Build help for solo-ish "couple" gameplay

[sandrider30]

First, some explanation on the contradiction in the title:
I'm a happy married man who is lucky enough to have a wife that actually counts DDO play time as "us" time. If you have not been in a long term relationship/marriage, you cannot understand. For the fellow DDO players who are, you know that such a partner is a rare gem! ;-)
Now, the little problem is that she is not very good/savvy with fast paced games, i.e. multitasking between weapon switching, engaging buffs and abilities while swinging in the overall direction of the enemy and quaffing health potions can get her rattled and frustrated, and we do not want that during our "us" time, do we?. So I advised her to play with a beginner friendly class: Warrior (smash!)
Although, we are having an overall good time (finished Elite up to lvl 3 quests, and Hard most up to level 5) we are reaching the limits of what we can do with our current builds. Her: lvl 7 human wirlwind fighter path, Me: lvl 7 elf mechanic path. I try to pick-up as much baddies as I can with backstab and ranged, but once I'm revealed, or we have to engage enemies that are backstab immune, we are pretty much dead. Hence, the title: I need help improving my current rogue, or restarting a completely new toon, that would do a better job at melee and increase the survival rate of my companion fighter. The character should be mostly self reliant, as it can get little more than some front-line smashing support from the fighter (hence the solo-ish build requirement).
I have looked seriously in the cleric variations presented in http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=223253, and at the Melee-Focused build specifically (18 cleric/ 2 fighter), with a possible level or 2 in Rogue.
Now, before "Why would you do that, noob!" comments start to fly, please allow me to present my case for the build preference:
1/ We are not particularly interested in very high/end game play (time commitment), so I'd rather have a build that shines until lvl 15 and craps out, rather than a build that is average all along but becomes god-like in end-game.
2/ The build should be self-reliant, but still with good "baby-sitting" potential for my companion player.
3/ The build should be based on standard characters (no monks, warforged or FS), with 28 point build and regular (non-DDO store) items.

Again, the focus is not power play/ loot grind, but enjoyable play with a "freshman" player (if I may call myself "junior").
A detailed level progression with skills acquisition, like the ones with the character builder, would be very much appreciated! Thank you in advance for helping me make DDO an integral part for a couple's "us" time!

Best regards

[Diib]

well, between the two of you it is possible to hit all the bases. As you advance you will want 3-4 areas covered.
1. Trap ability (and/or evasion)
2. Healing
3. Damage dealing (spells or melee)
4. Defense (optional, but nice)

1. Fortunately the first one is the easiest to get. If even one of you splashes 2 rogue you should easily be able to handle all of your rogue trap needs through around level 15. Be sure your first level is rogue, so that you can max out on skill points. From there, it is often good to wait till level 5 or 6 to take your second level, so that you can "skill point dump" and bring your search and disable device up to speed at level 6. An int of 14 should be enough... think of it this way:
4 points in search, disable (and open lock) at first level. With a 14 int you get two skill points per level, +8 for one level of rogue, which means you have 10 skill points the next time you take rogue. If you wait till level 6, then you can spend 5 points on search, and 5 points on disable device. From level 7 on, cross class search and disable device (this will cost you 4 skill points per level, which you will always have with the 14 int). Alternatively you can take rogue at level 5 and pump 2 more skill points into haggle, umd, open lock, or whatever you want. Depends on what skills you need. You will want to have swappable items with boosts to search and disable somewhere on one of your hotbars.

So, by taking a 14 int and just two levels of rogue, you should be set for trap duties out of one character.

2. Healing. You really have 5 options here if you are not into wands and potions (you mentioned a lack of use of such items as a requirement) Cleric and Favored soul give you the most heal spells and sp, but ranger (which has good skills), bard or paladin are all options. Rangers don't get their first heal spell till quite late in the build, and you will want at least cure light early, so probably best to avoid ranger. IMO bards are better in 6 or 12 man groups, and while you COULD duo with a fighter (wifey) and a 2 rogue/13 bard... I think this will end up being a more challenging combo. Bard/rogues easily fall into glass cannon builds which you want to avoid. 2 rogue/ 13 paladin is decent, you will get several lay on hands, ok healing, and a few minor group buffs, but again you healing will be much more limited than cleric or fvs. Probably easier is a cleric or fvs combo that splashes 2 rogue.

3. Damage. She is a fighter, keep her smashing. Taking a class that can contribute in melee (and 2 rogue gets you a little buff for sneak attack) will help. You could also consider going 2 rogue/ 1 bard/ 12 wizard. This would get you the ability to cast in light armor, trap ability, and firewalls and fireballs to help you out in the pure damage department. The problem here is healing, and you want to pick up the healing slack to go along with your fighter friend. If she had healing, I would recommend a wiz/rog (possible 1 level splash of bard or fighter depending on taste if you like playing a spellsword melee caster type - with 1 fighter better for a warforged and 1 bard better for a drow) just for the skill points, but that is not really your situation. Probably best to stick to a class that has good melee ability. Really, your spoiled here though, because cleric, fvs, pal and ranger can all be decent melee. Fvs and paladin have the most options.

4. Defense. High ac, high hp, intimidate for hate control, dr... these are all nice to have and become more apparent the smaller your group is. For small groups I would always recommend each of you taking the toughness feat just to max out on your hp. Between racial toughness enhancements and class toughness enhancements (in the case of pal or fvs) the toughness feat can swing your hp by +40 to +70 all on its own.


So, trying to cover all those bases.... here are my recommendations:
10 fvs/3 pal/2 rog
Whatever race you choose (I like drow, but any will do)
28 points:
+6 str
+6 dex
+6 int
+2 con
+8 cha

(for drow, go + 4 int and then either switch to +4 con or +10 cha, depending on how daring you are).

From there put everything you can into cha. This build is designed to wear light armor and use a shield (probably with a superior devotion enhancement). Build it in this order:
1 rogue
1 fvs
3 pal
1 rogue
9 fvs

level 3 paladin will get you a second lay on hands, an extra ac boost to both of you through aura, disease immunity and fear immunity. If you are a drow or elf you can easily manage an 18-20 dex (from racial enhancements) which is what you will want in light armor. The 2 rogue gives you evasion and trap abilities, and a little extra damage from sneak. The 2 pal gives you divine grace, which will add your cha modifier to your saves... and you should have a pretty good cha by level 15. you will get 13xcha modifier for each of your two lay on hands, which are instant and off the cooldown timer for the rest of your heal spells for emergencies. You should be able to pretty early get in the range of a +8 cha bonus, so about 100 point lay on hands, and a +8 to all saves.
The fvs will help to boost your melee abilities and resistances, and you will eventually become a decent healer as well (by level 9 you will have plenty of single target healing for anything you duo). You have no wisdom, but stick simply to healing and buff spells and enjoy all the sp from your high cha. At level 15 you will even get access to raise dead. This char will be a competent melee fighter, a great healer for a 2 man, and should also have great defenses all around while being able to trap monkey for your group. If you have a higher int than 14 you can keep your intimidate maxed and also tank. Be sure you take the +cha enhancements and toughness enhancements out of the fvs soul line, as the pal and fvs soul enhancements take up the same spot buy only the fvs ones unlock the higher level fvs enhancements.


Alternatively, a simpler build would be simply 2 rog/ 13 cleric, which will get you access to 7th level spells (not really needed for a 2 man, but level 6 spells get you heal and blade barrier and 5 gets you raise dead which you will want in a duo). Here you want str, wis, con and int and stat dump on charisma for as low as possible (dwarf, wf). This build will have much worse saves, worse hp, worse base attack, worse dps, worse ac and less immunities, but will be a slightly better healer sooner and will be better at buffing throughout the build... although the sp is very similar. levels 5-10 on this build will get you a few good heals, and buffs like protection from energy, aid, protection from evil that will help you out. A cleric is not a slouch in combat, so you won't have the ba or enhancements of the pal/fvs but you will be decent. High wisdom is nice, but again you are not really worried about maxing your spell dcs, so you don't have to focus just on wisdom if you don't want to. For this build I like a dwarf the best just for the sp boost out of the dwarf enhancement line, as well as the ability to really tank your (for this build) useless cha.

If you want more dps... 2 rog/ 2 fighter/ 11 cleric would be ok... it will have some of the strengths of the pal/rog/fvs soul build (better damage and hp at the cost of a little healing) but without the crazy good saves or the massive sp pool.

Again, most builds on these boards are for pt builds. You don't need mass heals. Single targets will be fine. You're sp pool only needs to be enough to keep both of you up, so you don't need 3k sp. Cure serious will be more than enough in most situations to get you from shrine to shrine for the type of play style you are describing. So don't worry about taking a combo that lowers your overall casting ability that would hurt you in raids, you don't need to be that specialized. Better to be more of a jack of all trades in a small duo like you are describing.


Hope any of these ideas help.

~ Edit - didn't notice the no Fvs in your original post. In that case I would suggest either 2 rogue/13 cleric or 2 rogue/ 2 fighter/ 11 cleric

[sandrider30]

Diib,
Thank you very much for the explanations, and particularly for the second pass and edits. It clarified things a lot.
I'll definitively go with the rogue splash (and int 14). The question is whether of not add fighter in the mix. I'll play around with the character generator to spec the 2 rogue/13 cleric or 2 rogue/ 2 fighter/ 11 cleric options.
Also, I'm still torn between dwarf and drow (I have it unlocked) and their respective stat modifiers. My preference would go to the higher damage output (2 handed axe for dwarf with fighter splash or dual-wield rapier/short sword for drow?) and hit points. Finally, is dexterity as important if I go 2 rogue/ 2 fighter/ 11 cleric than what you suggested in the Favored Soul build. Would it be better to get heavy armors and drop dex to 10 or even 8 (so that I could boost Con)? I'm tight on points and I'd have to lower Con and Wis to increase Dex.

My possible spec's starting stats (race modifiers included):
1/ Dwarf: 16/10/14/14/14/6
2/ Drow: 16/10/13/14/14/10

Thanks for advising.

[Roguewiz]

If you're goign to dual-wield, you need a base of 17 Dex, since Improved and Greater Two-Weapon Fighting both require it.

17 Favored Soul/2 Rogue/1 Fighter isn't too bad, depending on how you setup the classes. Favored Souls use the Rogue base attack progression. That means you won't have a high enough BAB to take Improved Two-Weapon Fighting until level 9 unless you have another class that can provide it. With a level of Fighter, you will get access to Improved Two-Weapon Fighting one level earlier; potentially. However, that means you'd need to wait to take Rogue levels. Basically:

1st Level: Favored Soul 1 - BAB 0
2nd Level: Favored Soul 2 - BAB 1
3rd Level: Favored Soul 3 - BAB 2
4th Level: Favored Soul 4 - BAB 3
5th Level: Favored Soul 5 - BAB 3
6th Level: Favored Soul 6 - BAB 4
7th Level: Favored Soul 7 - BAB 5
8th Level: Fighter 1 - BAB 6 and Bonus Feat

It just depends on what you want Rogue for. If you want it for Rogue skills, then obviously you're going to take 1st level as Rogue and probably again at 9th. Doing it that way, means your BAB won't be 6 until level 9; regardless of what you do.

Basically, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting at 8 or 9 will be the difference between taking Rogue at 1 for skills, or waiting to take it for just 1 maxed skill and Evasion.

Personally, my Favored Soul will probably be 15 Favored Soul/3 Paladin/2 Rogue or just 17 Favored Soul/3 Paladin. I'm not too concerned about Rogue skills other than UMD and Evasion.

[Diib]

Drow or dwarf? Well, drow is a 32 point build-ish, but some of those points are chosen for you. Spell resistance is really nice at low levels, and you can switch your enhancement points around later when it loses effectiveness. Also, drow racial bonus to search and spot will help your rogueing. What I really like about drow is how easy it is to be effective in light armor, a 16 dex is easy to start with, and then you get another +2 out of racial enhancements. Non-mithral light armor only allows a +4 from dex (chain shirts) and you've already got that. Find yourself a +2 dex item at some point and you are primed for mithril.

You will want to be in light armor if you are going to take advantage of evasion. Not only will evasion reduce the overall damage you take, but it can literally be a life saver if you wander into a trap you didn't know about.

However, I prefer dwarf. The problem is the drow build is saddled with a 10 charisma, and you don't need a charisma for either build you are considering. Dwarf not only tanks cha (which you want) but it gives you some natural damage boosts in axes and has enhancements for increasing sp.

Honestly I would also not twf or thf.... I'd go sword and board. A shield will up your ac, and it is very easy to find superior devotion 1,2,3 etc buffs on shields.

Here is what I might do... just as an example:

I'd go with all 14s and a 6 in cha. This maxes out what you can do with a 28 point build, and you are a jack of all trades, no need to specialize. We've already discussed a 14 int, lets look at a few of the others.

Any other stat at a 14 can be boosted to an 18 with a potion. This means that you can unlock almost every rune found in the low level dungeons. You will get wisdom boosts out of cleric, and con boosts out of dwarf. How do you spend your other three stat points (at 4, 8 and 12?)... I'd go with either more wisdom or more str.

A dex of 14 isn't great, but STILL is good enough to stay in light armor and use evasion. Your not putting any more stat points here, but you can get a +4 dex item by mid-way through your career (level 9ish usually) which will pump you up to an 18. An 18 is all you need for chain shirts, which is the light armor you will probably be using. Also... a mithril tower shield allows only a max of +4 dex bonus, so 18 becomes a bit of a sweet spot.

1 level of fighter as a dwarf will give you several important things. First, it gives you access to dwarven axes for free, this is normally an exoctic weapon and deals 1d10 even though it is a one handed weapon. Second, it gives you access to tower shields. Third it gives you a +10 hp class toughness enhancement. And a bonus feat (yay).

At low levels, while your dex is still a 14, a normal tower shield that limits you to two dex will not be a problem. When you finally are able to get that +4 dex item, you will want to switch to mithril tower shields.

As a dwarf you also have access to racial toughness 3 as long as you pick up the dwarf con enhancements... so you are looking at +40 hp from enhancements and another +20 from toughness itself for an easy +60 hp from taking toughness.

So after say 7 levels I'd look like this:

Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 3.32
DDO Character Planner Home Page

Level 7 Chaotic Good Dwarf Male
(2 Fighter \ 2 Rogue \ 3 Cleric) 
Hit Points: 129
Spell Points: 254 
BAB: 5\5\10
Fortitude: 8
Reflex: 6
Will: 5

                  Starting          Feat/Enhancement
Abilities        Base Stats          Modified Stats
(28 Point)       (Level 1)             (Level 7)
Strength             14                    16
Dexterity            14                    15
Constitution         14                    15
Intelligence         14                    14
Wisdom               14                    15
Charisma              6                     6

                  Starting          Feat/Enhancement
                 Base Skills         Modified Skills
Skills           (Level 1)            (Level 7)
Balance               6                    10
Bluff                 2                     2
Concentration         2                     5
Diplomacy            -2                    -2
Disable Device        6                    13
Haggle                2                     2
Heal                  2                     7
Hide                  2                     2
Intimidate           -2                    -2
Jump                  6                     7
Listen                2                     2
Move Silently         2                     2
Open Lock             6                    11
Perform              n/a                   n/a
Repair                2                     2
Search                6                    15
Spot                  6                     6
Swim                  2                     3
Tumble                6                     6
Use Magic Device      2                     2

Level 1 (Rogue)
Feat: (Selected) Toughness
Enhancement: Dwarven Axe Damage I
Enhancement: Rogue Sneak Attack Training I
Enhancement: Rogue Disable Device I


Level 2 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Power Attack
Enhancement: Rogue Skill Boost I
Enhancement: Rogue Open Lock I
Enhancement: Rogue Search I
Enhancement: Fighter Toughness I


Level 3 (Cleric)
Feat: (Selected) Extend Spell
Enhancement: Dwarven Faith I
Enhancement: Racial Toughness I
Enhancement: Cleric Life Magic I
Enhancement: Cleric Energy of the Zealot I


Level 4 (Cleric)
Enhancement: Dwarven Constitution I
Enhancement: Cleric Wisdom I


Level 5 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Cleave
Enhancement: Dwarven Faith II
Enhancement: Fighter Strength I


Level 6 (Rogue)
Feat: (Selected) Dodge
Enhancement: Racial Toughness II
Enhancement: Rogue Dexterity I


Level 7 (Cleric)
Enhancement: Dwarven Axe Damage II

now, you don't have to go the power attack/cleave route, I just like it for an axe/shield combo.

Just an idea
~ Diib

[Diib]

Everything after that is just grabbing stat points, toughnesses, and healing magic boosts and sp boosts as you take cleric levels for the rest of your life. Keep cross classing disable and search... and heal-smash your way through the game.

[Psyker]

I would look at making an 18/2 Bard/Rogue. With Bard it is easier to keep up the skills for Rogue, plus they fight well, especially with masters touch and a nice 2 handed weapon. You get some healing and lots of buffs. Drow works well especially for a spell singer.

Starting stats could be

STR 14
DEX 10
CON 14
INT 12
WIS 8
CHA 18 (could drop to 16 and increase str or con to 16, level ups to CHA)

I would use Extend Spell, Spell penetration, and spell focus enchantment for your first feats. You will have exceptional crowd control with your fascinate song and Hypnotize spell. Try to wand heal to save mana for battle spells, get yourself a 2-handed sword or falchion and you can help out quite a bit in battles, in fact the fighter would have most of the aggro so your sneak attack bonus would be kicking in a lot. Take your 2nd rogue at 6 or 7 so you get your evasion.

Skill points need to be search, disable device, umd and perform. Others you can put wherever you prefer, remember to have some open lock but it is not necessary to have that max'd because you can always try again on a fail.

[sandrider30]

Ok, this is my tentative build for a 2 rogue/ 2 fighter/ 11 cleric, designed to be a jack of all trades (trap detector/melee capable and healer) for mostly solo play, or duo play with the wife that has a pure whirlwind fighter path build (I might think about MC'ing her if it's make sens to improve synergy between our 2 toons).

Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 3.32
DDO Character Planner Home Page

cleric solo 
Level 15 Chaotic Good Dwarf Male
(2 Fighter \ 2 Rogue \ 11 Cleric) 
Hit Points: 252
Spell Points: 610 
BAB: 11\11\16\21
Fortitude: 13
Reflex: 8
Will: 10

                  Starting          Feat/Enhancement
Abilities        Base Stats          Modified Stats
(28 Point)       (Level 1)             (Level 15)
Strength             14                    18
Dexterity            14                    15
Constitution         14                    16
Intelligence         14                    14
Wisdom               14                    16
Charisma              6                     6

                  Starting          Feat/Enhancement
                 Base Skills         Modified Skills
Skills           (Level 1)            (Level 15)
Balance               6                    10
Bluff                -2                    -2
Concentration         4                    15
Diplomacy            -2                    -2
Disable Device        6                    19
Haggle               -2                    -2
Heal                  4                     7
Hide                  6                     6
Intimidate           -2                    -2
Jump                  2                     4
Listen                6                     7
Move Silently         2                     2
Open Lock             6                     7
Perform              n/a                   n/a
Repair                2                     2
Search                6                    18
Spot                  6                    13
Swim                  2                     4
Tumble                n/a                   n/a
Use Magic Device      2                     2

Level 1 (Rogue)
Feat: (Selected) Toughness
Enhancement: Rogue Skill Boost I
Enhancement: Dwarven Axe Damage I
Enhancement: Rogue Sneak Attack Training I


Level 2 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Power Attack
Enhancement: Fighter Toughness I


Level 3 (Cleric)
Feat: (Selected) Extend Spell
Enhancement: Dwarven Constitution I
Enhancement: Dwarven Faith I
Enhancement: Racial Toughness I
Enhancement: Cleric Life Magic I


Level 4 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Cleave
Enhancement: Dwarven Axe Attack I
Enhancement: Fighter Strength I


Level 5 (Cleric)
Enhancement: Dwarven Faith II
Enhancement: Cleric Wisdom I
Enhancement: Cleric Wand and Scroll Mastery I


Level 6 (Rogue)
Feat: (Selected) Dodge
Enhancement: Racial Toughness II
Enhancement: Rogue Dexterity I


Level 7 (Cleric)
Enhancement: Dwarven Axe Damage II


Level 8 (Cleric)
Enhancement: Dwarven Constitution II


Level 9 (Cleric)
Feat: (Selected) Quicken Spell
Enhancement: Racial Toughness III


Level 10 (Cleric)
Enhancement: Cleric Life Magic II
Enhancement: Cleric Wisdom II


Level 11 (Cleric)
Enhancement: Cleric Life Magic III
Enhancement: Cleric Energy of the Zealot I


Level 12 (Cleric)
Feat: (Selected) Empower Spell
Enhancement: Racial Toughness IV


Level 13 (Cleric)
Enhancement: Dwarven Faith III


Level 14 (Cleric)
Enhancement: Cleric Life Magic IV


Level 15 (Cleric)
Feat: (Selected) Maximize Spell
Enhancement: Cleric Wand and Scroll Mastery II

Please suggest tweaks on this specific build (i.e. rogue/fighter/cleric) and/or better feat/enhancements progression.
Thank you.

[Roguewiz]

Since you're going only 2 levels of Rogue, you can get by with having a 12 int. That will free up some points. Additionally, since you aren't going to dual wield, you can drop your dex to 12 as well and rely on a dex item to fit yourself into Mithril Full Plate or Mithril Breastplate.

This will give you 4 points to boost your Con or Str, which will boost your solo potential due to HP or hitting harder.

IMHO at least.

[lutherl]

First, some explanation on the contradiction in the title:
I'm a happy married man who is lucky enough to have a wife that actually counts DDO play time as "us" time. If you have not been in a long term relationship/marriage, you cannot understand. For the fellow DDO players who are, you know that such a partner is a rare gem! ;-)
Now, the little problem is that she is not very good/savvy with fast paced games, i.e. multitasking between weapon switching, engaging buffs and abilities while swinging in the overall direction of the enemy and quaffing health potions can get her rattled and frustrated, and we do not want that during our "us" time, do we?. So I advised her to play with a beginner friendly class: Warrior (smash!)
Although, we are having an overall good time (finished Elite up to lvl 3 quests, and Hard most up to level 5) we are reaching the limits of what we can do with our current builds. Her: lvl 7 human wirlwind fighter path, Me: lvl 7 elf mechanic path. I try to pick-up as much baddies as I can with backstab and ranged, but once I'm revealed, or we have to engage enemies that are backstab immune, we are pretty much dead. Hence, the title: I need help improving my current rogue, or restarting a completely new toon, that would do a better job at melee and increase the survival rate of my companion fighter. The character should be mostly self reliant, as it can get little more than some front-line smashing support from the fighter (hence the solo-ish build requirement).
I have looked seriously in the cleric variations presented in http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=223253, and at the Melee-Focused build specifically (18 cleric/ 2 fighter), with a possible level or 2 in Rogue.
Now, before "Why would you do that, noob!" comments start to fly, please allow me to present my case for the build preference:
1/ We are not particularly interested in very high/end game play (time commitment), so I'd rather have a build that shines until lvl 15 and craps out, rather than a build that is average all along but becomes god-like in end-game.
2/ The build should be self-reliant, but still with good "baby-sitting" potential for my companion player.
3/ The build should be based on standard characters (no monks, warforged or FS), with 28 point build and regular (non-DDO store) items.

Again, the focus is not power play/ loot grind, but enjoyable play with a "freshman" player (if I may call myself "junior").
A detailed level progression with skills acquisition, like the ones with the character builder, would be very much appreciated! Thank you in advance for helping me make DDO an integral part for a couple's "us" time!

Best regards

Have you considered having her rent hireling clerics? They tend to focus on the person who hired them, so it would need to be her of course, but the cost could be split and on my Pal5/Ran2, they've proven invaluable (and if moderately managed) and useful. In my experience, just need to make sure the hireling doesn't do something stoopid like stand in the middle of traps going off, etc.

[sandrider30]

Since you're going only 2 levels of Rogue, you can get by with having a 12 int. That will free up some points. Additionally, since you aren't going to dual wield, you can drop your dex to 12 as well and rely on a dex item to fit yourself into Mithril Full Plate or Mithril Breastplate.

This will give you 4 points to boost your Con or Str, which will boost your solo potential due to HP or hitting harder.

IMHO at least.

If I understand properly, dex below 12 will lock-up Evasion. Is it that important to have it, or can the loss be mitigated by a "heavier" (+ Str, Con) build.
Also, int @ 12 will reduce the skill points available at start to boost the rogue skills (what should be my focus then?), and also reduce the skills for cleric. Would it hurt the concentration potential.
Finally, I'm not sure I understand the difference between Spot and Search functions. Can I forgat about spot and use search only (if I make a search every couple of steps in dungeons?). Would a strong Search detect doors and hidden passages?

Thank you

[Valakai]

Have you considered a halfling wiz18/rog2 with dragonmarks of healing.

Max Int and you get all benefits of wizard (good buffs, DPS and crowd control)
At level 9 you will have really nice healing power as you have 4 heals + lots of CLW, CMWs that can be empowered and maximised for free so while you would not qualify for main healer in raids you can do the job in smaller groups just fine.
UMD so you can use the raise scrolls and heal scrolls when in a pinch.
You can do all traps and with super duper int your search and disable devices will make pure rogues envious. You can take insightful reflexes and have real strong evasion as well. You will get full access to 9th level wiz spells. Displace, haste and stoneskin your wife and she will luuuuuuv uuuuuu.

This would be my first choise for a duo build if I could stomach playing a halfling.

[sandrider30]

Have you considered a halfling wiz18/rog2 with dragonmarks of healing.

Max Int and you get all benefits of wizard (good buffs, DPS and crowd control)
At level 9 you will have really nice healing power as you have 4 heals + lots of CLW, CMWs that can be empowered and maximised for free so while you would not qualify for main healer in raids you can do the job in smaller groups just fine.
UMD so you can use the raise scrolls and heal scrolls when in a pinch.
You can do all traps and with super duper int your search and disable devices will make pure rogues envious. You can take insightful reflexes and have real strong evasion as well. You will get full access to 9th level wiz spells. Displace, haste and stoneskin your wife and she will luuuuuuv uuuuuu.

This would be my first choise for a duo build if I could stomach playing a halfling.

Interesting. I have never considered that. I can see the great synergy happening with INT.
I have just never played a wizard before (other than in the Baldur's gate series!). How difficult is it to play? How viable is it for a duo play with a fairly inexperienced melee companion. My main concern is running out of spells and getting toasted if the melee does not hold aggro properly. But, it might very be a totally irrational argument. Ok, I'll do some reading on this suggested build.