Revisiting paths: Builds for new players

[ProfessorWC]

hey I am new to the game, and I love the information you have here. I was wondering when we could see the Virtuoso of the Sword, or one of the other Barbarian builds. I realize you have put in a lot of work on this, and thanks for that! I am currently playing a warpriest of siberys and having a blast!

[Nodigo]

First, I must thank you for your great work. I play a warchanter and really hacking things to pieces with my two-hander ! I'm usually one of the primary dmg-dealers in my groups (still low lvl though) and I can heal & buff myself, it's a wonderful build.

But what kind of armor should I look for? I suspect I should use medium since I don't cast that many spells at low lvl, to go towards light in a few lvls or... can I use heavy?

[AlacrityFitzhugh]

First, I must thank you for your great work. I play a warchanter and really hacking things to pieces with my two-hander ! I'm usually one of the primary dmg-dealers in my groups (still low lvl though) and I can heal & buff myself, it's a wonderful build.

But what kind of armor should I look for? I suspect I should use medium since I don't cast that many spells at low lvl, to go towards light in a few lvls or... can I use heavy?

Wear light armor. Medium and Heavy armor have too high an Armor Check Penalty (all DEX skills knocked down), and anything other than Light armor has Spell Failure. Shields do, too (except mithral light shields).

[tihocan]

Wear light armor. Medium and Heavy armor have too high an Armor Check Penalty (all DEX skills knocked down), and anything other than Light armor has Spell Failure. Shields do, too (except mithral light shields).

Exactly. Anyway, your AC will suck past L10 or so and blur/displacement/ironskin chant will be your defense.

[tihocan]

I was wondering when we could see the Virtuoso of the Sword, or one of the other Barbarian builds.

Things are a bit slow right now because I'm somewhat overwhelmed at work. The next one (paladin tank) will be done by the end of the week. Then if you check the list on first page, TWF Barb is next, and Virtuoso is not far behind

[malaquite]

Hi

I read the modification planed in the coming Update 5, and there are a lot (changes to TWF specially); even the premade paths are changed. Do you plan to modify all the builds you made ?

[tihocan]

Hi

I read the modification planed in the coming Update 5, and there are a lot (changes to TWF specially); even the premade paths are changed. Do you plan to modify all the builds you made ?

Yes I'm planning to take it into account.

[tihocan]

The Mighty Protector (L18 Paladin/L1 Fighter /L1 Rogue )

Concept: Intimi-tank focusing on defense, but still able to switch to a more offensive role if needed
Original path's flaws: Too much Wis and not enough Con
Main fixes: Decreased Wis in favor of Con, splashed Fighter for full Intimidate and an extra feat (as well as Rogue for UMD), and revised feats.

Multi-class progression <- click for more info: Create your character as a Rogue, then take your next 6 levels as Paladin, then level 8 as Fighter, then rest (9 to 20) as Paladin
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral, Chaotic Good, Neutral, Neutral Good, Lawful Neutral, Lawful Good

Stats and Race (28/32 pt):
........Drow.....Dwarf......Elf.....Halfling...Human...Warforged.
.Str.....14........14........14......13/14.......14........14....
.Dex.....13........14........13........13........13........13....
.Con.....14........14......13/14.......14........14........14....
.Int.....13........13........13........13........13........13....
.Wis.....8.........9.........8.........8.........8.........8.....
.Cha.....16......12/14.....14/15.....14/15.....14/16.....12/14...

Ability increase every 4 levels: All in Str (except possibly your L20 point that you may spend in Cha if it allows you to qualify for a higher tier of Divine Might, i.e. reach an even Cha when counting only your base score and tomes).

Skills (except Human): At character creation (Rogue level), max out Intimidate, UMD, Balance, Tumble, Jump, Open Lock, Haggle, Spot, and Concentration. On your next levels, max out Intimidate and UMD.
Skills (Human): Same, but at character creation you get a few more points that you can spend on any skill you fancy (e.g. Heal), and on further levels you can spend your extra skill point into Concentration.

Feats (by level), Drow: Toughness (1), Dodge (3), Combat Expertise (6), Improved Critical: Pierce (8), Power Attack (9), Extend Spell (12), Skill Focus: Intimidate (15), Two-Handed Fighting (18)
Feats (by level), Elf: Toughness (1), Dodge (3), Combat Expertise (6), Improved Critical: Slash (8), Power Attack (9), Extend Spell (12), Skill Focus: Intimidate (15), Two-Handed Fighting (18)
Feats (by level), Dwarf, Halfling and Warforged: Toughness (1), Dodge (3), Combat Expertise (6), Improved Critical: Slash (8), Power Attack (9), Extend Spell (12), Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Khopesh (15), Skill Focus: Intimidate (18)
Feats (by level), Human: Toughness (1), Dodge (1), Combat Expertise (3), Extend Spell (6), Improved Critical: Slash (8), Power Attack (9), Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Khopesh (12), Skill Focus: Intimidate (15), Two-Handed Fighting (18)

For more information about picking enhancements please read this post.
Enhancements (Fighter): Intimidate I
Enhancements (Paladin): Armor Class Boost I, Bulwark of Good III, Charisma I, Courage of Good I, Defender of Siberys III, Devotion II, Divine Might (highest tier you can get), Divine Righteousness I, Divine Sacrifice I, Energy of the Templar I, Exalted Smite II, Extra Lay on Hands II, Extra Smite Evil III, Focus of Good I, Resistance of Good III, Toughness II
Enhancements (Rogue): Haste Boost I, Sneak Attack Training I
Enhancements (Drow): Follower of the Sovereign Host, Melee Attack I, Melee Damage I, Racial Toughness II, Unyielding Sovereignty
Enhancements (Dwarf): Armor Mastery II, Constitution I, Follower of the Sovereign Host, Racial Toughness II, Spell Defense I, Unyielding Sovereignty
Enhancements (Elf): Follower of the Undying Court, Racial Toughness II, Undying Call, Valenar Elf Melee Attack I, Valenar Elf Melee Damage I
Enhancements (Halfling): Cunning I, Follower of the Sovereign Host, Guile I, Racial Toughness II, Unyielding Sovereignty
Enhancements (Human): Adaptability Strength I, Follower of the Sovereign Host, Improved Recovery I, Racial Toughness II, Unyielding Sovereignty, Versatility III
Enhancements (Warforged): Bladesworn Transformation, Constitution I, Follower of the Lord of Blades, Healer's Friend I, Racial Toughness II

Soloability by level:
No hireling..: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
With hireling: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Tips:
- At L1, you are not a tank yet. Simply use whichever best light armor you can find, and any weapon you are proficient with (e.g. a staff or rapier), without a shield (unless you can find one with no Armor Check Penalty). Once you reach L2 you may start using heavier Armor (ideally Mithral Full Plate).
- From L2 to L20, this build is meant to be able to switch between defense and offense. In defensive mode, you would be using a one-handed weapon with a shield (Tower Shield once you get your Fighter level). Your weapon would ideally be Scimitar for Elf, Rapier for Drow, and Khopesh for other races (only once you acquire the proficiency feat in this weapon - you may use a Scimitar in the meantime, or a Dwarven Axe if you are Dwarf). Gather monsters around you with the Intimidate skill, and get into the Combat Expertise and Defender of Siberys defensive stances. You can either shield-block to mitigate as much damage as possible, or use your one-handed weapon to contribute to the damage output (and possibly try to hold aggro through damage instead of relying only on Intimidate). Switch to offensive mode when there is no point in mitigating damage, wielding a Two-Handed Weapon (ideally a Falchion), and turning on Power Attack.
- Note that Halflings get a -4 penalty to Intimidate.
- With Combat Expertise on, your spells will cost twice as many spell points, so remember to turn it off when buffing if you have time.
- You may start using healing wands at L2, even if you are not able to cast any spell yet.
- UMD will be extremely useful at high level, making you very self-sufficient, since you will take little damage thanks to your high AC, and will be able to keep yourself up using Heal scrolls.
- Remember that you need a Wis of at least (10 + spell level) to prepare and cast a spell. You can use items, enhancements, tomes and the Owl's Wisdom spell (available on potions / wands / clickies) to meet this requirement.
- You will be able to start casting spells at L5, but will receive very few base spell points to do so. Use items giving bonus spell points ('of Power', 'of Wizardry') and increase your Wis (for bonus spell points) so as to get a larger spell point pool.
- For all races, the Falchion will be your two-handed weapon of choice as soon as you start using Divine Sacrifice regularly (Elf should use Falchions immediately, while Warforged may start with Greatswords to take advantage of their +1 to-hit in the early levels, and other races can start with either Falchions, Greatswords or Greataxes).
- Once you reach L16, keep the Holy Sword spell memorized (grab components at House Jorasco's Apothecary). This powerful weapon will be quite useful (especially against some monsters with Damage Reduction), until you can find / craft even better ones.
- Read Junts' excellent paladin guide here, especially the part about tanking on a Paladin.

Variants:
- It is possible to stay pure Paladin on such a tank build, in order to get access to the Weapons of Good capstone enhancement at L20. Although this is a great enhancement, new players will benefit more from the Rogue and Fighter splash as they level up (for full UMD, 1d6 sneak attack, haste boost and two extra feats through the Fighter bonus feat and the granted Tower Shield proficiency) . If however you prefer to stay pure to get the capstone enhancement, you can do it with the same starting stats, spending skill points into Intimidate, UMD and Balance (and Concentration on Human). You will need to drop two feats (suggested to be among Two-Handed Fighting, Skill Focus: Intimidate, Khopesh Proficiency or Extend Spell) and pick the Tower Shield Proficiency feat (take it at L12 or L15, delaying Dodge / Extend / Skill Focus as necessary).
- For a multiclassing build like this one, splashing Rogue or Fighter is what makes most sense. This build takes one level of each, but other options, potentially just as viable, are to take two levels of Rogue or two levels of Fighter. If you take two levels of Rogue, you lose two feats (you will need to pick Tower Shield Proficiency and you lose the Fighter bonus feat): pick two feats to remove among Khopesh Proficiency, Two-Handed Fighting, Extend Spell and Skill Focus: Intimidate. The main benefit is to gain Evasion. However, your best AC will be reached in heavy armor, which will disable Evasion: expect to be forced to switch between "Evasion and reduced AC" and "max AC but no Evasion", depending on the situation. If you pick two levels of Fighter, you gain +1 Str through enhancements, and an extra feat (which you could use to be able to pick for instance Shield Mastery or Improved Two-Handed Fighting). However, you lose UMD as a class skill, thus not being as self-sufficient as with a Rogue splash.
- Instead of relying on Two-Handed Weapons in offensive mode, you can go for Two-Weapon Fighting (TWF) instead. In this case, 32 pt build or Drow is recommended, as well as ideally a Dexterity tome to reach the Greater TWF requirements (minimum 17 Dex, counting only base score and tomes). Being Human and/or replacing the level of Rogue by a level of Fighter will make it easier to fit the three feats in the TWF line.
- If you have access to an Int tome, you could want to take advantage of it to start with a lower Int (increasing preferably in this order Cha, Str, Con or Wis). However, keep in mind that you may need to delay the Dodge feat for until after you reach 13 Int. Also, because of the minimum level requirement on tomes, this may prevent you from maxing out both UMD and Intimidate, and they are very important to this build: for this reason it would work best on Human using a +1 Int tome (since no skill point is lost), or if you are planning to take a second level of Rogue instead of the Fighter level (so you can catch up on skills on this second Rogue level). If you really have to sacrifice one skill, let it be UMD.
- You may alter slightly the feat selection to fit your own personal preferences. Some options to consider: dropping Khopesh (mostly useful to better keep aggro through DPS in tank mode), getting Improved / Greater Two-Handed Fighting (for better damage output in offensive mode), taking Skill Focus: UMD (to better use Heal scrolls earlier), getting the [Improved] Shield Mastery feat(s) (for better Damage Reduction when shield-blocking), ...
- Taking Concentration on Human will allow you to more reliably heal in combat (and use Heal scrolls). This is not very important since overall your high AC should allow you to heal yourself without being interrupted too much. Thus you may replace this skill with e.g. Open Lock if you want to be able to open locked doors and chests by yourself.
- This build is close in spirit to the Stalwart Soldier Fighter path. Roughly speaking, the Paladin may not reach as high Armor Class nor sustained damage output as the Fighter when in a group, but is more self-sufficient, and has better saves. The Paladin class also requires more "active" gameplay, due to short-term buffs and special abilitites.

Color code: best to worst = green, yellow, orange, red

[wax_on_wax_off]

so i see that there is a new undead fighting cleric prestige coming with the new update and was hoping you'd maybe bump up the priority on the "scourge of the undead" cleric path.

I'm quite interested to give this a go but would like a guide for it.

I do love this resource you've created by the way, i refer to it all the time

[tihocan]

so i see that there is a new undead fighting cleric prestige coming with the new update and was hoping you'd maybe bump up the priority on the "scourge of the undead" cleric path.

I'm quite interested to give this a go but would like a guide for it.

I do love this resource you've created by the way, i refer to it all the time

I'll probably plug Radiant Servant on the Font of Healing build. I haven't really looked at the Scourge of the Undead build though, I'm curious at what I'm going to find...

[kimberlyj]

I'm a newbie, and when creating my character I chose a human, ranger, tempest. I'm currently at level 3, and wondered why I don't get the option to use AC points for open locks or disable device. I have thieves tools, but can never seem to use them. Does this come later? Or do I need to multiclass with rogue? I'd like more ability to heal also, as I can't seem to do that. I did take the hide, spot, swim, human and ranger ability skill upgrades. I find myself resetting my points as soon as I can each time to try and find something that will work better, and its getting expensive and tiresome. I play with my hubby, who is a Paladin (and loving his character), if that makes a difference to any recommendations.

[Anedac]

I have a quick question about the spellsinger build you posted. I notice for the human version, you put Versatility III as one of the enhancements. Is it really useful enough to justify itself? Versatility seems to really focus on melee buffs, and I wonder if I will really be using it that much if my role is really just that of support.

[Crell_1]

I dont know what you're doing to set out these paths, but you might consider using the ddo character planner, and posting up saved build files. (Helpful for people who aren't quite sure about picking enhancements, but don't have and don't have access to a lot of gold to fix their mistakes, which are more painful early on until you get to the point where you can grind some gold to fix it.. ) I know I got bit by the (buy every scroll, and inscribe it all, fever)..

[tihocan]

I'm a newbie, and when creating my character I chose a human, ranger, tempest. I'm currently at level 3, and wondered why I don't get the option to use AC points for open locks or disable device. I have thieves tools, but can never seem to use them. Does this come later? Or do I need to multiclass with rogue? I'd like more ability to heal also, as I can't seem to do that. I did take the hide, spot, swim, human and ranger ability skill upgrades. I find myself resetting my points as soon as I can each time to try and find something that will work better, and its getting expensive and tiresome. I play with my hubby, who is a Paladin (and loving his character), if that makes a difference to any recommendations.

The default Tempest ranger path is pure ranger, and thus doesn't get any rogue skills. If you want to follow the tempest version in this thread, you must create your character with the "Customize" option, and follow the class progression of the build (e.g. the Tempest one tells you to start as a Rogue).

Rangers can heal with wands, and can start casting spells at L4. They can cast Cure Light Wounds at L6.

[tihocan]

I have a quick question about the spellsinger build you posted. I notice for the human version, you put Versatility III as one of the enhancements. Is it really useful enough to justify itself? Versatility seems to really focus on melee buffs, and I wonder if I will really be using it that much if my role is really just that of support.

The main goal here is to boost your UMD. Once you reach 39 without this enhancement, you can safely dump it, but I kept it in the build since it is useful while leveling up, and a new player may not reach this magic number very fast. But I should add a note about this, thanks!

[tihocan]

I dont know what you're doing to set out these paths, but you might consider using the ddo character planner, and posting up saved build files. (Helpful for people who aren't quite sure about picking enhancements, but don't have and don't have access to a lot of gold to fix their mistakes, which are more painful early on until you get to the point where you can grind some gold to fix it.. ) I know I got bit by the (buy every scroll, and inscribe it all, fever)..

This is a good idea, I thought about it, but it'll take a significant amount of time to do it for each race, so I postponed it for "after I'm done will all paths"

[lorkar]

I'm a newbie, and when creating my character I chose a human, ranger, tempest. I'm currently at level 3, and wondered why I don't get the option to use AC points for open locks or disable device. I have thieves tools, but can never seem to use them. Does this come later? Or do I need to multiclass with rogue? I'd like more ability to heal also, as I can't seem to do that. I did take the hide, spot, swim, human and ranger ability skill upgrades. I find myself resetting my points as soon as I can each time to try and find something that will work better, and its getting expensive and tiresome. I play with my hubby, who is a Paladin (and loving his character), if that makes a difference to any recommendations.

lol im newbie too, and im making a temoest also, but ill follow the multiclassed 1 in this guide, i just wanted to know if it is viable to do this after the patch is coming..i dont want to miss anything rly useful, also i want to know if this build have a specific flaw and how to overcome it. thanks.

[tihocan]

lol im newbie too, and im making a temoest also, but ill follow the multiclassed 1 in this guide, i just wanted to know if it is viable to do this after the patch is coming..i dont want to miss anything rly useful, also i want to know if this build have a specific flaw and how to overcome it. thanks.

I haven't seen anything in the preview release notes that would invalidate this build. I haven't read them very carefully though.

[kimberlyj]

The default Tempest ranger path is pure ranger, and thus doesn't get any rogue skills. If you want to follow the tempest version in this thread, you must create your character with the "Customize" option, and follow the class progression of the build (e.g. the Tempest one tells you to start as a Rogue).

Rangers can heal with wands, and can start casting spells at L4. They can cast Cure Light Wounds at L6.

So in theory, can I multiclass into Rogue and gain the open lock and disable device skills, as well as a better stealth ability--even though I started as ranger and not as a rogue? I did choose the customize option, but unfortunately didn't find this thread until just the other day. You've really put a lot of work into this,very imformative, I think it should be a required read before actually playing the game-- but maybe I only think that because I'm about as clueless as a question mark with a burnt out light bulb. I really don't want to have to start over, trying my best to understand how this all works. This is my first endeavour into online gaming of this sort.

[kimberlyj]

lol im newbie too, and im making a temoest also, but ill follow the multiclassed 1 in this guide, i just wanted to know if it is viable to do this after the patch is coming..i dont want to miss anything rly useful, also i want to know if this build have a specific flaw and how to overcome it. thanks.

Im not going to try and pretend I have the answer to your questions, but I will say following the one in this guide seems to be the best option. I stumbled onto it only recently, after my character creation, and playing the game for a bit. I don't have a whole lot of time to play, so it takes me forever to level up, and it'd be another month before I got back to level 3 if I had to start over, which is what I'm currently trying to avoid. I'm sure the character I have will be sufficient enough once I get everything straightened out and as close as I can to where everything should be, but of course its much better to start your character the correct way from the beginning.