Halfing Fighter 12/Pally 4 build I'm trying...advice?

[wolfy42]

Hi everyone, Just started playing again and as always I don't want to play my old characters. Time to make a new one!!

I'm not erasing my old characters so this is going to be a 28 point build on a new server.

Concept is to boost the natural healing of my halfing dragon marks with the devotion II enhancement (20% boost) empowered healing (50% boost and works on heal) and Maximize (100% boost and works only on CLW and CSW). Possibly add in a healing boosting weapon etc for a bit more out of my CLW and CSW if needed.

Starting Stats:

Str 15
Dex 16
Con 14
Int 8 (skill points into intimidate)
wis 8 (never going to be casting spells)
Cha 11 (+1 from lvl 2 pally enhancement to 12 base).

Plan on snagging the bulark boost to AC and reflex saves from pally along with the extra lay on hands and devotion 2 for 20% boost to healing. Also plan on grabbing the +1 to hit with longswords bonus from pally enhancement.

Base cha is 12 after the pally lvl 2 enhancement. Snag a +6 item later on (or just go with a +4 enhancement from the house) and possibly get a tome some year in the future for a nice boost to saving throws.

I plan on taking my halfling dragon mark feats at lvl 1, 6 and 9. At lvl 12 I want to take my 4th paladin lvl so by then I can snag empower healing (boosting my heal spells by 50%). Possibly I may take maximize at lvl 15 to make my CSWs very strong as well.

I should still have plenty of feats left from fighter bonus feats to snag:

Weapon focus slashing, weapon specialization slashing, greater weapon focus slashing, greater weapon specialization slashing, dodge,toughness,improved critical slashing.

Will usually run with a longsword/shield combo unless fighting skellies etc.

Eventual stats should be:

Str 15 + 4 from lvl +6 from item +3 from enhancement + 2 from tome =30
Dex 16 base +2 from halfing + 4 from buff = 22 (max ac bonus in mithril full plate with fighter armor enhancement)
Con 14 base +6 from equipment = 20 (maybe a +2 tome some year in the future for 22
Int 8
wis 8
cha 11 (+1 from enhancement) + 2 from tome eventually +6 from equipment = 20

Should have Max BAB, the ability to use pally wands to heal others on top of tons of healing through dragon marks and some from lay on hands as well (all instant heals). AC between the halfing bonus from size, the pally bonus from aura, the dex bonus on top of platemail base (mithrial platemail +5 with full dex) a +5 medium shield, dodge etc should be decent.

Dmg is pretty low, but my AB is high enough to use disruption weapons etc so that can be dealt with. Main thing is I should be a great tank who can heal himself quite well. With greater weapon focus and a 30 strength even hitting with my longsword +5 will net +20 dmg per hit or so...which isn't to shabby for a 1 handed weapon. I'll have to snage a greater fort belt etc for later to prevent crit hits and sneak attacks but it shouldn't be to hard to do.

What do you guys think Will this work pretty well?

Has anyone done this yet and written it up? I looked but didn't see a build like this yet.

[Blazer]

Why intimidate?

[wolfy42]

I was going with intimidate so I can keep enemies attacking me. I figure I'm a great tank due to being able to heal myself (no concentration checks on dragonmarks), having a high AC and decent hp. My damage isn't high enough to keep the hate by itself probably.

The other option was jump, which would be better for solo playing, but I want to be as useful in aparty as possible.

I want the 12th fighter level for greater weapon focus...but was thinking of throwing in some wizard levels possibly in order to snag maximize and maybe even getting 5 of them for displacement, blur and haste. It would drop my BAB by 3 points which seriously hurts, but I could still go with 4 pally levels, 5 wizard levels and 7 fighter levels (still getting the second boost to ac wearing platemail at least).

Perhaps even going with 6 wizard levels so I can snage wall of fire and heroism as well. That would reduce my over all AC by 1, but it would still be very high AND I would still be displaced etc.

Also with maximize going on top of empower healing my CSW's would be doing some serious healing (thats with extend and maximize as my free wizard feats).

I'm kinda tossed up between the pure fighter/pally or the fighter/wizard/pally right now. I think without a 32 point build though (not to mention any good equipment saved up on the new server) that the fighter/wizard/pally would be a pain to level up. The fighter/pally is pretty easy it looks like without massive equipment requirements along the way.

Think I messed up though as I was looking at things. I should have dropped the dex to 14 (still enough for dodge) and boosted cha to 13 (with +1 from enhancement making it a 14 base).

So much easier with a 32 point build though even for the pally fighter. Really wish the 32 point build bonus worked cross servers.

[wiglin]

Welcome back wolfy, I was just talking to someone recently about some of the sweet builds that you came up with back in the NWN days.

Anyways if you are building towards the current end game a couple of things to consider:

Recently it is has been posted that with a beholder proof ac of 58 you will still get destroyed on elite. Unlike the level 12 capp when ac was king it has diminished greatly on the higher settings, as the mobs get better bab, but we do not have very many ways to self improve ac. This leads to the current popularity of having 400ish hitpoints or more if you are going to be a tank on elite endgame activities. Since the ac builds get thrashed pretty good o elite it is not uncommon to focus on dishing out as much dps as possible.

Your damage will not be that great, and some of the mobs have so many hitpoints now, that unless you are a full dps build you will not make much of a dent very fast. Hence alot of people are looking for the ever so great wounding of puncturing. It is quicker to con kill the mob.

You will be fine with vorpals and disruptions, but you will lag behind the twf that are getting 10 attacks. The twf builds are much more effective with vorpaling, and such do to the extra hits that are calculated, and since the bab increases they also have that much better of a chance to confirm the crit.

You need a good 50ish intimidate to be effective on current elite end game. As a halfling you will take -8 to giants, very hard to reach an effective watermark.

Kopesh > Longsword: Better DPS is worth the feat.

In the end you could hit top ac, but may have a hard time holding aggro from lower dps, and intimidate.

[wolfy42]

Hi Wiglin

Are you still playing from launch or have you taken a break at all yet? I think I have come back now 3+ times already!!

Hmmm if AC isn't that big high end I might go with the wizard build then especially if the damge isn't that big of a deal. Another option is to go with a TWF build and boost my dex instead of strength, but that is a long term build and will be much harder early on.

I might just have to delete one of my chars (looks like they condensed the servers since the last time I played as my mains are no longer on Khargen but on some other server now) so I can use 32 point builds at least (Just resist transfering over equipment as that will ruin much of the fun for me).

I really want to take advantage of the new dragonmarks on the halfling though. I've always loved halfings (last time I played was right after enhancements were put in and dwarves were king due to all the awesome bonuses.....I hated playing the dwarves instead of halflings but the bonuses were to big to pass up) and now they have some great advantages when playing a melee based one!!

I'm really back in anticipation for monks being added. I plan on getting back into the game with some new characters now so I'm ready to make a good monk when it's available (So want to make a monk/fighter specced in quarterstaff fighting...and yes...almost definatly a halfling hehe).

I'll think about going the TWF route (think there is a feat now that would let me use a longsword in each hand). I was thinking longsword due to the +1 to hit from pally enhancement (and lack of extra feats due to halfling dragonmarks taking my lvl 1,6 and 9 feats up and empower healing taking my lvl 12 feat up).

For ranged I have thrown weapons and a decent dex and strength....nothing amazing but nice when it's useful.

For melee I would go with shield/longsword.

I should have plenty of healing to keep myself going at least long term with empowered healing alone (if I do go the wizard route adding maximize in there would be great).

Saving throws while not insane are better by far then the average fighter (no evasion though sadly...but I have the healing to make up for it).

Should mention this is basically going to be a character to go through the game the first time with, able to solo easily if need be but usually used in a party (but due to dragonmarks not reliant only on wands when the party healer is not on the ball). Need to hit 1750 favor fairly fast without any tranfered equipment and I'm hoping this is a good way to do it with the least amount of frustration along the way.

From my experience in the past Clerics are usually the best class to get to 1750 favor with the first time...but......I'm SO tired of playing clerics lol. Been there done that too much and want to go a different route. I will be able to heal myself and others in a pinch, but as a cleric that is usually your primary responsibility and that is not what I want to do this time.

Due to the general dislike of extreme multiclass builds I think holding off on the wizard combo is a good idea till I already have 1750 favor on my primary character and equipment to transfer over in a pinch. A pally/fighter is pretty simple and should get invited to party (or not have a problem creating one) often.

[maddmatt70]

I think this is a pretty good build for what you want to do. One suggestion especially since your making a halfling with pally levels is to go with a 12 fighter/ 2 rogue/ 2 pally or even a 10 fighter/ 2 rogue/ 4 pally. You would have a very high reflex save for evasion, your umd would be great and your ac wouldn't take much of a hit (mithral breastplate +5/ mithral chain shirt +5 vs. mithral full plate +5). In regards to wiglin's comment although yes dps is king these days a nice ac with evasion and good saves is still useful and has its place just not on elite shroud runs, but on other elite content if you got a great ac more power to you..

[wiglin]

I also took a few breaks.

If the plan is to hit 1750favor then get ready for monk, then you will not need to worry too much about end game ac issues. Just fight with a curse spewer from level 6 to 10 then switch to paralyzer. You will hardly get touched. When I level my battle bards, I always use shield and a curse spewer until level 10-12ish, that is when my non focusing on ac but starts getting wacked, but by focusing in ac you can be pretty safe the majority of the time.

The main thing is you are very self reliant without spending a ton of plat on wands and potions.