Drow Short Sword Specialist

[Daggerrr]

Seems to have a lot of people interested in this kind of build. Since I'm playing one (came up with the build pre U7) and having fun with it, decide to share it. Not having the generator nearby, so I'll just cover the important stuffs.

I have it 2 ranger/6 rog/12 monk.

I thought about 2 lvl of pally for saves or 2 lvl of ftr for extra feats. In the end settled on ranger for:
1) sprint boost - as MrCow can attest, those time saved running really add up
2) can use some wands, some early cure serious wands work wonders. Also you won't get+4 dex & wis & con items until lvl 9 (lvl 7 rr ones cost a ton, at least I haven't got them yet), you can use wands for those, saves a ton of money and frees up gear slots.

I thought LONG and HARD about pally 2, the saves are super and nice wands too, but in the end I figured I was going to TR again in the end, so saving time may be more important.
The fighter feats are not very important since you have plenty. You can get improv crit piercing then sub it out later when you finally get monk 12

Stats (30points, 1st TR):
14
17 +5 lvl up + 2 rogue + 2 elves = 26 (then you can add your items and buffs)
12
12 (int 12 is actually important for combat expertise at lvl 3, which is super at lvl'ing)
15 +3 monks (cost lots of ap) = 18
10

I'm doing it:
1 rogue (obvious, I put twf here, subed it out for dodge )
2 monk (to get the unarmed going)
3 monk (more feats, way of turtoise, really great early saves, 1 int tome for combat expertise)
4 ranger (wands)
5 ranger (twf, sub the early feat out, dont' use the freebie, just use a flawed gem, very cheap)
6 monk (dark path)
7 rogue (catch up umd, can get to 20 with big hat, golden cartouche and 5 mins heroism, ship buffs help as well, can start to use some +2 tomes if want to make the toon more powerful, I used a +2 wis one)
8 monk (only got to here for now)
from this point on I plan every 3-4 lvls of monk add a lvl or rogue to maximize my skill point management with rogue capping 20

Some important notes:
1) I planned this toon to have great synergy between ac and dps. With super high dex and weapon finesse, this toon has great AC for a twf'er. Dex, Wis bonus, drink a mage armor & barkskin +3, dodge, shield clicky, combat expertise, I easily solo'ed everything up to lvl 8, things will only get easier as better gears kick in later (lvl 8 brings give you really powerful mabar cloaks & wraps on those undeads). Much later on you can easily solo Amrath on the 70 plus AC this toon will have.
2) Very good DPS while solo'ing and in group. Early just stick with wraps, plays like a straight monk that can open chests. Later the short swords will be fun to play with, your dream weapon would be like a holy burst, icy burst, puncturing ss and you can watch those effects go off like crazy in your wind stance. This toon does not rely on the backstabbing, can easily solo, but once those backstab kick in in a group be ready for some great DPS. And of course, you can always just skip on the ss and stick with unarmed if your wraps are super.
3) AP and skills are tricky. You have more than enough for UMD and Concentration, I'm actually going with Spot (just because I have bad memory and I dont' want to waste my high wis...) and walkng silently & hide. Some minor points are spread out. You have lots of skills points to play with but not enough to be a great trapmonkey and assassin, has to pick and choose. AP is tough especially if you want to get those monk wisdoms. Is enough to cover all the damage AP bonus though (assassin damage, favored enemy damage, drow melee damage etc.).
4) This toon is very versatile. The only role it does not play well is tanking in epic and TOD, with the ac and saves it has it can tank everything else and you can choose to have a high intimidate if you want to put points there (though pulling aggro doesn't quite make sense, you'd only be doing it to show off). Or you can make it a full trap monkey.

[maha0201]

Friend had "similar" build - drow with SS before u6 12mnk/6ftr/2rog (str based) started as rog and filled up 1 ftr 2 mnk and saved last lvl for rog for skills. He could do all traps, locks and umd he started whit 14 int coase of ftr lack of skills, his focus was concentration, search, dd, umd and what is left in ol (ofc some in balance and jump).
He got big amount of ki coase kenasi increase ki generation iirc and his fire stance gave him big bost on ki spaming...

As for ftr vs paly vs rgr... ftr have 2 feats and toughnes, paly have saves but youre cha is 10 and toughness, and finaly rgr gives you sprint boost bow str and twf for free so ,imo, if youre plan is to go to lvl 20 and TR again go rgr.

[Daggerrr]

Friend had "similar" build - drow with SS before u6 12mnk/6ftr/2rog (str based) started as rog and filled up 1 ftr 2 mnk and saved last lvl for rog for skills.

Just want to say if you ever go finesse on any toons, this would be the one. 1) Unarmed and ss are both finessable. 2) your dps mainly comes in from speed & weapon effects, not from pure damage. 3) every bit of dex counts as it increases both to hit and AC.

paly have saves but youre cha is 10 and toughness, and finaly rgr gives you sprint boost bow str and twf for free so ,imo, if youre plan is to go to lvl 20 and TR again go rgr.

Apparently I went ranger and I'm happy with it. However, with +2 tome and +6 items, throw in +2 ship buffs and +2 exc cha, your cha will give +6 on top of the already very respectable saves coming from the 12 monk, so Pally is really a good choice when you think about it.