Just a couple templates i've put together for the game, featuring several builds which have been successful in previous D&D game such as NWN, which carry on to DDO.
These templates are obtained muticlass, so you will have to take in consideration you will lose the benefits of a pure level 20 build, which they achieve at level 20.
It is my opinion that the benefits obtained through multiclassing superceed or are on par with pure class bonuses, and such multiclassings help soloing as well.
Remember in order to get these, you must select the customize option
Casters:Battle Cleric1 level Barbarian, 19 levels cleric.or
1 level fighter, 19 levels cleric.Recommended race here is Dwarf for the Constitution and racial immunities. You can go with Human if you want a change of aesthetics, but you wont have the immunities, and would end up 2 less Con for the build. You can use the Human bonus feat for toughness to get any HP you would lose from less con though.
Dwarf stats will look like this:
Human stats will be similar cept 14 Constitution instead of 16, which as previously mentioned, you can reclaim the HP loss with toughness as a feat.
Clerics need at least 12 charisma in order to start on their pure class bonus. Thing being is that since you are multiclassing, you dont get access to it, so it's irrelevant to have points into Charisma.
You may be thinking now Night I won't be able to turn undead with that, and the answer is you probably wont. However, with this build, turn undead has been replaced with
TURN EVERYTHING!, and you will see why.
1 into BarbarianThis is the more offensive of the two starter choices, and will help greatly with soloing low level if you pick up the damage reduction enhancement. Barbarians also get rage to start, and with 16 Con this will last about for 45 seconds per rest. This is great for boss or rare fights.
However, when you start leveling into Cleric, you get access to plate armor, so your survivability increases greatly.
Also with your wisom maxed, you are not comprimising your spell casting at all. You will enjoy the world of great melee and effective caster side by side. You may set up your spells to be offensive, or you may set them up to heal or mix both. Whats certain is you will be effective at melee and casting, which is what this build is all about.
As a Cleric, many of your spells you get as you level are buffs which you can use to enhance your melee, to even overtake the capabilities of a same level fighter.
When you level every 4 levels, you get option to add another stat point. I recommend to keep building wisdom. You can change it to suit your role, but need at least 19 Wisdom for access to the highest level Cleric spells so keep that in mind.
Having that in mind lets look at the access to stats growth through buffs and class abilities.
Base **With Cleric buffs (Cleric level 2 spells) Barbarian Rage (45 seconds) Cleric Spell Divine Power
STR 14 STR 18 STR 22 STR 28
DEX 8 DEX 12
CON 16 CON 20 CON 24
INT 8 *INT 8
WIS 18 *WIS 18
CHA 6 *CHA 6
* You can buff these stats +4 as well if choose to.
** you get access to these spells at combined level 4
The buffs from level 2 spell last for 1 minute per level cleric, and those can be extended with meta IIRC. So if you are level 15 cleric, the buffs last 15 minutes etc, and can be extended with meta magic for 50% duration.
With your stats in such places, you get great save rolls, 'cept reflex, though you can correct those with spells and items if you are concerned.
As mentioned before, you can spend an action point to get the Barb enhancement which will allow you to boost your damage reduction 6/- 5 times a rest for 20 seconds. This is awesome for low leveling, and even for some higher level mobs which dont have enhanced weapons, and combined with plate armor it should be rather sick.
1 into FighterStats are the same, but with fighter its a little more defensive. You get an extra feat at start, and access to the best shields, which works well if you want an AC build with your cleric. You lose the stats from Rage, and the option to damage reduction enhancement that barbarian gets.
You can always put a few more levels into to fighter, in order to build some good combo feats the fighter gets, but I dont recommend anything past level 3 (1 is enough imo)
The idea on this is that you want to keep your spells relevant to your level, as going 10 levels into fighter, and then 10 into Cleric, you will get access to cure light wounds at level 11, and it looks real stupid to heal yourself for 4-8 hitpoints when the mobs will be hitting you for ten times that at that level.
Multiclassing melee classes can be more forgiving however, but for caster classes, you want to get started on access to your spell building asap.
Recommended to get the Metamagic feat Eschew Materials. This will allow you to cast spells without ingredients.=============================================================================
Make sure to check out the DDO compendium here
http://compendium.ddo.com/wiki/Compendium_Home=============================================================================
Moar to come
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