6Fighter/3Paladin/5Wizard ??

[bigj1608]

How bout it? 3 pally for +2 aura AC/saves, 2 lay on hands, disease/fear immunity. 5 wiz for self 1min haste/displacement/shield/anything else, and 6 fighter for feats and such.

straight melee guy, just a tought, no specifics yet.. ideas?

[Jarlaxel]

How bout it? 3 pally for +2 aura AC/saves, 2 lay on hands, disease/fear immunity. 5 wiz for self 1min haste/displacement/shield/anything else, and 6 fighter for feats and such.

straight melee guy, just a tought, no specifics yet.. ideas?

it would be an interesting build. WHat would be your starting stats? Might spread yourself thin distributing points among such diverse classes. I am currently working on a halfing 7 fighter 7 wizzy, and 2 rogue when the level cap goes to 16. I choose halfling because starting base stats I can max dex to 20 (finesse), max con to 16, and int 13, and wisdom 9. With +1 tomes I bumped that up to int 14 and wis 10 starting. Also with a halfing I get +1 ac +1, attack rolls, and really nice saves. With level 7 wizzy I get stoneskin and fireshield Fireshield doesn't last long but its cool I would recommend a finesse fighter if you splash 5 levels of wizzy because your going to want a high dex to max out wearing wobes or light armor at higher levels. (Arcane failure). And your going to want to get your +hit as high as possible due to the wizzy levels.

[bigj1608]

i'm actually leaning towards dwarf for HP and spell defense. would most likely be str based and would leave int at 10, unless goin for CE, then put it at 12.. not sure on the rest though

[Tanka]

With a 10 Int, you're not casting anything without a +Int item. Sure, all you'd need is a +3 to be able to cast all of them, but you'd have a pitiful amount of SP.

IMO, it's not worth it for an extra 30sec Haste, or some Blur, when you can just ask the full caster in the group for a much longer cast.

[Jarlaxel]

i'm actually leaning towards dwarf for HP and spell defense. would most likely be str based and would leave int at 10, unless goin for CE, then put it at 12.. not sure on the rest though

I agree with Tanka your int may be to low and your mana pool would be pitiful. The trick to a successful wizard/fighter hybrid is to distribute stats so they compliment each other and not counterbalance which is why I choose finesse. I can get a high dex/ac +hit and minimize my arcane failure. If you invest in strength you will either be limited to wearing heavy armor, or average dex, or a low int. In my opinion, theres not enough stat points to distribute among str, dex, and int for a wizard/fighter hybrid. Use rons character planner to play around with stat distribution until you get something decent. Thats my advice.

[Tanka]

I agree with Tanka your int may be to low and your mana pool would be pitiful. The trick to a successful wizard/fighter hybrid is to distribute stats so they compliment each other and not counterbalance which is why I choose finesse. I can get a high dex/ac +hit and minimize my arcane failure. If you invest in strength you will either be limited to wearing heavy armor, or average dex, or a low int. In my opinion, theres not enough stat points to distribute among str, dex, and int for a wizard/fighter hybrid. Use rons character planner to play around with stat distribution until you get something decent. Thats my advice.

Well, lots of that is opinion.

I've played with a few great Battlecasters, mostly WF, but I've seen builds for non-WF that worked just as well (but weren't able to self-heal as reliably, or at all).

In the top-end Elite content, unless you're hitting an unbuffed 55 AC, you may as well go two-hander/two-weapon and wear armor that is more effect-oriented (Greater Resists, Fearsome, etc) than not.

On Normal in the capped game, 40ish AC usually works fine.

The main problem with the build proposed by the OP is, well, a full caster will be able to buff better and most have enough SP that a few hundred on buffs like Haste and Blur won't matter in the long run.

If he wants a Battlecaster that is good in both melee and has a plethora of self-buffs, there are a few WF builds that succeed very well in that regard.

[Jarlaxel]

Well, lots of that is opinion.

I've played with a few great Battlecasters, mostly WF, but I've seen builds for non-WF that worked just as well (but weren't able to self-heal as reliably, or at all).

In the top-end Elite content, unless you're hitting an unbuffed 55 AC, you may as well go two-hander/two-weapon and wear armor that is more effect-oriented (Greater Resists, Fearsome, etc) than not.

On Normal in the capped game, 40ish AC usually works fine.

The main problem with the build proposed by the OP is, well, a full caster will be able to buff better and most have enough SP that a few hundred on buffs like Haste and Blur won't matter in the long run.

If he wants a Battlecaster that is good in both melee and has a plethora of self-buffs, there are a few WF builds that succeed very well in that regard.

agreed

[Gadget2775]

I'm going a slightly different direction, but close enough in the basic build concept.

The Franken-Built "Elven Spellblade"

Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 2.75
DDO Character Planner Home Page

Spell Blade
Level 14 Lawful Good Elf Male
(6 Fighter \ 1 Paladin \ 7 Wizard) 
Hit Points: 209
Spell Points: 367 
BAB: 10\10\15\20
Fortitude: 12
Reflex: 7
Will: 7

                  Starting          Feat/Enhancement
Abilities        Base Stats          Modified Stats
(32 Point)       (Level 1)             (Level 14)
Strength             18                    25
Dexterity            12                    14
Constitution         13                    14
Intelligence         14                    15
Wisdom                8                     8
Charisma              8                     8

Tomes Used
+1 Tome of Constitution used at level 1
+2 Tome of Strength used at level 7
+1 Tome of Dexterity used at level 7
+1 Tome of Intelligence used at level 7

                  Starting          Feat/Enhancement
                 Base Skills         Modified Skills
Skills           (Level 1)            (Level 14)
Balance               3                    10
Bluff                -1                    -1
Concentration         6                    18
Diplomacy            -1                    -1
Disable Device        n/a                   n/a
Haggle               -1                    -1
Heal                 -1                    -1
Hide                  1                     2
Intimidate           -1                    -1
Jump                  4                     9
Listen               -1                     1
Move Silently         1                     2
Open Lock             n/a                   n/a
Perform              n/a                   n/a
Repair                2                     2
Search                2                     4
Spot                  1                    13.5
Swim                  6                    18.5
Tumble                n/a                   3
Use Magic Device     n/a                   n/a

Notable Equipment
Longsword: +5 Longsword of  

Level 1 (Paladin)
Feat: (Selected) Toughness
Enhancement: Elf Melee Damage I
Enhancement: Follower of the Sovereign Host

Level 2 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Weapon Focus: Slashing Weapons

Level 3 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Combat Expertise
Feat: (Selected) Toughness

Level 4 (Wizard)
Feat: (Wizard Bonus) Extend Spell

Level 5 (Wizard)

Level 6 (Fighter)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Trip

Level 7 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Weapon Specialization: Slashing Weapons

Level 8 (Fighter)

Level 9 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Improved Critical: Slashing Weapons
Feat: (Selected) Toughness

Level 10 (Wizard)

Level 11 (Wizard)

Level 12 (Wizard)
Feat: (Wizard Bonus) Empower Spell

Level 13 (Wizard)

Level 14 (Wizard)
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Fluidity I
Enhancement: Elven Dexterity I
Enhancement: Elf Melee Attack I
Enhancement: Elf Melee Attack II
Enhancement: Elf Melee Damage II
Enhancement: Elven Keen Eyes I
Enhancement: Elven Keen Eyes II
Enhancement: Elven Keen Eyes III
Enhancement: Elven Keen Eyes IV
Enhancement: Fighter Item Defense I
Enhancement: Fighter Strategy (Trip) I
Enhancement: Fighter Strategy (Trip) II
Enhancement: Wizard Improved Empowering I
Enhancement: Wizard Lineage of Elements I
Enhancement: Wizard Lineage of Elements II
Enhancement: Wizard Lineage of Deadly Elements I
Enhancement: Wizard Elemental Manipulation I
Enhancement: Wizard Elemental Manipulation II
Enhancement: Wizard Elemental Manipulation III
Enhancement: Wizard Energy of the Scholar I
Enhancement: Wizard Energy of the Scholar II
Enhancement: Fighter Strength I
Enhancement: Fighter Strength II
Enhancement: Fighter Toughness I
Enhancement: Fighter Toughness II

Yes I used a plus two strength tome already, pulled it raiding so nener. All other tomes eaten were pulled by me, for me. (Yes, I'm one of those horrid power gamers with way to much time on his hands for looting)

Personally I love the build so far. Being an elf I'm able to drop ASF to 15% in MFP. I'll lower it to 10% once I hit level 13 and can wear the Fanged Gloves. However, I could just as easily shift everything around to fill out the dex requirement on MBP reducing the ASF to 0%. Unfortunatly that'd drop my AC, and I'm not ready to go there yet. Additionally the +3 to hit for Elf and Pally Longsword enhancements takes allot of the sting out of lost BaB. I regularly use Combat Expertise/Defensive Fighting to push my AC up (depending on how hard it is to hit things), and don't regret burning the feat on CE at all. **EDIT** Current standing AC is a 42. Missing some +'s that'll come with leveling. Will update once I cap him **/EDIT**

Still haven't figured out what to take for my level 12 feat...Pondering Precision to make up for CE's negative to hit without loosing the AC bonus...Also pondering Least (and Lesser) Dragon marks of Shadow (Including lvl 15's feat). With extend they should provide perma-displaced mitigating AC lost if I want to cast CC or AoE spells.

I figure the enhancement lines will shift as I get a better feel for the character, but included thoughts on how I might spend them for now.

Heck of a fun build so far. Will probably grab 2 more Pally levels when they bump the cap to 18. Want fighter lvl 8 first though as it provides access to Greater Weapon Focus and I really like being able to hit things.

[Gadget2775]

Well, lots of that is opinion.
The main problem with the build proposed by the OP is, well, a full caster will be able to buff better and most have enough SP that a few hundred on buffs like Haste and Blur won't matter in the long run.

I've yet to meet the caster who'll keep me perma-hasted. As I seriously doubt they're going to add 30 min haste to the House P list this works great for me. Additionally if they ever get around to adding practiced spell caster to the list of feats it'd kick the buffs to 18 min for the OP and 22 for me. (slightly under 2 min of haste for the OP and just over for me )

**EDIT** Displacement is an awesom spell, not widely used because it chews up SP. This build is quite capable of Displacing itself...Definitly a bonus when yer runnin Elite content where even having a 50 AC is low **/EDIT**

As for SP, my build runs a base of 300, easily kicked up to 500 or so with items and enhancements. Right around the same pool a full Pally or Ranger is might have. Nothing like a pure class caster, but more than enough for me.

[Vodac]

you could go sorc and boost your cha
give you more spell points
spell point items dobble for sorc ( 10 points for wiz but sorc get 20 from same item)
higher cha give's you more AC (with pal agenst evile)
you dont have to put points in to int (more points for other stats)

[Tanka]

spell point items dobble for sorc ( 10 points for wiz but sorc get 20 from same item)

For pure Sorcs, yes. Multiclass Sorcs get less depending on how many levels of Sorc they have.

higher cha give's you more AC (with pal agenst evile)

Wrong. Higher Cha only gives you more Smites, Turns, better LoH and better saves. No AC boost from higher Cha, or you'd see tons more Pally Intimitanks.