2_6 Level 3

Level 3

I earned my third level with Sinqualyn today. Exciting. I took Extra Song with an action point in place of Energy of Music I. This allows Sin two bard songs before resting. I then chose to level up my Sorcerer abilities. Now I am a Bard 1/Sorcerer 2. I earned another Sorcerer spell, and I chose Expeditious Retreat. This spell is a big plus to getting around quickly and for getting away from baddies quickly. I raised my spot skill to rank1, giving me a 2. I raised my concentration skill to a 9. I also gained two new feats…defensive Fighting (comes in handy occasionally) and I took Repeating Heavy Crossbow (Sweet!). Now I can really deal out some damage. I still don’t get many kills, but I can at least help. Now, my main function in a party is to buff everyone else with my bard song (I have two of them now), crowd control with hypnotize, and then blast the heck out of enemies with my repeating heavy crossbow. Luckily I picked up a +1 repeater in a chest while I was adventuring! I can shoot three bolts every time I load the thing. It’s awesome. I will refrain from grabbing damage dealing spells. I don’t need them. Someone else in the group will be doing that. Most of the rest of my levels will come from the bard trainers. Right now I have 440 spell points. I can use them to heal or cast crowd control spells. Awesome. Now I need to increase the effectiveness of my healing spells through Devotion items and enhancements.

2.5 Harbor Quests and Party Creation

Harbor Quests to Elite and Creating Groups

As I mentioned in a previous post, you can attempt most quests at one of three difficulty levels: Normal, Hard, or Elite. Setting a quest to ‘Normal’ means the quest is the level displayed. The level the quest entrance displays is somewhat misleading. According to official DDO literature, the quest level means that the quest is appropriately challenging for a group of four players at the indicated level. A quest rated as level three would be appropriate for a group of four adventurers who are all third level. For the opening quests, this is a good rule of thumb. For later quests, this does not apply so well. Higher level adventures require more than just higher level. You also must have appropriate equipment for your level that greatly improves your attack score, damage bonus, saving throws, spell points, etc…

When you set a quest to ‘hard’ before entering, you raise the difficulty of the quest by one level. The monsters will be one level higher, and the spell casters in the dungeon will cast more powerful spells. When you set the quest to ‘elite’, it is set two levels higher than what is displayed on the entrance. The monsters will be two levels higher and cast even more powerful spells. Just because you walk through a quest on Normal very easily doesn’t mean you can take it on elite. You should try it on hard, then see how it goes. Each level increases the difficulty by a significant margin. Also, someone in your party must have completed a quest on normal for your party to open it on hard, and someone must have completed the quest on hard to open it on elite. Be careful taking a newly formed party on a quest set to elite. I’ve seen many brave adventurers wish they had tried it on normal or hard first!

Today I am creating a group to run the harbor quests. The Harbor quests are all the quests located in Stormreach’s harbor. If you aren’t in the marketplace yet, you are in the harbor. The Wayward Lobster, Leaky Dinghy, and Wavecrest taverns are all in the harbor. Any quests you pick up at one of those taverns are known as harbor quests. There are a few others like Kobold Assault and Irestone Inlet which are also harbor quests and you retrieve those quests from NPC’s standing in the harbor. When you see other groups advertising to do harbor quests, expect to be doing quests out of those three aforementioned taverns.

Here’s how to create your own party. First, advertise what you are looking to do. Click on the Social panel, then on Grouping. Now click on ‘Create Party.’ Click the box at the top of the screen that says Advertise your group. Now, you have an advertised group. Update the advertisement by changing the options in the open Create Party dialog. You can set the levels you are looking to recruit, the types of classes, and even write a little note. I don’t ever use the Quest selection box. I just write a note in the note box saying what quest or what types of quests I want to do. Be sure to click the update my party button before you close this window to save any changes. Now other adventurers can see you request by looking at the Grouping tab in their Social Menu. When another adventurer wants to join your group, you will get a little message saying ‘so and so wants to join your group’. You can add them in one of two ways. You can simply type ‘/invite ’. You can also go back to the create party dialog by clicking the social menu, then the grouping tab, then the create party button. This won’t create a new party, it will simply open your current advertisement’s options. You will see a list of all the adventurers who wish to join your group at the bottom. You can select any of them, and click the Accept button to allow them entry into your group. Seems simple enough… So what do you do when no one seems to be coming to the party?

You click on the social menu, then on the ‘Who’ tab. This shows you everyone who is logged into your server. You can then change the selection criteria to match your preference and search for available adventurers. You will notice the little box to the left of the names listed below. This tells you if the adventurer is in a group, looking for a group, or just hanging around. Move your mouse over the icon to find out which is which. Do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT invite strangers to a group without sending them a tell message first asking them whether they would like to join. This is one of the most annoying things you can do. Please don’t do it. It will get you put on squelch lists and then you won’t be able to send messages of any kind. Use the Who list to find other adventurers who are either looking for a group or just hanging around. Send out a few tell messages and see who replies. Sometimes people are away from their keyboards (afk) and won’t respond to you. Sometimes you will get a polite ‘sorry, but I am logging’ message which means the character in question is about to log off for the day or night. Sometimes you get a ‘sure!’ back and then you type ‘/invite ’ to invite the character to your group. I am very good at filling parties and keeping them full when members leave in between quests using this technique. Just use the Who list to find other characters. When building groups, follow these rules: 1) Every group needs a healer! Clerics are preferred but at lower levels bards suffice. 2) Tanks are necessary and 2 or 3 work very well. Tanks include fighters (the best tanks), barbarians, and paladins. 3) You only need one rogue, ranger, or bard. No more. These classes are supportive, and they need tanks and spell slingers to support. 4) 2 casters are a good idea for most parties. Casters include wizards and sorcerers, no one else. 5) The ideal group has a Cleric, 1 Fighter, 1 other Tank, 2 Casters, and one support character such as a bard, ranger, or rogue. Some quests require a rogue. Know if you NEED a rogue before entering a quest. Keep in mind that if you made the group, the other group members will naturally look to you for guidance. It is a good idea to let everyone else in the group know if you don’t know the quest you are doing very well. Ask if someone else knows the quest, and have them lead the way through. There isn’t much worse than a bad leader in a DDO party. You can end up getting other characters killed. They won’t appreciate that very much. See you next time.

2.4 Back to Goodblade

Back to Goodblade

So, I skipped the first three group quests the game offers. Oops! I found a group who was past these quests, and grouped with them. Now I am going back to Gerald Goodblade who resides outside of the Wavecrest Tavern. The Wavecrest is the tavern you were in when you did the Old Sully’s Grog quest. When you are in this tavern, and you see “ says, ‘goodblade q’s?’ that means they are looking for a group to do the Goodblade quests at higher difficulties. The higher the difficulty, the more experience (xp) and favor you get for the quest. You can repeat quests many times, each time doing a different difficulty level.

Back to Gerald. He offers you three quests: one for a set of ancient daggers, one for a healing elixir, and one for a rare scroll. Complete them in any order. In my opinion, the scroll quest is the easiest of the three. The daggers quest involves fighting undead. The elixir requires you to solve a riddle, and the rare scroll quest requires you to solve a floor puzzle. These are all common tasks you will complete throughout the game.

I completed the elixir quest on my own at the solo difficulty at second level with no problem. The final enemy (boss) was hard to hit, and I wouldn’t do this on a higher difficulty by myself. Especially as a magic user/squishy character. If I was a fighter or barbarian (tank) I would have tried a higher difficulty.

A tip on strategy. I am a squishy character meaning I have a relatively low armor class (AC) and I have few hit points compared to other character classes like fighters and barbarians and paladins. I have to be especially tricky when fighting, especially in a solo quest. As a level 2, I have hypnotize which stuns enemies until they are attacked. I have been using that spell against groups of enemies then killing them one at a time with my crossbow. So far, that trick is working very well.

Ok, I finished all three of Goodblade’s quests. Now I found a party to run with. Here’s how I find groups. I begin by clicking the social icon. This is the one in your menu Panel that looks like to faces. Then click the grouping tab. Now you should see a list of groups that are looking for members. Pay attention to the Lvl column. This tells you the levels that the group is looking for. If you are not in that range, do not ask to join. The second column to look at is the Classes needed column. These are the classes the group is currently lacking. If you fit the group’s level and class requests, you are good to go. Click on that groups leader Name and then click the Tell button below. This begins a message directed towards the leader. Tell them you are looking for a group, and mention your class and level. He or she will then say yes, we need you, or no we don’t. If they do,m they might send an invite, which you click the yes button to enter the group. That is the usual way. If you just click the join button without talking to the leader, he may or may not add you to the group. I always talk to the leader first. It’s the surest way to get invited.

I spent the morning doing quests I received from the Leaky Dinghy (a tavern in the middle of the water portion of the harbor). You have to go towards the water on your map, then travel down to the water’s edge using the docks. Do not just jump. As a low level character, you could kill yourself by jumping onto a lower dock. I’ve done that before. It costs you experience (xp). Anyway, I did the quest Dirk gives you called Dirk’s got a secret. That quest’s entrance is back on dry land at the Den of the Kobold Brother’s sewer grate. Use your map to find these places. Once you receive a quest, it’s entrance will appear on your map as a chalice. That quest has a big much that sometimes appears. If it does, AWESOME! That means there will be a chest with muchbanes. Muckbanes are clubs that do not take damage from mucks, and also do extra damage to them. This also applies for oozes and puddings. They are essential weapons for fighters. Some people farm this quest tens of times in a row just to find muckbanes for all their alternate characters (alts). I just got my first one this morning! Yea!

After I did Dirk’s got a secret, I moved on to Philosopher’s row (you are in Philosopher’s row when you are trading collectibles with the little kobold. He accepts prayer beads, and idols. We did Garrison’s missing pack and the Sewer Rescue. Both of these quest givers are in Philosopher’s row, right next to the quests that they give.

You will want to visit a tavern (like the Wavecrest of the Leaky Dinghy) in between quests. If your sp, hp, or charged items or skills are low, resting in the tavern will replenish them. Buy drink to replenish your sp faster, food to replenish your hp faster. Generally, the more expensive the food or drink, the faster you will regain the points. You buy these items from the tavern keeper behind the bar. You must buy them, then consume them by opening your inventory (‘i’) and then double left-clicking on the food or drink. Once consumed, it last for a certain amount of time helping to replenish your points quickly. If you leve the tavern, the food or drink timer will finish, and you’ll have to buy more if you wish to reenter and replenish your points quickly. Stay in the tavern while regenerating your hit and spell points. See you next time!

2.3 Level Up

Level Up!

I played a few of the initial group quests with a group of adventurers and gained enough experience for my level 2. I chose to take a sorcerer level. In DDO, a character can multiclass. This means taking some of your levels in one class, and some in at least one other. I suppose you can keep multiclassing and become a level 1 in all the classes, but generalization does not usually help you in this game. I would recommend choosing two or at most three classes to specialize in. Through my sorcerer level, I was able to gain 220 spell points (one of the reasons I chose to take the SOR level). I also gained the Magical Training feat which allows me to use more spells than I could before. Now I can use 1^st level sor wands with no roll. Yeah! I am planning to split my levels between bard and sor from here on out. I haven’t decided exactly how I will split them yet. The drawback is that I got fewer health points than I would have if I had taken another bard level. I have 320 sp, and only 28 hp.

On to bigger and better things. Now I am a Brd1/Sor1, and I am looking to gain some xp. I am going to do all the initial solo quests located in aspirant’s square (the place with all the trainers. Take a look at your map by pressing ‘m.’ You should be able to see most of the harbor. Notable things include the leaves, grape piles, and chalices on your map. The leaves always represent different trainers. Move your map cursor over a leaf to see the name and specialty of the trainer. Use your map often! It is your key to getting around. The little purple dots are collectors, where you turn in the mushrooms you may have been collecting. There are many types of collectables, and they all have specific collectors who are looking fro them. Examine the collectable with the ‘z’ button to see who collects it and where they are located. The Chalices are quest entrances. These are the places you can start quests that you have already collected.

There are five really short solo quests in Aspirant’s Square. You must do them alone, and if you wait until later, you will have to come back and do them for favor and no xp. Do them at first or second level if you can. Some players will tell you to skip them, but I would not.

Also, before you even take your first level (should have been posted in previous posts), you should visit Gerald Goodblade. Right outside of the Wavecrest Tavern. He will give you three good beginning quests, and you can do these with a party! You will earn enough for 2^nd level by doing these quests. See you next time

2.2 Orientation

Ok, now we have a character. Let’s start having fun!

The first things you will want to do is change 2 settings. You will want to turn the hint system off. It is very annoying. Basically it makes you click a box every 30 seconds or so. The information in the hints is not hard to figure out, and I’ll be explaining most of it here anyway. To turn off hints, click the double checkmarks at the top left of your screen. This brings up the options panel. Click the box on the right side that says “UI Settings.” Now click the check box to the right of “Don’t Show Hints” to turn the hints off. Don’t worry, if you ever want to see them, you can uncheck this box to turn them back on. Once that is complete, you’ll want to turn on voice chat. If you are playing on a phone line modem (I’m not talking about ISDN here), you will want to leave this feature off, but other players will be very annoyed with you. It is much easier to communicate via microphone (mic) than to type, especially when you are in a confrontation with monsters and someone needs to know something immediately. If you stop to type, you and he may both be dead by the time you hit enter. Even if you don’t have a mic, turning on voice chat will allow other players to talk to you with their mics. To turn on voice cvhat, click the right hand box marked “Audio.” Now click the check box to the right of “Enable Voice Chat.” If you do have a mic, be kind and use headphones to avoid feedback to other players’ audio systems. Also, unless you have a high quality mic and are plaing in a noise-poor environment, use the “push to talk feature” instead of the “hands free voice feature.” Your group members will appreciate. Pushing a button to talk is annoying at first, but you will get used to it and it will save you embarrassing moments later. To use “Push to Talk,” leave the “Hands Free” checkbox in the Options: Audio panel unchecked. You can change the key that is mapped to press to talk un the Options: Key Mapping panel. Just scroll down until you find the “Interaction” section. The key is marked “Voice Push to Talk.” Once you have your hint system disabled and your voice chat on, you are ready to adventure.

You won’t be able to party up for the first couple adventures. You have to get used to your own character interface before they let you interact with others. You will notice a few things on your screen.

4.Chat Winow

2.Map

1.Menu Panels

3.Health and Spell Meter

6.Interaction Orb

The picture above looks great in msword... Ugh... It looks like crap here. Sorry! I tried to play with it, but I can't get the labels to move.

The Menu Panels (1) allow you to interact with many aspects of the game from your character sheet, equipment and inventory, larger maps, quest journal, social panel, etc.. You will use this often. There are shortcuts to most of the features here like pressing “m” will open up a larger map or “c” brings up your character sheet. As you progress you will learn these shortcuts.

The Map (2) shows you where you are, where buildings and other important things are, and most importantly where the rest of your party is. Right now, Sin is all by herself so she has no party members to keep track of, but later this will be very important.

The Health and Spell Points Meter (3) shows you your maximum and current health and spell points. Keep a careful watch over this meter when you are questing. If your health meter reaches 0, you will become incapacitated and must wait for someone to help heal you. You may even bleed and continue to lose health points until -10 which is the point at which your character dies. Don’t worry, if you die, your soul lives on to fight another day, although with an experience penalty. You don’t want to die, but it isn’t the end of the world, and you will die at some point, probably multiple times.

The Chat Window (4) is where you interact with the world through text. You can send messages to other players or talk to non player characters in the world. Other important messages pop up here as well. You should look in your chat window from time to time to see if anyone is trying to talk to you. If a message is sent to you, you will hear a little bell to alert you to the messages’ presence. If you are in battle or not paying attention or just don’t have the sound on, you may not hear this bell.

The Hotbar (5) is where you stash skills, items, feats, and spells, that you can use in the world. Basically, you link items in your inventory to this bar and then click them on the bar to use them. You can drink potions, use magic wands, perform feats in combat, or put on different pieces of equipment using the hotbar. You have 10 hotbars that you can scroll through by pressing CTRL+[1-0]. I set up bars for different purposes. I have an all purpose hotbar that I leave on all the time that includes the most common actions, but I also have a hotbar for potions, wands, equipment, and spells.

The Interaction Orb (6) shows you what your character is focusing on at the moment. IT also allows you to interact with that object or person. You can select an NPC to talk to them, select a party member to trade items, or select a monster to attack or cast spells upon. You can also examine a person or item by pressing “z” while they are selected in the Orb. You can shrink the orb by pressing the small eye icon in the lower left. I usually have it shrunk down so it takes up less space.

Now you know the lay of the land, lets move on to the first quest. Walk down the dock until you reach solid ground near Trader Skipp. I use “w” as my move forward button. I believe this is the default button, but you can also use the up arrow. You can change the key mapped to moving forward using the same process you used to set your “Voice Push to Talk” key.

Talk with Trader Skipp by double left-clicking on him. This is how you talk to non player characters in DDO. The Trader is here to move you beyond the first quest for players who are creating their umpteenth new character. Select the I am new and would like to learn at a safe pace option to do the initial quest which will teach you how to interact inside a dungeon. This quest is short and needs little explanation to complete. It will teach you how to attack, open doors, and use a rest shrine. You will also be given your first experience rank once you complete it! If you skip it, you will get the same experience rank, but without the instruction. I recommend new players to do the first quest. If you’ve played MMO’s before, you can probably safely move on. Sin will take the quick route and deliver Skipp’s letter to Trevia.

Once I’ve given the letter to Trevia, she gives me some heal light potions, which will come in handy. She also allows me to train my first enhancement (for gaining my first experience action point). I will chose Devotion I to improve the health points my healing spells will provide by 20%. I will need to be able to heal myself regularly.

Now Sin will talk to Sigmund the Tavernkeep to receive her first quest. This is usually how the questing system works. It’s kind of like the pen and paper game. You talk to people in the world and they offer you quests to complete. Mainly your reward for those quests lies in the quest itself in the form of loot (items worth money or that can help you improve your character’s abilities), experience, and favor. Favor is a more advanced thing that you do not really need to know about yet. It will only play a role later in the game. You need loot to buy new equipment and you need experience to raise your character’s level. This first quest is a loner quest, one of the few. You will not be able to bring a party with you. Talk to the tavern keep until a sign pops up that says “Quest Bestowed.” Now look in your quest journal by clicking on the little chalice in the Menu Panels. Under “Select Area” you should see the Wavecrest Tavern. Make sure that is selected. Now, under “Select Quest” you should see “Old Sully’s Grog.” That is the quest Sigmund just gave you. Under “Quest Details” you see all sorts of information about the quest including where you must enter, who gave it to you, what level it is intended for, how long it is, and a short description. This is how all the quests work in this game. Once you have a quest bestowed upon you, it appears in this journal. You can have an unlimited number of quests open at any time. I pick up every quest I see while I am running around the world, just in case I need to run it with a party later. It saves me a trip to the quest giver. Close the Quest Journal and head to the door to Sigmund’s Left. This is where we enter this quest.

Old Sully’s grog is an easy quest with a smattering of Kobolds and a magic using human at the end. It is important to play up to your character’s strengths to finish this quest. If you are a melee fighter, rush into combat. If you are more proficient with spells or ranged weapons, sneak up on your enemies and pummel them from a distance. In any case, have your newly acquired healing potions or spells in your hotbar just in case you start to take damage. If your health bar is more than half way extinguished, quit whatever you are doing, run away and start chugging potions! You don’t want to die in this quest. To start the quest, double left-click on the quest entrance and click ok. This is where you can select different difficulties for the quest. This is a solo-only quest, so you can only do this one by yourself. There are only a handful of other quests like this in the game, and they are all very low level. Most quests require the talents of multiple types of characters to complete, so it wouldn’t make sense to do them in solo mode. Notice in the top right, your list of objectives appear. This is what you must do in order to complete the quest. Find Sully’s Grog, and double left-click on it. You will notice that when you move your cursor over an item in the world you can interact with, it turns into a couple of gears. Notice also, that as you move through a quest, the list of objectives is constantly being updated. IT shows what you have completed and any new objectives that may have been discovered.

Once you make it through the round door, turn on the “sneak” skill by clicking on the hotbar icon with the little sneaky looking figure. You will move slower in this mode, but will be less noticed by monsters. To turn this mode off, click the icon again or attack a monster. I recommend quickly coming out of this mode before attacking by clicking the icon or pressing the appropriate number key. Later on, you will have more attacks, and you can use them all if you are not sneaking. You only get one attack if you attack while in sneak mode. Sneak up to the sleeping kobold and kill him. Use a weapon you are proficient with by dragging it from your inventory to the upper weapon box in your equipment. Click the icon that looks like a backpack to find your inventory. Notice that Sin’s got her Bow in her primary hand. I will kill the kobold with this bow.

Sleepy Kobold about to die…

Click on the kobold to select him. Notice he shows up in the Orb. If you are using a ranged weapon, fire from back here. If you are using a melee weapon, you’ll need to get right next to him. Once the kobold is dead your quest goals are updated.

Go open the chests by double left-clicking them. Then double left-click on the treasure inside to put it in your inventory. Woo hoo! I got a new cape. I can use it right now to improve my character’s saving throws. To put it on, I will double-click it while it’s in my inventory. You can also double-left click on the mushroom in this cave to pick up a collectable. You collect these throughout the game, and some non-player characters (NPCs) will give you items for them. Overall, I don’t think its worth the space in your inventory, but at low levels, you need all the help you can get. At this point, you can exit the dungeon. Use the Finished button on the Quest Status window to quickly exit the dungeon. Press the yes button to complete the action. This will take you back to the entrance to the quest.

Now, you are back in the tavern ready to talk to the quest giver to move on to the next part of the quest. Some quests, like this one, have multiple parts. It is important to talk to the right people before reentering the quest. You can always tell what you are supposed to do by looking at the quest window.

Notice, the quest window tells Sin that she must contact Sigmund to advance the quest. Notice the symbol on top of Sigmund’s head? That tells you that you are ready to talk to him, and that he is ready to help you either finish or advance a quest. Always talk to NPCs with this symbol on their head!

Notice, that as you walk by Brother Augustus, he has that same symbol on his head! That means get talking. Now we are headed back in. This time there will be more kobolds and a human priest at the end. Take your time. Use your sneak skill. You should have no problem beating these guys. See you next time.

2.1 The Creation of Sinqualyn

The Creation of Sinqualyn

In honor of this blog, I am creating a brand new alt. An alt is a character that you can play in the game. I’ve created, played, and deleted alts in the past. I figure this will be a good way to introduce new players to the game. By showing them what it is like to create a new character. I’ve said my goodbyes to Teemu Chippadoe, my 6^th level Wizard. I’ve sold all of his equipment and sent the money to another alt. Now it is time for his deletion. One sec…

Done. All that sweat and the waterfall of tears I poured into that guy. All gone. But, it is ok. This game is about the journey more than the destination. I lived with Teemu for long enough to learn about playing a magic user. Now his time has passed and a new day is dawning. Now I need to do some research.

What kind of character do I want? I could make a type of alt that I’ve never played before. I could create a paladin or ranger, but I am not crazy about either one of those classes. I have a lvl10 bard that I wish I had made differently. I think I will create a new bard. This one will be a Drow Elf. In order to play a Drow Elf, one must earn 400 favor points with another character on the same account. When you see Drow running around, they are being played by experienced players. It takes quite a while to earn 400 favor. Use these characters for help if you are lost or confused. Ask them politely, and you are assured to get a friendly response.

Basically this guy will be a support caster with skills in the repeating light crossbow. He will be able to buff his comrades before battle, cast crowd control spells, and do damage with his repeating crossbow. I will start him as a bard, but I may add a hint of sorcerer within the first few levels. Here’s how I did it.

First, I started the ‘create new character’ process inside the game. I chose female Drow as the race and Bard as the class. To get the right look, I click the randomize button until the character looks ‘right’. I think right is a face that looks both interesting and mysterious, and not too ugly. I tweak a little color here and there, but basically I used the randomize feature for her appearance. Now I need a name.

I use a Drow name generator website on angelfire.com to find possible names. I didn’t roll on the table, just looked for interesting combinations. Something to think about when you choose a name: make sure there is a short version that others can use when referring to you in game chat. If your name is Uyq’wartyin, others are going to be flustered when trying to say, eh hehm, “Oooiik? Is that your name? How do you pronounce that? “ Make it a little easy for the other players. I chose Sinqualyn because the first syllable is easy…Sin. That will make it easy for others to get my attention. Your first name has to be unique, which is why I added the last bit. I am pretty sure no one else on this server will have that name already. The last name shows up above your character’s head just like your first name, so make it good or just leave it blank. I am going to use Deana which means Champions of the Night in the Drow tongue. At least, according to this website it does.

The next thing to figure out is alignment. This actually does affect game play. Some weapons and armor give bonuses and penalties based on armor. There is a whole host of armor (mostly robes) that gives a bonus to armor class (AC) and saving throws because you are a true neutral character. If you are not true neutral, you receive no bonus. There is also a pair of bracers that give a great bonus to AC if you are a chaotic alignment. Since this character won’t be wearing robes or a shield most of the time, I will choose the chaotic good alignment. Being true neutral is good, but in my experience being chaotic neutral is not very beneficial.

At the next step, you can chose to keep the default configuration for this character class and race, or you can customize. I, of course, am going to customize. I am going to maximize Sin’s Charisma and Dexterity (Dex) because those are very important to the style I will play. I need charisma to make sure the spells I cast affect the monsters I cast them on. Charisma also determines how many spell points Sin will receive. Charisma also modifies the ‘Use Magic Device’ skill which I predict I will use quite often. I was able to make Sin’s charisma a 20 because she has a +2 race modifier to CHA for being a Drow elf. I also chose to max out Sin’s dexterity because that ability score affects both her AC modifier making her harder to hit and her attack bonus for when she will be using the repeating light crossbow. I was able to max Sin’s Dex to 18 giving her a +4 modifier to her AC and attack rolls with her crossbow. I placed the remaining 2 ability points into her constitution reducing her hit point penalty from -2/level to -1/level. This way, she will have more hit points and will be more likely to survive a hairy encounter.

Next are I must chose her skills. I can only add 4 points to any skill at level 1. If the skill is a class skill, I can add 4 ranks because each point gives a rank. If the skill is a cross-class skill, I can ojnly raise it to rank 2 because each point only raises those skills by 0.5. Lucky for me, bards have a lot of class skills. Also, I know I may add a bit of Sorcerer to this character in the future, so I don’t want to take any sorcerer class skills that bards do not get. I’m not sure if there are any such skills, but I would look it up before putting any points into a cross-class skill at this point. I have a total of 24 skill points to spend. I will max out my Use Magic Device skill with 4 ranks putting my total skill modifier at 9 because I get a +5 to UMD for my high CHA. I will also max out my diplomacy skill because I can use it to convince monsters to attack someone else. Diplomacy is also a CHA based skill, so its current modifier is also 9. Concentration is important to have for a spell caster. When a monster hits you in the middle of spell casting, you have to make a concentration check to see if you can complete your spell. Concentration is a Constitution (CON) based skill, which means that even when I put 4 ranks into it, the total modifier will only be 3, because Son’s CON is so low that it gives a -1 penalty to the skill check. I will max out Haggle to pay less for the things I buy from vendors and get more money from the things I sell to vendors. I’m gong to ignore jump and swim because there are common items in the game to enhance those skills. I will max out my perform skill so I can fascinate enemies at higher levels. With my last 4 skill points, I will max out my tumble skill so I can avoid enemy strikes while I am trying to diplomacize them to attack someone else. I will not be entering melee combat by choice. I want the deck stacked in my favor if anything decides to come after me.

Next I have to choose a feat to add to the already extensive feat list I receive for being a Drow Bard. There are a lot of choices. I would take the Repeating Light Crossbow feat at this level, but I can’t yet. I’ll have to wait for level 3 for that. I have a quandary here. I have three choices that all look very good right now. The first is Spell Penetration, which I will need at higher levels in order for my spells to do their job and affect monsters. Bards are innately worse at this than other casters, and I’ll need all the help I can get to make sure my spells are working. I won’t take this yet, because I won’t get a spell I can use this with for at least one or two more levels. I could also take Extend Spell which makes my enchantments last longer. This would be a great addition for both the buffing spells I plan to cast on my fellow adventurers, and for the crowd control spells I plan to cast on monsters. I will not take this yet because of the same reason that I didn’t take Spell Penetration. I won’t have spells that this will help for a few levels. I am going to take Rapid Reload to increase the speed I will be able to fire bolts at my enemies. This will improve the damage I can deal to monsters and my value to my party.

Lastly, I must chose a spell. Bards cannot chose spells in between rests. They must chose their spell list, and that’s all they get. I get 1 level 1 spell at first level. I’m choosing ‘Cure Light Wounds’ to heal myself and my fellow party members. I can act as a cleric, especially at low levels. This makes Sin more valuable to a party. I can always change this spell later for a few gold pieces. I probably will once I reach mid level range. I would rather have Otto’s Dance or Hypnotism once I reach level 5 and have Spell Penetration.

Now the character creation process is complete! I hope this description helps you create your first or next character in DDO.

Here’s a pcture of Sin in the opening area for DDO. See you next time!

1.1 - "Slushy"

I love hidden hilarity, especially when it appears in computer games. Take a look at this:



In the center of the frame, you see a cannister with a head, arm, and shield. The best part is the dude's name.




Yep, they guy's name was indeed Slushy, and he looks a lot like my favorite 7/11 beverage machine. See what you can do when you are stuck waiting for a DM. More on the way! See you then!

Introduction - Diary of an Addict

This is my first BLOG. I am happy to begin my blogging career with the only running blog about DDO, Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach. Let me begin.

I have been playing DDO since the Beta ended in March '06. I did play the original Dungeons and Dragons a couple times in my youth. It's been nearly a year now. I feel like I can give some insight into the game, how to play successfully, and how to have fun. I hope the following is helpful.

It is hard to describe. I have never been an addict to anything before. I am addicted to this game. I can't explain it. I can sit and play it for hours at a time. I've spent a remarkable amount of time playing this game. I don't even want to think about how many hours I've been playing. It's that bad. I take screen shots and edit them to show headshots of my alts. I used to post messages on my guild's website. I am posting this blog right now! This addiction is getting really bad. I'm not sure if I can do anything about it. I guess that's where this blog comes in. Maybe this will be healing. Maybe I'll explore my own psyche and discover how to end this addiction. Until that happens, I will try to give you, my reader, an inside look into this game. I'm not sure if I will mention any other characters' names. I probably will, although I shouldn't. I am proud to list my alts so you will know who I am talking about. I will take screen shots from the quests I go on to let you see what they look like. I'll try to portray other characters accurately in my descriptions, although they may come out as warped as the cast of the Real World.

I currently play 6 different "alts" or characters on the Lhazaar server of DDO. Those alts are:

Panto Crypto
10th Level Bard













Ufgar Hillforest
9th Level Cleric







Rheebus Primatus
8th Level Rogue



Teemu Chippadoe
6th Level Wizard



Pantol Krackskull
5th Level Fighter



Alakaun ??
6th Level Sorceror
(no image)


I don't have a current image of Alakaun, and I can't remember her last name. I'll update those things in a future post. Tune in next time for some "funny" pics. I hope to make you laugh at least a little. See you then.