building a melee fvs - feedback welcome

[AidanRyuko]

okay so some background information: all my lives have been melee and I'm looking to make a melee favored soul as well. What I have at my disposal is past lives: Barb x3, fighter x3, monk x3, rogue x3, paladin x3. All stats are +4 and 36pt build obv. Plenty of dps/hp/rogue gear to patch up potential sacrifices in base HP or search/disable

The build I am thinking of (still a rough gem) is the following:

Half-elf 16 fvs/2 paladin/2 rogue.

Paladin mostly for the cha based saves, rogue for evasion and disable device

Half-elf mostly for fighter dellitante to get myself proficiency with my regular weapons, but the enhancement line will also give access to 20% healing amp, immunity to sleep etc. I'm pretty set on using this race.

Feats: first getting power attack + cleave (lv 3) + great cleave (prolly lv 9), the other enhancements might need to be used for empower or quicken, if I have room I'll take stunning blow.

All of this should give me a proper dps toon with proper saves and self heals + most traps doable.

As for stats I could use feedback. I don't know how important wisdom is for dc's because I'm not planning to be much of an offensive caster (blade barrier perhaps at level 16). I was thinking something along these lines:

17 strength
8 dex
14 con
10 int
12 wis
16 cha

if wisdom isn't really necesary if im planning to use close to zero offensive spells I could do it like this:

17 str < 18 on second ability stat choice
8 dex
14 con
12 int < 1 more skill point per level and +1 search/disable
8 wis
17 cha < 18 on first ability stat choice

The charisma modifier gives me plenty of saves so I don't really need dexterity, also I can take the force of personality feat to double my charisma modifier on will saves (IE if modifier is +10 I'll get +20 will save with that feat and 2 paladin levels)

-not sure if I have enough skill points per level to keep up search/disable, the only other skill I really want to level is Jump up to 40 though and that seems to be a class skill. Concentration might be useful too for this life.
-not sure if I need wisdom for anything besides offensive spells on a fvs

[kuro_zero]

Honestly I think you're trying to do too much with the build. Trapping is IMO too much for this build to reasonably handle given the abysmal skill points paladins and FvS get. Are you solo? Are you planning to stay at cap for a while or just burning through another TR?

Paladin already grants you martial weapon proficiency so why fighter Dilli? For the Tactics enhancement line?

Honestly I'd drop the rogue levels and take monk instead for the feats. If just burning through a life, a moderately high WIS score (mid 30s) will make blade barrier a useful leveling tool.

A high starting CHA doesn't make much sense to me either since FvS do not get Divine Might enhancements and the increase SP you gain is negligible. Throw 6 build points (14) into it and enjoy the boost to saves from tomes and +CHA item.

If simply going through a life and TRing immediately at 20, I'd start out with something like:

STR: 16 (10pnts)
DEX: 8 (0pnts)
CON: 16 (10pnts)
INT: 8 (0pnts)
WIS: 16 (10pnts)
CHA: 14 (6pnts)

EDIT: Level ups in STR if you're primarily melee. As for WIS, works out to:

16 base + 4 Tome + 6 Item + 2 Enhancement + 2 Ship Buff = 30

Good enough for most heroic content although some evasion types will need to be kited through a few times (monastery monks for example)

[AidanRyuko]

Honestly I think you're trying to do too much with the build. Trapping is IMO too much for this build to reasonably handle given the abysmal skill points paladins and FvS get. Are you solo? Are you planning to stay at cap for a while or just burning through another TR?

Paladin already grants you martial weapon proficiency so why fighter Dilli? For the Tactics enhancement line?

Hm, didn't think about paladin giving me the weapon proficiency, but still gives the +2 dc on stun/trip, seems a lot more useful then the other choices.

Honestly I'd drop the rogue levels and take monk instead for the feats. If just burning through a life, a moderately high WIS score (mid 30s) will make blade barrier a useful leveling tool.

A high starting CHA doesn't make much sense to me either since FvS do not get Divine Might enhancements and the increase SP you gain is negligible. Throw 6 build points (14) into it and enjoy the boost to saves from tomes and +CHA item.

If simply going through a life and TRing immediately at 20, I'd start out with something like:

STR: 16 (10pnts)
DEX: 8 (0pnts)
CON: 16 (10pnts)
INT: 8 (0pnts)
WIS: 16 (10pnts)
CHA: 14 (6pnts)

EDIT: Level ups in STR if you're primarily melee. As for WIS, works out to:

16 base + 4 Tome + 6 Item + 2 Enhancement + 2 Ship Buff = 30

Good enough for most heroic content although some evasion types will need to be kited through a few times (monastery monks for example)

In my experience it pays off to get base str to 18, offc. if I get fighter delittante I could start it at 16 and put slightly more points in int. The wis is useless for me because I don't get blade barrier untill level 16 and I'm set on using martial weapons so there isn't much use for a monk splash either. The reason I need cha so high is because I'd prefer to do crucible swim with 95% succes chance and I don't want to get held by casters, on top of that charisma would also give UMD but seeing as I will only have 5 and later 6 skill points per level I will leave UMD out, I would only use it for shadow walk anyway.

~aid

[kuro_zero]

Monk Dilli: More heal amp
Wiz/Sorc Dilli: arcane scroll usage without UMD check. 95% GH / Shadow Walk activation with Wiz, 85% with Sorc. No UMD needed but arcane spell failure an issue. Meshes well with monk splash wearing robes

Monk Splash: There are two types of centered for monks, Defensively centered and Offensively centered.

Defensively centered only requires you to not wear any armor, equip a shield, nor be encumbered. You can wield any weapon you'd like and still retain monk's inherent AC bonus (+3 at level 2) and WIS bonus to AC.

Offensively centered requires the above, and wielding monk weapons. This is needed for monk stances, flurry of blows (BAB bonus), and inherent dodge bonus (4% at level 2).

Regarding hold - you have freedom of movement. During harbor levels you can craft a +4 Will Save ring, ML1 with masterful craftsmanship if you really need to but the high saves of FvS and paly divine grace should cover it (should point out 2Monk have +3 Fort and Will save over 2Rogue).

Cruicible Elite Spike trap DC is 40, so target is 38 reflex for no-fail. Easier ways to get there than spending FIVE additional build points AND a level stat raise for +2 to saves. (For example with monk splash can swap to handwraps or a quarterstaff, activate water stance for +2 to saves)

[AidanRyuko]

hm thx for the suggestions on delittantes, however half elf already gives healing amp in it's enhancement line so I don't need that one, wiz/sorc sounds interesting but weighing it out I think +2 dc is worth more then shadow walk, because there is only 1 quest I need it at.

As for crucible and other save related things I know how it works, this is after all my 16th life, but thx for going through the effort of explaining though. I did decide to lower cha and str both to 16, I don't really need cha to be 18, 16 is enough. This will also give me the ability to get 16 int, which in turn gives me at least 5 skill points on fvs lvls for jump + search/disable.

[kuro_zero]

considering the build is delaying heal until level 16 minimum and the difficulty of getting heroic heal-amp gear I'm not sure how having more is useless. Only ones im aware of are: HoX bracers (ML13), DT Robes (ML16), GS weapons (ML12) and ToD rings (ML18)

More than just shadow walk (least for me). Invis zerging lot easier with a stack of 100 scrolls than multiple clickies. GH, teleport, displacement for difficult fights. rage. tensors. DD. ice storm/fireball for inferno. with fom, sleetstorm is awesome. opens up tons of options depending on play.

[AidanRyuko]

oh my healing amp is fine, with paladin past lives and the healing amp from enhancement line and scroll/wand mastery a heal will do me about 320hp, doubt it stacks with the monk dile too.

My playing style is pretty different then yours I think, I picked fvs because it (and ranger) are the only classes that I can still play melee, I don't think offensive scrolls fit in that style because I already have to juggle between my clickies and search/disable gear inbetween fights. As for self buffs I got gh clickie and teleport clickie, permanent blur on equipment. The only time I'll invis-zerg is when the team wants to do it which is often not even once in a life time.

Maybe I'll have to grow into it once i'm forced to do caster lives but for now I'll stick to what I'm good at.

[lyrecono]

hey aiden, you dont need that much help, after all these life you know what you're doing.
what weapons are you using? i assume 2handed? consider improved crittical (blund/slah/pierc)
atleast put some effort in Blade Barier, its that usefull.
i did my fvs life as a helf fighter dil, monk2/wiz1/fvs rest, it was a blast.
i agree on not spreading too thin, and 17 str is indeed a tad bit high for this build. your seccond suggestion will work a lil better.

[AidanRyuko]

thx ly, that splash looks pretty interesting, I have 2 more fvs lives left so maybe I'll try something like that to practice being a spell caster ^^

[Sokól]

Hey Aidan,

I just leveled up a fvs 18 / monk 2 twf with stunning blow and stunning fist it was really fun dropped stunning blow for empower spell when I got Blade Barriers (was surprised how powerful they are and I really liked cometfall).

Just a suggestion for 1 of those fvs lives :)