Ranged, Sneaky and more

Hi everyone reading this. I played a bit of DDO some time ago (and the beta, which is even a more long time ago). But never long enough to leave the N00b-status. Now there are so many changes to the game, that I don't even try to completely catch up :-)

I would like to start a new F2P toon now (probably I can get quite fast access to Artificer and Drow, if necessary, but nothing more). I imagine I could have fun with something, that does decent ranged damage, has good sneaking ability and beyond that as much use to the group as possible (heal or trap disarming, or buffs etc). And if it is a very non-standard build, that would be a nice bonus. ;-)

But I have no clue and no experience to create such a character. I would be glad, if someone could post or link something.

Thanks to all of you very much in advance.

Sounds like you would very much like the new Artificer class. Excellent ranged damage with repeater xbows, trapskills and with a rogue or monk splash you would have full hide/move-silent skills. Artificers are a welcomed addition to any party any time.

or you could roll a pure arcane archer ranger, they can have excellent ranged damage and sneak ability as well but no trapsmithing (unless you splash rogue, which i wouldnt do on an AA)

For non-standard ranged trapmonkey builds, have a look at my Triple A and Deepwood Mechanic builds. My Bardcher isn't stealth-based, but it can probably be tweaked to include Hide & MS.

I'd definitely suggest Artificer. Even being pure you can get enough cross class ranks in hide and move silently that with an invisibility scroll you can stealth quite effectively (possibly need gear and buffs for elite though for example).

An elven Ranger/Rogue can do everything you want. Elf for AA, Rogue for some Assasin or Mechanic. I have a very survivable and useful 12/8 character (original build from 2006) that can spot and disable pretty much every trap, does very good AA damage (not peak due to not being pure Ranger), and has excellent top of the line sneaking scores. Used all the time when scouting out new quests. UMD to self heal/buff as needed. Enough AC for some settings, (not EPIC....not even close). Very useful character, in both groups and soloing.

Almost every character I have now is somewhat stealthy.

Most of my characters are mostly Rgrs, but I have just about every other class too.

The Stealthiest char I have is a pure Wiz20. (but she uses Wraithform to come out on top)

With Hide/MS as cross class skills it is difficult to be very stealthy at lower lvls.
Even with full ranks it helps a lot to have some items that increase your Hide/MS skills.

Greater Silent Moves items can be found at min lvl 8.

Once you get one of those almost anyone can be stealthy enough for most quests....except epics.

epics are a whole nother story. Very difficult for cross-class stealthers to get quiet enough for epics.

But honesly few players find much use for stealth.

The usually argument is that they don't want to slow down.
But I have found a whole bunch of uses for stealth in a high speed group.

Truthfully though, those "zerge" stealth tactics of mine do not need any Hide/MS skill most of the time.

Learning to use stealth in this game though, takes some experience.
experience which is easier to get on a class that can take full ranks in it.