One of 5FS pally builds will also smash most quests in heroics. You can also go for an evasion splash to ignore magic mobs, like in Enter Kobold end fight, letting you stand there while swinging. The best thing about heroic pally, imo, is the tier 5 insta kill cleave that can AoE. Round up as many mobs as you can and hit I win button.

For the Paladin build, to go human I'd get power attack and Bastard Sword at lvl one, then get empower heal and quicken at 6 and 12 (you want those heals going off without a hitch!), moving the THF lines up to 15 and 18.  Don't bother with the Weapon Focus feats, they're not going to add much for a kid to notice.  Grab cleave at 21 to qualify for Momentum Swing around the time it will be available, then OC at 24.  Bastard sword is for shield use for extra survivability.  Works for dwarf, too, use dwarven axes without needing the extra feat. 

Barbarian can get passive healing and temp hp on being hit, so they're more of a "wade-in and forget it" type of build.  Easier to go THF and not worry about dex.  Take heavy armour instead of completionist, and IC slash (use axes or greatswords).  Swap the weapon focus feats (again, they don't mean that much, just a bit of extra DPS with top gear) probably for cleave and maybe stunning blow or even Luck of Heroes (+1 all saves.)  Getting the capstones in ravager instead of FB gives you that awesome passive healing extra crit range while raging and knockdown immunity.

Meursault wrote on Oct 25^th, 2015 at 10:10am:

easily. You get Lay On Hands and cure spells. healing isn't an issue.

Meursault wrote on Oct 25^th, 2015 at 10:10am:

The pally. High saves, at will healing, neg level immunity, and AoE insta kill in Holy Retribution.

I suggest THF Barbarian with a hireling.

A new player needs more time than an experienced player to get their character from Korthos to "pally. High saves, at will healing, neg level immunity, and AoE insta kill in Holy Retribution."

Although you didn't mention the age of the child, you didn't say "teen", which leads me to believe they're somewhere in the 8-12 range.  I've watched children in this age group play DDO, and they tend to ignore their own health bar and get frustrated when it's not taken care of for them.  Artificer/Paladin/Bard self healing ability would likely go unused.

As the barb levels up, it'll need decreasing amounts of nannying, provided the character follows the build plan pretty closely.

If they get to high enough level to TR, then do the Paladin.

Rubbinns wrote on Oct 25^th, 2015 at 5:14pm:


Didn't say can't.  I said "tend not to".

Yeah, going on 10, and capable of taking care of HP until combat gets really exciting, at which point it gets ignored sometimes. We're all fine with that, we want to encourage that magic of immersion. This isn't a chore, or even a lesson, it's a fun game that happens to include watching adults do calculations and take numerous factors into account, "accidentally" talking out loud while doing it.

We had a wolf build last time, and it was OK up to about level 8, at which point combat was getting long and intense enough that deaths were becoming too frequent. "You never die, and I die every adventure". Not true, but apparently it felt that way, and felt discouraging. I don't believe every kid should get a trophy just for showing up, but I don't think living through most of your adventures is an unreasonable expectation, either.

I don't get the final say, but my opinion carries considerable weight. I'll present both options, but I'm going to recommend the barbarian as "less to think about". Even if the Shiny Paladin is the first choice, knowing there is a solid fallback is great.

And again, thanks for all the great input!

Meursault wrote on Oct 25^th, 2015 at 7:37am:


Barb self-healing is still great, but isn't available until level 12. So think about whether potions and/or hireling will suffice until then. Don't waste a feat on heavy armor proficiency, with the MRR nerf it gives you zero over medium. If you're not going to play into epic at all I'd go THF and try to pull a Riftmaker unless you have a pair of Death Nips laying around. You'll still want Weapon Foci because your healing scales with melee power.

Level 1   : Power Attack, Two handed Fighting
Level 3   : Weapon Focus: Slashing
Level 6   : Imp Two handed Fighting
Level 9   : Improved Critical-Slashing
Level 12 : Greater Two handed Fighting
Level 15 : Weapon Focus: Blunt
Level 18 : Weapon Focus: Pierce


41 points in FB (capstone)
36 points in Ravager (t5 bloodstrength/crit rage)
3 points in Human (heal amp)


Pally is also great, but the build I posted is significantly less newbie friendly with the MRR nerf. If bladeforged isn't on the table, you'll want to go human and pick up healing amp but move the rest of those racial points over to defender and maybe get metamagics with the extra feats.

Level 1   : Two Handed Fighting, Power Attack
Level 3   : Weapon Focus: Slashing
Level 6   : Improved Two Handed Fighting
Level 9   : Improved Critical: Slashing
Level 12 : Greater Two handed Fighting
Level 15 : Empower Healing
Level 18 : Quicken Spell
(no need for cleaves, you pick them up in KotC)

41 points KotC (capstone)
23+ points Defender (+6 Str, +6 Con OR 20% HP, fast movement)
12+ points Human (Heal Amp)
4 points of wiggle room here.

5 Foot Step wrote on Oct 29^th, 2015 at 12:19am:

Thanks a ton for customizing them for us, I really appreciate that!

I think with the higher HP pool a hireling healer will be able to keep up until level 12, and 12 seems like a transition to harder content anyway. We'll just make sure we don't charge into Offering of Blood or the like at 11.

And sadly, no Death Nips lying around 
But maybe a dampened Greatclub of the Scrag, that would look rockin' cool 

(Someday I'm going to make a bank mule a female halfling barbarian, dress her in starter rags, ang give her a Scrag Greatclub just for a laugh)

Meursault wrote on Oct 29^th, 2015 at 10:36am:


Sounds like the relationship between the current DDO "developers" and the guys who actually developed the game.

Starkjade wrote on Oct 29^th, 2015 at 9:11am:


Melee power x heal amp is overperforming.

Still, if supreme cleave isn't enough cleavage for you, you may want to sub one or both extra foci for cleave/great cleave.

Revaulting wrote on Nov 9^th, 2015 at 5:04am:

I can craft unbound for lesser, at least, I'll check if I can craft an unbound regular vamp, that would certainly help lower levels. Lesser is something crazy like ML3, I think.

Meursault wrote on Nov 9^th, 2015 at 8:52am:


No, but it's better for the first eight levels, though.  Most mobs have the /magic to beat it after that.

Spearblock items are good for dealing with archers, as they start to have magic arrows around level five quests.

I like to start melee lives with invulnerability armour, a +1 keen falchion, and a 10% melee alacrity item.