Building a Better Beast: The Wraith

Originally I was going to call this build "Traptester"

Welcome to number two in an ongoing, but limited, series called Building a Better Beast. In each segment we take a look at how to make your artificer’s pet, that little bundle of mechanical joy called the Iron Defender, even better. Today’s build focuses on a very narrow niche, making a pet which works well with rogues.

Artificers are already pretty rogue-like, and two classes share a lot of similarities, maybe you want your pet to work well with rogues because you want to multiclass, or maybe you just want to help the rogue out when he goes scouting. Either way, this beast setup (which I’m code-naming Wraith) will help.

Like the last build, the Tank, there are spells which will make this build even more effective. Oh, and don’t forget to pick up the Augment Summoning feat.



1st Level: Like always you want to make sure you can heal your pet, but more important is protecting it from the various traps that it may encounter as it defends the rogue.

Repair Light Wounds--A standby which is necessary. Plus it doesn’t take up a spell slot, so why not?
Resist Energy--Drop a few of these on the Iron Defender to help defend iit from getting blasted by unseen traps.
Resistance--Like the aforementioned spell, this will help keep your Iron Defender safe. A bonus to spells means he is even more likely to take half damage from most traps, which makes it easier for Resist Energy to soak up all the abuse from the trap.

2nd Level: With the next few spells there is really no chance your pet will be damaged by elemental spells, and even physical traps will have trouble getting through to him.

Protection From Energy--Combined with Resist Energy the two make for a potent defense against elemental damage.
Reinforce Construct--Temp hit points? Yes please, lets see those spikes hurt your pet now.
Cat’s Grace--An increase to AC and a bonus to Reflex saves, come on traps, you’re going to have to try harder

3rd Level: Other than the Repair spells and possibly Stoneskin if you want to spend some extra money, there really isn’t a lot here for the Wraith.

4th Level: Upgrade for one spell, another repair spell and everyone’s favorite armor enchantment.

Protection From Elements--Like Protection from Energy, but for every element at once, most certainly worth it..
Armor of Speed--Unlike the tank who wants this for AC and attack speed, the Wraith really just wants this for the +1 to Reflex saves.

5th Level: Just like the tank you’ll want to pick this spell up.

Radiant Forcefield--This spell is amazing, if by some chance an Elite trap happens to break through your pet’s defenses, this will make the damage even more neglible.

6th Level: Other than reconstruct there aren’t really any options for this build.

1st Level:
Homunculus Distraction, the bluff skill makes enemies susceptible to sneak attacks for awhile, trust me, your rogue will thank you.

2nd Level:
Homunculus Ruthless Deception while the enemy is susceptible to sneak attack damage for 6 seconds you might as well add on some of your own. Get +3 to sneak attack damage with this enhancement.

3rd Level:
Homunculus Skillful Deception, a +2 to hit with sneak attacks is pretty helpful too.

4th Level:
Pick up Homunculus Danger Avoidance for a bonus to AC and Reflex saves.

5th Level:
Turn that bluff up a notch by picking up Homunculus Distraction II, and don’t forget to upgrade your Danger Avoidance while you are at it.

6th Level:
Homunculus Dexterity has become available to you, take it for a chance at a great enhancement later on.

7th Level:
Time to upgrade your sneak attack capabilities with Ruthless Deception II and Skillful Deception II, bring the bonuses to a +4 to hit and +6 to damage.

8th Level:
Pick up Danger Avoidance III and Distraction III to increase your combat effectiveness even more.

9th Level:
Your pet is still a combat build when it comes down to it, pick up Reinforced Armor to give him the extra hit points he needs.

10th Level:
Skillful Deception III and Ruthless Deceptoion III this level means your pet’s getting a +6 to hit and +9 to damage on sneak attacks.

11th Level:
Time to max out Danger Avoidance and Distraction.

12th Level:
Save your points.

13th Level:
And spend them now for Homunculus Dexterity II

14th Level:
Fear those traps even less by picking up Homunculus Evasion, a captsone enhancement you’ve unlocked with your rogue-like abilities.

15th Level:
And now you can max out your Ruthless and Skillfull Deception abilities for a +8 to hit and +12 to damage while using sneak attacks.

16th Level:
Take a moment and reward yourself with Improved Evasion.

18th Level:
A +20 to hit points would be nice, go ahead and upgrade your armor twice.

19th Level:
You might as well accept your brutish nature by picking up Adamantine Plating.

20th Level:
And upgrade it twice here for a total of +12 to AC and DR 6/adamantine.

Neverwinter: Something Wiki This Way Comes

It took awhile but I finally found a wiki for Heroes of Neverwinter. The site hosts some dedicated people and is regularly updated (including updates from me now). Some of the great features the wiki has includes advice and full write ups on each class, confirmation of what loot can be gained from each quest, individual pages for those items which details what they do and where they can be found or purchased (and for how much in the latter case). The site is still coming along and could use more hands to quicken the pace, but even if you don't help out it is a great resource for planning out your character and playing the game. Check it out here.

Here are some example pages:

Cleric Write-up
Assault on Kobold Keep Write-up
Fist of the North Item Write-up

DDO Video Fun (Parte Deux)

Well, it is the end of another month of good ol' DDO blogging and I decided to make the video sharing a regular occurence...though I'm not sure how long I can keep it up without reader input and creations because I imagine there are only sooo many videos out there that are worth watching. So here are three more.

1) Trollin'

More fun with Gnarkill as a party stealths their way into a braining by everyone's favorite Troll Butcher.

2) DDO Grease Fun!

A group of adventurers makes their very own slip n' slide.

3) 10 Things to Do in DDO When You're Bored

A trio of adventurers show us how they like to chill in Stormreach when they aren't off questing.

The Endless Night

Well folks, Halloween is almost upon us, and in Stormreach that means it is time once again for the plane of Mabar to become coterminous once again.

Sadly I don't really have any great tips on how to handle this...well, there is one:

Try to be careful aggroing your enemies, ranged spells and attacks may be more helpful this time around. Mummy lords and vampires are interspersed with those skeletons and ghouls, so if you are low level then try not to get wiped out.

So, sorry about not having a post today, it is a case of the Game taking Priority over the Blog.

But we'll be back on Monday with another round of videos to watch.

Neverwinter: Something is a Mask Here

Well, as you may remember from the post on the October Update there are new items and new quests to be played in Heroes of Neverwinter. Problem is, there aren't many days of October left. Hence I suggest you go out and finish these adventures and reap the rewards before they possibly go missing:

Bones, Thugs, and Sorcery

This cool little adventure which takes place in Neverdeath contains has you facing off against the Pretty Faces gang as they steal corpses for Thayan necromancers. The Pretty Faces gang is a rough and tumble group of humans who wear various masks to cover their identity. Each one of these masks can be gotten as a reward for completing the adventure. Each mask gives a +3 to damage against the opponents it represents and they are as follows: Kobold Mask, Ogre Mask, and Zombie Mask.

Trick or Trap

Looking into your one lead from Bones, Thugs, and Sorcery finds you in the Illefarn Woods at the underground lab of the mysterious "Jack". As his voice telepathically welcomes you to his home and gives you insights into each room it doesn't take long to discover this madman is using you to collect data on his creations. Slay him for a chance at the Pumpkin Mask for a +1 to AC and +1 to Max HP.

Monster Mash

Taking the mysterious papers you found in Jack's lab back to Doomguide Volahk to be deciphered earns you the location of The Menagerie, a strange zoo where Thayan wizards are experimenting on various creatures to enhance them with necrotic powers. After clearing it out you can earn the Trick or Treat ring which gives clerics and wizards a +2 to spell damage as long as they are at full health.

Hurry and get these items now just in case they disappear at the end of the month.

Added After Publication: I found out after the fact that there is also a ring in Monster Mash if you are a rogue or fighter called the "Full Moon Ring" which does the same thing as the Trick or Treat ring, but for weapon damage.

Spelling it Out: Low-level Spell Combos for Wizards/Sorcerers

Ask most people what kind of character is the most powerful in 3.5 DnD and they are likely to say "Cleric" or "Wizard". The cleric was even stated to be the most powerful class by Mike Mearls and Jesse Decker. I'm going to be a bit nicer here and just say that by the by, spellcasters in general seem to be the most powerful archetype. Versatility is the key here, not to mention damage output which far exceeds the possibilities of even the most twinked out barbarian or rogue.

Regarding that versatility, there are a lot of spells which just work well together, and we're going to take a quick look at some of the lower level combos for wizards and sorcerers.

The Unbreakable Object
Spells Involved: Shield, Mage Armor, Protection from Evil, False Life.

You're a level 3 wizard out for a stroll in a bad neighborhood, with a d4 for hit points you'd be likely to worry...except that nothing here can hit you anyway. As a wizard you probably have a decent Dex, let's say 14. That's a +2 to AC off the bat for AC 12, add in Shield and Mage Armor and you're up to 20...and if you are up against evil creatures you can use Protection from Evil to bump it up to 22. Even if something gets through that defense (which is equal to +1 Full Plate, a 12 Dex and a Light shield for the fighters out there) it still has to contend with the 13 temp hit points provided by your False Life spell.

The best part about this combo is that Mage Armor can easily be replaced by and item like Black Widow Bracers or liberal use of a Wand of Mage Armor (which has a duration of 4 minutes).

Greasefire
Spells Involved: Grease, Fire Trap

I like to set this one up before I aggro my opponents with hurled spells. While the enemy is still unaware of you drop a Grease in between you and them. Then place a Fire Trap spell in the dead center of the grease. Then feel free to assault your enemies with arcane fury. When they rush you...and they will...that grease will trip them up or not. If it doesn't then the fire trap will at least go off, burning them for some instant damage and then catching the grease on fire for an additional bit of fire damage.

It isn't enough to fell most creatures as an initial attack. Yet if your opponent is already weakened by your assault this little trick will usually finish them off before they can lay a hand on you.

Stay Right There, No Really
Spells Involved: Hypnotism, Electric Loop

Hypnotism is a fun little spell, it stops opponents with weak will saves in their tracks as they stare stupidly at you, remaining slack jawed until you jar them with damage.

So why follow it up with an Electric Loop? Because a side effect of Hypnotism is a -3 penalty to Will saves regardless of whether the opponent made a save against hypnotism or not. As you may know Electric Loop is a damaging spell with the benefit of dazing an opponent on a failed Will save. After your finished with this one two punch you can go ahead and beat the crap out of the opponent, because daze doesn't end after sustaining damage.

Things I Hate About Update 11 Patch 1

(Thank you to a reader who let me know this didn't go out like it was supposed too, sorry for the lateness of the post people)

So, you may remember me talking about the things I liked about the new patch for Update 11, however, there were some things I disliked as well.

Artificers and their Iron Defenders

"What? But you liked this Francis!" Well, not everything. I don't know if you've played an artificer both before and after the patch, but my little dog Rusty has gone full on retard since the patch went live. Sometimes he just sits their letting the enemy wail on him and not attacking back...and yes, he is in attack mode. Thank god the little guy has an insane armor class (I can't remember exactly...think it is in the low thirties at level 6...before buffing) otherwise he'd just be dead weight. Also, I suppose it could be worse, Rusty still uses Intimidate, so at least he's taking aggro off of me. Still, I hope this gets fixed soon because I'm sick of having to "jumpstart" my Iron Defender by clicking the "Follow" button. That will wake him up for all of about thirty seconds before he goes full on retard again.

Monsters

I know I know, this is silly of me, but they made it harder for monsters to get stuck in non-attacking mode. Why does this matter to me? Because sometimes I was able to sneak up on those suckers and take pictures of them before they grew lethal. It was really nice watching a wolf take a bath at the lake in Cerulean Hills for instance...wait, no that sounds wrong...

Crossbows

What? No more automatic reload if you've been out of combat? Oh come on, sometimes I forget whether my last click of the attack button was a reload or not, so now I run blindly into combat and...click...click, reloading animation time.

Hirelings

Hirelings now follow you closer than ever before. I can hear you people out there already "But Francis, that's a good thing, now they won't get stuck as often." That may be audience, although I doubt it. Give a sweettooth some candy, even if you give it a new wrapper and that sweettooth will still eat it. Likewise AI gets stuck, that's the way it is. So why do I hate this? Well people, because I play casters sometimes too. I like my defendery hirelings to get in between me and the enemies, and now they just don't create enough of a distance between me and my foes. I aggro them, they run past my hireling and right to me. I used to have enough time to finish them off before that, but no more.

Want to see all the changes that were made with the update? Click here to view the release notes.