Any advice on this build would be helpful

[papa_bravo]

note: this is part of my post quoted from another thread

Character build question: I plan on rolling a Dwarf Gladiator like Aranticus posted on his newbie builds but I had a couple of questions I wanted to ask you veterans first.

http://ddowiki.com/page/The_Gladiator

Cleric Splash: I need some way to heal myself through instances when I dont have the convenience of a cleric in the party. Would 1 level of cleric be useful throughout my dwarf's carreer, or will I be gimping myself hard? Should I just rely on hireling clerics and or wands of healing (I know nothing about how these work)? edit: The more I think about it the more I think I can just use hireling clerics, but I really want to be a trap-finder.

Rogue Splash: I really want to be able to spot and remove traps. From what little I've played, This seems to be really important. Will a rogue splash ruin my build and will it do what I want it to do which is trap-removal.

Stunning Blow Feat: Is there a way I can squeeze Stunning Blow into this Build?

Spot Skill: I've been told by several players to put some skill points into spot. How would you spend my gladiators skill points?

Thanks for any comments or advice you can offer. I'm new so I don't know the games mechanics or end play yet.

[honkuimushi]

Only 2 levels of Cleric really won't help you and any more would lock you out of the third tier of your PrE for the forseable future. And the PrE is critical for this build.

2 Levels of Rogue gets you Evasion, but your Reflex save won't be that great and going with light armor will hurt your AC fairly significantly-- which is kind of the main point of this build. You won't have enough skill points to do traps while keeping your Intimidate maxed and putting points in the other recommended skills. A vet could probably pull off the build, but it is far from optimized and you probably don't have the gear or experience to have it work well for you.

Spot is cross classed on a Fighter and you have an additional penalty from your low Wis. You could take some points from Jump, but I'm not sure how your results would be.

Stunning Blow is possible, but the 2 best candidates are Iron Will or Improved Shield Mastery. Will saves are already going to a problem and losing Iron Will will make things worse and losing Improved Shield Mastery will reduce your turtle capabilities, which is a pretty big feature.

If you really want a trap monkey, I would suggest one of the Ranger 18/ Rogue 2 or Ranger 18/Rogue 1/ X 1 builds.

[Quikster]

Sounds like you want to do too much. Decide what you want to do with this build and stick to it. Builds that can do many things are usually very resource intense.

[jadenkorr]

No, splashing 2 cleric levels will not help heal yourself any better. Your hp will very soon outstrip your healing ability, as clerics get better healing as they level to keep up with the increasing max hp.

Would not recommend 2 rogue levels either. You would be trying to do too much. Fighters dont get many skillpoints per level, and to get solid trapskills, you will need those skill points. Even with 14 int, you will minimally want to take balance and intimidate each level on this build. That leaves only 1 extra skillpoint per level (on the fighter levels), unless im counting wrongly, which is definitely not enough to take trap skills.

[papa_bravo]

Only 2 levels of Cleric really won't help you and any more would lock you out of the third tier of your PrE for the forseable future. And the PrE is critical for this build.

2 Levels of Rogue gets you Evasion, but your Reflex save won't be that great and going with light armor will hurt your AC fairly significantly-- which is kind of the main point of this build. You won't have enough skill points to do traps while keeping your Intimidate maxed and putting points in the other recommended skills. A vet could probably pull off the build, but it is far from optimized and you probably don't have the gear or experience to have it work well for you.

Spot is cross classed on a Fighter and you have an additional penalty from your low Wis. You could take some points from Jump, but I'm not sure how your results would be.

Stunning Blow is possible, but the 2 best candidates are Iron Will or Improved Shield Mastery. Will saves are already going to a problem and losing Iron Will will make things worse and losing Improved Shield Mastery will reduce your turtle capabilities, which is a pretty big feature.

If you really want a trap monkey, I would suggest one of the Ranger 18/ Rogue 2 or Ranger 18/Rogue 1/ X 1 builds.

ke you want to do too much. Decide what you want to do with this build and stick to it. Builds that can do many things are usually very resource intense.

No, splashing 2 cleric levels will not help heal yourself any better. Your hp will very soon outstrip your healing ability, as clerics get better healing as they level to keep up with the increasing max hp.

Would not recommend 2 rogue levels either. You would be trying to do too much. Fighters dont get many skillpoints per level, and to get solid trapskills, you will need those skill points. Even with 14 int, you will minimally want to take balance and intimidate each level on this build. That leaves only 1 extra skillpoint per level (on the fighter levels), unless im counting wrongly, which is definitely not enough to take trap skills.

Thanks all of you. Although I'm disappointed, I will keep my build pure and enjoy it to max level. Hey It's my first character and I can always try somrthing else later on.

[papa_bravo]

By the way. What can I expect to do with this build? after studying it long and hard, there were three things that bugged me about it.

They were: combat expertise, power attack, and the 14 intelligence. Here was my reasoning.

I thought Why combat expertise when I'm not using any feats that require it as a prerequisite? Why power attack when I'm not using it as a prerequisite? And why int 14 when 13 will do the job and I can put that extra point somewhere else?

Here's what I concluded. Combat expertise and power attack are for my two different roles in a party. Combat expertise when I'm tanking, and power attack when I'm dpsing. int 14 is just because there was really no where else useful to put the extra attribute point.

Would love to hear from Aranticus, the creator of this build to see if I got it right. Is he still playing? If so, thanks for all the great info in your posts sir. I've become a fan.

[papa_bravo]

I'm just bumping this hoping that any veterans will comment on if I have the right perspective on playing this build. When tanking I use combat expertise and use sword and board, and when dps is needed I use power attack and go with my beefy 2-hander. Also, I'm finding that some points in the swim skill might've prevented a couple of deaths. Any opinions on the skil choices for this build?

[Slink]

Would love to hear from Aranticus, the creator of this build to see if I got it right. Is he still playing? If so, thanks for all the great info in your posts sir. I've become a fan.

Aranticus IS a great player.
Come to Khyber and you can run with him

Til then, send him a PM if you have the time, although he doesnt post, he is still here in that aspect.

GL-

S.

[RoboVanguard]

Yes, you got the perspective right regarding PA and CE, and 14 int gives you the extra skill point per level. You can dump those points into umd if you're looking for a place to stick them, so put you skill points into jump/tumble, intimidate, balance, and umd.

you can do 2 rogue and still get decent rogue skills if you drop balance and some jump, or if you're human, as that nets you another skill point per level. So the breakdown would be jump/tumble, intimidate, disable device, umd, and search. Stick a few points from the rogue levels into open lock etc. and with careful planning of not taking intimidate during your rogue levels and taking a 1st level rogue will help quite a bit.