PnP differences

This page tries to assemble a competently complete list of differences between the canonical PnP Dungeons and Dragons, and Turbine's Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach. Feel free to edit it with any more you may have noticed.

Adventuring

 * The concepts of darkvision, low-light vision, and portable light sources are gone. All characters can see equally well in all areas, and lighting is sufficient for most purposes in most places. However, areas do have varying amounts of light which affects the difficulty of hiding.
 * Throughout the dungeons are scattered rest shrines, which enable you to heal hit points and spell points. Most rest shrines are adjacent to resurrection shrines, which can raise you if you die.
 * The number of monsters you will encounter is significantly higher. It is easily possible to encounter several dozen monsters over the course of one mission, and some missions have over a hundred monsters. The daily spells alloted to a caster have been increased at lower levels to help compensate.
 * The penalty for dying is significantly lower. While in PnP the losses for dying range between a new body and physical abilities (Reincarnation), one level or 2 constitution points (for Raise Dead or Resurrection), or no loss whatsoever (True Resurrection, Miracle, Wish), in DDO you gain a debt of experience points that must be removed through adventuring.
 * The rate of advancement is significantly lower. While in PnP you advance a level after every 13-14 encounters, in DDO you will probably have way more than that many per quest, and each quest might only give you about 5-15% of the experience necessary to advance a level.
 * Outside of PvP, there is no way to damage another PC. You can detonate a Fireball on your team and yourself with no risk. Occasional spells can impair other PCs, like Grease or Sleet Storm.
 * Portcullises, although see-through, are impervious to spells, arrows, and other forms of attack.
 * The typical dungeon trap is a device-based automaton that is local to the effect: once the control box is located, only a character with at least one level of rogue can disable these traps.
 * DDO dungeons frequently feature doors which can only be opened when some certain monster dies (or set of monsters). Be careful that the monsters you charm are not the "key monster" in these cases, as you will be stuck until the spell wears off or the monster makes a save.
 * There is no movement penalty for being of the dwarven or halfling races, or wearing heavy armor. However, there are dodge penalties as well as unrealistically minimal jumping and swimming penalties from wearing heavy armor or carrying heavy loads.

Character Classes and Advancement

 * Instead of animal companion and tracking, rangers get both Two-Weapon Fighting and archery combat styles, without their limitation of having to wear light or no armor
 * PCs recieve +20 hp at first level, and full hit-dice thereafter. (This makes a high constitution relatively less valuable)
 * Sorcerers and Bards can change known spells. By visiting a trainer and paying a fee based on spell level, a single spell unleared and replaced with a new spell. After changing a spell, you must wait three days before you may change another.
 * Clerics have no domain or identified deity.
 * Wizards have no familiar nor opportunity for specialization.
 * Rogues get sneak attack bonus on any enemy not attacking them. They also can Hide without cover, although this becomes difficult in brightly lit areas and if no distraction exists.
 * Barbarians get Damage Reduction abilities 5 levels sooner than normal. (This compensates them for monsters making a smaller number of more damaging attacks).
 * The Paladin's Lay on Hands ability has been significantly boosted to compensate for the higher levels of hit points.
 * Paladins may not split up healing between multiple uses of Lay on Hands: they may use it once per day and it heals for the full allotment. (However, certain enhancements can allow them to use Lay on Hands additional times, increasing the amount of damage they can heal.)
 * The Paladin's Aura of Good ability provides a bonus of +2 on AC and saves to all allies within its radius of effect which can be further enhanced as ranks (not just levels) are gained.
 * Multiclass characters never have an XP penalty.
 * The druid and monk classes have not been implemented in the game as yet, and there are no prestige classes. Monks are planned for release in Fall 2007.
 * Characters can reach a maximum of level 12. (This level cap may be increased in later updates.)
 * Enhancements provide a new method of character advancement, which bears little resemblance to Action Point usage in Eberron, the Campaign Setting of the world where this game is taking place.

Races

 * Paladin Lay on Hands produces Divine Cure or Repair, as appropriate.
 * Halflings have lost their penalties of slower running speed and smaller weapon sizes. Their advantage of fitting in smaller spaces is also gone.
 * Elves are light-skinned primarily in the game, whereas in Eberron elves could be black, dark brown, and many other varieties of flesh tone.
 * In Eberron, the drow are called Umbragen. In D&D Online, drow are called drow.

Combat

 * Combat is real-time, not turn-based.
 * The concept of attacks of opportunity, grappling, initiative, and being flat-footed are gone. (The Uncanny Dodge class feature, which in PnP gives protection against being flat-footed, is now an active ability that provides temporary bonuses to AC and Reflex saves.)
 * PCs receive a second attack at BAB +1, instead of BAB +6. (This makes feats which grant a second attack, such as Cleave and Two-Weapon Fighting, relatively less valuable)
 * Nobody can be disarmed. Sunder debuffs AC instead of breaking equipment.  (This would make monks relatively less valuable, if they were included at all)
 * Regardless of your Swim skill, underwater combat is impossible.
 * It is possible to "block" by holding Shift. While blocking, you may not attack, but you gain a +2 bonus to AC and, if you have a shield equipped, you gain some DR.
 * Shields are more powerful, as they provide DR when blocking (see above). Thus, weapons which disallow shields (i.e., 2-handed weapons and two-weapon fighting) are relatively more risky.
 * Drawing a dagger into your off-hand takes much longer than equipping a two-handed weapon or tower shield- essentially, too long to be done in combat.
 * Melee (not ranged) attacks have a -4 hit penalty while moving. The feat Spring Attack negates the penalty. Note also that tumbling followed by an immediate attack does not give rise to this -4 penalty.
 * Repeating crossbows fire three shots at a rate of fire faster than a bow before requiring a reload.
 * Heavy and light crossbows reload at the same speed.
 * Darts and shurikens cannot be thrown from both hands.

Monsters

 * Touching a Black Pudding or other ooze monster does not hurt you, so you may attack with Unarmed Strikes without HP worry. (That will be the most affordable way to kill them). However, items worn on your hands (gloves, rings and possibly bracers) will be affected by ooze acid and require frequent repairs.
 * Monsters' regeneration rates (such as on trolls) are significantly higher, however regeneration halts when they have zero hp, regardless of damage type suffered.
 * Hill, Fire, and Storm Giants move slower than PC races, instead of faster. All three such giants are about the same height (instead of Storm being much taller)
 * Many monsters have significantly more hit points than their PnP counterparts.
 * Most monsters have higher attributes than their PnP counterparts.

Equipment

 * Magic items have a minimum character level prerequisite to equip them. The limit seems to be (Plusses*2)-2 for weapons/armor, or equal to the caster level (for spell triggers).  For example, this means that a level 4 wizard cannot use a wand of Fireball, but a barbarian4/sorceror1 can use it, because his total levels equal the caster level.  The Use Magic Device skill cannot defeat this limitation.
 * No composite bows built for high strength. Instead, Rangers (and Rangers only) get a class feature that allows them to add their Strength bonus to bow damage.
 * All weapons have just one physical damage type. Daggers can't Slash, and Morning Stars can't Pierce.
 * Coins are weightless and take up no space, while gems are low-weight and occupy nearly as much volume as platemail armor.
 * If your strength is high enough, carrying 10 Greataxes is no more cumbersome than 10 Daggers.
 * All magical ammunition and projectile weapons (unless Returning) are immediately destroyed with one use.

Feats

 * Activating Combat Expertise or just Defensive Fighting takes longer than equipping a shield, and can be interrupted by knockdown.
 * It is no longer possible to use multiple trade-BAB-for-something abilities such as Defensive Fighting, Combat Expertise, or Power Attack at the same time.
 * You do not get to select an exact number of points of BAB to take off when using Power Attack. Instead, it automatically defaults to your base attack bonus or 5, whichever is lower. (This makes Power Attack less useful.)
 * You do not get to select an exact number of points of BAB to take off when using Combat Expertise. Instead, it automatically reduces your attack bonus by 5 and adds 5 to your AC (even if your base attack bonus is below 5). Certain enhancements can increase the AC bonus, but they also increase the attack penalty.
 * Weapon specific feats like Weapon Focus or Improved Critical apply to whole weapon categories (slashing, bludgeoning, piercing, thrown, ranged) and not to single weapons. This means that a two-handed fighter can use the same feats to master both swords and axes, or that a two-weapon fighter can master rapier and shortsword together.
 * Rapid shot feat decreases the reload time of missile weapons. It does not grant multiple attacks per click, nor does it impose a -2 to hit penalty.
 * Cleave has been changed to be an active feat that allows you to attack enemies in an arc.
 * Several new feats have been added, such as Precision and Slicing Blow. However, many of them do not appear to be very useful.

Skills

 * Skills gone: Knowledge, Climb, Sense Motive, Disguise, Spellcraft, Craft, Escape Artist, Sleight of Hands, Rope Use.
 * The Intimidate skill is used in combat to draw the attention of an enemy.
 * The Diplomacy skill works the other way around (enemies targeting you will switch their focus to somone else).
 * Use Magic Device has variable difficulty values for wands.
 * Tumbling gives an AC bonus during combat but you can't tumble through occupied spaces anymore.
 * Many skills have been changed so that they are not very useful, and some skills that are not very useful in PnP (such as Jump) have become more useful. See Skill usefulness for details.

Spells

 * Spell points from different classes (e.g. wizard, sorceror, cleric) stack into one common pool.
 * Spells are cast using a spell points system. Prepared spellcasters must still select a limited list of spells to prepare (equal to the number of spells they get to prepare per day in PnP) but they can cast each one many times.
 * Spellcasters can cast nearly 8 times as many spells before resting. In relation to healing magic, this makes high hitpoints and Fortitude saves relatively less valuable.
 * All spells of the same class and level use the same material component (if they have an MC at all). Stoneskin, Dimension Door and Teleport are currently the only exceptions, each has its own expensive component.
 * Touch attacks are gone, both normal and ranged. Some spells have been given Reflex saves in their place.  (This means that high-dex characters are relatively less powerful)
 * Touch spells now have a range over 15 feet. This applies equally to helpful (Cure Light Wounds) and harmful (Shocking Grasp), making all Touch spells more powerful.
 * Each spell has its own cooldown timer before it can be repeated. That means the fastest way to heal someone is to use a mix of Serious, Moderate, and Light cure spells.
 * Major spells gone: Levitate, Fly, Spider-Climb, Polymorph, and almost all Diviniation and Illusion (except Detect Secret Doors and Phantasmal Killer).
 * Command only allows "Lay down", not any other action.
 * Suggestion functions as charm person, except usable on giants in addition to humanoids.
 * Web has no limit on the distance of anchor points, so it can be used outdoors and will anchor against the moon. Webbed creatures can't attack.
 * Charm Person and Charm Monster are more powerful, in that the victims will fight hopeless odds for you. But they are less flexible, in that you can't give the target any other commands, and also can't end the spell early (Command Undead and the like are similar)
 * Dispel Magic has many fewer applications.
 * Many spells have had their damage ranges altered slightly.

Miscellaneous

 * The concepts of languages and literacy are gone.
 * NPC clerics will provide free "Half-True, Half-Turbine" Resurrection, in addition to other pay per use spells. Potions can be bought to heal common ailments like Bestow_curse and Blindness.
 * While it is possible to acquire negative levels, negative levels never result in actual level loss.
 * Fear effects prevent attacking, spellcasting, and skill usage, but does not affect movement.