The "Am I a Bard or a Ranger Wannabe?!" Build - Not a TWF Warchanter!

[djinni69]

Spellsinger, healer, decent crowd control and repeating light crossbows. There's a +2 Wounding Light Repeating Crossbow of Puncturing waiting for him

EDIT - Changed based on input from the thread

Level 16 Chaotic Good Drow Male
(14 Bard / 2 Fighter)
Spell Points: 1200ish?

10 (16) Strength (10 Base + 6 Item)
18 (28) Dexterity (18 Base + 1 Level + 2 Elf Enh + 6 item + 1 Tome)
12 (18) Constitution (12 Base + 6 Item)
10 (16) Intelligence (10 Base + 6 Item)
8 (12-14ish) Wisdom (8 Base + 4/6 Item)
18 (32) Charisma (18 Base + 3 Level + 2 Tome + 6 Item + 3 Bard Enh)

Hit Points
20 Fighter Base
84 Bard Base
20 Heroic Vitality
64 Con Bonus
10 Draconic Vitality
30 Grt False Life
18 Minos Legens
---
246

AC
Horrible Around a 34 Im sure

Saves - Fort/Reflex/Will
7/9/9 (Class Levels)
4/4/4 (GH)
4/4/4 (Item)
4/9/2 (Abilities)
-----
19/26/19

Skills
UMD Max
Whatever floats my boat

2 Fighter / 14 Bard Feat Selections:
Level 1 (Bard) - (Selected) Extend Spell
Level 2 (Bard)
Level 3 (Bard) - (Selected) Mental Toughness
Level 4 (Bard)
Level 5 (Bard)
Level 6 (Bard) - (Selected) Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Repeating Light Crossbow
Level 7 (Bard)
Level 8 (Bard)
Level 9 (Fighter) - (Fighter Bonus) Point Blank Shot, (Selected) Rapid Reload
Level 10 (Fighter) - (Fighter Bonus) Improved Critical: Ranged Weapons
Level 11 (Bard)
Level 12 (Bard) - (Selected) Precise Shot
Level 13 (Bard)
Level 14 (Bard)
Level 15 (Bard) - (Selected) Improved Precise Shot
Level 16 (Bard)

EDIT NOTES - Rerolled!

[geezee]

8/8 is such a nasty split, for a myriad of reasons. 12/4 is borderline. 14/2 is so much better than 12/4. If I were you I'd go 14/2 and get rid of toughness and mental toughness. I might even look for a way to go pure bard and go CHA based, maybe drow or human instead.

Your stats are all messed up. Your CHA is way too high, as you wont be able to cast effectively with fighter levels. Starting 18 CHA and putting level up points into DEX is very inefficient and is costing you a lot on your ability scores. CON needs to be higher. I dont see what good all that STR is doing for this build either.

If he's level 6 that's a perfect time to reroll. Your gear is too nice to be wielded by a gimp.

[Lifespawn]

fyi you can vorpal more than 1 enemy with imp precise shot i have a gimped thrower build that once got 8 in a line of 30 or so man i wish they would made two weapon throwing available...

[Aeneas]

I'd stay mainly bard, that way you can max out your healing enhancements and hang back while whipping vorps inbetween heals and nobody will have to worry about you stealing aggro or getting killed due to low hp's. There's no shame in being a buff/CC bard. Warchanters just happen to be the current flavor of the month.

[djinni69]

8/8 is such a nasty split, for a myriad of reasons. 12/4 is borderline. 14/2 is so much better than 12/4. If I were you I'd go 14/2 and get rid of toughness and mental toughness. I might even look for a way to go pure bard and go CHA based, maybe drow or human instead.

Your stats are all messed up. Your CHA is way too high, as you wont be able to cast effectively with fighter levels. Starting 18 CHA and putting level up points into DEX is very inefficient and is costing you a lot on your ability scores. CON needs to be higher. I dont see what good all that STR is doing for this build either.

If he's level 6 that's a perfect time to reroll. Your gear is too nice to be wielded by a gimp.

I can't get rid of mental toughness because that's required by Spellsinger. That one has to stay, but Toughness is pointless if I dont get the cool fighter enhancements, so I can dump that one easily

You're right though, I probably should reroll him I am leaning towards the 14/2 split and just focusing on the ranged feats, and once the level cap is raised, I could still add a fighter feat to get weapon finesse. That's one reason the strength is a little high for the dex build. I won't get weapon finesse until cap goes up, so I need an adequate strength if I have to resort to S&B.

Thanks for the tips guys. I'll let ya know how it goes or if I reroll him

[Tolki]

Well, my first observation is ditch the spellsinger and take warchanter or virtoso. My original character, a 15/1 bard/cleric, was remade into a virtoso and I love the speciality. The spellsinger song. while great when you first enter an adventure and buff, has a really short duration. Warchanter sounds like a better build the way you're going. However, taking 2 levels of another class along with Bard will keep you from getting what I think is one of the better songs, improvement to AC. You have to be a 15th level bard to gain access to that song. I understand the thoughts on multiclassing, more hit points, additional feats, and/or mana, But the trade off is loss of a valuable buff at higher levels if you go more that one level in an additional class. Bards are jack-of-all trades support class toons. They are not a high kill count class. Taking one addtional class can be helpful as a bard, two will limit you at higher levels.

[Gunga]

Looks like the "ReRoll Waiting to Happen" build, if you ask me.

[maddmatt70]

I also like build #2 12 bard/4 fighter and I think you should replace the mental toughness feat and toughness for power attack and weapon focus so you can pick up the warchanter enhancement. As a ranged specialist with damage mitigation (displacement and stoneskin) and self healing you wouldn't need oodles of hit points so toughness is only marginally helpful and your songs would only be 1 point off the max damage (level 14 bard) which would make you much more sought after by parties/raids... Bard #1 by the way tries to do too many thing hence will not be nearly so successful - I would also go with a bow wielding ranger/bard if I were truly trying to do the ranged/melee build by the way. Regarding your stats I don't understand why you want to make your strength so high if you are using repeaters since strength doesn't apply to repeater damage - have a 12 starting constitution please .

I agree with Gunga's assertion as your two posted stand now are a reroll waiting to happen..

Edit: so this character already exists.. Like many characters that were our first they should be rerolled - the stats are pretty awkward to be stuck with.. sigh..

[djinni69]

Yea I'm either going to reroll him or just plow forward with the 14/2 split, focusing in repeaters and warchanter-goodness. Nothing I can do about the ability scores. Gotta remember that waaaay back in the day, AC was big and CON was more or less a "well if you can spare it, add it to CON" stat. Gianthold brought HPs to the forefront, and now we're in the AC/HP mixture is best frame of mind. Anyway, I know he can survive with the poor CON, I just have to compensate. Damage avoidance is one way, smart play-style is another I appreciate all the comments. Thanks guys, you've been helpful

[djinni69]

Build overhauled

[Gunga]

Build overhauled

You are gimped, and will have to reroll.

[maddmatt70]

You are gimped, and will have to reroll.

I got to agree your stats are just in bad shape. You can't pull off twf melee really with that 9 con which otherwise would be feasible and I don't like the 14 str for your current build. Since you are level 6 why not just reroll. I know not everybody plays ddo all the time so leveling is difficult for people, but you will be happier in the long run..

[geezee]

Level 6 shouldnt take more than 8 hours for the reroll. Dunno why you wouldnt spend 8 hours to reroll when you are willing to spend enough time to cap the toon.

[djinni69]

I never once said I wouldn't reroll ... I was just looking for input to save this character if at all possible.

[xanvar]

I think a reroll is probably your best option based on the feedback in the thread. In fact I am going to take a peek at my baby haggle bard I just built and see if I shouldn't also reroll him

[djinni69]

Alright, I finally broke down and rerolled him. His CHA is respectable, CON is good, and DEX is in good shape since I'm choosing to focus on Repeaters (Light Repeating WoP min level 10 ... ohh I can't wait!). Better? Worse? Thoughts?

I've got him setup so that converting to a Warchanter is no big deal. At the moment, however, he is a Spellsinger focusing on healing, cc'ing and ranged combat.

[Aeneas]

Better. And when you do hit level 10 and start using the WoP repeater, make sure to tell the group so you can all go wounder happy and annihilate the mobs.

[geezee]

I dunno if you failed to mention it before, or if I overlooked that little bit of info about having a w/p repeater. Although Ive never had access to one, some of the best players I know have told me that this is the elite weapon in DDO.

That being the case, you should build around this awesome weapon. Your top priority should be taking feats which let you get the most out of using it. Forget spellsinger and forget casting cc spells. You will help the group the most by killing things as fast as you can. Let the wizard or someone else cast cc spells. And if they dont, you shouldnt care much.

Warchanter prolly wont help a lot either, as you really shouldnt miss much as long as your song is maxed out. The only non-repeater feat which will help a bit is extend, so you wont have to recast haste as often. But even if you cant squeeze in extend, dont worry about it.

If I had that weapon I would go human, pure bard, no specialty, with extend. Max out song attack, damage, and duration.
8 18 16 8 8 14, or something close to that.

[dragons1ayer74]

Curios on how you will be switching him to war chanter? Dont you need power attack (which requires a base 13 strength). If you reall want war chanter I would recomend dumping int to 8 and bring strength to a 12 that leaves room to get power attack if you can find a +1 str tome.

[djinni69]

Curios on how you will be switching him to war chanter? Dont you need power attack (which requires a base 13 strength). If you reall want war chanter I would recomend dumping int to 8 and bring strength to a 12 that leaves room to get power attack if you can find a +1 str tome.

He won't be going warchanter for the reason you stated