Paladin, monk or fighter splash?

[Mastikator]

Ok, I just wrote a long and extensive post, and the forum just ate it by logging me out. So I'll make this short.

I'm gonna TR my barbarian into a paladin in the not so distant future. I'm going human for the extra feat and healing amp and maybe human versatility. (don't own helf)
I'm not sure if I want monk or fighter splash.

The pros of monk is evasion mostly, but at the cost of PRR from armor (may get it back from defender of siberys, worth while leveling?)
The pros of fighter is free tower shield prof and +1 str.

I mainly want survivability and versatility, being able to solo and be useful in groups either as dps, tank or secondary healer, possibility all three at the same time.
It needs to be fun and useful from level 1 to 20, but it's not as important that it's useful AT 20, as I won't be staying at 20 for long.

Things of note: 3x fighter past life, 2x monk past life, x1 barb past life. Various GS stuff (sp con opp necklaces, hp lightning cloak, full immunity goggles, mineral 2 falchion, positive 3 maul), and other junk I've accumulated over the 2 years of playing this toon. Already have armors for monk build, not for fighter build though, not sure what to go for here.

What say ye my fellow forum dwellers, should I go monk or fighter?

[mrtweakin]

Sounds like you should take a look at a 15 paladin, 4 monk, 1 rouge build. Good self healing, traps (...kinda), evasion, decent DPS with handwraps, and more.


http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=313168

That is still a solid build (great breakdown too). I made a few changes last time I ran it though. Mainly upped the traps.

[Kinerd]

I would definitely go x pal / 2 monk. PRR reduces incoming damage by a percent: if you're getting hit for 40 damage, 5% gives you a whopping 2 less damage. Evasion reducing incoming damage to 0: you will be hit for more than 2 damage by Reflex saves.

I would very strongly urge you to go Hunter of the Dead. It's clearly your best option for soloing, and also your best option for survivability. If you want to tank, turn on Divine Righteousness. You get exactly much DPS as a KotC does against non-EOs, and while leveling EOs are a small minority.

Paladins are better with TWF, but using a falchion won't kill you.

Your heal amp and Maximize will make it very easy to heal yourself. It will be more difficult to act as a healer for the group, and in most cases you're probably better off just letting them die, keeping yourself up, and raising them after. (That's the paladin way!)

I don't see fighter giving you anything useful the monk doesn't give you. I also don't see any reason to splash deeper than 2.

[Purkilius]

I agree with everything Kinerd says, esp about healing I used to end up dead when I was healing others. Take monk lvls early, play with wraps until mid lvls, with HotD, Jidz-Tet'ka and fire stance you will have some amazing amp. After wraps I recommend challenge gear bracers of wind, frozen tunik and water peshes. I do not know how it is after U14 but I would craft for example attack bonus on goggles.

Edit: forgot about those fighter past lives so goggles not needed

[Olath_Senger]

Sounds like you should take a look at a 15 paladin, 4 monk, 1 rouge build. Good self healing, traps (...kinda), evasion, decent DPS with handwraps, and more.


http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=313168

That is still a solid build (great breakdown too). I made a few changes last time I ran it though. Mainly upped the traps.

In one of my threads, another user posted a 15 Pal/3 Monk/2 Fighter build similar to this. The goals were mainly DPS and heal amp, but it also makes a good hate tank and soloer (as most Paladins are). After some more research into such builds, this sort of character appeals to me very much and from what others have said is quite effective in what it does. So I'd probably suggest something similar.

However, there are a couple key changes with the 15/3/2 compared to the 15/4/1 that makes me personally prefer the 15/3/2. The 15/3/2 gives up UMD as a class skill and sneak attack for more feats from Fighter, +1 Strength, slightly more HP, and Tower Shield prof. should you be designated as a tank and need the PRR and AC. Also, the 15/3/2 I'm referring to makes heavy use of Stunning Fist, something I highly recommend considering it is based on character levels and not Monk levels. Stunned targets take 50% more damage, something incredibly beneficial to your DPS and the more enemies not attacking you means the less healing you and the party needs. The Divine Phoenix could, of course, take Stunning Fist, probably by dropping PL: Monk or one of the Toughnesses.

Here's the 15/3/2 split I have been talking about this whole post.

Going from what you want from your post (DPS and tanking ability with heals) I'd lean more towards the 15/3/2 simply because the Fighter levels help more when it comes to tanking than the Divine Phoenix's Rogue level does. Both will DPS very well for a Paladin (especially with Stunning Fist, as I've talked about for a whole paragraph), and self-healing will be exceptional with your incredibly high heal amp (and especially with a meta if you take one) so as I said before, it's all personal preference.

If, however, you're partial to an 18/2, an unarmed Paladin with a Monk splash and Stunning Fist will do more DPS than a Fighter splash. The Fighter splash will tank better thanks to Tower Shield prof. and burst DPS might be a bit higher due to Haste Boost.

Personally, I'd go with a Monk splash. Evasion with the amazing save of a Paladin is just too good to pass up for me, plus I've come to love using Stunning Fist during my time playing my Monk.

[Kinerd]

The big problem with unarmed paladin DPS is that when used unarmed Divine Sacrifice and Smite Evil (et al) do not generate offhand attacks, which is pretty crippling. Being able to stun things probably still ends up putting you slightly ahead, but there are plenty of unstunnable targets where your DPS just goes in the tank.

This of course has no bearing on the significant reduction in incoming damage, just to the point of raw DPS.

[whomhead]

The big problem with unarmed paladin DPS is that when used unarmed Divine Sacrifice and Smite Evil (et al) do not generate offhand attacks, which is pretty crippling. Being able to stun things probably still ends up putting you slightly ahead, but there are plenty of unstunnable targets where your DPS just goes in the tank.

This of course has no bearing on the significant reduction in incoming damage, just to the point of raw DPS.

DPS-wise, in addition to stunning you also have to consider faster attack speeds and full strength bonus to the off-hand in favor of unarmed.

[Kinerd]

Oh indeed, indeed, but there's also being able to get +1 multiplier on 15-20 on both hands instead of 19-20 on one hand. There's a lot of stuff going on, to be sure.

[Milikki]

I've got a pally monk, just because I couldn't stand the thought of leveling a pure pally. I started with 4 monk, took 6 pally, 2 monk, 6 pally, then 2 more monk. Light path and defender. Healing was weak early but got beyer better later. Out turned out to be a better build than expected. Actually ended up tanking horoth on her first run elite in a pug. I built as a mostly str based monk, dex 15, cha 14, or something like that. I did pump wis.

Imo 12/8 is a great split, try it. Sorry for errors, typing on a phone.