The Basic Build
14 Fighter, 3 Man-at-arms, 3 Cleric, 10 Dwarven Defender.
STR:16+5
DEX:13
CON:19+2
INT:12
WIS:8
CHA:6
Feats: Luck of Heroes, Able Learner, Dodge, Toughness, Steadfast Determination, Tower Shield specialization, Knockdown, Blind Fight, Epic Weapon Focus, Epic Weapon Specialization, Epic Prowess, Expose Weakness, Epic Damage Reduction 9/- and Weapon Mastery. Water Domain and another Domain, Veteran Background.
Items you need: Mithral Fullplate, +3 dex item, +3 con item, +3 str item and a +3 wis amulet that you won't wear, plus AC equipment.
Skills: Tumble and Spellcraft at 30, Heal at 25, UMD at 12.
Vitals without any items:
- Fortitude 27, Reflex 11, Will 28.
- HP 500
- AC 19
Defence:
This build has 1 more AC than the usual strong DD builds, like AK3/M3 or BoG3/R3, thanks to Man-at-Arms shield bonus. This enables the build to reach 63 AC with +4 AC equipment and self-supporting wands. Improved Uncanny Dodge gives the build immunity to sneak attacks against enemies with less than 14 sneak attack class levels, and the 15 DR will eliminate alot of damage that do manage to get past the AC.
The saves with items reach mid 30's for Fortitude and Will, with a staggering +8 extra to saves vs spells, and this makes the build almost impossible to hurt with DC spells. Reflex is a weakness, but evasion is there and most evasion spells only deal damage and can thus be absorbed easily with the HP (580 for me with items). The Heal skill is almost maxed, and it's use twice per round will heal you up in no time without losing defensive stance.
As if this was not enough, equip that +3 WIS amulet just before resting, and you can cast a 30 min long conviction (+2 universal saves) and a 48 min long endure elements (20 temporary HP vs elemental damage).
Offence:
The build has all the weapon feats except supremacy, and reaches a decent offensive potential at 45 AB unbuffed. The man-at-arms challenge feat have infinite uses, and grants +1 AB, +1 damage and +1 will saves, and you can use it before each encounter to get an extra edge. Knockdown provides useful help vs anything not melee-focused, and expose weakness is as everyone knows, OP. Use a keen edge or weapon of impact wand to get the benefit of improved critical.
Utility:
The build can use all wands, but since it's also a cleric it can use all cleric scrolls without a UMD check. This means that you can use wands of freedom of movement and deathward combined with stonebody scrolls to give the build more immunities and immunity to critical hits if needed. More importantly, you can use ethereal jaunt scrolls even in combat and never fail in the rare occassion that you can't fight your way out. Other useful scrolls are Energy Drain, Energy Immunity and Spell Mantle. Note also that while many characters take the minimum amount of UMD to allow for wands, these characters lose out as soon as they're drained, cursed or such, as then UMD will get lower and they lose access to their wands. But this build? The cleric wands and scrolls are always available, and a simple restoration or remove curse will quickly bring all the other wands back into action.
RP Thoughts on playing the build:
You must worship a water domain deity, which isn't that dwarven. It's either Eldath (pacifist), Auril (winter, this can make sense), Silvanus (wild nature) or Istishia (water element) that you can take. Personally, I took Istishia as it enabled me to explain a background as a sailor to get to BG in the first place, and cleanliness is a valued military trait. Auril works well too, both make you Lawful Neutral. Auril can give the cold domain for some extra resistances that's very useful on this server, and Istishia can give you that reroll on your already high will save with the chaos domain.
My backstory includes some nasty encounters with Thayans, which employ fire elementals. This is the opposite element of Istishia, which further drives my character's hatred. He will attack *any* Fire elemental anywhere without a single thought.
Other thoughts on playing the build:
Make sure you have 5 Fighter, 3 Man-at-arms, 3 cleric and 9 dwarven defender at level 20 for a level progression. Able learner on the 3rd level.
The build is extremely good in defence, and it shines because it's not spell reliant or dispellable. It is always ready, and can endure really long events without ever resting. The only DC spell you should worry about is Storm of Vengeance, which is why you keep a gust of wind wand and quickslot it. Using the wand will automatically dispel the storm. Against Bigby spells, make sure to use an improved mage armor wand ahead of time if you're able, and quickly hit defensive stance as you see the hand coming at you. Since your AC is so high with a shield, many times the bigby spell won't even take effect.
The stonebody trick is nice, but you'll quickly find that it's not worth it against the bosses since you defeat them anyway (they only hit you on 20's). The dracolich is easily dispatched by casting an energy immunity towards fire, and the Frost Giant King and the demon or pit fiend don't need anything in advance. Watch your HP though, as the latter two will cast a power word stun when your HP drops too low. The stonebody trick can however be used in PvP, but the build will kill most melee builds 1v1 anyway, so it's usually for when facing a fully buffed FS or more enemies.
So why is it the ultimate defender? The build has better AC, while maintaining almost impossible saves, good offense and of course the utility of all the wands and cleric scrolls. This is in comparison to the good DD builds. Some DD builds will lose out on AC, EW, DR or Offense because they choose to take Weaponmaster or Divine Champion etc., and these builds are much weaker overall than the BoG3/R3 or AK3/M3 variants of this build.
Since you can heal yourself well, most arcane casters will run out of spells before you're dead, and HIPS melee often won't be abe to sneak you (and if they can, place yourself in a corner or towards a wall in defensive stance and they can't hurt you). The glaring PvP weakness is HIPS warlocks or archers, but you can avoid a fight if you want with scrolls.
I went from level 1 to 30 with this build without dying once, which included many cruel DM events in which some of them I was the only survivor. Often the high AC and damage reduction will let you live. Grimm Oathbreaker managed to survive 4 Netherese Arcane Ghosts with 2 simulacrummed Grimms after getting held by a bigby until they had all emptied their spellbooks. If you face tougher opposition than that, there is always the use of that ethereal scroll.
I hope that inspires you to make a dwarven defender
