Feedback: Favored Soul 101 (Work in Progress)

[Alektronic]

Right on Sirgog, that's exactly the mix of 3 I'd suggest as the reference FVS builds right now (pure 20)

(1) WIS-high Evoker (toughness, heighten, quicken, maximize, empower, sf, gsf)
(2) WIS-dumped non-DC caster (toughness, empower, quicken, maximize as the core w/ additional melee or shield mastery 2nd focus)
(3) WF Melee (yours is a great reference w/ the changes suggested)

I'd phrase them like this"

1) Evoker (same as you listed)
2) Beacon of light/ Healbot (same as you listed, I've seen hi charisma on this kind of build, but never played one. Sirgog seems to hint at lvl ups in con, which sounds like a great idea.)
3) Melee* (excells at signature weapon)

*There's been a lot of heated debate about this category. For the sake of the newbie guide, I think this category should be constrained to pure class (20 fvs) and using the signature weapon. As such, WF with greatswords/lord of blades, Elves** with scimitar/call of the undead (maybe longswords here) as "classic" builds.

**Maybe a quick vote here would suffice. Everyone loves WF + Lord of Blades, but I get the impression that there is a sizeable number of people who think elf melees are "gimp". Rather than debate this point, it might make it easier just to run a quick poll on people who actually play fvs as to whether elf melee souls are viable. I suspect that at least a few people calling elf melee souls gimp have never capped any fvs. If the majority of the community think this combination is not effective, then it should come with some kind of disclaimer in the guide.

My take on elf melee soul: it is a very newbie friendly build if built properly. The only downside is the difficulty in finding good scimitars (which beat khpsh in the hands of an elf FvS... base dmg 1d8 +6 with 30% crit range on GS anyone?). Longswords are probably more newbie friendly but... like the look, hate the dmg profile.

[FordyTwo]

I've updated the original post with a new template for a human evoker favored soul. Many thanks to everyone who's been giving feedback in the thread! I'll continue to update other sections of Favored Soul 101 in the near future.

[voodoogroves]

I'd phrase them like this"

1) Evoker (same as you listed)
2) Beacon of light/ Healbot (same as you listed, I've seen hi charisma on this kind of build, but never played one. Sirgog seems to hint at lvl ups in con, which sounds like a great idea.)
3) Melee* (excells at signature weapon)

*There's been a lot of heated debate about this category. For the sake of the newbie guide, I think this category should be constrained to pure class (20 fvs) and using the signature weapon. As such, WF with greatswords/lord of blades, Elves** with scimitar/call of the undead (maybe longswords here) as "classic" builds.

**Maybe a quick vote here would suffice. Everyone loves WF + Lord of Blades, but I get the impression that there is a sizeable number of people who think elf melees are "gimp". Rather than debate this point, it might make it easier just to run a quick poll on people who actually play fvs as to whether elf melee souls are viable. I suspect that at least a few people calling elf melee souls gimp have never capped any fvs. If the majority of the community think this combination is not effective, then it should come with some kind of disclaimer in the guide.

My take on elf melee soul: it is a very newbie friendly build if built properly. The only downside is the difficulty in finding good scimitars (which beat khpsh in the hands of an elf FvS... base dmg 1d8 +6 with 30% crit range on GS anyone?). Longswords are probably more newbie friendly but... like the look, hate the dmg profile.

I've seen that middle one go STR, CON or CHA high honestly. CON types usually take Shield Mastery, STR take melee feats, CHA may take either / SF UMD / dunno.

I've got 3 serious FVS currently - one is a WF (on life 3 sitting at 13th level), one is an 18/2 half elf scimmy build (on life 2 currently sitting on level 18) and one a capped at 20 (AoV / laser type 2 STR high). Personal opinion, melee capability w/o TWF on a one-handed build is lacking and the only way I could fit all the melee feats I wanted + the necessary to raid heal, etc. on a non-human was to multiclass (and I wanted scimmies instead of longswords).

Can you make a TWF non-human pure 20? Sure, but you're definitely shorting either melee or your healing/casting. If you JUST healed and left Blade Barrier, etc. behind you could work it ... but that's no fun ;-)

[der_kluge]

Hi,

I'm not sure whether the fvs class is realy a beginners class ...
You need horc/wf for melee capabilites, need at least access to 32pt, must know the trick in the game ...

Even when fvs can be very powerfull, in my opinion it's better (less frustrating) for new players to start with another class (cleric for heals or fighter/pala for melee).

What do you think?

Regards Bo

I would agree that FvS tend to be a more advanced class. Which is why I think it's premium content. You could build one very poorly if you don't really know what you're doing.

[dkyle]

I've updated the original post with a new template for a human evoker favored soul. Many thanks to everyone who's been giving feedback in the thread! I'll continue to update other sections of Favored Soul 101 in the near future.

Still says Elf, TWF, and Undying Court in a few places, but the ability scores are correct for a Human (would be 30 point on an Elf).

Overall, looks fine. I did notice that AoV II is missing; an Evoker would certainly want that.

Some words about the capstone would be good, too. In particular, explain that for a Sovereign Host it's a free CLW, and that all metamagics apply to it for free. Other religions get different spells.

[Alektronic]

Can you make a TWF non-human pure 20? Sure, but you're definitely shorting either melee or your healing/casting. If you JUST healed and left Blade Barrier, etc. behind you could work it ... but that's no fun ;-)

This is how I did it:

Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 3.9.1
DDO Character Planner Home Page
Level 20 True Neutral Elf Male
(20 Favored Soul) 
Hit Points: 262
Spell Points: 1754 
BAB: 15\15\20\25\25
Fortitude: 15
Reflex: 15
Will: 11
                  Starting          Feat/Enhancement
Abilities        Base Stats          Modified Stats
(32 Point)       (Level 1)             (Level 20)
Strength             17                    24
Dexterity            15                    17
Constitution         14                    16
Intelligence         10                    10
Wisdom                8                     8
Charisma             10                    12
Tomes Used
+2 Tome of Strength used at level 1
+2 Tome of Dexterity used at level 1
+2 Tome of Constitution used at level 1
+2 Tome of Charisma used at level 20

Level 1 (Favored Soul)
Feat: (Diety) Favored by the Undying Court
Feat: (Selected) Toughness
Feat: (Automatic) Attack
Feat: (Automatic) Elven Keen Senses
Feat: (Automatic) Enchantment Save Bonus
Feat: (Automatic) Heroic Durability
Feat: (Automatic) Immunity to Sleep
Feat: (Automatic) Light Armor Proficiency
Feat: (Automatic) Magical Training
Feat: (Automatic) Martial Weapon Proficiency: Longbow
Feat: (Automatic) Martial Weapon Proficiency: Longsword
Feat: (Automatic) Martial Weapon Proficiency: Rapier
Feat: (Automatic) Martial Weapon Proficiency: Shortbow
Feat: (Automatic) Medium Armor Proficiency
Feat: (Automatic) Shield Proficiency (General)
Feat: (Automatic) Simple Weapon Proficiency
Feat: (Automatic) Sneak

Level 2 (Favored Soul)
Feat: (Automatic) Defensive Fighting
Feat: (Automatic) Sunder
Feat: (Automatic) Trip

Level 3 (Favored Soul)
Feat: (Selected) Two Weapon Fighting
Feat: (Automatic) Child of the Undying Court

Level 4 (Favored Soul)

Level 5 (Favored Soul)
Feat: (Favored Soul Bonus) Energy Resistance: Fire

Level 6 (Favored Soul)
Feat: (Selected) Maximize Spell

Level 7 (Favored Soul)

Level 8 (Favored Soul)

Level 9 (Favored Soul)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Two Weapon Fighting

Level 10 (Favored Soul)
Feat: (Favored Soul Bonus) Energy Resistance: Electricity

Level 11 (Favored Soul)

Level 12 (Favored Soul)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Critical: Slashing Weapons
Feat: (Automatic) Beloved of the Undying Court

Level 13 (Favored Soul)

Level 14 (Favored Soul)

Level 15 (Favored Soul)
Feat: (Favored Soul Bonus) Energy Resistance: Cold
Feat: (Selected) Greater Two Weapon Fighting

Level 16 (Favored Soul)

Level 17 (Favored Soul)
Feat: (Automatic) Leap Of Faith

Level 18 (Favored Soul)
Feat: (Selected) Quicken Spell

Level 19 (Favored Soul)

Level 20 (Favored Soul)
Feat: (Diety) Favored Soul Damage Reduction: Cold Iron

Fun is in the eye of the beholder. I wasn't sure what it'd be like w/out PA, but that one feat has never held me back from soloing/PUGGing higher lvl content. For offensive casting, all I've got are symbol of death, BB, implosion, divine punishment, searing light.... which are indispensible. Banishment I used less than expected. Not included is the +2 char from capstone.

I'm not a big fan of divines in general tbh, but this one kept my interest to cap (and wings made me extra glad I stuck it out).

[Alektronic]

==Template: Human of the Sovereign Host, Evoker Favored Soul==

A favored soul enjoys the luxury of options when it comes to building out their ability points, skills, feats, and spells. This particular template focuses on offensive spellcasting and healing capability.

===Ability Point Buy===

For our evoker favored soul we're going with a human.

28 Point Build:

• STR … 10
• DEX … 8
• CON … 15
• INT … 8
• WIS … 18
• CHA … 10

• Ability Point Buys: All into Wisdom (WIS).


Tip! If you've unlocked 32-Point Build (either in-game or via the DDO Store) a good place to invest your extra 4 ability points is into CHA – bringing this template's CHA to 14 will supply even more spell points.

===Skills===

Concentration is going to be the most useful skill for a spellcasting-focused favored soul, however Balance will help out as it shortens the amount of time a character spends lying down after an enemy's knockdown attack, and 2 points into Tumble will net a 1 rank, allowing a favored soul the ability to hold the Shift key and roll out of the way.

Tip! If you pick up a +2 INT tome in a dungeon or from the DDO Store, the extra skill points (gained upon level-up with a higher INT) will serve your favored soul best when invested in the Jump skill.

At character creation:

• Concentration – 4 points
• Tumble – 2 points
• Balance – 2 points

At each level-up:

• Concentration – 1 point
• Balance – 1 pint

===Feats===

It's recommend that new players – and really, most players – take the Toughness feat at level one. Beyond this piece of advice the below feat selection is designed to optimize an evoker's output when healing and offensively casting. The longsword was selected as a key weapon for this build in order to gain the free cure light wounds at level 20.

• 1) Empower Spell – While this metamagic feat is active spells do 50% more damage but consume 15 additional spell points.

• 1) Toughness – Increases Hit Points (HP) at first level and provides additional HP for each new level, allowing a player to take the Racial Toughness enhancement. Taking Toughness results in such a significant HP boost that it's practically mandatory.

• 1) Favored by the Sovereign Host – Your favor with the Sovereign Host allows you proficiency with longswords, giving a +1 to your attack bonus with these weapons.

• 3) Spell Penetration – Adds +2 to your caster level check for defeating an enemy's spell resistance.

• 5) Energy Resistance: Fire – Receive less damage from fire attacks.

• 6) Maximize Spell – While this metamagic feat is active, damage spells deal double damage but consume 25 additional spell points.

• 9) Spell Focus: Evocation – Your Evocation spells are harder to resist, receiving a +1 bonus on save DCs. This will increase the likelihood of spells like Command working on enemies.

• 10) Energy Resistance: Cold – Receive less damage from cold attacks.

• 12) Quicken Spell – While this metamagic feat is active, spells cast twice as fast and cannot be interrupted by enemy attacks but consume 10 additional spell points.

• 15) Greater Spell Focus: Evocation – Your Evocation spells are harder to resist, receiving a +1 bonus on save DCs; this stacks with the bonus from Spell Focus.

• 15) Energy Resistance: Electricity – Receive less damage from electricity attacks.

• 17) Leap of Faith – You receive this feat by default, however it's worth explaining here. Leap of Faith allows you to leap through the air, bringing the fight to your enemies, or traverse chasms that make normal adventurers balk. Using this ability costs 5 spell points.

• 18) Heighten Spell – While this metamagic feat is active your spells are raised to the highest spell level your character can cast, making them more difficult to resist, but increasing their spell point cost.

• 20) Damage Reduction: Cold Iron – Favored Souls of the Sovereign Host can turn aside most weapons. You gain damage reduction 10/cold iron.

===Enhancements===

Because enhancements in DDO can be reset for an in-game fee, this section of the evoker favored soul will offer suggestions -- but not strict guidelines. There really isn't a secret when it comes to choosing the "right" enhancements. It's a matter of being economical and choosing enhancements that feed into your chosen style of play, and offer the most for their value.

Tip! You can check "Show Unavailable" in the enhancements window to see prerequisites any enhancements you may desire at higher levels.

Below are core enhancements for most any type of favored soul, but they're very essential with this template. Both Favored Soul Toughness and Racial Toughness will grant significant hit point (HP) bonuses; The Wisdom enhancements help improve the usefulness of control spells like Command and Greater Command; the Charisma enhancement will grant a significant boon to your spell points (SP) – as will Favored Soul Energy of the Scion.

• Favored Soul Toughness I – IV
• Racial Toughness I - II
• Favored Soul Wisdom I – II
• Human Adaptability Wisdom I
• Favored Soul Charisma I – III
• Favored Soul Energy of the Scion I - IV

Even though this template is for a melee favored soul, it never hurts to cover some of your weaknesses – another reason Wisdom is recommended earlier in the template. Both "Soul Life Magic" and "Soul Prayer of Life" are enhancements that will make your healing spells more potent.

• Favored Soul Life Magic I – IV
• Favored Soul Prayer of Life I
• Favored Soul Prayer of Incredible Life I

All of the below enhancements will improve your favored soul's offensive spell damage. Smiting, Prayer of Smiting and Prayer of Incredibly Smiting – taken together – enhance a favored soul's general damage and critical damage output.

• Favored Soul Smiting I – II
• Favored Soul Prayer of Smiting I
• Favored Soul Prayer of Incredible Smiting I

While the Empower Spell metamagic feat is very useful, it can also be a spell point (SP) drain – especially for lower-level characters. Taking this enhancement line will reduce the increased SP cost associated with Empower Spell so long as they remain a part of your enhancement line.

• Favored Soul Improved Empowering I
• Favored Soul Improved Empowering II
• Faavored Soul Improved Empowering III

Unyielding Sovereignty will fully heal all hit point damage done to a targeted ally, remove ability damage, death penalty effects, negative levels, and these conditions: blinded, confused, dazed, dazzled, deafened, diseased, exhausted, fatigued, feebleminded, insanity, nauseated, poisoned, and stunned. It makes for a great healing skill, although use it wisely as Unyielding Sovereignty also has a 10 minute cooldown.

• Unyielding Sovereignty

With the Angel of Vengeance enhancement, your character will earn a new ability called – you guessed it – Angel of Vengeance! Here's how it works: Enemies that strike you have a chance of suffering divine condemnation, rendering them vulnerable to divine attacks, and you project a 15 meter Aura of Menace decreases the saving throws, attack, and armor class of nearby enemies by 2. You deal 20% additional damage with spells that deal fire, physical, or untyped damage and can name an ally your "Champion," transferring your shield of condemnation to them and damaging opponents that strike them in melee.

• Favored Soul Angel of Vengeance I
• Favored Soul Angel of Vengeance II

Suggestions in hot pink.

[voodoogroves]

This is how I did it:

Yep. Most 18/2 splits go either Monk or Fighter and can put in both Power Attack & Empower which provides a pretty substantial boost to DPS (spells and melee)

[FordyTwo]

Fixed the errors pointed out by dkyle and Alektronic -- thanks guys!

I've also tweaked the enhancements, as they were a little not-right and needed to be told it was okay to use a capstone. Now there's a capstone, and all is better.

[Dawnsfire]

For our human evoker favored soul we're going with an elf.

Now I am just being mean but this made me laugh

[FordyTwo]

Now I am just being mean but this made me laugh

Hah! Part of me wants to keep it that way. Thanks for the catch!

[voodoogroves]

The skill priority for many (most?) FVS ends up being
(1) Concentration
(2) UMD
(3) Balance
(4) the rest


UMD isn't a "novice" or "intro" skill, so I can see you not putting it in the sample build but I'd absolutely mention it in the skills section.

[sirgog]

As much as I'd consider 10 CHA a fine decision for a veteran with access to +1 and +2 tomes, a newbie really should start with more. This character won't be able to cast spells until they find a way to increase their Charisma.

12 is a good starting point IMO. Even at endgame, 12 is useful, as it's the minimum to be able to cast True Resurrection when Disjuncted, assuming a +2 tome. As always, these points can come from Dexterity.

More than that starts to become a waste of build points, however - Favored Soul spellpoints scale really, really little with Charisma.

The skill priority for many (most?) FVS ends up being
(1) Concentration
(2) UMD
(3) Balance
(4) the rest


UMD isn't a "notice" or "intro" skill, so I can see you not putting it in the sample build but I'd absolutely mention it in the skills section.

UMD does nothing at all until you are both quite high level and have a few relevant items. IMO it's not a problem to skip it, although it should be mentioned as a skill worthy of consideration.

The main benefit to having it is being able to cast Fire Shield scrolls, which in a few places can be real lifesavers. They also contribute a not insignificant increase in DPS in encounters where you are being hit often by mobs without the relevant resists, such as Epic Velah.

[voodoogroves]

Plus I'm lazy as heck. Teleport scrolls FTW!

Also fixed typo "novice" not "notice"

[Dawnsfire]

[*]Why go elf and TWF scimitars with our template? Our previous templates have all been human, so we wanted to add a little flavor this time around.

Welcome to Favored Soul 101! This guide contains a treasury of information regarding the different ways a favored soul can be played. It also includes tips to give newer players an edge in combat and a template for an elf melee favored soul can support themselves and their allies through basic divine magic.

==Template: Human of the Undying Court, Evoker Favored Soul==

Those are the last three I see (bolded of course). Good luck with the guide!

[sirgog]

For the WF melee side of things, I've revised my main's build to make it more newbie-friendly.

The Soul Titan

Favored Souls don't just make excellent healers. They are incredibly survivable - with good saves, inherent DR as a capstone ability, and the best elemental resists available.

The Soul Titan aims to be at endgame what the pure Paladin is during the first eight levels - a character that can melee effectively, can heal themselves and others, that is very difficult to kill due to multiple forms of damage mitigation, and that can survive the aggro of the toughest foes. You combine excellent party or raid healing with near indestructability.


The goals of this build:

1) Healing. They need to be able to soloheal all 6-player content in the game, and ideally should be capable of solohealing a two-round Elite Shroud without mana potions.
2) Damage. They should be capable of doing enough melee DPS to pull their weight filling a melee role in any raid on Elite or Epic (they need not be an all-star, but they must pull their weight). In particular, they need to be able to hit high AC epic foes. In addition, they must be able to put the extremely powerful Divine Punishment to good use.
3) Soloing. They should be able to solo tough endgame quests such as Elite Sins of Attrition, Elite A New Invasion, and future high-level content. (Soloing elite content will require an experienced player)
4) Durability. They should be able to survive almost anything the game can throw at them, including having the aggro of any boss in the game other than Horoth or bosses that spam Trip effects.

What the WF FvS 20 platform brings toward these goals:

Healing: The Mass Heal spell, at full effectiveness, as well as the single-target Heal and up to four different Mass Cure spells, plus extreme survivability.
Melee DPS: FvS Lord of Blades Greatsword enhancements, and (depending on whether you can afford to sacrifice the To-Hit) WF Power Attack enhancements.
Durability: Extraordinary hitpoints for a divine caster, alongside significant damage mitigation (DR 13 against melee attacks, and 40 resist to Fire, Cold and Electricity). Plus, mediocre UMD for additional damage mitigation through Fire Shield scrolls.
Soloing:Wings, extraordinary self healing, a weak but still situationally powerful Bladebarrier, and a solid stream of melee damage.


The Soul Titan build:

Race: Warforged
Class split: FvS 20
Initial stats (28 point build; these include racial modifiers): 16 Str (plus all level ups), 8 Dex, 18 Con, 10 Int, 6 Wis, 12 Cha. If you have unlocked 32 point builds - up Str by 2 and reduce Con by 1.
Skills: If you have access to a +2 Int tome at level 7, max Concentration and UMD, and put leftover points into Balance. Jump is better than UMD while levelling, but you will have a capped Jump skill at endgame from the combination of your Strength score and a Jump spell. UMD allows Fire Shield and Teleport scrolls. If tomes are not available, max out Concentration and Balance.
Feats: Empower Healing, Extend Spell, Toughness, Maximize Spell, Quicken Spell, Power Attack, Improved Critical: Slashing (and that's not an unreasonable order to select them in). Optionally: Drop Extend Spell for Adamantine Body if you want to take two less damage every time you are hit.
FvS deity choice: Lord of Blades
FvS Resist feats: Fire, Cold, Electrical in that order. As long as you take Fire, however, this choice isn't important.
Enhancements:
Survivability oriented:
WF Constitution 2 (6 AP)
FvS Toughness 4 (10 AP)
WF Toughness 4 (10 AP)
WF Healer's Friend 1 (2 AP)
WF Damage Reduction 3 (12 AP)
Healing oriented:
FvS Life Magic 4 (10 AP)
FvS Energy of the Scion 2 (3 AP, I really don't like this enhancement but it is a requirement for the exceptionally good Angel of Vengeance 1)
FvS Capstone (2 AP)
FvS Scroll Mastery 1 (1 AP - this is a good place to invest some of the spare points)
Melee DPS oriented:
FvS Greatsword Specialisation 2 (3 AP)
WF Power Attack 2 (3 AP)
Offensive casting oriented:
Favored Soul Smiting 4 (10 AP)
Favored Soul Angel of Vengeance 1 (4 AP)

This setup leaves four AP free for you to invest as you see fit. Enhancements are easy to change around anyway. Once you have a good amount of gear, you can consider dropping WF Con 2 and WF Toughness 4 to pick up some of the Light spell crit enhancements (Prayer of Incredible Smiting, etc).
You could experiment with Angel of Vengeance 2 - but it requires you to take the worthless and expensive Bladesworn Transformation and the expensive and weak Energy of the Scion 3. That makes AoV2 effectively cost 9 AP - I'm not sure it's worthwhile at that price.


Spell Selection:
This is a list of spells you *must* carry at endgame. Other spell slots can be chosen as desired. While leveling, always carry at least two good healing spells.
Remember that you can respec two spells per week at your trainer, or more with a Dragon's Blood. You can get Dragon's Blood from the DDO store, or by beating up any of the various Dragons in the game.
I recommend carrying at least three of the four Mass Cures. Sometimes, you just need to put out extreme AoE healing, and the four spells are all on separate cooldowns.
Also, I'm forgetful. Some critical spells are no doubt missing from here.
1 - Divine Favor
2 - Resist Elements
3 - Remove Curse (sometimes you need to throw a quickened one)
4 - Divine Power, Death Ward (if not carrying the Mass version), Freedom of Movement
5 - Divine Punishment (this does a lot of damage against any boss that survives 30 seconds or more), Mass Cure Light
6 - Heal, Bladebarrier, Mass Cure Moderate
7 - Resurrection (can be replaced with True Resurrection, I keep all three raise spells because they have different timers)
8 - Mass Deathward (the level 4 version is a weak, but borderline acceptable replacement), Holy Aura (this spell is incredibly powerful since it was changed to blind all foes within a Haste radius at the time you cast it, no save but SR applies)
9 - Mass Heal

Note that any spell that is negated by a successful save (such as Greater Command and Slay Living) are not recommended on a build like this. Bladebarrier is an exception as the spell is still very potent when dealing only half damage.

Playtips:

Low level (1-11):
Playing a healing-capable class at low level is great practice for higher level play. Group often, both with self-sufficient veterans and also with newer players. Learn when to fight and when to hide in the back lines and heal. Practice your healing reflexes. Learn to quickly identify the squishy players in the group. You aren't optimized as a healbot, but you certainly can play a healbot role when that's what a party needs.
Aim to obtain Moderate Fortification as quickly as you can. It will make you immune to critical hits, which will make you nearly indestructible in low level content. Before you hit level 12, try to complete Tempest's Spine on Elite - that will give your skills a good test. If you own the adventure pack, try to run a Normal difficulty Chronoscope by level 7 or 8 as well.
Obtain a level-appropriate Superior Ardor item. This will give your healing spells an enormous boost. You should try to remember to keep the Ardor effect active all the time.

Mid level (12-16):
Here, you can start to solo more quickly, as even your low-DC Bladebarriers will rip the low-HP mobs of these levels to shreds.
Turn Empower Healing off for most of the time during these levels. It drains SP, only to make your Heal spell overheal. Don't worry, this feat will become good again.
In groups, work out just how low you can let someone get in HP before they need a heal. Often the Wizard at 60% health is at more immediate risk of death than the Barbarian that is at 25%. But sometimes, the extremely geared Wizard at 25% is less likely to die than the newbie, 0 fortification Barbarian that is at 60%.
Carry Heal scrolls once you can afford to.
Learn to 'twitch fight' - moving to interrupt your attack chain, in order to make the quicker attacks at the beginning of the chain. Note that twitching costs you all of the benefits of Glancing Blows, and gives you penalties to attack rolls. It's usually worth the tradeoff.
Start working on getting a Sword of Shadows (from the Plane of Night raid), and a Torc of Raiyum (from the Zawabi's Revenge raid). You will use these all throughout your career.

High level (17-19):
Wings, baby! Get the feel of wings. It takes a while to learn exactly how they work and how to control them.
Start running all of the main raids - particularly the Shroud. With practice, you should be able to be the sole healer in any non-epic raid except Tower of Despair.
Turn Quicken Spell on. Never turn it off, except to buff, or when you have an extremely compelling reason.
Practice the timing of Mass Heal. It's your single best spell, but it takes serious practice to learn to use in battle.
These levels can be zoomed through by running nothing but easy content (IQ/DD, Refuge Normal, Orchard/GH elite, Vale Hard, Amrath casual). Resist that urge and instead try to run things that really challenge you, so that when you hit 20, you know how to play the toon. Try to complete all of the Vale and Refuge on Elite (inluding the raids and SoS if you can find a group) and all of Amrath on Hard.
Practice casting Divine Punishment on bosses while you are meleeing them. DP is at its most efficient when you cast it as soon as the cooldown expires on monsters with under three stacks of it, and 4 seconds after the cooldown expires on monsters with a full three stacks.
Try to solo Sins of Attrition on Normal and Hard, A New Invasion on Normal and Devil Assault on Elite. If and when you die, ask 'how could I have prevented that death?'.

Endgame (20):
Test out your newfound DR by soloing quests you'd have been hesitant to run at 19 even in a solid PUG - Sins of Attrition Elite, A New Invasion Hard (elite if you have excellent DR-breaking weapons and a bunch of mana pots, Barnzidu's regeneration is a killer though). Your DR will turn otherwise deadly monsters into a joke - attacks that do 30 damage to other players do only 17 to you. Turn Empower Healing back on and never turn it off.
Practice running the easier Epics to learn when you can melee and when you must stand back and heal.
Learn when *not* to twitch. Sometimes, the attack bonus you lose twitching is more important than the extra attacks you gain from doing it.
Perfect timing Divine Punishment. It will provide a significant chunk of your damage against bosses if used correctly.
Earn Yugoloth potions. Become addicted to them.
Have fun.

[guardianx2009]

As much as I'd consider 10 CHA a fine decision for a veteran with access to +1 and +2 tomes, a newbie really should start with more. This character won't be able to cast spells until they find a way to increase their Charisma.

12 is a good starting point IMO. Even at endgame, 12 is useful, as it's the minimum to be able to cast True Resurrection when Disjuncted, assuming a +2 tome. As always, these points can come from Dexterity.

More than that starts to become a waste of build points, however - Favored Soul spellpoints scale really, really little with Charisma.

Sirgog is right. I don't feel FvS is a newbie friendly class. I'm levelling up a evoker fvs with 10 cha and early on it is difficult to maintain a high enough cha to cast spells. Newbies will not have the plat and know-how to get it high enough to cast.

The limited spell choice and swapping only 1 spell once every 3 days really isn't newbie friendly at all.

[FordyTwo]

@sirgog & guardianx2009 Yeah, I'm inclined to agree. Let's drop DEX and raise CHA -- the slight loss of early AC is outweighed by the extra spellcasting capability for an evoker type.

[Solmage]

@sirgog & guardianx2009 Yeah, I'm inclined to agree. Let's drop DEX and raise CHA -- the slight loss of early AC is outweighed by the extra spellcasting capability for an evoker type.

While I agree with the logic behind this, I should point out that FvS are capable of achieving a good reflex save if they do not tank DEX. A good reflex save in end game does make a heck of a difference in several quests. (ex: when you get hit by 3 blade barriers at once in eDQ and take 120 pts of damage vs 260, and 60pts of fireball damage vs 150, per djinn, at the same time as said blade barriers...)

So with this in mind, this is what I'd do with the human:

8/10/14/8/18/12, and add a note that with 32 pts, you could do 8/14/14/8/18/12, or split the points between dex and int if you want to max one extra skill.

[Alektronic]

While I agree with the logic behind this, I should point out that FvS are capable of achieving a good reflex save if they do not tank DEX. A good reflex save in end game does make a heck of a difference in several quests. (ex: when you get hit by 3 blade barriers at once in eDQ and take 120 pts of damage vs 260, and 60pts of fireball damage vs 150, per djinn, at the same time as said blade barriers...)

So with this in mind, this is what I'd do with the human:

8/10/14/8/18/12, and add a note that with 32 pts, you could do 8/14/14/8/18/12, or split the points between dex and int if you want to max one extra skill.

You can get a good reflex (~25 with gear) on FvS even if you dump dex. 1 extra skill imo is more useful than +1 reflex, but we're starting to nitpick here, heh.