Non Melee/Dps Builds

[SpicyBoi_Nezu]

I have an issue, where I pretty much only play the tank/melee dps.
The main classes I play are Fighter, Barbarian, Monk, and Rogue, but I have also played a Duskblade and a Ranger. One of my group's DMs, my best friend, confronted me on the fact and told me that I am being selfish and rude, because I always play the melee character, and never seem to care whether or not someone else wants to play the melee role. I believe that the main reason I do this, is because I have only been playing for almost 2 years, and I haven't really had the chance to play many classes, because the majority of our campaigns last between 2-4 months. As well as the fact that the majority of our campaigns are very focused on a balanced team composition, and I don't feel comfortable filling many of the other roles, because usually they are not as simple as maximizing Damage, AC, or Hit points.

*Namekian Guardian (Tank)
*Shapeshifter Dragonoid (Dps/Tank)
Hellbred Fighter (Tank)
Elf Fighter (Ranged Dps) - Died session 3
Elf Bard/Master of masks (Skill Monkey) - Died session 2
Elf Duskblade (Dps)

1-offs:
Dwarf Monk (Grappler)
Half Orc Barbarian (Dps)
Half Elf Paladin (Dps/Healer) - Solo Campaign
Human Finesse Fighter (Dps/Rogue)
*Elf Rogue - 1st edition style campaign
Goblin Cleric (Punching Bag)

* = Played in a Homebrew Campaign, the first one being Dragon Ball Z, second was based off of My Hero Academia, and third based of 1st edition D&D
I'm looking for advice with dealing with sorting this out with my DMs, as well as looking for recommended builds. I am currently working on a Healer for one of our upcoming campaigns.


**For all of those asking what I want to do, It's the fact that I have a hard time choosing a role, because I haven't had a sufficient chance to "Spread My Wings" so to speak. I understand that there are hundreds of different builds that fit the non melee prerequisites, as well as the fact that not every melee build is melee dps. I as a player prefer to get a basis for a build from an outside source, and make it my own, but I have a hard time picking just one, so I prefer to have other people narrow it down for me.

[Zaq]

I mean, it's not usually a problem to have more than one character in the frontline. You playing a melee character doesn't mean that no one else can or should do the same. Hell, sometimes teamwork makes the dream work and you can do more with two together than with either alone. Just to pick the low-hanging fruit as an example, melee rogues love having a flanking buddy or two.

That said, if you're bothering your friends with your playstyle, it's very good and mature of you to make reasonable accommodations (note the word reasonable, but this sounds reasonable so far).

The game is vast. There's a ton of stuff to play that isn't melee, so simply "not melee" isn't much to go off of. What do you want to explore? Archery/ranged combat? Skillmonkeying? Melee debuff/non-DPS (grappling, tripping, etc.)? Weird interference with enemies? Casting? (If casting, there's so much you can do with casting it's not even funny... team buffing, crowd control, blasting if you're willing to listen to some arguments about why blasting is suboptimal, summoning/minionmancy, healing if you're willing to listen to some arguments about why healing is suboptimal, general-purpose utility, and of course many combinations thereof.)

We can probably cobble together something that fits just about anything you've got in mind if you're willing to be flexible about some details. So what sounds like fun to you?

The healer class from Miniatures Handbook is not a very powerful class. If you're intentionally trying to keep the power level low or you're intentionally going for something really specific, that's fine and you can have fun with it, but be aware that it's got some weird limitations and that simple in-combat healing isn't usually super powerful. Do keep in mind that if you're of Good alignment (which I believe the class requires by RAW), you do automatically have all Sanctified spells (see Book of Exalted Deeds) as spells you can prep, no questions asked. This adds a small amount of versatility. You'll likely want to see if you can build towards getting into a PrC that makes you a little bit more cleric-like; if you can pick up turn undead, domains, or both, you'll have access to a lot more options for making your heals more interesting.

[bean illus]

I have trouble making damage (compared to many folks here).

But lotsa folks CAN make damage outa near anything.

The real questions are ...

1. Wadaya want to do BESIDES dps?
2. What roles are unfilled.

If you're as curious and willing as you seem to be, we can do anything.

Telepathy? Teleport? Minions? Support others? Battlefield control? Function in AMF? Sneak assassin? Disrupt casters?

[LordBlades]

While melee (or any pure combat role for that matter) is one of the easiest roles to have multiples of (it's much easier to play with several melee characters than with several trap finders or several party faces for example) it's also, in my experience, one of the most sought after roles too. Out of the gaming groups I've played with, if you told people 'make whatever character you want', 80% of them would make a melee character. Hell, we just tried this in an upcoming campaign starting next week (DM asked everybody specifically to build their character without talking to anyone else), and we ended up with a pure melee (Half-Elf custom class based on the Witcher), a sneaky melee (Tibbit Crusader/Cloistered Cleric/going for RKV), a shapeshifter sneaky melee (Azurin Divine Minion Totemist/Early entry MoMF), an Astral Construct 'summoner' (my character, Strongheart Halfling Shaper Psion/going for Constructor) and only one defintely non-melee (Warforged Scout support artificer).


Depending on what you want to do as non-melee, these are the main roles you could fill (very broadly):

- ranged DPS, either single target or AOE; stuff like archers or blaster psions/sorcs
- battlefield control; the quintessential God wizard
- support character; buffer/healer (although healing is not the greatest thing to focus on, unless you're playing pretty low optimization); stuff like a DFI bard or War Weaver

[Biggus]

As well as the fact that the majority of our campaigns are very focused on a balanced team composition, and I don't feel comfortable filling many of the other roles, because usually they are not as simple as maximizing Damage, AC, or Hit points.

Is your main concern then that other classes are too complicated?


I am currently working on a Healer for one of our upcoming campaigns.

Is there any particular reason you want to play a Healer specifically? Only the Healer is widely considered the weakest of all the full caster classes, a Cleric can do everything they can do and much, much more...

[RNightstalker]

Ask your DM if a game can be run where everyone doesn't have to fit in a nice certain box. What's wrong with 2 melee characters? Can the rest of the party play in a game that doesn't fit 4 preconceived roles? An OOC chat with the group could help address the real issue.

[OGDojo]

alrighty so, non melee DPS, there are several routes.

Cleric: they get loads of attack spells and alot of healing spells and alot of buff spells that can take your party's damage output into the stars
Scout/lurk: one allows you to sneak attack, the other gives you a movement based damage increase. there is also a feat that will allow you to do your sneak attack at a distance.
Wizard: Basically the same as cleric but less healing and more damage spells

there are a host of feats and abilities that you can use to help out with DPS as a spellcaster (Mostly Metamagic feats that increase range, damage, maximizes all number values ect phb feats)
clerics can also gain some cool things that damage undead or trade those things for other abilities (Complete divine devotion feats)
and the lurk you can increase its power points enough so that your sneak attack damage can get pretty rediculous or you can go rogue and not deal with power points. thats an option too.

there are things you can put on your bows that will give you huge damage increases, splitting on your arrows basically makes it so your arrows hit twice with the same damage, then you can do the elemental damages as well and to top that all off you can increase the strength damage for 100 gp each increase. not to mention you can also find some cool feats that allow you to sacrifice a shot to gain an instant crit on the next shot as long as you hit, oh you can also do a crit build which is really cool cuz you can easily get a bow to a 18-20x5 crit range... there are several things that you can do, also look in the dragon magazines for class ideas because they always have some weird and interesting classes that never made it into the official books but all the magazines are official wizards of the coast content :)

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Make a Beguiler (PH2), go Gray Elf (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/elf.htm#grayElf), Beguiler 5/ Mindbender 1/ Beguiler 14 for the final build. Ability score priority should be Int > Con > Dex > all else. Take Versatile Spellcaster, and Heighten spell if necessary (depending on your DM's interpretation), to get early access to the next higher level of Beguiler spells. Your Advanced Learning spells should be Ray of Stupidity, Shadow Form, Greater Shadow Conjuration, Greater Shadow Evocation, and Superior Invisibility. Anyone who can cast arcane spells can use any Eternal Wand (MIC), so get one of Web, one of Command Undead, one of Sleet Storm, etc.

That character basically plays as a Rogue + Enchanter/Illusionist outside of combat (with Glibness!), and in combat does party buffs (Haste), battlefield control (Glitterdust, Solid Fog, illusions, etc.), and regulates enemy spellcasters (Dispel Magic, readied-action Silence, etc.). Get Arcane Thieves' Tools (MIC), the Raiment of the Four set (MIC), some kind of light armor (Mithral Breastplate), a +1 Mithral Buckler, and an Elvencraft (composite) longbow (RotW). That bow counts as both a longbow and a quarterstaff, you'll need to get masterwork three times for it, but it should be able to have three wand chambers from Dungeonscape added to it. You can make all three portions +1 Defending, get Greater Magic Weapon put on all three, and add all three bonuses to your AC every round.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Clarifying Question: Are you looking for a role that is not melee but is DPS, or do you want one that is neither melee nor DPS?

I think that either way my recommendation is Warlock. All the fun of playing a caster, but none of the bookkeeping, they can be built into a lot of different things.

Ranged DPS is their default role, and is pretty easy to build for. Just have a high Dexterity to hit, and grab invocations that improve your Eldritch Blast. Any time you use your Eldritch Blast, you can add one invocation that changes its shape (Eldritch Cone and Eldritch Chain are the standouts here) and one that adds an effect to it (at low levels Sickening Blast and Frightening Blast are your friends, but once you get to higher level Noxious Blast and Vitriolic Blast blow them out of the water).

These Eldritch Essences are also how you make the Warlock into a debuffer. If you want to go that route, focus on these, and get your Charisma as high as you can (that's what sets the save DCs).

For other roles, focus on the invocations that don't have to do with Eldritch Blast. There are a lot of these, and they can help your social skills (Beguiling Influence), your battlefield control (Darkness and Chilling Tentacles, among many others), your mobility (Fell Flight and Flee the scene in particular)...


Basically, building a Warlock is pretty easy. High Dex and high Cha, and then just pick invocations that sound cool or useful every couple of levels. If you want to build for a specific role, pick a few of the above and choose invocations that help them (I tried to list both low level and high level invocations for each role). If you don't like one you picked, or it starts aging poorly, you can swap it out for a different one later.