Dungeon and Dragons The Menace of the Underdark a review

Thanks to http://fatpenguinblog.com for the image

Well The Menace of the Underdark expansion is now upon us and Dungeons and Dragons online changed.  The game has been simplified and made easier.  Perhaps more alarmingly is a hint of fourth edition D&D mechanics creeping into the underlying game.  All and all I don't know if I like it as I am seeing less solid game play.  This would include coming from myself.

To dig into the expansion a bit they have changed the EPIC system so that there are now three versions of the epic dungeon.  Those are Normal, Hard and Elite.  Normal and Hard are pretty damn easy which sort of sucks.  The Elite is an increase over the old Epic which makes for a challenging run. This has the good effect of removing the equipment barrier from epics as now you can suck dick and do just fine in quests.  It also removes from of the separation between the TR and the non TR character.  As you don't have to fight through Epic quests that are out classing you to get tokens.

The new Epic leaves that you will be going through for level 20 to 25 are a combination of epic destiny and classes.  The class levels can be though of as non specific unclassed level that give a generic set of HP , save and skills to everyone.  So casters will be getting the same HP as the fighter. There are some epic feats which are pretty nice, the Bard song feat is an absolute must have.

The epic destinies are sort of the like the epic version of enhancements.  You start off with the freedom to select one of these, which should probably be the one associated with your class.  From there your points go into an advancement tree that is pretty World of Warcrafty.  These are cool as they allow you to fix problems with your character and are pretty easy to start attaining.  What I mean is you can get Hit point pretty easily through these destinies if you are low by taking the Barbarian tree.  The bard tree auto grants spell level increase which helps with my low DC's.  So I could start working up my crappy paladin and take hit points so he could go from pathetic to just plain bad.

The equipment awards in these quests is also very generous.  New equipment is on par with much of the green steel pieces.  Don't get me wrong you still want your Min2 Khopesh but you can easily do with some off hand that you find in epic quests.  The armor also get you near to the point of epic quests.  Finally some of the Forgotten Realms area quests yield collectibles that can be turned in for almost epic quality items.

All in all this allows for a pretty easy path to leveling up to twenty five and gaining high end equipment.  Changes in epic token yield makes challenges a must for TRing and I have got to say the first run of an epic quest can yield incredible experience points for not a lot of work.  For me this is a bit like the quarter change in coin op games.  You can have a great character with not a lot of skill.  Yes they have defanged many of the time sinks which is good but taking out the difficulty puts a lot more noobs in my pug groups.  And if I am in the group you already have at least one suck player.

More thoughts on screwing yourself in Dungeon and Dragons Online

I wanted to talk a little bit more about DDO and screwing yourself over.  I do this to myself a lot.  You really need to think about how you are going to spend your points in Dungeons and Dragons online.  This comes both for attributes and skills.  But you also have to use your feats correctly as well.

When you are dealing out your attribute points you are going to find unless your are a 3rd lifer you just don't have enough to do much with.  You are probably going to need to find one or two dump stats that you apply no points to.  Regardless of your class this stat should never be Constitution.  People over state the important of con, but I would never have a character with below 12 con; ever.  In epic quests your are going to get hit with random splash damage upwards of 100 hp.  You need to be able to take it.  Your 6 con drow sorc is every ones joke.  You need to be able to not be a burden if there is no trapper that means at least 350 hp at epic level.  Really most people would scoff at that as being too low but these are guidelines for the new and I am not trying to scare anyone off.  You primary stat should be high especially for casters as your spell dc's depend on it.  I would say the min is 16 on a primary stat, but also make sure you don't have a secondary stat requirement.  The favored soul is a bit like that where you can screw yourself if you don't get your wisdom up as well. 

States are also effected by items and tomes, so keep that in mind.  If you are not using an attribute you can get by with a +2 tome and a +6 stat item, these are actually very easy to come by at high level so don't worry.  Considering this hybrid casters probably don't need to put anything into wisdom.  Also heavy armored fighters can probably get by with out much in the way of dexterity.  Your wizard can also ignore strength.

Your skills you are probably going to want to min max unless you have something very specific in mind.   Early on I threw a point into tumble on my bard because I got some item.  That was a mistake that always bugged me.  I didn't use or need the skill and I could have had my balance increased so I got up more quickly after constantly getting knocked down.  You should take a little time and read through ddowiki to see what skills do.  Jump is always nice as it increases the height you can jump, though watch out its soft capped at 41 so you don't go any higher.  Swim seems nice until you get an underwater action item then it seems useless.  I have maxed out Diplomacy it is mostly useless except when a quest npc needs me to use it.  Intimidate you will need as a tank, casters get made when you cant pull aggro.  Search, spot, Pick locks and disable device are mandatory for all rogue types.  Concentration is a must for casters, yes even bard.  Your bard must max out perform.  Use Magical Device is the best skill in the game!  You should think about it if you can get to at least 36 skill in it.  Then you can raise dead pretty regularly.  A fighter raising someone is a huge help as is a non healer throwing heal spells.  If you are a bard or Artificer you must master UMD.

Keep in mind the only way to change skill point allotment is to TR your character.  Spend your points well.  If you are never going to reach a point where the skill becomes useful don't point one point in.  If you only need a few points of jump and can use spells beyond that then so be it.  But, generally its best to go all or nothing, trying for 70 points in a skill at max level.

Finally I turn to feats, you can really screw yourself with feats.  I love this about DDO, that you can just mess up.  I once wondered if you can make a Warforged monk with armor plating, yes you can.  Can you ever be focused? no you cant.  You can never do anything a monk does.  Well that was a mistake.  You can change out your feats with dragon shards so this is something you can fix but its a bit of a pain to do.  There are some feats like toughness that are basically always good, but you should really think about your build with other feats. 

More thoughts of hatred for Attacks of Opportunity

Playing in the Thursday night Pathfinder game yesterday I was again confronted with how much I hate attacks of opportunity.  My general statements in the past have been that they drive play in negative directions.  Last night I saw how they are just plain bullshit.

Part of the story last night involved my character getting pretty damaged and there being a retreat called.  Being the cleric myself how do I pull out that situation?  I disengage with a five foot step to get a non attack of opportunity casting action or I can flee.  There is no real situation where I run and get healing of any kind.  There is not situation even where I run and others cover me.  This was perhaps the biggest area I was pissed about.  Without going for MMO taunts game need some mechanism for covering a retreat.  Perhaps a ranged weapon could be used to target a few squares are covered.  Moving through them could require a will save.

Over and over again I just find attacks of opportunity are bullshit and some other mechanic could be used.  I really don't see any case were an AoO should occur if you have a weapon out and your focus on the opponent.  Well barring things that are forced by the opponent like a riposte or pressing the attack.  If you do not have the opponents focus your attack actions should be generated by yourself and you should be able to not draw AoOs unless the opponent specifically has an ability.  This huge checklist of gotchas in D&D work out poorly for role playing and poorly for a tactical combat game.

Honestly if you are doing a role playing game if the player presents a situation that the combat rules would interrupt, you are doing a bad job if you stop them.  Perhaps barrel of salt messes up your giant slug attack but not allowing quick wits and cleaver minds to come up with solutions also derails the game.  You end in a place where players feel rolls are more important than roles and now you are playing a minis game.

Dungeons and Dragons Online help for new players

when you come to Dungeons and Dragons and start playing you will quickly realize hey this shit isn't fair.  This is not noobs whining this is a very real fact about DDO.  The game rewards time invested, and the new player is often on vastly different footing than the people he plays with.  If this is a problem for you, you should perhaps reconsider playing D&D online and find another MMO.  D&D is unique in that it lets you screw yourself as part of the game design.

Going into screwing yourself, there are some things that can be done in character creation that just can not be recovered from.  This is now World of Warcraft where classes and races mix all in the back ground and bad combinations are disallowed.  It's not even Everquest where stats didn't matter as they could be fixed later on.  There are two things you are going to need to know for character creation, 3.5 edition mechanics and DDO particulars.  The game is very close to 3.5 edition D&D so knowing it is a help.  The particulars you will learn from play but enhancements and a single mana bar is a pretty huge change from pen and paper.  I would suggest you try for a barbarian and just play asking questions.  Take on of the suggested paths in the character creation and you should be OK.

Another aspect of the inequity of characters comes with races and character build points.  For the most part the races are pretty even.  Yes there are races that work better for particular classes which is something you should think about but generally they are the same.  The Drow is not, it is statistically better than others.  To make up for this the game creators require you to play a bit before they allow you to play the drow.  The mechanic used to unlock this and many other perks is favor.  Completing quests on higher difficulties give a one time favor award that is tracked.  When you hit 400 total favor you can play drow.  This is usually pretty easy to reach maybe 7th level if you are slow.  Then you can start playing your new drow character, which i generally don't recommend.  If you are having fun with your current character i say keep playing.  Part of this is you get further rewards at 1000 and 1750 favor.  At a thousand you can start creating new characters at fourth level.  At 1750 you gain the ability to create new characters with 32 build points all except drow.  Now you may consider restarting a new character.  In the beginning you only had 28 point to create your character this extra four is a huge help.

Flowing from this is the idea of the TR or true resurrection character.  D&D online doesn't constantly throw new content on top of the game.  Instead of ever increasing levels they have created a system where high level characters play through the game again to get more power.  This is the true resurrection or TR character.  New players will often seen a massively over powered character in their party zerging through the entire adventure, this is probably a TR.  To become one of these TR characters you need to hit level 20 and then run epic level dungeons.  In these dungeons you gain tokens that allow you to purchase a item that allows you two perform the true resurrection.  These are the hardest quests in the game so you will fined they are pretty hard for your now 20th level character.  They get easier once you have completed at least on TR.  The reward for TR's is an increase in build points for the next life and an extra past life feat.  You will have 34 build points on your first TR and 36 on your second resurrection of the character; 32 for drow.  The past lives are a big help and everyone can use barbarian past lives for more Hit points.

The final component to your power is equipment.  You will have a natural growth in power for the most part but there are three sorts of items that are key to a powerful character.  Powerful items in D&D are not necessarily statistically better than other a lower minimum level is often much more of a factor.  Named items that you get in quest or as end rewards are often the best help early on.  Another thing you need to look for are quest chain rewards.  Often you have a series of four or more quests that don't give rewards until you have completed all, but the rewards are special named items.  Keep an eye out here for the regular weapons and armor in the list.  These often have very low required levels and are the true reward.  If you get something with a level two requirement you may be able to zip through the early levels on your next TR.  The final piece to this power puzzle are green steel items.  These are going to be your bread and butter for much of the game.  You need to run quests in the vale of twilight to begin thinking of crafting these items.  So you are going to be at least 16 really 18 as you need to run the shroud to complete this stuff.  You are going to need to run the shroud many many times to get all the bits you need but the end results are worth it.  Green steel are super powerful items that have a minimum level of 13.  So you will be able to make use of them when you TR. There are many crafting tools on the web, i usually just go here.   The lightning 2 and Mineral 2 weapons are pretty powerful as are items that give extra hit points.

Heavy Metal and Hard Rock references in Dungeons and Dragons Online

Being a fan of both Dungeon and Dragons online and Heavy metal, I have noticed a few in jokes that are part of the game.  I wanted to present a few for players not so fond of metal.  If you know of any others references please let me know.  jameslrickel@gmail.com

Rainbow in the dark: Well this is a reference to the Dio song of the same name.

Trial by Fire: Is a reference to the Testament song off The New Order

King Bendix: The end boss in a Cabal for One comes from Kim Bendix Peterson otherwise known as King Diamond.

Edward the Flesh golem: from Fleshmakers Lab is a reference to Eddie of Iron Maiden.

Elyd's Edge: has a Rush quote in the description of the item.

In the flesh: Is a reference to a Pink Floyd Song.

Running with the Devils: Comes from a Van Halen song

Schenker: The rare scorpion king in Ataraxia's is named after the guitarist of the Scorpions.

Fear Factory: This is the name of an industrial metal band, I saw them in Sac in July (HELL).