Revisiting paths: Builds for new players

[prng]

Hello tihocan,

Thank you for replying to my last question, and thank you again for this great guide! I have another question...

When making a Ranger Tempest, if one decides to use Weapon Finesse, would you suggest then to put all the level up stat increases into Dex instead? I'm still new to the game, and don't really understand the mechanics well enough to know if putting points into Dex instead of Str on a Weapon Finesse Tempest would be better or not.

Thank you again!

[tihocan]

Hello tihocan,

Thank you for replying to my last question, and thank you again for this great guide! I have another question...

When making a Ranger Tempest, if one decides to use Weapon Finesse, would you suggest then to put all the level up stat increases into Dex instead? I'm still new to the game, and don't really understand the mechanics well enough to know if putting points into Dex instead of Str on a Weapon Finesse Tempest would be better or not.

Thank you again!

Yes, typically, if you go the Finesse route, you would spend points in Dex. There isn't much incentive to do so on Tempest though unless you splash Monk to go for an AC build.

[aahdragon]

Hello, I'm a starting Undead Slayer Cleric but the build doesn't look like it will be up anytime soon. Do you know any good builds that were posted that I could look over for now?

[tihocan]

Hello, I'm a starting Undead Slayer Cleric but the build doesn't look like it will be up anytime soon. Do you know any good builds that were posted that I could look over for now?

Sorry, no. I'm not too sure what devs have in mind for this prestige enhancement line either, since it's not in the game yet. Currently there isn't much a Cleric can do to boost effectiveness against Undead, except focusing somewhat on Turn Undead (which can work reasonably well if you spec a bit for it).

[ThePickleMan]

is the dark blade path still viable? with the rogue's new capstone?

[tihocan]

is the dark blade path still viable? with the rogue's new capstone?

Yes. It's just that a pure version is also viable now, while it wasn't really worth it before. Scroll back a few pages to find Brennie's pure version (I'll be at least adding the link shortly to the build... promise )

[assassin3247]

like how u gave advice and gave it right.

[rayworks]

Was looking the Tempest build and wondering if taking 2 levels of rogue would be effective? I want to have some ability at disarm traps and open locks, and maybe I'm not getting what the usefulness is of the fighter splash.

Also, was looking at Warpriest and wondering if two levels of fighter would be a good idea. Seems I would get an extra feat. What clericness would I lose?

[Adalita]

Was looking the Tempest build and wondering if taking 2 levels of rogue would be effective? I want to have some ability at disarm traps and open locks, and maybe I'm not getting what the usefulness is of the fighter splash.

Also, was looking at Warpriest and wondering if two levels of fighter would be a good idea. Seems I would get an extra feat. What clericness would I lose?

The tempest build works well with 2 levels of non-ranger splash, although 18 rng/1 rog/1 fgt or 18 rng/1 rog/ 1mnk are the common choices. The normal reason for 2 levels of rogue is it grants the evasion feat, however ranger 9 gets that automatically. With a starting INT of 10 (drow works well here) you get 7 skill points a level, which is enough to keep UMD, DD, search and spot maxed with an extra point for balance, jump or concentration. As long you equip the appropriate gear this is sufficient to trap normal or hard reliably on quests at your level.

For an 18 clr / 2 fgt you would loose 95SP, a level 7th and level 9th spell slot, plus your spell penetration (which is based on your caster level) will be lower at cap. On the plus side you will get a bonus combat feat (so you could take improved two hander fighting for example), access to the fighter +1 STR enhancement, plus a few extra HP and +1 to your fort. Also you potentially have to put up with some battle cleric stigma.

With both of these its not critical when you take the 2nd splash level, so you can play the char to later levels before deciding.

[DANTEIL]

I'm going to take a pause on new builds and focus on going back through the many notes I took in the last couple of weeks, from comments in this thread and in pms (thanks everyone for the feedback!), to fix a few things, add notes, and links to build variants posted by other people. Then I'll go through the U5 release notes to update all current builds. Then I'll get back to the rest of the paths

Thanks for your work on these! I've recommended these to several others and am currently following your Warchanter build -- just got to level 10. I'm enjoying it quite a lot! Never thought it could be so much fun swinging a big axe around while singing songs too. With all the discussion around the Update 5 changes, I'll be interested to see what kinds of revisions you end up making, if any, to the Warchanter, esp. the THF stuff. But even if I never do max DPS all the time, I'm still going to enjoy this guy.

p.s. have you had the chance to check out the revised Pre-Generated Paths to see if Turbine has improved them?

[Zachski]

Here is my stab at the repeating crossbow Master Mechanic.

Just a thought... wouldn't it be better to put stat points in INT? To increase repeater damage.

[Brennie]

Just a thought... wouldn't it be better to put stat points in INT? To increase repeater damage.

I was actually debating this same thing, but here's the conclusions i came to:

19 base dex is required for improved precise shot, so atleast a few level-ups need to go there anyway, depending on race. Also, since rogues lack strong BaB and has few means of increasing to-hit, high dex will help compensate for the rogues inherent lack of accuracy. Also, due to the fact that a majority of the rogue damage comes from sneak attacks, a couple extra points via int didn't seem worth splitting the level up points and potentially less to-hit.

Additionally, the general benefits of dex, such as higher AC (in levels where it actually matters, that is) higher evasion, better balance, open lock, and tumble seemed to outweigh the benefits of more int, which are higher trapskills (complete overkill on a mechanic rogue!) and more skillpoints (still overkill, as the only skills even worth considering passed theose in the build are haggle and listen).

Lastly, I felt it would be easier for new players to simply have to worry about level ups in one stat rather than having to split them at different intervals for different races.

[Zachski]

Alrighty.

Well, I'll certainly try it out now

[Zachski]

Well, I have to say, once you grab a heavy crossbow (I do NOT recommend rapier), the Korthos quests become fun.

I'm not exactly blazing through them, but eh.

Having a hireling is pretty much a must. However, I'm surprised at how much freedom the 30 ft range gives me. Damage is... well, decent. Better than Rapier for this build, IMO.

I honestly can't wait until Repeater.

EDIT: I must add I'm doing all the quests on casual before doing them again on Normal. This might have a factor. However, aside from using a hireling, I've pretty much been soloing.

[tihocan]

Thanks for your work on these! I've recommended these to several others and am currently following your Warchanter build -- just got to level 10. I'm enjoying it quite a lot! Never thought it could be so much fun swinging a big axe around while singing songs too. With all the discussion around the Update 5 changes, I'll be interested to see what kinds of revisions you end up making, if any, to the Warchanter, esp. the THF stuff. But even if I never do max DPS all the time, I'm still going to enjoy this guy.

p.s. have you had the chance to check out the revised Pre-Generated Paths to see if Turbine has improved them?

Don't think I'll change anything in the Warchanter.

Haven't checked out the new Turbine paths. Will do though

[Shanadeus]

There seem to be some pre-defined paths that give you more than the normal 28 points at character creation (Monk ninja spy is the only I've seen so far) but can you somehow benefit from these extra points?
Like taking just starting out with these extra points-paths just to leave them for the second level, possibly multiclassing into some build which could use a monk level or two so the initial level doesn't go to waste?

I'm also wondering what would happen if you were to take the ninja spy path with a 32 point character now after the update?

[tihocan]

There seem to be some pre-defined paths that give you more than the normal 28 points at character creation (Monk ninja spy is the only I've seen so far) but can you somehow benefit from these extra points?
Like taking just starting out with these extra points-paths just to leave them for the second level, possibly multiclassing into some build which could use a monk level or two so the initial level doesn't go to waste?

I'm also wondering what would happen if you were to take the ninja spy path with a 32 point character now after the update?

Good question, I didn't try to see whether you could take advantage of these, since I figured they'd fix it eventually. Taking advantage of a bug is called an exploit and although you are welcome to do it if you want to, I'm not going to publicly suggest it's a good idea and encourage new players to follow the dark path

[Teldurn]

Now with the Cleric Radiant Servant enhancement, does it make Divine Healing completely obsolete?

[Lillypads]

what's the difference between arcane cannon and the other sorc build (blanking on it's name)? just spell choice? feats seem pretty much the same, stats are the same, just spell choice seems to be a little different

[tihocan]

Now with the Cleric Radiant Servant enhancement, does it make Divine Healing completely obsolete?

I'd say yes, mostly, though it can still be useful at lower levels, before you get RS.