Rysuda- 14 Paladin/ 6 Monk What role?

[JethroWolf]

I am considering lesser reincarnation if needed, I began with the idea of a dual-wielding Paladin and tried to use feats and such to give him more reliability than his first life (this is a TR'ed toon)

This character was lesser reincarnated using a +1 Lesser Heart of Wood at lvl 17 and now has (15 Pally/2 Monk)

Base;

Str: 17
Dex: 16
Con: 13
Int: 8
Wis: 8
Cha: 14

Endgame:

Str: 30
Dex: 24
Con: 22
Int: 10
Wis: 16
Cha: 24

All stats have been modified with a +2 Tome and all (excluding Int) are modified with a +6 item and feats)

Feats:

Two-Weapon Fighting, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, Greater Two-Weapon fighting
Oversized Two-Weapon Fighting
Extend
Power Attack
Improved Critical- Piercing*
Weapon Focus- Piercing*
Toughness

*The Focus is on Dual-wielding Rapiers due to the variety available to me as I lvled. Even if Khopeshes may give me a slight advantage, they aren't in supply...

I am still looking at a feat at lvl 18, but unsure what to take... suggestions?

and as usual...

It was not 30 mins after reincarnation I had someone tell me this build is lacking... I know I can't please everyone, but is there a flaw I missed?

[Greydeath]

What are the possiblities with this build that I may have overlooked?

Spring Attack wasted
*** is Power Attack?
*** do you have Power Critical?
2x Toughness but no Extend?

What role would this build best fit in a party?

Gimp, perhaps even Piker

[JethroWolf]

Mind telling me why Spring attack is wasted?

Noob question... What is a Piker?

[Nyvn]

Well for starters you can't take spring attack. It requires dodge and mobility. Same for Greater Two Weapon Fighting, it requires Two Weapon Fighting and Improved Two Weapon Fighting.

Power Critical is a worthless feat. All power attack does is help confirm critical hits. For a critical you need to roll an unmodified number within the crit range of your weapon. If Then you roll again and the unmodified roll and your to hit bonus have to beat the monsters AC for it to be a critical. You shouldn't have any problem hitting monsters, if you are having problems then you should reevaluate your build/gear.

Not having Power attack is detrimental to any melee build, that's 5 damage per hand. Every hit, see again if you're having problems hitting reevaluate your build/gear.

6 Monk, monk is more of a all or very little class. Either you go all out and get monk abilities, or you take 1-2 levels for specific things. If you don't use monk weapons/fists then your monk levels are wasted. If you do use monk levels/fists with only 6 levels of monk then you're limiting yourself to very low dps weapons.

I suggest using http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=194531 to help plan out characters.

[Shassa]

If you want to go /MNK then keep it to 2 levels. The evasion and extra feats are nice.

I'd rearrange your stats. Bump WIS down to at least 10, if not 8 (I'd do 8). Bump CHA up to at least 15, 16 if you don't think you will be getting a +3 CHA tome. Reasoning: you can use items to boost your WIS to cast spells, the same cannot be said for the base CHA needed for Divine Might which is a huge boost to damage (and you need 18 for DM3). Lower Dex to 15 if you need the points.

Spring Attack and Power Crit are not very useful. What race are you planning on being? You selected Improved Crit: Piercing so I assume Drow. If you're not Drow then you should be going for Slash and Khopesh.

Feats should include:
TWF
Imp TWF
Greater TWF
Power Attack *take as your Monk feat
Toughness (just once) *take as your Monk feat
Imp Crit Piercing (if Drow) or Slash (if anything else)
Extend (really need this as you depend a lot on using buffs for a chunk of your damage)
Khopesh and maybe OTWF if Human

Piker = someone who isn't useful to a group, relies on others to get through, leech, along for the ride.

[eonfreon]

Completely agree with Nyvn and Shassa. 18/2 Pally/Monk is a lot of fun and great dps.

18 Paladin = 7 Feats
2 Monk = 2 Feats
= 9 Feats
Human = 1 Feat
= 10 Feats

So any race can have the Feats on Shassa's list:
TWF
ITWF
GTWF
Toughness (Monk Feat)
PA (Monk Feat)
Improve Crit: slash or pierce
Extend
OTWF
Left over Feat to use for whatever direction you like to play (some may like Combat Expertise, others another Toughness, Dodge, Shield Mastery, whatever tailored to taste and usefulness).

If Human you definently want Khopesh.
And I even recommend Improve Crit Pierce as well as Slash. Having both will increase damage to both weapon types, which is fun.
If possible dual wielding a Wounding Khopesh and say a Puncturing Rapier ( or Banisher or whatever is needed ) is a lot of fun.

[gott_ist_tot]

Well, 8/12 handwraps kensei is a quite viable build, maybe OP wanted something similiar?
If you wanna be handwraps pally, stay at 12 paly for 2nd prestige - you want as much
monk levels as you can afford if you're going to use handwraps.
That's my pure speculation though, and I have no idea if that'd work with a pally.
I for one, certainly wouldn't experiment with TR'd toon, but roll a completely new one.

Dunno if pally aura applies to himself as well as the others? That would add a nice AC
bonus to already AC oriented class. But adding charisma on top of all the other stats
monk already has to worry about... I'd probably roll a throw-away toon, and if it worked,
would try for 2nd TR to take care of charisma.
Got a bit carried away on my speculations, sorry...

P.S. Has an added bonus of freeing up a feat slot from OTWF.
P.S.2 WF FTW! Add poison immunity to pally's wide spectrum! Enhanced PA (take it! take it!)

[gavagai]

It helps to know what you want you build to do. And what you want out of each class. Why 14 Pally? And why 6 Monk? Is it for AC and tanking? Evasion? Some Monk ability at level 6? (It's ok if the answer is: "they just sound cool together." Just remember that the enhancement system rewards staying pure class heavily, and as a result many combinations are weaker than pure class builds.)

If you're still learning the game, I'd consider something other than a deep Paladin multiclass. Paladins are arguably the most complex characters to build and design. That said, they are fun. Here is a snappy guide to the class and builds.

I'd also recommend getting a build to 20 before sweating too heavily about the TR. All the things (which feats have pre-requisites, which abilities you like, &c.) will make more sense -- and you'll have time to see which raidgear drops.


As for the build:

Monk 6 looks inefficient; it takes away your tier III PrE, and diminishes your Paladin abilities by 6 levels. You could get all the major benefits from Monk (2 feats, Wis Bonus to AC, evasion) from 2 levels of Monk. Of course Monk means no armor and shield -- which will make AC a little harder to achieve for a new player at the lower levels. Whether its important depends on whether you plan to zerg to 20 or take some time to learn the game and quests.

You shouldn't have your Wisdom above 10 unless you want to try to make this an AC-focused build. Paladins have no offensive spells, and get no benefit from a WIS higher than 14, which you can achieve with an 8 base WIS and a +6 WIS item. An 8 WIS is discouraging for new players, because it means they won't be able to cast until level 5-7; but just like having Heavy Armor and a shield, spells before those levels are simply a minor convenience if your only goal is endgame.

Nothing in this build suggests an AC-focus, but just in case: IMO an AC-focused Paladin is not a good plan for a starter character, even a first-time TR. Simply put, an AC paladin/monk has no real dump stat (everything needs to be above 11, assuming +2 tomes). And very few feats to get all the AC feats and offensive feats you'd need.

A Paladin natively gets all the skills it needs to bring great DPS to a party without intensive gear-grind. An AC tank Paladin, otoh, is a build that is highly gear dependent, and is mediocre at AC without that gear. Now if you are lucky and have amassed all the necessary gear AC gear your first time around, then you may enjoy it more.

[Bago]

I've thought about trying this class split a number of times.

The plan would be to use weighted hand wraps + both stunning blow and stunning fist (and hope someday the handwraps work properly with both) to setup smites, DS and the earth strike.

The combination of zeal + wind2 with unarmed would be quite fast.

feats: twf,itwf,gtwf,stunning blow,stunning fist, toughness, power attack, imp crit:blunt, extend .. and .. I forget.

That said, a pal18/mnk2 could emulate the same strategy pretty well. He would just swing slightly slower and not have the stunning fist.

Probably not worth it at this time .. still .. if one of the monk PrEs has a strong tier I .. someday ..

[MrCow]

One of my characters that is going through a paladin past life for reincarnation purposes is doing something similar in concept (Unarmed Paladin, 15 Paladin/3 Monk/2 Sorcerer split) and while I do get a fair amount of eyebrows raised at it, the build does very well in solo, duo, or trio.

The combination of Unarmed Attack Speed, Lesser Wind Stance, Aligning the Heavens, Greater Two Weapon Fighting, Zeal, Divine Favor, Divine Might, Paladin Devotion IV, Fists of Light, Hunter of the Dead II, Monk Improved Recovery I, Angelskin, Superior Ardor IV, and Healing Ki make for a fairly self-sufficient character.

The plan would be to use weighted hand wraps + both stunning blow and stunning fist (and hope someday the handwraps work properly with both) to setup smites, DS and the earth strike.

Just be warned that unarmed attacks don't get two strikes when using an Exalted Smite or Divine Sacrifice.

[JethroWolf]

Updated with the latest, yet still told rather quickly I am unacceptable in anything above Gianthold...