Oversized Two Weapon Fighting Battle Cleric?

[drothe]

I will be main healer for a group friends who will be playing casually (one night a week - all first time players) and I would like to create a dwarf dual wielding dwarven axes battle cleric. I've read every battle cleric build I can find and have not found anything like this - which leads me to believe it *may* be a very bad idea. Bear in mind that I'm not interested in making the most optimized toon possible - just don't want to make something so gimped it's not viable for grouping with others should I level towards the cap...

My questions are:
1. Is there some downside to doing this I'm not seeing as a newb (other than lack of AC).
2. Assuming it is viable what starting stats would be recommended?

I was thinking either:
STR 16 14
DEX 15 15
CON 10 14
INT 8 8
WIS 16 16
CHA 6 6

Thanks to everyone who takes the time to share their insight on the forums. It is much appreciated!

[drothe]

Was planning to splash something for martial proficiencies - leaning towards fighter for the feats. Also not sure what would be optimal number of levels to splash and when to do so....Thoughts?

[Uwdlk2no]

I think this may be what you're looking for in terms of a build...I just started trying it out myself.

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?p=1583004#post1583004

Later,

[Angelus_dead]

My questions are:
1. Is there some downside to doing this I'm not seeing as a newb (other than lack of AC).
2. Assuming it is viable what starting stats would be recommended?
It's viable, but the serious downside is that the cost in feats and stats isn't highly worth it.

First off, OTWF doesn't help much. The offhand dwarf ax isn't a lot better than either (a) offhand handaxe or (b) offhand dwarf ax + attack penalty.

But the cost in other feats is high as well. A dwarf cleric20 has 7 feat slots, and you'd be looking at having TWF, ITWF, GTWF, PA, Imp Crit, Extend, and Quicken. That doesn't leave room for Max, Emp, Emp Heal, Toughness, and that kind of thing. (You'd probably take 1-2 fighter levels for 1-2 more feats, but that cuts into spellcasting)

Also the cost in stats is tough; getting to 17 dex on a dwarf is harsh, especially assuming that you probably don't have a bunch of tomes laying about. If I did a TWF cleric it would be elf or halfling, to get the racial dex benefit in there. Those races also have better DPS, because the elf's rapier or scimitar is superior to a dwarf axe, and halfling guile is just excellent.

You can also look at the cost of magic items: TWF guys need twice the weapons of THF guys, so if you were a little less into combat you could be TWF and save all that effort.

But with all that said, the idea will work alright.

[jsaving]

The "sacred axe" build's suggested starting stats of 14/16/16/8/16/6 are reasonable if you have the 32-point option available. For 28 I would suggest 15/15/16/8/14/6 or maybe 14/15/16/10/14/6 if you're interested in balance as well as concentration.

[drothe]

Thanks for the help guys. Gonna reevaluate and get this guy built.