12W/6F/2R - Eldritch Knight Build - Need Advice

[Falethnir]

Hello forums.
Been playing a bit of 4e with a couple of friends, Rolled a swordmage and its been really fun so far.

Decided to start up DDO and was pretty excited to see the Eldritch Knight tree.
Even though this looks like it would be a pretty standard build, I am admittedly bad at this. So i will take any advice you have.

And before looking at the build, some info.

1. I only have 28pt builds
2. I have no paid races or classes
3. No tomes or anything of that sort.
4. I would like to keep Single Weapon Fighting (I don't necessarily know if it's viable or not) But it is one thing i would like to keep.

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12/6/2 Wizard/Fighter/Rogue
Human


Level Order

1. Rogue . . . . . 6. Wizard. . . . .11. Wizard. . . . .16. Fighter
2. Fighter . . . . 7. Wizard. . . . .12. Wizard. . . . .17. Fighter
3. Wizard . . . . .8. Wizard . . . . 13. Wizard . . . . 18. Fighter
4. Wizard . . . . .9. Wizard . . . . 14. Wizard . . . . 19. Fighter
5. Wizard . . . . 10. Wizard . . . . 15. Rogue . . . . .20. Fighter


Stats
. . . . . . . .28pt . . Level Up
. . . . . . . .---- . . --------
Strength. . . . 16. . . .4: INT
Dexterity . . . 10. . . .8: INT
Constitution. . 14. . . 12: INT
Intelligence. . 16. . . 16: INT
Wisdom. . . . . .8. . . 20: INT
Charisma. . . . .8. . .


Skills
. . . . . R .F. W. W. W. W. W. W. W. W. W. W. W. W. R .F. F .F. F .F
. . . . . 1 .2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
. . . . .------------------------------------------------------------
Balance . . .2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 . . . . . . .4. .8
. . . . .------------------------------------------------------------
. . . . . 0 .4. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 0. 2 .0. 0 .0. 0 .8
. . . . .48 .6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 6. 7. 7. 7. 7. 7. 7. 7 13. 8 .8. 8 .8. 8


Feats

.1. . . . : Insightful Reflexes
.1 Human. : Power Attack
.2 Fighter: Single Weapon Fighting
.3. . . . : Cleave
.3 Wizard : Extend Spell
.6. . . . : Weapon Focus: Slashing
.7 Wizard : Mental Toughness
.9. . . . : Great Cleave
12. . . . :
12 Wizard : Improved Mental Toughness
15. . . . : Improved Single Weapon Fighting
16 Fighter: Exotic Weapon: Khopesh
18. . . . : Improved Critical: Slashing
18 Fighter: Weapon Specialization: Slashing
20 Fighter: Greater Single Weapon Fighting



Spells

1. Expeditious Retreat, Nightshield, Niac's Cold Ray, <Any>, <Any>
2. Bull's Strength, Blur, False Life, Bear's Endurance, Resist Energy
3. Frost Lance, Heroism, Magic Circle Against Evil, Haste, <Any>
4. Death Aura, Fire Shield, Stoneskin, Negative Energy Burst
5. Protection from Elements, Cone of Cold, <Any>, <Any>
6. Greater Heroism, Shadow Walk, Summon Monster VI

Enhancements (80 AP)

Human (3 AP)

• Damage Boost, Intelligence

Eldritch Knight (40 AP)

• Eldritch Strike, Spellsword: Frost, Spellsword II: Flame
  
  1. Improved Mage Armor III, Toughness III, Item Defense III
  2. Improved Shield III, Light Armor Proficiency, Martial Training
  3. Arcane Barrier III, Elemental Resistance III, Strength
  4. Medium Armor Proficiency, Strength
  5. Doublestrike III, Eldritch Tempest III

Kensei (15 AP)

• Kensei Focus: Heavy Blades
  
  1. Weapon Group Specialization, Exotic Weapon Mastery, Haste Boost I
  2. Weapon Group Specialization, Weapon Meditation I
  3. Weapon Group Specialization, Shattering Strike III

Pale Master (22 AP)

• Dark Reaping, Zombie Form, Vampire Form, Wraith Form
  
  1. Deathless Vigor III, Skeletal Knight III, Negative Energy Conduit III
  2. Bone Armor III

---

• 12th Level Feat - Don't know what to take.

1. Toughness - Extra HP is always nice.
   
2. Combat Casting - Extra concentration for a character that's going to be in the middle of things a lot. Eh, Figured it might be a decent choice.
   
3. Spell Focus:Evocation - Not sure how much that +1 would help.
   
4. Augment Summoning - I did take Summon Monster VI and i do have the PM Skeleton. Could be nice i suppose.

---

General Questions

• Skill Distribution

1. For wizard/rogue builds do most people just focus on maxing out Search, Spot, Disable Device, and Open Lock?
2. Would Spell-Craft be worth putting points into for extra damage on Eldritch Strike? Or is the bonus to spell-power not that noticeable?
3. Would Heal be useful for increasing my negative damage and in turn the healing i get from it while I'm in shroud of the wraith?

• Ice Storm Mechanics

1. Does it affect party members as-well or is it enemies only?
2. Does it have a pretty long cast time? ( I didn't take quicken and i don't want to be hindered by a long cast)

---

I'm sure to have more questions as the thread progresses, But for now those are the questions i could come up with off the top of my head.

Cheers!

[unbongwah]

I'll tell you upfront that EK is a pretty terrible DPS PrE; always has been, but it's fallen even further behind with all the buffs to bards, pallies, etc. So I wouldn't advise making it your primary PrE; in particular, the T5s are weaksauce and not worth the APs, IMHO.

If you want SWF, I recommend looking into bard / Swashbuckler with ftr or rog splash. If you don't have Harper, then you really want Two Steps Ahead to get INT to dmg; and the crit bonuses from Swashbuckling put Finesseable weapons ahead of khopeshes. You need at least 3 bard lvls for Swashbuckling + TSA + Arcane Marauder (presuming you use orbs); then it's a question of how high up the Swashbuckler tree you want to climb vs how many wiz lvls you want.

[Falethnir]

I'll tell you upfront that EK is a pretty terrible DPS PrE; always has been, but it's fallen even further behind with all the buffs to bards, pallies, etc. So I wouldn't advise making it your primary PrE; in particular, the T5s are weaksauce and not worth the APs, IMHO.

If you want SWF, I recommend looking into bard / Swashbuckler with ftr or rog splash. If you don't have Harper, then you really want Two Steps Ahead to get INT to dmg; and the crit bonuses from Swashbuckling put Finesseable weapons ahead of khopeshes. You need at least 3 bard lvls for Swashbuckling + TSA + Arcane Marauder (presuming you use orbs); then it's a question of how high up the Swashbuckler tree you want to climb vs how many wiz lvls you want.

That is pretty sad to hear. I thought it would be pretty good, I've been leveling a test EK character and was having fun with cleave+eldritch strike just wiping out pretty much everything that got in-front of me. Figured it would have crazy AoE DPS potential.

I didn't know about the swashbuckler tree to be honest. Looks pretty interesting. May be a bit of a dumb idea but would it be possible to make a Swash Bard/EK Sorc build work out?

I noticed there's an option to have your charisma go towards your damage. I could grab weapon finesse and a rapier, put my dex up to about 15ish, max out charisma and then put the rest into con.
If the T5's aren't really worth taking in EK then i sppose i could just make the build primarily bard with a few levels of sorc. Sorc would also get me some extra spellpoints i think. Could that work?



Edit: Just realised that i would have to put atleast 13 points into STR to grab power attack, Forgot about that one key detail. Don't think i would be able to get good enough stats, Not on a 28pt. Stat spread for Sorc/Bard i was looking at was 13 str 13 con 15 dex 16 cha, Which i guess isn't too bad but still its spread a bit too much for my liking. If i drop power attack i dont know how much that would affect my overall damage. I know that power attack is a big factor for most peoples damage. I think i would still be able to dish out decent damage from the doublestrike chance from swash, the extra damage from spellsword, and i could also grab iced edges from warchanter for an extra 1d6. Is power attack too important to drop?

[Saekee]

12 wiz gets wraith form and that means perma incorporeality AND CON damage on crits. So If you want to do this, go FULL flavor and focus on a fast hitting high crit build. You can do it with 6 swash/2 fighter and plan on using the Sacrificial Dagger with virulent CON damage. Mobs will be stripped of CON And negative leveled! Only bosses will be an issue but then you are a wraith! Great avoidance if you go 2 rogue instead of two fighter--go all out in INT and grab insightful reflexes.
Should be fun to play!
Lots of variants--heavy armor version with 8 fighter THF and Kensei tier 5 would give PRR along with perma incorporeality and displacement!