Feedback: Favored Soul 101 (Work in Progress)

[FordyTwo]

Howdy! Our next 101 class guide is for the favored soul, and we'd love to hear your feedback.

Notes of Interest:

• If you have a one or two sentence tip for newbie favored souls, do share! We'll have an "Every favored soul should know ..." section at the beginning of the guide providing some of these helpful tips.
• This Favored Soul 101 feedback includes: a basic overview of styles of play for favored souls, an general overview of ability scores and basics on skills and spells.
• Why go elf and TWF scimitars with our template? Our previous templates have all been human, so we wanted to add a little flavor this time around. Additionally, new players using this guide are already investing in the favored soul class, which likely means they've paid for it. We didn't want to pile paying for warforged on top of that.

What to do: Give use constructive criticism and feedback!

What not to do: Derail Favored Soul 101 feedback with off-topic posts or inflammatory comments.


Favored Soul 101

Welcome to Favored Soul 101! This guide contains a treasury of information regarding the different ways a favored soul can be played. It also includes tips to give newer players an edge in combat and a template for an elf melee favored soul can support themselves and their allies through basic divine magic

Note: Players may unlock the favored soul on their server by acquiring 2500 favor and talking to Nyx, the Drow Elder in the Harbor. Alternatively, the favored soul is available for an account-wide unlock in the DDO Store.

==Every New Favored Soul Should Know …==

• A favored soul build usually comes in one of three flavors: generalist, offensive/defensive spellcaster, and melee user.

• When playing the role of healer in parties, stay alive first and heal others second. It becomes terribly impossible to heal others while dead.

• You can target yourself by pressing the F1 key and the rest of your current party by pressing F2-F6. It's also possible to click on party members' names, found on the left-side listing of your display.

• Avoiding damage is even better than healing – spells like Command, Greater Command, and Comet Fall can temporarily disable opponents, and often make the most efficient use of your spell points.

===Generalist Favored Soul===

The generalist attempts to do a little of everything: fight with melee weaponry, and cast defensive healing and buff spells. Other classes that focus on one role will generally outperform a generalist favored soul but the generalist makes for a potent solo character, and always has something to do in a party. It's important to note that ability score point buys get a little tricky with a generalist – STR, CON, WIS and CHA are each equally important; potentially complicating things more, DEX becomes important for generalists who desire to dual-wield.

===Spellcasting Favored Soul===

The pure divine spellcaster favored soul wields both offensive and defensive divine magic. Spellcasting-focused favored souls benefit from a deep well of spell points but suffer from a smaller selection of divine spells than their cleric counterparts.

===Melee Favored Soul===

Forgoing offensive spellcasting prowess for STR, DEX, CON and a little bit of CHA, melee favored souls are potent solo builds. Elf, drow, warforged and humans each offer useful racial bonuses for a favored soul.

==Class Overview==

This section of the guide covers basic elements of the favored soul in a general sense. Depending on your personal preference for playing a favored soul, certain ability scores, skills and spells will vary in their importance to you.

===Ability Scores===

• WIS – A higher Wisdom (WIS) score will make a favored soul's offensive spells more difficult for enemies to resist. A resisted offensive spell results in significantly reduced damage and sometimes, outright negation; for instance, Command is completely negated upon an enemy resist.

• CHA – A favored soul's Charisma (CHA) score determines how many spell points (SP) they receive; Also, to learn and cast a spell, a favored soul must have a CHA score equal to at least 10 + spell level.

• CON – Constitution (CON) directly affects every character's total Hit Point (HP) value; a healthy CON score is wise to have. It's recommended that any character have at least 14 CON.

• STR – The Strength (STR) ability score is most useful for melee favored souls because STR affects to-hit and damage with weapons like swords, hammers, axes, etc.

• DEX – The Dexterity (DEX) Ability Score is used for many things: Armor Class (AC), Reflex Save, and even meeting certain feat requirements. A melee favored soul should invest in a minimum of 15 DEX if they plan to take the Two Weapon Fighting feat. If you do not plan to take this feat, a lower DEX score is recommended.

• INT – Intelligence (INT) determines how many skill points a character receives during character creation and at each new level. This stat is useful when planning to invest into skills like Concentration and Balance.

==Skills==

Every class in DDO has a natural proficiency with certain skills. Training a "cross-class" skill takes twice as many skill points as training a regular class skill, because that "natural knowledge" is missing. However, training a "cross-class" skill can still be useful, depending on personal play style.

Here's a list of useful favored soul skills:

• Concentration, Class Skill – A useful skill for favored souls! In DDO, favored souls rely on Concentration when casting spells, and when taking damage from enemy attacks. When a favored soul is damaged while casting a Concentration check occurs – failure results in Spell Points (SP) being wasted while the spell fizzles out. A higher Concentration skill improves chances to succeed, so it's recommended to keep Concentration maxed out at each level. Favored souls who want to specialize in healing during combat can take the Quicken feat to cast spells without worrying about Concentration checks, although spells cast will consume more SP.

• Balance, Cross-class Skill – Whenever you get knocked down by an enemy attack – and it can happen more often than you might assume – the Balance skill allows your character to recover in a timelier fashion.

• Tumble, Cross-class skill – Even though we covered this earlier in the guide, it bears repeating: Put enough points into the Tumble skill during character creation for 1 rank -- not just “0.5” ranks, but “1.0”! In DDO, a player cannot use Tumble without training, and tumbling away from ranged attacks is a very useful skill to have.

• Jump, Class skill: Sometimes a trap threatens a DDO adventurer and other times, a chasm must be leapt over. Working towards 10 ranks of the Jump skill is a good idea.

Here are some optional skills that, depending on personal play style, can be useful:

• Diplomacy, Class Skill – Great for when you need to convince angry enemies that they would be better off attacking other members of your party. Because the favored soul is often primary healer in a DDO party, the Diplomacy skill comes in handy on a regular basis.

==Spells==

The favored soul doesn't receive the plethora of spells that a cleric has access to, so it's important to know about some of the immediately useful ones upfront.

Spells to Make Enemies Stop Attacking You …

• Command
• Greater Command
• Hold Person
• Symbol of Persuasion

Damage Spells that'll leave a Mark …

• Searing Light
• Blade Barrier
• Cometfall
• Divine Punishment
• Destruction
• Implosion

Buff Spells with some Oomph …

• Freedom of Movement
• Protection from Elements, Mass
• Bless
• Divine Favor
• Neutralize Poison
• Death Ward
• True Seeing

Spells to Make Your Friends Love You …

• Raise Dead
• Cure Moderate Wounds, Mass
• Heal

==Template: Human of the Undying Court, Evoker Favored Soul==

A favored soul enjoys the luxury of options when it comes to building out their ability points, skills, feats, and spells. This particular template focuses on offensive spellcasting and healing capability.

===Ability Point Buy===

For our evoker favored soul we're going with a human, netting an extra feat and skill points.

28 Point Build:

• STR … 10
• DEX … 10
• CON … 14
• INT … 8
• WIS … 18
• CHA … 10

• Ability Point Buys: All into Wisdom (WIS).


Tip! If you've unlocked 32-Point Build (either in-game or via the DDO Store) a good place to invest your extra 4 ability points is into CHA – bringing this template's CHA to 14 will supply even more spell points.

===Skills===

Concentration is going to be the most useful skill for a spellcasting-focused favored soul, however Balance will help out as it shortens the amount of time a character spends lying down after an enemy's knockdown attack, and 2 points into Tumble will net a 1 rank, allowing a favored soul the ability to hold the Shift key and roll out of the way.

Tip! If you pick up a +2 INT tome in a dungeon or from the DDO Store, the extra skill points (gained upon level-up with a higher INT) will serve your favored soul best when invested in the Jump skill.

At character creation:

• Concentration – 4 points
• Tumble – 2 points
• Balance – 2 points

At each level-up:

• Concentration – 1 point
• Balance – 1 pint

===Feats===

It's recommend that new players – and really, most players – take the Toughness feat at level one. Beyond this piece of advice the below feat selection is designed to optimize an evoker's output when healing and offensively casting. The longsword was selected as a key weapon for this build in order to gain the free cure light wounds at level 20.

• 1) Empower Spell – While this metamagic feat is active spells do 50% more damage but consume 15 additional spell points.

• 1) Toughness – Increases Hit Points (HP) at first level and provides additional HP for each new level, allowing a player to take the Racial Toughness enhancement. Taking Toughness results in such a significant HP boost that it's practically mandatory.

• 1) Favored by the Sovereign Host – Your favor with the Sovereign Host allows you proficiency with longswords, giving a +1 to your attack bonus with these weapons.

• 3) Spell Penetration – Adds +2 to your caster level check for defeating an enemy's spell resistance.

• 5) Energy Resistance: Fire – Receive less damage from fire attacks.

• 6) Maximize Spell – While this metamagic feat is active, damage spells deal double damage but consume 25 additional spell points.

• 9) Spell Focus: Evocation – Your Evocation spells are harder to resist, receiving a +1 bonus on save DCs. This will increase the likelihood of spells like Command working on enemies.

• 10) Energy Resistance: Cold – Receive less damage from cold attacks.

• 12) Quicken Spell – While this metamagic feat is active, spells cast twice as fast and cannot be interrupted by enemy attacks but consume 10 additional spell points.

• 15) Greater Spell Focus: Evocation – Your Evocation spells are harder to resist, receiving a +1 bonus on save DCs; this stacks with the bonus from Spell Focus.

• 15) Energy Resistance: Electricity – Receive less damage from electricity attacks.

• 17) Leap of Faith – You receive this feat by default, however it's worth explaining here. Leap of Faith allows you to leap through the air, bringing the fight to your enemies, or traverse chasms that make normal adventurers balk. Using this ability costs 5 spell points.

• 18) Heighten Spell – While this metamagic feat is active your spells are raised to the highest spell level your character can cast, making them more difficult to resist, but increasing their spell point cost.

• 20) Damage Reduction: Cold Iron – Favored Souls of the Sovereign Host can turn aside most weapons. You gain damage reduction 10/cold iron.

===Enhancements===

Because enhancements in DDO can be reset for an in-game fee, this section of the evoker favored soul will offer suggestions -- but not strict guidelines. There really isn't a secret when it comes to choosing the "right" enhancements. It's a matter of being economical and choosing enhancements that feed into your chosen style of play, and offer the most for their value.

Tip! You can check "Show Unavailable" in the enhancements window to see prerequisites any enhancements you may desire at higher levels.

Below are core enhancements for most any type of favored soul, but they're very essential with this template. Both Favored Soul Toughness and Racial Toughness will grant significant hit point (HP) bonuses; The Wisdom enhancements help improve the usefulness of control spells like Command and Greater Command; the Charisma enhancement will grant a significant boon to your spell points (SP) – as will Favored Soul Energy of the Scion.

• Favored Soul Toughness I – IV
• Racial Toughness I - II
• Favored Soul Wisdom I – II
• Human Adaptability Wisdom I
• Favored Soul Charisma I – III
• Favored Soul Energy of the Scion I - IV

Even though this template is for a melee favored soul, it never hurts to cover some of your weaknesses – another reason Wisdom is recommended earlier in the template. Both "Soul Life Magic" and "Soul Prayer of Life" are enhancements that will make your healing spells more potent.

• Favored Soul Life Magic I – IV
• Favored Soul Prayer of Life I
• Favored Soul Prayer of Incredible Life I

All of the below enhancements will improve your favored soul's offensive spell damage. Smiting, Prayer of Smiting and Prayer of Incredibly Smiting – taken together – enhance a favored soul's general damage and critical damage output.

• Favored Soul Smiting I – II
• Favored Soul Prayer of Smiting I
• Favored Soul Prayer of Incredible Smiting I

While the Empower Spell metamagic feat is very useful, it can also be a spell point (SP) drain – especially for lower-level characters. Taking this enhancement line will reduce the increased SP cost associated with Empower Spell so long as they remain a part of your enhancement line.

• Favored Soul Improved Empowering I – II

Unyielding Sovereignty will fully heal all hit point damage done to a targeted ally, remove ability damage, death penalty effects, negative levels, and these conditions: blinded, confused, dazed, dazzled, deafened, diseased, exhausted, fatigued, feebleminded, insanity, nauseated, poisoned, and stunned. It makes for a great healing skill, although use it wisely as Unyielding Sovereignty also has a 10 minute cooldown.

• Unyielding Sovereignty

With the Angel of Vengeance enhancement, your character will earn a new ability called – you guessed it – Angel of Vengeance! Here's how it works: Enemies that strike you have a chance of suffering divine condemnation, rendering them vulnerable to divine attacks, and you project a 15 meter Aura of Menace decreases the saving throws, attack, and armor class of nearby enemies by 2. You deal 20% additional damage with spells that deal fire, physical, or untyped damage and can name an ally your "Champion," transferring your shield of condemnation to them and damaging opponents that strike them in melee.

• Favored Soul Angel of Vengeance I – II

The Favored Soul Ascendancy: Sovereign Host is a powerful enhancement known as a "capstone" enhancement – capstone enhancements require the full 20 levels of a class to be accessed. However, this particular capstone enhancement also requires a favored soul take the Sovereign Host feat line at level one. For your devotion to the Sovereign Host, Ascendency grants +2 CHA, +2 to the Diplomacy and Heal skills, and the ability to the Cure Light Wounds spell at will, without using any spell points.

• Favored Soul Ascendency: Sovereign Host

[Iwinbyrollup]

I'd mention some of the innate abilities more specifically. Something like the following:

- At level 17, a Favored Soul gets the Leap of Faith ability. This allows you to spend 5 Spell Points to jump very far, very quickly, and should not be neglected.

- At level 20, a Favored Soul gets DR 10/metal type for free, with a different metal type depending on your deity choices. While multiclassed Favored Souls can be effective, it is worth considering staying pure for the purpose of obtaining this DR.

EDIT: Actually, maybe even more than that...in the things that Favored Souls should know, it might be nice to have a statement regarding Favored Souls and survival.

- Favored Souls have a large number of innate strengths that improve their survivability. Favored Souls get high saves as they level; three choices of 10 inherent resistance (one each at levels 5, 10, and 15); improved movement capabilities through Leap of Faith at level 17, and 10 DR at level 20.

[FordyTwo]

I'd mention some of the innate abilities more specifically. Something like the following:

- At level 17, a Favored Soul gets the Leap of Faith ability. This allows you to spend 5 Spell Points to jump very far, very quickly, and should not be neglected.

- At level 20, a Favored Soul gets DR 10/metal type for free, with a different metal type depending on your deity choices. While multiclassed Favored Souls can be effective, it is worth considering staying pure for the purpose of obtaining this DR.

EDIT: Actually, maybe even more than that...in the things that Favored Souls should know, it might be nice to have a statement regarding Favored Souls and survival.

- Favored Souls have a large number of innate strengths that improve their survivability. Favored Souls get high saves as they level; three choices of 10 inherent resistance (one each at levels 5, 10, and 15); improved movement capabilities through Leap of Faith at level 17, and 10 DR at level 20.

Great suggestions! I'll add those in. (I can't believe I missed Leap of Faith -- d'oh!)

[Braegan]

Spells to Make Enemies Stop Attacking You …

• Command
• Greater Command
• Sleep
• Hold Person
• Symbol of Persuasion

I don't remember Sleep as a Divine Spell.

As for the template.

28 pt not too bad. 32 pt I would put the points in Str instead of Int and Wis as recommended.

Featwise:

Drop Spell Pen for Quicken

Drop Weapon Focus for Empowered Healing

[gloopygloop]

Because 16 Dex costs 4 more points than 14 Dex and because the level-ups are so valuable, I'd suggest at least mentioning the existance of +2 tomes. I know that this is a beginner's guide, but if someone has access to a +2 Dex tome, then 15 starting Dex and a tome at level 7 is a nice way to go.

[Talias006]

One general thought on this guide so far. Why invest in Spell Pen when you're hardly going to ever cast offensive spells? Plus, your Wis is going to make any potency issues squashed before they even make it out the door.
You would be better served just getting another Toughness at 18 instead. Or Improved Critical, Oversize Two Weapon Fighting (since scimitars are not light weapons), or one of the plethora of meta spell feats.

[Arel]

It might be worth pointing out the different capstones/enhancements based on faith, and what races have access to each faith line. It could help those making their own build figure out what race to pick. Likewise, even though the only Prestige enhancements are caster-based at the moment, it would be a good idea to at least cover what it does.

== Every New Favored Soul Should Know … ==

Compared to other sources of SP, the benefit from Charisma is rather slim. You only need 19 Cha, after all item/enhancement/etc effects, to cast every spell in the game, any more than that is nice but not needed.

Unlike Clerics, you don't get the Cure spells pre-selected. Be sure to select at least some of them as you level up so you can keep your allies alive.

Like Sorcerers, you can only switch a single spell every three days without the help of a rare/expensive potion. Be sure to research what spells are most useful for your build so you don't end up with a spell you can't use effectively.

[Asketes]

it's really tough to pull off a successful melee healer, much less a twf healer.

I realize warforged is not a free race, but it might be a neat idea to mention that if you were to have warforged open as a playable race, you don't need the dex (or the 3 twf/thf feats)

[dkyle]

Not good. This is a gimped melee that can't remotely heal properly. This is the kind of build that gets drama threads posted about it when one joins a Raid.

First, Weapon Focus instead of Improved Crit has to be unintentional. It mentions Power Critical, but that feat should only ever be mentioned to say "never take this".

Second, Spell Penetration? Huh? SR doesn't apply to damage spells, and with an 8 base WIS, this FvS is not going to be landing anything DC-based.

Third, the complete lack of metamagics means that this'll have little more healing potency then your average Paladin (similarly weak heals, just more of them), while dishing out much lesser DPS. It might be OK at keeping questing groups topped off, but if things get ugly, it won't be doing much to keep a party up. And forget healing a Raid. I know this is for new players, but the whole point of advising new players is so they won't be in for a shock when they get to high level. Just about anything can shlub through the low levels. Noone needs advice for that.

It also doesn't get Angel of Vengeance, which despite its supposed label as a Caster PrE, is actually spectacular for melee FvS.

Basically, TWF on a pure FvS just doesn't make much sense. You end up spending all your feats on subpar DPS, while gimping everything else. THF is the way to go, since the feats aren't needed and can be spent on metamagics instead; and unfortunately, WF is the best option there. Which I'm guessing isn't kosher for these 101 guides.

I'd go with what my FvS currently is: Human, spending the extra feat on a martial THF weapon. It's not as good as WF, but it's better than Elf TWF.

[FrozenNova]

Elf TWF Pure FvS is a terrible choice from the get-go.

Consider the melee feats required - there are six of them.
Toughness
Power attack
Improved Critical
TWF*3
Now consider the casting feats required - there are two of them.
Maximize, Quicken.

Hold on- you only get seven feats. You cannot drop any of these without becoming severely deficient in its respective area. TWF Pure FvS is not worthwhile.
You'll deal more melee dps and stronger divine punishment and be a functional healer by going THF instead.
The alternative is an 18/2 monk splash, granting the required feats.

THF Warforged, Horc are ideal for a melee fvs. Human is the best you'll get as a free player.
Feats:
Toughness
Power attack
Improved Critical
Quicken
Maximize
Empower
Horc / Human: Falchion
Warforged / Human: Empower Healing or Extend.

To be honest, if you buy fvs hoping to go melee, without buying horc, warforged or monk first, you're already in the ditch.

Edit:
What you're calling a "generalist fvs" is, in truth, a "gimp fvs".
The stats and feats required for functional melee capacity, and functional casting capacity, are mutually exclusive.
If you give up your entire offensive casting for only moderate melee capacity, what's the point?

[voodoogroves]

Not good. This is a gimped melee that can't remotely heal properly. This is the kind of build that gets drama threads posted about it when one joins a Raid.

First, Weapon Focus instead of Improved Crit has to be unintentional. It mentions Power Critical, but that feat should only ever be mentioned to say "never take this".

Second, Spell Penetration? Huh? SR doesn't apply to damage spells, and with an 8 base WIS, this FvS is not going to be landing anything DC-based.

Third, the complete lack of metamagics means that this'll have little more healing potency then your average Paladin (similarly weak heals, just more of them), while dishing out much lesser DPS. It might be OK at keeping questing groups topped off, but if things get ugly, it won't be doing much to keep a party up. And forget healing a Raid. I know this is for new players, but the whole point of advising new players is so they won't be in for a shock when they get to high level. Just about anything can shlub through the low levels. Noone needs advice for that.

It also doesn't get Angel of Vengeance, which despite its supposed label as a Caster PrE, is actually spectacular for melee FvS.

Basically, TWF on a pure FvS just doesn't make much sense. You end up spending all your feats on subpar DPS, while gimping everything else. THF is the way to go, since the feats aren't needed and can be spent on metamagics instead; and unfortunately, WF is the best option there. Which I'm guessing isn't kosher for these 101 guides.

I'd go with what my FvS currently is: Human, spending the extra feat on a martial THF weapon. It's not as good as WF, but it's better than Elf TWF.

Got one of these myself. Love it.


I think you're breakdown of FVS types is (basically) wrong when it comes to pure FVS. I'm trying to think of a good way to describe it for a pure 20 build but I'd suggest a more basic mix might be

(1) Wis-high Evoker (w/ healing + casting metamagic feats) ... these are more likely to carry spell focus or penetration feats
(2) Non-DC-focused casters (w/ healing + casting metamagic feats) with moderate melee capability here (a few feats); these are likey also STR high though some like the Superior Soul actually boost WIS
(3) Primary melee (w/ healing + melee feats) - STR high

There's a great deal of variance and honestly many of the more melee-capable FVS have gone w/ an 18/2 split

[TheDjinnFor]

Why go elf and TWF scimitars with our template? Our previous templates have all been human, so we wanted to add a little flavor this time around. Additionally, new players using this guide are already investing in the favored soul class, which likely means they've paid for it. We didn't want to pile paying for warforged on top of that.

I suppose elven is a nice flavor choice for a melee but to be honest I would much rather you build an evoker FvS than a melee FvS simply because evoker FvS are easier to play and build. Melee divines are not really a 101 kind of deal and I'm surprised you chose to do FvS instead of a specialist class right now, particularly since FvS is a P2P (ish) class. Personally, I think you should wait until all 101 guides are done before you do either monk or FvS. Once you've done all F2P classes and used all F2P races on them, consider expanding to the P2P monk and FvS and using P2P races as well.

In fact if you think there are too many humans, hold off until you make an Elven Arcane Archer Ranger, a Drow Pale Master Wizard, a Halfling Assassin Rogue, and a Dwarven Frenzied Berserker Barbarian, then you can go back and make a solid evoker FvS rather than a passable melee FvS.

Humans are a strong choice because they are very versatile, and that extra feat really helps with any build. Elves are not very strong melee (its passable but not strong), they make better ranged characters and passable wizards.

==Spells==

The favored soul doesn't receive the plethora of spells that a cleric has access to, so it's important to know about some of the immediately useful ones upfront.

Spells to Make Enemies Stop Attacking You …

• Command
• Soundburst
• Holy Smite
• Chaos Hammer
• Greater Command
• Symbol of Persuasion
• Symbol of Stunning

Damage Spells that'll leave a Mark …

• Searing Light
• Blade Barrier
• Cometfall
• Divine Punishment
• Destruction
• Implosion

Buff Spells with some Oomph …

• Aid, Mass
• Protection from Elements, Mass
• Freedom of Movement
• Divine Favor
• Divine Power
• Death Pact
• Prayer
• Death Ward
• True Seeing
• Holy Aura

Spells to Make Your Friends Love You …

• Raise Dead
• Cure Moderate Wounds, Mass
• Heal
• Heal, Mass

Debuffs to Make Kobolds Hate You ...
• Energy Drain
• Symbol of Weakness
• Symbol of Death

In green is my personal additions. Some of yours were deleted as well.

28 Point Build:

• STR … 15
• DEX … 16
• CON … 14
• INT … 8
• WIS … 8
• CHA … 12

Problem: melee toons need balance. Desperately. This toon only has 1 skill per level... that's not going to help :P

Evoker Human

Str: 10 (2 pts)
Dex: 8
Con: 14 (6 pts)
Int: 8
Wis: 18 (16 pts)
Cha: 12 (4 pts)

32 pt builds should go 16 Con over 14 con.

Tip! If you've unlocked 32-Point Build (either in-game or via the DDO Store) we recommend adding 1 STR and 2 INT – this will cover your weaknesses better.

Fixed +1 Str > +2 wis on a wis dump.

===Skills===

This template doesn't invest heavily into skills with its INT at 8, however you will want to make sure your Concentration is maxed at character creation. While leveling, continue to keep Concentration maxed and you shouldn't have any issue with casting spells in combat.

Melee souls need balance. Remind them of this if they are 32 pts. Evoker souls also should have balance, just in case.

===Feats===

Racial Feats:

1. Toughness
3. TWF
6. Power Attack
9. iTWF
12. Weapon Focus
15. gTWF
18. Spell Penetration

Gah. If you're going to go all-out on melee, ditch weapon focus and spell penetration and get Improved Critical: Slashing and Quicken. You need quicken, hands down, because you want to be able to heal in melee as an all-out melee soul. Personally, I would go THF without the feats and pickup semi-decent feats in the meantime like Maximize, Empower, and Empower Healing that would turn it into a more generalist FvS, particularly because you get one of the best PrEs in the game, Angel of Vengeance, by taking Maximize or Empower.

If you want Evoker, go:

1. Toughness
1. Empower
3. Spell Focus: Evocation
6. Maximize
9. Spell Penetration
12. Quicken
15. Greater Spell Focus: Evocation
18. Heighten

Bonus Feats:
5. Fire Resistance
10. Electric Resistance
15. Cold Resistance

Diety: Sovereign Host

===Enhancements===

These would change drastically for an evoker. I'll edit this post in the future with some recommendations.

Oh, and one more thing...

• 12) Weapon Focus: Slashing Weapons – Provides a +1 to attack rolls and fills the prerequisite to obtain the potent Power Critical feat.

Oh god no.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

[Diarden]

Elf TWF Pure FvS is a terrible choice from the get-go.

Consider the melee feats required - there are six of them.
Toughness
Power attack
Improved Critical
TWF*3
Now consider the casting feats required - there are two of them.
Maximize, Quicken.

Hold on- you only get seven feats. You cannot drop any of these without becoming severely deficient in its respective area. TWF Pure FvS is not worthwhile.
You'll deal more melee dps and stronger divine punishment and be a functional healer by going THF instead.
The alternative is an 18/2 monk splash, granting the required feats.

THF Warforged, Horc are ideal for a melee fvs. Human is the best you'll get as a free player.
Feats:
Toughness
Power attack
Improved Critical
Quicken
Maximize
Empower
Horc / Human: Falchion
Warforged / Human: Empower Healing or Extend.

To be honest, if you buy fvs hoping to go melee, without buying horc, warforged or monk first, you're already in the ditch.

From my experience with my fvs/monk, there's a few corrections I would like to make to your post.

First of all, if you plan on keeping wisdom and int low, and focusing on melee ability, Empower and Maximize do nothing for you. As they do affect cure spells, they do NOT affect the Heal and Heal Mass spell. Thus, empower healing would be your best bet, also cutting down on the amount of feats needed.

In place of that second feat, I would put Extend. I see you have it under WF/Human, but any melee FVS build should have extend. It is painful to recast the four melee buffs you'll need at high levels to be effective, and doubling the buff timer helps.

Also, you recommended Falchion as the preferred THF weapon, although I would disagree wholeheartedly. Greatsword is still the preferred weapon. (Mainly because of the ESOS)

[dkyle]

First of all, if you plan on keeping wisdom and int low, and focusing on melee ability, Empower and Maximize do nothing for you.

Divine Punishment, the AoV's Lantern. Both add a substantial amount of DPS, all while meleeing.

[voodoogroves]

Divine Punishment, the AoV's Lantern. Both add a substantial amount of DPS, all while meleeing.

Searing light. Mass Cure XXX.

Honestly, it surprises me MORE FVS aren't running in that config right now.

[dkyle]

Searing light. Mass Cure XXX.

Honestly, it surprises me MORE FVS aren't running in that config right now.

Yeah, my FvS has Max, Emp, and Emp Healing instead of Extend. She's got the free CLW, and amping that up really helps out a lot with healing. And I generally use mass cures far more frequently than mass heals. So much easier to land when they're needed.

Refreshing Divine Favor/Might twice as often isn't ideal, but ultimately its just a hassle. Those metamagics truly increase her capabilities.

[FordyTwo]

Thanks for the input everyone!

After some discussion, we've all agreed that switching this over from a melee FvS to Evoker is a better choice. We want new players looking over these guides in the future to understand that there's more than just humans to pick from, and we also want to avoid a new player guide that requires a double-purchase of both FvS and one of the premium races.

So if anyone would like to make suggestions for a 28pt build Evoker FvS elf, please feel free. I'll be putting this together as the day goes on.

[Diarden]

Yeah, my FvS has Max, Emp, and Emp Healing instead of Extend. She's got the free CLW, and amping that up really helps out a lot with healing. And I generally use mass cures far more frequently than mass heals. So much easier to land when they're needed.

Refreshing Divine Favor/Might twice as often isn't ideal, but ultimately its just a hassle. Those metamagics truly increase her capabilities.

Don't get me wrong, Maximize and empower are awesome, but with a PURE build, you dont have the feats to do it.

My FVS has Max/Emp, has high DC's while still putting out great dps. It's essential in a hybrid, absolutely.

[FrozenNova]

From my experience with my fvs/monk, there's a few corrections I would like to make to your post.

First of all, if you plan on keeping wisdom and int low, and focusing on melee ability, Empower and Maximize do nothing for you. As they do affect cure spells, they do NOT affect the Heal and Heal Mass spell. Thus, empower healing would be your best bet, also cutting down on the amount of feats needed.

In place of that second feat, I would put Extend. I see you have it under WF/Human, but any melee FVS build should have extend. It is painful to recast the four melee buffs you'll need at high levels to be effective, and doubling the buff timer helps.

Also, you recommended Falchion as the preferred THF weapon, although I would disagree wholeheartedly. Greatsword is still the preferred weapon. (Mainly because of the ESOS)

Maximize and Empower for Divine Punishment and Blade Barrier. Both these being the remarkably potent tools as they are, I wouldn't leave any fvs without them, and obviously you need at least one of them for AoV. Divine Punishment is the reason a good melee fvs can put out boss dps on par or above your primary melees - damage metamagics are just as important as power attack.

Everyone gets a free feat swap. I'm not going to jump to an ESoS for what is self-proclaimedly a "new player build". Falchion is still above the alternatives for the duration of pre-ESoS.

Yes, extend is very nice, and I will personally take it over empower healing on my melee fvs.
On a horc, you cannot take extend without dropping (most likely) empower. This is a significant net-dps loss.

Empower Healing is unnecessary on a fvs, especially given you get no efficient enhancements for it. It is not worth its slot compared to maximize or empower, and a roughly equal toss-up with extend.

[Alektronic]

Just a few things:

-I would write a HUGE disclaimer for the "generalist" build. About 90% of the fvs forum flame wars are over generalist builds, but everyone agrees on one thing, fvs generalist build takes alot of gear and investment to work. Anyone not familiar with the game will probably get a very innaccurate view of the game trying to put together a generalist build.
suggestion: maybe add "healbot" type here. Many ppl don't like this kind of build, but max con/char, dump wis, with a moderate str investment (12-14) would mirror a similar healerbot cleric build. You lose the offensive casting of the cleric, but gain an sp pool, nice resistances/DR, and wings.

-I would break up spells into DC-based and non DC-based. Some spells like command are completely useless on a melee soul. Others, like BB/divine punishment/symbol of death are good to fit in both melee and caster builds. It would be very useful to divide the guide's spell list into these two groupings.

-I would change some of your feat selection for the template build. Don't need weapon focus slashing. Elven FvS actually get a very high to-hit in the game (just behind barb/kensei and on par with pally... consider divine favor, power, FvS favored wep, elven enhancements...) if built properly. Switch out weapon focus:slashing for improved critical: slashing.
Also, one key feat for healing is quicken. As a key healer, failing a concentration check, or waiting for the mass heal animation could easily mean a party wipe. Quicken is highly highly highly reccommended on any fvs/cleric build.
Maximize is great too (I got maximize instead of power attack for my melee scimmy build), but not build-breaking. Many melee souls will splash fighter/monk so that they can include both PA and maximize on their build.

-I would not take the elven enchant resist line. Even with 8 wisdom, your FvS is going to have a respectable will save. Training this line puts ur enchant will save into the "ludicrous" range.

OTHER THOUGHTS: I personally think melee and offensive casting (and to a lesser extent healbot) FvS are pretty easy to build, and very potent in the hands of a new player. Trying to mix the two, however, is alot trickier, and arouses alot of strong feelings in the DDO community. WF FvS is probably one of the easier builds to cross that divide, but either way, the gear/tome/PL investments for such a hybrid build, I think, is better left to more experienced characters. If anything, I think it's very important to encourage a new player to clearly decide whether they want to melee + heal or cast + heal, and never look back.