Drow Rogue/Wizzy

[Duagrim]

I have been thinking about starting a Drow Wizard by taking 2 levels of Rogue first to get Evasion, search, trap and lock skills, then switching to Wizzy for the remaining 12 levels. By going Drow one can easily start with 18's in both Dex and Int, and keep up a good level of trap/lock monkey skills. Plus, Evasion with a nice high Reflex save will come in very handy indeed in high level content. Is this a bad idea? I have been playiong since release, but mostly tanks and clerics until now, never got a caster past level 3. Anybiody got an idea if this will work?

[Mad_Bombardier]

1 Rogue, 2-8 Wiz (for Wall of Fire), 9 Rogue (after the second INT boost for more skills), 10-14 Wiz. Works great!

I've seen some 1Rogue/13Wiz builds and I really like level 7 spells, but lack of Evasion scares me.

[Duagrim]

Thanks. Is there a problem with taking the second level of Rogue at 2, or to be more accurate, is there an advantage to waiting until level 9? I had thought to take the second level of Rogue right away so as to get evasion ASAP.

[Mad_Bombardier]

Traps don't really get deadly until level 8 or so (nor boxes on the other side of active traps). So, Evasion is not really missed. You can buff/heal your way through most traps until then.

The advantage to waiting is 1 more skill point at level 8 with 2 level up stat raises. I choose to wait until level 9 because I like 7Wizard when I get 4th level spells. You will be able to keep up with your trapsmithing skills just fine on Wizard levels, meaning you'll be able to play catch up with your Rogue level skills later. Take 2Rogue too soon and you'll end up flushing skill points on things you don't want or need.

[Aspenor]

Thanks. Is there a problem with taking the second level of Rogue at 2, or to be more accurate, is there an advantage to waiting until level 9? I had thought to take the second level of Rogue right away so as to get evasion ASAP.

Your wizard levels will be plenty to keep your trapsmithing skills up, probably. I'm not a pro on trapwizards but for me, I would take rogue levels at 1 and 9, and at level one max UMD, and use my skill points from 2-8 on trapsmithing skills, and then at level 9 I would dump all my skill points into UMD. This route will allow you the highest UMD and still maintain your trap skills....at least I *think* it should.

This is the same thing I did with my spellsword, I held off until level 9 to take my second level of rogue, and skipped UMD from levels 1-8, and then dumped all my rogue skills into UMD. That way you're not spending half points on your UMD.

Then again, you may or may not have to use those rogue levels to ramp up your rogue skills, so I might be wrong in my advice.

[sigtrent]

It should work out pretty well..

Here is one I did, it has a couple fighter levels but it gives you an idea of what is possible skill wise.

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=119784

You actualy don't need to go whole hog on the dex to make it work, all depends on what you want to do. I'd only take dex to 14 or 16 unless you really want to go into combat. Grab all the Int you can get though!

The tricky part is figuring out what you want to put skill points into and how much.

[Blind_Skwerl]

I have a 2R/12W "Utility Wizard" and absolutely love him! Can't do Cabal on elite, but most everything else is no prob. The reason to take the second level of rogue later is to fill in the missing gaps with you skill points. If you are a rogue fist level (recommended) and put your points into DD/OL/spot/search/etc., then at second level you will be able to put only 1 point into each of these skills. Leftover points have to go to junk skills. If you use the half points durring your wizard levels to increase your rogue skills, it should keep them decent but not maxed. Once you start to notice you are falling behind on your skills, take the second level of rogue and your skills will be right back up there. I decided to hold out until level 11 for my second rogue level.

[RandomToon]

I have been thinking about starting a Drow Wizard by taking 2 levels of Rogue first to get Evasion, search, trap and lock skills, then switching to Wizzy for the remaining 12 levels. By going Drow one can easily start with 18's in both Dex and Int, and keep up a good level of trap/lock monkey skills. Plus, Evasion with a nice high Reflex save will come in very handy indeed in high level content. Is this a bad idea? I have been playiong since release, but mostly tanks and clerics until now, never got a caster past level 3. Anybiody got an idea if this will work?

I play a Drow Wiz/Rog, except I went 13/1. Going 12/2 DOES work, and at times is better than 13/1, but I don't think I could live without level 7 spells. Dancing Ball and FoD are THAT useful to me. However, once the level cap goes up to 20, the plan was always for me to be 17/3 Wizard/Rogue.

Pesonally, I think that level 2 Rogue is nice, but you might have a hard time getting your reflex save up high enough to make evasion really useful. Do the math first and see if you can break the mid 20's.

If you would like build advice, PM me...

[Stonebread]

I plan on going 13/1 as Drow. And I plan on trying out Arcane Fluidity with mithral chain and (sometimes) a mithral heavy shield. I know my AC won't matter much at the higher levels, but in the medium levels I'd like to be a less squishy, squishy.

[Galapas]

I plan on going 13/1 as Drow. And I plan on trying out Arcane Fluidity with mithral chain and (sometimes) a mithral heavy shield. I know my AC won't matter much at the higher levels, but in the medium levels I'd like to be a less squishy, squishy.

I tried it, arcane fluidity does not affect penalty from shields. I hear that Seven fingered gloves does though.

[kendo]

I tried it, arcane fluidity does not affect penalty from shields. I hear that Seven fingered gloves does though.

but a light mithral shield helps without worrying about spell failure, so I use that while I continue to look for those darn gloves

[Blind_Skwerl]

IPesonally, I think that level 2 Rogue is nice, but you might have a hard time getting your reflex save up high enough to make evasion really useful. Do the math first and see if you can break the mid 20's.

My 12wiz/2rogue is hitting 25 reflex save. Not huge but decent.

[Cole]

First thanks for the information posted here, I was making a char like this and this information has saved me a bunch of frustration later on. I do have a couple of questions, do keep in mind I have been out of the game quite some time..

1. If I understand correctly, with Mithral armor and Arcane Fluidity I would have a 5% arcane casting failure, is this worth while? Or is the difference between chain armor and a robe small enough it is not worth the chance of failure?

2. With two levels of rogue, would I get any level 7 spells? I'm afraid I don't know the spell progression (levels 1,3,5,7,9,11,13 ?)

3. For those times I am saving or out of SP, I have been using a shortbow (w/ pointblank shot) but I seem to miss 40% the time. I started with 16 Dex and would like to improve my change to hit. What am I missing or doing wrong?

4. (1Rog/2Wiz) When would be the best time to take the last level of Rogue? Is there a point I really need to boost (spot,UDM,jump,swim,tumble) in order to be able to handle rogue duties for groups? Otherwise could I take the last rogue level at 14 to get the most skill points possible?

5. Any other advice that someone could pass along for a fairly new char?

Thanks!

[MrCow]

Comments in red:

1. If I understand correctly, with Mithral armor and Arcane Fluidity I would have a 5% arcane casting failure, is this worth while? Or is the difference between chain armor and a robe small enough it is not worth the chance of failure?

I don't have an elf or drow (and never will) so I refrain from answering this on the grounds that I will give wrong information.

2. With two levels of rogue, would I get any level 7 spells? I'm afraid I don't know the spell progression (levels 1,3,5,7,9,11,13 ?)

No, you would only get up to 6th level spells being you would be a 12th level wizard. You do have the spell progression right though.

3. For those times I am saving or out of SP, I have been using a shortbow (w/ pointblank shot) but I seem to miss 40% the time. I started with 16 Dex and would like to improve my change to hit. What am I missing or doing wrong?

Just face the music and realize that missing 40% of the time isn't all that bad. Wizards get a low Base Attack Bonus so you will often see a fair amount of missing unless you are attacking low AC monsters or have crazy high DEX. Some options might include looking into enhancements or feats to aid you with your archery, such as the Weapon Focus: Ranged feat.

4. (1Rog/2Wiz) When would be the best time to take the last level of Rogue? Is there a point I really need to boost (spot,UDM,jump,swim,tumble) in order to be able to handle rogue duties for groups? Otherwise could I take the last rogue level at 14 to get the most skill points possible?

The best time to take the second level of rogue is either when you cave in because you really want evasion or when you can spend all the skill points of the rogue level on those rogue skills without any waste. Without knowing the build you are using I can't give a precise level of when you would get the most out of your second rogue level, but the general principle is the rewards get better the longer you wait.

5. Any other advice that someone could pass along for a fairly new char?

Find people you enjoy playing with and find a character you enjoy playing. Toss out "best builds", "loot", "quest efficiency", and all those other metagame superiority issues and in the end, thats all that it boils down to.

On a side note, builds like this may wish to forgo adding DEX if they don't plan for needing AC or DEX based to-hit with Insightful Reflexes coming with Mod 6. The notes on it are in this post.

Insightful Reflexes

* Prerequisite: Int 13
* Benefit: Picks the highest modifier between your intelligence and your
* dexterity modifier for your reflex saves.

Turn that amazing brain into a physics crunching evasion machine.