Father/Son Duo... Ideas wanted..

[Darkrok]

Don't go too crazy with multi-classing...

Ranger/Rogue for him is the way to go... invest some points in INT, so he can keep all the skills up... don't worry about him being optimal at end-game or anything... make sure he can get all traps and do well at combat immediately and throughout the low levels...

My 7-year old son gets bored with characters when the leveling slows down... His highest is 11... usually he rerolls and starts a new one around 8th level...

Our best combo was me playing a wf wizard, and him with a wf fighter/barbarian. I could heal him and haste and displace us (both of them are 11 - although we haven't played them in a month)

This is great advice. To be more specific, you only want to take a couple rogue levels. One at level 1 and one to 'catch up' skills much later (usually right after you hit a nice spot in the ranger levels and normally no later than after ranger 11 but it definitely be earlier...I've even seen some take it at level 4 after ranger 2 to get evasion as quickly as possible).

If he's going to solo on occasion and wants a halfling a dex-based light monk is outstanding. The saves are great and the ac is phenomenal. On that one you'd want at least 12str, 16dex, 14con, 14wis. That takes traps out of the picture of course but it's another choice on a reroll. They can normally keep themselves alive with their healing finisher thanks to outstanding defenses.

Finally, if he decides to play a robot then having a wf'd wizard would be great. Honestly HE could play a wf'd wizard/rogue too if you get right down to it. It gives you traps, buffing, and at low levels melee too! You take rogue at level 1 & 9 and wizard every other level. Set yourself up at level 2 with shield, master's touch, and expeditious retreat running, get a nice 2-handed axe, and go to town. 14str,16con,18int, dump everything else for a 28-point build. 32-point builds I'd just toss in more con. If you both go robots and one's a rogue/wizard then I'd make the other a sorc. More sp's than the wizard so they can be the 'healer'. Again, we're talking low levels so you don't have to worry about tanking raid stuff or anything like that and I can still go toe-to-toe with stuff at level 10 with my rogue/wizard thanks to the docent from Update 5 (+3 docent with invulnerability and lifeshield).

[Darkrok]

Not to derail this thread or anything, but my son will be 8 in a few months. At what age do you think would be ok to introduce him to this game?

Also, what character do you recommend? Something simple until he learns a bit more of the game, and what toon can i make to complement him.

Thanks in advance.

My 6-year-olds play. All the suggestions of how to control their in-game experience are very good. I would suggest that you do the selling for them as it's easy to accidentally sell stuff you don't mean to sell...at least it is for my 6-year-olds.

As for character to play, assuming that his account has none of the add-ons then I would suggest playing an arcane archer spec'd ranger. Just because they have the arcane archer ability doesn't mean that they need to use archery all the time of course. What AA archers do for them though is give them decent enough ranged damage that can help mitigate some of the problems of being a pure ranger (squishy) by giving a viable alternative to melee at the beginning of fights.

A lot of people will question the viability of this but kids tend to stick to what they know, run lower than level quests, and like the outdoor explorers (at least mine do). Out there a good bow and the AA abilities can do a lot of the damage before the enemies even close the gap and then rangers do respectable damage twf even without Tempest. Finally, the wand usage and buffs you'll have make it a viable character healing-wise as long as they take things slowly enough.

Now that's assuming you have none of the additional races/classes. If you have warforged available definitely go wf'd barb and just buy them a ton of repair pots.

[Lukee2012]

Thank for the advice guys. I've played clerics in every mmo so I don't mind playing one here and I think that the dwarf barbarian would be perfect for him.

Gamepad? That would probably make the experience so much easier for Him.

Does anyone know of a good one, also any help on the configuration would be appreciated. I think I recall seeing a thread about playing with a gamepad. I'll see if I can find it.

Thanks again everyone.

[Optimistic_Guardian]

I think Pal/rog + 18fav/2monk would be even better

Interesting idea, but I find a rogue paladin is too stat demanding. Although monk favor soul I agree would make a good choice.

[unbongwah]

I've never played DDO with a gamepad, but it's hard to go wrong with a 360 controller. [EDIT: presuming his hands are big enough, of course!] The wired ones work fine as is; just plug it into a USB port and go. For a wireless controller, you need the wireless receiver: you can either buy it separately (if you already have the gamepad) or get the gamepad bundled with it.

[bigolbear]

first off let me say its nice to see family gaming together and good that you play along with your son in an online environment.

id recomend either of the following duo teams:

1.(for your son) warforge ranger/rogue mix
2.(for you) warforge wizard or sorcerer.

you will both be able to heal - but you to a much greater extent, both will be able to provide some bufs and potentialy both can mele.

OR... if you dont like warforge.

1.(for your son) rogue/bard or rogue/ranger any race u like.
2.(for you) cleric, either an offensive caster build or a battle cleric.

builds that match these roles can be found on the forum under the character builds section.

[chaosound]

great thread got me to thinking of rerolling characters for duo only play with my son as grouping sometimes can be a pain
right now he plays a fighter and i play a cleric which is a decent combo but of course fails on locks/traps so i was thinking multiclass
id most likely do wiz/rog but im not sure for him, his role would then be melee/heal
what would be best to fill that?
cleric/fighter or a pure paladin or maybe FvS or perhaps some combo using one of those
NO warforged, NO monk
and as already said by others not worried about meeting end game requirements

[Usquen]

My friend and I have duo'd up to level 15 so far on a new server, he plays a warforged wizard with two levels of rogue so he can do traps and repair, and I play a warforged barbarian for the deeps. We're the ultimate duo!