Arcane Archer Ninja Spy II

[Snowborne]

I have created Melee and Caster characters, but have found that I prefer the ability to go indefinitely without a Shrine. Because of this, I decided to create a Melee character who could solo most quests. This means either great healing abilities or great damage avoidance abilities, or both. While this build has little self healing abilities other than Wholeness of Body, it can use UMD at higher levels to cast Heal scrolls, and with the ranger mix, use healing wands at the lower levels. This build doesn't have a lot of inherent self healing except Wholeness of Body.

To make it work, I needed something with great damage mitigation, which meant high AC. When combined with Displacement and Ninja Shadow Fade, and stoneskin, a lot of damage is avoided. I often see...Miss...Miss...Miss...Displaced...Incorporal. .Miss. This presented me with a problem. I had to create a Finesse character to really make the AC work out well. So far, not being strength-based has not hurt me yet. Still, just in case I would need it, I wanted to be able to do lots of damage, which this build opened up.

With 12 levels of Monk, I got 3d6 sneak attack damage, and Touch of Death as well as Improved Evasion. With 1 level of Rogue, I get another 1d6 sneak attack damage as well as opening up UMD. The other 7 levels went into Ranger. I needed this to open the Mental Toughness as well as the feats. Finally, I chose Elf to go with this since this would enable me to Multishot Slaying Arrows. Thus, the build can use Touch of Death or the Arcane Archer Slaying Arrows. While I could have chosen to put the last level of Ranger into Rogue instead, I chose Ranger because I felt I would find the ability to cast 20pt Resists more important that the few additional skill points. The monk spell resistance was tempting, but ultimately, the choice is yours.

Enhancements are very tight on this build, even more tight than the feats actually. However, you will be able to get touch of death, full Arcane Archer enhancements, Ninja Spy II, and many other necessary enhancements.

Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 3.5.1
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AA Ninja II 
Level 20 Lawful Neutral Elf Male
(12 Monk \ 1 Rogue \ 7 Ranger) 
Hit Points: 260
Spell Points: 229 
BAB: 16\16\21\26\26
Fortitude: 15
Reflex: 24
Will: 14

                  Starting          Feat/Enhancement
Abilities        Base Stats          Modified Stats
(32 Point)       (Level 1)             (Level 20)
Strength             14                    16
Dexterity            17                    28
Constitution         12                    14
Intelligence         12                    14
Wisdom               15                    18
Charisma              8                    10

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

Level 1 (Rogue)
Feat: (Selected) Point Blank Shot


Level 2 (Ranger)
Feat: (Favored Enemy) Favored Enemy: Undead


Level 3 (Ranger)
Feat: (Selected) Weapon Focus: Ranged Weapons


Level 4 (Monk)
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Dodge


Level 5 (Monk)
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Weapon Finesse


Level 6 (Monk)
Feat: (Monk Path) Path of Inevitable Dominion: Fists of Darkness
Feat: (Selected) Toughness


Level 7 (Monk)


Level 8 (Monk)


Level 9 (Monk)
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Combat Expertise
Feat: (Selected) Power Attack


Level 10 (Ranger)


Level 11 (Ranger)


Level 12 (Ranger)
Feat: (Favored Enemy) Favored Enemy: Evil Outsider
Feat: (Selected) Improved Critical: Bludgeoning Weapons


Level 13 (Ranger)


Level 14 (Monk)


Level 15 (Monk)
Feat: (Selected) Greater Two Weapon Fighting


Level 16 (Monk)


Level 17 (Monk)


Level 18 (Monk)
Feat: (Selected) Mental Toughness


Level 19 (Monk)


Level 20 (Ranger)
Enhancement: Rogue Haste Boost I
Enhancement: Ranger Sprint Boost I
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Imbue Acid Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Imbue Explosive Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Imbue Force Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Imbue Force Burst Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Imbue Slaying Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Imbue Terror Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Dexterity I
Enhancement: Elven Dexterity II
Enhancement: Static Charge
Enhancement: Way of the Clever Monkey I
Enhancement: Way of the Clever Monkey II
Enhancement: Monk Ninja Spy I
Enhancement: Monk Ninja Spy II
Enhancement: Touch of Death
Enhancement: Porous Soul
Enhancement: All-Consuming Flame
Enhancement: Monk Improved Recovery I
Enhancement: Monk Improved Recovery II
Enhancement: Monk Improved Recovery III
Enhancement: Void Strike I
Enhancement: Winter's Touch
Enhancement: Adept of Wind
Enhancement: Master of Thunder
Enhancement: Racial Toughness I
Enhancement: Racial Toughness II
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Conjure +2 Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Conjure +3 Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Conjure +4 Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Conjure +5 Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer I
Enhancement: Rogue Faster Sneaking I
Enhancement: Rogue Sneak Attack Training I
Enhancement: Monk Jump I
Enhancement: Monk Jump II
Enhancement: Monk Tumble I
Enhancement: Monk Tumble II
Enhancement: Ranger Dexterity I
Enhancement: Ranger Dexterity II
Enhancement: Monk Wisdom I

Attributes:

Strength 14 Base + 2 Tome + 6 Item = 22 (Rage, Ram's Might, etc. can increase this)
Dexterity 17 Base + 2 Tome + 2 Ranger + 2 Elf + 5 Levels + 6 Item + 3 Stance + 3 GS = 40
Constitution 12 Base + 2 Tome + 6 Item – 2 Windstance = 18 Essence of Desire can increase)
Intelligence 12 Base + 2 Tome + 6 Item = 20
Wisdom 15 Base + 2 Tome + 6 Item + 1 Monk = 24
Charisma 8 Base + 2 Tome + 6 Item = 16

2 Greensteel Shortswords (Radiance Exceptional Dexterity +3 and Radiance Insight) – I prefer Radiance for two reasons, one to enable the Sneak Attack Damage from Ninja Spy and Rogue, and the other reason to mitigate damage by blinding attacking mobs.

Hit Points:
260 Base (Toughness Feat and Enhancments)
60 +6 Constitution Item
30 Greater False Life Item
10 Draconic Vitality Favor
45 Green Steel Item
20 Minos Legens Helm
- 20 Wind Stance
= 405 (465 with Rage and Essence of Desire)
While this is lower Hit Points than I would prefer on a Melee, the High AC, 25% Incorporal, & 50% Displacement when combined with Stoneskin enable the build to survive. For those instances where even more Hit Points are needed, Madstone Boots could be utilized, although I prefer not to use them. Instead, I prefer to use Aid Potions, False Life, and Greater Heroism as a temporary Hit Point Buff.

Spell Points: 309
This can be increased with Wizardry VII items, GS, or Dragontouched Armor, but should not be a problem. One reason I took the 7th Level of Ranger is for Resists of 20pts. This will enable me to cast the Resists and Ram's Might for quite a while.

Armor Class (AC)

10 Base
15 Dexterity
1 Dexterity (Essence of Betrayal)
7 Wisdom
1 Wisdom (Essence of Despair)
4 Natural Armor (Essence of Despair)
5 Deflection
3 Dodge (From Chattering Ring or Dragontouched Armor)
6 Dragontouched Armor
1 Alchemical Crafting on Armor
2 Chaosguard Bracers or Epic Jidz-Tet'ka Bracers
4 Insight from Greensteel or Dragontouched Armor
5 Combat Expertise
3 Monk Centered Bonus
4 Shield Wand/Clickie
2 Recitation Wand
1 Haste Potion (Shroud Clickie)
1 Dodge
= 75 Self Buffed AC

Add Inspire Heroics, Paladin Aura, and Ranger Barkskin as well

Saving Throws:

14 + 5 Resist + 4 GH + 2 Head of GF + 1 Haste = 26
30 + 5 Resist + 4 GH + 2 Head of GF + 1 Haste - 4 Essence of Despair = 38
14 + 5 Resist + 4 GH + 2 Head of GF + 1 Haste = 26

UMD

23 Ranks
3 Charisma Bonus
3 Golden Cartouche
2 Head of Good Fortune
4 Greater Heroism
6 Greensteel Item (+1, +2, +3 Exceptional Charisma Skills)
= 41
If you can't obtain another Greensteel item because of time and grind, there are a few ways around this, one of those is gathering Collectables from the beginning of the game which reward you with Potions, such as the Ability and Skill Potions , check out the following thread for examples
http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=58000]All

If low on Hit Points, use Ninja Shadow Fade followed by a Heal Scroll if your UMD is high enough. If your UMD isn't high enough, Potions and Wands might be necessary. This is helped by the healing amplications available to Monks as well as Greensteel, if available. If not, crafting 2 Dragontouched Robes, one of which is Healing Spec'd while the other is Melee Spec'd.

Monk Improved Recovery 1.3
Switch to Fire Stance with Jidz-Tet'ka Bracers 1.25
Healing Amplication GS Shortsword or Dragontouched Armor 1.1 x 1.2 x 1.3
1.3 x 1.25 x 1.1 x 1.2 x 1.3 = 2.145
= 2.145 x 19 HP by Cure Serious Wounds Potion/Potion = 40.755 Hps

If you can't UMD a Heal Scroll, you will need to take a little more time healing yourself. When you get lower than you prefer on Hit Points, Ninja Shadow Fade and Cast a Displacement Scroll if you have not already cast that on yourself. This will mitigate a lot of damage. You have a 25 % Incorporal Miss, a 50% Concealment Miss, and you are running away from the bad guys. Now, while you are running away with tail between your legs....I mean, making sure that no enemies have snuck up behind you...alternate drinking a Cure Serious Wounds Potions and using a Cure Critical Wounds Wand. By alternating potion and wand, you can quickly regain Hit Points.

Alternately, you could use a Silver Flame Favor Potion.

With the High AC, grazing hits will deal a lot of the damage you receive. However, with Stone Skin wands or Kaelth's Touch, a lot of this damage can be avoided, especially if you use the Shadow Fade and Displacement/Blur throughout a fight. Because of the high AC, damage reduction, and damage avoidance abilities, healing is usually not a problem.

If you have any suggestions on how to improve this build or if I made any mistakes, please let me know. :

[Angelus_dead]

Seems a waste to put all that effort into getting AA and Ninja on one character, when the features of those specialties can hardly be used at the same time as each other.

[Snowborne]

That's true. In fact, when switching to bows, you become uncentered as well, and start losing ki.

The reason I did it however was for versatility. I could have maxed out other enhancements, switched a few feats and gotten tempest instead, but I wanted to be able to hit hard close up, and hit hard at a distance. I intend to do a lot of soloing with the character, and want to be able to kite around bosses or mobs that are too tough to melee, but also be able to get up close and personal when needed as well. The arcane archer would be more situational, but definitely handy to have if I can't handle toe-to-toe fights.

[zealous]

Seems a waste to put all that effort into getting AA and Ninja on one character, when the features of those specialties can hardly be used at the same time as each other.

If you go by the assumption that having alternating modes of play carries no worth then yes.

DDO is however quite dynamic and you might decide to only use ranged when it is beneficial, i.e. when multishot is off timer, when low on hitpoints, when running up to mobs, when mobs are unreachable, when a caster is kiting mobs through lingering AoEs or when standing in point blank range is too dangerous.

Do note that the OP mentioned going without a shrine and soloing.

As for the build I would try to fit prec.shot and imp.prec shot if you intend to range when manyshot is on timer, i would try to fit it even if you don't intend to range when manyshot is on timer.

The build is strapped for feats but I would drop imp.critical bludg and c.exp.
The loss of 3 AC is a matter of what content you will be running and if you find kiting hordes of mobs while doing the imp.prec pew pew thingie enjoyable.
While Imp.Crit is very important in general it is not nearly as important for unarmed due to the bad crit profile.
With 22 str, +5 greater bane, rams, PA, bard, twink, hc you might be looking at a average base damage of 40-50. Imp.crit will thus add 2-2.5 damage/attack on average.

SS is good for smiters/banishing etc. Given decent to good wraps you will likely do as much damage unarmed even when you account for SA.
SS+SA:40*1.15 damage+7 holy+3.5 fire+2.2 bursts+0.7 blast+17 SA+14*4/20 radiance=79.2
Swapping to wraps every 15s to do ToD:-8%; 79.2*0.92~73
Wraps: 40 damage + 7 holy + 3.5 shock +7 holy + 0.6 bursts + 10.5 greater bane =68.6
Higher attack speed of ~9%;68.6*1.09~75

If you instead spend the ingredients on displacement clickies you will still have the same damage avoidance.

[Angelus_dead]

If you go by the assumption that having alternating modes of play carries no worth then yes.

That is incorrect. Obviously I never suggested it had "no worth", just that it seemed a waste to make that HUGE investment when benefiting from both will be so uncommon.

One can get the versatility of an alternate attack mode far cheaper than going all the way up to Manyshot AA Slayer.

[Angelus_dead]

I intend to do a lot of soloing with the character, and want to be able to kite around bosses or mobs that are too tough to melee, but also be able to get up close and personal when needed as well. The arcane archer would be more situational, but definitely handy to have if I can't handle toe-to-toe fights.

For the uncommon situations when you need to kite something to death, you can do so adequately without Manyshot and without Arcane Archer.

[zealous]

That's true. In fact, when switching to bows, you become uncentered as well, and start losing ki.

You don't have many elemental strikes thus the loss of damage output would likely be minor. You could always choose to try to always leave combat with all ki spent.

Between Oremis and fire stance or when held/stunned mobs are somewhat common, regaining ki is quickly accomplished.

If mobs are so weak that they don't last long enough to regain ki, they're on the one hand not much of a threat and damage output thus less important, and on the other hand you can likely off them pew pewing on the run.

[zealous]

That is incorrect. Obviously I never suggested it had "no worth", just that it seemed a waste to make that HUGE investment when benefiting from both will be so uncommon.

True, I should obviously have written "one" instead of "you", apologies.

One can get the versatility of an alternate attack mode far cheaper than going all the way up to Manyshot AA Slayer.

Will it be as potent though?

For the uncommon situations when you need to kite something to death, you can do so adequately without Manyshot and without Arcane Archer.

Killing mobs on the run and/or gather a substantial mob and then killing them is quite potent.

While many people seem to prefer to take encounters one at a time, zerging past and dropping a WoF/BB and/or AA multishot with imp.prec is generally vastly more efficient.

[Snowborne]

As for the build I would try to fit prec.shot and imp.prec shot if you intend to range when manyshot is on timer, i would try to fit it even if you don't intend to range when manyshot is on timer.

The build is strapped for feats but I would drop imp.critical bludg and c.exp.
The loss of 3 AC is a matter of what content you will be running and if you find kiting hordes of mobs while doing the imp.prec pew pew thingie enjoyable.
While Imp.Crit is very important in general it is not nearly as important for unarmed due to the bad crit profile.

Thanks, that is a good idea. The improved critical bludg is something I don't mind losing. The C.E. I would hate to lose since there is so much invested in AC already, but then again, that is another reason why it would be a decent feat to drop. I have already invested a lot in making it work, so a little more to make it truly worth the investment probably isn't a bad idea. I will give it a shot....pun intended

[00Danny]

In update 7 taking zen archery will allow you to use longbows and shortbows as ki weapons. Maybe fit it in there somehow and max wisdom?

[daoist]

In update 7 taking zen archery will allow you to use longbows and shortbows as ki weapons. Maybe fit it in there somehow and max wisdom?

Zen Archery
Usage: Passive
You can use your Wisdom bonus instead of Dexterity bonus to determine bonus to attack with ranged missile weapons (but not thrown weapons) >IF< it is higher. You treat shortbows and longbows as if they were ki weapons.

You wouldn't have to pump wisdom as dex is already very high.

[DustTheWind]

I have a very similar build I am working on right now which is a Cleric 3, Ranger 7, Monk 10 build.

I have more spell points and have the level 2 healing spell. Ranger devotion 3 and monk improved healing 2. The AC should be nice and Looks like a finesse build with the +7 dex ring I got should top 32 dex with out any tomes. 16 Str no bonus so +6 would be 22 str. Can maintain balance with long bow or monk weapons. Touch of Death or Slayer arrow. Is kinda strapped in the Enhancements arena but has what is necessary. Can also get Ninja Monk with incorporeal. So with the blur bracers +20% blurr, 25% incaporeal, good saves and AC and displace if I really need it. Plenty of Resists as well. Biggest thing for me was increased running speed. Running speed for an Arcane Archer is a must. And this build should have plenty of it. Cloak of night can also help mitigate some damage.