WF Battlemage?

[Teilean]

Been playing my WF Wizard/Rogue and have been loving it, lvl 9 I'm runnin with 28 Int, my Trap skills are as good as any rogue and on trash mobs I either shield/morninstar em to death or pull out the ol trusty greataxe. Buuttt the alt'aholtic in me is coming out again.

Now I know lvl 20 and such I wont beable to melee on the big guys which I wont be but as a wizard and not having a ton of sp to spare I like to melee a bit instead of standing in the back playing pocket pool. So far 2hf is working great, I have enough str(14+1tome=15) to get Power attack and 2 handed fighting then I was gonna go down the WF Power attack and 2hf enchancement lines for a little extra umph, Remember now this is just on the trash mobs.

Question now is lvl 14-20 what would be more effective two weapon fighting or two handed fighting as a WF wizard using Divine power clickies. Now of course I would remake fix the stats as needed was thinking...

14 str
16dex
16con
16int

I really need some coffee right now but I am sure being a Wizard I can fit the 3(maybe 4 not to sure about g2wf) extra feats I need. Would this work?

Also other then getting glacing blows on mobs next to your target is there any extra effect of the 2hf feats on 1 target?


I pretty much just need a good reason why i'd be better off just using a 2 hander for trash mobs.

[Kriogen]

You can't have Greater TWF. GTWF need BAB 11. At 20 Wiz gets BAB 10 only. Rogue2/Wiz18 also get BAB10. You'd need something like Fighter2/Rogue2/Wizard16 to have BAB 11.

I had a Wizard with ITWF. Was OK for stat damage weapons, pure DPS was low. So low I just ignored it. Biggest problem was to-hit. That extra -2 tohit penalty for TWF shows up even with DP clickies. So forget about taking TWF and Power Attack.
I was happy with that build, but with stat damage weapons, not 'dps'.

2 handers are "cheaper". No need for Dex (take Ins Reflexes feat for saves) and even just grabing a 2hander does something. For TWF you need feats. Basic TWF is pointless, ITWF is so-so, you can't have GTWF.

I think TWF would be better if you'd have Drow. Bonus Dex, racial enhancements for to-hit (shortsword, rapier), focus on stat damage only (rapier is great for this).

Now i have (building) a rogue/wizard with no Dex and 2hander weapons. TBH i can't spot any difference in melee. Maybe there is, but it must be so small, i don't notice. But because i dumped Dex and was able to max Int (16->18), I see a difference when it comes to spells with DC. Extra skill point per level is also wellcome.

Based on what chars i had/have:
- both versions work
- TWF is better for stat damage (wound, weaken, etc)
- 2hander makes you better caster
- none is melee dps, but ok-ish for trash

I'm not rolling TWF rogue2/wizard18 anymore. TWF costs alot, but results are not *that* good. 2hander is Good Enough(tm). If I get double TR char with 36 build points, then maybe i'll go TWF mode.

Glancing blows are also on 'primary' target, not just on mobs around.

[Teilean]

So say I get THF and the WF Enchancements with it if I only have 1 target infront of me.

I hit em and do blah blah blah damage

then on top of that also get a glancing blow? Or at Least a chance to do that.

[Gol]

I have a TWF Battlemage that I'm currently leveling, actually. The plan is Wizard 16 / Monk 2 / Fighter 2, but that may change to Wiz 18 / Fighter 2 depending on how Pale Master looks for tier 3. The order doesn't matter except that you take Fighter 2 at level 20 as that will be the only way to pick up Greater TWF. This is a TR character, and before he was a THF Battlemage with Power Attack and all 3 levels of WF power attack (for -8 to hit total). With Madstone and/or Divine Power it was a non-issue except for endgame elite (and epic) content. Anything less than that and it's fine. This time around, I won't take the racial power attack enhancements so it'll just be -5 and I'll be stuck with -2 for TWF.

[Teilean]

What stats did ya go with on the Reincar and did ya go WF?

My thing is also I have to have a lvl of rogue to me the Trapsmith(I have about 4 other ppl I play with and they dont do rogues) and normally the rogues ya pug are terribad. I think I'll just stay with the THF Line on this one maybe thing about it when I reincar em about going 2wf those extra 2 pnts would help. Good to know with the -8 from power attack and divine power you can still hit on anything but elite and epic, normally on these diff you play more of a caster anyways.

[Gol]

What stats did ya go with on the Reincar and did ya go WF?

My thing is also I have to have a lvl of rogue to me the Trapsmith(I have about 4 other ppl I play with and they dont do rogues) and normally the rogues ya pug are terribad. I think I'll just stay with the THF Line on this one maybe thing about it when I reincar em about going 2wf those extra 2 pnts would help. Good to know with the -8 from power attack and divine power you can still hit on anything but elite and epic, normally on these diff you play more of a caster anyways.

Warforged, yes, of course...

Though it doesn't sound like my stats are like yours. I went max strength + all levelups. I was running around with over 40 buffed strength (34 most of the time) which is a significant boost over what you'd end up with if you kept Intel up as your highest stat. If you're only running with 24 strength most of the time, that's the difference between turning PA on or off.

[Teilean]

Warforged, yes, of course...

Though it doesn't sound like my stats are like yours. I went max strength + all levelups. I was running around with over 40 buffed strength (34 most of the time) which is a significant boost over what you'd end up with if you kept Intel up as your highest stat. If you're only running with 24 strength most of the time, that's the difference between turning PA on or off.

Yea my guy is Caster first, Trapsmith second then melee dps atm I'm just tryin to max my melee dps with what I have to me atm.

[Gol]

Yea my guy is Caster first, Trapsmith second then melee dps atm I'm just tryin to max my melee dps with what I have to me atm.

Hold Monster + bursting light picks, then. If you can't hold it (undead, slimes, red/purple named), reevaluate if you should be meleeing or pick a different tactic.

[Teilean]

Yea Reds/Purple I will be casting on, trash mobs is want I want to kill with melee to save the sp.

[Gol]

Yea Reds/Purple I will be casting on, trash mobs is want I want to kill with melee to save the sp.

IMO, with your current stat distribution, you're asking for a bit too much out of your build. You can't have it all. I don't have worthwhile DCs on my guy - that's what I gave up for melee capability.

[Samiusbot]

I don't understand why you think you need to go nuts to dps down trash.

My main b4 TRing was 20 wiz 1/2ling when the mood hit I would use a RAD II rapier and a 3XPOS rapier and go to town. Like this I could solo weapon shipment, I also had a few stat damagers for making mobs standstill and take a beating.

Make sure you hit, you can't kill anything if you miss all the time. Then decide how much damage you need to do each hit to kill a mob, per mana to kill it vs mana/plat you spend to heal yourself. And find a weapon that makes the math work for you. If that means changing things up and using a RAD II rapier and a shield so be it. It might be a EARTH grab and a pick or some kind of holding weapon. Or maybe mass hold monster and woo stick (dreamspliter) IDK it is a lot of what works best for you. But I don't think changing your build at the core is needed.

Gaining a smaller hand to hand advantage at the cost of so much is not worth it (+1 dc might not sound like a lot but 33 to 34 or 34 to 35 is huge!) when you can do so much with out!

[tc12]

I have a TWF Battlemage that I'm currently leveling, actually. The plan is Wizard 16 / Monk 2 / Fighter 2, but that may change to Wiz 18 / Fighter 2.

What do you think of Wiz18/Monk2 on a WF? I've played DDO almost since the start, and so far have only played Rangers, Rogues, Cleric and Bard. I just haven't been able to get into casters. Roll them, they sit unplayed, delete them...

Finally I'm trying to get motivated to level one. Couldn't go just plain WF Wiz, had to be a bit different. So as a vet rolled a WF Wiz 2 / Monk 2. Insightful Reflexes and Toughness from the get go mean This guy will always have plenty of HP and effective Evasion. My thought was to be able to use a staff decently at lower-levels where casters can sometimes be weak, transitioning to mostly caster at upper levels.

Will this play well? Or was it a mistake to not go the more conventional Wiz/2Ro path instead?

TC

edit: PS went 14 8 16 18 10 6

[Gol]

...

Will this play well? Or was it a mistake to not go the more conventional Wiz/2Ro path instead?

Not a mistake, you just need to decide something:

Pick one of these two:
1) non-trivial DPS (strength)
2) respectable DCs for spellcasting (intelligence)

Once you pick one, put an 18+levelups in the corresponding stat. If you pick #1, get the appropriate THF or TWF feats. If you pick #2, put the melee weapons away and splash Rogue instead because you're not really gaining anything from Monk at this point so you might as well be able to do traps.

Meleeing at low level is fine, but realize that by the time you get to gianthold, you need to stick to your plan or life will get rough. By the time you get to Vale, only one of the two will work at all.

My 2 copper...