Duo Build thoughts

[Spoonwelder]

I have finally got my wife to try and play the game.....

She wanted a pretty sorcerer :rolleyes: I have set her up with a new F2P account so just a 28pt build Elven Sorc but that's pretty straight forward - 18Cha, 12Int, 12 Con and the rest dumped in Str. She is sorted.....

What I need are ideas on the best duo thinking that I need enough healing that I can keep me AND her alive, I want UMD and traps would be nice.....

I had thought some Rogue/Paladin split would be nice. Gets evasion, UMD(plus Cha bonus with paladin is synergistic), intimidate(to get agro back from her) great saves and between LOH and wand whipping I can keep us both alive until I have high enough UMD to use heal scrolls. Maybe a 6/14(Ro/Pal) split would work.

Any other ideas?

[Bodic]

Your best bet is to BUY on Monday.

or get her into a Wiz /rog palemaster
and you go Cleric or FvS Melee

[Phidius]

I'd recommend a 12 Cleric/6 Ranger/2 Thief. You said your wife was F2P, but you didn't mention if you were ViP, Premium, or F2P. No worries, the "Self-sufficient" link in my signature doesn't really care.

[Spoonwelder]

I am VIP so my options are open.....I even thought of Helf Artificer with a FVS pastlife for wands but.....I am also hoping to not have two squishy characters in the group.

[sebastianosmith]

I have finally got my wife to try and play the game.....

She wanted a pretty sorcerer :rolleyes: I have set her up with a new F2P account so just a 28pt build Elven Sorc but that's pretty straight forward - 18Cha, 12Int, 12 Con and the rest dumped in Str. She is sorted.....

What I need are ideas on the best duo thinking that I need enough healing that I can keep me AND her alive, I want UMD and traps would be nice.....

I had thought some Rogue/Paladin split would be nice. Gets evasion, UMD(plus Cha bonus with paladin is synergistic), intimidate(to get agro back from her) great saves and between LOH and wand whipping I can keep us both alive until I have high enough UMD to use heal scrolls. Maybe a 6/14(Ro/Pal) split would work.

Any other ideas?

Having been in a similar situation (she got me started with DDO), I can profess it all depends on her play style. My significant other enjoys playing sneaky, multi-classed casters with deplorable melee skills yet insists on going toe-to-toe with every mob she runs across. After kitting a swarm or two with a divine punishment or some such, she breaks out a weapon and charges. Consequently, I've had to focus on characters that can crank DPS to 11, intimidate like a 200ft mecha-clad hit-man and self-heal on the run while shouting "DON'T DO THAT!"

So, you're rogue/pally sounds about right. I don't know that I'd take six rogue levels as you'll miss out on any tier-3 PrEs you may want to take. With two rogue levels you can still find and disable most traps and open most doors with a few clickies and well spent skill points. And you'll want to be fast because the first time she draws agro, your butt will be on the line.

[bladepro]

Could try a warchanter 15bard/3rog/2fig gives you evasion umd good dps good buffs and crowd control.

[Mercureal]

I think Rogue/Paladin is a good option. Another consideration (assuming you have 32-point builds) is an Exploiter- gets you your rogue skills and a good amount of skill points to keep them maintained, good AC, melee, and heals. And you get Manyshot as a bonus when you need to grab aggro.

[FrozenNova]

I have finally got my wife to try and play the game.....

She wanted a pretty sorcerer :rolleyes: I have set her up with a new F2P account so just a 28pt build Elven Sorc but that's pretty straight forward - 18Cha, 12Int, 12 Con and the rest dumped in Str. She is sorted.....

What I need are ideas on the best duo thinking that I need enough healing that I can keep me AND her alive, I want UMD and traps would be nice.....

I had thought some Rogue/Paladin split would be nice. Gets evasion, UMD(plus Cha bonus with paladin is synergistic), intimidate(to get agro back from her) great saves and between LOH and wand whipping I can keep us both alive until I have high enough UMD to use heal scrolls. Maybe a 6/14(Ro/Pal) split would work.

Any other ideas?

>12 con elven sorceror
Can you say.. soul stone? :rolleyes:

UMD + Traps + Healing sounds like a bard to me. No other conventional build is going to give you that, while spellsinger will allow you to boost her spells somewhat.

Note before you regret it - don't be inclined to be a 'casting bard' just because you go spellsinger. Melee like you mean it.

Paladin is not a good idea. You're not going to have enough skillpoints to maintain skills.
For example - to max search, disable, umd, you need 6 skillpoints per level. That means you'll need 16 int on a human paladin. This is infeasible - and that's without intimidate or open locks or spot.

[Therigar]

I have finally got my wife to try and play the game.....

She wanted a pretty sorcerer :rolleyes: I have set her up with a new F2P account so just a 28pt build Elven Sorc but that's pretty straight forward - 18Cha, 12Int, 12 Con and the rest dumped in Str. She is sorted.....

What I need are ideas on the best duo thinking that I need enough healing that I can keep me AND her alive, I want UMD and traps would be nice.....

I had thought some Rogue/Paladin split would be nice. Gets evasion, UMD(plus Cha bonus with paladin is synergistic), intimidate(to get agro back from her) great saves and between LOH and wand whipping I can keep us both alive until I have high enough UMD to use heal scrolls. Maybe a 6/14(Ro/Pal) split would work.

Any other ideas?


First, congrats on the accomplishment. :)

Second, 12 INT and 12 CON? Really? Do you love her or hate her? :eek:

Seriously, if you love her you need to explain that CON is not a dump stat and INT for extra skills is just wasted effort in DDO. She'll only ever need 1 skill point for Concentration and after that anything else is just a bonus.

Third, you should play a favored soul. That handles the healing side of things for the fleshy elven miss and lets her know you are watching out for her. It also leaves you not depending on the flaky hireling healers.

Instead of depending on hirelings for heals you depend on them for melees. They are actually reasonably good in that role. In my experience they are much more reliable than the healing hires.

Fourth, you should play warforged. This lets your wife handle emergency healing on you if needed. It also lets you play a combat oriented fvs able to carry the melee tasks if needed.

Don't worry about the rogue side of things. Farm that out to some random player you meet via LFM or spend the TP to get a hireling when really needed.

Fifth, see the first point. :D

[Spoonwelder]

12 Con - I know...I know - but there's a good chance this character won't make it past L10 so the 1-10HP now isn't that big a diff......and I wanted the skills to get her UMD and Concentration...so 12 it was....I will do everything else to get her decent HP at later levels if we get there (toughness feat, GFL, Minos, Con 6 - Argo Favor, GS HP Cloak etc..) She'll be over 300 but not by much.) but even then I doubt we will do any hardcore raiding so I think it will be enough.

FVS or Bard are both decent options - I have a few Divines and another Bard I duo with a friend tho and wanted to try something else out myself as well.

I am hoping to not use hirelings so I want to be the DPS magnet. I think she may dig the game more if she sees me as the 'Stalwart Defender' to her 'Damsel in Distress'. Kind of also why I don't want to go WF as that doesn't meet her aesthetic demands :rolleyes:....and the key is making her happy.

We played Baldurs Gate on the PS2 together back before kids and she enjoyed it (although she was often pounding on rocks thinking she was my character and got aimed all wrong). I am hoping for the same with DDO.

[Spoonwelder]

>12 con elven sorceror
Can you say.. soul stone? :rolleyes:

UMD + Traps + Healing sounds like a bard to me. No other conventional build is going to give you that, while spellsinger will allow you to boost her spells somewhat.

Note before you regret it - don't be inclined to be a 'casting bard' just because you go spellsinger. Melee like you mean it.

Paladin is not a good idea. You're not going to have enough skillpoints to maintain skills.
For example - to max search, disable, umd, you need 6 skillpoints per level. That means you'll need 16 int on a human paladin. This is infeasible - and that's without intimidate or open locks or spot.

I setup a Rog/Paly with 16/12/12/14/8/16 stats....14 int gets me Combat Expertise and plenty of stat points if I go more than 2 levels of rogue. I am thinking of DoS with this guy so DoSIII isn't that much better than DoSII (where KotCIII is much better than KotCII due to the 4d6 extra dmg)

[FrozenNova]

12 Con - I know...I know - but there's a good chance this character won't make it past L10 so the 1-10HP now isn't that big a diff......and I wanted the skills to get her UMD and Concentration...so 12 it was....I will do everything else to get her decent HP at later levels if we get there (toughness feat, GFL, Minos, Con 6 - Argo Favor, GS HP Cloak etc..) She'll be over 300 but not by much.) but even then I doubt we will do any hardcore raiding so I think it will be enough.

FVS or Bard are both decent options - I have a few Divines and another Bard I duo with a friend tho and wanted to try something else out myself as well.

I am hoping to not use hirelings so I want to be the DPS magnet. I think she may dig the game more if she sees me as the 'Stalwart Defender' to her 'Damsel in Distress'. Kind of also why I don't want to go WF as that doesn't meet her aesthetic demands :rolleyes:....and the key is making her happy.

We played Baldurs Gate on the PS2 together back before kids and she enjoyed it (although she was often pounding on rocks thinking she was my character and got aimed all wrong). I am hoping for the same with DDO.

Hey, if she figures out what she's doing, you'll get to be the 'silly 2-kill melee running at the back yelling for haste'! =P A properly played sorceror while levelling at the moment is both hilarious and ridiculous.
While I'm here, make sure to use superior amplification clickies rather than superior passive gear, and be sure to have her use major lore scepters for the elements she's using.

Human would've been significantly better in all respects to elf, but I'm sure you knew that.
(+1 feat on a featstarved class; +1 charisma; +1 skillpoint; higher hp; healing amp for scrolls)

I'm doing something similar at the moment. Me as the human air savant, her as a 12 ranger/6 fighter/2 rogue dragonmarked halfling. Traps, umd, stealth, wand use, ranged capacity, sneak damage, and a huge amount of healing for a melee toon. That build as a +2tomeless 28pt is available here - http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?p=3793639 - and works fairly well throughout levels. However, if you're aiming for endgame dps, that's probably not a massively functional way to go.


I setup a Rog/Paly with 16/12/12/14/8/16 stats....14 int gets me Combat Expertise and plenty of stat points if I go more than 2 levels of rogue. I am thinking of DoS with this guy so DoSIII isn't that much better than DoSII (where KotCIII is much better than KotCII due to the 4d6 extra dmg)

Playing a DoS paladin alongside a sorceror is going to be embarassing.
Playing one with more than 2 rogue levels is just going to be useless.

[Spoonwelder]

Yeah - eventually I will be a useless turd beside her in quests...that will make her feel better - but then I will have other characters to swap to at various levels.

I have a Sorc as well so I know the equipment patterns - that said I may go with more passive gear initially as I don't think she will maintain clickies well on her first time playing and initially I want to minimize her load. She will pickup fast enough (I hope) and then blast past me but she has never been a gamer so she has poor twitch skills.

I have been looking around at other builds and may go more THF - DPS paladin type....

Thanks all for the input so far....maybe I will go Clonk....never done it before could be fun? See Turbine there's your problem - no cookie cutter simple solutions - all this variability just confuses people and they stand around in Korthos trying to figure out if they have the best plan....and the Dragon never gets killed.

[Ungood]

I have finally got my wife to try and play the game.....

She wanted a pretty sorcerer :rolleyes: I have set her up with a new F2P account so just a 28pt build Elven Sorc but that's pretty straight forward - 18Cha, 12Int, 12 Con and the rest dumped in Str. She is sorted.....

What I need are ideas on the best duo thinking that I need enough healing that I can keep me AND her alive, I want UMD and traps would be nice.....

I had thought some Rogue/Paladin split would be nice. Gets evasion, UMD(plus Cha bonus with paladin is synergistic), intimidate(to get agro back from her) great saves and between LOH and wand whipping I can keep us both alive until I have high enough UMD to use heal scrolls. Maybe a 6/14(Ro/Pal) split would work.

Any other ideas?


As for a great class to Duo with. well, typically you can't beat a Paladin by too much. However, a Fighter2/18Cleric or a Monk2/18Cleric are really good alternatives, because by 11th you will be able to raise her.

However, if you want, have her play the Rogue Splash, Sorc18/2Rogue that way, she feels important (She gets the traps) and even on her worst game day, she can contribute to the group. And she will get evasion, which is really handy.

[Kmnh]

Sorcerer is a good idea. Make it a human, get the skill focus: UMD feat, and by level 13 she will be able to keep you both healed with scrolls.

[PestWulf]

I'd say a battle bard would be a perfect fit, Spell Singer.

Invest in multiple toughness, shield mastery and some meta's. Would give you durability, crowd control and great healing longevity while your wife will adore you for extending her mana pool.

The best tanking I've done with my bard is Charm Person/Monster :)
Stealth up, make a "friend", re-stealth or Invis if needed and after everyone starts beating the tar out of your new ally, clean the room up with nukes/CC.

[EpiKagEMO]

maybe you could make one of those fancy human/elven? "tukaws." lower cha, raise con a bunch, and leave int to 10.
for the paladin splash, i would suggest those 2 rogue and 18 paladins. 18 paladin can provide alot more than 6 rogue. better sp, higher cha, 3rd tier prestiege class. grab DoS and start kickin @ss.

[morticianjohn]

I think you'll be better off with a rogue - cleric. Take one level of fighter and two levels of rogue. Clerics can afford to give up three levels before they start to gimp their endgame and they have the find traps spell so a low starting int is a non-issue.

[CanuckWisdom]

Warchanter/fighter/rogue I think would serve you well. Between sorc and bard, many buffs would be covered, you could be a strong melee/take hits/have evasion for survivability, the song CC would help reduce the need for tanking and bards (unlike paladins, believe me I know) get enough skill points to full yinvest in trapping skills.

16/2/2