Build help- Updating a Solo Paladin/Monk.

[Shadowmuff1n]

So I was combing the DDO forums for a good solo build and I came across this dated build - Paladin/Monk. https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...15#post2984215

It looks interesting, but seeing how it's from 2010 it's obviously missing the specifics of U19. Now, my highest level character is 11, and I don't know anything about high level content or I'd just do this myself. I don't want to take a stab at it, and waste days leveling something sub-par.

Can someone help me translate this build to the current system? To be clear: Paladin/Monk that can solo with self heals. Everything else is changeable. I have 32 point build, VIP, and instant level 7, almost no plat, and no tomes or any idea how to get them. No Turbine points.

Also, if you have any good solo builds, feel free to link them (No warforged please).

[voxson5]

Why the racism? There's no need for that these days

Any race will work, Human/Helf would work best due to healing amp.

Basic splits include:
18p/2m for most pally goodness and good saves
11p/9m for imp evasion etc - more for an easy pally life
etc

Lots of things have changed since 2010. Best to check out the wiki for updates.

For a proper solo build (given pally/monk requirements) I would go Bladeforged or Dragonmarked Halfling
8p/6m/6r - Staff specialisation, Zen archery, pew pew power
12m/6r/2m - Abundant step, imp evasion, monkcher pew pew
16a/2p/2m - Juggernaut (WF/BF if you want the best from this)
any battlemage combo (again WF are best)

I'ld look at taking arti levels personally due to trap skills and a summonable lever puller.


What are your goals looking at endgame? Survivability? DPS? Easy raid access?

[unbongwah]

If the goal is "centered TWF pally / monk," I would probably do monk 6 / pal 14 using short swords. Pal 14 gets you lvl 4 spells (Zeal) as well as core enhs thru lvl 12; while monk 6 gets you 3 feats, Evasion, Adept of Forms, and Shadow Form. Although monk 6 / pal 2 / cleric or FvS 12 is gonna have much better self-healing.

Were you able to take advantage of the Anniversary Card event? If so, then you should be able to obtain some +3 tomes which will help out this (or any other) build you want.

[Grailhawk]

If the goal is "centered TWF pally / monk," I would probably do monk 6 / pal 14 using short swords. Pal 14 gets you lvl 4 spells (Zeal) as well as core enhs thru lvl 12; while monk 6 gets you 3 feats, Evasion, Adept of Forms, and Shadow Form. Although monk 6 / pal 2 / cleric or FvS 12 is gonna have much better self-healing.

Another thing that you might consider is 10 FVS / 8 Fighter / 2 Monk (Cure Critical, Good Saves, Centered with any Weapon), or 11 Cleric / 8 Fighter / 1 Monk (Weaker Saves but gain Heal). There are a lot of ways to play something like a Paladin that have 0-4 Paladin levels.

Things to keep in mind here are
8 Fighter gets you centered with good weapons a good number of feat and expanded Crit Ranger its the key number of fighter levels to make you a strong DPS.

2 Monk is Evasion and +2 Feat
6 Monk is an additional 2 feat (Adapt of Forms + a selected on) plus shadow veil.

2 Paladin is Divine Grace
4 Paladin is Divine might (only worth taking of you don't have cleric or Fvs levels)
14-15 Paladin is zeal and CSW if you aren't taking CLR or FVS levels you need to get to hear for self healing.

11 Cleric gets you Heal and Blade Barrier
12 Favord Soul gets you Heal and better saves.

Builds I would consider
14 Paladin/6 Monk: Shadow Veil, CSW or Zeal, Evasion + Divine Grace, Centered with Wraps or Short Swords

15 Paladin/ 3 Monk/ 2 Fighter: CSW, Zeal, Haste Boost, Extra Action Boost, Evasion + Divine Grace, Centered with Wraps or Short Swords, Could make a go at using non-centered weapons though probably better to switch to 3 Fighter, 2 Monk though if not centered

12 FVS/ 6 Monk/ 2 Paladin: Heal, Sadow Vail, Evasion + Divine Grace, Centered with Wraps or Short Swords, Lots of Buffs, Divine Punishment, Healing Curse + Magic Backlash

10 FVS/ 8 Fighter / 2 Monk: CCW (not capped), Evasion, Centered with weapon of Choice

11 Cleric / 8 Fighter / 1 Monk: Heal, Blade Barrier, Centered with weapon of choice

[Shadowmuff1n]

Thanks for the replies guys, this has been a lot of help.

Why the racism? There's no need for that these days

Any race will work, Human/Helf would work best due to healing amp.

Basic splits include:
18p/2m for most pally goodness and good saves
11p/9m for imp evasion etc - more for an easy pally life
etc

Lots of things have changed since 2010. Best to check out the wiki for updates.

For a proper solo build (given pally/monk requirements) I would go Bladeforged or Dragonmarked Halfling
8p/6m/6r - Staff specialisation, Zen archery, pew pew power
12m/6r/2m - Abundant step, imp evasion, monkcher pew pew
16a/2p/2m - Juggernaut (WF/BF if you want the best from this)
any battlemage combo (again WF are best)

I'ld look at taking arti levels personally due to trap skills and a summonable lever puller.


What are your goals looking at endgame? Survivability? DPS? Easy raid access?

I can't help it, warforged just look bad to me. Something something aesthetics.

When you put "8p/6m/6r" is that R representing rogue or ranger?

If the goal is "centered TWF pally / monk," I would probably do monk 6 / pal 14 using short swords. Pal 14 gets you lvl 4 spells (Zeal) as well as core enhs thru lvl 12; while monk 6 gets you 3 feats, Evasion, Adept of Forms, and Shadow Form. Although monk 6 / pal 2 / cleric or FvS 12 is gonna have much better self-healing.

Were you able to take advantage of the Anniversary Card event? If so, then you should be able to obtain some +3 tomes which will help out this (or any other) build you want.

I never really considered the FvS or Cleric options over paladin, I think that'd give me what I want as well. And no, I had no clue what the Anniversary Card event was for... I sort of... Deleted all of the items < Total scrub.

Another thing that you might consider is 10 FVS / 8 Fighter / 2 Monk (Cure Critical, Good Saves, Centered with any Weapon), or 11 Cleric / 8 Fighter / 1 Monk (Weaker Saves but gain Heal). There are a lot of ways to play something like a Paladin that have 0-4 Paladin levels.

Things to keep in mind here are
8 Fighter gets you centered with good weapons a good number of feat and expanded Crit Ranger its the key number of fighter levels to make you a strong DPS.

2 Monk is Evasion and +2 Feat
6 Monk is an additional 2 feat (Adapt of Forms + a selected on) plus shadow veil.

2 Paladin is Divine Grace
4 Paladin is Divine might (only worth taking of you don't have cleric or Fvs levels)
14-15 Paladin is zeal and CSW if you aren't taking CLR or FVS levels you need to get to hear for self healing.

11 Cleric gets you Heal and Blade Barrier
12 Favord Soul gets you Heal and better saves.

Builds I would consider
14 Paladin/6 Monk: Shadow Veil, CSW or Zeal, Evasion + Divine Grace, Centered with Wraps or Short Swords

15 Paladin/ 3 Monk/ 2 Fighter: CSW, Zeal, Haste Boost, Extra Action Boost, Evasion + Divine Grace, Centered with Wraps or Short Swords, Could make a go at using non-centered weapons though probably better to switch to 3 Fighter, 2 Monk though if not centered

12 FVS/ 6 Monk/ 2 Paladin: Heal, Sadow Vail, Evasion + Divine Grace, Centered with Wraps or Short Swords, Lots of Buffs, Divine Punishment, Healing Curse + Magic Backlash

10 FVS/ 8 Fighter / 2 Monk: CCW (not capped), Evasion, Centered with weapon of Choice

11 Cleric / 8 Fighter / 1 Monk: Heal, Blade Barrier, Centered with weapon of choice

This info is absolutely excellent. This is the type of stuff I would have no way of knowing without ridiculous amounts of research. I really am a newbie at this game. This really does a good job of laying out the options, although I have no clue what CCW or CSW mean (google has failed me). How important are things like evasion in terms of survivability? Whenever I'm looking at builds it's often one of the most cited feats.

Speaking of feats, I have no clue what to take or starting stats. I know this is asking a lot, but I want you to pick one of these builds (whichever you think might be best to solo but not terrible at the end game for whatever role) and help me understand the stat and feat selection. When leveling, is there an argument for taking my first 7 levels in one class, or should I just do a grab bag?

I'm so clueless and all of your help is appreciated.

[unbongwah]

This really does a good job of laying out the options, although I have no clue what CCW or CSW mean (google has failed me).

"CxW" stands for the various cure spells: Cure <Light / Moderate / Serious / Critical> Wounds. Put an "M-" in front and you've got the abbreviation for Mass Cures.

How important are things like evasion in terms of survivability?

Evasion is one of the most useful feats in DDO: with Evasion, if you make a Reflex save vs. a trap or spell, you take zero dmg (if you meet Evasion reqs like not wearing med/hvy armor); w/out Evasion, if you make a Reflex save, you still take half-dmg - which in epics can still be a lot of dmg. Then the tough part is getting your Reflex saves high enough to be useful, otherwise Evasion is pointless.

[Shadowmuff1n]

"CxW" stands for the various cure spells: Cure <Light / Moderate / Serious / Critical> Wounds. Put an "M-" in front and you've got the abbreviation for Mass Cures.

Evasion is one of the most useful feats in DDO: with Evasion, if you make a Reflex save vs. a trap or spell, you take zero dmg (if you meet Evasion reqs like not wearing med/hvy armor); w/out Evasion, if you make a Reflex save, you still take half-dmg - which in epics can still be a lot of dmg. Then the tough part is getting your Reflex saves high enough to be useful, otherwise Evasion is pointless.

So useful. Thanks man.

[Cardtrick]

Speaking of feats, I have no clue what to take or starting stats. I know this is asking a lot, but I want you to pick one of these builds (whichever you think might be best to solo but not terrible at the end game for whatever role) and help me understand the stat and feat selection. When leveling, is there an argument for taking my first 7 levels in one class, or should I just do a grab bag?

I'm so clueless and all of your help is appreciated.

I'll take one of the class splits, because it's a build I've been thinking about recently. Maybe other people can do others and you can get a better feel for it by seeing multiple opinions?

I'm going to do the 12 FvS / 6 monk / 2 paladin split, but I'm going to present it as a quarterstaff user rather than handwraps or short swords. (I really like quarterstaffs these days, and with the Staff Specialization enhancement they become very powerful. Also, there's no official word yet, but I believe that the healing curse + magic backlash synergy Grailhawk mentioned is going to turn out to be a bug that will be fixed in the near future, so I don't mind losing the 5th tier of warpriest enhancements.)

I'll first post the build straight from the character planner, and then walk you a bit through my choices and thought process at each level.

Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 04.20.02
DDO Character Planner Home Page

Level 28 Lawful Good Human Male
(2 Paladin \ 6 Monk \ 12 Favored Soul \ 8 Epic) 
Hit Points: 385
Spell Points: 1812 
BAB: 15\15\20\25\25
Fortitude: 22
Reflex: 19
Will: 20

                  Starting            Ending          Feat/Enhancement
Abilities        Base Stats         Base Stats         Modified Stats
(32 Point)       (Level 1)          (Level 28)           (Level 28)
Strength             18                 23                   23
Dexterity             8                  8                    8
Constitution         14                 14                   14
Intelligence         10                 10                   10
Wisdom               8                 8                   8
Charisma             15                 17                   18

                  Starting            Ending          Feat/Enhancement
                 Base Skills        Base Skills        Modified Skills
Skills           (Level 1)          (Level 28)          (Level 28)
Balance              -1                 -1                   10
Bluff                 2                  3                   11
Concentration         6                 25                   41
Diplomacy             2                  3                   11
Disable Device        n/a               n/a                   n/a
Haggle                2                  3                   11
Heal                  4                 21                   29
Hide                 -1                 -1                    7
Intimidate            2                  3                   11
Jump                  4                  6                   17
Listen                0                  0                    8
Move Silently        -1                 -1                    7
Open Lock            n/a               n/a                    n/a
Perform               n/a               n/a                  n/a
Repair                0                  0                    8
Search                0                  0                    8
Spellcraft            4                 11                   19
Spot                  0                  0                    8
Swim                  4                  6                   14
Tumble               n/a               n/a                   n/a
Use Magic Device      n/a               14                   22

Level 1 (Favored Soul)
Skill: Concentration (+4)
Skill: Heal (+4)
Skill: Spellcraft (+4)
Feat: (Selected) Empower Healing Spell
Feat: (Human Bonus) Extend Spell
Feat: (Deity) Follower of the Sovereign Host
Spell (1): Nightshield
Spell (1): Protection from Evil
Enhancement: Warpriest (Fvs) - Smite Foe (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Warpriest (Fvs) - Divine Might (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Warpriest (Fvs) - Divine Might (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Warpriest (Fvs) - Divine Might (Rank 3)


Level 2 (Monk)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Use Magic Device (+2)
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Power Attack
Enhancement: Human - Human Versatility: Damage Boost (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Henshin Mystic (Mnk) - Riddle of Fire (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Henshin Mystic (Mnk) - Staff Training (Rank 1)


Level 3 (Monk)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Heal (+1)
Skill: Use Magic Device (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Cleave
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Two Handed Fighting
Enhancement: Henshin Mystic (Mnk) - Way of the Patient Tortoise (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Henshin Mystic (Mnk) - Staff Training (Rank 1)


Level 4 (Favored Soul)
Ability Raise: STR
Skill: Heal (+2)
Skill: Spellcraft (+1)
Spell (1): Divine Favor
Enhancement: Henshin Mystic (Mnk) - Quick Strike (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Henshin Mystic (Mnk) - Fists of Iron (Rank 1)


Level 5 (Favored Soul)
Skill: Heal (+1)
Skill: Spellcraft (+2)
Spell (1): Remove Fear
Enhancement: Warpriest (Fvs) - Resilience of Battle (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Warpriest (Fvs) - Toughness (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Henshin Mystic (Mnk) - Quick Strike (Rank 2)


Level 6 (Favored Soul)
Skill: Heal (+1)
Skill: Spellcraft (+2)
Feat: (Selected) Great Cleave
Spell (2): Cure Moderate Wounds
Enhancement: Human - Improved Recovery (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Henshin Mystic (Mnk) - Quick Strike (Rank 3)


Level 7 (Favored Soul)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Heal (+1)
Skill: Spellcraft (+1)
Feat: (Favored Soul Bonus) Energy Resistance: Fire
Spell (2): Resist Energy
Enhancement: Henshin Mystic (Mnk) - Contemplation (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Henshin Mystic (Mnk) - Contemplation (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Henshin Mystic (Mnk) - Contemplation (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Shintao (Mnk) - Bastion of Purity (Rank 1)


Level 8 (Favored Soul)
Ability Raise: STR
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Heal (+1)
Skill: Spellcraft (+1)
Spell (3): Cure Serious Wounds
Enhancement: Warpriest (Fvs) - Wall of Steel (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Warpriest (Fvs) - Wall of Steel (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Warpriest (Fvs) - Wall of Steel (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Warpriest (Fvs) - Inflame (Rank 1)


Level 9 (Monk)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Use Magic Device (+2)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Two Handed Fighting
Feat: (Monk Path) Path of Harmonious Balance: Fists of Light
Enhancement: Henshin Mystic (Mnk) - Ki Bolt (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Henshin Mystic (Mnk) - Staff Training (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Ninja Spy (Mnk) - Ninja Training (Rank 1)


Level 10 (Monk)
Skill: Concentration (+3)
Skill: Use Magic Device (+1)
Enhancement: Henshin Mystic (Mnk) - Lighting the Candle (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Henshin Mystic (Mnk) - Staff Training (Rank 1)


Level 11 (Monk)
Skill: Concentration (+2)
Skill: Use Magic Device (+1)
Enhancement: Henshin Mystic (Mnk) - Lighting the Candle (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Henshin Mystic (Mnk) - Lighting the Candle (Rank 3)


Level 12 (Monk)
Ability Raise: STR
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Heal (+2)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Critical: Bludgeoning Weapons
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Toughness
Enhancement: Henshin Mystic (Mnk) - Sounding Staff (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Henshin Mystic (Mnk) - Staff Specialization (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Ninja Spy (Mnk) - Acrobatic (Rank 1)


Level 13 (Paladin)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Use Magic Device (+1)
Enhancement: Ninja Spy (Mnk) - Sneak Attack Training (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Ninja Spy (Mnk) - Acrobatic (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Ninja Spy (Mnk) - Acrobatic (Rank 3)


Level 14 (Paladin)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Heal (+2)
Enhancement: Ninja Spy (Mnk) - Ninja Training (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Ninja Spy (Mnk) - Agility (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Ninja Spy (Mnk) - Agility (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Ninja Spy (Mnk) - Agility (Rank 3)


Level 15 (Favored Soul)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Use Magic Device (+1)
Feat: (Selected) Master of Forms
Spell (2): Remove Paralysis
Spell (3): Searing Light
Enhancement: Warpriest (Fvs) - Smite Weakness (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Warpriest (Fvs) - Inflame (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Ninja Spy (Mnk) - Shadow Veil (Rank 1)


Level 16 (Favored Soul)
Ability Raise: STR
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Heal (+2)
Spell (4): Death Ward
Enhancement: Warpriest (Fvs) - Sanctuary (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Warpriest (Fvs) - Inflame (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Warpriest (Fvs) - Inflame: Energy Absorption (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Warpriest (Fvs) - Inflame: Energy Absorption (Rank 2)


Level 17 (Favored Soul)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Use Magic Device (+1)
Spell (2): Lesser Restoration
Spell (4): Freedom of Movement
Spell (3): Prayer
Enhancement: Warpriest (Fvs) - Inflame: Energy Absorption (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Warpriest (Fvs) - Charisma (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Shintao (Mnk) - Reed in the Wind (Rank 1)


Level 18 (Favored Soul)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Heal (+2)
Feat: (Favored Soul Bonus) Energy Resistance: Acid
Feat: (Selected) Greater Two Handed Fighting
Spell (5): Divine Punishment
Enhancement: Warpriest (Fvs) - Ameliorating Strike (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Shintao (Mnk) - Ki Shout (Rank 1)


Level 19 (Favored Soul)
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Use Magic Device (+1)
Spell (3): Protection from Energy
Spell (4): Divine Power
Spell (5): Protection from Elements
Enhancement: Shintao (Mnk) - Protection from Tainted Creatures (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Shintao (Mnk) - Reed in the Wind (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Shintao (Mnk) - Iron Skin (Rank 1)


Level 20 (Favored Soul)
Ability Raise: STR
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Heal (+2)
Spell (6): Heal
Enhancement: Warpriest (Fvs) - War Domain: Blur (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Shintao (Mnk) - Iron Hand (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Shintao (Mnk) - Iron Skin (Rank 2)


Level 21 (Epic)
Feat: (Selected) Epic: Overwhelming Critical


Level 22 (Epic)


Level 23 (Epic)


Level 24 (Epic)
Ability Raise: CHA
Feat: (Selected) Quicken Spell


Level 25 (Epic)


Level 26 (Epic)
Feat: (Epic Destiny) Epic Destiny: Perfect Two Handed Fighting


Level 27 (Epic)
Feat: (Selected) Epic: Blinding Speed


Level 28 (Epic)
Ability Raise: CHA
Feat: (Epic Destiny) Epic Destiny: Perfect Two Weapon Fighting

Race:

On deeply multiclassed builds, I almost always prefer Human to any other race. This is because builds like this tend to be feat starved, and humans get an extra feat. Builds like this also tend to be spread thin on APs to use for enhancements, and humans have one of the best cheap AP investments out there -- for just 3 APs, you get Damage Boost and 10% healing amplification, which is excellent. A lot of other races require much more investment in the racial tree to really get their primary benefits.

Initial Stats:

Stat allocation is difficult, especially because you don't have tomes.

I went with 18 strength because I want to hit 23 by level 21. 23 strength is required for the epic feat Overwhelming Critical, which is an excellent DPS feat that should be taken by almost any melee or ranged character. This 23 threshold counts only base stat points, level up ability raises, and tomes -- enhancements and gear do not count. We would want high strength in any case because it determines damage done, but without the Overwhelming Critical requirement -- or if you had a +2 Strength tome -- I might have started with 16, which would have saved 6 stat points to use elsewhere. Maxing out any one stat is expensive.

I chose to "dump" dexterity. It is useful for reflex save, but the bigger loss is that several useful feats have a minimum dexterity of 13. We will just not be able to take those feats on this build.

Constitution starts at 14. This is for hit points and fortitude saves. I'm a little uncomfortable with HPs if starting below 14, especially with no tomes to raise it higher. But we can't afford the build points to raise it past this point.

Intelligence is 10, rather than 8, for the extra skill point. Even at 10, we can't invest in all the skills we'd like.

Wisdom of 10 is actually not what I would do if making this character myself, but I didn't want to start it any lower for you. Wisdom determines what spells a favored soul can cast. To cast a level 1 spell, you must have wisdom 11; level 2 spells requiere wisdom 12, etc. Unlike for feat requirements, items do count toward this limit, so it's okay to start with too little wisdom to actually cast any of your spells. But as a relatively new player with no hand me down gear, I thought it was worth putting a couple of points here so that you need less gear to cast your spells. Ideally I would have started with at least 11, but I didn't want to spare any more points.

EDIT: Disregard what I just wrote about Wisdom! I really have no idea what I was thinking. I'm leaving it for posterity, but it's totally wrong -- Charisma is the stat that determines which spells a favored soul can cast. Wisdom only affects spell DCs, which can be safely and happily ignored for this build. Wisdom should be treated as a dump stat and left at 8. I edited the build above to do so, and used the extra two build points to bump Charisma up from 14 to 15.

Charisma of 14 is a little lower than I would like, but I couldn't see a nice way to raise it higher. Charisma is a very important stat for this build. It determines your spellpoints. More importantly, it determines the level of bonus saves that you get from your paladin levels. With Divine Might running, it also adds to your strength to improve your damage (divine might increases strength by your charisma modifier, which is half of {charisma - 10}). It doesn't add as much to damage as strength does, but given the other benefits, it's a very big priority to increase. You will want to always wear gear to keep charisma as high as you can.

Level 1:

At first glance, you might think that it would make sense to take the first level as monk. After all, you're going to be primarily a melee quarterstaff fighter rather than a caster. So why did I go with favored soul?

The answer is feats. Any character gets one feat at level 1. A human gets another. A monk gets a third bonus feat. The problem is that there are not three feats worth taking at this level. We want to get feats that both improve our melee damage and improve our healing/self-buffing casting ability. Ideally, we'd also have some feats to improve spellcasting in general, but that's not a priority.

However, very few of these are available to us at level 1 if we go monk (or paladin). It is only possible to take the casting metamagic feats if we have the ability to cast spells -- which would require at least 4 paladin levels or 1 level of favored soul. It would be possible to take Power Attack, Cleave, and Two-Handed Fighting -- and at first glance, that sounds perfect. That would really get us rolling with the quarterstaff. But unfortunately, monk bonus feats come from a very limited list and Power Attack and THF are both on that list. We get 3 bonus monk feats (at level 1, 2, and 6 monk) and there isn't much on the list that we can actually use. So if we were to take both Power Attack and THF at level 1, we'd be wasting one of our later monk bonus feat slots.

The upshot of all of this is that level 1 on this build is going to be a little tough. We have to go favored soul in order to open up the metamagic feats, so that we can take them and not waste our monk bonus feat slots. So we take Empower Healing and Extend to improve self-healing and buffing. Unfortunately, this character isn't really built to play as a pure favored soul -- even casting the buffs we do get won't be possible until you get at least a +1 wisdom item. Fortunately, level 1 goes incredibly quickly and it's possible to complete it on nearly any kind of build, and you have very high strength + divine might. By the end of level 1 you'll be at self-buffed 20 strength without any items, which is quite high and should make melee very doable. (It certainly beats doing it as a max-int, 8 strength rogue like we do when building 18/2 wizard/rogues.)

Note that Extend is basically a convenience feature. It helps you to maintain your short term buffs. I would encourage swapping it out for another metamagic feat later on, once your buffs are a bit longer and you're more comfortable with the clickiness of keeping short term buffs running.

Note that enhancements are going into picking up Smite and Divine Might. Smite is useful on it's own, but it won't really shine until much later when you get Smite Weakness and Ameliorating Strike, which both improve the base warpriest smite. Note that these 2 basic warpriest abilities really start to make you play like the paladin you originally asked about. In a lot of ways, a melee warpriest cleric or favored soul is like an improved paladin.

Levels 2-3:

The next 2 levels, we go monk to take advantage of the first 2 monk bonus feats and start ramping up the melee capability. You'll get Power Attack -- a monk bonus feat -- at level 2. Once you have it, and every time you log in, you should turn it on and pretty much never turn it off. It's a major DPS boost, especially for two handed weapons. At level 3, you take Cleave as a normal feat (which requires Power Attack as prerequisite) and Two Handed Fighting as a monk bonus feat. You should bind Cleave somewhere easily accessible (it's usually my 3 key) and hit it whenever it's off timer when you're facing multiple enemies. Enhancements at this point are starting to go into monk's Henshin Mystic Tree, which boosts staff damage and gives you some special attacks you can use with your staff. The Staff Specialization enhancement -- which is not available until you have 12 total levels and 5 monk or rogue levels -- is the biggest benefit of this tree, but the rest of it is useful too.

Levels 4-8:

Here we go favored soul. We pick up some very useful buffs -- Resist Energy in particular -- and two self-healing spells that will help carry us through most of the game: Cure Moderate and Cure Serious. It's really useful to have two healing spells that can be alternated when you're taking a lot of damage.

Don't worry too much if the spells don't seem to do much healing when you first get them. They scale with both your healing amplification and your positive spellpower, both of which will improve over time with enhancements and gear.

I recommend binding one of these to a key that is always easily accessed to use as your "oh no I'm about to die" spell. For me, that's always my "f" key. The version bound to this key should have Empower Healing set to Always On -- it costs extra, but for this emergency heal you want to make sure it has some oomph.

The only feat in this range is Great Cleave. This is really useful in its own right, to spam against multiple enemies right alongside Cleave. (Great Cleave is 2 for me on almost all my melee builds and Cleave is 3.) It is also a prerequisite for Overwhelming Critical.

The priority enhancement is the 2nd core of Warpriest as soon as we take that 3rd favored soul level. Getting DR 5/- is really, really nice while we're still at low levels. It's a minor benefit at best once you're capped, but at these levels it lets you just shrug off a whole lot of incoming damage. It's like an improved version of Invulnerability armor, bypassed by nothing.

Other enhancements mostly remain in Henshin for staff damage and to work toward staff specialization at this point, but we can dip a bit into human and Shintao for improved healing amplification. You'll pick up Quick Strike -- you should use it whenever it's off cooldown. No cost, and you get 25% doublestrke for 10 seconds after every use. Fists of iron is nice too, and Contemplation improves ki generation to help spam it.

Levels 9-12:

Having leveled favored soul to the point where our self healing is pretty good, it's time to finish off the monk levels. We absolutely want to take 5 monk levels by level 12, so we can get staff specialization as soon as possible. But the 6th monk level is very beneficial too, and I don't see a good reason not to take it at this point.

There are 2 selected feats and one bonus feat in this range. First, we take Improved Two Handed Fighting to somewhat improve glancing blows. It's not a huge deal on its own, but it opens up Greater Two Handed Fighting, which will be a major increase in glancing blows (with gTHF, we get glancing blows on 3 of the 4 attacks in a chain, rather than just 2).

Second, we take Improved Critical:Bludgeoning. This is a major DPS increase. Unfortunately, due to the class splits involved it's not possible on this build to get it any earlier than level 12.

Third, for the monk bonus feat, we unfortunately don't have a good choice. In an ideal world, we would have 13 dexterity, opening up one of two really handy feats: either Dodge or Precision. But we don't, and can't easily get it without other significant sacrifices. So that doesn't leave much of value on the monk bonus feat list -- I went with Toughness, since more HP is always better than less HP, but it's not a very inspiring choice.

Enhancements are all about Staff Specialization. So you have to get to 30 points in the Henshin tree. I invested in Lighting the Candle; if you try this build, you might decide that 6 APs is too much for the added fire damage and you don't even use it much because of the penalty it imposes on ki generation. If so, that's totally reasonable, and you can easily -- and profitably -- move 4 of those APs into stat raises for either Strength or Charisma.

Level 12 is absolutely huge for this build. In the same level, we get Improved Critical:Bludgeoning, Staff Specialization, and Adept of Forms. A weapon like the Theurgic Stave, with a base 19-20x2 critical profile, goes very suddenly to 15-20x3. That is simply a massive improvement in damage output.

Levels 13-14:

I went paladin at these levels. On a character of my own that I've built with a very similar level split, I instead pushed paladin to levels 19-20. There are tradeoffs either way.

Once you get your paladin levels, you will have greatly increased saves. If you're investing in good Resistance and Charisma gear, you should be pretty close to no-fail. That's awesome, and I think it's especially useful for you because you mentioned not having run the content above level 12 before -- which means you won't know where there are difficult traps you need to avoid. With super high reflex save and evasion, you can pretty much just run through those.

For me, personally, on my version I preferred to have 12 favored soul levels by level 18 -- because when I level to 20 on a TR life, I like to stay at 18 until I cap, so I want whatever ability will let me max that fastest. On my version of the build, I took Blade Barrier rather than Heal at level 18 (with the intention to swap it out for Heal later, in epics).

I think that this version is a lot friendlier and that you will enjoy having the high saves in the upper heroic levels. It also means the build is pretty much "feature complete" by level 14, which is nice.

Nothing else to worry about here -- no feat selections, no spells. Enhancements went into Ninja Spy to get closer to unlocking Shadow Veil, which will be another major survivability improvement.

Levels 15-20:

At this point, the build is mostly up and running, but we're filling in some useful abilities. All remaining level ups go into Favored Soul, and we add some more buff spells and -- eventually -- Heal.

There are two feat slots in this level range, at 15 and 18. I went with Master of Forms and Greater Two Handed Fighting. Master of Forms will improve your monk stances -- especially earth stance. With Master of Forms, earth stance will now grant an improved critical damage multiplier on rolls of 19-20, which is another significant DPS increase. The feat also improves the defensive benefits the stance already had. Once you have this feat, you should run in earth stance most of the time. Greater Two handed Fighting improves your glancing blow damage and effect proc chance, and also makes glancing blows proc on three out of the four attacks in the standard attack sequence. If you find yourself altering this build and decide to drop Greater Two Handed Fighting, you should probably also drop Two Handed Fighting and Improve Two Handed Fighting -- they are a lot less useful without gTHF.

During this window, enhancements focus on survivability improvements. We pick up Shadow Veil, which grants you 25% incorporeality (damage avoidance that works on basically everything and can't be found on items). We also get Ameliorating Strike in the Warpriest tree, which makes your Smite proc an AOE healing effect -- another big survivability improvement. You also get perma-blur, which is another 20% chance for enemie to miss (although it duplicates an effect available on items and can be bypassed by True Seeing).

There are a few leftover enhancement points that could be profitably applied in a number of places, but I put them in the Shintao tree to improve the PRR granted by Earth Stance and grant an additional +30 positive spellpower and +15% healing amp.

Spell choices are flexible, but I focused mostly on self buffs. I skipped some really useful spells like Resurrection, Restoration, True Seeing, etc. -- not because they're not good spells, but because they're easily available on scrolls that can be purchased from vendors.

Epic Levels:

There are fewer choices to make in epics. Overwhelming Critical is a big damage improvement and is a great candidate for your level 21 feat. On the other hand, you also really want Quicken to help get your heals off when enemies are throwing up a ton of damage.

I listed Quicken at level 24, but in reality I would suggest using your one free feat swap to swap Extend for Quicken (probably at level 20, once you get Heal). Then try living without Extend and either take it again at level 24 if you really feel like you miss it, or take Maximize to improve your Divine Punishment and Cures. (Maximize is also useful because in epic levels it is possible to "twist" in abilities from certain destinies that can be Maximized at no cost -- in particular, the Avenging Light spell from Exalted Angel would be a nice option to give you a better ranged option.)

Blinding Speed at level 27 is permanent Haste. It's a huge convenience feature. Without it, I'm constantly chugging 30 second Haste potions, which is really not a lot of fun.

The epic destiny feats at 26 and 28 will depend on which destinies you actually have maxed out by the time you get there. But Perfect Two Handed Fighting is nice for improving your glancing blows and Perfect Two Weapon Fighting improves your doublestrike (yes, it works even with a two handed weapon). More defensive options like Elusive Target and Forced Escape are perfectly viable too.

This is a build that can do well in quite a few destinies. Since it's mostly melee, Legendary Dreadnaught is probably the best choice -- but you can benefit a lot from any of the three divine destinies, from Grandmaster of Flowers, from Fury of the Wild, etc. It's actually a really good first life build because it can be used quite well to level up a bunch of different destinies. Depending on destiny, you'll probably want to reset enhancements -- e.g., in Exalted Angel or Divine Crusader, you'll want to invest in the Angel of Vengeance tree to improve your fire/force/light spellcasting.

[Munkenmo]

Level 12 (Monk)
Ability Raise: STR
Skill: Concentration (+1)
Skill: Heal (+2)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Critical: Bludgeoning Weapons
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Toughness

Toughness is absolutely a waste of a bonus feat slot these days. Overall it's a solid build, but I would swap that feat for deflect arrows, as the content gets tougher deflect arrows will save you from more and more damage, whereas the hp from toughness does not scale particularly well.

[Shadowmuff1n]

Cardtrick, it's impossible to overstate how useful that description was. I'm extremely interested in playing this game but it does a terrible job explaining itself or building an expectation for how high-level content is played. I'm plagued with the desire to min-max my experience and this game is very good at impeding that. This game almost needs a strategy guide or a mentoring program to bring new players into the game.

I love what you've built though. Hopefully this doesn't change much, but if I had access to whatever tomes would be best, what would change exactly? Also, how do I get these tomes... Is it just from the ddo store?

[Cardtrick]

Toughness is absolutely a waste of a bonus feat slot these days. Overall it's a solid build, but I would swap that feat for deflect arrows, as the content gets tougher deflect arrows will save you from more and more damage, whereas the hp from toughness does not scale particularly well.

I thought about it. I never take toughness myself anymore. But I figured I'm so used to +4/5 CON tomes, maxed out Vitality + False Life + Greensteel + CON items, etc. that I might be underestimating the value of the feat to someone less well geared.

You're probably right, though. Either way, that third monk bonus feat is pretty much a wash.

[Cardtrick]

Cardtrick, it's impossible to overstate how useful that description was. I'm extremely interested in playing this game but it does a terrible job explaining itself or building an expectation for how high-level content is played. I'm plagued with the desire to min-max my experience and this game is very good at impeding that. This game almost needs a strategy guide or a mentoring program to bring new players into the game.

I love what you've built though. Hopefully this doesn't change much, but if I had access to whatever tomes would be best, what would change exactly? Also, how do I get these tomes... Is it just from the ddo store?

You can earn some of them while playing -- either as loot, or purchased from the auction house, or as rewards for hitting favor targets. They're occasionally awarded from the rare daily dice rolls or special events like the recent anniversary thing.

Other than that, yes -- the store sells most all of them.

They're really not essential for this build, they just open up options. If you had something like a +2 tome to all stats, I would probably have started STR at 17 rather than 18 and DEX at 11 rather than 8. Then the +2 tome kicks in before the monk bonus feat at level 12, bringing you to 13, so you would be able to take a more useful feat at that point -- probably Precision, although Dodge isn't bad either.

Other than that, really not that much would have to change. (Your skills would be allocated a bit differently, you might think more seriously about dropping to 8 starting wisdom, etc.)

[Grailhawk]

Speaking of feats, I have no clue what to take or starting stats. I know this is asking a lot, but I want you to pick one of these builds (whichever you think might be best to solo but not terrible at the end game for whatever role) and help me understand the stat and feat selection. When leveling, is there an argument for taking my first 7 levels in one class, or should I just do a grab bag?

I'm so clueless and all of your help is appreciated.

You take class levels when they do you the most good e.g in the build I'm giveing you It worked out to take FVS 01 at Level 3 so that i can take a metamagic feat.



Drow 12 FVS/ 6 Monk/ 2 Paladin Shortsword user

STR 16
CON 12
DEX 17
INT 08
WIS 10
CHA 14

L01: 00 MNK01 Power Attack (Monk Bonues Feat), Cleave, Follower of Vulkoor
L02: 01 PLD01 
L03: 00 FVS01 Empower Healing Spell
L04: 02 PLD02
L05: 03 MNK02 Two Weapon Fighting 
L06: 04 MNK03 Great Cleave, Path of Harmonious Balance: Fists of Light
L07: 05 MNK04
L08: 05 MNK05 
L09: 06 MNK06 Improved Two Weapon Fighting, Dodge (Monk Bonues Feat), Adapt of Froms (autogrant) 
L10: 07 FVS02
L11: 08 FVS03
L12: 09 FVS04 Improved Critical
L13: 09 FVS05
L14: 10 FVS06
L15: 11 FVS07 Greater Two Weapon Fighting
L16: 12 FVS08
L17: 12 FVS09
L18: 13 FVS10 Master of Froms
L19: 14 FVS11
L20: 15 FVS12
L21: 16 EPC01 Overwhelming Critical
L22: 16 EPC02
L23: 17 EPC03
L24: 17 EPC04 Grandmaster of Froms
L25: 18 EPC05
L26: 18 EPC06 
L27: 19 EPC07 Quicken Spell
L28: 19 EPC08 

37 AP Warpriest
	Smite Foe
	Resilience of Battle
	Sanctuary
	Blur
	Divine Might III
	Toughness III
	Righteous Weapons IV
	Smite Weakness
	Wall of Steel III
	Strength II
	Ameliorating Strike
	Light Guard I
	Divine Power
	Wrathful Weapons
	Magic Backlash III
17 AP Ninja Spy
	Basic Ninja Training
	Advanced Ninja Training
	Shadow Veil
	Sneak Attack Training IV
	Acrobatic III
	Agility III
	Subtlety I
	Elemental Ki Strikes: Fists of Iron
	Sting of the Ninja
	No Mercy
15 AP Shintao
	Bastion of Purity
	Protection from Tainted Creatures
	Iron Hand
	Deft Strikes III
	Iron Skin

General Melee Feat: All real melee builds should try and fit all these feat in note that Cleave and Great Cleave are great on a THF but only really taken by Two Weapon Fighters as requirements for Overwhelming Critical, the TWF chain is critical for any Two Weapon Fighter where the THF chain is not as important to a Two Handed Fighter.
Two Weapon/Handed Fighting
Improved Two Weapon/Handed Fighting
Greater Two Weapon/Handed Fighting
Improved Critical
Power Attack
Cleave
Great Cleave
Overwhelming Critical
Dodge
Precision

Fighter Melee Feat: These are only needed by a Fighter and are mostly take to meet requierments in the kensei tree
Weapon Focus
Weapon Specialization
Greater Weapon Focus

Meta magic Feat: Hybrid builds (Rangers, Paladins, etc.) take a few meta magic feat to make there healing spells work better Empower Healing is generally taken over Maximize spell because it will effect more spells (Coccon, Heal, Mass Heal) But if you are limited to CCW or CSW and not planing to twist Coccon Maximize spell will make the spell more powerful at a greater cost in spell points. Its been a while since people debated this Most people prefer Empower Healing I'm probably one of the few who prefers Maximize.
Empower Healing or Maximize Spell
Quicken Spell

Martial Arts Feat: These are taken when you have monk levels and plan to stay centered not that they are auto grants at monk 6,12, and 18 so if you plan to take 6 levels of monk don't take adapt of forms before that.
Adapt of Forms
Master of Forms
Grandmaster of Forms

Tactical Feat: There are a few other tactical feat worth looking at but since the builds we are taking about now are going to have Divine Might Stunning Blow is viable and the best of the lot.
Stunning Blow

[Cardtrick]

I love what you've built though.

Hey, hopefully you were waiting for others to chip in build posts as well before doing anything with the build I posted. I made a stupid mistake. I edited the build above and put a note in my discussion afterward.

I had said that I was starting wisdom at 10 to make it a little easier for you to cast spells early on. That was totally unnecessary and I'm not sure what I was thinking. That is a concern on battle clerics, but not favored souls -- favored souls only use wisdom to determine the DCs of their spells, not their ability to cast them. That comes from Charisma, which you already want to be investing significantly in for spellpoints, saves, and divine might. Anyway, I moved the 2 build points out of Wisdom and used them to increase starting Charisma from 14 to 15. Another reasonable choice would be to increase Int from 10 to 12, which would allow you to come closer to maximizing the important skills (Concentration, Heal, UMD and -- to a lesser extent -- Spellcraft).

Sorry for the mistake! Hopefully you didn't actually start a character based on that build yet. (Although if you did, a 1 point difference in charisma isn't going to do any real harm and the 2 points in wisdom at least improve your Will save.)