What a Fighter was meant to be: The Utilitank

[maddmatt70]

The more I look at this build the more I sort of shrug. Why the pally splash levels if you are only going to have 6 base charisma? Why does it start with a 14 int? why not an 11 or 12 with a +2 or +1 tome to get CE. Perhaps take two build points out of con and 3 out of int and splurge for a +2 int tome at level 2. Put those 5 points into cha eat a +1 cha tome and wear a +6 item.. That would at least get your charisma to 18. You could still get max ranks in umd and intimidate with several more skill points to spend wherever especially if you spaced your second rogue level out where you could put max ranks into umd there.

I will not argue regarding your not taking weapon specialization because I don't know and other players don't know what the new weapon specialization enhancements coming in mod 8 will actually look like. I just have a gut feeling lets leave it at that it will be somewhat close to as powerful as crit rage for barbarians.

[Hadrian]

I have a build somewhat similar to this that I started in mod 3. The differences for me were that I started with 15 dex, 14 con, and 12 int, but 12 charisma. I also use dwarven axes as my preferred weapon, and plan to take intimidate at later levels. That was my one mistake on this build - not taking intmidate early. It wasn't all that great back when I rolled him.

I have him shelved right now until the new additions to the class are released, and possibly until the cap goes up so that I can max out intimidate.

He's very versitile. He can tank be a main tank or a reliable scroll healer, but his damage is only mediocre compared to a real damage build. 30 str and a rage potion just does not cut it against a true DPS build, even with dwarven axe enhancements and slashing specialization. Stat damage/vorpal/etc work just fine though in most cases. He's probably only 70% of a DPS build when in full DPS mode, though.

[krud]

I would suggest taking force of personality instead of bullheaded, and getting rid of your wisdom item. You won't need wisdom for anything else, and you'll free up an item slot, which are tight on these utility builds.

(edit)...and it also goes well with what madmatt said about upping your CHA.

[Lifespawn]

There is not much you get from a Pally at levels 4 through 6... I'm totally regretting taking 5 pally in my 11 Fighter/5 Pally build. 13/3 would have been better.

3 pally and 2 rogue is a great combo, especially if you can handle light armor for Evasion. You do lose 1 BAB by taking Rogue, therefore lose at least 2 (20% of your) attacks at the current end game. That's a pretty big hit. But evasion is awesome in a build like this, so is probably worth it.

With Level 20 in sight, it would be curious to see a Fighter 11, Pally 3, Ranger 6 build.

lvl 5 pally allows you to use divine sacrafice a nice damage boost.

[Gol]

I would suggest taking force of personality instead of bullheaded, and getting rid of your wisdom item. You won't need wisdom for anything else, and you'll free up an item slot, which are tight on these utility builds.

(edit)...and it also goes well with what madmatt said about upping your CHA.

Sounds like a good idea. My only concern is that a Shroud triple-HP item comes with +6 wis built in if you want it to. I'd have to plan it out and see how it worked.

[Return_To_Forever]

I have this build, not from you but I just rerolled my batman into a intim, I started my stats differently and took some different feats, just made it from my exp with the splash pal/splash rog builds, wigs, which I have had a few, and a friend/guildy of mine just made a sim build. I made mine around a +2 str, dex, int, and cha tomes, and a +1con.

str 15+2tome+4lev+6item,+3enh= 30
dex 15 +2tome+1enh+6item=24
con 15+1tome+2enh+6item=24
int 11+2tome=13
wis 8
cha 13+2tome+1enh+6item=22


its fun, and unlike other people here I could careless if its a flash in the pan build for now, I mean its something to do. I took the force of personality, and as you can see shot for a 22 char, cause my exp with splash pal for saves is you have to make it count, and i want the best umd i can get.

The single worst thing about this build is the +15 intim ring you will be searching for, it alone holds the build together, you need minos helm, period, besides that, not too bad, better once you have some gear to save spots, like BoD and Vod armor, these things will help alot, basically slots for important items is the biggest problem. Oh and hitting, I would level up from level 1 rog, threw ftr for feats and str enhancements if I did it again, the way i went was for bonuses, straight up, 2/rog/3pal/rest ftr, so i could ge tmy ev and saves asap, but my hitting lacked a lil.

anyways, thought i would chime in, this is pretty much a raid bot, till you get all the raid gear, or new mods destroy it, whatevs, its fun.

[Blazer]

nvm

[Aerendil]

Choosing *not* to weapon specialize can actually be a blessing, at least mentally.

I find that, for whatever reason, when I specialize, I tend to forget that their are other weapons out there.
On my Drow Ranger, for example, when he visits the Auctioneer, he's *only* looking through rapiers and shortswords.
On my Khopesh Fighter, as well, I tend to only check what khopeshes are for sale.

Whereas a non-specialized Fighter is equally adept with everything. And unless you're twinked out from a higher level character, this is a tremendous advantage.
Need a pure good weapon and all of the khopeshes and rapiers are picked over or selling for ridiculous amounts of platinum? No problem. Have a look through the battleaxe or warhammer sections instead.
I've seen some low level ghost touch of pure good weapons as well as adamantine weapons for sale in the "not so common" weapon types for dirt cheap that would really make an untwinked Fighter's life so much easier.

Of course, if you're starting your character off with various +2 tomes, then you can afford to specialize, as I'm presuming you have the weapons floating around to make him/her quite formidable from the get go.
But if not... then a broad spectrum of weapons is a nice alternative.
And, IMO, it's refreshing to see a TWF character out there not using twin khopeshes or twin rapiers but instead, perhaps, something like a longsword / warhammer combination.


*edit* - PS, the obvious drawback to doing this is that, for example, those with racial enhancements that specialize are looking at +4 to hit, +6 damage over the un-specialized Fighter, and possibily more in the future. Just something to be aware of before you go down the "any weapon I can get my grubby mitts on!" path as opposed to the specialized one.

[krud]

DPS AC
10 base
10 +5 MBP
1 armor alchy
7 dex
4 10 minute shield wand (UMD)
1 shield alchy-- can you do this w/out a shield?
5 protection
2 self aura
2 invaders ring
1 dodge feat
2 chaosgarde
4 shroud crafted insight
49 w/o named raid loot or non-self buffs
+15 buffs (see below)
64

[Gol]

1 shield alchy-- can you do this w/out a shield?

fixed.

[Emili]

Perhaps my planner is broken or i did something wrong.. I was trying to build this in it so I could plan my enhancements and one thing it would not allow me to do was take ITWF/GTWF even after I went back and added dex enh earlier. Any thoughts?

Dex Tome it early... you need dex 17.

[Forceonature]

I could be wrong, but I don't believe the invaders ring stacks with barkskin.

[vtecfiend99]

I could be wrong, but I don't believe the invaders ring stacks with barkskin.

nope. doesnt stack.

[Emili]

I could be wrong, but I don't believe the invaders ring stacks with barkskin.

No they're the same type (natural)... only the dodge types stack with each other. barks would be an override of the ring of balance .... thing is though the ring cannot be dispelled so is good to have as some base.

[akla_thornfist]

hey gol i made a warforged out of this build hes lev 7 and im loving it, the ac wont be as high but everything else is very close umd is great for repair scrolls and wands high saves and evasion and duel wielding scimitars for now will change to khopesh at lev 8 most of my good khopeshes are lev 8 or better. this build works great for solo can pretty much solo all lev appropriate quest and the lay on hands has saved my butt a couple times allready.

[JobeTheMan]

<my 2 copper>
With all the feats they have at their disposal, Fighters were meant to have a great deal of utility. The every-situation tank. Top notch DPS, top notch defenses, true tanking ability, and frequently "something else" that helps the party. I believe that most fighters in DDO fail at this, but it's largely not their fault. Turbine didn't implement a lot of feats that fighters would need to do this in the typical setting, but I want to suggest a build that does.
</copper>

I've tried to do this in such a way that it should be achievable by a player without lots of high-end resources. Keeping myself to a single +2 favor tome, though I personally will eat at least 2 at level 1.

The Utilitank

The roles you can fill with this build:
1) DPS tank. Greater TWFing Khopesh user with 30 str.
2) Evasion and 20+ saves
3) Intimidation with AC
4) UMD scroll whipper

Lawful Good Dwarf
Fighter 11 / Paladin 3 / Rogue 2 (at 16)
Fighter 12 / Paladin 4 / Rogue 4 (at 20)

Level Order
Rogue 1 / Paladin 1 / Fighter 1 / Paladin 2-3 / Rogue 2 / Fighter 2-12 / Paladin 4 / Rogue 3-4

After level 10 or so, the level order isn't that important. It's more to your taste, really. I'm just putting this in as a sample, not a "must".

Stats
Str 16 (10) + 4 levels + 3 enh + 1 tome + 6 item = 30
Dex 16 (10) + 1 enh + 1 tome + 6 item = 24
Con 16 (6) + 2 enh + 2 favor tome + 6 item = 24
Int 14 (6)
Wis 8 + 6 item = 14
Cha 6 (0) + 1 enh + 1 tome + 6 item = 14

Feats
1 Exotic: Khopesh
F1 TWF
3 Combat Expertise
6 Toughness
F2 ITWF
9 Iron Will
F4 Imp Crit Slash (swap for Pierce after you get a pair of Mineral 2s)
F6 Power Attack
12 Bullheaded
F8 GTWF
F10 Dodge
15 SF: UMD
F12 Oversize TWF
18 SF: Intimidate

Role 1: DPS
DPS AC
10 base
10 +5 MBP
1 armor alchy
7 dex
4 10 minute shield wand (UMD)
5 protection
2 self aura
2 invaders ring
1 dodge feat
2 chaosgarde
4 shroud crafted insight
48 w/o named raid loot or non-self buffs
+15 buffs (see below)
63

with buffs and raid loot
3 ranger bark
2 full paladin
3 chattering ring
1 haste
2 recitation
4 bard song
+15 AC for buffs


Role 2: Saves (at 16)
7/3/3 Fighter 11
0/3/0 Rogue 2
3/1/1 Paladin 3
7/7/2 Stats
0/0/3 Feats
4/4/4 Resistance
2/2/2 Divine Grace
2/2/2 Paladin Aura
4/4/4 GH
2/2/2 Luck
31/28/23 buffed saves, plus Rogue Trap sense and Dwarven Spell Resistance

Role 3: Intimidate and AC
When Intimidating, you'll have all your armor on most of the time.

19 ranks
2 cha
4 GH
3 SF
2 bullheaded
15 item
3 enh
2 luck
6 shroud Cha item
56 (53 until level cap goes up)

Turtle AC
10 base
13 +5 MFP
1 armor alchy
7 dex (requires lots of Armor/Shield mastery Enhs, math not shown)
9 +5 MTS
1 shield alchy
5 protection
2 self aura
2 invaders ring
1 dodge
2 chaosgarde
4 shroud crafted insight
5 Combat Expertise
62 w/o buffs or named raid loot
+15 buffs (see above)
77 with buffs (81 vs giant types)

Role 4: UMD
19 ranks
2 cha
4 GH
3 SF
3 item
2 boost
2 luck
6 shroud Cha item
41, very respectable and enough for Heal scroll


Comments welcome. Currently, I'm working on another project that's at level 8 and will do this build next (a few months away at soonest).

About the same as the batman build but with more Pally and Rogue. This idea's been done.

[Jarka]

Gol, first of all, thanks for posting this build! After reading it and the responses, I rolled Kanibal up the day mod 8 went live, altho I did play with several of the starting stats a bit. I must say that he has been fun to play. With the time zone I play in, I have had to do alot of soloing with him, and was quite successful (lol even solo'd crucible, tho the end fight got a tad hairy). Atm, he is lvl14 (9F/3P/2R) and just a Rainbow shy of hitting the Shroud grinding proccess lol. What I haven't decided yet is his final class layout at lvl20 (14/3/3?, 12/4/4?).

Obviously, I need to craft a min2 +4 ac khopesh, and will eventually craft 1 or 2 more for when I twf.

But, what would be your recommeded equipment layout for:

AC/Intim role
TWF role

What items shud I craft? Guards? Min2HP?

Also, would you recommend DT armor for him? What combination? Kanibal shud do fine in Enter the Kobald w/Evasion and dual w/e khopeshes

Stats at lvl 14:

Str 29 / 30 at lvl 16
Dex 24
Con 24
Int 14
Wis 10
Cha 14/20 w/item

HP 382: 132base/98con/122feat/30gfl

Items worn/swapped atm

Head: Minos Legens
Goggles: Intricate Field Optics/Flesh rendor Visor
Armor: +5MBP, w/Alchemical bonus
Wrist: Chaosguard/Ethereal Bracers
Boots: 30% Striders
Hands: +6 Str Gloves
Belt: GFL
Cloak: +5 Protection/ +6 Cha
Neck: +6 Con / Golden Cartouche
Ring1: +6 Dex
Ring2: FF/ +13 Intim/ Ring of Ancestors/ Solid Fog
Trink: Kardin's Eye

Working on getting Boots of Innocence eventually so I can put Bloodstone in Trinket (if I can pull another one lol)

I'm just trying to get some solid ideas so I don't waste resources or slots like I did with my ranger lol (he was first toon I crafted for).
thnx for your help!