A New Trin

Over the past few weeks, I've come to realize how much I miss playing Trinarius on a regular basis. Although I enjoy playing Clerics, I miss having the odd-ball character build that allows me to do so many different things in any given quest. This led me into an investigation of the character aspects I really enjoyed about Trinarius, but to take a closer look at how to enhance those traits, and make him more into the kind of character I'd originally wanted him to be.

What has to be taken into consideration here, though, is that the game has undergone some remarkable changes since I first introduced Trinarius. At the same time, my understanding of the game's mechanics has increased considerably. As a result, my intentions for how to play Trin have changed.

Clearly, I've always enjoyed serving as the party's Rogue. Trapsmithing, although not nearly as exciting as some other tasks in the game, presents a kind of challenge that requires an awful lot of attention to detail, planning, and a fair amount of luck. But, it's something I enjoy. The problem is that he often plays the luck card a little too frequently. Blowing a trap on Elite isn't really looked upon very favorably by the rest of the group.

One of Trin's original as-designed specifications was that he avoid melée combat whenever possible, opting instead to kill enemies from a distance and never let them come close enough to present any real threat to his person. That's something I strayed from with Trinarius. I learned that Rangers earn the ability to dual-wield weapons automatically, and as a dwarf, the ability to dual-wield Dwarven Axes proved too great a temptation for me to stick to my original plan.

The problem is that Trinarius hadn't started with the ability scores necessary to become an effective two-weapon fighter. As a result, he's suffered through difficulties with to-hit and damage rolls, often doing much less damage than a properly designed two-weapon fighter could do.

And then, it came to Trin's Wizarding abilities...

My original intent was for him to employ spells like Magic Missile, Melf's Acid Arrow, Scorching Ray, and maybe even Fireball, all ranged attack spells. Again, the idea is to kill from a distance, and avoid the increasingly difficult task of remaining alive in close proximity to an ogre's club.

Instead, Trinarius became a self-buffer, and really has only Wall of Fire as any sort of decent damage spell. Granted, it's nothing to balk at, but it isn't exactly a ranged attack, either. Trin has to sneak right up under the enemy's noses to plant one of the biggest aggro-grabbing spells in the game.

All of these factors led be back to the drawing board to re-think how Trin should *really* have developed...

Clearly, I want Trin to be able to attempt to disable a trap without risk of blowing up the control box, and leaving the party in the unfortunate position of trying to negotiate a very deadly obstacle, especially on elite. So, Trin will have to have a high enough Disable Device skill that he can roll even a 1, an automatic failure, without blowing the control box, making it possible to make another attempt to disable the trap.

Of course, you can't disable a trap if you can't find it's control box, so his Search skill needs to be equally high.

And, everyone who plays regularly knows that there are some chests you simply cannot open without a Rogue with a high Open Lock skill.

The funny thing is... I'm not terribly concerned about his Spot skill.

By the time I get to run Trin through a quest, either I've already encountered the traps before, and remember where they are, or someone else in the group is telling me where to look for them. So, out of the four cardinal Rogue skills, Trin will only focus on three.

And, unless Turbine changes the way they've implemented traps in the quests, I won't worry about his Spot skill. Besides, that leaves more skill points to spend on other skills, like Use Magic Device and Haggle.

So, the remainder of Trin's abilities should focus on ranged damage. Clearly, this should continue Trin's history of mixing Ranger and Wizard abilities with Rogue, but the approach will be a bit different. It's time to focus on using some of those really interesting longbows I've seen here and there. And, to change the emphasis of the Wizard spells in his spellbook.

Based on my new assumptions, I ran my idea through Ron's DDO Character Planner, just to see what options I had to play with.

Trin's original approach was to build upon the dwarven chassis, so I started there.

I found, though, that I was having problems with being able to afford all of the enhancements I wanted him to have. That's when I gave the Character Planner another go. But, this time, I chose the Warforged chassis.

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Yes, a "wobot", as Thundermouse likes to call them.

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Surprisingly, I had Action Points to spare, with the same basic configuration.

And, I liked the idea enough that I re-rolled Intrinsiq last night, creating Trinarias.

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Oh, don't worry... Trinarius is still around. Just consider this his latest clan experiment.

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He's already up to Level two, having taken his first level of Rogue and Ranger to this point.

And, he's running with a +22 on his Disable Device skill, already.

This is gonna be fun!

Alas, I'll have to leave him in the clan house tonight; it's time for a Titan raid! Here's hoping Obsydiian pulls his Seven-Fingered Gloves!

Keep it fun, and enjoy the long weekend!