Starting a Favored Soul

Overview
Favoured Souls are capable of fulfilling some or all four of the MMO archetypes:
 * Healing - With Clerics the primary healing class of DDO. Only Clerics have access to as powerful healing spells and enhancements.
 * 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 both melee and offensive casting effectively.
 * 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 are still very effective in this role.
 * Damage Mitigation / Support - Favoured Souls can rank third or fourth for support, depending on mission requirements. They can carry lines of buffs common to many classes as well as several others they share only with Clerics.

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 are 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.

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.

Race / Build

 * Generalist build - Typically Human (for the extra stat points, feat and skills
 * Offensive Caster build - Typically Human (for the extra stat points)
 * Melee Build - Typically Elf for two weapon fighting with Scimitars, or Warforged two handed fighting with Greatswords. Halflings can also be considered for their sneak attack enhancements
 * Nannybot Build - Often Human (for the extra stat points, feat and skills)

Stats

 * Strength - Useful for the Generalist or Melee build, often the 2nd or 3rd highest stat on these builds. Rarely needed for the Caster or Nanny builds, usually set only high enough to prevent becoming burdened with encumbrance
 * Dexterity - Rarely raised beyond 12 on creation for Nanny or Offensive Caster builds (12 allows maximum armour class from the best medium armour with a +6 Dexterity item and +2 tome). Typically if raised set to a 15 (or 14 with a +1 tome) so as to have enough dexterity to take the Two Weapon Fighting feat for Generalist and Melee builds. Often left at 8
 * Constitution - Useful for all characters, classes, and builds. Typically the 2nd to 4th highest stat on all builds.
 * Intelligence - Rarely raised on creation for any Favored Soul build. If raised at all, typically only done to a 9 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).

Feats
The following feats might be considered:


 * Combat Casting - Might sound useful but don't take this feat
 * 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 and Melee, primarily to enhance offensive spells such as Blade Barrier but also for mass cure spells... Favored Souls get enhancements along the efficient empower spell line, not empower heal, like cleric. This means that with full ranks in efficient empower spell, this feat can be used for 1 point fewer than empower healing, and will affect offensive spells as well
 * 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 Generalist and Melee, primarily to enhance offensive spells such as Blade Barrier but also for mass cure spells.  Please note, maximize spell and empower spell only work on cure XXXX spells, not on heal 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 - Not a common feat, but may be used by Offensive Casters
 * Spell Penetration - Not a common feat for any other than Offensive Casters
 * Quicken Spell - Important feat for meleeing Favored Souls who heal in melee, to not get interrupted and spend less time in the casting animation; Important to heal through difficult content; At the lower levels it is too expensive though, but an important feat at high levels