Purple Dragon Eldritch Knight Sorcerer

[Lifespawn]

i didn't want to post up my idea because i don't want it to be a fotm build but i'll give the premise.


where does massive dps matter? boss fights a pdk ek has for cormyr and can use it when it matters if built well it will add 15-20 to base damage to all party members for 2 minutes there is nothing else that can add 20 to your base damage like that and that is party wide.

self healing at lvl 17 i have 4 loh that hit for 250 and will have endless loh twisted in with amp and more cha that should top over 350 .

i skipped the thf feats on mine and chose max/emp/quicken instead because i have cleave gc lay waste eldrich strike and eldrich tempest to do aoe damage along with ice storm.

polar ray and full dots also help on single target dps haste rage displacement are obviously must have and use

with a 50 cha the saves will be plenty damage will not be as high at all times as a pure str build but the benefits and possible single target dps bonus outweighs it imo

[Benthamite]

Boss fights easily last 10-20 minutes (EE what goes up, EE study in sable etc).

An enhancement where you need to be under 50% HP to use is going to be a huge PITA.

Bladeforged has much more consistent and better overall damage boosts than PDK.

[Lonnbeimnech]

i didn't want to post up my idea because i don't want it to be a fotm build but i'll give the premise.


where does massive dps matter? boss fights a pdk ek has for cormyr and can use it when it matters if built well it will add 15-20 to base damage to all party members for 2 minutes there is nothing else that can add 20 to your base damage like that and that is party wide.

self healing at lvl 17 i have 4 loh that hit for 250 and will have endless loh twisted in with amp and more cha that should top over 350 .

i skipped the thf feats on mine and chose max/emp/quicken instead because i have cleave gc lay waste eldrich strike and eldrich tempest to do aoe damage along with ice storm.

polar ray and full dots also help on single target dps haste rage displacement are obviously must have and use

with a 50 cha the saves will be plenty damage will not be as high at all times as a pure str build but the benefits and possible single target dps bonus outweighs it imo

Cocoon is far more endless than endless loh.

[Lifespawn]

Cocoon is far more endless than endless loh.

of course it is but i was responding to the comment about not being able to heal themselves there is more than one option

[Lifespawn]

Boss fights easily last 10-20 minutes (EE what goes up, EE study in sable etc).

An enhancement where you need to be under 50% HP to use is going to be a huge PITA.

Bladeforged has much more consistent and better overall damage boosts than PDK.

it's not that hard to get to 50% health and still be safe 10 min fight sure but 20 more damage to all will cut that down significantly over a 2 min time period

[thesnoman]

Due to the synergy between Fire Savant and Angle of Vengeance, why not try a PDK Eldritch Knight with Sorc and FvS Levels.

I'd also look into PDK/Sorc/Pally - not sure which would be best.

Either way - Sorc would be just a splash - not your main class - you'd get to use Charisma for fighting or for Casting (the little you'd do) - and I think you'd either go S&B with bastard swords or THF with Greatswords.

If I ever have the time I'll look into this type of build - I'm thinking that a 12 Sorc/2 Pal/6 FVS Bladeforged would be a better choice if you wanted a build with Sorc as the primary class.

Just some thoughts

[Asmodeus451]

I'm thinking that a 12 Sorc/4 PDK/4 FVS Bladeforged

umm. hate to burst ur bubble but PDK and Bladeforged are both Iconic races. you cant be both

[thesnoman]

umm. hate to burst ur bubble but PDK and Bladeforged are both Iconic races. you cant be both

Thanks for the catch - bad Typo - was supposed to be Pally (Hence Bladeforged), not PDK. - fixed it in my original post

[MagicBlade]

Generalists are really bad and don't work. You need to specialize either melee or offensive spellcasting. If you're going for eldritch knight, that means you're going for melee and simplyleveraging several unique support abilities that arcanes bring to the table:

1) quickened reconstruct
2) extended haste/displacement
3) wings
4) no-save CC (ice storm, maybe solid or acid fog)
5) ddoor

There's really not much more to it than that, and you only need 12 arcane levels for all of the above.

I think that with this new tree for wizards and sorcerers, a hybrid might become possible, regardless of past attempts at creating such a character.

[LOOON375]

My pure first life WF Sorc is doing amazingly well even in EE content as an Eldritch Knight. I have to say that it just simply kicks ass, and it's one of my favorite toons to play.

I rerolled mine and built it the same way I would a fighter or barb.

I partially dumped Cha, and maxed Str. I see absolutely no reason to put a bunch of points in Cha.

Melee or nothing. And it's very survivable.

[Lifespawn]

My pure first life WF Sorc is doing amazingly well even in EE content as an Eldritch Knight. I have to say that it just simply kicks ass, and it's one of my favorite toons to play.

I rerolled mine and built it the same way I would a fighter or barb.

I partially dumped Cha, and maxed Str. I see absolutely no reason to put a bunch of points in Cha.

Melee or nothing. And it's very survivable.

mine has everything yours does except easier self healing but also has dc's and way more sp

[Clatterfist]

The combination that suggests itself to me for a PDK Eldritch Knight is Fighter 6 / Sorcerer 14.

Why?

Well, you're giving up the ability to self-heal, so you'll need to be fairly tank if you're going to survive. This is doubly true for a character type that requires sorcerer levels and strongly implies fighter levels, because it makes evasion a real detour on a character that's already going to be heavily split. So, how to be tanky on a Fighter/Sorcerer? This sounds like a job for sword and board!

Then it's a question of how many Sorcerer levels we need. The major advantage of going PDK is that we can use Charisma for both casting and combat. So, we're gonna want to have DC-based magic that can matter, or at least aim for it. That means we need to be able to reach a caster level of 18 in order to Heighten our spells to their full base DC. We can get +5 from an arcane Epic Destiny and maybe another +1 or +2 here and there, but we also need a relevant spell or two to Heighten. Taking 14 Sorcerer levels works for that: Evocation gets Prismatic Spray, Enchantment gets Disco Ball, Necromancy gets Finger of Death. All good options.

That leaves 6 levels for Fighter, which is just enough to get Stalwart Defense stance and achieve some of that tankiness. It also gives us four bonus feats to play with, which is going to be really important if we're going to validate that Charisma-double-duty decision and keep both our magic and our martial abilities meaningful.

What magical feats do we need? There's no point in doing this if we don't strive for high DCs, so we need Heighten, Spell Focus, Greater Spell Focus, and Arcane Initiate (assuming PL: Wizard).
What martial feats do we need? Improved Shield Bashing, Shield Mastery, and Improved Shield Mastery are pretty much essential for the conscientious sword and board character.
How many feats do we have? 1 for being a human, +7 that everyone gets, +4 from fighter. That's a total of 12 pre-epic, which leaves us five after the above selections.

Now, there are several ways to go here: if specialising in enchantment or necromancy then we'll need Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Penetration. If we want to use magical damage above and beyond our Eldritch Knight explosion cleaves then we'll want to consider Maximise and Empower. If we want to improve our melee then it's Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Bastard Sword, Two Handed Fighting, Improved Two Handed Fighting, and Greater Two Handed Fighting. And we should probably pick up a combat stance: Power Attack if we don't want to increase our spell cooldowns, or Combat Expertise or Resilience if we don't mind so much. If we go Power Attack along with Spell Penetration or something, and can't afford / don't want to get involved with Bastard Swords, then it's time to think about Cleave and Great Cleave, or Improved Critical.

Enhancements wise, it'll be Eldritch Knight primary and T5, with Stalwart Defender as the main secondary tree. Savant, Kensai, and racial tree are all available to flavour to taste. Some of the basic synergy includes Shield Expertise to generate more hit points with Eldritch Shield, and Hardy Defense on top of Tenser's Transformation for a total Constitution bump of +10.

I've no idea whether or not the resulting character would be cool or fun to play, but that's how my analysis breaks down. It's an interesting possibility.

[IWPlatinumPlatypus]

I don't know how you can say my advice is not legitimate. That sounds like opinionated BS to me, so what makes your opinion better than mine? Especially when what I'm saying is correct.

....If you're saying that your "opinion" is the correct "opinion" then it's not an opinion at all. No one opinion is correct and if there is then it's not an opinion.

I suggest you guys agree to disagree, because no one's opinion is better than any other...that's the beauty of an opinion.

Keep it kosher!

[Teh_Ghoul]

When a person can't complete anything more than casual or normal their opinion is wrong.

[Scrag]

I responded in the 6/14? thread about this, and just want to repost here after further playtesting tonight.

A 32 point (2 trs in) drow 14bard/5sorc/1 cleric gets you everything the OP seems to want, except for the somewhat useful +33% char mod bonus to your tactical feats. However, that is a small price to pay imo for 2 more points in charisma, and weapon training/ambidex. Since you end up being a sparkly fighter, might as well go for max sparkle. Bards get +spellpower, +spell points, buffs galore, songs, and everything else non-damage you would hope for from sorc. 14 levels of bard gets you your greater heroism you might want from sorc, along with summon monster 5, cure crit, empowered healing, etc etc etc. It is totally possible to run with a mid-high 30s strength AND cha permanently (divine might ftmfw) _at level 13_. Add in legendary dreadnaught for lay waste and company, better tactical feats, action boosts, and nice crit bonuses, and you can really kick some ass.

It, however, can't trap. -_-

(edit: i have a +5 sup tome, so that accounts for some of my stat bonuses at 13....)

[darthhento]

All I can say is that I've tested FailedLegend's build suggestion and it's a deathtrap for anything other than epic normal. Do not make that build if you plan on doing epic hard or epic elite.

[Crann]

When a person can't complete anything more than casual or normal their opinion is wrong.

Not wrong....just irrelevant in a conversation about EE builds.

There should be two separate forums for character builds....EE and everything else, because thats what this game seems to be now.

Not sure which you were looking for OP, but in a nutshell....everyone is right. Your build's gonna do fine in Normal content, because any build will.

In EE, not so much.

[Failedlegend]

All I can say is that I've tested FailedLegend's build suggestion and it's a deathtrap for anything other than epic normal. Do not make that build if you plan on doing epic hard or epic elite.

To be fair the S&B Sorc build I haven't actually played I've played a Wizard12/Fighter6/Rogue2 Dwarf S&B build and a PDK Sorc18/Pally2 THF build and both worked just fine in EE solo, duo and full group and this was all before EK was released...I will continue to play odd builds because its fun and honestly I don build for EH or EE if it can handle it awesome. if not I don't worry about it.

Alot of people could care less if their build works in EE or not so don;t act like their wrong for doing that....its not the end all to be all...personally I usually play on normal and we just have fun. Others prefer to play permadeath and I'm sure there's plenty other play styles...trying to force your play style down the OP or anyone's throat is not cool.

I would recommend trying the S&B build more because its quite similar to my Wizard build so should function quite well especially with the extra mana if it still doesn't work for you I dunno maybe I rely more on skill than loot and the perfect build.

Regardless the OP never said anything about needing the build to work for EE and he and many other have asked you guys to settle down and if you have nothing constructive to say, please leave your not helping the OP your just derailing his thread and frankly every gish-like thread recently. Besides IW basically told you to shut-it so please do so.

That all said in its current state EK is useless imo. luckily gishes worked just fine w/o it before and still do now

[AtomicMew]

To be fair the S&B Sorc build I haven't actually played I've played a Wizard12/Fighter6/Rogue2 Dwarf S&B build and a PDK Sorc18/Pally2 THF build and both worked just fine in EE solo, duo and full group and this was all before EK was released...I will continue to play odd builds because its fun and honestly I don build for EH or EE if it can handle it awesome. if not I don't worry about it.

Alot of people could care less if their build works in EE or not so don;t act like their wrong for doing that....its not the end all to be all...personally I usually play on normal and we just have fun. Others prefer to play permadeath and I'm sure there's plenty other play styles...trying to force your play style down the OP or anyone's throat is not cool.

I would recommend trying the S&B build more because its quite similar to my Wizard build so should function quite well especially with the extra mana if it still doesn't work for you I dunno maybe I rely more on skill than loot and the perfect build.

Regardless the OP never said anything about needing the build to work for EE and he and many other have asked you guys to settle down and if you have nothing constructive to say, please leave your not helping the OP your just derailing his thread and frankly every gish-like thread recently. Besides IW basically told you to shut-it so please do so.

That all said in its current state EK is useless imo. luckily gishes worked just fine w/o it before and still do now

You're forcing your opinion down everyone's throat by saying that everyone has to play your type of build, which won't be able to contribute meaningfully in end game EE content. Some people like to have stronger builds....

Telling someone that you think their build needs work and then listing useful advice IS constructive criticism. And IW said "you guys" which includes you....

[Pala-forged]

Now I would go Cha/Con Based with a side of Dex...PA/C/GC/OC is nice but you really don't have the feat room for it.

Lawful-Good PDK Sorc18/Pally2 (EK/Earth Savant)

Dex 12
Con 16
Int 10 (+2 int tome for more points in balance)
Cha 18 (Lvl ups here)

34pt build:Int 12 36pt:Int 12/Dex14

Skills: UMD,Concen, Balance

Feats

PDK Shield Mastery
1 Maximize
2 Empower
3 IC:Slashing (or IC:Pierce if you prefer Shortswords)
4 ISM
5 ISB
6 Combat Expertise
7 SF: UMD (or PL:Wiz if avail)
ED Draconic Incarnation
21 Bulwark of Defense
24 Great Charisma
26 Epic Mage Armor or Guardian Angel
27 Epic Reflexes or Ruin
28 Hellball


- Quicken: It's nice to have but far less useful to a fleshy caster if you learn how to jump cast you'll rarely have issues with spellcasting midbattle.
Jumping helps.. but doesn't solve the issue in harder content. Again, if you're playing eNormal, carry on.
- THF Line+Bastard Sword: The DPS you get from this line is so miniscule I'd only take it if it was a single feat that scaled with character level let alone wasting a 4th feat of weapon prof being limited to bastard swords as your primary weapon would not be good either (although if your forced to go 17/2/1 you can use that fighter lvl to get B-Sword prof so you can use all 3 1-handed PDK weapons)
We agree! Although, I made an ek sorc w/ THF line using Cleaver with OC. THF actually helped that.
- PA/C/GC/OC is nice but you really don't have the feat room for it let alone it being a massive waste of build points
Sure you do!
- Dodge/Mobility/Spring Attack/Whirlwind: Not enough feat space otherwise this would be awesome.
Have they fixed Whirlwind? Last I knew it still sucked for any non-monks.

Well. That's an interesting build, that's for sure.

Your melee will be terrible, your DC's will be average, your spells will be passable.. aside from spell pen/DC. If all you want to do is rp in eNormal, sure. Enjoy.

What I'd do:

• Str based to start with.
• Great Charisma? Take power attack instead. Come on, that's not hard.
• Shield feats? Swap those for cleave/Gcleave. Increased dps just from that. (And use some form of THF, cleaver would be great.)
• Combat expertise? Just.. no.
• Get rid of Bulwark, grab overwhelming critical.

That would net you more melee dps, esp in dreadnought/fury. While hybrids would be fun in ddo, if they worked, they don't work. It sucks, I know.

Much as I love making "strange" builds, I try to force them to work for EE - that's half the fun.
Edit: You'd net more melee dps from this, while still keeping maximize/empower for things like ice ray, if you really want some form of useful casting.

And yes, that build you made could solo eHard, but that says more about eHard than it does about the build.