Dwarf Defender

[Target]

I am thinking of my next character to play, I am running a Sorcerer at the mo, and was thinking of something completely different for my next game.
So I thought of either a Dwarf Defender or the Weapons Master, but decided on the DD, (so I won’t have to spend ages thinking of what race to be ).
But are they good? Have many people played them? What is the best way to build a DD?
I was thinking of stating as either a Barbar, Fighter, or would a Monk work?
Has anyone got any suggestions?

Cheers

[T-D-C]

There is a good build here

Makes full use of the Dwarven Defender build. You can take this charcter further and increase his AC by taking a dwarven Warax (or another singlehanded ax/hammer) and using a sheild instead of a greatsword.

[Legolas]

If you take the DD class, you make damage reduction your main strength. You want to maximize that, and you can do that by taking as many levels in DD as possible. It being a prestige class, you have to spend at least 10 levels on other classes. This leaves 30 DD levels, and you won't get any Barabarian DR advatages so that class isn't going to help. Plus, it's not for lawful characters.

You will want to take all of the damage reducing Epic feats. For that, you will need a high constitution.

That leaves you with a character with many hitpoints, who takes little physical damage. You will also have an immense fortitude save, and little to fear from devestating criticals of others.

This build leaves non-physical damage as your enemy. Negative energy, elemental damage, sonic damage, magical damage, divine energy. You can take feats to reduce the effects of elemental and sonic damage, which can help a lot. A better choice is to take your 10 levels as cleric with the right domains (your choice of Healing, Trickery, and a stoneskin granting one).

Not only does that let you cast magic to protect against elements, you also gain protection from negative energy, the ability to heal yourself (Healing), avoid 50% of the attacks aimed at you completely (Trickery), or gain even more damage reduction. You'll also have many other useful spells to aid you in dealing more damage, hitting better, and warding yourself.
The downside is you will need 15 WIS or more to make the most of it, when you want to spend points on CON and other combat abilities.

Since you are going to prevent damage no matter if you get hit, AC is not too important. Yes, you can make a lot out of this as well, especially with cleric levels, but in theory you'll not need it. Even if you are hit it won't scratch you.
No, you have your defence, what you need now is hitting power. Which is exactly why the build TDC linked to involves a greatsword. That should be your aim. Being able to hit the enemy as hard and as often as you can, without compromising your ability to shrug off damage even when hit. Take feats and skills accordingly.

[Target]

I've never played a cleric either, I hadn't thought about one of them, are they easy to build? I'll have to think about that.

Can someone recommend a good web site that would have lots of information about the different classes, skills and feats. Is there anything for NWN's like Flamestrike’s site for Wizardry 8?

[Stratos]

The Cleric is a very good class, fully buffed you're kind of like a Fighter on speed.

[Target]

After thinking about it for a bit, and as I've been playing a Sorcerer I think I'll not go cleric route so no spells.
So I will either go for Fighter or Monk, as I would most likely pick cleave and knockdown as feats would getting those for 'free' as a monk mean I would get more feats going that route?
Would a fighter or Monk make a better DD?

[T-D-C]

If you go fighter you will get quite a few bonus feats. It depennds on if you are going to be wearing heavy armour or not. If you wear heavy armour it cancels a few of the monk feats.

If you go the monk route as well you will need to invest a few points in to wisdom (monk), strenght and con (for the DD)

[Legolas]

As a fighter, you will need 13 STR, 13 INT and 4 feats to take the ones you want. This means you get 1 bonus feat from going Fighter, as well as +3 attack bonus, Power Attack, and a maximum of 20 more hitpoints.

As a monk, you don't need the stats. What you get is immunity to disease, evasion, improved evasion, better speed, ability to heal 20 hp once/day, stunning fist, deflect arrows and 32 more skillpoints. Speed is lost in armor I believe.

Since your main weakness as DD is probably in the field of spells requiring will and reflex saves, Monk is probably the welcome choice because of Improved Evasion. You don't lose an attack over it, and it has some other nice benefits.
Also, since you're only taking 10 levels, you will likely use the abilities for support only. You won't need much wisdom at all then.

[Target]

I am getting more tempted by going monk/DD what would be the best attributes to put points into, for DD do I need a certain str? or anything?

[T-D-C]

IIRC the Stunning Fist, deflect arrows, monk speed and Wisdom AC bonus is lost in Armour.