I know that I make fun of my dwarven cleric, Derra, a lot. Sure, she’s stocky, so ugly she scares bugbears away, has kind of a gruff voice, has a husband who voluntarily got himself exiled for life because of littering and creating a public nuisance JUST to get away. It’s okay when I do it. But if someone else wants to have a go about her looks, well….
Nobody does that twice.
Tony made level 5 in the DDO static group Sunday, Tom had made his level a few weeks back, and I was the laggard who still hadn’t finished level 4.
I had big plans for the level. I was going to become a PALADIN! Four levels of cleric would be a perfect foundation for a warrior of Light. With a level or two of paladin, I could wield better weapons and still be effective in battle without having to always be casting mana-draining spells or swinging my whiffle ball-on-a-stick all the time.
I logged in for Wednesday’s Massively.com-sponsored night of dungeon crawling fun, hoping to get into a group and troll through the waterworks some; there’s still instances there I have not yet done on hard or elite. A LOT of people showed up, which was pretty fantastic, and groups filled up quickly and moved en masse to the sewers to stain the murky waters red with kobold blood. There didn’t seem to be any particular need for a Hobbesian cleric, so I looked at my list of pending adventures and picked out a couple in the Marketplace area.
While in the Market, I hired myself a level 4 fighter. Two solo/party quests right next to each other each sent me through a twisty labyrinth of traps ending with an easily defeated boss. It was kind of yawn, and they didn’t level me — but I was close.
Next up on the list was another warehouse quest — break open crates until ten Smuggler’s Diamonds are found. Breaking crates! What fun! And so crates were broken and just as you might expect, though there were hundreds of crates and barrels in there, I was down to two before I finished finding the diamonds. When I found that last diamond, the adventure ended and I got my experience — and my level.
Yeah…. ding.
I went back to the Market to find a paladin trainer to set me right on the path of Light… Wasn’t going to happen. My charisma of 8 (remember: short, brutish, nasty. Derra is the kind of girl you don’t bring home to mother) meant that paladin abilities wouldn’t work for her; and she was neutral good, where paladins must be lawful good. Twice denied! I cried all the way over to the fighter trainer and took a level of that instead. So now Derra is a 4/1 cleric/fighter, and she can wield that axe I’ve been saving for her.
I don’t know yet if I will keep her on this path, but Back In The Day, a fighter/cleric was a potent combination, so who knows?
Was great to finally meet most of the people in the guild! Even though I was soloing, it was wonderful seeing all that green blue text scroll by 🙂
13 thoughts on “DDO: A Night of Crime”
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Fighter-clerics are just fine. Really, the only thing a Paladin level would get you vs a fighter level with no CHA bonus is the aura which is only a +1 to a couple of things. 2 Paladin levels with a CHA bonus is a nice boost to your saving throws, but whachagonnado? As it is, the bonus feats from a level or 2 of fighter are quite nice.
Man everyone keeps talking about this DDO night. I really need to download it. Looks like a lot of fun!
Massively.com has a guild on Cannith and a Wednesday night grouping party, so if you’ve been thinking of giving DDO a shot, you may want to consider joining in!
pallys are hard to develop imo, so many stats it needs to be effective
i don’t remember what rpg game it was, but one of the main npc characters was a fighter/cleric combo which worked well =)
I knew I’d made the right decision re: fighter/cleric when I saw all the weapons I could now use 🙂
Ha! That’s pretty much what I’m doing with my character in the guild, Rainlin. He’s currenly 2 Clr/1 Pal. I planned ahead and made him Lawful Good. He also has 8 Charisma, so he’s not turning undead anytime soon. I only wanted a “splash” of one level to primarily allow more weapons. I still want a lot of spellcasting, so ultimately I’ll be 19 Clr/1 Pal if I reach max level.
I think the only Paladin power you don’t get to exploit with a low Charisma is the Smite Evil, which adds twice your Charisma bonus to attacks against evil once per rest. The aura is nice because it gives +1 AC against evil, and even at first level you can get an enhancement that gives a +3 bonus to Concentration to anyone affected by your aura, which is nice for spellcasters (including yourself!) The drawback is some of the enhancements don’t stack, such as bonuses to heal ability, etc.
At any rate, it’s cool to have a Dwarven Waraxe! You’ll probably get more out of the Fighter level in the long run, especially if you give yourself more than just one level.
See you next Wednesday. 🙂
@Psycho @OrderedChaos Right now I’m saving up advancement points for all the dwarven axe feats. I was thinking about going for 2H axes (mostly because I hardly ever remember to block with my shield), but given what you say about the upcoming axe/shield enhancement, maybe I’ll keep the shield 🙂 Thanks!
Make sure you use Dwarven Axes. Better damage and crit rates. Plus, coming soon, if you use a Dwarven Axe and a Shield, you will be getting glancing blows to all within your attack arc. (just like a 2 handed weapon)
really? all my characters are on Cannith … hmm
See you Wednesday, then!
Tipa wrote:
I was thinking about going for 2H axes (mostly because I hardly ever remember to block with my shield)….
Wearing a shield gives you a bonus to AC, which makes you harder to hit. Actually blocking (holding shift) gives you some damage reduction (which is new to DDO), so if you sit there holding down shift you’ll take less damage. Anyway, wearing a shield still has some benefits. Plus, a dwarven waraxe does 1d10, a 2H great axe only does 1d12, so might as well stick with the 1H and shield, I think.
Unless there’s some subtlety to the DDO system I’m missing….
I am definitely loving the dwarven waraxe; I went to the magical weapons vendor in the Marketplace and bought a Dwarven Axe of Pure Good, which is full of handy bonuses, like +3 to str/dex, +1d6 damage vs non good, etc. Plus, it’s glowy!