R/F/C Solo idea.

[frank13]

I will try and explain the save system.

Fortitude save is needed for Poison, level drain, Death
Reflex save is needed for Traps, Spells, breath weapons
Will save is needed for mind effects.

I hope this give some info for what they do.

If you want to do sneak attacks. Max you skills in Move silently and hide. Monster get a listen check to hear you come and a spot check to see you.
If you fail in one of them they will warn the others.

I have a monk/mage and i use my hide and move silently to get near them and shower them with multible spells and see them think what whas that.
Second use i have with move silently and hide if i find the encounter to dangerous i sneak past them en go further or kill them one by one.

I find open lock a bad skill there are not many dungeons where you need a open lock skill.

I hope this helps

[Khateyana]

Thank you frank.

So all the saves are on equal ground. Good to know.

As I hear it, with skill levels, go large or go home seems to be the mantra.

Now that I know what the monsters do its clear that hide and sneak must be matched and maxed to get around them. I was thinking sneaking was good enough but it all makes sense now.

So you can actually cast and attack without coming out of sneak? I did not know that. How handy !

Thanks again frank
Khat

Unrelated side note:
Made some nice strong coffee in the french press this morning and ended up putting it in the fridge. I got home and pulled i out. I filled a mason jar (Classico spaghetti sauce jar) 3/4 with the chilled coffee, added 2 shots of Kahlua and topped off with whole milk. OH YUM !

Give it a try if you like iced coffee

[RonHiler]

I'll answer what I can and let Frank chime in with the rest. You are right on most things, although a few things were wrong or need clarification

• INT of 10 will assure full enhancement points per level? I cant remember what the base 10 was for.

Your skill points are based on your INT score (more specifically, your INT bonus). So if you have an INT of 10 (bonus of 0), then you will get your class' base skill points per level. If you have an INT of 12 (bonus of +1), then you will get your class' base skill points + 1 per level. And so forth.

INT has absolutely nothing to do with the number of enhancements you get. All classes always get exactly four enhancement points per level. No exceptions.

WISDOM:

• WIS must be a min of ?? in order to get level 9 leric spells?

I believe it's 18 to cast level 9 spells (but don't quote me on that). However, unlike a lot of prereqs in the game, equipment counts for this stat. So if you have a WIS of 13 and a helm of +6 Wisdom, that would be enough to let you cast those level 9 spells (assuming you were wearing the helm at the time).

• Spot finds traps. If you want to disarm with your build you need a big Spot score. Can't spot 'em, can't disarm 'em!

Not exactly. Spot will give you a notification when there is a trap (or a secret door) nearby. But it does not find it for you. If you want to find it, you need the Search skill.

So, if you have a high Spot but a low Search, you might know there is a trap nearby, but be unable to find it (and thus, unable to disarm it).

If you have a low Spot but a high Search, you may NOT get a notification that a trap is nearby, but if you do a search, you will find it anyway (and will therefore be able to disarm it). The problem with that, of course, is you have to know (or guess) where the traps might be, because without the notification, you won't know where to do the Search.

ENHANCEMENTS:

• Toughness, do the different kinds stack? I see several types.

Yes, they stack. However, in general, you can only take one type of racial and one type of class based enhancement (e.g. Dwarven Toughness and Fighter Toughness). The game will not allow you to take two class based enhancements (like Fighter and Barbarian toughness). When you take one, the others will disappear from the "available" list.

• If you are building a multi class, try and think ahead so you can use your points with no 2for1 penalties. More bang for the buck. Spend points for rogue skills when you are on a rogue level, not a cleric or fighter ect ect.

Yes, this is true, but not always necessary. I have plenty of times spent skill points in an off-class skill. In fact, for my soloists, I routinely spend skill points in the Rogue skills throughout my levels, even though only a few of my levels are actually Rogue. I like to keep those skills maxed. A lot of the "on-class" skills are often not really useful for soloist anyway.

• You gain points as you gain ranks between levels. If you are on a rogue level and want to go fighter your next level, you can either spend the points prior to leveling and get max rogue gains LOL roguegain or wait to level into fighter and spend them on fighter things. I hope that made sense.

This is sorta kinda true. But once you take a level of any class, you can always spend your enhancement points on that class' enhancements, even if the level you are on right now is not that class. Does that make sense?

Say I take a level 1 fighter, then at level 2 take Cleric. At level 2, I can take either fighter or cleric enhancements (and there is no penalty for doing this like there is with skill points). If I then took Monk at level 3, I could spend any enhancement points I have on Fighter, Cleric, or Monk enhancements.

• All 3 save types, Fortitude-Reflex-Will, are equally important. Raise them all equally and as high as practical.

I disagree with this (at least for a soloist). I personally think Will is by far the most important of the three. But that's just my opinion.

[Khateyana]

Awesome Ron !

Thanks

I see that some enhancements grow as you level after taking them. This leads me to think that as soon as one of those become available you should take it. That way you get maximum bonus at level 20. Toughness is a good example.

I am leaning towards a rogue/cleric for the following questions.

What are your thoughts on combat casting and mobile casting. Worth it?

Do you have any idea what the bulk of the game is more vulnerable to.. piercing, slashing, blunt, ect? I know everything has its place but as a primary weapon set.. what do you think? I cant really find any info on this in the DDO forums. I'm kinda leaning towards rapiers currently.

Skills... I'm having a very hard time deciding what to max out. Being solo I'm afraid of traps. I also want to be able to sneak attack. Additionally I want all those locked chest goodies! Such a hard choice. I know I cant do it all.

Is sneak attack damage worth it higher up or do you find careful pulling of better worth? I have no clue what the pulls are like in higher content. So far its been super easy but Im sure that changes.

Are there enough locked goodies to warrant open lock?

I wouldn't stress so much but it takes SOOO much time to level up and if you make a mistake you cant redo something like you can in WOW. Enhancements are no big deal but the stats, classes and feats are. Don't get me wrong, I know full well I'll rebuild many toons but I would like to begin with something that will take me a good ways as I learn first hand. Make sense?

I was also wondering... does DDO allow for a potent area of effect build? A wis/cleric or sorc/cleric? I think that will be my second project after I do this one. Just curious. Ohhhh.. how bout a caster assassin... shoots bolts of death from afar while sneaking MUWAHAHA !

I was looking at the difference between taking rogue at first level VS fighter. The second feat of fighter is nice but I think the 28 points rogue offers trumps that 1 feat. Also later on there is rogue toughness so I dont really need fighter for toughness or anything else I can see. The more I study the builder the more I am seeing. There are just SO many things to notice. The builder is such a fantastic tool. Thanks for making it.

Thanks much,
Khat

[RonHiler]

I see that some enhancements grow as you level after taking them. This leads me to think that as soon as one of those become available you should take it. That way you get maximum bonus at level 20. Toughness is a good example.

Not necessary. It makes no difference when you take Toughness (for example), you will get the same bonus at level 20 no matter when you take them. It's based on your character level, not the level at which you took the feat or enhancement.

What are your thoughts on combat casting and mobile casting. Worth it?

I don't take them, but that's because I don't have the feat slots for them. I consider other things higher priority. But of course it depends on the build you are using and what sort of character you want to play.

Do you have any idea what the bulk of the game is more vulnerable to.. piercing, slashing, blunt, ect? I know everything has its place but as a primary weapon set.. what do you think? I cant really find any info on this in the DDO forums. I'm kinda leaning towards rapiers currently.

There are no real vulnerabilities in DDO (well, at least not usually, there are a few, like fire mephits would be vulnerable to ice weapons and stuff like that). Some things have resistances or damage reductions. But they are not so wide spread that you can make any sort of generalizations about them. For example, skeletons have DR versus slashing and piercing weapons. But zombies have DR versus blunt weapons. You just have to use the right weapon for the right creature. Most times, whatever general weapon you use will work. And if you find it is not doing much damage (i.e. you are getting yellow damage numbers), switch to something different (and don't poke at oozes with anything sharp ).

Skills... I'm having a very hard time deciding what to max out. Being solo I'm afraid of traps. I also want to be able to sneak attack. Additionally I want all those locked chest goodies! Such a hard choice. I know I cant do it all.

No, you can't You have to decide what's important and what you can give up. As you can tell from my builds, I'm focused on thief skills, because I really like to poke into every nook and cranny of a particular dungeon.

Is sneak attack damage worth it higher up or do you find careful pulling of better worth? I have no clue what the pulls are like in higher content. So far its been super easy but Im sure that changes.

That's your call. I'm not a sneaker (heavy armor, BTW, gives you a significant penalty to certain skills, including things like Move Silently, so if you are going to tank, that could cause you problems).

Are there enough locked goodies to warrant open lock?

There are a fair number of locked chests and locked doors in the game. If you have a high enough UMD (or any levels of an arcane caster class), you can use Knock wands and you don't have to worry about the skill. Or, you can just skip them. It is very rare that any quest in the game is unfinishable because of a lock (in fact, I can't think of a single one). So it's a totally optional skill. You just won't get all the loot/XP you would get if you had the ability to open up those areas.

I was also wondering... does DDO allow for a potent area of effect build? A wis/cleric or sorc/cleric? I think that will be my second project after I do this one. Just curious. Ohhhh.. how bout a caster assassin... shoots bolts of death from afar while sneaking MUWAHAHA !

Sure. Those would be any arcane class, which get some pretty nice area of effect spells (Firewall, Acid Fog, and so forth). To a lesser exent, the divine classes as well (spells like blade barrer, greater command, etc).

[Khateyana]

Great info. Thank you Ron.

I gotta say.. its HELL getting to lvl 3 for weapon finesse so I can start hitting things. The bow is only so good.

Thank you again,
Khat

EDIT:

Level 3 and weapon finesse !!!
Oh how sweet it is to go from negative attack to +5 attack on both hands. Its like upgrading from a potato peeler to a food processor

EDIT:

I was thinking about what Ron said, he doesn't sneak around a lot. On paper I want to do it all but in reality it's not possible and quite often you rarely use what you think you will. While sneaking up and killing things with 1 or 2 hits in the back is a thing of sublime beauty, I noticed that the opportunity to gank a lone MOB is far less than the points spending warrants. For MY build and what I want to do, at least. I am placing those points into spot, search, device and locks. Because I just cant pass up a sign that says Authorized Personnel Only

EDIT:

With the high DEX of my build it took a while to realize I should have been using a bow while I waited for level 3 and weapon finesse. That alone made such a huge difference. It still wasn't great but it helped a lot. Also shooting things while sneaking helped a good deal in crowd control. The two combined are great.

I'm sure many would consider this an exploit but.. there seems to be an area that mobs wont follow in dungeons. In the first 2 levels I found myself standing in these areas and shooting them while they casted or threw weak weapons at me. The best place so far was standing on a pipe. My justification is, if they are too frightened to balance on the pipe with me... that's their choice. They shoulda taken some rogue training

Anyways the bow was a life saver, especially with kiting oozes. One thing I do not like, though, is the fact that you can target something and move so far away you cant see them at all, then hit the attack button and shoot them dead. I know it seems hypocritical but that's such a huge cheat, to me.

[Khateyana]

Fresh Build Update at the TOP.

Also, I went back to light armor because I was wasting my reflex saves by wearing medium armor. I will let you know if the trade off is worth it.

[RonHiler]

INTELLIGENCE:

• INT of 10 will assure full skill points per level for the class your on while spending those points. INT of 9 gives you 1 less and INT of 11 gives you one more, and so on.

Slight correction. Your skill bonus points are based on your INT ability BONUS, not the ability itself. The bonus goes up by one per every 2 points of ability, so actually, an INT of 11 (which has a 0 bonus) will give you a skill point bonus of 0. An INT of 12 will give you +1, an int of 14 will give you +2, and so forth.

[RonHiler]

I'm sure many would consider this an exploit but.. there seems to be an area that mobs wont follow in dungeons. In the first 2 levels I found myself standing in these areas and shooting them while they casted or threw weak weapons at me. The best place so far was standing on a pipe. My justification is, if they are too frightened to balance on the pipe with me... that's their choice. They shoulda taken some rogue training

Don't try that with casters. You want to get right up in the caster's face to take them down fast. And use Trip and Sunder, because they can't cast at you when they are lying on their backs

[EDIT: The exception to that is if you can be out of their casting range, then you can plink at them with a bow without any worries.]

You are probably going to find less and less of those sort of "safe" spots as you get up in levels. The devs tend to remove them, heh.

Anyways the bow was a life saver, especially with kiting oozes.

Be careful with that. The low level oozes won't split, but most of them will when you hit them with anything sharp (including arrows). And splitting oozes is a good way to really irritate your fellow party members. Because oozes damage weapons, a good strat is to use a cheap (1 cp) club to beat them. Or if you are lucky enough to find a Muck-bane, use that (it's a glass club found in one of the low level dungeons sometimes that is not damaged when you stick it into oozes).

One thing I do not like, though, is the fact that you can target something and move so far away you cant see them at all, then hit the attack button and shoot them dead. I know it seems hypocritical but that's such a huge cheat, to me.

Yeah, the no-range limitation on ranged weapons is a bit wierd. Don't worry, the MOBs will do the same thing back to you a lot of times.

[Khateyana]

Splitting ooooze.. eww.

A couple of cheap clubs coming right up! Thank you for that tip.

Do you think taking 1 level of Sorc or Wiz would be worth it to be able to use magic items?