I have been playing DDO somewhere between casual and hardcore for 2 years now. Most of my experience comes from melee dps builds. Among my characters I have leveled to 20 is a WF FVS Lord of Blades build. I very much like his survivability and versatility but I find his melee prowess a little lacking compared to my other melee builds (obviously). After releveling my first TR I started mulling over TRing my FVS to beef up his melee ability and it dawned on me that with his innate DR and resists coupled with high charisma he could make a good hate tank if built and geared right. I have never built a character for hate/intim tanking so I was looking for some insight on the build’s viability before I invest a bunch of time TRing twice and gearing up for the role. I’m looking a lot at end game usefulness but do want him to be usable as intended right thru his teens and into epic content.
To start I took Sirgog’s Soul Survivor build as it was designed for healing, damage and tanking. I have played enough to know that as an FVS you are most often expected to heal and not all content needs a dedicated tank. I plan to do fighter as the second life. There are several good choices for the second life but I picked fighter for the free feat granting +2 to hit and the selected feat that grants +2 intim and 3/rest clicks of BAB=level and +4 to hit. Both of these help me keep power attack on more and the +2 intim is an obvious plus. To make room for this I dropped extend spell. I currently don’t have extend in my feat list and only want for it when clicking the short duration attack buffs I have. The enhancement line I dropped wand and scroll mastery (another I don’t have currently so maybe I don’t know what I’m missing) in favour of Angel of Vengeance. I wanted this ability for the stacking damage and fort vulnerability debuff as it dove-tails nicely with both the only damage spell I will be able to reliably land: Divine Punishment (hurray for no save, no SR) as well as alignment based damage from various weapons. All of this going on the assumption that damage = hate.
Gear wise I plan to use the following (*indicates still need to aquire):Code:Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 03.09.02 DDO Character Planner Home Page Mechabriel Level 20 True Neutral Warforged Male (20 Favored Soul) Hit Points: 392 Spell Points: 1931 BAB: 15\15\20\25\25 Fortitude: 18 Reflex: 13 Will: 11 Starting Feat/Enhancement Abilities Base Stats Modified Stats (36 Point) (Level 1) (Level 20) Strength 17 25 Dexterity 10 12 Constitution 17 22 Intelligence 10 12 Wisdom 7 9 Charisma 14 19 Tomes Used +1 Tome of Strength used at level 3 +1 Tome of Dexterity used at level 3 +1 Tome of Constitution used at level 3 +1 Tome of Intelligence used at level 3 +1 Tome of Wisdom used at level 3 +1 Tome of Charisma used at level 3 +2 Tome of Strength used at level 7 +2 Tome of Dexterity used at level 7 +2 Tome of Constitution used at level 7 +2 Tome of Intelligence used at level 7 +2 Tome of Wisdom used at level 7 +2 Tome of Charisma used at level 7 +3 Tome of Strength used at level 11 +3 Tome of Constitution used at level 11 +3 Tome of Charisma used at level 11 Starting Feat/Enhancement Base Skills Modified Skills Skills (Level 1) (Level 20) Balance 2 12 Bluff 2 4 Concentration 3 6 Diplomacy 2 4 Disable Device n/a n/a Haggle 2 4 Heal -2 -1 Hide 0 1 Intimidate 4 19 Jump 3 18 Listen -2 -1 Move Silently 0 1 Open Lock n/a n/a Perform n/a n/a Repair 0 3 Search 0 1 Spot -2 -1 Swim 3 8 Tumble n/a 2 Use Magic Device n/a n/a Level 1 (Favored Soul) Feat: (Selected) Empower Healing Spell Feat: (Deity) Favored by the Lord of Blades Feat: (Past Life) Past Life: Favored Soul Feat: (Past Life) Past Life: Fighter Enhancement: Favored Soul Smiting I Enhancement: Favored Soul Life Magic I Enhancement: Favored Soul Energy of the Scion I Level 2 (Favored Soul) Enhancement: Warforged Brute Fighting I Enhancement: Warforged Damage Reduction I Level 3 (Favored Soul) Feat: (Selected) Maximize Spell Enhancement: Warforged Constitution I Enhancement: Warforged Healer's Friend I Level 4 (Favored Soul) Enhancement: Favored Soul Smiting II Enhancement: Favored Soul Life Magic II Level 5 (Favored Soul) Feat: (Favored Soul Bonus) Energy Resistance: Fire Enhancement: Favored Soul Energy of the Scion II Level 6 (Favored Soul) Feat: (Selected) Quicken Spell Enhancement: Favored Soul Angel of Vengeance I Enhancement: Warforged Healer's Friend II Level 7 (Favored Soul) Enhancement: Warforged Brute Fighting II Level 8 (Favored Soul) Enhancement: Warforged Damage Reduction II Level 9 (Favored Soul) Feat: (Selected) Toughness Enhancement: Racial Toughness I Enhancement: Racial Toughness II Enhancement: Favored Soul Toughness I Level 10 (Favored Soul) Feat: (Favored Soul Bonus) Energy Resistance: Electricity Enhancement: Racial Toughness III Enhancement: Favored Soul Toughness II Level 11 (Favored Soul) Enhancement: Favored Soul Life Magic III Level 12 (Favored Soul) Feat: (Selected) Improved Critical: Slashing Weapons Enhancement: Favored Soul Toughness III Enhancement: Warforged Brute Fighting III Level 13 (Favored Soul) Enhancement: Warforged Constitution II Level 14 (Favored Soul) Enhancement: Warforged Brute Fighting IV Level 15 (Favored Soul) Feat: (Favored Soul Bonus) Energy Resistance: Cold Feat: (Selected) Power Attack Enhancement: Favored Soul Greatsword Specialization I Enhancement: Warforged Power Attack I Enhancement: Warforged Power Attack II Level 16 (Favored Soul) Level 17 (Favored Soul) Enhancement: Warforged Damage Reduction III Level 18 (Favored Soul) Feat: (Selected) Past Life: Student of the Sword Enhancement: Favored Soul Greatsword Specialization II Level 19 (Favored Soul) Enhancement: Warforged Healer's Friend III Level 20 (Favored Soul) Feat: (Deity) Favored Soul Damage Reduction: Adamantine Enhancement: Favored Soul Ascendency: Lord of Blades Enhancement: Racial Toughness IV
Fleshshapers Docent with Obsession upgrade (or DT with 10% heal amp, +1 exceptional cha, 30% incite)
Conc Op (cha skills) googles
Festival Tricone with Superior False Life and Intim +15
GS HP cloak
Epic Bracer of Claw * – hvy fort, +1 exceptional con
Epic Gloves of Claw * – stacking +5 intim, 6 str, 30% heal amp
-Set bonus: +2 damage, +10% incite
Boots - ??
Stakwart neck/Cinder’s band* – con 6, extra action boost, str 6, potential: +2 exceptional str, 15% incite set bonus
Morgana’s Belt - +2 attack (not much on this slot but it addresses melee shortfalls of lower BAB)
Kyosho’s Ring* – 6 wis, +1 exceptional str, potential: Greater Potency 8
Blood Stone
Weapons: Greatswords (many crafted). Not holding my breath on eSoS at the moment but of course it’s any greatsword swinger’s dream. I currently have GS Lit2, GS Triple Positive, Holy Burst silver of GLOB, Holy Burst cold iron of GCOB, Holy Burst byshk of GAB, Unholy cold iron of COB, Viscous adamantine of Construct Bane, +5 of Improved Destruction and Festival frost + appropriate damage prefix of Greater bane for every mob type in the game except plants. I can easily craft a +20% incite weapon to add to my arsenal.
All ToD/Amarath items and epic claw components would hopefully be acquired during fighter life to avoid ruffled melee feathers.
End result (gear/feats/stats/enhancements)
Intim: + 41 ( +20/+2/+19/0)
Incite: 50% (25%/0/0/25%) doubled on Obsession proc which is very frequent, able to add another 20% with weapon
Healing Amp: 40% healing amp, 25% healers friend
Now over to you for questions, corrected assumptions, pointers and suggestions.