Solo cleric 17, rogue/monk 3 questions

[whomhead]

Greetings clerics!

I am still a relatively new player to DDO (a couple of 14-15 level melee chars), and brand-spanking new to the cleric class. The primary reason that I don't have higher level characters, despite playing for a year now, is that I often can't sit down and play straight through without interruptions, and I play at somewhat odd hours. As a result, I spend most of my time soloing quests. Or, more accurately, attempting to solo.

To hopefully elevate the number of solo completions, I am building a cleric/rogue/monk multi-class. She's currently level 6, and at 1 Rogue (first level), 1 monk, and 4 Cleric. She's already an improvement on the soloing front, as I successfully soloed Tear of Dhakaan at level 6 with almost all self-found gear. Can you tell that I'm proud of that? Anyway, her next two levels will be Cleric as well, to pick up Radiant Servant, but then I have a decision to make. I will be taking one more level of either rogue or monk at level 9... I just can't decide which one.

Here's the build thus far (obviously heavily influenced by Valiance's solo cleric):
Level 6 Human
Str - 12
Dex - 16
Con - 12
Int - 12
Wis - 16 + 1 level so far, and am planning to add here
Cha - 8

Will eat a +2 supreme tome at 7.

1 - Rogue - Toughness and TWF
2 - Cleric
3 - Cleric - Extend
4 - Monk - Weapon Finesse
5 - Cleric
6 - Cleric - Empower Healing

Skill points have been going into Concentration and UMD primarily, with extras into Search.

The way I see it, the decision on whether to take one more rogue VS monk level hinges on a secondary question: will this character be effective at dealing melee damage at the higher levels?

If she will, then I would probably go monk at 9 and take Power Attack + Maximize, ITWF at 12, Heighten at 15, and GTWF at 18. Skill points would continue to go into the same places. This idea hinges on a high enough level of Concentration allowing me to not take Quicken. Is this a particularly bad idea? If so, I would probably swap Extend for Quicken at some point.

If she wont be able to melee effectively, then I'd rather not waste all those feats on nothing. In that case I would take Rogue at 9, thus still getting evasion while also adding a nice boost to disable device and open locks. Feats would be Maximize at 9, Quicken at 12, Heighten at 15, and either Spell Focus: Evocation or Spell Pen at 18 (opinions on which one would be greatly appreciated!). If I went this route, I would consider swapping out Weapon Finesse and/or TWF for an additional Toughness and probably Lightning Reflexes with the monk feat. I would also most likely stop adding points to Concentration in order to boost up the rogue skills.

Thanks much for any and all advice!

[Hafeal]

You are doing a variation of Valiance's build I believe:

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=164323


Also found in sigog's Cleric Build thread here:

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=223253

[whomhead]

Indeed it is a variation of Valiance's build. I have read both of those threads (though not in their entirety as they're rather long), and still had some remaining questions on the effectiveness of melee at higher levels, and some specific questions regarding feat selection and overall method of playing the character. Any one care to take a stab at answering those?

[Therigar]

W/o commenting on the builds being used as examples or your choices w/in this varient, the question of damage on later content is legitimate.

I presume you will have at some point weapon finesse to take advantage of your higher DEX and improve your to-hit scores. I also presume that you are relatively feat starved.

20 STR is not enough to overcome DR in some cases so you will want to make sure that you have the appropriate weapons. You will also want to make sure you have the appropriate gear to gain maximum advantage from AC.

If you have adequate AC to remain in melee for moderately long periods of time and have appropriate weapons to deal with DR then you should be alright meleeing into higher level content. If you find that you can hit without problems you might want to invest in Power Attack for additional damage.

If you are not using weapon finesse you may still find that you are hitting often enough. The to-hit difference is only +2 with finesse. W/o finesse you may find that the larger damage profile of 2-hand weapons creates more damage and crit damage will be bigger because of the 1.5 STR multiplier.

My battlecleric build has a similar STR and isn't usually pressed to hit or to damage in melee. So I think the 12 STR is alright.

FWIW, IMO the extra feat from monk probably outweighs the extra skill points from rogue UNLESS you are going to top off skills and push DD. Disable doesn't seem a priority to you so I'd go with monk.

[jsaving]

You'll have so-so melee ability with either build, but also can't count on being able to search/disarm tough traps with either build.

Regarding quicken, high-level clerics don't take it simply because it lets them get spells off, but also because it lets them cast mass heal in a reasonable amount of time. I know there are clerics who say they're able to handle raid healing just fine without it, and perhaps you would be one of them, but my own view is that quicken remains important even if you're maxing concentration.

Finally, if you end up going with your caster-based alternative build, you might consider respeccing into an 18/2 build. A 17/3 caster build who can align the heavens is nice, but once you decide not to have that ability, I don't know that it's worth the reduction in caster level, SP, and spell slots to go from 18/2 to 17/2/1.