basic 28pt dwarven battle cleric.

[bigolbear]

Build by request - this thread is for archive purposes and is an edited copy of my responce to the ops request.

CRITERIA
1. must look good with a mo-hawk.
2. swings 2 handed weapon.
3. fully self healing capable warrior.
4. new player (28pt, no tomes) freindly.

RACE: dwarf.
ALIGN: Chaotic good.
LVL SPLIT: 17 cleirc/2 fighter/1 barbarian.
LVL order: 1 cleric/1 ftr/1 barb/11 cleric/1 fighter/5 cleric.
-note for your first lvl you will have to hit thigns with a mace.. but from lvl 2 onwards its great axes

STATS: (28pt)
STR:16 - 10 bp - 5 lvl up points spent here.
DEX:8 - 0 bp
CON:18 - 10 bp - 1 lvl up point spent here.
INT:10 - 2 bp
WIS:14 - 6 bp
CHA:6 - 0 bp

While lvling up every 4 lvls you gain a stat point - as you have requested no tomes I will do my best to make sure you qualify for epic feats you may wish to take. Thus - 1 lvl up stat point to be spent in CON, the rest to be spent in STR. You will gain a FREE + 2 tome of your choice with 1750 favour, which i would encourage you to hunt down with this build as it is an excelent solo build. This tome should be for CON. That way you can reach 21 base STR and CON by epic lvls to qualify you for feats. This will likly not be an issue at all as by that lvl you will probably have aquired multiple tomes any way but im being 'safe'.

SELECTED FEATS (by lvl)
1.(cleric) - toughness.
2.(ftr) - Power attack.
3.(barb) - cleave.
4.(cleric)
5.(cleric)
6.(cleric) - empower healing.
7.(cleric)
8.(cleric)
9.(cleric) - great cleave.
10.(cleric)
11.(cleric)
12.(cleric) - improved crit slashing.
13.(cleric)
14.(cleric)
15.(ftr) - 2 handed fighting, improved 2 handed fighting.
16.(cleric)
17.(cleric)
18.(cleric) - metamagic quicken (used only for self heals to guarentee they land as dificulty increases.)
19.(cleric)
20.(cleric)
21.(epic) - greater 2 handed fighting.
22.(epic)
23.(epic)
24.(epic) - overwhelming critical OR epic toughness.. your choice hp or offence.
25.(epic)

SKILLS:
concentration + half ranks in jump.


ENHANCEMENTS:
There is some room to manouver here but I highly recomend the folowing:
Dwarven axe damage
toughness - both racial and ftr.
radiant servant prestige - the aura is a huge boon to battle clerics.
barbarian power attack.
sprint boost.
dwarven spell saves.
life magic.
extra turning.
dwarven con.


GEAR:
gear is prety simple... you will want a WIS item (to cast higher lvl spells), the best STR, and CON you can get. Any gear that adds extra damage is good but this tends to be at high lvls. A nice selection of great axes, a dwarven axe+tower sheild combo for when your defending. Good solid full plate armour. If you go to epic lvls i recomend a elemental great axe of fire (it is easy to aquire from canith challenges) and an epic antique great axe(not so easy to aquire). I also recomend using a devotion(or potency) item that resides on a body slot - this will boost your heals but not restirct you to weilding scepters. heavy fort is also a must have as soon as you can - recomend the minos legens hat from necro4.

EPIC DESTINY:
this build will work best in legendary drednaught - ESPECIALY if soloing due to masters blitz. Fury of the wild and sentinal will also work well. I do not recomend exalted angel for this build.

A NOTE ABOUT THE BARB LVL:
you will have 1 small rage - dont use it - it prevents spell casting, the barb lvl is there for fast run speed, and +2 damage from enhanced power attack.

A NOTE ABOUT SPELLS:
your offensive spell DC's will suck, so dont use offensive spells that rely on saves. Buff your self with the folowing spells when they become available to you.
bulls str(at low lvls, until you get a good STR item.)
nightsheild.
divine power + divine favour.
true seeing.
circle of protection from evil.
spell resistance.
sheild of faith.

ALTERNATIVES:
you could go human.. and use a great sword. (humans get 2 less con tho) so im recomending dwarf with great axes.

[Therigar]

Nothing wrong with the build per se. Just wondering why you take cleric at L1 instead of barbarian.

Barbarian is more HP and access to all weapons. L1 content is easy enough that it isn't in real danger of dying, especially since a new player has to do Korthos from normal level to start.

Barbarian is also 12 skill points to a cleric's 4 (assuming no INT increases but a base 8 INT). Skills are important and it is a good time to grab some useful ones with the bonus at L1.

Also not sure about the 18 CON and level stat points there. I can't see that this does anything especially useful. 16 CON and more WIS would be advisable since even battle clerics benefit from their offensive spells and spell DC is WIS based.

[bigolbear]

addressing your points.

cleric at lvl 1 - as this is designed for new players, placing cleirc at lvl one allows them to self heal from the get go. I agree that lvl 1 is very fast and easy - but im not a new player... If i were to design this for vets it would be different - and barb at lvl 1 would be one of the changes.

high con is to qualify for epic toughness - as no tomes was a requirement of the build. I also think its important for new players as it gives them an easier time with gear selection.. letting them leave items like GFL till later.

more wis... No. The sad truth is that ddo is not balanced that way. Even a moderately good casting stat will not work for dc based spells without appropriate feats and items to complement it. its very much all or nothing - and this build was for a 'self healing mele' - not a caster. An advanced player CAN hav the best of both worlds.. almost. Its not somethign i would recomend for a new player tho as they will find their mele lacklustre and their offensive casting useless.

Infact I run an advanced cleric like that my self - decent mele and offensive casting, but let me assure you it is intensive in both playstyle, build requirements (tomes/feats) and gear. definatly not something i would recomend for a new player.

[HalfORCastrator]

I think this build would gain a lot more from going human. An extra feat, damage boost(which isn't available otherwise, stacks with a possible haste boost from LD, and more than makes up for the +4 damage loss), heal amp(which is very hard for newbies to get, and even just first lifers of vets while lvling. Also makes up for the life loss compared to dwarf), and extra skill pts.

18clr/2ftr human
Ability points:
16str-6lvlups
08dex
16con
10int
14wis
08cha

feats:
two handed fighting
improved two handed fighting
greater two handed fighting
cleave
great cleave
power attack
improved crit: slashing
toughness
empower heal
quicken
maximize / toughness
overwhelming critical

ALTERNATIVES:
you could go human.. and use a great sword. (humans get 2 less con tho) so im recomending dwarf with great axes.

Can go greataxes with human too. edit: though for lvling, greatswords of falchions are probably better.

EDIT:
Changed stats.