelligence used at level 3
+2 Tome of Wisdom used at level 4
+2 Tome of Dexterity used at level 6
+2 Tome of Constitution used at level 16

Skills:
Max concentration, high jump and balance, some tumble. An alternative build could raise UMD to the cross-class cap and could eventually achieve about 50% success on shield 10 wands.

Current feats:
extend spell
maximize spell
quicken spell
spell penetration
greater spell penetration
monk: weapon finesse
monk: toughness
two weapon fighting - this is a swap feat. I've been playing with it since shroud. Other options are heighten, mental toughness, or spell focus: necromancy (at current cap, a free 'heighten' for this build's destruction)


Armor Class gear breakdown:
10 base
1 size halfling
4 icy raiments
1 alchemical robe bonus
8 dex bonus
14 wisdom bonus
7 armored bracers
5 protection item
4 insight shroud kama
3 dodge chattering ring
1 centered bonus
= 58 in front of beholders

Self-buffed:
1 haste
3 barkskin potion
2 recitation
= 64 standard self-buffed
4 shield - clickie/wf titan cookie
= 68 self-buffed for short intervals

Possible improvements:
1 from +8 armored bracers (RR halfling)
1 dodge feat
= 70 AC solo max AC


Party buffs
2 level 12 ranger
5 level 15 paladin aura
4 bard song
Hypothetical AC max: 81


Functional armor class gear:

Robes - Icy raiments (4 dodge, 3 resist)
Bracers - +7 armored bracers (+8 rr: halfling an improvement if you have them)
Goggles - (Mineral II) (10 hp, +150 exceptional mana, heavy fort, protection +5, +2 cha skils, +3 wis skills, +1 con skill). Alchemical resistance ritual.
Helm - Beacon of Tirra (Superior Devotion VI - turn-in for completing Abbott)
Necklace - Lorrik's Necklace
Trinket - Bat, sometimes dusk heart swap for 10% blur when w/o caster (Head of good fortune, litany)
Cloak - Stormreaver's napkin
Gloves - 6 dex
Boots - Striding, swap for Surefooted Boots (20% striding, +10 balance)
Belt - Belt of Brute Strength (+6 str, Greater false life)
Ring 1 - 6 con
Ring 2 - Chattering ring
Kama - pos/earth/air kama: 6 cha/1 wis/4 insight (stoneskin 2x)
Kama - Min 2 kama: holy, +3 wisdom, transmuting, keen, slicing
Swap Kama - Superior Potency 6 Kama (swap for casting blade barrier, damage spells)




Daily gear:
This build is extremely flexible. My main goals are excellent casting (high wis and spell pen), high ac, and full healing ability. I can still melee, but that's not what I spec for when there's a trade-off. If you wanted more melee power, you could drop greater spell pen and take improved twf and greater twf at level 18. This gear

Robes:
Dragontouched shroud: +5 resist, spell pen 8, 4 insight AC
Swap - Blue dragonscale robe: Greater lightning resist, spell pen 7, greater arcane lore
Bracers: Chaosguardes / Bracers of glacier swap for 50 mana
Goggles: Min II - same as above (10 hp, +150 exceptional mana, heavy fort, protection +5). Alchemical resistance ritual.
Helm: Superior Devotion VI from Abbot
Necklace: 6 con
Cloak: Stormreaver's Napkin - cha/cloak of the roc swap
Trinket: Litany of the Dead
Gloves: 6 dex
Belt: Belt of brute strength
Boots: Concordant Opposition - Wiz VI / fear and poison immunity / 6 wisdom / superior healing lore
Ring: Chattering Ring
Ring: 30% striding
Kama: Superior potency VI
Kama: Min II holy, +3 wis
Kama: Lightning strike: Holy +3 dex


Pros - gets all the essentials in limited swaps. Can swap in torq (take off chattering ring, put on con ring, put on torc)
Cons - Can't easily accommodate raid gloves like bramble casters or glacier.

Stats in this armor (+2 tomes):
Strength 18
Dexterity 30
Constitution 23
Intelligence 17
Wisdom 39 - +3 tome = 40
Charisma 17

AC in this armor:
10 base
1 size halfling
6 armor
1 alchemical robe bonus
10 dex bonus
14 wisdom bonus
5 protection item
4 dragontouched
2 chaosguardes
3 chattering ring
1 centered bonus
=56 in front of a beholder

Self-buffed:
2 recitation
3 barkskin
1 haste
=62 self-buffed
4 shield clickies or wf titan cookies (someone rolling this build now could probably add enough UMD for a shield 10 wand)
=66 shorter-duration self-buffed

Raid parties:
2 barkskin
5 paladin
4 bard song
=Max ac: 77 (in this armor at current cap)



Level progression:

Level 1 (Cleric)
Skill: Concentration (+4)
Feat: (Selected) Extend Spell

Level 2 (Cleric)
Skill: Concentration (+1)

Level 3 (Cleric)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Two weapon fighting

Level 4 (Monk)
Ability Raise: WIS
Skill: Jump (+3)
Skill: Tumble (+1)
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Weapon Finesse

Level 5 (Cleric)
Skill: Concentration (+2)

Level 6 (Cleric)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Tumble (+0.5)
Feat: (Selected) Maximize Spell

Level 7 (Cleric)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Tumble (+0.5)

Level 8 (Cleric)
Ability Raise: WIS
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Jump (+0.5)

Level 9 (Cleric)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Jump (+0.5)
Feat: (Selected) Quicken Spell

Level 10 (Cleric)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Tumble (+0.5)

Level 11 (Cleric)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Tumble (+0.5)

Level 12 (Cleric)
Ability Raise: WIS
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Jump (+0.5)
Feat: (Selected) Spell Penetration

Level 13 (Monk) <--waited until bb for 2nd monk level
Skill: Jump (+2)
Skill: Tumble (+2)
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Toughness

Level 14 (Cleric)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Jump (+0.5)

Level 15 (Cleric)
Skill: Concentration (+2)
Feat: (Selected) Greater Spell Penetration

Level 16 (Cleric)
Ability Raise: WIS
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Tumble (+0.5)

Enhancements
Here are the enhancements that add to the stats I've quoted. I don't remember exactly what else I have and don't feel like looking it up. You'll of course add the cleric healing, wand mastery, etc. lines.

Enhancement: Halfling Dexterity I
Enhancement: Halfling Dexterity II
Enhancement: Way of the Patient Tortiose I
Enhancement: Disciple of Puddles
Enhancement: Cleric Spell Penetration I
Enhancement: Cleric Spell Penetration II
Enhancement: Cleric Spell Penetration III
Enhancement: Cleric Energy of the Zealot I
Enhancement: Cleric Energy of the Zealot II
Enhancement: Cleric Energy of the Zealot III
Enhancement: Cleric Energy of the Zealot IV
Enhancement: Cleric Wisdom I
Enhancement: Cleric Wisdom II
Enhancement: Cleric Wisdom III
Enhancement: Racial Toughness I
Enhancement: Racial Toughness II

[Anthios888]

The only question is do you want to give up greater spell penetration for greater two weapon fighting! We'll see what mod 9 has in store.

[Comfortably]

Looks great, although I'd really like to see your cleric that dual weilds khopeshs :)

[Jesster]

If you had to rebuild it... any thought to going 3 monk now since you could self buff for 25% sp reductions? You'd still have lvl 9 cleric spells. I'm building one now and before I add that third level of monk in I wanted to ask your opinion.

[phalaeo]

Some feedback on this build-

I'm enjoying it greatly, but I have a few things for people to consider-

(Bear in mind, I'm no expert on builds and this is just from my experience in game with a TR'ed Cleric)

1) STR might be too low- I'm having problems carrying stuff and staying centered even after eating a +2 STR tome at level 7 and wearing the highest level STR item I can for my level (+4). I can't even loot a piece of Full Plate in the middle of a quest series- even though the loot at this level is craptastic, it's really annoying to have to pass up on vendorable loot in a long quest line like CO6.

2) Really do hold off on the 2nd Monk level until you get BBarrier. I figured that because I was running with a static group of TR'ed toons that Evasion would be good for farming XP on N-N-N-H-E, but I wish I would have held off. It's not bad seeing those blue hexagon saves above my head when flame striked on Elite, but I'm suffering in keeping up with heals as I'm two levels behind- I should have mass cures by now if I were full Cleric, but the splash is making me wait.

3) I took TWF and Weap finesse as feats- I'm totally getting rid of them. IMO, this build will really start to blossom at end game and by then, I won't be doing much toe to toe fighting anyways. You may find differently, just my 2 cents.

[JOTMON]

I have Husurdaddy on Argonessan a Cleric17/Monk2/Sorc1.
very similar build, can be seen on myddo.

http://my.ddo.com/character/argonnessen/husurdaddy/

I started with 12str 16dex and 16wis on a 32 point build, ate +2 tomes across the board as I came across them.

Still have not got Torc or chattering ring(recently lost a roll to a guildie.. curse you Rhayak..) and no +3 or +4 tomes yet(even after 20 TOD runs) but am still working on it. Standing unbuffed 58AC selfbuff to 69.
Have loaded a lot of good gear on him, and have fooled myself into believeing I have inspired some friends to add evasion to their clerics after running DQ and taking no damage from the blades. Epic and Amarath quests changed a lot of things for me. I still get chewed up. I found I rely heavily on quicken and breaking 400hp is definitely helpful.

I struggled at levels 8-13ish until I got BB and some shroud gear after that he hit his sweet spot and is way more fun to play.

Took expanded crit-blunt because I had the dreamsplitter for fun but found melee is useless at high level compared to spell damage. (next mod/patch is going to be the killing blow and ruin the Dreamsplitter for me as well)
Too expensive to feat change, so will see what GR/LR have to offer.

Sorc level is great for wand usage shield/stoneskin/blur, as I had no UMD to speak of.

I would consider doing an alternative build with 17Cleric/2Rogue/1Monk for UMD/traps and +1 class dex vs losing a feat. Possibly FS for a few more SP but the Spell level reduction and DV/DH from cleric is a tough trade off for me.

[CrankVulcan]

Looks great, although I'd really like to see your cleric that dual weilds khopeshs :)

this build is a finesse build.......and kopeshes are not finessable. Also he would become unbalanced which would drop his ac and keep him from doin wind stance

[googatron]

If you had to rebuild it... any thought to going 3 monk now since you could self buff for 25% sp reductions? You'd still have lvl 9 cleric spells. I'm building one now and before I add that third level of monk in I wanted to ask your opinion.

I'm likely to TR my cleric TRx2 to this build (clr17mnk3) To gain access to fists of light and the above mentioned SP reduction. Honestly with everything you gain I dont see why not, evasion, SP reduction, High AC better saves, free feats and higher WIZ, you only lose out on SP which is mitigated through the SP reduction, and one spell pen feat.

Free healing in the form of RS burst, Aura & Fists of life + finisher. -Sp reduction for when you CC and are forced to spot heal in sticky situations. higher Wis means better DC's, slightly lower Spell pen means slightly worse CC ability, but CF and BB dont need Spell pen anyway :P

[Dragavon]

:eek:

Multiclassing an offensive caster is ALWAYS wrong. You need 20 levels in your primary class in the endgame.

[Jiipster]

:eek:

Multiclassing an offensive caster is ALWAYS wrong. You need 20 levels in your primary class in the endgame.

Why?

[Dragavon]

Because for offensive casting you need your Spell Penetration and DC to be as high as possible. Even splashing one level on a caster is noticeable in lvl 20 quests.

[Calebro]

Because for offensive casting you need your Spell Penetration and DC to be as high as possible. Even splashing one level on a caster is noticeable in lvl 20 quests.

Yes, but there are feats (regular & pl) AP, items, etc.
As long as you get 9th level spells you have plenty of actual caster levels that you can supplement. To say that you HAVE to be pure to cast offensively is pure rubbish.

[Dragavon]

Yes, but there are feats (regular & pl) AP, items, etc.
As long as you get 9th level spells you have plenty of actual caster levels that you can supplement. To say that you HAVE to be pure to cast offensively is pure rubbish.

We dont agree then :)

My wiz has one level bard, which seemed to be a good idea at the time, and often fail to land spells because of a failed SP roll. Going to give him a lesser heart of wood +1 to get rid of that bard level as soon as he gets off the ship from Urup :D

[rimble]

My wiz has one level bard, which seemed to be a good idea at the time, and often fail to land spells because of a failed SP roll. Going to give him a lesser heart of wood +1 to get rid of that bard level as soon as he gets off the ship from Urup :D

Yeah, that was a horrible idea. Doesn't hold much bearing on this build though.

[Dragavon]

Was good when the cap was 16 :)

Spell penetration was not so much an issue in Vale, and having silly high UMD was great :D

Sucked donkey balls in Amrath quests though :D

[googatron]

:eek:

Multiclassing an offensive caster is ALWAYS wrong. You need 20 levels in your primary class in the endgame.

Unfortunatly this is wrong, The DC's on this build with max wis are actualy better than a pure cleric... due to water stances +2 wis and saves boost. and if you take the spell pen feats your actualy equal on spell pen(minus caster levels of corse)... Even with 3 levels in monk your not sacrificing much.

[Dragavon]

My opinion on this is that your spell penetration can never be too high if you want to land your spells. I have no experience playing a high level divine caster, but for an arcane then anything that lowers your SP rolls is bad imo. Very bad.

You guys probably know what you are talking about though, so I'll take your word that it doesnt hurt a divine caster the same way :)

[blitzschlag]

My opinion on this is that your spell penetration can never be too high if you want to land your spells. I have no experience playing a high level divine caster, but for an arcane then anything that lowers your SP rolls is bad imo. Very bad.

You guys probably know what you are talking about though, so I'll take your word that it doesnt hurt a divine caster the same way :)

well, two monk is possibly the only excuse to give up the cleric capstone for.
you can gain spellpenetration through some wizard pastlifes, items, feats and enhancements.

about your other post: if your wizard fails often the +1 from a lesser reincarnate won't fix that.