A PURE Level 20 FVS TWF Build **Please advise**

[Balrogskin]

This is my first attempt at a build for myself. After reading forEVER it feels like, I have decided I would use the character planner to build a Two Weapon Fighting Favored Soul. The main prerequisites I had in mind when I started this build were TWF, Healing, a touch of UMD, and a touch of buffing. You will notice with the almost no wisdom besides the +2 tome of supreme ability used at level 7 I am in no way concerned with offensive casting. I think I finished up with a pretty good set up for my first go around and figured I would post it here to get opinions and pointers from long time veterans and builder guru's like yourselves So here it is, without listing any special gear or specific spell choices mainly because with a focus on healing and buffing I thought it a little pointless.

Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 3.34
DDO Character Planner Home Page

TWF MEDIC 
Level 20 Neutral Good Human Male
(20 Favored Soul) 
Hit Points: 322
Spell Points: 1962 
BAB: 15\15\20\25\25
Fortitude: 15
Reflex: 16
Will: 12

                  Starting          Feat/Enhancement
Abilities        Base Stats          Modified Stats
(32 Point)       (Level 1)             (Level 20)
Strength             16                    24
Dexterity            15                    18
Constitution         14                    16
Intelligence         12                    14
Wisdom                8                    10
Charisma             12                    17

Tomes Used
+2 Tome of Strength used at level 7
+2 Tome of Dexterity used at level 7
+2 Tome of Constitution used at level 7
+2 Tome of Intelligence used at level 7
+2 Tome of Wisdom used at level 7
+2 Tome of Charisma used at level 7

                  Starting          Feat/Enhancement
                 Base Skills         Modified Skills
Skills           (Level 1)            (Level 20)
Balance               4                    15.5
Bluff                 1                     3
Concentration         6                    30
Diplomacy             1                    16
Disable Device        n/a                   n/a
Haggle                1                     3
Heal                 -1                     1
Hide                  2                     4
Intimidate            1                     3
Jump                  7                    30
Listen               -1                     0
Move Silently         2                     4
Open Lock             n/a                   n/a
Perform               n/a                   n/a
Repair                1                     2
Search                1                     2
Spot                 -1                     0
Swim                  3                     7
Tumble                n/a                   n/a
Use Magic Device      3                    17.5

Level 1 (Favored Soul)
Feat: (Diety) Favored by the Sovereign Host
Feat: (Human Bonus) Toughness
Feat: (Selected) Two Weapon Fighting


Level 2 (Favored Soul)


Level 3 (Favored Soul)
Feat: (Selected) Maximize Spell


Level 4 (Favored Soul)
Enhancement: Human Versatility I
Enhancement: Racial Toughness I
Enhancement: Favored Soul Concentration I
Enhancement: Favored Soul Prayer of Life I
Enhancement: Favored Soul Life Magic I
Enhancement: Favored Soul Energy of the Scion I
Enhancement: Favored Soul Charisma I
Enhancement: Favored Soul Toughness I
Enhancement: Favored Soul Wand and Scroll Mastery I


Level 5 (Favored Soul)
Feat: (Favored Soul Bonus) Energy Resistance: Fire
Enhancement: Human Adaptability Dexterity I
Enhancement: Favored Soul Prayer of Incredible Life I
Enhancement: Favored Soul Life Magic II
Enhancement: Favored Soul Energy of the Scion II
Enhancement: Favored Soul Toughness II


Level 6 (Favored Soul)
Feat: (Selected) Quicken Spell
Enhancement: Favored Soul Charisma II


Level 7 (Favored Soul)
Enhancement: Favored Soul Life Magic III
Enhancement: Favored Soul Wand and Scroll Mastery II


Level 8 (Favored Soul)
Enhancement: Racial Toughness II


Level 9 (Favored Soul)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Two Weapon Fighting
Enhancement: Favored Soul Concentration II


Level 10 (Favored Soul)
Feat: (Favored Soul Bonus) Energy Resistance: Acid
Enhancement: Favored Soul Charisma III


Level 11 (Favored Soul)
Enhancement: Favored Soul Energy of the Scion III
Enhancement: Favored Soul Wand and Scroll Mastery III


Level 12 (Favored Soul)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Critical: Slashing Weapons


Level 13 (Favored Soul)
Enhancement: Human Greater Adaptability Strength I
Enhancement: Favored Soul Life Magic IV


Level 14 (Favored Soul)


Level 15 (Favored Soul)
Feat: (Favored Soul Bonus) Energy Resistance: Electricity
Feat: (Selected) Greater Two Weapon Fighting
Enhancement: Favored Soul Energy of the Scion IV
Enhancement: Favored Soul Toughness III


Level 16 (Favored Soul)


Level 17 (Favored Soul)
Enhancement: Favored Soul Longsword Specialization I
Enhancement: Favored Soul Toughness IV
Enhancement: Favored Soul Wand and Scroll Mastery IV


Level 18 (Favored Soul)
Feat: (Selected) Skill Focus: Use Magic Device


Level 19 (Favored Soul)
Enhancement: Favored Soul Longsword Specialization II
Enhancement: Favored Soul Concentration III


Level 20 (Favored Soul)
Enhancement: Favored Soul Concentration IV
Enhancement: Favored Soul Jump I
Enhancement: Favored Soul Prayer of Life II

Thanks for taking the time to check out my build and ANY opinions are greatly appreciated and welcome negative or positive.
Edited to reflect Feat changes.
I am still wondering if I use quicken though would concentration even be necessary anymore?

[unbongwah]

My thoughts:

- I would go higher CON lower INT. Do you really need such a high Jump score?
- Whereas Diplomacy is one of those skills where I feel "go max or don't bother;" if you really need to drop aggro, you don't want Diplo to fail because you shortchanged it on points.
- You don't need to take longsword as a proficiency; you get that for free from SH. So congrats, I just found you room for one more feat.
- OTWF is a weak feat; I might take it at low levels for the extra +2 to-hit, but swap it out later (maybe once you have Divine Power) for a real feat.
- Likewise, you don't need Mental Toughness; it only adds 105 SPs to a build which will have almost 2,000 without it.
- You didn't take Improved Crit Slashing. Unless you plan to use only keen or MinII longswords, you really ought to have Imp Crit.
- You also didn't take GTWF. It's less critical than, well, Imp Crit, IMHO, but still a good idea to take it.
- I would want more metamagics: at least Extend & Quicken, maybe Maximize as well as (or instead of) Empower.

[Khayvan]

I'm hardly an expert in the field, but I've been playing a melee FvS so maybe I can help some.

Stats - Switch CON and CHA. Reason for this is more HP, plus a base 12 CHA is really all you need. The extra SP you get is fairly insignificant and with items and enhancements you'll have no problem casting your spells. Some players go even lower than 12, but I'm not comfortable with that.

Feats - Your faith feat gives you free proficiency with it's chosen weapon, so with Sov Host you do not have to spend a feat to learn to use long swords.

With your melee being your only source of damage, I think you need to put a little more oomph in it. That means getting the whole TWF chain, Power Attack, and Improved Critical. That leaves you 3 feats for Toughness and metamagics. I recommend Quicken and Maximize. Extend is great early on and it's still good later for Divine Power and Divine Favor, but it's really hard to fit in.

If and when you craft Min 2 greensteel swords, you can swap out Improved Crit for Empower Healing. I prefer Empower Healing for a build like this because it boosts Heal and Mass Heal, whereas Empower does not.

So:
1) Toughness
1) TWF
3) Maximize
6) Quicken
9) ITWF
12) IC: Slashing/ Empower Healing
15) GTWF
18) Power Attack

You're taking the metas early, but you won't really need them until later on. If you don't mind more feat swapping or lesser reincarnating, you can take Extend at 3rd and Over-size TWF at 6 to make leveling easier.

Hope this helps you some.

[Plutocracy]

I second unbongwah's suggestions. 10 INT and 14 CON.

For feats, I'd modify it to the following:
1) Toughness, TWF 3) Extend Spell (for divine favor/power/recitation/prayer) 6) Empower Spell (for cheap + good healing as FS get efficient empower enhancements) 9) ITWF 12) IC: slashing 15) GTWF 18) Quicken spell (no interrupted heals+mass heal)

*Looks like Khayvan has similar feat breakdown.

You could swap out Extend for Power Attack at higher levels, as the buffs will last a decent amount anyway.

Also, I know you specify pure FS in the description, but you may want to consider 2 monk, with whirling stee (the 2 monk levels provide 2 bonus feats, which can be used to get this and weapon focus).

Gives you: evasion, +2 STR from firestance (sinking wisdom with -2, but no offensive casting so who cares?), ki strikes, better saves, and ability to use named chitin bracers with human healing amplification for some supreme self healing. However, you lose the DR and free CLW at will, so there is the trade off.

Both good options really.

[Balrogskin]

My thoughts:

- I would go higher CON lower INT. Do you really need such a high Jump score?
- Whereas Diplomacy is one of those skills where I feel "go max or don't bother;" if you really need to drop aggro, you don't want Diplo to fail because you shortchanged it on points.
- You don't need to take longsword as a proficiency; you get that for free from SH. So congrats, I just found you room for one more feat.
- OTWF is a weak feat; I might take it at low levels for the extra +2 to-hit, but swap it out later (maybe once you have Divine Power) for a real feat.
- Likewise, you don't need Mental Toughness; it only adds 105 SPs to a build which will have almost 2,000 without it.
- You didn't take Improved Crit Slashing. Unless you plan to use only keen or MinII longswords, you really ought to have Imp Crit.
- You also didn't take GTWF. It's less critical than, well, Imp Crit, IMHO, but still a good idea to take it.
- I would want more metamagics: at least Extend & Quicken, maybe Maximize as well as (or instead of) Empower.

Now we're talkin! Thank you for takin the time to look the build over and give an honest opinion.
1-The intel was only for the extra skill points. I like Jump although its not necessary for it to be so high no.
2-Once I used the +2 to all tome it gave an extra point again and i decided why not start the diplo now that I have extra.
3- THANK YOU! I wasnt absolutely positive if the SH longsword deal worked in place of proficiency or not. Well as far as the negative attack penalty went anyways.
4-Originally I did have imp crit but went on the side of caution when I wasnt sure wether the SH enhancement made of for the proficiency with longswords or not. NOW I can switch it back
5-I see what you mean also about the few extra spell points for mental toughness I could easily swap that out for the GTWF I had heard it really wasnt worth using the feat on so I was leery of taking it (good thing the planner isnt permanent
-6 As for the Metamagics....hmm....I usually use Maximize on my casters. It just seemed for this toon empower would give me a boost for less sp. Quicken I have never used at all (have thought about it just never done it) does it really have enough of a benefit to make its cost worth while? Extend seemed any easy feat to sacrafice. Only because, for the most part, it seemed more efficient to recast a buff then to pay extra for it to be cast once and not even need it for that long. I mean say mid lvl like 13 or so....are shrines really more than 13 minutes apart? the buffs would be rested away and need casting again anyways? I dont know Im kind of torn on the subject of extend. Sometimes I miss it but usually not.



Regardless, I do GREATLY appreciate your input on all the aspects you mentioned. Ill switch the couple feats and repost it

Thank you also Khayvan and Plutocracy. I will be changing some feats out as soon as I get off the forums and will be reposting now that some questions and concerns have been addressed. I still lean towards not extending though. However the full TWF line is very appealing. Im trying to stay away from multi classing this toon or a splash of monk seems to be the preferred way to go. Quicken sounds better and better the more I read about it also...if spells cant be interrupted while quicken is active does that make concentration kind of a pointless venture? ill keep browsing the forums to see if anyone can answer that one for me then BACK to the planner Thanks again everyone!!!

[unbongwah]

I would use the extra skill points from your +2 Supreme tome to boost your secondary skills like Balance or Jump. Oh, and half-ranks in skills do nothing; they just get rounded down.

I'm on the fence about UMD: you spend 22 skill points and burn a feat for UMD 18 unbuffed which lets you do - what, exactly? You're a pure divine caster, so you'd be taking it for arcane wands & scrolls and to use race-/alignment-restricted equipment. A bit helpful, I suppose, but I feel like you'd be better off with another metamagic or melee feat instead of SF UMD; and either spending those skill points elsewhere or lowering your INT.

Quicken shortens your casting time and makes your spell uninterruptible, which is important if you're trying to get off a long-casting spell like Mass Heal (or so I'm told).

Also, I recommend taking as many of the human Imp Recovery enhs as you can to boost your self-heals. It's one of the big advantages of being human, IMHO.

[Jacoby]

All good suggestions but...

Maximize? Maximize is overkill at higher levels. Use empower healing, less SP cost and still overkill. That's why I'm ****ed at Turbine now with the new Cleric prestige class... More healing? Give us domains or give us nothing!

Your HP is low so I would go more in CON and less in CHR.

1) Toughness
1) TWF
3) Empower Healing
6) Quicken
9) ITWF
12) IC: Slashing
15) GTWF
18) Power Attack or Extend or another Toughness

[Balrogskin]

Thanks again everyone. I really appreciate all the help and thoughtful criticism. I take no offense to any of it and find it all very helpful in considering all the angles. Rep to all who responded

[Khayvan]

Quicken sounds better and better the more I read about it also...if spells cant be interrupted while quicken is active does that make concentration kind of a pointless venture?

Kind of... but not entirely. I still keep Concentration maxed. I didn't start using Quicken until lv 12 anyway, when I got Heal, so it was useful until then. Afterwards, I have on rare occasion turned Quicken off to conserve mana (note that Quicken is always off when buffing outside of combat).

Thing is Heal, Mass Heal and Blade Barrier all have really long casting times. Quicken is a must to get these off in a hurry, especially when you're up in the thick of it with a melee healer.