several newbie questions

[tethys123]

hi,

i've played for 2 days now, and so far i like the game. i've read through the game manual and spent quite a bit of time on the wiki, but i've got some questions i couldn't find the answers for.

i've undocked the combat window and moved it to a separate part of the screen, and made it semi-transparent. how do i keep it from disappearing after a few seconds ?

how do i keep my own notes inside the game ?

how do i keep map notes / my own map pins ?

i have both the 'dextrous ring' and the 'troubleshooter's necklace' equipped. both give a +1 bonus to dex. however, my dex only increased by +1. is this a bug, or do these kinds of bonuses just not stack? if the latter, is there anywhere i can find info on what stacks w/what and what doesn't ?

how can i get rid of bound items ? i understand that they can't be sold, auctioned, or crafted... i just want them out of my inventory ; these are mostly starter items that aren't worth much and are only taking up space.

my normal ac is 18. after casting mage armor, my ac is still 18, as displayed in the 'details' section of the inventory window. after casting shield right afterwards, my ac is STILL 18. why isn't this working ? the combat log showed that the spells were successfully cast, and there was an accompanying vfx.

thanks much in advance !
-tethys

[3dent]

i have both the 'dextrous ring' and the 'troubleshooter's necklace' equipped. both give a +1 bonus to dex. however, my dex only increased by +1. is this a bug, or do these kinds of bonuses just not stack? if the latter, is there anywhere i can find info on what stacks w/what and what doesn't ?


my normal ac is 18. after casting mage armor, my ac is still 18, as displayed in the 'details' section of the inventory window. after casting shield right afterwards, my ac is STILL 18. why isn't this working ? the combat log showed that the spells were successfully cast, and there was an accompanying vfx.

thanks much in advance !
-tethys

Two bonuses of the same "type" (almost) never stack. So, if you have, say, 2 items that both say "+2 Enchantment bonus to <whatever>" they won't stack. But if you have one item that says "+2 Enchantment bonus to AC" and another "+2 Armor bonus to AC" and yet third that says "+2 Natural Armor bonus to AC" they would all stack. Similar principle with stats, skills and everything else.

Exceptions are untyped bonuses and Dodge bonuses, those have special rules. Or at least they did in pen-and-paper game...

[Lonnbeimnech]

how do i keep my own notes inside the game ? most people use the biography section of their character sheet (press c hit the bio tab on the side) for notes.

how can i get rid of bound items ? drag and drop out of your inventory screen

my normal ac is 18. after casting mage armor, my ac is still 18... close the inventory screen and open it again, if that doesnt work, do you maybe have another source of armor bonus to ac, perhaps a +4 robe and another source of shield bonus, perhaps a +3 buckler?

[moomooprincess]

i've undocked the combat window and moved it to a separate part of the screen, and made it semi-transparent. how do i keep it from disappearing after a few seconds ? Don't KNow.

how do i keep my own notes inside the game ? Press C for character. There are tabs on the right hand side. One of the says BIO. There is a character limitation on it though.

how do i keep map notes / my own map pins ? Don't think you can.

i have both the 'dextrous ring' and the 'troubleshooter's necklace' equipped. both give a +1 bonus to dex. however, my dex only increased by +1. is this a bug, or do these kinds of bonuses just not stack? if the latter, is there anywhere i can find info on what stacks w/what and what doesn't ? Items of the same stuff do not stack. You can read tomes to increase characteristics. There are INSIGHTFUL items that will stack with a normal DEX item.

how can i get rid of bound items ? i understand that they can't be sold, auctioned, or crafted... i just want them out of my inventory ; these are mostly starter items that aren't worth much and are only taking up space. If the Item specifically says STARTER on it, it has ZERO value. You drag the item out of your inventory and click. A box should appear that says Delete Item? You can also put focus window on the item and right click? so a box appears of choices and one is Delete.

my normal ac is 18. after casting mage armor, my ac is still 18, as displayed in the 'details' section of the inventory window. after casting shield right afterwards, my ac is STILL 18. why isn't this working ? the combat log showed that the spells were successfully cast, and there was an accompanying vfx.

What type of armor are you wearing? If you already have armor that provides +4 or better, mage armor will not help.

Do this.

Make sure no spells are cast on you, such as you quit game last night and are just starting up today fresh.

Remove all items that are worn, do not delete them.

Check your AC.

Then cast Mage Armor. Does AC improve? Now, put on your armor. Is it of +4 or better? Put on each equipment piece until you find out which one cancels out Mage Armor. My advice, Mage Armor is mostly useless now with the prevalence of low end equipment that has armor +4 on it.

Shield Spell. Hmmmm. Do you carry a shield?

[tethys123]

thanks for all the replies, very helpful!

that's disappointing about how they're doing stacking w/ability bonuses, but now that i know, i'll be able to make better choices in the future, i guess. :/

the only thing that still has me perplexed is the mage armor. it turns out the shield problem was a bug ; i closed my inventory window, and when i opened it again, the ac displayed as 4 higher than it was before.

as for mage armor, i unequipped everything and cast the spell. ac increased by 4 -- so far, so good. i then added back my equipment one piece at a time. turns out the +1 chainmail i was wearing totally negates the mage armor spell. this is completely wrong ; mage armor applies an armor bonus of +4, which is not the same as base ac. it looks like what they're doing is calculating the total protection you get from whatever armor you're wearing -- including its base ac -- and using that to determine whether the mage armor applies a bonus or not. if that is what they're doing, i agree w/moomooprincess, they've taken what's basically a useful spell and made it pretty much useless. :(

[Satyriasys]

thanks for all the replies, very helpful!

that's disappointing about how they're doing stacking w/ability bonuses, but now that i know, i'll be able to make better choices in the future, i guess. :/

the only thing that still has me perplexed is the mage armor. it turns out the shield problem was a bug ; i closed my inventory window, and when i opened it again, the ac displayed as 4 higher than it was before.

as for mage armor, i unequipped everything and cast the spell. ac increased by 4 -- so far, so good. i then added back my equipment one piece at a time. turns out the +1 chainmail i was wearing totally negates the mage armor spell. this is completely wrong ; mage armor applies an armor bonus of +4, which is not the same as base ac. it looks like what they're doing is calculating the total protection you get from whatever armor you're wearing -- including its base ac -- and using that to determine whether the mage armor applies a bonus or not. if that is what they're doing, i agree w/moomooprincess, they've taken what's basically a useful spell and made it pretty much useless. :(

The stacking rules are a good thing or you would have people wearing the same stat on every slot and getting ridiculously high stats. You have to find different bonus types to get them to stack. As far as mage armor goes, it's meant for people who just wear robes like mages. Its not very good but its a level 1 spell.

[AzB]

Another way to keep notes for the adventure you're in, like if you have to remember puzzle solutions while you run back to the puzzle, I just type them in chat. They aren't saved for very long though, so the bio page is better for things you want to keep for a longer time.

[AzB]

as for mage armor, i unequipped everything and cast the spell. ac increased by 4 -- so far, so good. i then added back my equipment one piece at a time. turns out the +1 chainmail i was wearing totally negates the mage armor spell. this is completely wrong ; mage armor applies an armor bonus of +4, which is not the same as base ac. it looks like what they're doing is calculating the total protection you get from whatever armor you're wearing -- including its base ac -- and using that to determine whether the mage armor applies a bonus or not. if that is what they're doing, i agree w/moomooprincess, they've taken what's basically a useful spell and made it pretty much useless. :(

The mage armor spell provides the same protection as actual armor. So if you equip armor or an item that provides armor protection that is equal to or better than the bonus from the spell, you won't see any armor bonus from the spell. It is really only useful at very low levels for AC.

[3dent]

mage armor applies an armor bonus of +4, which is not the same as base ac. it looks like what they're doing is calculating the total protection you get from whatever armor you're wearing -- including its base ac -- and using that to determine whether the mage armor applies a bonus or not. if that is what they're doing, i agree w/moomooprincess, they've taken what's basically a useful spell and made it pretty much useless. :(

Mage Armor is, well... In pen and paper games (where even the most generous DM won't give heaps of cash and +alot items for a couple CR .5 monsters the way DDO does...) this spell tends to be used quite a lot... In DDO it's indeed obsolete by level 2, but it's such a D&D staple that it simply had to be there.

As for base AC... The base AC is always 10. Everything else (armor, spells, dexterity mod) is treated as a bonus of some type, even if UI doesn't always clearly reflect that.

[jonqrandom]

yup, armor gives an "armor" bonus to your AC, and so does the mage armor spell, so only the highest applies. you'll run into the same issue with shields and the shield spell (shield bonus to AC), and protection items and the shield of faith spell (deflection bonus to AC).

natural armor bonus items and the barkskin spell also provide the same bonus type (enhancement) to natural armor and don't stack, but there are other items that provide differently typed bonuses to natural armor (http://ddowiki.com/page/Natural_armor), just to make life more confusing if survivable.

[EllisDee37]

Great answers, you appear to be all set with the questions you asked.

Just popping in to say that if you decide to go for an 18 wizard/2 rogue split I wouldn't bother worrying about AC. It'll never get to be high enough to be meaningful. I think my level 25 wizard/rogue's AC is in the teens.

[ReaperAlexEU]

some good stuff already, so i'm only going to add a few bits.

for keeping note the bio is handy, but just remember it's public so any player can read your bio. not a problem as such as no-one bats an eye when they see people keeping track of character progress or puzzle solutions in their bio. just thought you should be aware that it's public though incase you want to drop some RL private stuff in there. apologies if this is lessons in egg sucking.

be aware that bound items can have value. the important part of your items that you want to trash is the "starter" property, as those truly have no value. later on you will get other bound items that can be sold, so if you don't want those don't trash them! you might also wish to keep some nice stuff you outgrow for later as you might one day decide to reincarnate (no the starter ones are not worth keeping for a reincarnation as you'll get them back straight away).

as for low level defensive spells, check out blur, it can often provide better defences than AC on builds that are not focused on physical defences. personally i like my mobility too, so i try to get jump and expeditious retreat as soon as possible. hard to advise fully here as i don't know what type of character you're building.

[tethys123]

thank you all so much, this is all really great information !

AzB, that is an interesting solution, to use chat. do you know if there's a way to turn on logging for chat ? on some rpg's there's a config setting for this that allows you to save your chat automatically on your pc, but i can't find one here. keeping notes through chat would be a lot more valuable to me if i could actually save them some place.

thanks again to everybody for all the help.

[ReaperAlexEU]

thank you all so much, this is all really great information !

AzB, that is an interesting solution, to use chat. do you know if there's a way to turn on logging for chat ? on some rpg's there's a config setting for this that allows you to save your chat automatically on your pc, but i can't find one here. keeping notes through chat would be a lot more valuable to me if i could actually save them some place.

thanks again to everybody for all the help.

nahh, it's more just for the quest instance. there are 2 quests i can think of off the top of my head where it's handy to drop some info in chat. for one it's the position of 4 levers, either up or down. so you'll almost always see someone type in chat something like UUDU when they find the scroll that tells you the combination. that info is only handy for that quest run as it is different each time, which is why chat is a handy tool to store the info in.

one thing you can try is running in windowed mode (alt+enter to toggle), if you blow that up to take up the whole screen then it's almost as good as full screen, but it can be much much better at alt tabbing between other programs. i found if i alt tabbed back when DDO was full screen it could take several seconds before the black showed the game again. in windowed mode it's instant. this will make it a lot easier to keep notes out of the game and flick between them as you need (eg the wiki with a map on how to find the quest entrance!)