Dungeons & Dragons Online

Dungeons & Dragons Online is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, based VERY loosely on Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition, and set in Eberron. And we do mean "loosely"; D&D Third Edition and D&D Fifth Edition easily have more in common with each other than either one does with DDO. It was launched in 2006 by Turbine, unfortunately near the end of 3.5's life span. Initially released as Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach, it has been changed to Eberron Unlimited and most recently to just the page title over its various updates, especially since you can now port into Forgotten Realms. It was never much popular to begin with, it had a small boost of player when it went F2P in 2012, now it mostly has a small, yet dedicated fanbase.

The Basics

It's an MMORPG (duh) where you can create a D&D character (extra duh) and fight monsters without the hassle of whiny DMs, Railroading, or rules lawyers. Powergaming is a fact of life, and the in-game economy has long since collapsed due to high-level items being easily grindable and the Haggle skill being easily twinked.

While it may take a while for new players to build up to the fantastically obscene amounts of wealth required to buy or trade with older players, the game itself is very diverse. Almost anything available in pen-and-paper D&D is achievable, though characters are limited in their interactions with the environment (walk on it, jump on it, climb on it, or break it).

The game is freemium, meaning you can technically play for free but it goes much faster if you pay for stuff. Instead of using just straight-out money, you first have to buy DDO points (buying them in-store opens up a Premium account though). Points are then used to buy items. For those of you too cheap or poor to pay with real money, you can earn points by gaining favor with NPCs or finishing special quests. Points are set to the account in use, so building a couple of characters, earning the points, then buying more character slots and starting them all over is a viable and much scummed tactic.

The main drawback is that it doesn't have everything quite yet, and since it's run by a computer you can't ignore the rules. Also, as previously stated, environmental interactions are very limited.

Unlike your average MMOs, where level caps are meaningless, DDO's character levels end at 20, at which point your character building is over. Over the years, they have added Epic Levels, which is now going up to as much as level 32, however starting with level 21, you are transitioned over into Epic character building. You no longer get points to put into the skill trees that you had used through level 1-20 and instead have to work with a new set of skill trees tailored for very high level characters.

To appease the Min/Maxers and metalords, the devs added multiple incentives to reincarnate your character after having reached the max level. Reincarnating gives access to exclusive past-life feats, extra points at character creation and other obnoxious win-harder stuff. While this may please the cancerous power gamer cash cows, it has notoriously been responsible for grinding the Public Group social tab into a halt, as the players using reincarnated (often not once but dozens of times over reincarnated) characters would blast through dungeons at breakneck speeds and act like impatient, elitist assholes when a normal player holds them back in the rare moments when their godlike characters needed help to progress in a dungeon, ruining the experience for players who are new or who prefer to make alts instead of reincarnating their characters.

As a result, DDO is a largely private experience, with people either playing solo (entirely viable, so long as you don't mind missing out on raids), checking the game out with their friends or joining a private guild and co-ordinating their playtimes. The drop-in, drop-out aspect of the game has been practically dead since ~2013. This is also a sensitive topic on the game's official forums. Criticism of DDO's biggest pay-pigs, the Reincarnation players, is a surefire way to get you banned eventually, yet the elephant in the room is that if these players didn't destroy the public grouping experience, DDO may very well have stayed way more relevant over the years. Still, the game is alive and kicking after 15 years, so they must be doing something right, though the monetization has become increasingly more cut-throat over the last few years, so the pay-pigs may be starting to lose interest.

Differences from D&D Third Edition

Oh God, where do we even begin?

- Unlike most 3D games made since Quake II, DDO doesn't have any kind of lighting or shading system, so torches, darkvision, low-light vision, etc. don't exist.

- None of the Craft, Knowledge, or Profession skills exist, nor do Appraise, Autohypnosis, Climb, Decipher Script, Disguise, Escape Artist, Forgery, Gather Information... it's a much shorter list of skills, let's just leave it at that. As a result, each class has a much shorter list of class skills. However, each class still gains the same number of skill points per level as in 3E, and skills cost the same amount of skill points per rank as in 3E, so characters with high Intelligence scores will often find themselves forced to invest skill points in cross-class skills, or in skills that they will never, ever use.

- Grappling doesn't exist in DDO, nor do weapon sizes (in the sense of small/medium/large/etc. weapons), but races still come in "small" and "medium" sizes. As a result, small races do not suffer any of the penalties of being small, but still get all of the benefits. Fucking h@x. Weapons do still have handedness, in that there are light, 1-handed, and 2-handed weapons, but this is not the same thing as size.

- Attacks of opportunity don't exist. Instead, you can gain bonuses for attacking incapacitated enemies and other positioning based tactics.

- Weight limits and encumbrance definitely don't exist only theoretically exist, in the sense that you need to be running around with nearly 100% full bags and the minimum possible strength score in order for it to matter.

- XP penalties for multiclassing don't exist, and as a consequence, neither do favored classes. Instead, every character is hard-capped at 3 classes.

- The entire spellcasting system was thrown out and replaced with a system based on spell points.

- You know how some Dungeon Masters will give you the full value of your class hit die when you level up instead of making you roll? DDO does that too. Therefore, a character who takes their first level in Wizard and their second level in Barbarian will have exactly as much HP as someone who took their first level in Barbarian and their second in Wizard. This puts pressure on players to take their first level in a class that gets a lot of skill points, usually a Rogue, and then multiclass into whatever they actually want to be. However, DDO ALSO gives you a flat 30 bonus HP at character-creation. The net effect of this is to make bonus HP from Constitution a relatively insignificant amount of your total HP, turning Con into a dump stat.

- Every race comes with a perk tree and every class comes with 3 perk trees. Every character level is divided into five "ranks"; the fifth rank-up is a level-up, and for each of the other four, you get an enhancement point that you can spend on these perk trees.

- The whole relationship between Warforged and armor is different, with the functions of armor being split between composite (or Mithril, or Adamantine) plating and completely new items called "docents" that only Warforged can wear. Also, Warforged can now take Mithril/Adamantine plating whenever they want, not just during character-creation. And Ironwood plating doesn't exist so warforged druids are kinda shit out of luck.

- Bows get bonus damage from dexterity, not strength, unless you pick up a Feat called Bow Strength.

- You can't spend skill points on Disable Device or Open Lock unless you have at least one level in Rogue (or Artificer).

- Armor class is now virtually meaningless for defense; new stats like Dodge and Physical Resist Rating are far more important.

- All forms of flight and levitation are gone. At best, you can be very good at jumping.

- There are now many additional pieces of armor including gloves, boots, and belts.

- Lots and lots and LOTS of races, classes, feats, items, etc. have had their stats tweaked. For example, Gnomes now get +2 Int rather than +2 Con, Rangers gain both dual-wielding AND archery bonus feats instead of choosing between the two, shortbows are now simple weapons instead of martial weapons, Fighter-exclusive Weapon Focus/Specialization feats now apply to entire categories of weapons (like "ranged" or "slashing") rather than specific weapons (like "Longsword"), etc.

- This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Races

• Human - Not really special at anything. +1 bonus feat, +4 bonus skill points, and... well, languages and favored classes don't exist in DDO so that's basically it. Their perk tree allows you to be the best at pretty much whatever the fuck you want to do: it has perks to make you better with any skill you want, any weapon you want, whatever, and some perks just give +1 to any ability score of your choice. Best for skill monkeys and multiclassing. Among the originally non-paid races, it's also best for divine casters. And for two-handed melee weapon users. And shortsword and bastard sword users. And crossbow users. And dual-wielding (depending on the weapon). And probably many other things.
• Tree hugger - +2 dex, -2 con; immunity to magical sleep effects; +2 to saving throws against enchantments; proficiency with the longsword, longbow, shortbow, and rapier; and a +2 bonus to listen, search, and spot checks. As mentioned earlier, Low-Light Vision goes in the trash can. Their perk tree is mostly about boosting dexterity and making them better at using bows, longswords, rapiers, falchions, and scimitars, though there are also a few that help with arcane spellcasting. They are best used as rangers or arcane casters.
• Dorf - +2 con, -2 cha, and free exotic weapon proficiency with Dwarven War Axes if they're a class that already has all of the martial weapon proficiencies. Since DDO has no Appraise or Craft skills, Dwarves do not get boni to these skills; otherwise, they have all of the delicious goodies mentioned on page 15 of the D&D 3.5e Player's Handbook. Their perk tree is mostly about boosting con and things affected by con (like HP, fortitude saves, and resisting poisons) and being better at using axes, hammers, picks, heavy armor, and tower shields. They are best used as fighters/barbarians who want to do the sword-and-board thing (or in this case, axe-or-mace-and-board) rather than the 2-handed weapon thing. Slightly better for fighters, since one of the perks only applies to tower shields, and barbarians are only proficient with shields of the non-tower variety. Not so great for sorcerers or paladins.
• Carny - +2 dex, -2 str, and like a bonus to saving throws or something, IDK. And they're a Small race, so they get h@x. Their perk tree is heavily focused on making them better rogues: giving them extra sneak attacks, boosting their Hide and Move Silently skills, giving them moar dodge, that sort of thing. Unfortunately, it does not include any benefits for the exotic crossbows that Mechanic rogues are so fond of. Best for rogues, obviously. Not so great for barbarians or fighters (unless specializing in ranged weapons)
• Drizzt clone - Yeah, most of these guys even have a variation of Drizzt as their names. +2 Dex, +2 Int, +2 Cha, -2 Con. Mostly the same racial goodies as regular elves, but proficient with shurikens instead of longbows and longswords. Worships Scorpions for a living. Perk tree is all over the place, with the only consistent themes being poisons and Rapier/Shortsword/Shuriken use. It's hard to tell what class they're supposed to be good for since there aren't any that use both int and cha. Bard maybe? Was pay-to-unlock, or unlockable at 400 total favor, but was made free in March 2022.
• Wood Elf - Same as tree hugger but with -2 int rather than -2 con. Perk tree is basically the same as Tree Hugger except that instead of getting Dex powerups, they can choose between dex and strength, and instead of dragonmark bullshit, they have some stuff that lets them treat Falchions as favored weapons, which gets abused with 2-handed paladin and cleric builds.
• Half-Elf - HERESY. While the 3e Half-Elf was just a watered-down mix of human and elf racials, the DDO Half-Elf is a little more unique. For starters, it has access to what are called "Dilettante" feats, which allow them to gain some of the benefits of being a different class without actually taking a level in that class. For example, the Monk Dilettante feat allows them to add their Wisdom modifier to their AC, up to a limit of +2, but this doesn't stack with the Monk class feature that does the same thing. Second, the Half-Elf comes with augmented versions of certain charisma skills like Intimidate. Overall, the race is a bit of a mess that can't really do anything well; it is at its best when it embraces the Elf half of its heritage and goes for dexterity and bow use, but even then, it's just a shitty, watered-down Elf. Was pay-to-unlock, but was made free in March 2022.
• Half-Orc - EXTRA HERESY. +2 str, -2 int, -2 cha. Perk tree is focused on strength boosts and better melee weapon attack and damage rolls, including +8 to all attack and damage rolls when using two-handed melee weapons, +20% strikethrough chance when two-handed fighting (which isn't the same as using a two-handed weapon, because logic), and +3 to Power Attack damage, making these guys by far the best 2h Barbarians and Fighters. Not-so-awesome arcane (or most kinds of divine) casters. Was pay-to-unlock, but was made free in March 2022.
• Gnomes - +2 int, -2 str. Hammer proficiencies. Small. Perk tree includes intelligence boosts, some scroll and wand stuff, and better attack and damage rolls for light hammers, light maces, light picks, shortswords, shortbows, light crossbows, and light repeating crossbows, making them by far the best race for wizards, artificers, and any crossbow user who's dumping at least 6 levels into Rogue to add their intelligence modifier to crossbow damage. Was pay-to-unlock, but was made free in March 2022.
• Dragonborn - +2 str, -2 dex, +2 cha. Their perk tree features a lot of stuff related to things like HP and fortitude saves, somewhat like the Dorf and Warforged, but their ability score increases offer a choice between strength and charisma, not constitution. Best for paladins and melee face-smash clerics. For those fans of Kroq-gar and his lot. Was pay-to-unlock, but was made free in March 2022.
• Warforged - +2 con, -2 wis, -2 cha, and immunity to a lot of random bullshit. Can stay underwater indefinitely thanks to not needing to breathe. Unlike paper D&D Warforged, who just choose their armor plating during character-creation and then never have to worry about armor again, DDO Warforged wear an entirely new type of item called "docents" that go in the armor slot, but they still have access to the Mithral and Adamantine Body feats because... fuck it, we don't know why. Perk tree includes the 20% Strikethrough chance when two-handed fighting and +3 to Power Attack damage from the half-orc tree, and a lot of the +con and +HP stuff you'll find in the Dorf perk tree, but without the "Weapon Training" perks that you'll find in either (or Elven weapon training, or Gnomish, or Xen'Drik etc...), so they're pretty consistently behind the curve in DPS. Instead, they just have more stuff that makes them harder to kill. They're definitely more optimized for tanking than DPS. They make abnormally great barbarians because Adamantine plating neither requires heavy armor proficiency (which barbs lack) nor shuts off their barbarian abilities (unlike paper D&D), and because their immunity to fatigue (which isn't mentioned in-game or on the DDO wiki) includes immunity to barbarian RAGE fatigue. They also make pretty fucking good Wizards if you combine the Mithral body feat with the Inscribed Armor perk, since you're making up for the Wizard's two biggest weaknesses (lack of armor and lack of HP). Not so great for divine casters or sorcs. Pay-to-unlock; can also be unlocked at 400 total Favor since March 2022.
• Aasimar and Tiefling - but nerfed to make up for the fact that level adjustment doesn't exist in DDO. Aasimar get +2 wisdom and their perk tree is focused on healing, spell points/penetration/power, and fighting evil-aligned creatures, making them ideally suited to divine casters. Tieflings are charisma-oriented and more about ALL THE FUCKING FIRE, whether it's adding fire damage to their melee attacks or boosting fire spells, making them the best sorcerers. Pay-to-unlock.
• Shifter - See Furry
• Tabaxi - See Furry

Classes

The Free Classes

• Barbarian - Specialize in ignoring attacks, Raging, and killing anyeverything in his or her way. Also really good at resisting enchantments. A Half-Orc with at least one level in Barbarian is an insanely powerful melee damage machine at low levels.
• Bard - Sing songs to hurt your enemies and buff your friends. Versatile and reliable.
• Cleric - The most broken of the free classes. Fight like a Fighter and fix yourself up. Level 6 gives the most broken healing spell available, and level 9 gives you Raise Dead. Also, using the power of the Emperor to turn undead is fun too
• Druid - The FIRST most broken class, they can heal massive amounts of health, have a permanent familiar (similar to the Artificer's Iron Defender), can make their own food, turn wild animals to their side, summon an extra animal on top of that, buff allies, debuff enemies, and transform into a number of powerful monsters. Basically, they're a walking army with a cleric's healing abilities and get bonuses to everything they do. There's a reason they're the most expensive Pay-to-play class. Originally a premium class, it was made free in 2022. Their one and only drawback is that they can't use metal items at all, which leaves out most types of good weapons and armor. They make up for this by turning into living fire, though.
• Fighter - BONUS FEATS and BONUS FEATS and BONUS FEATS and BONUS FEATS... also, in a major improvement over 3.5e fighters, they get an ability called Second Wind at level 2, which may be used once per rest period, and they get additional uses of Second Wind per rest period at levels 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20... also, at level 8, Second Wind not only heals the player but also clears most negative status effects such as Fatigue, including Barbarian RAGE fatigue, making multiclass Fighter/Barbs particularly brutal. In another major improvement, while 3.5e only had a single Fighter-exclusive feat chain (the Weapon Focus->Specialization->Greater WF->GWS chain), DDO adds the Heavy Armor Training and Tactical Training feat chains.
• Paladin - Like a crappy knockoff of a cleric; they can use all the same items and spells, but have a smaller spell pool and stink at regular attacks without an active ability turned on. Most of their abilities focus on resisting or damaging Evil creatures, but suck at anything else (like the huge number of neutral types of damage). Now having light damage, but forget heals from these guys. This is for solo players. If you want to be useful, make a Cleric instead
• Ranger - Can summon and control wild beasts along with fancy bow work and get extra damage and attack bonuses for dual wielding. But, Arcane archer gives you unlimited ammo and elemental arrows. Make friends, or kill friends. Decisions, decisions.
• Rogue - Sneaky bastards stole my money. Bonus to hide, back stab, and the only class with access to the Disable Device and Open Lock skills Oh look, Artificers do that too. Their Mechanic skill tree has a lot of stuff related to crossbows and especially the Great Crossbow, including Great Crossbow proficiency at level 1, Light Repeating Crossbow proficiency at level 6, Heavy Repeater proficiency at level 12, and a thing that adds their Intelligence modifier to crossbow damage. It's easily the best class for anyone who wants to be a Great Crossbow sniper, and among all of the F2P classes, it's the best for repeating crossbow snipers as well.
• Sorcerer - Like a wizard, but they don't need to transcribe spells or prepare them ahead of time. Unlike the pen-and-paper game they don't have familiars (though that might change).
• Warlock - Once a premium class, it was made free in 2022. Warlocks make a pact with one of six dark idiots on character creation and their choice will defines the Warlock's power and goes on to determine many variables for the character build as you level up. Unlike other classes, they don't attack by use of a weapon you equip. Instead, you get a feat that you can toggle on permanently, which lets you send basic magic missiles out of your hand for no SP cost, and this becomes your default auto-attack. A lot of the character development options as you level up affect the efficacy of this attack, up to and including the ability to change the shape of your attacks from single target direct missiles into a cone or circular AoE or even a permanent DoT aura emanating from your character.
• Wizard - Destructive, yet fragile. Low CON but high DPS, with lots of ranged attacks. Bring a cleric. Oh, and you can be a non-evil Necromancer because of how Eberron handles morality.

The Pay-To-Unlock classes (though most can be unlocked via a lot of in-game play, so long as you stick to one server)

• Monk - Hate spending in-game money on armor and an assortment of weapons? These are your guys. Weapons and armor only slow them down, and late-game characters are considered adamantine, silver, and immune to almost everything.
• Favored Soul - Like an even more unbalanced Paladin, they have a huge wealth of spell points but limited spells (mostly healing). They can't hit for crap and tend to be a pain. Make a cleric, damn it.
• Artificer - The second most broken class, awarded for grinding 150 favor with House Cannith. They're basically rogues (seriously, compare the Rogue's Mechanic tree to the Artificer's Mechanic Battle Engineer tree), except less sneaky and skillful and more DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA. Instead of needing to level up and purchase exotic crossbow proficiencies with action points as rogues do, they get proficiency with all three kinds of exotic crossbow (and - I shit you not - Rapid Reload) right out of the gate, making them the preferred class for anyone who wants to DAKKA the shit out of some motherfuckers with a repeating crossbow (light or heavy). They also get a mechanical pet, some crafting and repair perks, steampunk laser cannons, and some stuff related to arcane casting. The casting stuff is weird because they don't cast arcane spells, so they're good to multiclass with Wizards.
• Alchemist - Currently the only class that is only accessible by paying. The Alchemist features an impressive suite of completely unique features, by DDO standards, being able to auto attack by throwing concoctions - as opposed to normally swinging a weapon you'd equip on any other character - and a completely unique spell book full of spells not available to any other class. In addition, as Alchemists cast different types of spells, they create combos that then have further unique buffs. Think Magicka or Invoker in Dota 2.

Awesome stuff

Every year, usually once in February and again on International Talk Like a Pirate Day, the game opens up the Crystal Cove adventure area. Here, you fight pirates, look for treasure, and can buy pirate-themed items. Hats, in particular, can have up to four different enhancement bonuses applied to them, and can be some of the best items available in the game with a max bonus of +15 Natural Armor, +10 to any ability or skill, and make it easier to find treasure so you can buy more pirate stuff.

The staff at Turbine Standing Stone Games are also reportedly neckbeards, making reference to pretty much everything a fa/tg/uy would consider awesome. Such gems include Schenker, the scorpion king, Detritus the earth elemental, and the Dread Admiral Tricorn having OVER 9000 skulls printed on it. Kobolds that aren't enemies tend to be of the Dawww variety. They also LOVE making fun of World of Warcraft, with one quest-giving NPC asking you to bring him ten rat tails and laughing when your character flips out about it.

For some of you 40k fans out there, guess whos a DM for some of the best quest backs out there~!! Heres a hint: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEKo6Ps8g2c (There isn't a prize, though it may please you that he's still rocking as a VA)