Solomon Kane (A build by request)

From Sigtrent's Build Request Thread

Build Name: Solomon Kane
Author: Sigfried Trent
Requester: Desmodus
Last Updated:06/15/10

Key Words [Role Playing, TWF, Ranged, Ranger, Paladin, Tank, Intimidate]

Objectives
This is a pure role playing request, trying to create a literary character, Solomon Kane, in DDO. He's a two fisted hero created by Robert E Howard who also created Conan. Solomon Kane fought with rapier and dagger or with dual pistols and was a kind of Christian Puritan witch hunter, tracking down and defeating nefarious practitioners of the black arts. He's tough, very resilient, resistant to magic, and fairly brawny.

Design
Breaking it down we want a TWF/Ranged build with good survivability. Human is dictated by the literary character. Ranger provides both TWF and ranged feats so that makes a good base class. Paladin gives us the flavor of the Puritain while also offering added defenses and resistance to magic. Fighter is splashed to help pad out the feats and because neither of the other classes needs additional levels to meet their goals.

Light Repeating Crossbow stands in for dual pistols, although really the build is better with a bow when manyshot is available. While AC isn’t a primary concern, the flow of the build led to creating a kind of light TWF tank with fairly high AC running in TWF mode, some hate generation and intimidate. While not quite up to the standards for a high end raid tank, it can handle off tanking or light tanking duties pretty well, especially against casters.

Enhancements are all over the map with some going to defense and others offense. This character is full of small surprises and can go quite a while without running out of buttons to click on. While not a pure DPS character, all the little tricks and class features add up and peak DPS vs favored enemies is pretty decent, especially for a character with an odd theme.

Code:

Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 3.34 DDO Character Planner Home Page Level 20 Lawful Good Human Male (2 Fighter \ 6 Paladin \ 12 Ranger) Hit Points: 348 Spell Points: 196 BAB: 20\20\25\30\30 Fortitude: 25 Reflex: 19 Will: 12 Starting Feat/Enhancement Abilities Base Stats Modified Stats (32 Point) (Level 1) (Level 20) Strength 15 23 Dexterity 14 18 Constitution 16 19 Intelligence 8 10 Wisdom 11 13 Charisma 13 16 Tomes Used +2 Tome of Strength used at level 7 +2 Tome of Dexterity used at level 7 +2 Tome of Constitution used at level 7 +2 Tome of Intelligence used at level 7 +2 Tome of Wisdom used at level 7 +2 Tome of Charisma used at level 7 Starting Feat/Enhancement Base Skills Modified Skills Skills (Level 1) (Level 20) Balance 4 15 Bluff 1 3 Concentration 3 7 Diplomacy 1 3 Disable Device n/a n/a Haggle 1 3 Heal 0 1 Hide 6 15 Intimidate 2 29 Jump 6 18 Listen 0 1 Move Silently 6 15 Open Lock n/a n/a Perform n/a n/a Repair -1 0 Search -1 0 Spot 4 19 Swim 2 6 Tumble 3 5 Use Magic Device n/a n/a Level 1 (Ranger) Skill: Balance (+2) Skill: Hide (+4) Skill: Intimidate (+1) Skill: Jump (+4) Skill: Move Silently (+4) Skill: Spot (+4) Skill: Tumble (+1) Feat: (Human Bonus) Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Repeating Light Crossbow Feat: (Favored Enemy) Favored Enemy: Undead Feat: (Selected) Toughness Enhancement: Ranger Energy Resistence Boost I Enhancement: Ranger Sprint Boost I Enhancement: Human Versatility I Enhancement: Ranger Favored Damage I Level 2 (Ranger) Skill: Balance (+0.5) Skill: Hide (+1) Skill: Intimidate (+0.5) Skill: Jump (+1) Skill: Move Silently (+1) Skill: Spot (+1) Enhancement: Human Improved Recovery I Enhancement: Ranger Dexterity I Level 3 (Ranger) Skill: Balance (+0.5) Skill: Hide (+1) Skill: Intimidate (+0.5) Skill: Jump (+1) Skill: Move Silently (+1) Skill: Spot (+1) Feat: (Selected) Dodge Enhancement: Racial Toughness I Enhancement: Ranger Devotion I Level 4 (Ranger) Ability Raise: STR Skill: Balance (+0.5) Skill: Hide (+1) Skill: Intimidate (+0.5) Skill: Jump (+1) Skill: Move Silently (+1) Skill: Spot (+1) Enhancement: Ranger Sprint Boost II Enhancement: Human Versatility II Enhancement: Ranger Energy of the Wild I Level 5 (Ranger) Skill: Balance (+0.5) Skill: Hide (+1) Skill: Intimidate (+0.5) Skill: Jump (+1) Skill: Move Silently (+1) Skill: Spot (+1) Feat: (Favored Enemy) Favored Enemy: Evil Outsider Enhancement: Human Adaptability Strength I Enhancement: Ranger Favored Damage II Level 6 (Ranger) Skill: Hide (+1) Skill: Intimidate (+1) Skill: Jump (+1) Skill: Move Silently (+1) Skill: Spot (+1) Feat: (Selected) Mobility Enhancement: Ranger Dexterity II Level 7 (Fighter) Skill: Intimidate (+2) Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Spring Attack Enhancement: Fighter Haste Boost I Enhancement: Ranger Tempest I Level 8 (Ranger) Ability Raise: STR Skill: Balance (+1.5) Skill: Hide (+1) Skill: Jump (+1) Skill: Move Silently (+1) Skill: Spot (+1) Enhancement: Racial Toughness II Enhancement: Fighter Intimidate I Level 9 (Ranger) Skill: Balance (+0.5) Skill: Intimidate (+3) Feat: (Selected) Improved Critical: Piercing Weapons Enhancement: Human Versatility III Level 10 (Ranger) Skill: Balance (+0.5) Skill: Intimidate (+3) Enhancement: Human Versatility IV Level 11 (Paladin) Skill: Balance (+0.5) Skill: Intimidate (+1) Enhancement: Follower of the Silver Flame Enhancement: Paladin Extra Smite Evil I Enhancement: Paladin Toughness I Level 12 (Paladin) Ability Raise: STR Skill: Balance (+0.5) Skill: Intimidate (+1) Feat: (Selected) Improved Critical: Ranged Weapons Enhancement: Ranger Favored Damage III Enhancement: Paladin Charisma I Level 13 (Ranger) Skill: Balance (+0.5) Skill: Intimidate (+2) Skill: Spot (+2) Feat: (Favored Enemy) Favored Enemy: Dragon Enhancement: Human Greater Adaptability Constitution I Level 14 (Ranger) Skill: Balance (+0.5) Skill: Intimidate (+1) Skill: Spot (+4) Enhancement: Racial Toughness III Enhancement: Ranger Devotion II Level 15 (Ranger) Skill: Balance (+0.5) Skill: Hide (+1) Skill: Intimidate (+1) Skill: Move Silently (+1) Skill: Spot (+2) Feat: (Selected) Power Attack Enhancement: Ranger Tempest II Level 16 (Paladin) Ability Raise: STR Skill: Balance (+0.5) Skill: Intimidate (+1) Enhancement: Paladin Bulwark of Good I Enhancement: Paladin Resistance of Good I Enhancement: Paladin Extra Lay on Hands I Level 17 (Paladin) Skill: Balance (+0.5) Skill: Intimidate (+1) Enhancement: Human Improved Recovery II Enhancement: Paladin Toughness II Level 18 (Paladin) Skill: Balance (+0.5) Skill: Intimidate (+1) Feat: (Selected) Least Dragonmark of Sentinel Enhancement: Paladin Armor Class Boost I Enhancement: Paladin Courage of Good I Enhancement: Paladin Focus of Good I Enhancement: Paladin Extra Smite Evil II Level 19 (Paladin) Skill: Balance (+0.5) Skill: Intimidate (+1) Enhancement: Paladin Defender of Siberys I Level 20 (Fighter) Ability Raise: STR Skill: Intimidate (+1) Skill: Jump (+2) Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Two Weapon Defense Enhancement: Paladin Divine Righteousness I Enhancement: Paladin Divine Sacrifice I Enhancement: Paladin Exalted Smite I Enhancement: Paladin Divine Might I

Play
Play here is pretty much typical for a ranger, although there a are more than the usual number of clickables due to the paladin and fighter levels. Of course to stay true to the character requires some sub optimal weapon choices, but a good player can make those work out fine.

Variations
For 28pts you would likely drop con to 14.

OMG, this is awesome. It fits almost perfectly, the hp are really solid, and it just kinda looks like Solomon Kane would have this Level breakdown if he was a dnd character.

I love the saves as well.

2 questions for ya though: 1) to lvl 16 cap, what would you do with this character? Where do you think it should go? Maybe to 6 fighter for another feat and fgt str II?
2) If I don't take light repeating xbow (because even for flavor, i wont consciously take a useless feat) what would you take? Maybe improved critical ranged? I could do that by taking wpn focus pierce at 3rd, power attack at 6th, and take it at 10th. This would also get me a bit more to hit in the early levels, not that it matters.

Thank you very much for the help, I'm off to roll the character in one of the new slots i got with mod 5!

You did'nt fit in the pistols.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Desmodus

OMG, this is awesome.

Sweet! I'm really glad you like it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Desmodus

1) to lvl 16 cap, what would you do with this character? Where do you think it should go? Maybe to 6 fighter for another feat and fgt str II?

I think at level 20 It would work out best as Ranger 11, Fighter 6, Paladin 3 given the enhancements as they are (thats the hard part we don't know exactly how they will deal with upper level enhancements yet) Fighter 6 definately looks better than ranger 9 (from the level 16 perspective). I like ranger 10/11 because you get evasion, another dex point, and at 11 some nice ranged feats and you can swap the Greater TWF you took earlier for whatever else seems cool.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Desmodus

2) If I don't take light repeating xbow (because even for flavor, i wont consciously take a useless feat) what would you take? Maybe improved critical ranged? I could do that by taking wpn focus pierce at 3rd, power attack at 6th, and take it at 10th. This would also get me a bit more to hit in the early levels, not that it matters.

If you like Ranged fighting sometimes (and I generaly do) then I'd do exactly as you describe.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Desmodus

Thank you very much for the help, I'm off to roll the character in one of the new slots i got with mod 5!

My pleasure!

Quote:

Originally Posted by spifflove

You did'nt fit in the pistols.

:> Well, the Repeating Light Crossbow was the closest thing to a pistol I could think of. Magic Missile wands could work, but that would be a different build not so in keeping with the characters nature I think.

Gtwf

Just an FYI even though the feat SAYS you can get GTWF at 17 dex it is really (as per dnd pnp rules: 19) So you will have to switch the feat selection around so maybe take dodge at 11 and GTWF at the next spot (don't remember off the top of my head)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rei Half-elven

Just an FYI even though the feat SAYS you can get GTWF at 17 dex it is really (as per dnd pnp rules: 19) So you will have to switch the feat selection around so maybe take dodge at 11 and GTWF at the next spot (don't remember off the top of my head)

I have to ask what you base that on. First hand experience? I've never heard anyone else question that you could take it at 17 natural dex and it is listed that way in the build program, in the compendium, on the in game description, and in the WIKI. It's hard to imagine they are all wrong. I've not personaly made any characters taking GTWF myself so I can only go by what I've seen.

That is incorrect Rei, from personal experience having a wf barb who used a +1 dex tome to hit 17 to get itwf and gtwf i can attest to that.

there will be feats down the line were a Plus 3 tome will be required for all you reaver raiders out there. I wonder what the odds are of getting a +3 tome and having it be dex?

Gtwf

Well when i had 17 dex it wouldn't let me take GTWF It did not show up until I got 19 dex... I will try again though maybe it was just some strange fluke with that char I did have to rebuild the char since i didn't make her to reach 19 dex. I did try not to take her to 19, and the feat did not show until i got her to 19. Will certainly make my life easier if it WAS a fluke with that char. 19 isn't an easy goal when you're on a crunch and wanna use those points for str or something else

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rei Half-elven

Well when i had 17 dex it wouldn't let me take GTWF It did not show up until I got 19 dex... I will try again though maybe it was just some strange fluke with that char I did have to rebuild the char since i didn't make her to reach 19 dex. I did try not to take her to 19, and the feat did not show until i got her to 19. Will certainly make my life easier if it WAS a fluke with that char. 19 isn't an easy goal when you're on a crunch and wanna use those points for str or something else

Keep in mind it does not count bonuses from items, only your starting stats, tomes, and level up increases.

And don't forget the BAB requirement.