Spacing Classes question

[argentstar]

I'm a fairly new DDO player, although I have played PnP D&D since 1975 (yes, I'm an old fogy!). I have started a few characters and actually got one to level 10 but have a question about why certain things are done in builds.

I have been perusing this forum a lot, looking for a build that will match me and my style of play. 2 things about many of the posted builds stand out to me. The first is that many, if not most, use the 18/1/1 muticlass formula. This I can understand. However many of these builds space the different classes apart. For instance the "Exploiter" ranger build starts with a level of rogue then waits until level 13 to take the monk level. I don't understand this. Why not take all 3 classes as soon as possible in order to enjoy their benefits longer? Does it really make a difference?

[hydra_ex]

1 rogue lvl first is best; since you get 4*(8+INT) skill points at first level, as well as being able to max out UMD. The benefits of that 1 monk lvl (AC) are not really noticeable until you hit higher levels, when you can start to find enough gear to put into your WIS, and that boost in AC matters. (Before that any character can put up an half-decent AC when needed)

Sometimes, levels alternate is rogue splashes to max out rogue skills; really its about taking the level when it seems appropriate. It rarely has an impact on endgame, however.

[Calebro]

And sometimes there are other reasons. Maybe a BaB needs to be met to fit a feat in at level 9 instead of waiting until lvl 12 to get in, and changing the order of the leveling can accomplish this.
Each build is different, and each has it's own reasoning for the progression.

[argentstar]

Thanks for your prompt reply.

[malicia]

I'm a fairly new DDO player, although I have played PnP D&D since 1975 (yes, I'm an old fogy!). I have started a few characters and actually got one to level 10 but have a question about why certain things are done in builds.

I have been perusing this forum a lot, looking for a build that will match me and my style of play. 2 things about many of the posted builds stand out to me. The first is that many, if not most, use the 18/1/1 muticlass formula. This I can understand. However many of these builds space the different classes apart. For instance the "Exploiter" ranger build starts with a level of rogue then waits until level 13 to take the monk level. I don't understand this. Why not take all 3 classes as soon as possible in order to enjoy their benefits longer? Does it really make a difference?

Sometimes it can be important to space out levels. For example, if you are taking 2 levels of rogue on a class that has few skill points at level up, it can pay to spread the rogue levels out to 1 at creation for the extra skill points, then 1 later on, to max out a skill (for example UMD) that you would not normally have enough skill points to keep maxxed. If you were to take the 2 rogue levels back to back youd only be able to put 1 skill point in UMD at the second level, but if you were to take it at 10th for example, youd be able to put all your rogue skill points into the UMD skill.

Another reason would be prestige enhancements and class granted automatically feats, and spell progression. When multiclassing a wizard with a rogue for example, it will be considered more beneficial to wait until you get the haste or firewall spell loaded before you take the second rogue level, as they are a massive boon to clearing out the low level quests and waiting that extra level for them is a hassle.

Rangers get a whole lot of feats granted by default, and it may be more beneficial to the levelling process if you shoehorn in Tempest and all its prereqs before you take anything else. I think the poster above nailed it for that multiclass, some feats such as Improved Critical have a BAB prereq, so waiting until your toon has this BAB then taking the extra feat will be more beneficial than taking that extra feat earlier on and being unable to take the feat due to BAB restrictions.