Prodigy variant for soloing purposes

[Lithandor]

I'm a relatively new player and I'm trying to make a solo-capable melee toon. The exploiter initially caught my eye, but after some research I found the prodigy, which I believe to be superior to the exploiter in a lot of ways.

So I made a DEX based prodigy (for the AC) and played around with it for a while, but I found that from levels 8 and upwards, it really started struggling in the self-healing department.

So now I'm thinking of ways to enhance the self-sustainability of the class and a thought crossed my mind. By dropping 2 levels of rogue on the build, I could gain 2 levels of monk for fists of light. This comes at the hefty cost of 6.5 sneak attack damage and the third level haste boost.

The build would then look something like this:
STR 12
DEX 18
CON 14
INT 12
WIS 14
CHA 8

All levels to DEX and supreme +2 tome used at level 7

Level progress and feats:
1. Rog - Toughness
2. Monk - Dodge
3. Monk - Mobility, Weapon Finesse
4. Monk - Path of Harmonious Balance
5-8. Ranger - Favored Enemy: Undead, Spring Attack
9. Rogue - Expertise
10-13 Ranger - Favored Enemy: Giant, Improved Critical - Bludgeoning
14. Rogue
15-17. Ranger - Favored Enemy: Evil Outsider, Power Attack (for grouping)
18. Rogue - ???
19 Ranger
20. Rogue

What to do with the last feat? Stunning fist looks like a solid option. The halfling healing dragonmarks also look attractive, but that would mean making room for 2 more feats. I'm not really a big fan of Extend Spell since it's mostly a convenience feat.

Skills:
Max UMD
Max Search
Max Disable device
The remaining points are spread across balance, concentration, hide, move silently, open lock, jump and spot (since I don't know the location of all traps yet)

Gear:
???

So there are a number of things I'm wondering about. The first is: would this build perform better as a STR oriented build for soloing purposes. Going that route would give me 3-4 more damage but lose me 4 AC. Does the faster killing make up for the loss of AC? Additional consequences would be freeing up a feat while losing some attack bonus and reflex save.

Would it be worthwhile dropping a level of rogue for a level of monk. This would exchange 3.5 points of sneak attack damage for 1 point of regular damage and some other minor bonuses. The fourth monk level probably wouldn't be picked until very late so it probably doesn't make much of a difference anyway.

I've chosen Halfling as a Race but would other races be superior? Human comes to mind because of improved recovery but that's about all they really offer. There's also Half-Orc, but I don't particularly like how they look and they aren't currently available to me now.

One final remark: it doesn't seem unlikely I might lesser reincarnate this build at high level to turn it back into a true 12/7/1 prodigy for full dps if I ever start raiding

Thanks in advance for any help given.


EDIT: corrected some numbers and added remark on reincarnation

[XL_Jockey]

If you're planning to do a lot of soloing then you need some way to ensure you'll get Sneak Attacks, otherwise you won't see that damage (because you'll always have aggro).

Fists of Light and Vampiric Stonedust handwraps greatly increase soloability. If you get your healing amp high enough it becomes amazing. Focusing on a decent AC, damage reduction and damage mitigation makes it easier.

What's the reason for going with the Prodigy? Perhaps there's a nother unarmed fighting build that will meet your needs and play more to the fact that you're soloing (ie, rely less on SA damage).

[Lithandor]

Well, I wasn't as much looking for an unarmed build as much as I was looking for a rogueish melee build. I don't want to be a pure dps build. I like the idea of versatile like a rogue, but I don't want to go full rogue and become a one trick pony sneak attacking machine, aside from the fact that rogues are horrible solo.

As I said, I want to solo to get to know the quests at my own pace, but I don't want to do so at the exclusion of being able to group. That's why I picked the prodigy, It's very versatile with a lot of the goodies that makes up the Exploiter, but can still do good dps in a group.

[EpiKagEMO]

Things to consider:

-Drop dex down, pick up heavier weapons=better dps
- Yes, the dps will let you live longer
-*Drop more rogue levels lower wisdom, Approx of 200-300 with +5/6 wis item should be simple enough to heal+self buff yourself with
-solo does not mean sneak attack damage, so dont worry about that too much.
-taking 12 Ranger=+5 AC so you can drop even more dex
-*12 Ranger=reasonable time before next shrine
-Traps will not be a worry, since you are part trapper
-Spells wont be much of a problem since you have evasion normal+ranger resists, its tough to solo hard and elites
-*Self healing gets a lot easier when you get moderate heals+healing amp. Monk+dragontouched+devotion=x3
-AC gets meanningless at some point i believe
-*Human also gets you additional adaptability so consider that race+extra feat+additional skill points
-*Dragon marks are a bit useless IMO(esp healing one) maybe elf for spec longswords+displacement clickie
-One level of rogue should be all you really need, since you wont be sneaking around
-4 levels of rogue for trapmaking? :3
-maybe 7 levels of monk for free heals
-*NEVER EVER TAKE EXTEND UNLESSS YOUR HASTE BAWT :3
-do you want a fun build or a solid build? o.0

whoops wall of text :/
*=great ideas i like very much
atleast take one or two of my suggestions :/ and i wish you luck.

[kuro_zero]

I would go str based, especially if solo. You coukd have all the AC in the world, but that won't help you if you can't kill anything in a reasonable amount of time.

Beginning with Gianthold at around level 12, Mob HP jumps significantly and it becomes harder to get meaningful AC.

For solo, I would have taken the exploiter build over the prodigy since, unless you have excellent gear (radiance guard/weapons) you're not gaining sneak attack damage. 14 ranger would give you Freedom of Movement as a level 4 spell. UMD Sleet Storm for an AoE blindness you're immune to. 50% miss chance plus sneak attack.

18 ranger gives you enough spell slots to carry cure light, mod, and serious. Maxamize spell instead of extend, and Human or helf (with monk dile) healing amp and you'll have very potent self healing (don't forget potency item or ardor clickie)

[Lithandor]

Thanks for the advice, guys, +1.

From the comments I guess STR is the way to go.

After giving it some further thought, what I'm looking for is the following:
- melee dps-oriented build
- good solo ability
- sufficient dps for grouping
- lots of skills (traps, UMD, stealth)
- decent self healing without the use of items

I've thought about going 12Ra/7Mo/1Ro, which would be better at soloing, but I think it would suffer too much for group DPS. I've been thinking about the exploiter, but part of it's power is the ranged attacks which I'm not interested in. Instead, I have found a 12Mo/7Ro/1Fi build and I think I'll build something along the lines of that. The only thing I'm worried about is how viable the stunning fist strategy is for getting some sneak attacks in.



-*12 Ranger=reasonable time before next shrine
I don't quite get what you mean by that.



-*Dragon marks are a bit useless IMO(esp healing one) maybe elf for spec longswords+displacement clickie
Well, the halfling healing mark could give me 6 cure serious and 5 heals per rest, I don't think that's anything to sneeze at.



-do you want a fun build or a solid build? o.0
Preferably both :cool:

[Dark-Star]

Having AC and a high reflex save will let you solo extremely well leveling up. You are not talking about that much of a difference in damage if you choose dex over str, but your survivability goes up a good bit. Especially with handwraps, you'll be fine in the killing department solo, not the fastest, but you'll get the job done.

I recently created an AC build, and while it's presented in end game gear, it will work perfectly well as a solo build to level up - see Riddle of Steel link in my signature. End game I prefer str based, unless you do something like the RoS build where you also get damage based off of your dex score.

Good luck.