Deep Gnome Inquisitive Build

[DoctorOfLiterature]

So I am doing an Iconic Deep Gnome Past Life, but my toon has all the inquisitive gear and I plan to do a few more Ranger and Rogue and Arti lives before playing at endgame. I couldn't find a good DG Inquisitive build so I adapted Schwimm's Inquisitive Build to Deep Gnome. The problem is the one level of Wizard doesn't really harmonize well and you have to give up either Rogue and all that sneak attack damage plus great Ability Points, or Ranger and give up some great free feats that are helpful for ranged attack, or arti and give up Rune Arms.

I decided to give up arti and I want another Ranger past life so made that primary although Rogue would be fine too.

11 Ranger/8 Rogue/1 Wizard.

STR 10
Dex 14
Con 16
Int 20
W 10
CH 6

I had some +1 and _2 tomes but just bought the Supreme Tome or I would have done this a bit differently.

Pretty standard from here in terms of taking Rogue for free Evasion, Uncanny Dodge and Improved Uncanny Dodge and getting free Rapid Shot, Precise Shot and Improved Precise Shot from Ranger, plus the favored enemies. One feat change was that I did take Illusion Focus to give the Color Spray from Deep Gnome enhancement tree a better chance of working.

So far from level 15-18 in Elite and R1 the color spray works great as a way to deal with CC and most mobs fail their DC checks. My toon has very high INT and that helps with the DC. I expect I will have to add some equipment and take another Greater Spell Focus if I want it to work into lower level Epic.

I am not hitting as hard with the crossbow as I have with the standard inquisitive build split w Rogue/Ranger/Arti but it is ok. The problem is that I don't have IPS yet and won't until lvl 20 because I took Rogue levels first for Uncanny Dodge. I do have more buffs with that one Wizard level and that's nice for defense.

I'll update this as I continue and appreciate any suggestions of feedback.

[DoctorOfLiterature]

My DG Inquisitive hit 20 recently and is still doing very well. Took Ranger 11 at lvl 20 and that gave IPS and I noticed the difference immediately. Also, getting to use my lvl 20 Diplomancer with its three gems is a huge help. Color Spray is still working on most mobs and I am having no trouble with traps.

[Tlorrd]

very nice ... a couple thoughts

You get improved uncanny dodge via inquisitive tree, so you don't necessarily need rogue levels to get that. If you look on shard AH ... you may be able to find enough Through the mists filigrees to give you the 50 RP bonus when you use Improved uncanny dodge.

For one of your next live's if you go Inq ... you can try a 17/2/1 Rogue/Art/barb or 18/1/1 Rogue/Barb/Fighter for more run speed on either of those ... You can skip Color Spray since if you get a lot of CC via Stay Frosty, Pin, Ottos Whistler, Leg Shot, and Crippling (from items) as well as doubling down on improved deception from item and weapon. Also if you are a solo'er and build some traps like glitterdust, web, hypnotic pattern, and halt undead, you can build each battlefield as you like. You can also twist in rejuvenation cocoon and use healing spring for heals in epics ... granted U51 will change some of this as Healing spring is going away and Stay Frosty is also.

[Tlorrd]

Since you're deep gnome and don't necessarily want to use a heart +1 to get rid of the wiz level ... you can either go all out with Wiz for inq ...

Wiz 16/2/2 Wiz/arti/rogue if you want evasion

15/3/2 Rogue/Wiz Arti .... you can spec for Inq/Improved defensive roll (thief acrobat tree)/radiant shield from T3 EK tree so have better survivabiltiy

You can also build a No mercy type of Inq ... you need to go T4 in Thief acrobat and Falconry to get big time helpless damage boost and twist in sense weakness to add to that ... 90% increase in damage to helpless. So there are many options.

[DoctorOfLiterature]

Update: I hit 30 two days ago and took an ER last night. It took me about 12 days to go from 15 to 30.

15-20 was not bad but noticeably worse than the standard rogue/ranger/arti. Getting IPS at 20 helped considerably.

I found the Screamshatter crossbow and used it along with the lvl 15 Nightshade until I was able to use the Epic Nightshade. The Screamhatter was really powerful. I also have a lvl 20 Diplomancer with three sentient gems and mixed that in as well but the Screamshatter seemed to offer the most DPS.

I had been told that Color Spray wouldn't work if I only took one Wizard level but it did mostly work at least until mid to late Epic. After I took Arcane Insight epic feat, I was able to beat DC checks even playing above level. So bottom line is that you do need to take a few feats (Spell Pen/Illusion/Arcane Insight) but with fairly minimal investment you can have a good CC that works in epic.

Since I have 11 levels of Ranger, I took Medium Cure Wounds, and then about lvl 28 I took Empower Healing. This allowed me to help with the healing although I couldn't function as a dedicated healer.

When I hit cap this toon was effective with his crossbow (Shiradi's Rain of Arrows plus various feats to increase Ranged Power and Critical all helped).
He had CC with Color Spray.
He could trap everything no problem
He could help with healing

I still prefer the more traditional split but this does work for inquisitives who need a DG PL.

[DoctorOfLiterature]

Since you're deep gnome and don't necessarily want to use a heart +1 to get rid of the wiz level ... you can either go all out with Wiz for inq ...

Wiz 16/2/2 Wiz/arti/rogue if you want evasion

15/3/2 Rogue/Wiz Arti .... you can spec for Inq/Improved defensive roll (thief acrobat tree)/radiant shield from T3 EK tree so have better survivabiltiy

You can also build a No mercy type of Inq ... you need to go T4 in Thief acrobat and Falconry to get big time helpless damage boost and twist in sense weakness to add to that ... 90% increase in damage to helpless. So there are many options.

Tlorrd, have you ever heard of a Wizard/Artificer Deep Gnome? My next Iconic life I am thinking about this because I need another arti life and it seems like Arti and Wizard would be compatible but haven't mapped out a build plan yet.