Help with fun melee Dwarf

[Spong101]

Hi all,

I posted in the Dwarf subforum but it seems a bit quiet over there so I thought maybe I would have more luck in the Builds section.

I've been playing for a few weeks now on and off and I've got a couple of Dwarf fighters on the go but I'm not really happy with either of them. I think the problem is I don't really know what I'm doing, I've messed around with the DDO character generator utility but generally I'm a bit overwhelmed by the sheer scope of making a character that can do well and isn't gimped.

I started playing the game with a group of friends, the idea being that we all meet up one night a week to do a dungeon crawl PnP style, so consequently we each have one char reserved for that dedicated one night a week group play and another that is to play whenever the mood takes. In my case both my chars are the same as I do love my close quarters and Dwarfs obviously rule.

I get a bit put off by reading some of the threads on the forums about how certain play styles are less viable. The talk about how AC isn't really that useful later on compared with massive amounts of HP makes me think none of my ideas are feasible.

I originally wanted to create a melee Dwarf who has high dex for avoiding getting hit, using medium armour with high dex bonus and also focusing on str for landing hits and dealing damage. So essentially an evasion build (perhaps splash rogue?) but with str based attacks (not a finesse fighter attack-wise).

I was also considering some rogue levels because our weekly group doesn't contain a rogue and we frequently come up against traps, locks or blatant secret doors we can't deal with so it would be useful from that perspective.

I'm not sure whether to go with axes or hammers and whether to go 2h or TWF. If TWF I thought about using DWA and a Kukri in the offhand. I also read that in the next update DWA (and b*stard sword) will do more dmg with a shield and count as 2h for purposes of damage and glancing blows so I wondered whether to build in anticipation of that change. I also think its a bit of a shame dwarfs don't get a choice to take some kind of dwarven hammer enhancement instead of the dwarven axe enhancement as they're both equally dwarfy weapons in my mind but with only the axe enhance available if I think of taking hammers I just think of the extra damage I'm missing out on.

I suppose ideally I would like adequate AC and HP but it seems like you have to pick one or the other?

Its a bit of a tricky one because on the one hand I want a character that is fun to play and effective in terms of game mechanics, but on the other hand I'm not necessarily after something that is precisely honed to perfection at the cost of everything else as I do enjoy flavour builds, RP and co-op group play, so at some point I have to balance it out.

I play mainly FTP, though I don't object to spending a bit here and there (I'm on a premium account now because I bought another character slot) but I don't want to go nuts with the P2P.

Having read some interesting stuff about evasion and light armour I'm now thinking of perhaps going for a barbarian/rogue or fighter/rogue (not sure on the level split) with light armour and greataxe? Kind of thinking the Dwarfy take on Conan here.

Can you get sneak attacks with 2h weapons?

Anyway, my mind has turned to goo at trying to think of the right build for me.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks to anyone who replies.

[Mangloid]

Welcome to DDO. There are tons of build ideas on here that could fit what you want to do, all you need to do is spend some time searching through the threads.

As far as you wanting a 18barb/2rogue or 18 ftr/2rogue goes:
1) you won't have enough skill points per level to even think about being able to search, find, and disable traps along with opening locks.
2) For evasion you MUST either wear cloth or light armor. You CAN NOT wear medium or heavy and have evasion work.

Try this build http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=198820
it will do most of what you are looking for.

[unbongwah]

Can you get sneak attacks with 2h weapons?
You can on your primary target, but not on glancing blows.

Try this build http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=198820
I'm guessing the OP doesn't have Warforged or 32-pt builds yet. Also, it looks like BRC only gets Intimidate and UMD as skills; sounds like the OP also wants trap skills.

[Gnorbert]

that's a strong build but not really friendly to new players.

I understand what you want to do with your fighter because it is very similar to what my first character was. I leveled to 10 as a pure fighter using sword and shield try to have a good AC but by the time I got to 10 I realized that I just wasn't as beneficial to the party as other characters who focused more on damage. I was fairly well balanced but without really good gear my AC wasn't great. My damage wasn't great either as I had neither TWF or THF and I had no intimidate so no other way to get the aggro.

All of that aside it was still a fun character to play and was good learning experience.

I think you should not be too worried about your first character. Don't get too caught up in the forum discussions about "viability" because most of the time those threads consider anything that is not "optimal" to simply be not "viable". This just insn't true. You can make a fun, useable character that may not be optimal but still contributes to the party.

Yes, sneak attack will work with two handed weapons. But as the fighter of your group you will be trying to have the monsters attention most of the time. If that's the case you won't get many sneak attack opportunities.

a 2 rogue/ 18 fighter will work... it will be fun to play. Take rogue at level 1 and rogue again at level 8. Taking the second level of rogue at level 8 means you will spend your skill points on the important rogue skills and get evasion just when it starts to matter. You will also have your first 6 level of fighter so you can get the Kensei enhancements.


I recommend this:

dwarf - true neutral or Lawful good (Lawful only if you think you might want to add a level of monk or paladin into the build... not really advised to make late changes to the build... but options are good.)
Str: 16
Dex: 14
Con: 16
Int: 12
Wis: 10
Cha: 6

Dex is still higher because evasion requires a decent reflex save to be useful. Int has some points to boost the number of skill points you get and also to leave the option to later get a +1 Int tome to qualify for the Combat Expertise feat in case you want to really make a push for higher AC.

Feats: you will have a lot of feats, play around with the ones you'd want to take but here are some recommendations.
- Toughness
- Two Handed Fighting
- Weapon Focus: Slashing (pre-requisite for Kensei enhancement)
- Weapon Specialization: Slashing (pre-requisite for Kensei enhancement)
- Improved Two Handed Fighting
- Power Attack
- Lightning Reflexes (+2 reflex saves to help evasion be more reliable)
- Improved Critical: Slashing (level 9)
- Greater Two-handed fighting (level 12)
- Greater WEapon Focus
- Greater Weapon Specialization

This still leaves you some more feats to play around with... you should get 17 total feats with 10 of them being restricted to the combat feats that fighters can take as bonuses. Just take the first 4 in the order listed so that pre-reqs for Kensei are taken care of.

Enhancements are going to be the Kensei pre-reqs, fighter haste boost, dwarven axe enhancements and toughness enhancements. Don't worry too much about these, they can be reset easily every three days. Just take what looks useful until you hit level 7 then redo them to make sure you get your Kensei pre-reqs.


All in all this is a balanced build with good HP, decent defenses and good damage output. You will learn a lot about the game playing this character. switch to light armor at level 8 when you get the second rogue level. Wear a high +dex item to help with reflex save and to fill out the max dex bonus of the light armor.

[Spong101]

snip




That was immensely helpful info. Thank you very much for the excellent advice Gnorbert. :D

+ Rep :)

On the subject of sneak attacks is the Improved Feint feat worth taking for this? I was thinking I could create opportunities for sneak attack damage with it.

Also what should I do for skills breakdown? I appreciate what Mangloid was saying earlier about not being feasible to do both pick lock and search, spot, disable device. **** shame though - could it be done by spreading the points between them and having some item sets just for those tasks? Or if I have to choose either traps or locks which is more useful?

Finally, should I take tumble or instead go for Spring Attack?

[stormarcher]

Try this build.
http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=244106&highlight=extinct

Instead of Going 20 barb. Do this

1st level Rogue
2-12 Barb
13 Rogue
14-20 Barb.

[Spong101]

Thanks for the suggestion Stormarcher, looks interesting - if I make a Barbarian at some point I will likely do this.

Can anyone make any suggestions about the skills as I mentioned in the post above? I just need to figure that out and then I'm ready to roll with this build.

[stormarcher]

You say you want high AC. I dont know if you are going to be running Elite raids anytime soon but AC doesn't matter in that high of content unless you have ungodly amounts ( meaning you hardly do any damage you just tucker up ). So you could go two ways IMO. Fighter with tons AC and Hitpoints but hardly any damage. Or you could go Barbarian and get like 800 hitpoints ( higher then a fighter level 20 btw ) and have horrible AC, but kill anything and everything before it can touch you :D Just my opinion