36 point pure unarmed horc monk

[inspiredunease]

So I'm TRing post the enhancement pass for the 2nd time on what has always in the past been a dark monk. My last life was helf rogue dilly, but now that there's so much crud in the helf tree, I thought I would try something different for my 3rd life. This build is kinda based on the old horcrux and metaru type builds, e.g. str/wis based, but not dark path... I've come over into the light! With the nerf to TOD, I really don't want to spend a bunch of AP on some fairly useless toggles for the despair finisher, when I've only got the one dark move to build up charges. The light moves should provide some reasonable self-healing in EHs and the finisher can put out some pretty reasonable group heals (I've heard people floating around numbers in the 800 range, but that does include slotting various implausible combinations of devotion and potency). The horc tree is at first a little underwhelming for unarmed as it seem crammed with THF enhancements. But there are a couple of gems in here as we will see. It also qualifies us for overwhelming critical without needing to sink any level ups into strength allowing us to dump more points into wisdom for better DCs on everything. With (reasonably) easy to acchieve gear, you should be able to hit 50ish wisdom:

Fyng - 20 Monk - 36 points - Horc

Stats:
Strength (10 points) - 18 + 5 tome = 23
Dexterity (8 points) - 15 + 5 tome = 20
Constitution (8 points) - 15 + 5 tome = 20
Intelligence - 6 + 4 tome = 10
wisdom (10 points) - 16 + 5 tome + 7 levels = 28
charisma - 6 + 4 tome = 10

Feats:
PA
PL: Monk
Cleave
ITWF
IC:Bludgeon
gtwf
Great Cleave
OC
Vorpal
PTWF
Epic damage reduction
Elusive Target

Monk feats:
TWF
SF
Light philosophy
Dodge

Enhancement

Shintao - 41 points

Bastion of purity
Deft Strikes (3 ranks)
Protection from tainted
Iron skin (3 ranks)
Smite Tainted Creature
Conditioning (3 ranks)
Iron hand
Jade strike
Wisdom I
Argent Fist
Tomb of Jade
Instinctive defense (1 rank)
Wisdom II
Touch the void dragon
Kukan-do
Violence begets violence
Meditation of war
Empty hand mastery
To seek perfection

Ninja Spy - 25 points

Sneak attack I
Acrobatic (3 ranks)
Stealthy (3 ranks)
Faster sneaking (1 ranks)
Ninja training I
Sneak attack II
Agility (3 ranks)
Ninja training II
Sneak attack III
Shadow Veil
Sneak attack training
No mercy (3 ranks)

Horc - 14 points

Mighty Sundering (3 ranks)
Orcish Fury I
Orcish Strength I
Orcish fury II
Orcish Strength II
Orcish fury III
Improved power attack (2 ranks)

Skills:
Max UMD, Conc, Spare points in spot, move silently, balance or whatever.

Only ED I have maxed at the moment is GMoF, with a couple twists from Shadowdancer and Legendary dreadnought. Could really use some advice on what would capitalise on all the critical goodness in this build. Coccoon appears to be mandatory as a twist these days, but beyond that... I'm guessing FoTW... but how much am I going to miss EiN and all the other GMoF goodies?

My guy is currently decked out in mostly bottom of the barrel commendation stuff with grave wrappings, some challenge stuff, and a greensteel 45 hp helm. Once I finish relevelling him, I guess I'll try and grab either some of the adamantium knuckles, and maybe antipode if anyone is still running CiTW by then He certainly had no problems soloing EH MOTU quests, and could (just) about hold his own in EE. I would like to be able to do the same with this guy. My focus will be on damage mitigation, running always in earth stance for the PRR (and not losing dodge due to the capstone, yummy!) I should be able to get:

PRR:
25 Grandmaster Earth Stance (with meditation of war)
15 Iron Skin
15 Planar Conflux
16 Augment
10 Epic Damage Reduction
----
76 PRR = 34% damage reduction

once I get the antipodes, and:

Dodge:
6 Monk
8 Item
3 Dodge feat
3 Acrobatic (Ninja Spy)
3 Perfect balance (GMoF)
----
24 (Not taking advantage of the increased dodge cap here, still trying to think of a way to raise this, could possibly twist in something?).

With 20% from shadow veil, and a displacement clicky, he should be pretty hard to kill.

Anyway, thoughts? Criticism? I am still debating whether or not the improved power attack is worth sinking so many points into, but the strength and fury enhancements are nice, and the alternative is 3 points into henshin for the animal path, or maybe the healing buffs to get rise of the phoenix (which could be useful). I would be willing to splash in maybe a couple of levels of fighter or something if someone can point out the advantages (I guess with extra feats I could take some combination of improved sunder/mobility/spring attack for more dodge/fort debuff), but I've always kept this guy pure, and would prefer to work around any holes with EDs if possible.

[Therigar]

Here is my take on your concept.

I am running a halfling 32 point monk at L25 with 114 AC, 105 PRR, 28% dodge, yada, yada.

I run in Unyielding Sentinal with Unbreakable. I twist Standing with Stone, Improved Combat Expertise and Dance of Flowers.

What you want to do is not that far removed from what I am doing. I went WIS focused. In the end you lose 6 WIS for a drop of 3 DC and 3 AC. You also lose 1 AC by being half orc rather than halfling.

The emphasis on STR means you do a bit more damage per hit and by choosing PA rather than CE you trade on being able to do more damage while taking more damage. That is an individual choice that players are going to make, either one works.

What I have found is that if it can be stunned then it can be killed. The only real challenge comes from self-healing mobs if they can't be stunned. Since that is a very small number of mobs it really isn't an issue.

Boss fights for me are sometimes drawn out since my damage is lower per hit. OTOH I hardly take damage so it seems to balance out. With your concept the goal would be to kill faster since damage mitigation will be lower.

I found that Ivy Wraps really make a big difference. For most mob fights the HP regeneration from Ivy Wraps leaves me at full HP at the end of the fight.

Rejuvenation Cocoon would certainly be a good twist instead of the Dance of Flowers. I haven't had issues with healing so prefer the 1.5[W] from Dance.

[inspiredunease]

I run in Unyielding Sentinal with Unbreakable.

Hadn't thought about taking sentinel. Have you got a slightly more detailed run-down of your tree if it's not too much of a bother? The defence benefits are undeniable (especially being able to twist in Standing with Stone, but not being able to twist the other way for the stance), but as I'm expecting to have the charisma of a dungheap, and my squinty horc eyes will look at shields with a baffled expression, I'm not sure if any of the rest of it would be that synergistic although I'm quite willing to admit I may be missing something here. Did you build for the smites? e.g. not dump charisma I could see it being very helpful if kukan-do's dcs are as meaningful as most of the other monk DCs sound at the moment. Do your other monk strikes still hit with reasonable predictability without the DC boost from GMoF? Do you find yourself missing EiN against the mass waves of trash spam in the new content? Have you done any raid tanking with it? I just ask as the sentinel epic is... sorta designed for big damage red-name fights afaict? I don't know whether many people are running the raids at the moment though, so please forgive my ignorance if that's just a completely irrelevant question. Sorry to bombard you with all of this, and thanks for the new thoughts you've left me with if you get bored of educating my sorry ass.

[Therigar]

Credit for the build goes to my son who borrowed ideas from others and researched all the synergy.

Halfling, 32 point first life, 6/18/12/10/18/8 with stat increases in WIS, +4 tomes in all stats. Dodge, mobility, spring attack, stunning fist, combat expertise, TWF, ITWF, GTWF, toughness, IC:bludgeon, path of inevitable dominion, vorpal strikes, improved martial arts.

Maxed destinies: GMoF, Exalted Angel, Shadowdancer, Unyielding Sentinel. All other destinies have 4 levels in them. Used fate tome for 2 fate points.

Twists: Standing with Stone, Improved Combat Expertise, Dance of Flowers. Run in Unbreakable stance with Unyielding Sentinel as active destiny.

US: Bane of Undeath, Brace for Impact (2), Consitution (3), Healing Hands, Endless Lay on Hands (3), Spark of Life, Hardened (3), Undying Vanguard. Hands are just filler points, there are probably more useful choices as the LoH amount is very trivial.

Enhancements: 44ap in Shintao including 2 WIS, Kukan-Do, Violence Begets Violence, Meditation of War and Open Hand Mastery; 29ap in Ninja Spy including 1 DEX, 1 WIS, Sting of the Ninja and No Mercy (3); 7ap racial with all 5 core enhancements.

Running with Sun Soul set at L25, need 4 commendations to upgrade Spiderspun to Sun Soul set.

In mountain stance w CE on this gives 114 AC (no ship buffs), 105 PRR, 28% max dodge (currently standing at 26%), 30 spell resistance, DR 10/epic (2), DR 10/good, 150% fortification, 10% incorporeal standing (25% with Shadow Veil), 10% blur, Sun Soul procs 25% miss chance in mountain stance (not positive how this stacks with everything else).

Currently using eHard Ivy Wraps enabling Ninja Spy DEX modifier to damage (modified 32 DEX w tomes, gear, enhancements but w/o ship buffs). Modified WIS is 42 w/o ship buffs, yugo potions, etc.

Hope that helps.

Here's a complete run-down of my current build.

[inspiredunease]

Here's a complete run-down of my current build.

Nice, thanks for this. Could probably have found it if I'd just checked your previous posts, but it was 2 am when I posted and brain stoopid

I'm definitely going to try it out. Will take me a little while to work round to it, and I think I might swap some of the twists for, as you say, a little more damage and a little less mitigation. Thinking of Sense weakness (I believe it stacks with no mercy for +160% damage to stunned mobs), dance of flowers and cocoon. I'll probably end up finding you have very good reasons for taking the additional damage mitigation feats I suspect, but it will be fun to try! May also still try LD (again twisting in sense weakness) for fairly constant +210% damage to helpless mobs :O

[Wipey]

Jeebus, stay in Gmof in Earth, get your QP ( shatter Dun robar ) stun ( Antipode, Gravewraps or 2 nd Dun robar), WISDOM UP, combat mastery ( Dun robar, challenge cloak or Spare hand ), shadowfade or ghostly at least, 20+ dodge, perma blur + few displace clickies if you can.
Sense weakness, LD tactics, cocoon / brace for impact .
70 ish stun, godly QP, EiN and Lotus / Petals and you' ll be fine.

Stop with the Sentinel nonsense, if you running easy stuff just blitz it so you get it done faster.

[inspiredunease]

Stop with the Sentinel nonsense, if you running easy stuff just blitz it so you get it done faster.

Do you think it would be good to splash fighter for extra feats for an LD or are you just using blitz in its generic sense? If you were, would you splash 2 fighter and/or go staff instead? This build is not going to be TRing 'til the weekend, I have a long time to fiddle.

[Wipey]

QP is godly, 6 secs cd instakill ? Yes please. That requires 15 monk levels. Is it gonna last forever ? I don't know.
Now that you can get GM stances via feats, there are many options, 2 pally ( saves ), 2 rogue ( scroll mastery, umd , traps, haste boost ), 2 fighter ( tactics, hast boost ). Also druid options, which I am not really familiar with.

Blitz is so stupidly overpowered in easy EH stuff, for EE you should aim for 60+ will targetting ( Jade, Kukan-do, EiN ) abilities and 65 + fort ones ( QP, SF ) in order to get any fun with your toon.

70+ stun should be easy to reach on wisdom monk.

Unnecessary harsh against Sentinel discussion, sorry about that, it just doesn't make any sense. EH is trivial and you almost don't take any damage so might as well kill stuff faster and for EE, you really gotta get your numbers up, what good is 20+ more prr when you can't use ANY ability effectively and take 10 mins to kill any trash mob.

[erethizon]

Here's a complete run-down of my current build.

I am about to TR into my first monk and am looking for a nice build. I like your build (largely because strength does nothing for the any of the saving throws and thus is a boring stat to raise), but had a question. I get that using Ivy Handwraps will allow you to add dex to hit and damage since they are piercing weapons and Ninja Spy lets all piercing weapons add dex to hit and damage (assuming it is not bugged with handwraps). However, Ivy Handwraps are only available at level 15 at the earliest. Does this mean than for levels 1-14 you are using 6 strength to determine your hit and damage? I notice there is no weapon finesse in the build so I assume this means that the first 14 levels are using strength for everything.

[Therigar]

Does this mean than for levels 1-14 you are using 6 strength to determine your hit and damage?

Yes. Or, to be more accurate, 6 STR plus tomes plus gear. But, the content is all heroic so miss chances are extremely small even going with that set up. The abundant use of Stunning Fist means damage numbers are still enough.

I run basically the same build on nearly every monk. I have done both STR and DEX based but WIS based is the way to go IMO. Has been for a long time.

I've tried to avoid that discussion in this thread since OP wanted a STR based build. Discussions of high SF and QP DCs are only valid with WIS based builds. The question of eElite Storm Horns is somewhat misleading as it suggests that this is where the majority of players hang out.

That might be where those posting about eElite Storm Horns are wanting to hang out. It might even be where OP intends to hang out (although I didn't have the impression from the first post). But, in my experience the majority of players hang out in eNormal and eHard.

The build solos all old eHard content. That is key for me personally since the old content still has loot that I want to get for other characters. Keep in mind that the character I'm playing is L25. There are still 3 levels for me to gain and other epic feats to add in. My experience running the character on Lamannia tells me I'll be able to handle the new content on eHard when I get the added levels.

So, for my purposes getting 65+ DCs isn't the objective. With Dun Robar ring and Gravewrappings I manage 54 which is sufficient in all of the content I built for.

If that isn't what players are wanting to do then they should certainly look at high WIS builds and at EDs that let them push WIS and DCs higher. Of course, running a STR based half-orc monk probably isn't the way to build if that is their goal.

So, keep in mind that I built for a specific reason and the suggested differences have to do with OP's original request for horc STR build ideas.

[inspiredunease]

I've tried to avoid that discussion in this thread since OP wanted a STR based build.

Of course, running a STR based half-orc monk probably isn't the way to build if that is their goal.

So, keep in mind that I built for a specific reason and the suggested differences have to do with OP's original request for horc STR build ideas.

Where in the OP does it state that this is a strength-based build? I understand why you have build the way you have, you have built around one particular set of hand-wraps, fine, that doesn't make you dex based does it? Horc allows us to take OC without having to put 3-point drops or level-ups into strength, it also provides +3 dc to our QP, something I'm very keen on and a few strength/PA things that I'm not that wild about (as stated, I may well forget the PA boost and stick the points into other trees, especially if multiclass).

I envisaged this discussion as being partly around damage mitigation v.s. tactics DCs/damage output in EE and partly around base class choices, as stated, this toon still has to get back through an entire life before the ED stuff becomes relevant. EH does not really require further comment as it's a cake-walk for a brain-damaged monkey.

On the epic front: to me the idea of getting a very nice boost to survivability from Sentinel is still something I wanted to try out (I haven't changed my mind on thinking that the stacking stance + twist of standing in stone is lovely), but I'm not yet convinced it's going to be totally EE viable, as Encair said, it doesn't matter if you're well protected if it's taking you 10 minutes to drop trash, and there's not really much synergy in the rest of the ED. With the right twists I certainly think it's worth a try, but the main problem I envisage is whether DCs are still going to be reliable.

In terms of core build: I'm still mullling the idea of taking two fighter. I have tested it now on my current life with the +20 lr at level 19. Give up capstone + meditation of war for +3 tactics dcs, more dodge plus haste boost. Oh, and two feats. As I said in the OP, it goes against the grain as I find it hard to give up all the synergistic earth stance loveliness (and cheap 1 ap for 2 wis), and just find pure monks more aesthetically appealing somehow, but I'm finding it harder and harder to resist. Of course once you take the two fighter, you may as well splash another couple of levels (you can take the GM stance as an extra feat) and the 18 point core shintao is pretty much garbage (although losing faster movement makes me sad). As stated, Paladin may give sentinel a bit more synergy, but with completely dumped charisma, doesn't seem that sensible (just works out to being + 2 fort save really (actually lower will and reflex) and some useless LoH). Rogue is appealing: max ranks UMD and an additional sneak die, but the second level is useless (could maybe take 3 for 2 sneak dice, but you lose out on .5 unarmed die). Druid for Ram's + double strike seems pretty appealing though.

Meh. Should be TRing tonight. Still going to go through with the basic concept. Will try and keep this thread updated as I go if anyone's interested, may post a finalised build once it's capped.

EDIT: I accidentally a few words.

[Therigar]

Where in the OP does it state that this is a strength-based build?

You know, I just read that into the post. When you asked the question and I went back and re-read the OP I realized that OP isn't actually going STR based -- you are just starting with more STR than I would normally start with and building with the intent of getting more synergy out of the half-orc racial tree.

I had wrongly presumed a STR focus even from my first response.

Apologies.

[Therigar]

I envisaged this discussion as being partly around damage mitigation v.s. tactics DCs/damage output in EE and partly around base class choices, as stated, this toon still has to get back through an entire life before the ED stuff becomes relevant. EH does not really require further comment as it's a cake-walk for a brain-damaged monkey.

Maybe eHard is a cakewalk. For me it never has been. To the contrary, because I don't have a static group or large guild to call upon, eHard has always been a difficult solo challenge. By going with Sentinel I've been able to turn eHard into a cakewalk.

FWIW, I'm not building around Ivy Wraps. Instead I use them when needed. In many cases I find that I don't need them and in many others I find that having them on doesn't really change the dynamics of the quest.

On the epic front: to me the idea of getting a very nice boost to survivability from Sentinel is still something I wanted to try out (I haven't changed my mind on thinking that the stacking stance + twist of standing in stone is lovely), but I'm not yet convinced it's going to be totally EE viable, as Encair said, it doesn't matter if you're well protected if it's taking you 10 minutes to drop trash, and there's not really much synergy in the rest of the ED. With the right twists I certainly think it's worth a try, but the main problem I envisage is whether DCs are still going to be reliable.

If you are soloing eElite then I would not advise you to make any changes to whatever you are doing. I am not soloing eElite and the build isn't meant for that. So, if you have a build that is soloing eElite I'd really like to know what it is and the full Cliff Notes version of the build.

OTOH if you are running eElite with friends (a static group or guild mates) then that is something else entirely. If you are grouping for most of your questing then I would be building for the DCs and not for the defenses.

Of course, this is somewhat of a false dichotomy since we really are not forced into an either/or situation. With the ability to change active destiny it comes down to the twists. Maybe it isn't worth building up a L4 twist to keep Standing with Stone and maybe there's no need for your character to spend a feat on CE and to twist ICE.

Or, if you have the resources, changing twists when changing active destiny could also be done.

I don't know because that isn't what I built for. I do acknowledge that the DCs are lower the way I'm running but, since I'm not focused on eElite, for me that is alright. I can understand that this might not be your situation.

[Fafnir]

To the OP, I think you did a good job with this build.

I have had a half orc monk in the past and really liked the build in that era. This one will do well.

I am going through one of my many monk builds/lives and may make a build similar to this - almost the same feat profile and go dwarf instead (you can get OC with 2 points in STR).

Let us know how you think it plays (more of a feat issue than anything; although survivability is part of this also versus other build concepts for monks), or if you ended up going multi class.

[Naera]

...

Anyway, thoughts? Criticism? I am still debating whether or not the improved power attack is worth sinking so many points into, but the strength and fury enhancements are nice, and the alternative is 3 points into henshin for the animal path, or maybe the healing buffs to get rise of the phoenix (which could be useful). I would be willing to splash in maybe a couple of levels of fighter or something if someone can point out the advantages (I guess with extra feats I could take some combination of improved sunder/mobility/spring attack for more dodge/fort debuff), but I've always kept this guy pure, and would prefer to work around any holes with EDs if possible.

2 Fighter for +3 tactics, cheap haste boost, 3% dodge and 2 feats (and some other nice, but costly, possibilities) seems very solid

For level 27 feat I would think about IMA - 4.5 damage is decent, and 10 prr (epic damage reduction), is adding only ~3% DR in your case.

[inspiredunease]

If you are soloing eElite then I would not advise you to make any changes to whatever you are doing. I am not soloing eElite and the build isn't meant for that. So, if you have a build that is soloing eElite I'd really like to know what it is and the full Cliff Notes version of the build.

I don't think I have stated anywhere that I intend to solo EE, I merely said I wanted it to be viable in EE. Soloing Ehard is a joke. Seriously, I was soloing Ehards at level + 1 after I had grouped for EEs.

To the OP, I think you did a good job with this build.

I have had a half orc monk in the past and really liked the build in that era. This one will do well.

I am going through one of my many monk builds/lives and may make a build similar to this - almost the same feat profile and go dwarf instead (you can get OC with 2 points in STR).

Let us know how you think it plays (more of a feat issue than anything; although survivability is part of this also versus other build concepts for monks), or if you ended up going multi class.

Thanks for the encouragement.

2 Fighter for +3 tactics, cheap haste boost, 3% dodge and 2 feats (and some other nice, but costly, possibilities) seems very solid

For level 27 feat I would think about IMA - 4.5 damage is decent, and 10 prr (epic damage reduction), is adding only ~3% DR in your case.

I am set on the 2 fighter. Since the first post, I capped the build as an 18/2, spent a little while in epic (got up to 24 taking IMA and vorpal as I couldn't take OC), and have since TRed, he was landing QPs and SFs in at level EEs - DCs were around 67 each I think (after I luckily pulled a 10 sunder DC Avithoul ring in my only rusted blades run which was passed to me very kindly by another, better geared monk) - and surviving just fine with 28% dodge, 30%ish damage reduction from PRR + incorp + blur. I'm going to forget the idea of buffing his defences any further I think and commit to DC nirvana, insta-killing all the trash when the DC casters can't is oh so satisfying.

Fyng is capped on xp for level 9 at the moment, and heroic elites have been a predictable cake-walk, even without using the twist exploit. Had fun in an at-level elite chrono last night, about to run the high xp level 6 quests today. Certainly don't feel like I'm missing the human/helf feat/dilly + enhancements at the moment, but I'm not really using anything from the horc tree either as most of my ap have gone into getting shadow veil and anti-tainted strikes for roughing up the masses of undead. Will probably provide a bit more of an update later.

[Fafnir]

I was also concluding the same - 18/2.

What are you taking with the 2 extra feats for the split?

Combat Expertise? Mobility? Completionist?

[inspiredunease]

I was also concluding the same - 18/2.

What are you taking with the 2 extra feats for the split?

Combat Expertise? Mobility? Completionist?

I'm still debating the wisdom of taking a druid splash as well (although after I did some testing on faster sneak speed: https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...09#post5105909, I'm almost considering splashing in ranger or rogue just so I can get some (but without shadar-kai animation, booooooo)), in which case I would probably switch things around a bit so I can take empowered healing as a normal feat, then probably either mobility or improved sunder. I like fitting IC into boss rotations, but I may switch it out for spring attack if I don't feel it's delivering enough (I found it was slowing attack animations down a lot while haste boosted), which would allow me to switch some AP away from dodge enhancements to something else.

[inspiredunease]

As I stated in an earlier post, I have ended up posting the full final build to the multi-class forum here: https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...ome-kinda-Fyng. Updating for posterity.

[Darkrok]

First of all, the OP's build is just fine. Half-Orc is very attractive on a wisdom-based monk as you can get to 23 strength for OCrit with 10 build points and a +5 tome. Your strength will be higher thanks just to meeting the OCrit requirements so no need to go dex-based on your to-hit/damage. You can then spend all level-ups and plenty of build points in Wisdom - at least 10, possibly 13 or 16 since our only other required stat is dex starting at 12-15 depending on leveling preferences and tomes.

For me I'm having a really tough time deciding between HOrc, Human, Dwarf, and the two forged options. Also having a tough time choosing between splashing or not and between Fire or Earth stance. Remember - splashing and going Earth stance means 5% less dodge. And Fire stance gives you +2 to tactics meaning any strength-based tactics will be at the full +4 over no stance (+2 for the +4 str in fire, +2 for the tactics boost), wisdom based tactics will be at +1 over no stance (-1 for the -2 wis in fire, +2 for the tactics boost). Only things like EiN would suffer and even then they would only be 1 DC below Earth stance. Again, this is assuming we're splashing so Meditations of War's penalty is far nicer in Fire than in Earth.

I'm thinking that splashing one of the most attractive builds is an 18/2 Warforged or when it becomes possible a 16/2/2 Bladeforged. The former would run in Fire Stance most of the time and go Light Monk, would likely want to use the (admittedly weak) Epic Jidz'tet-ka's for additional healing amp, and would make use of the Epic Blademark's Docent, +10 stunning/sundering wraps (antipodes, grave wrappings, or random lootgen), and +10 stunning/sundering Dun'robar to provide for full tactics - Improved Trip (with the +15 from Epic Blademark's), Improved Sunder, and Stunning Fist. The Bladeforged version could run in either Fire or Earth, go Light or Dark, and use a build someone else suggested to me, splash 2 wizard taking Mental Toughness for additional SP's (important for the Reconstruct SLA), and dip into Eldritch Knight for more doublestrike/PRR. I just can't see splashing if you're not going to pick up trips as well.

On a pure I love HOrc, Human, and Dwarf all three. HOrc gives you the highest unboosted wisdom, highest strength, and thanks to the wisdom and the sundering AP's the highest QP. Dwarf gives the highest overall tactics. Human gives the highest wisdom (if desired) during action boosts, best healing amp, and an extra feat. They all look great on a pure.