DDO

[ubernoob]

Run waterworks on elite once or twice. WW gives GREAT loot IME.

[Judging__Eagle]

Well, ran it part way, made about 500 plat; I have about 500 left; and I need about 1500 more to get near the 24,000 gp bid.

Mind, this is a level 12 item, but it's definitely going to be useful for this character.

Also, I got a second muckbane.

Roy, how does the build for a Rogue 1/Ranger X/Fighter 1 or 2 work out?

I need 32 pt buy unlocked to make it any good though.

[CatharzGodfoot]

Roy, how does the build for a Rogue 1/Ranger X/Fighter 1 or 2 work out?

I need 32 pt buy unlocked to make it any good though.

It's a lot of fun running around blending things with a hammer and a sickle, and it works OK with a 28 point buy. Human with S 14, D 13, C 14, I 15 (16 at 4th), W 11, Ch 8 gets you Hide, Move Silently, Search, Spot, Disable, Open Lock, and UMD all more or less maxed.

[Roy]

Does an item of disease immunity protect against Mummy Rot?

99% sure it does. Absolutely required for mummy areas. Trouble is you don't always know where those are. But you can get DI on a level 1 item, so it's not hard to get at all if you pay attention.

As for 'soloing norm dungeons easily' that doesn't mean shit. Like I told Lago earlier, they love wanking off to that auto scaling just like him. Take a weak build alone into a mission and laugh as mobs do less than 10 damage a hit at level 10. Ends up being a shock when you join a group and they start doing literally 10 times as much.

But really, I shouldn't have to be explaining to a Denner what 'the stuff that actually matters' is about, so I'm going to assume you already knew that.

Of course the dungeons are harder on the harder modes. Don't be stupid.

I don't mean a little harder. I mean 10-20 times harder, even though it only says 1-2 levels higher.

Don't be stupid.

JE: Trade channels? They can't be taken seriously since it's full of people actually trying to sell +1 gear, which you could just buy in a shop or find in chests all over the place. One Muckbane should get you 100k gold easily on the AH. Even after considering the AH eats 30k of it, that's more than enough.

And it depends. You really need Ranger 18 if you're going to go that far into it for Tempest 3. And taking Fighter 1 as the last level will be inferior to taking Monk 1. But if you just don't care...

Take the Exploiter build (search Ranger forums).

Lower Int from 12 to 8.

Replace Monk level with Fighter level, possibly taking it earlier since the main reason it's so late in the build is because it needs BAB 8 by level 9 for Improved Critical. Though Ranger gives nice stuff up to 11, so you'd probably want to still take Fighter at 13.

Replace Combat Expertise with another feat, since you can't take it.

Forget about being a trapmonkey, you can't do it on a 28 point build. Not as an Exploiter at least (an actual Rogue is another matter).

Forget about tanking, you can't do it without the Monk dip and turtling (which is not Fail here).

Also, stealth skills are not that useful in the game. Mostly because stealth means going slower, and going slower means less XP/hour which makes the community nerd rage. Though the lack of Darkstalker and many actions such as pulling a lever breaking stealth don't help either.

[Judging__Eagle]

Ok Roy, I'll give it a try. I like the wizard and all, but I spend so much time fighting with a xbow or longbow (+ master's touch), so as to conserve SP (about 370-380-something depending on buffs; 370 is nominal).

I also got my hands on a +4 dex glove from a chest. I'm not even going to bother AHing it, I'm gonna just keep it, and see if I can get something for it on the Trade Channels.

I'm looking at the Exploiter build right now. It's interesting.

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=168687

Also, where the fuck is the 32 pt buy option in the DDO store? I'm seriously thinking about earning the favor to get that.

In theory, if I'm dumping the monk level, I could also dump Wis, and get Int, right?

[Roy]

You'd lose a fairly significant amount of mana and will saves that way.

If you AH those gloves, you could get hundreds of thousands of gold, easy. Given that +3 dex items are static loot from a paid low level area, this qualifies as you profiting off the stupidity of others. Trade Channels suck by the way. Don't do that. Though, where did you find that, if you're so low level as to only have 370 mana or so?

Anyways, 32 PB hasn't been added yet. It will be in next mod though.

[Gnosticism Is A Hoot]

Hello all, lurker de-cloaking.

How do paladins do in DDO? High saves and access to healing wands sound like good news where self-sufficiency is concerned, but the paladin's extreme multiple attribute dependency is probably going to be troublesome.

I'm playing a paladin at the moment just to get used to the game, it's going well so far but (as Roy has mentioned) you could probably solo most of the early dungeons drunk and blind with a halfling barbarian.

[Roy]

Paladins are ok, but really need 32 PB for reasons obvious to anyone who has played D&D before. Main reason they're so good is because they get bonuses vs evil stuff in general and evil outsiders in particular. Guess what 90%+ of what you see endgame is? They're also both gear dependent and not so gear dependent. They have some holy sword spell or something, which allows them to always have a nice weapon. But getting a worthwhile AC is a gear dependent process, and so is TWF.

[Judging__Eagle]

yeah, almost everything is 'evil' in the game, so stuff like Protection from Evil is actually a decent buff.

[Roy]

Well, that isn't quite true. A Shield of Faith gives the same deflection except unconditionally, and you can get level 1 +2 resistance items as rewards from low level quests.

[Judging__Eagle]

True, but you free up the gear slots; and you can put in different gear on your character.

Also, I finally clued in as to how Power, and Wizardry etc. work.

I know how every +10%-50% to spell damage item, or spell that casts a temporary spell damage buff, or a spell that increases a specific elemental type of spell damage (yeah, wrap your head around that one*) item always say "doesn't stack with other buffs".

Well, I didn't realize that Power worked the same way. I thought that each added it's own value, not that only the highest one applied. They're all enhancement bonuses. So, a Wizardry I and a Power "anything" is actually a good buy.

Fuck.

Oh, and for anyone making a new character; you can jump to Sunny Side Korthos at the very begining of the Snowy Side Korthos quests.

Meaning that basically you get to avoid the isolated, early, part of the game after going through it once. It makes mailing a lvl 1 twink TWF character a pile of gear super easy. My rogue's got a +1 mithral buckler, a +1 rapier, and a the Ember short bow, and she's level 1, she's got a +1 comp longbow as soon as I get my ranger level at 2. This is going to be a very much easier character to level, blend, blend, blend.


*: The spell adds +10 To +50% to -your- damage, with Fire spells; it's called Superior Inferno 1-9 (the 1 through 9's represent the highest level spells that can have their damage increased)

[Judging__Eagle]

I rebuilt with 14 wis, and 8 int. I'm maxing tumble, UMD and balance; that's pretty much it.

[ubernoob]

Jump is a skill that I'm regretting not having the points to put ranks into. Bigger jumps are seriously useful in combat because you can jump and cast and if your jump lasts long enough you don't slow your movement at all while casting.

[Judging__Eagle]

Here's that Exploiter Build, I'm posting it again partly b/c of things that I did differently, and to plot how this build will work out.

The Exploiter
(Human Male Ranger 18/Monk 1/Rogue 1)

Stats:
Stuff; my base is the same, i'll probably get the same gear.

Str 15 (34=15 +5 Levels +3 Tome +1 Enh. +6 Item +2 Rage +2 Rams)
Dex 15 (26=15 +2 Tome +3 Enh. +6 Item)
Con 14 (24=14 +3 Tome +1 Enh. + 6 Item)
Int 12 (14=12 +2 Tome)
Wis 14 (22=14 +2 Tome +6 Item)
Cha 8 (16=8 +2 Tome +6 Item)

Level Progression:

The build:
1-Rogue
2 thru 12-Ranger
13-Monk
14 thru 20-Ranger

I'm going:
1-Rogue
2-Ranger
3-Ranger
4-????? Fighter? Ranger?
5-????? Fighter? Ranger?
6- Ranger
7- Ranger
...

I'm debating when to take my level of Fighter. I'll put the 2 points I get into UMD, since I need it maxed.

I'm thinking about an other Rogue level to help add 8 points to my UMD score at a much later point, later enough in levels that the the whole 8 skil points go into UMD (level 14 or so? I'm not sure).

Skills: (9 per level)
UMD - (2 Skill Points Ranger Level)
Search - (1 Skill Point)
Disable Device - (2 Skill Points Ranger Level)
Intimidate - (2 Skill Points Ranger Level)
Jump - (1 Skill Point Ranger Level) - not maxed
Balance - (2 Skill Point Ranger Level) - not maxed

[Only getting Balance, UMD and Jump.]

Why no Intimidate, not Trap skills

Won't fit, and Balance and Jump are more pressing. UMD is a must on any character. Fighters really suck b/c of this. Barbarians are seriously better than fighters, since they can get UMD and split between Balance and Jump; if they're a 8 int human barbarian.

No intimidate:
I don't really want to be the main distraction in a fight. I'm going to let some other guy that decided to be a dumbass and take only "barbarian" levels and maxed their intimidate soak the damage. I can get a wand of some AoE spell if I want to generate aggro, and for that UMD can do the trick.

A single wand of Fireball at 5th level might be a good idea, or Wall of Fire, or something. I've got an Eternal Wand of Acid Splash on my Wizard (he seems to get much more expensive loot from the same quest NPCs; maybe b/c he's higher level?)

]

Feats:
1-Dodge [got this]
1-(HB)Mobility [Got this]
3-Khopesh [Got Oversized TWF, b/c I want the damage, I want 2 weapons, and then will change to 2 Khopeshes]
6-Spring Attack [I'm thinking that a Fighter level at 4 or 5 will allow me to get this a level earlier]
9-IC Slashing
12-Toughness
13-(MB)Combat Expertise
15-Power Attack
18-OTWF

I need ideas for things that will increase leveling speed, or my ability to level.

Two ideas:

Toughness
I hate dying, it keeps me from murdering others

I'm contemplating picking up toughness earlier than level 12, so that I can buy the Racial Toughness Feats as I level up, since that's an extra +30 HP from enhance. I should probably charge in less as well. >_> I'm a kill whore.

Power
Every creature card in Magic: The Gathering has two numbers at their bottom right corner. These numbers represent Power, and Toughness.

Right now, I'm level 3, and the only people who can beat my kills are TH users who don't get cursed, and/or are higher level than my character. Right now, my damage (or at least kills) are on par with higher level characters. I got my hands on a pair of reptilian bane weapons, and have a 3rd if anyone here wants to roll a greatsword user.

Aside from that, I'm not sure what to do next. I think that either Khopeshes, or Spring Attack should come next.

I can get Khopeshes at level 4, if I take a level of Fighter. I've got a +1 and a +3 ready to go.

However, my reptilian bane weapons do a good chunk of damage right now, and I'm not grouping with many people who are able to allow me to 'auto-crit' with Khopeshes.

So... a +1 LRB club, and a +1 LRB Scimitar deal a decent amount of damage for me; plus 1d6+3 if I'm not taregtted by the creature I'm attacking*.

Getting Spring attack... can only happen at level 5 or 6 anyway, and I want/need to get Ranger 6 as early as possible, in order to get Improved TWF as soon as possible.

So, there's some tough decisions to make.

*:

(that's the way that SA works in DDO, you just don't have to be targeted by your target; so stuff like Hide, and Diplomacy, which remove you from enemies aggro list are great to use; Intimidate is the DDO version of 'Taunt').

TL;DR

Spring Attack, Ex. Weapon Prof Khopesh, or Ranger level 6 first?

Also, Toughness early on, good? bad? I don't like dying

I'll bet that IC: Slashing is a good idea to get as soon as possible; should I do so?


HP:
158(Levels) +20(Heroic) +10(Draconic) +30(GFL) +140(Con) +22(Helm) +22(Tough) +30(Enh.) +45(GS)=487
[I want the +52 from Toughness and Racial Toughness to kick in as early as possible. I think that right now I'd get 3 + 3 Hp from toughness; and +10 from Racial Toughness.]


SP:
205(18Rng) +162(Wis) +100(Magi)=467
[I got the 14 wis, so I can cast every ranger spell without having to increase my base Wis. I will increase it when it's cheap, or easy to do so.]

Enhancements:

Rogue Haste Boost I [debating it, will probably get it, just so that I have more combat buffs to use between shrines]
Rogue Sneak Attack Training I
Human Toughness III
Human Strength I
Human Constitution I
Ranger Dex III [got ranger dex I already]
Ranger Favored Damage IV
Ranger Tempest I
Ranger Tempest II
Ranger Tempest III
Whatever other Ranger enhancements….

-Ranger Sprint Boost [+35% run speed for 20 seconds 5 times before resting; and it shares a counter with nothing else, making it phenomenal]
-Human Versalitity [an untyped bonus of +2 at lvl 2, and up to +5 later on; a pool of 5 pts between rests; this pool can be used to buff: AC, Attack Rolls, Damage Rolls, Saves or Skills. I tend to use Skills and Attack rolls since my damage is decent, but I can sometimes miss, like say I'm cursed by a enemy caster. I should probably pop 'saves' more often, and hope that the Curse spell doesn't affect me as much.

Saves (Fort/Reflex/Will): [dunno how these will turn out, not worried about them just yet. My Fort save is going to be pretty high; and my will/reflex will take a hit if I take 2 fighter levels.

Base: 13/13/8
Attributes: 7/8/6
Resistance: 5/5/5
Head: 2/2/2
Greater Hero: 4/4/4
Total: 31/32/25

AC [I'm not going to look at this; this build doesn't have much AC; I can get about 22 right now, 24 if fighting defensively; not using any buffs; can hit 26 if I use a Human Versatility: Armour, enhancement 'Boost'; I could also use a larger shield, b/c I've got the 2 levels of Ranger now]

10 Base
1 Dodge feat
4 Icy Raiments Dodge
1 Alchemical Dodge
3 Chattering Ring Dodge
8 Dexterity
6 Wisdom
1 Monk Bonus
4 Insight (Shroud Crafted)
5 Protection
5 Barkskin
8 Armor Bracers
4 Tempest III
5 Combat Expertise
65 (Self Buffed in AC Mode)

Current Gear:

-A +1 chain shirt, need a mithral one, or mithral breastplate/something else medium and mithral.
-A +1 mithral buckler my wiz got

-A +1 comp longbow, I almost never use it, but I can get Bow Str on it, so it's good if I can snipe enemies that are on a different level than me for 'free' damage. If I hide I get sneak attack damage, or the pop-up damage numbers are bugged.

-Three reptilian bane club, scimitar; also have a greatsword, I don't use it.
-Dual Muckbanes, I bougth a 2nd one cheap with my wizard, mailed them to my rogue, it's handy; about 2d6+str damage with two weapons.
-To-Hit, Resistance, Dex, Str gear in my equipment slots; nothing above +1, noob stuff for now.

How I got 3 lesser reptilian bane weapons:

Bought 1 at the AH for like 500 plat.

My wizard actually used it a lot with a bunch of lvl 1 buffs to get his ac up, and bulls str and cat's grace to up his dex and str. It was cheaper on SP than wasting burning hands on single kobolds.

For 'real' targets, like Ogre/Trolls, I stand back and fire a scorching ray with empower spell, and my superior inferno III buff on.

Other 2:

The kobold collector of religious icons (dropped a lot by kobolds I'm finding, and the early dungeons allow you to get a pile of them pretty easily) will give you weapons of lesser reptilian bane when you hand in the 'rare' item that he collects. The rest of the time he gives you less. rept. bane arrows/bolts, or just mwk arrows/bolts.

Just make sure that you turn the items in with a character that proficient with martial weapons if you want to get martial weapons)

It's +1 Lesser Reptilian Bane weapons are great from levels 3-5 at the very least, since you'll be killing literally hundreds,and probably at least a thousand, kobolds. In fact, there's a mission that entails that the party kills 200 kobolds.

[Roy]

I'm not even going to bother trying to pick all the points out of that long post. So just a few things:

1: The second major difficulty spike is Gianthold. This is an area you enter around level 12, which is why Toughness is there. You can go in as early as 10, but this is ill advised if you don't know what you're doing. You probably won't need it before this, but I'm not getting about the difficulty spike. You can have HP in the 120s (low) and AC in the 30s (ok) and do great at almost everything pre Gianthold, then raise your HP by 80 something, go into GH, and STILL have a harder time than you were before.

2: Improved Critical as soon as possible means nothing but full BAB classes and Fighter at 8, or no more than 1 not full BAB class to get IC at 9.

3: Spring Attack is recommended at 6 so you can get Tempest. That's the only reason Dodge/Mobility/Spring Attack are on there. Well, Dodge is ok on an AC build I guess, but mostly the early levels are to get you into Tempest.

More later.

[Judging__Eagle]

Ok, yeah, that -4 to hit when moving is a fucking -pain- right now. ):

I'm using Ranger Sprint Boost to -charge- headlong into every fight. So I don't want to lose to-hit b/c I'm leveraging my biggest advantage, being able to fuck up the worst things that the party is facing by jumping or tumbling past mooks to charge an NPC caster or ranged character.

Oh, what are other good Bane weapons? Human? Orc? Goblin? I know that Giant is going to be good, as are the evil and chaos/law outsider banes.

[ubernoob]

Ok, someone actually left the dungeon (the first of a series of like four stacked dungeons like waterworks) and quit the group when I suggested that they should carry some consumable healing so that the cleric doesn't burn out on mana just healing them.

Yes, they were running in to main tank at 20% health just expecting that I would continuously drop cure serious on them.

I hate morons.

[Roy]

The common ones are the same as the common favored enemies. Reptilian at low levels, then Giants, Aberrations, Evil Outsiders (perhaps the biggest one), Constructs... Though it depends on what you're fighting.

Anyways, here's the thing about this game you'd probably find out the hard way if it weren't for me. The difficulty spikes. A lot.

The first spike is when you stop fighting kobolds as primary opponents and start fighting actual threats. As this one has already been covered I'll just leave it at that.

The second spike is Gianthold. Even if you don't enter underleveled, the difficulty increases dramatically here. This is about the time where AC stops mattering except on dedicated AC builds because enemy to hit scores get a huge boost around this time. However, despite the name there are surprisingly few giants here. Even after considering things like trolls are classified as giants. You mostly fight humanoid beatsticks with some casters. But these guys aren't jokes like they would be in D&D. Staying safe here is a matter of preventing the enemy from acting, not having good AC. Crowd control, paralyzing weapons... if they can't act they can't auto hit you. This is paid content, so you'll either have to subscribe for one or more months or buy the module to get in.

The third spike is at the Vale of Twilight. Or I should say the quests in that area - the outdoor area is easy, easier even than Gianthold despite being higher level. Not only are they difficult, but they all have some sort of annoyance mechanic. One is filled with unresistable almost unavoidable damage. One has enemies that move erratically and often get in your way, but that you can't kill (without failing the quest). One forces you to stay within about 30 feet of each other because there's only one light source and you can't see shit otherwise. One forces an Unexpected Genre Change... to a platformer. Complete with Goddamned Bats. UMBRELLA! One actually isn't too bad... until you get to all the trap rooms with air elementals. If you don't understand why this is a horrible thing, don't worry. You will eventually. This is also paid content. Now I know you're asking at this point - why the fuck would you pay for that? Well it's actually the best module to buy. First of all, doing each of those once lets you do a raid called the Shroud. Even though it's not endgame content, you can still get a wide variety of endgame loot here. Second, buying it also gives access to one other area and two other raids that are also very common and good.

There's some more difficulty spikes after this too. Thing is, each difficulty spike also changes the typical game dynamic.

Before spike 1, people just do what the fuck ever. It doesn't matter.

After 1, but before 2 people start using some strategy and tactics. Unless they don't adapt to enemies actually being a threat of course.

After 2, but before 3 you also start seeing a lot more competence on the individual level. Arcanes keep the party hasted and buffed, Divines actually fucking heal people, melees don't zerg ahead and aggro half the dungeon on the party...

After 3 you start seeing a lot of that 'Stop Having Fun Guys' attitude. Mostly because the best gear does drop here, so they've already ran it over 9,000 times. Slightest thing goes wrong, they drop party. Waste time getting a replacement. Wait for them to get in. Someone has to leave because it's been two fucking hours and you're maybe half done because of all the fucking waiting. Annoyance mechanics waste more time, especially if you haven't been in there before and aren't expecting it. Vets get bitchy and start acting like some abominable hybrid of Denner and Paizil as they attack you for not doing the quest over 9,000 times like them, not remembering or caring that they hadn't always done it many times either.

[Judging__Eagle]

My ranger carries two wands of healing; CLW, and CMW; I use the CLW to top off my HP after fights; I use the CMW when I'm -in- the fight; and very low on health, and the cleric is being a fucking shitpump.

I'm level 4, and I kill monsters as well as the level 6 characters with much more cash at their disposal. The proof is in the 3d6+8 damage I have per swing.

I need to get a wand of Bull's Str, or scrolls of it, next. The CLW wands are 800 gp; the CMW ones are 5k gp. Really, that's not too pricey in the long run, but it is expensive at level 4.

Roy, on Vets getting bitchy; I'll do what I do in WoW.

-Tell them I've never played DDO before, so I don't know the dungeon
-Tell them to warn me -AHEAD- of time
-If they don't, I'll tell them it's their fucking fault that they didn't mention a fucking trap

I notice that in doing a lot of Elites in harbour that the people with voice chat will tell me when shit is going to go down; and I never charge into enemies without a healer and an other beatstick able to keep the mobs tied up.

My personal mission in fights is to jump over/around mooks and fuck up the casters, since they're the real threats in most fights. As well as run back if a non-melee party member is engaged, trying to pull the mob off the player. Most other players seem to ignore the rest of the party. It's retarded.

I should chastise them, and tell them to max their Diplomacy ranks, and use their Diplomacy skill every 6 seconds if they don't want to be Sword-bait.

Right now, my favorite Enhancement is seriously... Ranger Sprint I; since it's a 35% speed boost; meaning I can get to where I need to be very fast.

Spring attack is definitely my next feat, since that -4 to-hit when 'moving' is a bitch, and I move a lot in fights; and my favorite enemies will always try to kite me (spell casters will jump back and shit, so you have to be in their face and trying to gut them).

[Roy]

Yeah, I've dominated the kill count in almost every group I've been in that isn't much higher level and also twinked. Sometimes I even get it then. Nothing like dominating the kill count in a quest four levels higher than you, while taking less damage than everyone else.

Now kill count itself is meaningless. You can get 100% of the kills by doing 1% of the damage so long as it's the last 1% of the damage. And specifically going for kill count is a bad idea. Don't do that. But if you're focusing strictly on doing your job even when it means less kills (killing enemy casters, protecting your casters, working on traps) and still coming out ahead either you're doing something very right, the other guys are doing something very wrong, or both.

Later on though it does get harder to do this if the party isn't on the ball. Enemy casters will spam Heal on themselves and any other enemies with their infinite mana. You won't do enough damage to kill them by yourself, no matter how twinked out you are. If the group is on the ball, the other melees will help, or one of the casters will just SoD it. If they aren't, your only option is Vorpals. Good luck with that, since Vorpals are actually worth a damn here, despite not having been changed at all. Luckily by the time this happens you've reached one of the points where parties are generally more competent, but I've also noticed a lot of new players have taken the vet's advice which is to 'buy nothing, subscribe, or buy Gianthold and the Vale'. Now having new players in GH isn't necessarily a bad thing. It wasn't too long ago I was new, you're all new, and everyone was new at some point. But I mean new in the sense of doesn't know what they're doing at all, not just doesn't know the quest. Rogues with under a hundred HP insisting on doing all the high risk activities even though there are multiple people better qualified and then bitching at the party when it understandably goes wrong and he leads the death count. And then you make suggestions as to how they can actually take two hits and live, and they kinda drag their feet and then obsess about spending all their money on an item that doesn't help their survivability, and is only marginally better than items a tenth the value because you don't have to switch between Disable Device gloves and Open Lock gloves if they're on the same item. And oh yeah, you don't even hardly need an open lock item, because almost all the lockpick DCs are lower than the others, and you can try again if you fail. Such that even the hardest locks, several levels higher than you you can get in about 3 or 4 tries. An OL item would make you get it the first try, but it's really not that big a deal. I suppose an OL item could save you a lot of skill points, but what else are you going to use them for? The only other feasible possibility is Intimidate, except that...

1: As a Ranger, you can only get max ranks + item + GH + luck bonus, and that's about it. This puts you in the 40s, which is about 5-10 points too low.

2: Those last few points come from enhancements and feats, which you do not have access to or do not have room for.

3: There's probably a Fighter or Barbarian who does meet those criteria when it counts.

4: When it doesn't count (trash) you want the aggro spread out, so no one is taking damage too fast for the heals available to keep up. Especially when mass heals come online.

5: Many of the best strategies involve an atypical character intentionally gaining aggro, such as a Sorcerer jumping up and down in a Maximized, Empowered Fire Wall. Sure you could Intimidate and stand in the fire for him, but by the time this starts happening AC is basically meaningless, so with his Displacement, Stoneskin, and Reconstruct if WF he's probably safer than you. And despite the earlier remarks about competence you'd be surprised how many melee fight anywhere BUT in the firewall/CC.

6: You have an innate mechanic to regain aggro if an Exploiter. Sneak Attack. Sure it's only like 1d6 + small number, but a free 10-15 a hit every hit does help get aggro back in a hurry. Though really, you'll be outdamaging just about anything that isn't a metamagic caster, a better Exploiter, or one of the builds that's more damage focused at the expense of other things (Monster, Frenzied Berserker) that have their own set of drawbacks (constant 20 sec cooldown activation, constant backlash damage).

[Judging__Eagle]

I'm realizing that I won't be using Khopeshes until level 8 at the least, and that's if I burn a ranger level and get Fighter 1. Ranger 7 is at level 9, and that's going to either be IC: Slashing, or I dunno.

I'll probably get Power Attack earlier as well. I'm not sure though.

Basically, I want to max out my damage ability as much as possible, as early as possible; and increase my defenses as cheaply, and as slowly as I need to, so that my offenses are more effective.

I'm also realizing that I need level 9 khopeshes, and focus on 'other' weapons until level 9. Which probably isn't a bad idea. I can save up for some really good weapons, and use whatever I've got now, or find in my dungeon runs.

CC Weapons:
Which weapon abilities, or melee character abilities are 'good' in terms of being able to CC enemies?

You mentioned controlling monsters become 'the' way to deal with them, but what specifically is good for a melee character like mine to consider getting?

Right now, my current weapons sets are:

Kobold-killing gear:

+1 LRB scimitar
+1 LRB shortsword

I also have have a Pick, Club, 2 greatswords, and 1 Khopesh as well. The khopesh is actually useless, since I'll be level 9 when I can equip it, and out of Stormreach harbour as well. Oh, and 2 light crossbows.

Anyone here want a lesser reptilian bane weapon? I'm fine either loaning or selling them.

Gnarrl's Sickle x2 (the trog stench sickles; I use them as my anti-zombie set; and when fighting things that aren't reptiles)

dual +2 light maces (on things I want to -hit- that aren't kobolds/trogs; the skeleton warrior room in WW)

+1 comp longbow (seldom used puller, and for hitting things below me, or above me; it's not my TWF damage, but it also does't suck).

Oh, here's a question, can you TWF with thrown weapons? >_> Sometimes I'm able to snipe shit, or there's stuff on a ledge or across a gap, and I want to hit it -now-.

[Roy]

Not a good idea to get PA early, you won't be able to hit with it very often.

You're also going to need to do something about your defenses, and they don't stay cheap to buff.

Anyways, the main controlling weapon is Paralyzers. Every time you hit they save or get paralyzed. The DC is low, but your attack speed won't be, and enemy saves are terrible for their level. As in you can get level 15 mobs failing a DC 15 Will save after about 3 tries. These are usually very expensive. You might be able to get them cheap. If you can, DO IT. Weapon type doesn't really matter here, you don't paralyze for DPS and it's on hit and not on crit. That's about the only one melees can do (trip has a long cooldown and is more a Fighter thing). Mostly CC is the purview of casters, with Greater Command and Holds and Flesh to Stone etc. It is possible to get your AC high enough to matter Gianthold and on, but very expensive and limited to select builds.

Specialty weapons in general are worth looking into.

Here's the other important ones:

Banisher - on crit, Will save or be Banished. Has a HD cap. Works amazingly well in the Vale of Twilight, not so well beyond that (enemies have too many HD, Will saves too high, or are on their home plane already). High crit range ones are EXPENSIVE.

Disruptor - on hit, Will save or be destroyed. DC is low, but again high frequency of attacks. I think this only appears on bludgeoning weapons.

Smiter - on crit, Fortitude (?) save or be destroyed. DC is fairly decent, and constructs don't have very good saves. These are expensive though, even more so than the others from what I've seen.

Vorpal - on confirmed natural 20, enemies die. Not limited to specific types, works on a fairly wide variety of stuff. Warning: Death Ward blocks this, which many enemies later on have! Still much more useful than it is in D&D because of the huge piles of HP you're beating on. Just keep in mind it is flagged as [Death] when it shouldn't be.

You'll also want a set of DPS weapons, because red named enemies are immune to most non damage effects and sometimes just beating the fuck out of them is the path to victory. At low levels elemental damage works great, at mid levels you're going to want good damage (holy, holy burst, pure good) and at high levels it's about the same, except DPS isn't so good anymore most of the time, until you get raid gear.

[Judging__Eagle]

Yeah, I miss enough as it is, so PA "late" is not a bad idea.

I'm stacking Str and a bit of Dex right now (str 20, dex 18; up from 15 each), and am using a mix of "spell storing" items to give me more buffs.

A pair of rage rings that I picked up from chests are pretty handy; I can get 2 rages off (+2 to hit, and +2 str; so +3 to hit, +1 to damage, and str checks) between shrines.

I'm also using a "protection from evil" set of goggles (5 charges; the save boost is what I like vs enemy casters); and Expeditious retreat goggles; I'm still using my Insight Goggles quest reward for the to-hit.

I got an Invis Belt; and the rest of my slots are all passive buffs.

One combo that I find hilarious is a DR 1/- Helmet that I got, and the Lesser Spear Bane bracers; most kobold ranged attacks only do their fire damage as a result; and most meleeing kobolds don't hurt me as badly.

Finding a good trinket has been... difficult, it's all enhancement bonuses, usually a +1, and I've already got +1 dex somewhere else. I'll probably keep the 1st spell storing trinket I find, even if it's some BS spell like Doom.

So... Paralysis is the enhancement to get. Yeah, I can see that being brutal; dual Paralysis weapons plus a to-hit buff, or a haste buff.

I think that I made my character neutral good. So chaos/law weapons need higher UMD scores, I've only got an 8 UMD now, so in 10 levels I'll have it for sure. Less with cha and umd gear.

[ubernoob]

I just want everyone to know that I named my new sorcerer "Soggypants"

[Judging__Eagle]

Oh, and my dps Rouge/Rangar is named Melliana; in most groups, she gets about 1/2, if not more, of the total kills b/c of really fast 1d6+6 (against shit like wtfwolves ): ) and up to 1d8+2d6+12 if my longsword sneak attacks a kobold or troglodyte.

I'm debating getting the Rogue "damage" boost enhancement, b/c it's a 5 count of +2 damage temporary buffs that I could use instead of burning my Human Versatility uses up.

I'm a lot of a miser when it comes to resources like that, I tend to save them for fights where I am alone on a single mob, while the whole party is busy with a swarm, and I'm on a caster, and it needs to go down immediately. Hold Person is serious business, and stopping it from being used is important.