Questions I can't find answers to...

[nemosinthewoods]

Ok so this game is confusing compared to others I've played. I've never played a D&D game in my life so all of this 1d8 stuff and penalties and bonuses are all throwing me off.

I made a Dwarf Barbarian on Cannith and am following this guide as I level: http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=116814

Considering I'm extremely confused I figured it would be best to just mindlessly use someone else's strategy while I try to figure out my own. Hopefully some people can help some of this confusion...

#1 On armor, what do the bonuses and penalties mean? For instance right now my barbarian is wearing a Battleworn Chainshirt. It shows Armor Bonus w/ Dex: +5 Armor Bonus: +4 Max Dex Bonus: 4 Armor Check Penalty: -1 Spell Failure 20%

What does all of this mean? It explains something about Masterwork and it being finely crafted lessening the armor check penalty by 1 but I have no idea what any of that means.

#2 On weapons, at the start they gave me some 2h axe that had fire on it. Then a quest I completed gave me a similar axe that has the same Base Damage Rating (7.15) the same damage stats the same critical roll and the same attack/damage mod (no idea what any of that means once again) The only difference is the new one has Lesser Monstrous Humanoid Bane and the other one has Masterwork and Fire Touch...

Now I would imagine the extra fire damage makes the original one a better axe but then I wonder why did they give me this new one from a quest if the first one I got was better?

#3 How does the money system work? I sold some items earlier and somehow have 5 platinum, 1 gold, 1 silver, and 5 copper... is it 1000 copper = 1 silver, 1000 silver = 1 gold and so forth?

#4 Regarding combat mechanics... I understand you press shift to block. Are there any other special buttons to press for combat? So far I've just been running around holding E since that seems like a magic key that does everything from attack to pickup coins to opening doors and talking to quest givers. When I swing my 2h axe I notice sometimes more than 1 person takes damage. Is standard attack a cone type of damage? Does it matter if I'm dancing around the opponent or just standing face to face swinging?

#5 Regarding skills and feats and all that other stuff. When I first made the character I did custom to follow the above guide. It had me put points into things like Jump and whatnot. I think those were called skills. Are those changable? Can you get more skill points to gain more or is it something you setup when you create the character and that's it? Can you reset them at any time?

I also started out with these other things called Sunder and Trip. I understand sunder (i think) it seems like the warrior sunder in WoW. How do I know if this lands on the opponent? I cannot find a debuff bar on the opponent so I'm never sure if it worked. Is it stackable? Is it even worth using? What exactly is trip? I haven't really been able to figure these things out even after using them. Also I have something called Rage that seems to give me more attack at the penalty of armor reduction or something. How come when I'm in town it works fine and shows up on my buff bar in the top right corner but in a dungeon nothing happens after I click it?

#6 Is there a bank anywhere? How do you get more bag space? Should I hold onto these scrolls and potions I get for use at later levels since they give better bonuses when I get higher level?

#7 I notice there's no health/mana regen in dungeons... What do you do to prevent from dying? Are there bandages or health potions or anything you can carry with you to prevent death? How often can you use these items if they do exist? If I rolled a cleric how would I regen mana to continue healing my party if there's no mana potions or /meditate function?

#8 What's the point of killing creatures? I don't seem to get any experience from them and I never see them drop anything... Can't I just ignore them for the most part to complete the objectives of a quest?

#9 It appears you can repeat the quests, how many times can you do this? In the start zone I did a few of them on normal and wanted to run through again on the next step up. I was 2 shotting everything on Normal so I'm sure I can survive on Hard or whatever the next level is. Is this the best way to level up and get good experience? I think I remember reading that you can only do it 3 times before you start getting penalized? So I can do Normal 3 times, Hard 3 times, and Elite 3 times? Or can you just do the dungeon in whole 3 total times? What's the penalty? Less experience? If so can I just keep running these lower dungeons until I'm higher level to make future quests easier? I assume the Elite version of the dungeon requires a group to do?

#10 Once I decide I like this game enough I'll probably put some money into it. I take it I can just subscribe for $15 a month or something whenever I decide to and that's the only cost? Does everything unlock when I do that? Is it better to just buy things from the item store or does the $15/month give you everything you normally have to purchase?

I'm sure I'll have more questions. Mad respect for anyone who reads this and answers. I'm so lost right now in this game, I really wish there would be a good beginners guide somewhere that explained all of this.

[nemosinthewoods]

Also what are saves? I keep reading about that but have no idea what they are

[Cuth]

#1 On armor, what do the bonuses and penalties mean? For instance right now my barbarian is wearing a Battleworn Chainshirt. It shows Armor Bonus w/ Dex: +5 Armor Bonus: +4 Max Dex Bonus: 4 Armor Check Penalty: -1 Spell Failure 20%


#1.
Armor Bonus w/ Dex = the current armor bonus (+5) you are receiving from this armor factoring in your dexterity

Armor Bonus = the armor bonus (+4) the armor grants before factoring in your dexterity
[looking at this and your link to your build, I am assuming your dexterity is 12 which gives you +1 to armor]

Max Dex Bonus = the maximum amount of dexterity bonus you can get in this armor
[a player receives 1 point of AC for each 2 points their dex is over 10. so 12 dex is 1, 14 dex is 2, 20 dex is 5, etc ... however this is capped by your armor. This particular armor caps the bonus at 4.

Armor Check Penalty = the effect the armor has on some of your skills like jump, balance etc. This armor is giving you a -1 penalty to all those stats. Heavier armor offers higher penalties than lighter armor.

Spell Failure = this only applies to Arcane spells (Wizards / Sorcs / Bards) ... it gives the % chance that they will miscast their spell when wearing this armor b/c the armor is so cumbersome it messes up their magic.

[Qzipoun]

Will edit this with answers in red:


Ok so this game is confusing compared to others I've played. I've never played a D&D game in my life so all of this 1d8 stuff and penalties and bonuses are all throwing me off.

I made a Dwarf Barbarian on Cannith and am following this guide as I level: http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=116814

Considering I'm extremely confused I figured it would be best to just mindlessly use someone else's strategy while I try to figure out my own. Hopefully some people can help some of this confusion...

#1 On armor, what do the bonuses and penalties mean? For instance right now my barbarian is wearing a Battleworn Chainshirt. It shows Armor Bonus w/ Dex: +5 Armor Bonus: +4 Max Dex Bonus: 4 Armor Check Penalty: -1 Spell Failure 20%

What does all of this mean? It explains something about Masterwork and it being finely crafted lessening the armor check penalty by 1 but I have no idea what any of that means.
Easiest first, do not worry about Arcane Spell Failure, that is only for arcane casters (sorc, wiz, bard). Armor check penalty is what kind of penalty you get to certain skills by wearing the armor. The heavier and bulkier armor is, the harder is will be for you to jump, tumble, swim etc. Basically anything that is made more difficult due to armor will be reduced by this penalty. Each armor has 2 "armor class (AC)" components, the amount of AC you gain from the armor and the max dex bonus. The amount of AC you gain from the armor is the same for each armor type (ie a chainshirt always has the same armor bonus unless it's a rare and special named item) to which you add whatever "+X" modifier (1-5). Masterwork is basically a poor man's +1 if you want, it has similar effects but it is not +1 just yet. After a bit you'll never see masterwork anymore. The second major AC component is the Max Dexterity Bonus. Typically, you add your dexterity bonus (+X) to your AC, the more dexterous you are the easier it is to dodge blows etc... However, wearing heavier armor makes it harder to "dodge" so there is a max dex bonus of how much of your dexterity will be added to your AC.

#2 On weapons, at the start they gave me some 2h axe that had fire on it. Then a quest I completed gave me a similar axe that has the same Base Damage Rating (7.15) the same damage stats the same critical roll and the same attack/damage mod (no idea what any of that means once again) The only difference is the new one has Lesser Monstrous Humanoid Bane and the other one has Masterwork and Fire Touch...

Now I would imagine the extra fire damage makes the original one a better axe but then I wonder why did they give me this new one from a quest if the first one I got was better?

The first one you got is not better. While the axe looks like it's on fire, it's only "fire touch" which is literarly +1 to the damage you usually do. The Lesser Monstrous Humanoid Bane is basically a weapon that is especially effective on monstrous humanoids (sahuagins at low levels). In this game, you will rarely use one and only one "best" weapon. Each mob has strengths and weaknesses that require you to switch weapons on the fly. Without diving into the details, the fire touch weapon is basically a +1 axe (masterwork adds +1 to hit, fire touch adds +1 to damage, essentially making it a +1 weapon) so it WILL be better than the vast majority of the stuff you will find while questing in the harbor. For now, use the lesser bane for sahuagins and the fire touch for everything else, as you get more weapons, test them out and you'll quickly get the hang of things (don't worry too much about base weapon damage, you'll quickly specialize in one weapon and each weapon type always has the same base damage)

#3 How does the money system work? I sold some items earlier and somehow have 5 platinum, 1 gold, 1 silver, and 5 copper... is it 1000 copper = 1 silver, 1000 silver = 1 gold and so forth?

10 copper = 1 silver.
10 silver = 1 gold.
10 gold = 1 plat

#4 Regarding combat mechanics... I understand you press shift to block. Are there any other special buttons to press for combat? So far I've just been running around holding E since that seems like a magic key that does everything from attack to pickup coins to opening doors and talking to quest givers. When I swing my 2h axe I notice sometimes more than 1 person takes damage. Is standard attack a cone type of damage? Does it matter if I'm dancing around the opponent or just standing face to face swinging?
I'm still baffled as to why they changed the 'E' key away from strafe (part of DDO's massive easy button I guess). When fighting you'll rarely be blocking (since you can be killing instead) unless there's a need to just turtle up. Other than that you'll be using your character's feats and skills such as trip, sunder, cleave etc. etc. Each character gets these actions through feats, skills and enhancements so you choose how active you want your combat to be. I'd recommend going into key mapping and just seeing what is what and change things to fit your play style, I highly recommend you use right/left strafe as well as turning

#5 Regarding skills and feats and all that other stuff. When I first made the character I did custom to follow the above guide. It had me put points into things like Jump and whatnot. I think those were called skills. Are those changable? Can you get more skill points to gain more or is it something you setup when you create the character and that's it? Can you reset them at any time?

Skill points are the only thing (others being feats and enhancements) that you cannot change at this time. There's really no reason for it, just bad game design with the way tomes work (don't worry about tomes for now). The devs have said that a full respec mechanism is coming to the store so it is safe to say that skill respec will be possible however seeing the wonderful decisions they've been making lately, I wouldn't be surprised if it was a store-only option. To go back to your question though, you can increase your skills (only increase) at each level-up. The number of skill points you gain depends on your class to which you add (or substract...) your INT modifier.

I also started out with these other things called Sunder and Trip. I understand sunder (i think) it seems like the warrior sunder in WoW. How do I know if this lands on the opponent? I cannot find a debuff bar on the opponent so I'm never sure if it worked. Is it stackable? Is it even worth using? What exactly is trip? I haven't really been able to figure these things out even after using them. Also I have something called Rage that seems to give me more attack at the penalty of armor reduction or something. How come when I'm in town it works fine and shows up on my buff bar in the top right corner but in a dungeon nothing happens after I click it?

When you use sunder, you will either see "miss", a blue icon above the enemy's head (he saved, you had no effect other than damage) or you'll hear a "boing" and the enemy will have a quick smoke-like dark animation for a second. That means the sunder took effect and his AC has been decreased temporarily. A "debuff bar" [really a "buff bar" since it also shows positive effects] can be found by clicking on an enemy then the magnifying glass on the orb or shortcut 'C' (or is it X? or maybe it changed for new players). Sunder is not stackable (maybe it stacks with improved sunder but I doubt it). It's use decreases dramatically after a few levels (hitting an enemy is simply not that big of an issue anymore) but then you can always pick up improved sunder so your choice. Trip is exactly what it seems, you trip an enemy and they lie down on the floor until they save, not able to do anything while you bash their heads, very useful at low levels and while some argue less useful at higher levels I say why not use it, even if the enemy saves you still damage them, there's no drawback to attempting a trip.

#6 Is there a bank anywhere? How do you get more bag space? Should I hold onto these scrolls and potions I get for use at later levels since they give better bonuses when I get higher level?

#7 I notice there's no health/mana regen in dungeons... What do you do to prevent from dying? Are there bandages or health potions or anything you can carry with you to prevent death? How often can you use these items if they do exist? If I rolled a cleric how would I regen mana to continue healing my party if there's no mana potions or /meditate function?

#8 What's the point of killing creatures? I don't seem to get any experience from them and I never see them drop anything... Can't I just ignore them for the most part to complete the objectives of a quest?

#9 It appears you can repeat the quests, how many times can you do this? In the start zone I did a few of them on normal and wanted to run through again on the next step up. I was 2 shotting everything on Normal so I'm sure I can survive on Hard or whatever the next level is. Is this the best way to level up and get good experience? I think I remember reading that you can only do it 3 times before you start getting penalized? So I can do Normal 3 times, Hard 3 times, and Elite 3 times? Or can you just do the dungeon in whole 3 total times? What's the penalty? Less experience? If so can I just keep running these lower dungeons until I'm higher level to make future quests easier? I assume the Elite version of the dungeon requires a group to do?

#10 Once I decide I like this game enough I'll probably put some money into it. I take it I can just subscribe for $15 a month or something whenever I decide to and that's the only cost? Does everything unlock when I do that? Is it better to just buy things from the item store or does the $15/month give you everything you normally have to purchase?

I'm sure I'll have more questions. Mad respect for anyone who reads this and answers. I'm so lost right now in this game, I really wish there would be a good beginners guide somewhere that explained all of this.

[Cuth]

#2. The 2nd Great Axe is more useful against Monsterous Humanoids, while the first is better against all other enemies. It's an weapon that excels against a particular type of enemy. The point of it is to get your used to switching gear depending upon your foe. Unlike many mmos, swapping weapons depending on what you are fighting is a key part of the strategy here.

#3. It's base 10.

#4. Aside from blocking there is tumbling (shift + movement).

Two handed weapons also give "splash" damage on occasion. The more you focus in 2h fighting, the more splash damage you will do. It's basically a cone in front of you has a % chance of getting hit.

#5. You cannot respec your skill points presently. You do get more points when you level. You also can get items or friendly buffs that will augment your skills.

Trip is a combat attack that has a chance to knock your enemy down.

Rage is barbarian class ability that increases your STR and CON for a short period at the expense of your Armor.

[Cedwin]

Also what are saves? I keep reading about that but have no idea what they are

Ok, it's been over a year since I've played (just re-subscribed and started playing last week, so anyone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong), but I'll try and explain how a majority of the saves/die rolls works.

You have to realize that first and formost, D&D is based on the roll of dice.

You have Reflex Saves, Will Saves, and Fortitute Saves.

Reflex saves meaning saves against traps, trips, explosions, anything that you could "move out of the way" from.

Will saves meaning magic used against you, like a shaman trying to cast a spell against you, if your will is high enough it won't effect you.

Fortitute being your "sturdiness" I suppose. If you get poisoned by a spider, or a poison trap, if your save is high enough the poison doesn't effect you.

Now to the dice part. If you look at your character sheet, you will have numbers for saves, starting out lets say for example you have Reflex 5, Will 5, Fortitude 5.

When something happens, like you walk through a trap, or a magic user tries to cast a spell on you - a dice is rolled. You should see that die above the selection orb at the bottom right of your screen. It will roll a 20 sided die typically, that means if your reflex save is 5, then the die roll of 15-20 means you saved against whatever happened. If you roll lower then that then you do not save, and whatever happened affects you.

The dice also work while attacking, every swing you make against a creature you will notice that same die rolling. If you roll a 20 then it is a natural critical hit, which will do much more damage than a normal hit. On the other hand, if you look at your inventory screen, you will see your attack bonus at the bottom for your primary hand. That number tells you what you need to roll to successfully hit something. If you have a +4, then you will need to roll a 16 or higher to hit whatever you are swinging at. This is also affected by the BaB, Base Attack Bonus... on each of your swings you will get an additional + to-hit, so your first swing may be +5, second +10, third +15. This is currently being worked on by Turbine so they may change the BaB in the next couple of days.

Anyways, there is a lot of math and die roll calculations factored in this game, it's all a lot to take in but once you start figuring it out you can build the perfect character for your playstyle.

[Cuth]

#6. Banks are everywhere, starting in the harbor (first zone past Korthos). Check you map for the bank icon.
You get more bag spaces by getting Coin Lord favor (you get more BANK spaces by getting House K favor.)
Sell potions and scrolls you don't need.

#7. This is a resource management game. Your health and SP do not regen in dungeons. Carry heal pots. You can buy them in the harbor and marketplace. As for SP, you need to manage your SP. You can use heal wands (cheaper / heal than pots) if your class can cast heal spells. This will save you SP.

#8. You can ignore them to a certain extent, but killing enough will give you an XP bonus. Also -- if you ignore too many you'll trigger the dungeon alert and the monsters will get harder to kill.

#9. Ok this is important. The First time you run a quest on normal (25%), hard (25%) or elite (50%) you will receive an XP bonus. (the amount I put in parens.) If you run a quest 4,000,000 on normal the first time you run it on hard you will still get your bonus.

Excluding what is detailed above -- each time you run a quest the game keeps track. After you have run a quest 3 times you start getting 10% less xp for each successive run until on the 11th run you are capped at a certain xp minimum.

Here's the key: The first time bonus will override the repetition penalty. Use this to your advantage.

if you run normal (25%), normal (0), normal (0), hard (25%), elite (50%) vs.
if you run normal (25%), hard (25%), elite (50%), normal (-10%), normal (-10%)

[Nahual]

Ok so this game is confusing compared to others I've played. I've never played a D&D game in my life so all of this 1d8 stuff and penalties and bonuses are all throwing me off.

I made a Dwarf Barbarian on Cannith and am following this guide as I level: http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=116814

Considering I'm extremely confused I figured it would be best to just mindlessly use someone else's strategy while I try to figure out my own. Hopefully some people can help some of this confusion...

#1 On armor, what do the bonuses and penalties mean? For instance right now my barbarian is wearing a Battleworn Chainshirt. It shows Armor Bonus w/ Dex: +5 Armor Bonus: +4 Max Dex Bonus: 4 Armor Check Penalty: -1 Spell Failure 20%
What does all of this mean? It explains something about Masterwork and it being finely crafted lessening the armor check penalty by 1 but I have no idea what any of that means. People have answered this for you

#2 On weapons, at the start they gave me some 2h axe that had fire on it. Then a quest I completed gave me a similar axe that has the same Base Damage Rating (7.15) the same damage stats the same critical roll and the same attack/damage mod (no idea what any of that means once again) The only difference is the new one has Lesser Monstrous Humanoid Bane and the other one has Masterwork and Fire Touch...

For weapons the +x before it tells you how good it is. But as all weapons can have diferent type of damage. Like you've seen the fire damage. Not once you quest more youll find that you'll get weapons with and extra 1d6 of damage might be fire,cold,electric,etc for element, or even Holy, Anarchich, Lawful etc. Now the thing here is that those damages work well on some creatures and not others (fire agains a fire mephit does no damage but agains the icy spiders does double). Monstruos Humanoids is a type of creature you should use them agains shagauhin.

Now I would imagine the extra fire damage makes the original one a better axe but then I wonder why did they give me this new one from a quest if the first one I got was better?

#3 How does the money system work? I sold some items earlier and somehow have 5 platinum, 1 gold, 1 silver, and 5 copper... is it 1000 copper = 1 silver, 1000 silver = 1 gold and so forth? Cant remember think its in base of 100, so 100 copper = 1 silver, 100 silver = 1 gold, etc


#4 Regarding combat mechanics... I understand you press shift to block. Are there any other special buttons to press for combat? So far I've just been running around holding E since that seems like a magic key that does everything from attack to pickup coins to opening doors and talking to quest givers. When I swing my 2h axe I notice sometimes more than 1 person takes damage. Is standard attack a cone type of damage? Does it matter if I'm dancing around the opponent or just standing face to face swinging? shift to block yes, tab to target enemies, backspace to target, items, party members etc. You are probably wielding a greataxe which has grazing hits, which means you hit more enemies but only the one targeted for full damage

#5 Regarding skills and feats and all that other stuff. When I first made the character I did custom to follow the above guide. It had me put points into things like Jump and whatnot. I think those were called skills. Are those changable? Can you get more skill points to gain more or is it something you setup when you create the character and that's it? Can you reset them at any time? Jump is very useful since you can jump over enemies, at the moment they are not changeable but they will be in the future. If you increase your Intelligence you will get more skill points but only threw tomes

I also started out with these other things called Sunder and Trip. I understand sunder (i think) it seems like the warrior sunder in WoW. How do I know if this lands on the opponent? I cannot find a debuff bar on the opponent so I'm never sure if it worked. Is it stackable? Is it even worth using? What exactly is trip? I haven't really been able to figure these things out even after using them. Also I have something called Rage that seems to give me more attack at the penalty of armor reduction or something. How come when I'm in town it works fine and shows up on my buff bar in the top right corner but in a dungeon nothing happens after I click it? sunder attacks the enemies weapons and damages it, trip well trips you opponent,

#6 Is there a bank anywhere? How do you get more bag space? Should I hold onto these scrolls and potions I get for use at later levels since they give better bonuses when I get higher level? bank yes you need to get to stormreach, you get more bag space with favor and items, Ifyou are a barbarian sell the scrolls for now the pots you might use on ocation

#7 I notice there's no health/mana regen in dungeons... What do you do to prevent from dying? Are there bandages or health potions or anything you can carry with you to prevent death? How often can you use these items if they do exist? If I rolled a cleric how would I regen mana to continue healing my party if there's no mana potions or /meditate function? there are rest shrines where you rest, and refill your mana, abilites to full, your hp is regened for an amount as your con modifier. Yes they are some pots that you can find by breaking barrels, once you get to stormreach in the marketplace you can buy them up until you have no more money, you can use them at will.

#8 What's the point of killing creatures? I don't seem to get any experience from them and I never see them drop anything... Can't I just ignore them for the most part to complete the objectives of a quest? I think you answered your question here yourself yes you can ingore them unless the objetive of the quest is to kill them. That is what a lot of people like about this game diferent ways to obtain the same result. Now if you've been to a wilderness area the objectives are to find some places, but as you kill monsters you also gain xp. But it has intervals so they'll give you xp after you kill 10, 25, 50,100,etc creatures. You can reenter the instance and youll still have the same amount of slayers

#9 It appears you can repeat the quests, how many times can you do this? In the start zone I did a few of them on normal and wanted to run through again on the next step up. I was 2 shotting everything on Normal so I'm sure I can survive on Hard or whatever the next level is. Is this the best way to level up and get good experience? I think I remember reading that you can only do it 3 times before you start getting penalized? So I can do Normal 3 times, Hard 3 times, and Elite 3 times? Or can you just do the dungeon in whole 3 total times? What's the penalty? Less experience? If so can I just keep running these lower dungeons until I'm higher level to make future quests easier? I assume the Elite version of the dungeon requires a group to do?hmmm ok you can doa quest as many times as you like. But the first time you do in any dificulty it will give you more xp. THe more times you repeat it in each dificulty the xp will decilne and yes the xp hit starts at 3. You can see the penalty and/or bonuses when you type "X" in a quest. Yes you will need a group for a lot of the quests.

#10 Once I decide I like this game enough I'll probably put some money into it. I take it I can just subscribe for $15 a month or something whenever I decide to and that's the only cost? Does everything unlock when I do that? Is it better to just buy things from the item store or does the $15/month give you everything you normally have to purchase? Play de game you decide most people think it deserves the $15 a month you might be diferent

I'm sure I'll have more questions. Mad respect for anyone who reads this and answers. I'm so lost right now in this game, I really wish there would be a good beginners guide somewhere that explained all of this.THere is someone out there just search the forums You'll find it dont have the link

You mentioned something about saves, ok your saves are Fortitude, means how tough you are now the better your Fortitude the least likely spells/or abilities will hurt you like poison, Insta kill spells when you get higher. Second is will, this tells you how powerful your mind is, so spells and abilities like hold monster, charm,etc wont affect you, third is Reflex says well how good your reflexes are most of the traps, and damage spells have a reflex save, so you take less damage from them


Hope all of this helped you a bit.



Happy Questing

[Cedwin]

#8 What's the point of killing creatures? I don't seem to get any experience from them and I never see them drop anything... Can't I just ignore them for the most part to complete the objectives of a quest?


There are different bonuses factored in with the amount you kill in a dungeon.

If you kill everything in the dungeon, you will get the "Conquest" bonus, which is an extra 25% XP.

You get bonuses when you get to a set number of kills, I think it goes 10%, 15%, 25%

The same bonuses apply to breaking boxes/barrels. Break everything and you get "Ransack", which is +25%

There are also bonuses for finding secret doors, and disabling traps, as well as bonuses for not dying, and not re-entering the quest.

[Cedwin]

I also started out with these other things called Sunder and Trip. I understand sunder (i think) it seems like the warrior sunder in WoW. How do I know if this lands on the opponent? I cannot find a debuff bar on the opponent so I'm never sure if it worked. Is it stackable? Is it even worth using? What exactly is trip? I haven't really been able to figure these things out even after using them.

When you use Sunder, if you hit your opponent, you will hear an audible cue, and plus you will see black smoke rise from the opponent, that means that sunder landed, and they have a minus to their AC, which makes them easier to hit.

If you do hit them, and they save against sunder, you will see a little blue hexagon shaped thing appear above their head with an audible cue, meaning that they saved against your sunder.

The same goes for trip, if it lands they fall to the ground, if they save you'll see the saved icon appear over their head.

[Arianrhod]

Whoa whoa whoa. You can talk to your trainer and have him reset all of your skill points, so you can re-configure your enhancments. The game is confusing enough, no need for mis-information. :D

Note you have to pay your trainer a certain amount of gold, and then wait 3 days before you can reset them again.


Er...that's enhancements, not skills. Can't reset skills (Jump, Tumble, Use Magic Device, etc.). Once those points are spent, they're stuck that way.

[Timothea]

Incorrect. You can NOT respec skill points at this time. You can respec Action Points at your trainer. Action Points are used for enhancements, skill points are used to increase skills.

[Cedwin]

Incorrect. You can NOT respec skill points at this time. You can respec Action Points at your trainer. Action Points are used for enhancements, skill points are used to increase skills.

My bad, bit of confusion going on here (been a while like I said) :D

So there are Stat points, Skill points, and Action points.

Action points can be reset once every 3 days at a trainer, but Stat and Skill points cannot.

You can also swap out a feat once every 3 days.

[7-day_Trial_Monkey]

My bad, bit of confusion going on here (been a while like I said) :D

So there are Stat points, Skill points, and Action points.

Action points can be reset once every 3 days at a trainer, but Stat and Skill points cannot.

You can also swap out a feat once every 3 days.

You have your terminology mixed up.

Skill points are what you spend on skills: balance, disable device, search, spot, etc..

Action points are what you spend on Enhancements such as: Fighter Toughness I, II, III or IV

[markusthelion]

A trainer can only reset Enhancement points, NOT skill points they are two different things. Skill points are things like,"Jump", "Concentration", "Haggle" and so on.

[Milolyen]

An earlier poster did not do a very good job explaining the Dice.

Basically everything in the game revolves around the roll of a die. There are many types of die used in the game.

1d3 = 1 roll of a three sided dice.
1d8 = 1 roll of an eight sided dice.
3d6 = 3 rolls of a six sided dice.

and so on.

Now when it comes to saves (he was correct about the various save types) however he was wrong in how they are figured.

Lets say you run through a trap, That trap will have a Difficulty Check (DC from here on out) this is the number you must beat in order to avoid taking full dmg from the trap. Lets say you have a reflex of 5, the DC is 15 and that means to avoid full dmg when that 20 sided dice rolls (standard roll against a DC is usually 1d20) if it lands on a 10 or higher then you will take only half dmg but if you roll a 9 or lower then you will take full dmg.

The same goes for attacks ... you and the mob both have an AC ... to determine if your attack hits, you have to beat the mobs ac. So you will roll that 1d20 and add that number to your attack bonus ... if it is higher than the mobs AC then you hit and if it is lower then you will miss. The mobs have to make similar rolls against us. Now when you hit the mob how much dmg you do is based on the weapons ... great axe is 1d12 so you will roll a 12 sided dice to get your number however there are different bonus types to dmg ... such as higher str will allow you to hit harder (+1 for every even number over 10 and -1 on ever odd number lower than 10 ... 6 str -2, 7 str -2, 8 str -1, 9 str -1, 10 +/-0, 11 +/-0, 12 +1 and so on) these bonuses and negatives get added to the roll. Then you will notice the crit multiplier. Crit multiplier on the great axe says 20 x 3. This means that if you roll a 20 on your 1d20 attack roll you get a critical hit which means it will actually roll the 1d12 and add your bonuses then roll a second 1d12 and add your bonuses and then roll a third 1d12 and add your bonuses and then add all those numbers together for your total dmg on that swing.

Hope this is not to confusing for you ... but once you get the jist of this most of that other stuff is not hard to figure out. Oh and that second great axe you got is a bane weapon ... meaning against that particular type of foe you will have those added bonuses to your attacks ... I belive it is lesser monsterous humanoid bane which means when you attack a monsterous humanoid your attack and dmg go up by 1 and when you hit it does an addition 1d4 worth of dmg ( this dmg gets added on after all the other dmg is figured out so you will see 2 numbers come up the first is your 1d12 and bonuses then the second will be your 1d4 from humanoid bane.)

Also to a previous poster no the axe is not basically a +1 as the fire dmg is added outside of the base dmg so on crits it still only does a +1 fire dmg unlike the +1 axe would get another 2 dmg with the crit.

Milolyen

[nemosinthewoods]

Man you guys rock! Thanks so much for helping me. I feel I can really enjoy the game now that I understand it better.

[Qzipoun]

Man you guys rock! Thanks so much for helping me. I feel I can really enjoy the game now that I understand it better.

I had to head off before I was able to answer all your questions but it seems the others got most of the stuff. If you have any other questions feel free to ask here, i'm sure someone will jump right on them.

Also these sites are extremely useful:

http://www.d20srd.org/ [Awesome site, DnD 3.5 rules, most of which are reflected in the game]
http://ddowiki.com/page/Home [Self explanatory, very useful!]
http://compendium.ddo.com/wiki/Compendium_Home [Last ditch effort if the above don't have something but I would be surprised]



Also to a previous poster no the axe is not basically a +1 as the fire dmg is added outside of the base dmg so on crits it still only does a +1 fire dmg unlike the +1 axe would get another 2 dmg with the crit.

Milolyen

Totally right, I forgot to take crits into consideration. Noob points for me! [Though we're really splitting hairs at this point :p]

[LordMond]

#8 What's the point of killing creatures? I don't seem to get any experience from them and I never see them drop anything... Can't I just ignore them for the most part to complete the objectives of a quest?

It is true that the mobs on the starter island do not drop anything (at least I've never seen them do so).

However, once you get to Stormreach Harbor, mobs do, occasionally, drop a Treasure Bag. All the bags I have looted so far (I'm all of level 3) have had an item that Collectors located in various places around the harbor want. There seems to be a ton of various items (prayer beads, idols, mushrooms, etc.) that you can exchange with the Collector who wants that particular item for...well...something. I've not made the exchange yet so forgive me for not knowing more.

But you're right.....the mobs do not (yet?) drop loot of any kind at all. And yeah I'm a bit disappointed with that- reminds me of one of the reasons I quit EQ2 all those years ago (the devs decided the best way to 'manage' a virtual economy was by removing coin loot from the game- brilliant, just brilliant).

But cheer up! There's one "nonmob" that does drop coin loot (and other types like potions and scrolls) on a pretty regular basis- crates and vases! By all means, smack all of them you run across. Not only is their the possibility of loot, glorious loot but there is also a modifier to XP in quest zones called "Mischief". Mischief, apparently, means breaking vases and cracking crates so that gives you another reason to be as destructive as possible.

[Thailand_Dan]

Just an FYI about the treasure bags that drop from mobs. While most can be turned in for lowbee arrows, scrolls, potions, and weapons. There are a few things used in crafting, so their value (on the AH) has skyrocketed. You'll be kicking yourself if you end up turning these in for a scroll of chill touch, when you could have sold it for 10K plat. Off the top of my head, Lightning Split Sourwood, Vials of Pure Water, and Silver Flame Hymnals are all valuable. Hold on to them. And collectibles also drop from sparkling bookcases, rubble, moss clumps, mushrooms, adventurer's packs, etc.

[Zippo]

Ok so this game is confusing compared to others I've played. I've never played a D&D game in my life so all of this 1d8 stuff and penalties and bonuses are all throwing me off.

< cut for brevity>

I'm sure I'll have more questions. Mad respect for anyone who reads this and answers. I'm so lost right now in this game, I really wish there would be a good beginners guide somewhere that explained all of this.

Don't take this as a dig against you because it is not meant to be Nem, but Turbine this is exactly what I was referring too when I started my thread last week about people having no clue *** is going on here. This is a prime example of where a short 5-10 minute video that should be played (not able to be skipped) the first time you log into the character selection screen that explains things of this nature would work. I mean writing a guide is nice and all but is liable to not be read either because the person refuses to read it or just doesn't look for it.