monk-tank (name pending)

[Baelial]

Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 03.14.02
DDO Character Planner Home Page

Level 20 Lawful Good Half-Elf Female
(1 Fighter / 7 Paladin / 12 Monk)
Hit Points: 338
Spell Points: 177

BAB: 17/17/22/27/27
Fortitude: 23
Reflex: 17
Will: 21

Starting Feat/Enhancement
Abilities Base Stats Modified Stats
(34 Point) (Level 1) (Level 20)
Strength 14 16
Dexterity 15 17
Constitution 16 18
Intelligence 12 14
Wisdom 14 24
Charisma 8 12

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

Starting Feat/Enhancement
Base Skills Modified Skills
Skills (Level 1) (Level 20)
Balance 4 29
Bluff -1 1
Concentration 7 32
Diplomacy -1 1
Disable Device n/a n/a
Haggle -1 1
Heal 2 7
Hide 2 7
Intimidate 3 28
Jump 2 25
Listen 2 21
Move Silently 2 7
Open Lock n/a n/a
Perform n/a n/a
Repair 1 2
Search 1 2
Spot 2 7
Swim 2 3
Tumble n/a n/a
Use Magic Device n/a n/a

Level 1 (Paladin)
Feat: (Half-Elf Dilettante) Half-Elf Dilettante: Cleric
Feat: (Past Life) Past Life: Monk
Feat: (Selected) Toughness

Level 2 (Monk)
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Dodge

Level 3 (Monk)
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Mobility
Feat: (Selected) Two Weapon Fighting

Level 4 (Paladin)

Level 5 (Monk)
Feat: (Monk Path) Path of Inevitable Dominion: Fists of Darkness

Level 6 (Monk)
Feat: (Selected) Past Life: Disciple of the Fist

Level 7 (Paladin)

Level 8 (Monk)

Level 9 (Monk)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Two Weapon Fighting
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Stunning Fist

Level 10 (Monk)

Level 11 (Monk)

Level 12 (Fighter)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Power Attack
Feat: (Selected) Spring Attack

Level 13 (Monk)

Level 14 (Monk)

Level 15 (Paladin)
Feat: (Selected) Combat Expertise

Level 16 (Monk)

Level 17 (Monk)

Level 18 (Paladin)
Feat: (Selected)) Greater Two Weapon Fighting

Level 19 (Paladin)

Level 20 (Paladin)
Enhancement: Paladin Armor Class Boost I
Enhancement: Improved Cleric Dilettante I
Enhancement: Improved Cleric Dilettante II
Enhancement: Improved Cleric Dilettante III
Enhancement: Human Adaptability Wisdom I
Enhancement: Human Improved Recovery I
Enhancement: Human Improved Recovery II
Enhancement: Way of the Tenacious Badger I
Enhancement: Way of the Tenacious Badger II
Enhancement: Fists of Iron
Enhancement: All-Consuming Flame
Enhancement: Monk Improved Recovery I
Enhancement: Monk Improved Recovery II
Enhancement: Monk Ninja Spy I
Enhancement: Monk Ninja Spy II
Enhancement: Adept of Rock
Enhancement: Master of Stone
Enhancement: Paladin Courage of Good I
Enhancement: Paladin Bulwark of Good I
Enhancement: Paladin Bulwark of Good II
Enhancement: Paladin Focus of Good I
Enhancement: Paladin Resistance of Good I
Enhancement: Paladin Resistance of Good II
Enhancement: Paladin Divine Righteousness I
Enhancement: Paladin Defender of Siberys I
Enhancement: Racial Toughness I
Enhancement: Racial Toughness II
Enhancement: Improved Intimidate I
Enhancement: Improved Intimidate II
Enhancement: Improved Jump I
Enhancement: Improved Jump II
Enhancement: Improved Tumble I
Enhancement: Improved Tumble II
Enhancement: Paladin Charisma I
Enhancement: Paladin Charisma II
Enhancement: Monk Wisdom I
Enhancement: Monk Wisdom II
Enhancement: Paladin Toughness I
Enhancement: Paladin Toughness II

[Nuryam]

Well....kinda hard to respond without any enhancements.

But some questions:
- why paladin 7 instead of 6?
- what AC, dodge, PRR, etc. are you aiming for and how are you getting it?
- what will your intim, damage and hp's look like?

You face the problem I ran into with this kind of build...spreading stats all over the board because you need it all.

I designed some builds. In the end I went for pal6/mnk6/rog8 with acrobat for the extra passive/active dodge and all round survivability. Also anticipating that by the time I cap him the new enhancements will be out and might allow acrobat dex to attack/damage with staves.

[Baelial]

7 paladin = +1ac/saves
or
2 fighter = extra feat

6 pal is for the threat gen attacks. If stats are spread like this, is it a problem later?

Pre's:
Ninja Spy
DoS

epic feats:
21: improved martial arts
24: bulwark of defence

[Therrias]

It looks like you're going to be using handwraps and pajamas...

In which case you would miss out on a bunch of the Defender of Siberys benefits without using armor and shield (25% threat, 10% AC, 10 PRR) Not to mention stacking those -%movement penalties would be very annoying.

18 monk has grandmaster stances and a lot else to offer.

[Enoach]

I too am wondering about 7 vs 6 levels of paladin

What 7th level gains over 6th
Base Attack Bonus +1 <- 2nd Level of Fighter also gains this
Access to these Enhancements

• Paladin Item Defense II <- Maybe, but not really required
• Paladin Toughness III <- I could see this as a reason
• Paladin Resistance of Good II <- Extra saves maybe
• Paladin Armor Class Boost III <- 20 second AC boost is more situation
• Paladin Attack Boost III <- 20 second Attack boost is more situation
• Paladin Saves Boost III <- 20 second Save boost is more situation
• Paladin Bulwark of Good II <- +1 AC possibly a good reason
• Paladin Courage of Good II <- +1 Save against Fear - Paladin is already immune to Fear so probably not
• Paladin Extra Smite Evil III <- +1 Extra Smite, heavy investment, but more smites are good
• Paladin Devotion III <- Possibly, anything to boost self healing from both ends is a good thing

What 2nd Fighter Level Gains over 1st Fighter Level
Base Attack Bonus +1
Fort Save +1
Fighter Bonus Feat <- Example if the only reason was Paladin Toughness III, than the Extra Toughness Feat > 10 HP from enhancements. Otherwise this extra feat for the "Opportunity Cost" of 10 HP could prove useful.
Access to these Enhancements

• Fighter Strength +1

What 13th Monk Level Gains over 12th Monk Level
Diamond Soul <- Spell Resistance Monk Level +10

• Void Strike III

Of course not know which Enhancements/PrEs your planning its hard to figure out if the 7th Level of Paladin is actually worth more to your build than 2nd level of fighter or 13th level of Monk.

Keep in mind when building a Tank, no matter what the build, there are three things you should be able to do

1. Get Aggro
2. Keep Aggro - Even under extreme opposition
3. Survive Aggro - While many tanking opportunities will come with a life line a good tank needs to be able to survive when that life line is cut off. This needs to have both damage mitigation as well as in combat recovery and should minimally to not effect Item 2.

Keep in mind that Epic Balwark of Defense is only active while in a Defensive stance <- DoS stances do not count it has to be Combat Expertise or Defensive Stance

Look at the underlined text below - Are you planning on using a Shield?

This prestige enhancement grants you 2 additional Turn attempts, additional armor class when blocking with a shield, increases the maximum dexterity bonus allowed by tower shields by 1. When using a shield, you generate 25% additional threat from all sources and gain 10 physical resistance.
Active Benefit: you also can enter Defender of Siberys I: Defensive Stance by expending 1 Paladin Armor Class boost, or create Defender of Siberys I: Magic Circle effect against Evil by expending 1 turn undead.

You do however gain 25% from stance alone.
You may expend a Paladin armor boost to become a bastion of defense, gaining a +2 Sacred bonus to Strength and Constitution, +10% maximum hit points, a +1 Sacred bonus on all saves, and a +2 Dodge bonus to Armor Class. You also gain a 25% Sacred bonus to threat generated with your melee attacks. While in this stance, you move 10% slower.

[Baelial]

original post updated (above)

NOTE: unable to take GM of earth for tank stance with this. enhancements are a bit spread as well... interested in peoples opinions and thoughts to improve this still.

[Therrias]

Personally I would go 18 monk/2fighter or 18 monk/2 paladin or 20 monk.

What's your plan for epic destiny?

[Baelial]

Would 20 monk work? Ideally I'd like to be a light monk, but I've read that shadow fade is a 'must have'.

With this I have full concentration, intimidate and -1 to full balance.

As this is meant to be a tank, I'd twist in iCE, Earth Stance and Unearthly Reactions/Fey Form (not sure on 3rd).

PRR (missing some epics for now as I don't know them all)
12 Earth Stance
15 Improved Earth Stance
20 iCE
9 Ada Cloak of bear
30 Unyielding Sentinel
86 - Total which can get higher as well.

Any thoughts on the feats? I am missing imp crit, and wouldn't mind working that in.

[Indoran]

this is a variant of emerald 2.0 class split. check that build.

Agreed Pally 7 is there for bulwark of defense 2. I did the same thing on a pl of Laerak.

It's a good build. but check the stat distribution. try to get a couple +3 tomes... they are easy to get now.

[connerj]

I made a similar build. not quite as tankie but quite survivable while dealing dps. only 34 pt. build so easier.
http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=397455

[Sedona]

I have built a very similar character as a past life on Xisix. I absolutely loved playing that character build. The concept with most similarity was Greater Mountain Stance Defender. My build was an HO12 Monk 6 Paladin 2 Fighter.

As far as epic destinies go, I prefered LD for most quests. The largest benifit the Defender pre gave me was HP and stacking PRR. In turn, for quests and known situations that "Tanking" was required I would use Unyielding Sentinel in Vigor for more HP, amp, threat etc. In that "Tanking" configuration I had abit over 1250 HP with moderate AC and spectacular saves. Situationally, upon group leaders request, I would load GMoF for EIN. Which worked well and I got to enjoy several really nice benefits of that destiny.

Some things of note... My character Xisix is a quarterstaff user. I do not have as much a requirement for DEX as a wrap user does. I Min/Max him as STR,CON,WIS in that order and nerf DEX,INT,CHA. Although he is a staff user and many would suspect that I wouldn't hold agro or perhaps agro would be shaky, fact of the matter is the newer staves really are awsome. That being said, agro was on me regardless...which is the way I like it. In the tanking config I would challenge people to take agro from me and it never was. I run in quality groups and have a great guild. I didn't have a single problem with agro. With that in mind consider not taking the Ninja Spy pre. It really is senseless because of your threat. You won't and shouldn't get the 3d6 SA damg because of your threat and intim abilities not to mention your intended role. Useless enhancements such as tumble and jump 2 for a total of 6 ap can be used elsewhere to enhance hp and dps or even pally devotion. Also, consider the fact that neither rage nor primal scream will effect you while stanced. I hated that personally.

As a good player you have to take time to remember to turn stance off until fully buffed etc then turn it back on and if perchance you die you have to turn stance back on again really no biggie and most of the time I didn't worry about it. A huge difference for me also was my epic feats. Mine were Overwhelming critical and Imp Martial Arts. I also had Imp crit and Power Crit. I like real DPS. I spammed fists of iron and Divine Sacrifice to gain +1 crit multiplier. In turn I always watched for trembling earth to pop up. AC was not my priority honestly but, situationaly I did try to maximize what I had and at times I was able to get to 85+ w/gear swap etc... My toon is fully geared and I mostly use Sireth w/Planar conflux. That equals more dps and PRR.

One more thing of note. I did in fact LR dropping my CON to 17 and put those points into CHA and a little DEX to get Divine Might 1.

All things considered you could be a wrap user and tank just fine as a Earth stance Defender. Consider the epic feats and their pre reqs. Don't do Ninja Spy IMO as its not worth the ap because of your role. Get Divine sacrifice. Maybe easier said than done but I have +3 tomes across the board. Thats my 2 cents do with it what you want.

[Nuryam]

I would take spy for 25% incorp and not SA. But I agree the cost in AP is steep.

I would suggest keeping your playstyle and accessible equipment in mind when designing your build. The journey to your power-peak should not be a drag.

[NovaNZ]

Name pending?

= Manki Monki