Starting a Favored Soul

Overview
Favoured Souls are capable of fulfilling some or all four of the MMO archetypes:
 * Healing - Favored souls are excellent healers with a large mana pool and good mobility (wings). By taking empower healing, quicken, and all four tiers of enhanced life magic, you can keep the party healed in any situation.
 * DPS - Favoured Souls are middle-of the road for DPS. Fighters and their sub-classes will be better melee fighters, and arcane casters can do more damage with offensive spells.  But favoured souls are able to do two things our of three at the same time: healing, melee, or offensive casting.
 * Crowd Control - Favoured souls are probably one of the weakest of the CC classes in DDO, but given that there are only 5 classes of the 10 in DDO that can do CC, they can still be effective in this role. Please note that at later levels you must have maxed out wisdom (18pt base + 5 from level ups) for your CC to be any use at high levels.
 * Damage Mitigation / Support - Favoured souls can buff pretty well, thanks to spells like Freedom of Movement, Energy Resistance, Protection from Evil, and True Sight.

Types of Favoured Souls
As the newest character class, there is less consensus as to what spells and abilities a Favoured Soul should focus on. Most fall into the same broad catagories as Clerics:
 * Generalist - Able to fight, cast, heal, and buff. Others will do each of these better, but you can do all well
 * Offensive Caster - Has sacrificed melee skills in order to increase offensive casting ability
 * Melee Favoured Soul - Has sacrificed offensive casting ability in order to be more effective in melee combat.
 * Nannybot - Perhaps not the most complimentary of names, but used here as it is in common use on the DDO forums. This build emphasizes healing and support, sacrificing melee and casting as necessary.

Race

 * Drow:
 * Pros:
 * Spell-Resistance to non-damaging spells
 * +2 DEX for filling the Dexterity bonus of medium armour
 * +2 INT for one more skill point per level
 * +2 CHA for 29 more Spell points at level 20
 * Automatic proficiency in Rapier, Shortsword, & Shuriken; racial enhancements to improve attack & damage with shortsword stacks with Vulkoor feats
 * Cons
 * -2 CON means fewer Hit Points usually
 * Dwarf:
 * Pros:
 * +2 CON for more Hit Points
 * Racial HP enhancements (up to +50 for all 4 levels)
 * Racial melee enhancements to improve axe, shield, and armour use
 * Cons:
 * -2 CHA means 29 fewer Spell points at level 20
 * Elf:
 * Pros:
 * +2 DEX for filling the Dexterity bonus of medium armour
 * Automatic proficiency in Longsword, Rapier & Bows; racial enhancements to improve attack & damage with longsword/longbow stacks with Silver Flame & Sovereign Host feats.
 * Cons:
 * -2 CON means fewer Hit Points usually
 * Halfling:
 * Pros:
 * +2 DEX for filling the Dexterity bonus of medium armour
 * +1 AC
 * +1 To Hit
 * +1 base general bonus to saving throws, more available via enhancements
 * Dragonmark Enhancement to allow healing without using spellpoints
 * Cons:
 * -2 STR
 * 3/4 the carrying capacity of a character with similar STR.
 * Human:
 * Pros:
 * Bonus feat at 1st level
 * +4 skill points for 1st level and +1 per level afterwards.
 * Can take 1 extra wisdom and charisma point as enhancements
 * Human Versatility adds to To Hit, Damage, Saves, AC or Skills for 20 seconds per use.
 * Cons:
 * Warforged:
 * Pros:
 * Immunity to some spells and spell effects
 * Can follow the Lord of Blades and gain Greatsword proficiency, which combines well with Warforged racial enhancements to Two Handed fighting
 * +2 CON for more Hit Points
 * Cons:
 * -2 WIS, Favoured Soul's offensive spellcasting stat
 * -2 CHA, means 29 fewer Spell points at level 20
 * Healing spells cast on self only heal for 1/2 normal
 * Half-elf:
 * Pros:
 * Both human and elven enhancements options available
 * Dilettantes allow you to further customize your character
 * Counted as a human + an elf, main-class + dilettante class when using equipment.
 * Cons:
 * Compared to human, misses out on extra feat and faster skill progress.
 * Poorly made player models.

The most typical builds are Human Generalists or Nannybots, Drow or Elf Generalists with two weapon fighting. Halflings are less common and Dwarves seldom seen. Warforged tend to be Melee builds due to their two-handed weapon fighting -bonuses.

Stats
Notice that stats can be raised by tomes, from which +1 and +2 are commonly available in the auction house.


 * Strength - Useful for the Melee -build, who should max it (18pt). Rarely needed for the Caster or Nanny builds, usually set only high enough (10pt, 12pt) to prevent becoming burdened with encumbrance
 * Dexterity - Rarely raised beyond 12pt on creation for Nanny or Offensive Caster builds and often left at 8pt. 12pt allows maximum armour class, from the best medium armour, with a +6 Dexterity item and +2 tome. Melee may want to raise it to 15 to be eligible for Two Weapon Fighting.
 * Constitution - Useful for all characters, classes, and builds. Typically set to 14pt.
 * Intelligence - Rarely raised on creation for any Favored Soul build. If raised at all, typically only done to a 9pt so that the player can use a +1 tome to get a 10 for skill points.
 * Wisdom - Primary stat for an Offensive Caster, who will typically max this stat out. The Generalist, Nanny, and Melee builds will usually stop 2 to 4 points short of maxed in order to have more points available for other stats. Some Melee and Nanny builds may discard Wisdom entirely and take no offensive spells.
 * Charisma - Including items, enhancements and tomes you need to have 10+(level of the spell) Charisma to cast your spells. Higher Charisma also gives a few more spell points; This effect however is rather minor with 29 spell points per 2 Charisma points at level 20 (less at lower levels). Starting with 13-14pt is perfectly viable.

Skills
Favored souls usually start with little intelligence, so expect to get as only 2-4 skills points per level. Start with INT of 9 and use a +1 INT tome at level 1, which will grant you extra points.
 * Concentration: Whenever you take damage, you have to make a roll. If the roll fails, whatever you were casting will fail, wasting mana and time. Keep it maxed even if you use Quicken and stay at the back.
 * Diplomacy: Causes a roll, if succesfull, makes a single monster find another target. Because the roll is DC based, this is an all-or-nothing skill: the total should be around 40 at level 20. Recommend dropping it and using other means of dodging monsters instead.
 * Heal: As a healing capable class, Favored souls do not need this. The extra healing, per skill point, is also too low to matter.
 * Jump: Being able to jump higher is situationally beneficial, such as when you are surrounded by monsters. Acquire Morah's Belt later in the game to give yourself a near permanent +30 bonus. 40 points is the maximum for this skill. Also note that with Cannith Boots of Propulsion and the belt this skill becomes obsolete.

Other skills to consider:
 * Balance: Many monsters can trip. As a caster, you more often than not fail the strenght check and become helpless, which is often enough to kill you. With balance, you may get up a moment before the final blow.
 * Haggle: While not useful in combat, haggle gives better prices for vendor trash.

Presuming there is 3 skill points (10 int) to spend per level, a fail-safe build is to keep concentration and balance maxed, and use the leftovers for haggle.

Feats
The following feats are worth considering:
 * Empower Healing Spell - Taken by virtually all Nannybot builds and some other builds. More efficient for enhancing healing than Empower Spell and Maximize Spell.
 * Empower Spell - Typically taken by Offensive Casters and some Generalist to enhance offensive spells, such as Blade Barrier and cometfall, but also for mass cure spells. Heal and Mass Heal are not affected. The mana cost increase can be brought down by investing points in efficient empower spell -enhancement line.
 * Extend Spell - Taken by some Favored Souls at low level, its usefulness declines in later levels.
 * Improved Critical - Taken by some Generalist and most Melee builds.
 * Maximize Spell - Typically taken by Offensive Casters, and some Generalists, primarily to enhance offensive and mass cure spells. This feat is also taken to maximize heals per SP, and is very efficient when combined with empower or empower heal
 * Toughness - Useful for all classes due to the 2 lines of HP enhancements it allows. Is usually only dropped on nannybot or offensive caster builds, and even then its usually worth the feat slot for those builds.
 * Mental Toughness - Taken by some Nannybots for extra spell points; You should be able to find a more useful feat though.
 * Spell Focus - May be used by Offensive Casters. Higher spell DC makes it tougher for enemies to save against them.
 * Spell Penetration - Not a common feat for any other than Offensive Casters. True Resurrecting a favored soul makes this feat unnecessary.
 * Quicken Spell - Important feat for all favored souls, who cast while taking damage. Expensive at lower levels, so usually taken only later on. Makes casting faster and prevents spell casting failures due to damage, which is very common at higher levels.

Beginner Equipment: Nannybot and Offensive Caster
Even if you cannot use the +6 items yet, there are lower level (and lower bonus) items available for pennies in the auction house.
 * Armor: Elfcrafted Robe, Fearsome Robe of the Magi.
 * Weapon: Any weapon with Greater Potency VII or Superior Potency VI.
 * Shield: +5 Medium Shield, or generic Spell Penetration, or Evocation Focus -weapon.
 * Boots: Gyroscopic Boots of Striding, any pair of boots with +xx% striding.
 * Head: Teraza's Sight, Helm of Frost
 * Hands: Maenya's Fists, any pair of gloves with +6 strength
 * Bracers: Scorched Bracers,
 * Belt: Belt of Heavy Fortification
 * Trinket: Pearl of Power X, Dusk Heart
 * Cloak: Envenomed Cloak, Cloak of Resistance +4
 * Ring 1: Katra's Wit, Ring of Improved xx Resistance
 * Ring 2: Ring of Improved xx Resistance, Ring of the Mire
 * Necklace: Necklace of Disease Immunity, Shaman's Beads
 * Consumables: Wand of Neutralize Poison, 100x healing scrolls, 100x Raise Dead -scrolls, restoration scrolls, 100x Heroes' Feast -scrolls.