Multiclass blues

[McShimidh]

So I got a couple of multiclassed toons modeled after old school D&D characters and most people hate em. I know they may not be the best uber toons ever, but I have loads of fun with em. That is when other players ain't dissin them. I have never been to endgame, so I don't know how well they will do, but I have been told more than once, they are gimps. That is fine by me. I only have a few and like I said, they are fun so far. I have a human fighter/rogue 4/4 (Sarlona), a drow rogue/wizard 4/3 (Cannith) and a elf fighter/wizard 4/3 (Khyber). So, if any of you other disrespected multiclass guys ever wanna team up, let me know. It will be fun! Happy gaming everybody!

[Splatterfart]

The point of the game is to have fun. Play or do whatever makes you happy. However, there are certain expectations existing in the game today. If you do happen to build some wacky off the wall character have the decency to notify the party leader before joining an LFM of your character's unique nature.

Something that I've found to be more true in DDO than any other game I've ever seen is the fact that your personal gamesmanship is the single most important factor involved. A good build, feat setup, skill distribution, etc are all nice factors, but they don't amount to squat if you don't know how to properly wield the weapon you've created. So, even a goofy build can be quite effective in the hands of the right person.

Best of luck, and Happy Travels!

[Rosze]

Well i have never tried multiclassing but i am planing to... Well i would just say its a game and you are supouse to just have fun. If you like your toons just go with and ignore them. Ofcourse advise isnt allways bad. Some are actualy trying to help you but theres allways some that tell you that you cant do a build like that. Hope you have fun with your toons.

Ps. Sry little tired but hope you can make out something from my text:)

[Kinerd]

I think you will be better off in the future if you take some of the advice more seriously now.

[Kalanth]

I have a stable of characters that are all multiclassed. In fact, since the day that DDO launched I have never once played a straight level character. To boring and to many ways to make a character that much more interesting by throwing in another class. Ignore the people that complain about the character and play what you want.

One thing I do find useful, though, is that no matter how off the wall you want your character to be you should likely lay it out in the character builder first just to make sure that you know how to tweek things and make the character a hint more effective.


I think you will be better off in the future if you take some of the advice more seriously now.

Side note, Kinerd is not wrong. People that make it to the end game are either the ones that push on through and set up the PUGs, or the ones that make effective or traditional characters. You can make a 10 / 10 Fighter / Wizard, for example, but you are missing out on a couple of possibilities that you would get from a Fighter 12 / Wizard 8, or Wizard 12 / Fighter 8. Knowing what the classes offer in the D&D side and the DDO side (enhancements) then you will become stronger at making multiclass characters.

[Noobian]

IMO you can do both. You just need to adjust the concepts to DDO.

Elf Fighter 1/Wizard 7 (Arch Mage 1)
28 Point build
STR 14, DEX 10, CON 12, INT 18, WIS 8, CHA 8 All Level ups into INT
THF Falchion/Quarter Staff,
CC/Evoker
Tough sell, here Melee and Arcane don't work well in DDO and frankly didn't work that well in PnP. The biggest difference is this...you can't ignore the penalties offered by heavy armors and AC is a red herring in DDO (in terms of this build at least). The Elven Arch Mage Knight could be fun, but would definitely be seen as a "flavor build". But, so what, it would offer some interesting options that could be fun with the right group. The secret here? Wizard is your primary, the minimal splash of 1 level of fighter offers you what you want, some melee ability, access to all martial weapons. The thing to understand is that 1d4HPs/level simply doesn't give you what you need in this game to be a melee...tons of HP. Elf is arguably the toughest to fit in here for the simple reason that it gimps CON. So, that being said, you could have some fun with it, if you are willing to adjust your build to the way that DDO works. IF you were willing to go War Forged, this could work quite well, high CON and self healing is the thing..elves just can't offer that in DDO as an Arch Mage. You'll find yourself becoming more "Wizardy" at higher levels as the baddies will simply hit too hard and your melee DPS will become a far cry from what you can do with spells. Realize that there will be a paradigm shift at about levels 8-10 and you'll be very happy IMO. If you persist meleeing, you'll probably just get frustrated :(

Drow Rogue 2/Wizard 6 (Pale Master)
28Point Build
STR 8, DEX 10, CON 14, INT 18, WIS 8, CHA 10 All level ups into INT
Lots of good synergy here, the secret is...splash rogue to unlock the skills and get evasion...that's all you really need here. DnD would reward you with a variety of class skills and choices, DDO does too, just in different ways. Pale Master offers the Rogue self healing, various "forms" that offer immunities as well as "summons" to grab initial aggro, plus tons of Skill points to invest in yummy rogue skills (search/disable, umd etc...). This will "gimp" your DCs a bit but it is a very popular "survival" "solo" build. This is the same as your arcane knight above, Wizard is your primary, at higher level it will give you the best DPS, but the rogue splash will allow you to contribute as a rogue too which could make you very attractive to PUGs who understand what you are doing.

Human Fighter 2, Rogue 6 (assassin)
28 Point build
STR 14, DEX 16, CON 15, INT 12, WIS 8, CHA 8 All level ups into STR
Again interesting synergy, Fighter offers access to all martial weapons, +1 Bonus to STR, and two extra feats. Go TWF grab khopesh's and don't look back. Effectively a high DPS rogue, not necessarily a frontline fighter, but could behave that way initially at low levels, as well as give good beneifits as a trapper. Can't see why the DPS would fall off at high levels either.

So, not saying to redo all of your toons but here's some thumb nail sketch examples that may lead to a better experience in DDO for you. They offer the "flavor" your looking for in terms of old style type PnP toons, but they are built with DDO rules rather than PnP. The issue in DDO is not that you can't multi-class, you just don't do it the same way it was done in PnP. "Splashing" is the name of the game here, the days of Fighter 7/Wizard 7 simply don't compute in this game, it does not work the same way because the rules that determine how a build work are very different.

That's the biggest flaw I see in your thinking ;-)

[jaegarnel]

I agree with Noobian, you can make quite effective multiclass characters in DDO, but splashes will usually be more bang for your buck than equal level, although in cases where the classes synergize well, you can do so. A lvl 12/8 ranger/rogue is quite effective for instance.

There are some important things about DDO that differ from PnP (the monty haul aspect makes taking levels of a casting class as a melee useless, the prestige enhancements make taking classes in multiple of 6 usually most effective), which makes planning your character before building it important if you care about its effectiveness.

OTOH, if you just want to have fun, go ahead and play any character you want. Ignore those narrow-minded and rude people who give you unsolicited "advice" about your build. The player behind the toon is still the most important factor in how well you can do in quests, so a good player can bring even a gimped toon to endgame.

Personally, I've seen some seemingly weird builds, especially in early levels, that were quite effective, and I've also seen the most min-maxed, effective builds fail in the hands of a bad player. No one has any right to criticize your character until they've seen it be a burden on the group repeatedly.

[fredericko]

You have to be coherent with your choices. If you embrace a very casual gameplay style don't expect to join at level elite runs and have people praise your toon as it can't nuke as a wizard or do the traps as a rogue (though wizard/rogue splashes often do great at traps). You went casual, stay casual. Other people are there to have fun just like you, and it's not realistic to expect the whole DDO player base to bend to your particular whims or be tactful and not call a spade a spade when they see a toon that can't pull his own weight for the task at hand. We all play DDO in our quality time, a very sparce commodity as we grow older.

[Kalanth]

There are many wise things said here in this thread and the advice is very useful. Even with your characters as they are, fighter/rogue 4/4, a drow rogue/wizard 4/3 and an elf fighter/wizard 4/3, you can make them into very useful characters. For example, you can take the Fighter / Rogue, take 12 Fighter / 6 Rogue and make a Kensai Assassin.

The best advice to give is that you can't just play DDO like you are playing D&D. As said, this game does not work quite the way that PnP does. You can get away with a lot as long as you don't over do it.

[McShimidh]

Thanks for all the advice guys, I will definately take it all in as I plan to make more multiclass in the future. I was just making my first few and I wanted to make some of my fav PnP characters to get my feet wet. I will continue to play those toons and see what I can do with em. I really am enjoying them so far. I'll check out the character planner for my next generation multiclass.

[Phidius]

I multiclass so much that the ability to cast level 9 spells is how I define a "pure" caster :D

I recommend avoiding PUGs, and just put up your own LFMs - a healthy multiclass is all you need to filter out the majority of the MMO parrots.