Buildind a better vampire

[Quirinus]

So this is an idea, I was thinking about, and wanted to get some feedback from the community on it’s viability.

At present I have a 28 point human pale master that I’m not really enjoying much. The other day I was looking at the lvl 6 spells (which I will get shortly), and thinking about the changes for update 9 when I came up with the idea of a rebuild for my wizard. It goes like this:

Get to lvl 12 wizard

Take Greater Heart of the Wood and reincarnate, pumping up str, dex, con, and enough int to cast lvl 6 spells.

Take the feats that are weapon focused (probably 2wf)

Set up enhancements for pale master two

From here the goal will be to play him as an arcane warrior. Focus your spells on buffs, and cast them all. Then go into Vampire mode. Then cast Tenser’s Transformation.

Here is the benefit of Tenser’s
Causes the caster to become a virtual fighting machine becoming stronger, tougher, faster, and more skilled in combat. Your mind-set changes so that you relish combat and you can't cast spells. You gain a +4 enhancement bonus to Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution, a +4 natural armor bonus to Armor Class, a +5 competence bonus to Fortitude saves, and proficiency with all simple and martial weapons. Your base attack bonus equals your character level. (Which may give you multiple attacks.)

And the bonus for Vampire
You shroud yourself with negative energy and assume many traits of a vampire. While in this form, you gain +2 Strength, +2 Charisma, and using your dominating powers, generate 25% less threat from spells and attacks, and +2 to the DC's of your Enchantment spells. When making unarmed attacks, you deal 1d6 Constitution damage from blood drain on critical hits. Your unarmed and melee attacks heal you for 1 point of negative energy damage. You have +100% critical hit resistance, are healed by negative energy, and are unaffected by positive energy or repair effects, but take quadruple damage from light effects. You are considered undead rather than your original type for the purposes of most effects. This ability costs 100 spell points to activate.

I could still use wands to heal myself, and use vampiric weapons in addition to the vampires natural healing.

For the remaining levels I was leaning towards either
Fighter: More feats
Barbarian: For Rage
Monk: To stay in my pj’s and focus on armor class/evasion

Any thoughts…

[Jaid314]

- weapon vampirism won't work for undead.
- i'd go with wraith form in this case, not vampire. use your aura for healing.
- there are plenty of builds somewhat like this out there. why not take a look and see if any catch your eye?

[Quirinus]

There are two arguments for vampire over wraith
+2 strength
and +1 healing for melee attacks

And two arguments for wraith over vampire
25% incorporeality
float as if affected by featherfall

I suppose it’s a personal choice, but I prefer the vampire benefits…

[Kralael]

/troll

I know how: Cast ''Glitterdust'' on yourself:

Seems to work for this guy, he's famous now:

[Gabrion]

Does wraith 25% incorp stack with the miss chance from displacement?

[Relenthe]

Tenser's bonuses are enhancement, same with the bonuses from basic items. you can reach full BAB through divine power clickies

[Chai]

Buncha monk levels and wizard levels together might work. Kung fu vampire, touch of death, etc.

I think you would be roflpwned in Running with the Devils when they use their light spells (x4 damage) - you would likely want to stay out of vamp mode at that point.

[castle9mm]

Tenser's bonuses are enhancement, same with the bonuses from basic items. you can reach full BAB through divine power clickies

I agree. I tried using Tenser's for a Battle Caster when low on mana but the constraints from it aren't worth the bonuses, IMO. Especially considering clerics get Divine Power which doesn't have the casting block. Another issue is the 1 min/caster level of tensers. You'd have a 12 minute transformation with no casting but you aura would only last around a minute or so at that level. I think you'd also have to use 'Cause Wounds' wands to heal in form which require a UMD check (can't remember exactly so I may be wrong here). Potions still work though, IIRC.

+4 to stats can easily be replaced by items, even without trying too much and with a few 5 charges/rest DP clickes you have more than enough to limp along to the next shrine.

Using DP clickies with moderate STR and forms with aura was really fun to play though.

[fluffi]

Does wraith 25% incorp stack with the miss chance from displacement?

Yes they stack multiplicity. Displacement (0.5) x wraith (0.25) = 37.5% chance to hit.

I have a 12/6/2 fighter/wiz/rog that fights in wraith form. I TR'd from WF into HOrc and my highest crit with a +2GA is 85dmg and he's level 3.
Link if interested
http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=306801

BTW they are alot of fun to play.

[Gabrion]

Yes they stack multiplicity. Displacement (0.5) x wraith (0.25) = 37.5% chance to hit.

That's great news. It used to be that basically no abilities that caused a miss chance stacked with each other. Nice to see there is a way to make battlemages even more durable (though sadly it entails all of them being wizzies).

I have a 12/6/2 fighter/wiz/rog that fights in wraith form. I TR'd from WF into HOrc and my highest crit with a +2GA is 85dmg and he's level 3.
Link if interested
http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=306801

BTW they are alot of fun to play.

Oh don't worry, you don't have to sell me on that concept. I was playing a 12 sorc/2 fighter long before it was cool. Though maybe I should rephrase that because I don't know if it ever got cool.

I hate that they are so misunderstood and marginalized, but in a way that always made it that much more fun to play them effectively and open peoples' eyes. When I came back briefly in Mod6 to check out the shroud, people were baffled at what such a character was capable of. More than a few times when we were still working out the tricks to beat Harry my Battlemage had to finish him off 1v1.

Now that I'm coming back to check out the new f2p model and see where this game has gone I want to roll a wizzy/rogue version, but I'm honestly not even sure how viable these builds are. It doesn't help that I used to know every little detail about every spell/ability in the game, but I know Turbine has a tendency to change things, so I'll have to pretty much relearn everything.