I have just started about 2 days ago and could use help building a melee sorcerer. I am looking to be a pure 20 sorc earth savant with magic CC earth/ acid based and melee weapon crit/AC shred. I am looking to risk 10% spell failure on wearing leather armor and I want to use a two handed weapon. I am pretty set on maul. I want a crushing weapon not slashing or piercing.

I really wanted to dual wield morning stars but the stat budget for two weapon fighting seemed far to high as you need a lot of dex which takes away from damage and hit roles. two weapon fighting also seems very feat heavy.

If anyone could point me to a character builder with the new enhancement tree that would be great.

I don't want everything in the earth tree so I will probably only spend the 41 points to become an earth elemental.
I don't want all of the human stats so i will probably only take 2 action boost 1 for melee and 1 for spell power (both 20% increases), I'll take the ability boost and the ability boost for stats while using action boost. I'm looking at with all ability score traits I should have + 4 in str, +4 in cha, +6 in dex every 20 seconds so I get full leather armor bonus with only 10 second downtime. Those combined with greater heroism and I will probably have around 20points invested.

that leaves me at 61 points in with 19 to go if the guide i read that says you cap at 80 enhancements is right. I was thinking of investing the last 19 into water savant for lethargic that slows attack and move speed and gives me stronger cold based spells.


I'm thinking of investing in mage armor, stone skin and shield for ac seeing as leather armor doesn't  seem to get in the way of their effects. I may take blur as added protection but I really don't want to be dodge based.

I'm not sure of spells for offense as I haven't had alot of time to chew over the huge list offered. I like flesh to stone, kill cloud,  acid cloud, acid rain looks fun, Hold (monster, person, animal). I don't think I'll invest in the spell like abilties but I am not sure. I have acid spray for now just as a cheap damage source.

I am not sure how my feats will play out.

Right now I have :
force of character - use charisma on will saves instead of wisdom
Meta magic Exend spell - double CC duration

I am a human so I get 8 feats in total it looks like

for my last 6 I was thinking of these:
Light armor proficiency
power attack
critical focus
critical damage focus
weapon focus bludgeon
spell focus transmutation

Feats I'm thinking about:

Improved trip
improved sunder
precision ( not sure how I am going to get the dex however)
greater spell penetration
greater spell focus
meta magic empower


I am a 28 point build, Human sorcerer. My stats are as follows:
str 16
dex 10
con 10
int 12
wis 8
cha 16

If you really are going for a melee sorc (I do not recommend it) swap one of your spells at level 6 for tenser's transformation.

+4 str/con/dex (stacking)

Full Base attack bonus

Proficiency with all martial weapons

(-2 spell DCs and longer spell cooldowns as the disadvantage.)

FtS no save. Power word stun no save. Otto's irresistible dance no save. (try to fit in otto's irresistible.....such a good spell, maybe drop polar ray or black dragon bolt).

Hold mass eh, whatever. If you aren't planning on running EEs you should be able to make it work, but don't bring this build into EEs.....with your 28 pnt build/obvious newness to the game it will not work.

And there is no +4 cha boost on tenser's just +4 to all physical stats.

cdr wrote on Aug 22^nd, 2013 at 11:38pm:


I give C-, too bland and uninspired...


damn, now that popcorn will go to waste.

hm guess im just an idiot.

new spell list:

level 1
night shield
Shield
master's touch
hypnotism

level 2

Glitterdust
fog cloud*
bear's endurance
cat's grace

level 3

haste
dispalcement
heroism
rage

level 4
burning blood
stone skin
wall of fire*
solid fog

level 5
cloud kill
mind fog*
waves of fatigue*
protection from elements

level 6
acid fog
tenser's transformation
greater heroism

level 7
delayed blast fireball
power word blind*
waves of exhaustion*

level 8
black dragon bolt
incendiary cloud
power word stun*

level 9
Meteor swarm
energy drain*
wail of the banshee*


spells with * are spells that will be replaced by higher level spells or spells I don't care about.

could you elaborate on what's wrong with the build? I have no experience with higher content etc so I have no idea what DCs I should be maintaining to land spells effectively and what hp level to have etc.

I just read that mithral armor has been pretty much wiped out after update 14 or something. So I guess my blue chain shirt now will be the last thing i get unless I have the chain shirt from the Houds of Xoarith or whatever it's called.  I would go from 12 possible AC to 24 possible AC. I'm not sure how high I have to get my AC though as a dps right now it seems good. with my 22 AC I have 60% miss chance but I dont know how fast that will degrade.  Concealment looks like it would net me another 50% miss chance check. My dodge is always going to suck I probably won't make it past 5%. It looks like I can get Physical reduc from augments. Theres also the items with natural armor floating around + the 2 natural AC I get from earth savant. I haven't even touched on deflection gear either.

I really need more bench mark numbers so I can plan around my character goals. I already dropped crit because after reading on this game mechanics I saw how hopeless it was to get a decent threat level on low threat weapons without kinsai or paladin. There is a lot of spell focus enhancements for items it looks like. If i only knew how high my DC check should come around that would be a great help.

DC, AC, HP benchmarks would be very helpful.

The ONLY decent melee sorc build I ever saw was the "Tukaw" build and one or two of its variants. Tukaw was a player on Khyber and I personally saw how good it was at the time when he and I (I was playing Arkat my WF Monk) duoed Elite Sins of Attrition shortly after the Amrath area came out several years ago. He got about 2/3 - 3/4 of the kills in that run so that build was solid at that time.

A Tukaw build now has a split like 16Sorc/2Pal/2Monk. A variant would be the same except 2Monk could be replaced by 2Rogue if you wanted to also be able to get traps without having to take up one of your precious slots with Knock.

You can try to find the build posted on the DDO forums but it was posted a long time ago. The forum user name who posted it that you're looking for is "Tak."

Good luck.

Look, I don't even know what to say.  This build is just screwed.

A major problem here is you are insanely feat starved.  You've also given up solid self-healing (eventually you will be able to UMD Heal Scrolls, and of course, there is Rejuvenation Cocoon as well as a few other options, but you should really be looking at Reconstruct).

So if you want something along these pretty sad lines, my advice is to take a long hard look at a wizard and deeply splash it.  You have two options as a wizard.  You can opt for a Human and run primarily as a Pale Master or you can be a Warforged and run as anything you like.  I strongly advise that you go Warforged.  It will open up the best self-healing you can get AND it will let you play the Pale Master style as well.  You can learn both playstyles if you go Warforged.

You should be open to very deep splashes and you should, for the most part, give up on offensive casting.  The gear requirements will be intense and you are probably nowhere near ready to build or play something like this kind of toon with any kind of success.

If you want a template, I'd consider a Warforged and go with 12 Wizard, 6 Monk, and 2 Ranger levels.  This is not a build for the faint of heart.

level 1
night shield
Shield
master's touch
hypnotism

level 2

Glitterdust
fog cloud*
bear's endurance
cat's grace

level 3

haste
displacement
heroism
rage

level 4
burning blood
stone skin
wall of fire*
solid fog

level 5
cloud kill
mind fog*
waves of fatigue*
protection from elements

level 6
acid fog
tenser's transformation
greater heroism

level 7
delayed blast fireball
power word blind*
waves of exhaustion*

level 8
black dragon bolt
incendiary cloud
power word stun*

level 9
Meteor swarm
energy drain*
wail of the banshee*

28 build

str 16
con 10
dex 10
wis 8
int 12
cha 16

Feats:
force of character
power attack
light armor prof
mental toughness
improved mental toughness
greater spell focus conj
greater spell focus evoca
meta magic heighten

free feats:
spell pen
spell focus conj
spell focus evoca

single target acid spells - black dragon bolt, burning blood, Melf's acid arrow SLA - Checks none listed

single target fire : burning blood, wall of fire, delayed fireball blast - Checks reflex delayed fire ball

Aoe Acid - Acid fog, Cloud kill, Acid blast SLA - Checks - Fortitude cloud kill, Acid blast reflex save

Fire Aoe - Incendiary cloud,Scorch SLA, Delayed fire blast, Wall of fire, Meteor swarm
- Checks Reflex delayed fire ball, reflex scorch,
Reflex fire portion of swarm not bludgeoned portion, Reflex blind portion of incendiary cloud

Utility -
Acid fog -4 ac no save slow no save,
thick fog -2 attack and melee damage rolls no save -5 reflex saves no save
cloud kill 1d4 const damage halved on fort save 3-7 hit die instant kill fort save on 4 hit die+
incendiary cloud blind saved on reflex

Buffs -
+4 sheild AC Sheild,
+1-3 all saves Night sheild,
Simple /Martial prof master's touch / tensers transformation
50% concealment displacement
Greater Heroism +4 attack rolls, Skill check (does this could spell dc?) saves, immunity to fear and 20 hp
Haste 32% run speed + 15% attack speed + 1 ac+ 1 attack rolls + 1% dodge + 1 reflex save
stone skin 10 DR /adamantine
Tenser's transformation +4 str,dex,const +6 ac+ Full 20 BaB at 20, -2 spell DC and spell CD 2x.

Sp DC:

welfare gear set for cha +8 cha enhancemnt piece + 4 cha from both savant trees + 1 from human tree+ 4 cha from ability points+ 16 cha base = 33 cha = 11 ability mod

welfare bracers + 1 dc focus + 1 dc spell focus feat + 1 dc greater sell focus feat = 3 dc

Spell DC: 10+ 9 +3 + 11 = 33 dc - 2 from tenser's from = 31 dc

Spell DC within thick fog for reflex save = 36

AC:
10 base + leather / light chain(mithral light chain from raid) 10-14+ lets say 12 for now + 4 shield ac + 5+ deflection AC + natural armor 5+ + 2 natural armor earth savant+ 6 from tenser transform

44-49 ish ac depending on what enhancement bonus of items and dex gear I get.

once I get my hand on a 5% arcane failure sapphire  I can wear studded leather at 10% failure, once I get  10% gem I can move my armor class up to breast plate I believe, once i get a 15% I can wear light scale mails at 5% failure for much higher ACs potential.

Physical resist:
25 from earth elemental form + 16 from blue socket + 12 from light armor prof under tenser's form (20 bab) = 53

53 = about 25-27% damage reudction

resist will be higher when i can upgrade to medium armor with 10-15%  arcane failure gems

Damage reduction:
Stone skin 10/adamantine 20 stack per cast at 20

Concealment : 50% miss chance - dispalcement

dodge: possibly around 5% after dex etc factored in




*****************

More comprehensive break down of my thought process and build shape. I've been reading more and talking to more people in the advice channel about level 20 and under content most have said that they were able to tackle most content with around 35-40 spell DC. 21-25 content has been said to be comfortable around 45-50 DC.

I am only aiming for 20 and under right now. I have alot of extra things to level and gear to build up on. I think most of the stuff check out.

I will continue to do a melee, health and dex break down later I am a bit burnt out after so much research and crunching. The spell list will morph some more as well. There are a lot of spells I don't care about so I'll just be picking the best utility ones.

anyone wants to "melee" my "sorceror"? lol

If you roll a 28pt human battle sorc: you're gonna' have a bad time.