Class for a three man static group?

[game5551]

I have gotten two of my friends to join ftp, and we are going to start a static group. We probably wont make it to 20, so end game isnt a huge consideration. They havent played ddo before (we played a lot of pnp) and would like to be a Barbarian and Paladin. The barbarian will control a healer hireling so he gets healed. I figure some quests are too trap heavy to ignore a rogue, especially since their quest selection is low as ftp and we wont be able to just skip some quests, but I am not sure pure rogue will be that useful since we have no spell casting right now (well, limited with the paladin). That leads me to a level of rogue paired with wizard or bard. Any suggestions for what class would make a balanced party?

[~Glouscester]

All warforged. You go 18wiz/2rog.

[Xgemina]

Well, the classic (?) response to fill the last role would be a wizard/rogue, usually an 18/2 mix. The high intelligence from the wiz helps out with skill points and the rogue DD and search are based on intelligence. If you have warforge available, you can self-heal as well. Since your friends are just starting as F2P, they probably won't have it or want to buy it.

Take the rogue level first for the skills and I would take the 2nd level for evasion around 8ish.

[Bodic]

F2P
Human Cleric
Dwarf Barb
halfing Rog


or
VIP/P2P
WF FvS LOB THF
WF 18wiz/2rog
WF THF Barb or THF Fighter

[AcesWylde]

All warforged. You go 18wiz/2rog.

It's certainly effective, and if you go with an all WF party, you also have your healer.

However, though it isn't as effective, I've found a drow 18brd/2rog to be a lot of fun.

[stille_nacht]

be classy!

wisecracking halfling rogue!
grumpy dwarven cleric!
emotionless/ logical elf wizard! (or maybe wf wizard)
heroic human fighter!

pick 3

[game5551]

Yeah, they are strictly ftp, so no warforged, though I helped one get the 400 favor for drow.

I was wondering if anyone thought bard would be more useful than wizard for this case. My thought was that they aren't min/maxing as much as they could, they wont have twinked out gear (although I am helping a little), or ship buffs, so the buffing from the bard might be extra important. Also I would be able to help in combat a little. I do like wizard more, though, and self healing would be nice (I have VIP and 32 point build unlocked)

[Alabore]

I was wondering if anyone thought bard would be more useful than wizard for this case.
...
so the buffing from the bard might be extra important.

Some bard buffs/spells work on the bard too.
If you don't care for end game much, pumping some points in Int allows a rog/bard to work nicely - especially if you take your time fascinating foes, and killing them one by one.

I loved that tactic on my halfling rog/bard - I affectionately called her a "fascinating virtuoso of the lockpick".
I'm sure it could work just as well on a drow - just don't you forget the DDO mantra: "Con is not a dump stat".

[Bargol]

Wizard 18 rogue 2 works really well to cover casting and rogue/trap skills. However, bard 16/ fighter 2/ rogue 2 will give you some casting and buffing abilities (haste, rage, greater heroism, etc), traps, healing, and you will be able to melee wel...assuming with this type of build you are warchanter.

Either build has its strengths it will bring. If you are free-to-play and don't have warforge race, I would go human bard/fighter/rogue.

[FrozenNova]

Barbarians and paladins are not classes that excel in multiple roles. Your third character is required to cover healing, buffing, traps, crowd control. The rogue splashed bard pulls this off nicely. Without the bardic capstone, aiming for a crowd controlling caster is a little dubious. Spellsinger grants extra spellpoints with which to heal, though without the capstone I wouldn't be too tempted to go that route. Instead, a more melee orientated bard could become a virtuoso, granting a couple of expanded song-based abilities, allowing you to provide potent if more limited crowd control with little expense in terms of melee capacity.

That said, while the paladin will find limited healing to play in his favor, the barbarian will be severely hampered. A bard has, at most, heal scrolls, which are not likely to allow you to do much else if the barbarian plays as one would normally.

Your alternative, then, would be a casting focused clonk of some variation, providing ample healing, crowd control, survivability and reasonable trap skills. As you would imagine these are typically very stat and gear intensive builds, but very powerful when played right. At http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=292100 can be found Valiance's clonk build, detailing the main features and how they are attained. Without a spare character to TR for the extra points however I'd imagine that you'd want to give up on one of the available features - potentially melee or AC capacity. A lot of clonks tend to struggle with the truly high-end traps, but if you doubt you'll get that far, it's certainly a decent option.

[tekkentroop]

my favourite ftp trio:

-human warchanter with rogue splash for traps and buffs
-dwarven battle-cleric with 1 fighter level
-any dps/tank toon (dwarf fighter or barb, drow paladin)

If you insist on taking a hireling healer, barb and pally, Id still recommend a bard with 2 lvl rogue splash for the traps. He doesnt have the spell dps a wizard has, but can provide the most important wiz buffs (haste, blur, displacement), brings bard songs and helps out healing. 16/2/2 bard/rogue/fighter is a common build, but actually having just one or no fighter level also works.

But then, I really dont like playing arcanes (wiz or sorc) because I havent bought warforged race yet, so maybe Im biased here. If you want to take a wiz, be sure to make a pale master which is best if you dont have access to warforged.

Any rogue splash you take should be two levels of rogue for evasion, and a wiz should take insightful reflexes to get a good reflex save.

[Daunth]

In a similar situation (4 players group with horc barb, human wiz ftp and human ranger ftp) I've rolled a rog1/clerX (which can become cleric 20 by late game where you'll start joining groups which will have rogues) with enough int to keep DD maxed. You have the useful search traps spell which allows you to be much better than a pure rogue in trap finding (and on par with a rog/wiz, at least in the early levels), then you can choose if you want to be a battle cleric with basic healing (high str and very low starting wis, just enough to heal) or a pure caster (with low str and 18 wis).
I chose dwarf for the +2 racial search and more HP, but human is probably a better option, less HP but one more turn undead, and one skill point in a build that is skill starved. So far it's working good, no problem in keeping everyone alive even when trying harder quests above our level, no traps blown so far, and lots of mana left for heightened soundbursts or greater commands, or max/emp BB

[Mondra]

My Setup for a three manned F2P Party would be

Dwarf Strength Build Cleric +1 Fighter Lvl TwoHanded with Greataxe (start as Fighter)
underrated, a good killer and healer

Ranger as Melee, also get good ranged Damage for free, +1 Lvl of Rogue for the Traps (start as Rogue)
Able to cast good Buffs ( Elemental Resists, Freedom of Movement, Barkskin )
Two Weapon Fighting using Scimitars
Race Human(Hitpoints) or Elf (Scimitar-Enchantments)

Pure Wizard with Pale Master Prestige Class for Crowd Control / Damage / Buffs
Drow if accessible otherwise Human

No Big Damage Dealer but every is deadly and u should be able to get through all quests on norm and hard