Build Idea want feedback, 15bard/5Wiz Support Machine

[mrunlimited]

Ok so this is my first attempt to build my own non-cookie cutter character in DDO and I could use some feedback on it. As a preface, I am not attempting to make something capable of soloing EE although I am interested in your thoughts as to if this would be something a group would benefit from in EE content. The basic idea of this build is to be a complete support member, being able to heal effectively, use fascinate for cc if need be, offer a wide scope of buff spells, and toss in some melee dps with some basic survivability so as to not waste a cycle. In a pinch I imagine this build could possibly tank for a short period of time but only if completely necessary to avoid a wipe. Here is the basic layout although I'm still working through some ideas on feats and enhancements:


Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 04.20.02
DDO Character Planner Home Page (http://www.rjcyberware.com/DDO)

Level 20 Chaotic Good Human Male
(5 Wizard \ 15 Bard)
Hit Points: 237
Spell Points: 678
BAB: 13\13\18\23
Fortitude: 8
Reflex: 11
Will: 12

Starting Feat/Enhancement
Abilities Base Stats Modified Stats
(32 Point) (Level 1) (Level 20)
Strength 18 28
Dexterity 11 13
Constitution 14 14
Intelligence 9 9
Wisdom 8 8
Charisma 14 14

Tomes Used
+2 Tome of Dexterity used at level 3

Level 1 (Bard)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Shield Bash
Feat: (Human Bonus) Power Attack


Level 2 (Bard)


Level 3 (Bard)
Feat: (Selected) Shield Mastery


Level 4 (Bard)


Level 5 (Bard)


Level 6 (Bard)
Feat: (Selected) Dodge


Level 7 (Bard)


Level 8 (Bard)


Level 9 (Bard)
Feat: (Selected) Toughness


Level 10 (Bard)


Level 11 (Bard)


Level 12 (Bard)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Critical: Slashing Weapons


Level 13 (Bard)


Level 14 (Bard)


Level 15 (Bard)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Shield Mastery


Level 16 (Wizard)
Feat: (Wizard Bonus) Extend Spell


Level 17 (Wizard)


Level 18 (Wizard)
Feat: (Selected) Empower Healing Spell


Level 19 (Wizard)


Level 20 (Wizard)
Feat: (Wizard Bonus) Quicken Spell
Enhancement: Human - Human Versatility: Damage Boost (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Human - Human Adaptability: Strength (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Spellsinger (Brd) - Spellsinger (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Spellsinger (Brd) - Musical Studies (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Spellsinger (Brd) - Musical Studies (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Spellsinger (Brd) - Musical Studies (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Spellsinger (Brd) - Lingering Songs (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Spellsinger (Brd) - Lingering Songs (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Spellsinger (Brd) - Lingering Songs (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Warchanter (Brd) - Skaldic Rage (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Warchanter (Brd) - Fighting Spirit (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Warchanter (Brd) - Song of Heroism (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Warchanter (Brd) - Fighting Spirit (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Warchanter (Brd) - Inspired Bravery (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Warchanter (Brd) - Inspired Bravery (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Warchanter (Brd) - Inspired Bravery (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Warchanter (Brd) - The Poetic Edda (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Warchanter (Brd) - The Poetic Edda (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Warchanter (Brd) - The Poetic Edda (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Warchanter (Brd) - Rough and Ready (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Warchanter (Brd) - Rough and Ready (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Warchanter (Brd) - Rough and Ready (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Warchanter (Brd) - Boast (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Warchanter (Brd) - Boast (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Warchanter (Brd) - Boast (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Warchanter (Brd) - Ironskin Chant (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Warchanter (Brd) - Ironskin Chant (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Warchanter (Brd) - Ironskin Chant (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Warchanter (Brd) - Strength (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Warchanter (Brd) - Inspire Recklessness (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Warchanter (Brd) - Inspire Recklessness (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Warchanter (Brd) - Inspire Recklessness (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Warchanter (Brd) - Strength (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Eldritch Strike (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Spellsword: Shock (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Toughness (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Toughness (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Toughness (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Battlemage (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Shield Training (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Light Armor Proficiency (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Martial Training (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Arcane Barrier (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Arcane Barrier (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Arcane Barrier (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Critical Accuracy (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Critical Accuracy (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Critical Accuracy (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Strength (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Shield Striking (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Shield Striking (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Shield Striking (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Medium Armor Proficiency (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Critical Damage (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Critical Damage (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Critical Damage (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Strength (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Tenser's Transformation (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Eldritch Shield (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Still Spell (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Still Spell (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Doublestrike (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Doublestrike (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Doublestrike (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Eldritch Tempest (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Eldritch Tempest (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Eldritch Knight (Wiz) - Eldritch Tempest (Rank 3)








So anyways, tell me what you guys think. I started to level him today and am currently lvl 6 and the class does just what I have intended it for thus far but it is way too early to tell. Also, I wasnt paying attention to what level i took everything at, jus wanted to get a snapshot of what lvl 20 looked like. My plan is start at lvl 1 bard then do 5 wiz and then the rest in Bard so the feats at any given level may be taken in a different order.

[mrunlimited]

One other thing to note, I want to keep this build within the range of a LR+5 stone in case I decide to go pure bard heal/cc for EE if this doesnt work out. I also didn't account for tomes in the build as of yet so there is some wiggle room in there for some extra statpoints.

[TheGuyYouKnow]

i dont see how your wizard levels are helping your 'support', you could try

druid
-Beguile: slow down oranges/trash mobs a whole lot
-Fires of Purity: target gains 2d4 fire damage on hit
-t5 Crown of Summer one ally 2d6 light damage on hit

arti
-traps are always nice
-dr bypassing
-deadly
-imbue allies with +10% hp (you get -10% per use)

cleric/FVS
-Inflame action boost +4 damage +4 saves +15% elemental absorption
-vulnerability smite
-smite aoe heal/restore
-buff your own str with your cha
cleric
-Divine Vitality 25ish sp per turn undead
FVS
-aura with -2 to enemy saves


if this wasnt a bard i would also suggest
monk
-earth light earth immune to stun
-water light water -25% sp cost reduction
-focus meditation for up to +20% damage and 30 spell power for allies
-t5 aoe negative levels or heals

RACE
pdk
-paladin type aura with +3 to saves
-For Cormyr! If you are below 50% health, you and allies weapon damage equal to your Charisma modifier for two minutes.
-GH

halfling
-remove negs
-dragonmark heal
-Heroic Companion Action Boost: Grants an ally +1[W], +6 to hit and saving throws,+4% Dodge and +10 PRR

elf
-feywild tap: 10% incorp for an ally
-dragonmark: fairly sure this displacement can be used on allies

[Toro12]

Hmmm.....
Go PDK for all the human goodies plus Cha hit/dmg , go sorc /bard (with the 1 fighter)


Ahh never mind , just saw the LR + 5 request

[mrunlimited]

@ tHE GUY,

The wiz levels are for a few things, namely bonus meta magic feats and for tensors toggle/spell failure reduction. The wiz levels are adding a few extra spells like knock to my list but mostly is to add in some extra dps which helps the support idea. Not being defensive just explaining my thought process. I feel like gaining the t5 stuff from ek adds a good amount of dps to what I'm doing and can also allow me to wear even heavy armor with little chance of spell failure. Not amazing dps, but some to be useful when im not healing or buffing

[Lonnbeimnech]

@ tHE GUY,

The wiz levels are for a few things, namely bonus meta magic feats and for tensors toggle/spell failure reduction. The wiz levels are adding a few extra spells like knock to my list but mostly is to add in some extra dps which helps the support idea. Not being defensive just explaining my thought process. I feel like gaining the t5 stuff from ek adds a good amount of dps to what I'm doing and can also allow me to wear even heavy armor with little chance of spell failure. Not amazing dps, but some to be useful when im not healing or buffing

The DC of knock is caster level +int mod, so, probably 15 or so on this build at cap. Which couldn't knock much.

Bards get umd as a class skill, so you can just use tensors scrolls, for that +4 to str. <--- I don't know why this has become such a big deal in the past year, I'm guessing those juggernaughts made this popular. But that was last year.

This year it's fvs or cleric splash and divine might, and that's going to get you a lot more str, without the penalty to cooldowns. You could still umd a tensors afterwards, if you want.

[Khatzhas]

Artificer might be a better swap than wizard. Repeater or melee weapon with runearm adds your extra DPS, Artificer has a lot of buff/support spells, and can get traps as well as locks and secret doors.

(If you can push to 6 levels of Arti, that will get you access to Stoneskin, Adamantine weapons, and AoE CSW and Remove Diseases.)

[unbongwah]

General thoughts:

S&B DPS is (still) terrible. Unless you're trying to make some sort of bard-tank (or are just doing it for flavor), I'd advise sticking with THF or TWF. [SWF may also prove a viable alternative.]
The EK tree as a whole is fairly weak, IMHO; some decent stuff in the lower tiers, but T5 isn't worth the APs compared to a good PrE. Not that the bard T5 are much better, but I'd rather have T5 Spellsinger than EK, particularly on a self-described "support" toon.


It just doesn't feel like this build is particularly well-defined, IMHO.

[mrunlimited]

Well anyways I just read up on the swashbuckler tree and quite frankly it seems a lot cooler so Im just gonna tr this guy at 20 and rework him to do something with that when it goes live. Thanks for the feedback guys!