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[Caprice]

[....]
I want a ranger tempest with high DPS and able to disarm traps. (I don´t know if it is possible!) (28 pts, 1lvl rogue 19 ranger, drow or elf or human)
[....]
Going to the facts:
1. I like the style from 2 builds: the one from tihocan, that can be found here, and the another one is the trapmonkey from EllisDee, that can be found here.

The problem is, these builds are absolete! The tihocan´s build is from 2010.

EllisDee37's Tempest Trapmonkey build is not obsolete in any way. If you want a first life character with almost all Ranger levels that has powerful TWF melee plus trapping (plus good ranged DPS "for free") then I think that is just about an ideal setup. The Fighter splash is not necessary but it costs you very little from your Ranger side.

From EllisDee37's build you can see that INT 14 is fine on a Human to keep up all of Concentration, Disable Device, Heal, Search, Spot, and Use Magic Device. With an Elf or Drow you would need to go INT 16 to do the same. You will need to invest in tomes or drop some of the skills if you don't feel that they matter to your playstyle. Note that Open Locks is not on the list because most locks can be opened with low skills, a good +Open Lock item, good thief tools, and patience. If you want to max it out too so that you can get the harder locks, you will need higher INT, a tome, and/or to drop other skills.

DEX-based combat is considered a "trap" for endgame play in most cases since you can stack a lot more bonuses to STR than you can to DEX. There are valid reasons to go DEX-based but it is not the min-max choice so make sure that it is something you really want to do. For more casual players there is not a huge difference between the two, but even without any sort of rare gear a Ranger can self-cast Ram's Might and will get a bigger boost to STR-based damage that way than to DEX-based damage, and the Rage spell is easy for anyone to get and it only helps with STR-based damage. The main reason why people pick up higher DEX scores anyway is to qualify for some feats that require high DEX, such as the Two Weapon Fighting line and Improved Precise Shot, or for ranged damage. However as a Ranger you get the main DEX feats for free as well as Bow Strength for free so you can even dump your DEX and it will not affect you much at all other than somewhat lower Reflex saves.

However if by "Perfect Tempest TWF" you mean the most min-max TWF fighting character with trap skills then that would probably have no Ranger levels at all and is instead be something like a Ftr12/Mnk6/Rog2 "Centered Kensei" STR-based build, but I doubt that you can pull that off effectively with a 28 point character. For a character with a Ranger icon a Rgr11/Ftr8/Rog1 split (or maybe /Art1) with Keen Edge for its Tier 5 enhancement probably offers the most melee DPS alongside trapping but will be much less survivable than a Centered Kensei in harder content, and it gets a lot less skill points than a Tempest Trapmonkey so it will require tomes and higher stat build points to achieve proper trapping skills.

[Nodoze]

EllisDee37's Tempest Trapmonkey build is not obsolete in any way. If you want a first life character ... to achieve proper trapping skills.

Very informative post. Thanks for taking the time so share.

[Gabrielmuller]

EllisDee37's Tempest Trapmonkey build is not obsolete in any way. If you want a first life character with almost all Ranger levels that has powerful TWF melee plus trapping (plus good ranged DPS "for free") then I think that is just about an ideal setup. The Fighter splash is not necessary but it costs you very little from your Ranger side.

From EllisDee37's build you can see that INT 14 is fine on a Human to keep up all of Concentration, Disable Device, Heal, Search, Spot, and Use Magic Device. With an Elf or Drow you would need to go INT 16 to do the same. You will need to invest in tomes or drop some of the skills if you don't feel that they matter to your playstyle. Note that Open Locks is not on the list because most locks can be opened with low skills, a good +Open Lock item, good thief tools, and patience. If you want to max it out too so that you can get the harder locks, you will need higher INT, a tome, and/or to drop other skills.

DEX-based combat is considered a "trap" for endgame play in most cases since you can stack a lot more bonuses to STR than you can to DEX. There are valid reasons to go DEX-based but it is not the min-max choice so make sure that it is something you really want to do. For more casual players there is not a huge difference between the two, but even without any sort of rare gear a Ranger can self-cast Ram's Might and will get a bigger boost to STR-based damage that way than to DEX-based damage, and the Rage spell is easy for anyone to get and it only helps with STR-based damage. The main reason why people pick up higher DEX scores anyway is to qualify for some feats that require high DEX, such as the Two Weapon Fighting line and Improved Precise Shot, or for ranged damage. However as a Ranger you get the main DEX feats for free as well as Bow Strength for free so you can even dump your DEX and it will not affect you much at all other than somewhat lower Reflex saves.

However if by "Perfect Tempest TWF" you mean the most min-max TWF fighting character with trap skills then that would probably have no Ranger levels at all and is instead be something like a Ftr12/Mnk6/Rog2 "Centered Kensei" STR-based build, but I doubt that you can pull that off effectively with a 28 point character. For a character with a Ranger icon a Rgr11/Ftr8/Rog1 split (or maybe /Art1) with Keen Edge for its Tier 5 enhancement probably offers the most melee DPS alongside trapping but will be much less survivable than a Centered Kensei in harder content, and it gets a lot less skill points than a Tempest Trapmonkey so it will require tomes and higher stat build points to achieve proper trapping skills.

Thank you for your response. You was very clear.
Looking the trapmonkey build, the ability points looks very coherent.
About the feats, particularly in my beginner opinion I didn't like. I like more the feats from tihocan's and unbongwah's build, according bellow

Toughness (1), Favored Enemy: Undead (2), Dodge (3), Mobility (6), Spring Attack (6), Favored Enemy: Construct (7), Improved Crit: Slash (9), Power Attack (12), Favored Enemy: Evil Outsider (12)

and

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/277496

And about the race, do you think is better human instead elf? Some people consider that elf is better because the ability with bows ...
I'll create both human and elf in DDO char planner and see the differences.

Thanks again

[Caprice]

[....]About the feats, particularly in my beginner opinion I didn't like. I like more the feats from tihocan's and unbongwah's build, according bellow
Toughness (1), Favored Enemy: Undead (2), Dodge (3), Mobility (6), Spring Attack (6), Favored Enemy: Construct (7), Improved Crit: Slash (9), Power Attack (12), Favored Enemy: Evil Outsider (12)
[....] And about the race, do you think is better human instead elf? Some people consider that elf is better because the ability with bows ...
I'll create both human and elf in DDO char planner and see the differences.[....]

I am happy to pass on the stuff I've picked up and glad to hear that it helps. Sadly I am not good at saying things succinctly so you are going to be stuck with a couple of walls of text here as followup. I'll start with general commentary on feats and races, and then post a few build ideas that might suit you. Hopefully by breaking it out people can comment on specific sections without having to quote too much all at once.

[Caprice]

Regarding Feats:

The Dodge -> Mobility -> Spring Attack chain used to be required for a Tempest prior to the big enhancement overhaul, which is the main reason why they were in Tihocan's and Unbongwah's builds. They are not required anymore so most people drop them, as really you are just getting 7% dodge and +2 Max DEX Bonus from them and Dodge is generally easy to get from gear. The other benefit to Spring Attack is that there is no penalty for attacking while moving, but Ranger has the full Base Attack Bonus (BAB) progression of a Martial class (i.e. +1/level) which means that you should not have any trouble hitting enemies consistently while moving around anyway, so the Spring Attack effect does not help. Non-Martial classes with slower BAB progressions might have some trouble but even they do fine most of the time, and can slot an Accuracy item to make up the difference where it is needed. With that much Dodge from feats you will probably easily exceed the Dodge cap for Light Armor unless you have the Duelist's Leathers from the Cove events, or choose to wear robes instead of Light Armor. If you are set on having those feats please consider adding Whirlwind Attack (WA) since it requires all 3 of those feats and that would give you a melee AoE attack to use too. WA used to be terribly bugged but I think they fixed it, or at least it isn't on the Known Issues list anymore. Someone please correct me if I am wrong about that. I have not tried it myself but I can roll up a quick Iconic to test it sometime soon.

These days most people instead pick up the Power Attack -> Cleave -> Greater Cleave -> Overwhelming Critical (OC, epic feat) feat line since it gives you 2 AoE attacks and then a really good DPS boost from more powerful critical hits in the epic levels. I would recommend the latter chain but it requires that you be STR-based since OC requires a minimum of 23 STR (between base stat, level ups, and tomes) so that takes some focus to achieve. If you want to be DEX based or just want to stick to the former Spring Attack chain - well, I am not going to recommend it but it is your character after all. ;-)

Toughness used to be all but required but these days it is considered optional. It used to be one of the larger HP bonuses on its own and it was a prerequisite for the racial and class Toughness enhancements, so that feat plus a few AP would be 40-80 HP more at level cap. Now the racial and class HP enhancements are gone in favor of a flat HP bonus for every 5 class levels, so Toughness is only 30 HP at level cap and we get another 15-20 HP without any AP investment. If you want it then keep it, since more HP is almost never a bad thing, but I feel that it is only worth including on builds with a lot of feats to spare.

There was a thread not long ago about what people think are the best Favored Enemy feats these days. Undead, Giants, and Evil Outsiders seem to be the most common choices (and are taken in that order) but there are good reasons for any of Constructs, Dragons, Humans, Elves, Aberrations, or Elementals. It really depends on what content you run most regularly.

[Caprice]

Regarding Elf or Human:
Either race choice works, depending on what you want. Ranger already gives you some of the more interesting options in the Elf tree so you might not get as much out of it as other classes can.

I find that Human is more effective than Elf in most cases. Human gives a feat, more skill points, has racial Healing Amplification enhancements to make it easier to stay alive, and can achieve better burst DPS by stacking Human Damage Boost with class enhancements like Tempest (or Kensei) Haste Boost, Many Shot, or all the Tempest short term buffs. Even if I have no other feat in mind, I can also use the Human bonus for a Dragonmark that will either let me cast Expeditious Retreat and DDoor on a non-arcane character, or one that buff chests so they drop better loot.

Elves can achieve a bit better sustained DPS with a small number of weapons but it can cost a lot of AP to get those for not a huge increase in how powerful you are. Elves get just one Dragonmark but it is also rather nice - it offers Invisibility and Displacement buffs, Unfortunately you really need the Extend Spell feat to make the most of it and you can get the same benefit from Greensteel clickies from the Shroud raid so it is easier to replace than the Human DMs are. Elves also get access to enhancements for using DEX instead of STR with certain weapons, and an Elf can take Arcane Archer enhancements without being a Ranger which makes it a strong choice for Monk archer builds, but as a Ranger you can get basically all of that through the Ranger enhancement trees and generally get the same effects for less AP.

OTOH I have quite a number of Elf characters myself despite the fact that they are not min-max because I felt like it at the time. If you want to pick Elf just for personal aesthetics or role playing purposes or whatever makes you happy then that's worth it IMO.

[Caprice]

Regarding Elven weapons:

Elf weapon damage isn't just about the bows. As I said above, some people play archers without any Ranger levels and pick Elf so that they can be Arcane Archers anyway, but the elven weapon enhancements also affect some melee weapons that are good for your Ranger. The elven weapon bonus is given to all 3 weapons in one of two sets, either Longswords, Rapiers, and Longbows combined (called "Aerenal") or Scimitars, Falchions, and Shortbows combined ("Valenar"}. Falchions are 2-handers so I'll ignore them here.

Rapiers and Scimitars do exactly the same damage, but Rapiers need Improved Critical:Pierce and Scimitars need Improved Critical:Slash so they are not quite interchangeable on a single character. Longswords are fine to start but generally do less damage once you get to higher levels and criticals begin to matter more. Longbows do slightly better damage than Shortbows, but more importantly every good bow in the game right now is a Longbow so you will use those a lot more over time. So if you go Valenar you can use Scimitars to do great melee damage but then you have to choose between using poor bows with bonuses or good bows without bonuses, so you won't have the best ranged damage. Aerenal gets the best of both melee & ranged worlds using Rapiers & Longbows. A STR build can jump straight to Aerenal and use both Rapiers and Longbows and will be in good shape. DEX builds get a bit more complicated.

Tempest gives you DEX to attack and damage with Scimitars almost trivially. The Tempest Core enhancements 2 & 3 let you use DEX for your attack and damage modifiers with Light weapons while TWFing, and Tempest Core 2 also lets you treat Scimitars as Light weapons, so together they let you use DEX to attack and damage with Scimitars. A Light weapon also has a lower penalty to your attack chance when you TWF; again, with all those Ranger levels you won't have much trouble with this anyway but it can be useful when you do builds with deeper splashes that do have more trouble hitting.

However Rapiers are not Light weapons and there is no similar perk for Rapiers, so Tempest does not help here. You can build a character to use Rapiers with DEX too, but you need the Weapon Finesse feat to get DEX to attack. Then a Ranger can pick up the Improved Weapon Finesse enhancement (DEX to damage when you already have DEX to attack) fairly cheaply from in the Ranger Deepwood Stalker (DWS) tree. An Elf that isn't a Ranger can also get DEX to damage with Rapiers from the Elven Racial tree by maxing out Aerenal Weapons and taking Grace to get DEX to both attack and damage; that is at the top of the Elven Enhancement tree and thus takes a lot of AP investment, but it also lets you use your DEX to damage with Longbows. You will have the Bow Strength feat for free so you will get some extra damage from that even on a DEX build, but you might want to replace that with Elven Grace & Aerenal Weapons so you can use your higher DEX bonus instead.

So on an Elf Ranger you need to make a choice between:
- STR build that gets the best of everything w/ no effort
- DEX build w/ no effort that focuses on good Scimitars and is weaker on bows
- DEX build that spends feats and some enhancements to get good Rapiers and slightly better bows
- DEX build that spends feats and lots of enhancements to get good Rapiers and good bows

Which is best for you is going to depend on playstyle and how min-max you want your ranged damage to be.

[Caprice]

Aaaaaaaaaaaand FINALLY, some specific build ideas:

---------------------------

28-pt Elven DEX-based variation #1, Scimitar-using build sticking with the Spring Attack chain:
Stats: 10/18/12/16/8/8, levelups in DEX (no tomes necessary)
Levels: Rogue @1, Wiz @2, Ranger for the rest
Feats: Elven DM (1), Extend (2wiz), Dodge (3), Mobility (6), Improved Crit:Slash (9), Spring Attack (12), Whirlwind Attack (15), Empower Heal (18), Quicken(21), Combat Archery (24) (I guess), Perfect TWF (26), Blinding Speed or Epic Reflexes (27), Perfect SWF (28).
Enhancements: Take a cue from EllisDee37's TT build, but drop Human12/Kensei4 for Elf12(Greater DM, Valanar2, Keen Senses 1)/Archmage4 (Shield SLA, Wand & Scroll Mastery 3).
Skills: Max Concentration, Disable Device, Heal, Search, Spot, and UMD. Leave Concentration and Heal as zero at level 1. Max Concentration to 5 on the Wizard level. On each Ranger level you can add +1 to all 6 skills (= 8 skill points since DD and UMD are cross-class) and you will have 1 skill point left over to catch up on the rest of the skills; I would suggest maxing them out as Search > DD > Spot > Heal > UMD, and all should be at max for your level at level 14. Open Locks 4 at level one then use the spare points at 15-20 to bring to 7. Spare points at level 1 into Balance, Jump, Tumble (only need 1), and whatever else you want.
Comments: Wiz 1 gives a free meta feat (take Extend for the Dragonmark), free Magical Training/Echoes of Power (freeing up points in AA), the Shield SLA (for Magic Missile & Force missile immunity, some AC) and Wand & Scroll Mastery from Archmage, and use of Arcane wands w/o UMD checks. For spells I would suggest Obscuring Mist (20% miss chance on you even against bosses), Expeditious Retreat, and maybe Merfolk's Blessing. You could drop the Wizard level and push some of the feats back to fill in that empty epic feat pick, but I would not want to wait that long for them. OTOH I don't know what I would want to put in that level 24 feat slot anyway, unless I pulled a +3 STR tome and then could fit in Power Attack somewhere. With WIS being so low you will need a +WIS item to cast any Ranger spells at all, but you can use an Owl's Wisdom wand that you buy in the Marketplace to start and eventually a +6 WIS item or augment will cover everything.

---------------------------

28-pt Elven DEX-based variation #2, Rapier & Longbow-using build sticking with the Spring Attack chain:
Stats: as above
Levels: Rogue @1, Ftr @2, Ranger for the rest
Feats: Weapon Finesse (1), Dodge (2Ftr), Mobility (3), Spring Attack (6), Improved Crit:Piercing (9), Whirlwind Attack (12), Elven DM (15), Extend(18), Empower Heal (21), Quicken(24), Perfect TWF (26), Blinding Speed or Epic Reflexes (27), Perfect SWF (28).
Enhancements: Take a cue from EllisDee37's TT build, but drop Human12 for Elf12(Greater DM, Aerenal2, Keen Senses 1), and move a point to DWS "Improved Weapon Finesse"; could also salvage 6 points (e.g. drop both Rogue PrEs) to go full Elf18(Greater DM, Aerenal4, Keen Senses 1, Grace).
Skills: Mostly as above but you won't be able to max Concentration on your Fighter level. There are no relevant Fighter class skills so spend everything on skills that are cross-class for Ranger (i.e. DD, UMD, and Open Locks). You won't catch up on skills until level 19 so Open Locks only makes it to rank 5.

---------------------------

For a 28-pt Human STR build I would suggest EllisDee37's, as I said earlier, but if you really want to keep the Spring Attack chain then here is a variant that drops the Dragonmark, Khopesh proficiency, Toughness, and Sap, to pick up the others you want:

28-pt Human STR-based "All the melee AoEs & Dodgerriffic" build:
Stats: 16/14/14/14/8/8, levelups in STR, requires a +1 STR tome by level 24
Levels: Rogue @1, Fighter @2, Ranger for the rest
Feats: Power Attack (1), Cleave (1Human), Dodge (2Ftr), Mobility (3), Great Cleave (6), Improved Critical: Slash or Pierce (9), Spring Attack (12), Whirlwind Attack (15), Empower Healing (18), Quicken (21), Overwhelming Critical (24), Perfect TWF (26), Blinding Speed or Epic Reflexes (27), Perfect SWF (28).
Skills: As per EllisDee37
Enhancements: As per EllisDee37

You could be effective with either Scimitars and IC:Slash or Rapiers and IC:Pierce with this build, whichever you prefer, so just choose accordingly at level 9. If you think you'll be TRing you may want to go Pierce and try to collect the nicer short swords since those are applicable to a wider range of builds (e.g. Ninja Spy Monks, Swashbuckler Bards, Drow Clerics/FvS). I think that the available Rapiers are generally nicer than the available Scimitars, especially once you hit epic levels, but some of the better Rapiers have innate IC:Pierce (e.g. Balizarde) so you can still pick IC:Slash and use them without losing DPS. It's a bit of a wash really.

[Caprice]

I declare this forum page property of Caprice! ;-)

[Nodoze]

I declare this forum page property of Caprice! ;-)

Some very nice & informative posts. Enjoyed reading and even after playing all these years I learned a few new things.

[thouston]

i am currently running a EllisDee37 build, it rocks, try it you will like it

[Gabrielmuller]

I declare this forum page property of Caprice! ;-)

Caprice,

Thank you very much for spending your time helping other players.
Well, I must say that now I accomplished my objective (perfect tempest :P)
I created the char yesterday following ElisDee's build mixing with your suggestions
Thanks

Gabriel

edit: char created STR-build human

[Gregov]

Hello I am looking for build to my next TR. My past lifes: 3x Ranger 1x Fighter. Now i will lvl up to 20 and do next TR. Looking for fighter build using TWF khopesh weapons. I had a break in a game so dont have many tomes (+3 max only i think). If u send me a link to any good build will be fine Thx for answer see you in game!

[MacRighteous]

I declare this forum page property of Caprice! ;-)

Very enlightening series of posts Caprice, thanks! The way you just broke down the STR Tempest TWF feat line vs the DEX Tempest TWF feat line with regards to Race and weapons, made 3+ years of on and off reading finally click for me. It's one thing to say "this is what it is and this is what it does" but quite another thing to say "And this is why it does that, and this is why it's important." That's powerful and a lot of advice doesn't go that extra steps to make the advice actually useful.

I wonder if you (or anyone) at some point, could give the same kind of treatment into something like a Self Healing, Dwarven DPS build and the stat and feat considerations for selecting THF, TWF, SnB, or SWF? And contrast that with a Self Healing, DPS Fighter achieving the same fighting style. That would really be helpful as would be adding a flavor goal to illustrate preferential trade offs.

So - keeping a beginner friendly (F2P/28-32max/No tomes) build in mind the build request template would be:

Wanted: High DPS Build. Self Healing, Survivability.
I always loved the iconic fantasy Dwarven fighter in heavy armor wielding an axe and a shield, but mainly I just want to melt faces with DPS.
I play mostly solo, so some decent self healing is a plus and I am mainly just interested in being effective in HH/HE and EN to cap.

As stated I like dwarfs with axes and shields but I would consider wielding a two-handed axe or perhaps two axes - which ever does the most DPS.
I also would consider another race.

/end template

Please explain to this requester the basic build choices that goes in to considering the Dwarf Fighters THF feat line, TWF feat line vs SnB and SWF feat lines (something that I am unfamiliar with) and how they would work with Dwarven Axes and other enhancements, plus the trade offs when splashing in some self healing abilities (probably Paladin or Cleric levels) and then how that compares to a Human of the same build.

I know it's a lot to ask for and I will totally understand if you want to pass on the exercise, but it would be extremely useful to furthering my understanding of how to build in DDO.

MacR

[Nodoze]

Very enlightening series of posts Caprice, thanks! The way you just broke down the STR Tempest TWF feat line vs the DEX Tempest TWF feat line with regards to Race and weapons, made 3+ years of on and off reading finally click for me. It's one thing to say "this is what it is and this is what it does" but quite another thing to say "And this is why it does that, and this is why it's important." That's powerful and a lot of advice doesn't go that extra steps to make the advice actually useful.

I wonder if you (or anyone) at some point, could give the same kind of treatment into something like a Self Healing, Dwarven DPS build and the stat and feat considerations for selecting THF, TWF, SnB, or SWF? And contrast that with a Self Healing, DPS Fighter achieving the same fighting style. That would really be helpful as would be adding a flavor goal to illustrate preferential trade offs.

So - keeping a beginner friendly (F2P/28-32max/No tomes) build in mind the build request template would be:

Wanted: High DPS Build. Self Healing, Survivability.
I always loved the iconic fantasy Dwarven fighter in heavy armor wielding an axe and a shield, but mainly I just want to melt faces with DPS.
I play mostly solo, so some decent self healing is a plus and I am mainly just interested in being effective in HH/HE and EN to cap.

As stated I like dwarfs with axes and shields but I would consider wielding a two-handed axe or perhaps two axes - which ever does the most DPS.
I also would consider another race.

/end template

Please explain to this requester the basic build choices that goes in to considering the Dwarf Fighters THF feat line, TWF feat line vs SnB and SWF feat lines (something that I am unfamiliar with) and how they would work with Dwarven Axes and other enhancements, plus the trade offs when splashing in some self healing abilities (probably Paladin or Cleric levels) and then how that compares to a Human of the same build.

I know it's a lot to ask for and I will totally understand if you want to pass on the exercise, but it would be extremely useful to furthering my understanding of how to build in DDO.

MacR

That is a tall order and I would like to see that also. Feel kinda lost with the new SWF stuff though it may not fit for a dwarven build but maybe a buckler with light axes or crits with light-Picks/hammers will make sense somehow...

I would give a +2 for being able to pull it off while going Constitution based for Damage (most rages give Con and Str). Having some Cleric/Paladin/FvS for self healing seems natural though sadly being Constitution based no longer/currently gets any real benefit from Divine Might so tough choices... Hopefully one day they will go back to making Divine Might just boost damage or allow it to boost one's primary stat...

[unbongwah]

So - keeping a beginner friendly (F2P/28-32max/No tomes) build in mind the build request template would be:

Wanted: High DPS Build. Self Healing, Survivability.

My first thought would be a dwarven variant on Noyellowbar: good melee & ranged DPS, high saves, Evasion, decent self-healing (though not until later levels). The main drawbacks to going dwarf instead of human are losing that extra feat, heal amp, and Dmg Boost; but upsides are higher CON & HPs, dmg bonuses to racial weapons, and possibly higher saves & tactics DCs if you invest APs into them.

In the long run, I would build around dual Mornhs in Legendary Dreadnought w/Pulverizer (+1 crit range w/IC:Blunt, Mornh becomes 15-20 x3). But for leveling, you'd use whatever are the best weapons you can get your hands on. A couple of good possibilities: Deathnip, Axe of Adaxus.

[Jolyna]

Hi, I've taken a break from the game for a few years and was thinking about making a fresh start on a new server. I'd like to play a Divine DPS caster but it looks like enough has changed since I have played where I'm not really sure where to begin. Could someone recommend a first life 32pt build for me? I have FvS but no premium races.

[MagicalDad]

That is a tall order and I would like to see that also. Feel kinda lost with the new SWF stuff though it may not fit for a dwarven build but maybe a buckler with light axes or crits with light-Picks/hammers will make sense somehow...

I would give a +2 for being able to pull it off while going Constitution based for Damage (most rages give Con and Str). Having some Cleric/Paladin/FvS for self healing seems natural though sadly being Constitution based no longer/currently gets any real benefit from Divine Might so tough choices... Hopefully one day they will go back to making Divine Might just boost damage or allow it to boost one's primary stat...

Con-focused is difficult w/o tomes and good gear, though it's awesome when you pull it off. Where as Charisma-focused Bard is pretty nice now. Works best w/ a human on account of the extra feats and skill points, but if you are willing to be slightly less uber in the DPS department (-2 CHA, one less feat), and a little more resilient, go Dwarf.

Level split is 12bard/6fighter/2rogue. Without tomes and gear it's hard to be a viable trapper after the initial levels, so no need to invest AP in that. You'll have great buffing and decent healing from bard, and crazy DPS for a 1st lifer with minimal gear.

Assuming a 32pt build, start w/ 13 STR to qualify for PA/Cleave, 18 CHA (all level ups here), Dex to 13 for Precision/Dodge, rest in Con.

Max out Balance, UMD, Spot, Search, Disable, Open Lock, and Perform at level 1, 1 point in Tumble, 3 left for Bluff.
Split Disable/Search on 2nd rogue level, all points into Balance on Fighter levels, max UMD/Perform on Bard levels w/ any left-overs into Heal.

Wearing light armor, w/ almost any light weapon (I happen to have short-swords, but handaxes, rapiers, etc. are all valid choices).

Level progression would be:
1: R - Single Weapon Fighting, PA
2: F - Cleave
3: F - Force of Personality, Dodge
4: R (Evasion), +1 CHA
5: B
6: B - Great Cleave
7: B (Should be able to take Skirmisher and Smooth Flourishes from Swashbuckler tree here, DPS/defenses go WAY up).
8: B +1 CHA
9: B - Extend Spell (for Rage/Blur)
10: F
11: F Improved SWF
12: B Improved Crit : (your weapon type), +1 CHA
13: B (Haste/Displacement)
14: F
15: F Precision, Greater SWF
16: B +1 CHA
17: B
18: B Empower Healing (probably pots/scrolls mostly up to now)
19: B
20: B +1 CHA

AP Allocated: 41 in Swashbuckler, cause EVERY Tier 5 ability is good there, 14 in Warchanter to get Frozen Fury and Song of Heroism, 25 in Stalwart Defender all the way to Swift Defense while maxing saves, CON, HP and PRR.

You'll be very survivable when soloing and able to fulfill many roles in a party.

[unbongwah]

Assuming a 32pt build, start w/ 13 STR to qualify for PA/Cleave, 18 CHA (all level ups here), Dex to 13 for Precision/Dodge, rest in Con.

What's the advantage of going CHA-based on this build? You're not really a DC-based caster; your Fascinate song will be fine with mediocre CHA; and there are still more ways of boosting STR than CHA. Frozen Fury's DC scales with CHA, but it also scales with # of bard lvls; so as a heavily-MCed build you're already at a disadvantage.

[unbongwah]

I'd like to play a Divine DPS caster but it looks like enough has changed since I have played where I'm not really sure where to begin. Could someone recommend a first life 32pt build for me? I have FvS but no premium races.

EllisDee37's Necro cleric is a good place to start; it's fairly easy to adapt to Evocation if you prefer.

If you prefer a FvS Evoker, the feats are almost identical, though the enhs would be a lot different, of course.