|
Post by maljin on Jan 25, 2012 21:03:09 GMT
Imho this looks solid. I went a different route with robes + premo + EV so feats are kinda different too. I managed to reach the same wis score, lsf: illu and leg valor at the cost of auto still spell. For short I'm trading 4 epic feats for 2 LL feats that way.
Saves are kinda bad, but so are those of pariahs, which go with auto still spell 3 and heavy armor as well. Regen from your regeneration, monstrous regeneration and healing circle might even make you regen hps at a similar rate to some pariahs. You don't get the 127 parry though, but you can use heal pots and cloudkill can grant you several hundreds of temp hp easily.
Spell selection is quite similar on my spreadsheet as well; I picked up EV obviously and I went for the lvl 6 summon so I can empower and maximize it and still use lvl 8 or 9 slots. I might go back to the level 8 summon though. With the mass ability spells being from trans school I think picking up these at lvl 6 (at least one of str or dex and the other for a lvl 2 spell) might be a better idea than an empowered lvl 6 summon.
One more spell suggestion would be energy buffer at lvl 5. If you're willing to drop vitriolic sphere and rely on acid fog, melfs, vine mine and vitriolic ray for acid damage (you've got quite a lot of it) you'd get a 43/- elemental buffer that absorbs about 1000 damage before collapsing. It's not comparable to what normal casters get but since you're a sorc you can easily recast it once the limit is reached. I prefer to wear gear with spell slots and less other stuff and rely on spells to cover immunities/resists/soak you lose from wearing caster gear. But that's personal preference I guess. In heavy armor and without relying on energy buffer you're less vulnerable to mord/breach/dispel than a char using premo, EV and buffer in robes.
maljin
|
|
|
Post by Shroomery_ on Jan 25, 2012 21:21:32 GMT
I was planning on the aboleth tag, there is a heavy armor there with an ability that acts as if you had 127 parry, that will be the armor I am wearing, along with the asmo shield or cloak when I get demi.
Shroomery_
|
|
|
Post by buddhamind on Jan 25, 2012 22:03:35 GMT
I wouldn't count on any Abos gear unless you already have it in the bank. I haven't seen an Abos run called in months. Maybe if you're in a guild you could do it. But then again max parry is certainly not a high priority for this kind of build, and you have half a dozen other armors you could use until you do get that Abos armor.
|
|
|
Post by buddhamind on Jan 25, 2012 22:04:56 GMT
Regen from your regeneration, monstrous regeneration and healing circle might even make you regen hps at a similar rate to some pariahs. You don't get the 127 parry though, but you can use heal pots and cloudkill can grant you several hundreds of temp hp easily. My level 40 herald can get up to 2000+ HP quite easily. Cloudkill is a very nice spell.
|
|
|
Post by Shroomery_ on Jan 28, 2012 6:50:48 GMT
So you all think this is a good starter herald build? Want to go 23sorc/16druid/1mnk but dont want the xp penalty..
Shroomery_
|
|
|
Post by maljin on Jan 28, 2012 9:12:02 GMT
I have no idea if this is a good beginner build; I thought you were going to tell us when you've got it to Hells. But I don't think there's a subrace you could go 23/16/1 without xp penalty. So if the xp penalty is the thing you want to avoid, pure Herald is the way to go. Or something like a zenythri 20/19/1.
Whether you go CC druid or sorc is personal preference: Sorc gets channelling so you can improve your Herald spells but your spell selection is too narrow to really benefit from sorc CC for buffs. Druid CC on the other hand has quite a few more non-Herald spells to chose from if you go druid CC (nature's balance, crumble, buffs and healing spells). I'd probably even go for 21 druid levels before 40, so you get CL 41 at lvl 60 where some spells improve or become useful after all. With druid CC you will probably get less sorc spells (including Herald spells) though.
Whether you go with heavy armor or robes is personal preference as well I think. Even without a monk level you can get 70% conceal from EV with sorc CC (or 60+ from mass camo with druid CC), wear caster shields, +16 premo and reasonable fort and will saves. With heavy armor you might be playing your Herald similar to a pariah I guess.
So...you've still got the choice between wis and cha. Imho without splash there's no reason to go with cha. Wis will boost your will saves and Fallen Angel being a very nice subby for Heralds can get higher wis than cha anyway. Unless you're stuck with aleithian dwarf or rakshasa I'd almost certainly go wis on any pure Herald.
maljin
|
|
|
Post by Shroomery_ on Jan 28, 2012 20:27:32 GMT
I guess I really only need input on the heavy armor feat line. Instead I could get toughness, epic fortitude, epic reflexes, and armor skin. I would rely on ev and premmy for survival but I think the immunes from the heavy armor and shield will be of more help. Thoughts?
Shroomery_
|
|
|
Post by maljin on Jan 29, 2012 9:54:15 GMT
For a pure robe/caster shield wearing Herald, this is what I have been coming up during past month. The biggest problem I face is spell selection, but I'll let you tinker with that.
level spread is the same as in the OP. 15 druid, 4 sorc, 1 druid, 19 sorc, 1 druid For good will/fort base saves and skill dumps at lvl 20 and 40.
abilities are the same as above as well. str. 8 dex. 8 con. 12 (-4 at lvl 32) int. 10 wis. 18+5 cha 15+2 (+2 at lvl 32)
pre-epic feats dauntless (human bonus feat) sf: conj gsf: conj sf: ench gsf: ench extend spell maximize spell empower spell
epic feats gr. wis I-VII extra spell (sorc bonus feat)
By the time you become a Herald you'll have gr. wis IV, so the free gr. wis I+II feats from Herald are completely wasted; you'll be at gr. wis VII by level 40 though, compared to gr. wis V if you'd have waited until lvl 32 with the gr. wis feats. This way you trade 4 epic feats for 2 LL feats.
legendary feats leg spell pen lsf: conj lsf: ench leg. valor gr. wis VIII+IX lsf: illu (after having read an illu tome)
Dauntless and leg. valor is +6 fort/reflex, compared to +4 with the two epic save feats. Leg illusion is another round of etherealness with GV, another 2% conceal from EV (with channel 2 you can reach 70%) and another 5% phys infliction on creeping doom (not a Herald AoE, therefor doesn't fall into the cap of 2 Herald AoEs per area).
While leg. valor helps with saves (57 fort, 52 reflex in +12 gear at lvl 60), picking up the epic save feats and maybe lightning reflexes would do the same for the 4 extra epic feats build. But lsf: illusion is what I really wanted. And even if it's not a very elegant way to get it (wasting bonus feats), I think it might be the only way to do it while still going for max wis (that is with Fallen Angel).
I don't have my sheet at hand and can't remember the exact skill point allocation but I think I maxed concentration and lore, 43 parry, 45 heal, 1 animal empathy (with gear and the druid buff spell you'll hit about 50) and rest into spellcraft for counterspelling. No tumble at all I think, but you could exchange parry + some heal for 30 points in crossclassed tumble.
Spell selection is very similar to your build. I have yet to figure out how to include two ability spells (cat's grace and bull's strength, better yet the mass versions) and a planar summon into my sorc spell selection without losing too many or important other spells.
I haven't thought about gear yet. Since I've only come up with a Herald build because I have a couple of decent rare, ur and set druid and sorc gear on my -HC- immortals, I'll just use whatever I've got on them or gather along the road.
maljin
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 28, 2014 20:54:03 GMT
Whats the ac on the Heavy armour at 60 with burs and no demi?
|
|
|
Post by Hercules on Jan 28, 2014 21:03:51 GMT
I have no clue about those builds, how can a CC sorc, with that low Charisma hit anything with orbs etc etc... ( I know they do, I have seen them in action.)
Do this kind of cound DC out of wis instead of char perheps ?
Herc -the clueless
|
|
|
Post by Yojimbo on Jan 28, 2014 21:11:38 GMT
Heralds can and more are WIS based instead of CHA based Herc.
|
|
|
Post by wollstonecraft on Jan 28, 2014 22:21:04 GMT
I like Maljin's suggestion of picking up save feats in place of heavy armour and the Auto-Stills. Your Will save will probably be mid 70s, but Reflex and Fort will suffer. A low Reflex save is super frustrating in places with lots of Reflex checks (Dis, Styg, Malb to name a few). In those places, you'll be disabled very often. Heralds are casters and shouldnt need to be clad in heavy armour anyway. With Leg Illusion, you can still hit 65% conceal from EV. Let that and your temp HP be your armour.
|
|