Renegade Vistani

[SerPounce]

I wanted to do a melee artificer build, but based on my experience with battle engineering on a ranged artificer I didn't think it would be durable enough for my tastes on a melee. Renegade Mastermaking brings a lot of durability and utility, but lacks the DPS for a viable melee. By adding in SWF vistani you get decent DPS while going t5 in RM.

There's a number of places you can go from there. I'm going to post two builds. The first is what I'm currently using. It adds in fighter levels and defensive stance for even more durability (+40% HP from RM t5 and SD defensive stance). The second (next post) says pure and has better healing and casting

There's not much difference between a warforged or fleshy build here. You get all those artificer bonus feats, but have little to spend them on so there's not much loss in using them on on contruct essence feats. I used an iconic so I avoided the awkward lvl 9-12 range where you have construct essence by not the improved version. If you're a fleshy leveling from one you might want to take something else at lvl 9 (maybe exotic WF: bastard sword since you won't have the AP for vistani yet), then switch that out with Fred for construct essence right before you take lvl 12.

Note that contrary to what I've read here *mighty slam* and *battlefist* are small arc AoEs with any weapon (if you have rune arm equiped) not just with weapons that produce glancing blows. It takes some getting use to, but even with the small arc you can lock down several oppoenets with mighty slam and battle fist. I like to let the crowd develop a bit, then hit mighty slam, followed by cleaves, then battlefist to maximize the stun duration and AoE helpless damage.

Both builds are very competent healers. You have a repair aura like a radiant servant, can convert one ally to repair healing, have two reconstructs (sla and spell), and admixtures. I'm not someone who takes on the roll of party healer so I can't speak to that, but this makes a great combination of reaper healing options for both yourself and your party. Reconstruct can power through the self healing penalty up to about r7 or so, and you can help out the party with converter and admixtures.

Tanky Renegade Vistani Gnome
16/3/1 Artificer/Fighter/Wizard
True Neutral Deep Gnome


Level Order

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


Stats
               28pt     32pt     34pt     36pt     Tome     Level Up
               ----     ----     ----     ----     ----     --------
Strength        11       10       12       12       +6       4: INT
Dexterity        8        8        8        8       +6       8: INT
Constitution    14       16       16       16       +6      12: INT
Intelligence    20       20       20       20       +6      16: INT
Wisdom          10       10       10       10       +6      20: INT
Charisma         7        8        8       10       +6      24: INT
                                                            28: INT

Skills
          W  A  A  A  A  A  A  A  A  A  A  A  A  F  F  A  A  A  F  A
          1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
         ------------------------------------------------------------
Balance   2  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½                              7
         ------------------------------------------------------------
          4  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0
         28 10 10 11 11 11 11 12 12 12 12 13 13 11 11 14 14 14 12 14


Feats

 1        : Insightful Reflexes
 1 Wizard : Quicken Spell
 3        : Power Attack
 5 Arti   : Single Weapon Fighting
 6        : Cleave
 9        : Great Cleave
 9 Arti   : Construct Essence
12        : Improved Single Weapon Fighting
13 Arti   : Improved Construct Essence
14 Fighter: Improved Critical: Piercing
15        : Greater Single Weapon Fighting
15 Fighter: Precision
18        : Heavy Armor Training
20 Arti   : Extend Spell
21 Epic   : Overwhelming Critical
24 Epic   : Construct Exemplar
26 Destiny: Perfect Single Weapon Fighting
27 Epic   : Bulwark of Defense
28 Destiny: Perfect Two Weapon Fighting
29 Destiny: Dire Charge
30 Epic   : Epic Damage Reduction
30 Legend : Scion of: Plane of Earth


Enhancements (80 AP)

Renegade Mastermaker (34 AP)
Renegade Defender, Alchemical Shield, Cure Serious Admixture, Constructive Conduit
Easily Fixed, Supporting Construction III, Toughness III
Kinetic Discharge III, Mighty Slam III, Armor Mastery III
Battlefist
Kinetic Charge, Reconstruct III, Embed Component III
Forcefield: Automatic, Paragon Body, Regeneration Construct
Vistani Knife Fighter (25 AP)
Knife Expertise, Knife Juggler, Knife Specialist, One With Blades
Vistani Knife Training, Mist Stalker, Rapid Attack
Vistani Knife Training, Mist Stalker, Haste Boost III
Fan of Knives, Mist Stalker, Deadly Blades
Celerity, Single Dagger
Stalwart Defender (13 AP)
Toughness, Stalwart Defense
Durable Defense III, Stalwart Defensive Mastery II
Resilient Defense III
Tenacious Defense III
Harper Agent (8 AP)
Agent of Good I
Harper Enchantment, Strategic Combat
Know the Angles III

[SerPounce]

This version is less tanky, but tries to go for more artificer CC casting with things like tactical detonation and burst of glacial wrath. It also maximizes the renegade mastermaker repair aura and picks up the 5th and 6th RM cores and the 5th vistani core (resulting in a bit more DPS).

I went with the first version because I wanted to try out the stacking HP bonuses and I'm always doubious about trying to get casting DCs on anything other than a focused caster. Whether you can make those DCs work will probably depend on past lives and reaper points (sorc PLs, +int racials, reaper caster tree).

Pure renegade vistani gnome
Artificer 20
Gnome


Stats
               36pt     Tome     Level Up
               ----     ----     --------
Strength        11       +6       4: INT
Dexterity        8       +6       8: INT
Constitution    17       +6      12: INT
Intelligence    20       +6      16: INT
Wisdom           8       +6      20: INT
Charisma        10       +6      24: INT
                                 28: INT

Skills
          1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
         ------------------------------------------------------------
Balance   2  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½  ½                              7
         ------------------------------------------------------------
          4  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0
         36 10 10 11 11 11 11 12 12 12 12 13 13 13 13 14 14 14 14 14


Feats

 1        : Insightful Reflexes
 3        : Power Attack
 4 Arti   : Single Weapon Fighting
 6        : Cleave
 8 Arti   : Construct Essence
 9        : Improved Single Weapon Fighting
12        : Improved Critical: Piercing
12 Arti   : Improved Construct Essence
15        : Greater Single Weapon Fighting
16 Arti   : Quicken Spell
18        : Great Cleave
20 Arti   : Empower Healing Spell
21 Epic   : Overwhelming Critical
24 Epic   : Construct Exemplar
26 Destiny: Perfect Single Weapon Fighting
27 Epic   : Spell Focus: Evocation
28 Destiny: Perfect Two Weapon Fighting
29 Destiny: Dire Charge
30 Epic   : Burst of Glacial Wrath
30 Legend : Scion of: Plane of Earth


Enhancements (80 AP)

Renegade Mastermaker (41 AP)
Renegade Defender, Alchemical Shield, Cure Serious Admixture, Constructive Conduit, Radiant Forcefield, Mass Unbreakable Forcefield
Easily Fixed, Supporting Construction III, Toughness III
Kinetic Discharge I, Mighty Slam I, Armor Mastery III, Converter
Battlefist, Reinforced Armor III, Intelligence
Kinetic Charge, Reconstruct III, Embed Component III, Intelligence
Cure Critical Admixture, Forcefield: Automatic, Paragon Body, Regeneration Construct
Vistani Knife Fighter (31 AP)
Knife Expertise, Knife Juggler, Knife Specialist, One With Blades, Vistani Fortune
Vistani Knife Training, Mist Stalker, Rapid Attack
Vistani Knife Training, Bleeding Cuts, Mist Stalker
Vistani Knife Training, Fan of Knives, Mist Stalker, Deadly Blades
Vistani Knife Training, Celerity, Mist Stalker, Single Dagger
Harper Agent (8 AP)
Agent of Good I
Harper Enchantment, Strategic Combat
Know the Angles III

[Zdevor]

What about the equipment u use for the 1st variant?

[Zdevor]

Just want to say, I modified your 1st variant and have been playing my build variant for 2 years now an love it

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...56#post6340556