Classes

Quick summary of the classes
In DDO you can pick one class or you can multiclass for up to three classes.

Armor
Any class can use any armor. But if you use an armor that you don't have proficiency with, you will suffer non-proficiency penalties.

There are 3 types of armor: light, medium and heavy armor. All classes can learn to use all types of armor.

To learn them you use feats. Note that some skills/spells will not work as well if you try to use them while wearing any armor that is heavy enough to have an Armor Check Penalty or Arcane Spell Failure chance - the heavier the armor, the higher the penalty.

Shields
Any class can use any shield. But, if you use a shield that are not proficient with you will incur penalties when using them.

There are bucklers, light shields, heavy shields and tower shields.

Some skills/spells will not work as well if you try to use them if you are wielding a shield. The bigger the shield, the more protection you gain from it, but the harder it makes to use skills. To learn them, you use your available feats.

Ranged and Melee weapons
All classes can use all ranged weapons and all melee weapons. But if you use a weapon that you don't have proficiency with you incur a severe penalty when using them. There are simple weapons, martial weapons and exotic weapons. To learn them you use your available feats.

Divine spells
Divine spells can be cast even when using heavy armor without reductions in casting effect or chance of failure.

Arcane spells
Arcane spells with a Somatic component will may fail if you try to cast them when using armor or shields. The only exception is that Bards can cast in light armor without penalty. Resource management is important for a caster.

Skills
Each character gets a specific number of skill points that he can put into different skills. If the skill is a class skill then each skill point spent corresponds to one rank in that skill. If it is a cross-class skill then each skill point spent counts as 0.5 ranks in that skill. The maximum ranks a skill can have is 3+ yourlevel for class skills and half that for cross-class skills.

Healing
All classes in DDO can increase healing. The reason for that is there is a Heal skill that everyone can put skill points into. But the "Long-Term Care" that recovers hit points will not take effect until you reach a Rest Shrine. There you will recover more hit points than normal the higher your heal skill is. Divine spell casters get Heal spells that heal non-warforged races and can heal warforged but with 50% reduced efficiency. Arcane spell casters get Repair spells that heal warforged. Repair spells have no effect on non-warforged.

Rest
In DDO none of the classes benefit from just staying still. You don't recover your hit points etc. But inside many dungeons there are Rest Shrines. When you reach these places you gain rest and recover hit points and spell points and allow you to memorize spells.

The Classes

 * Fighter
 * A warrior with extra feats, allowing him to specialize in melee. There are a lot of different ways to play a fighter, so you should examine thoroughly what feats you would like to pick before you create one, as you need different stats for different feats. For example, if you specialize in dual weapons you need to have good reflexes (i.e., high Dexterity). But if you are going to specialize in two-handed weapons, Strength is the most important stat. Some tactical feats also require an above average [Intelligence]. Because you are a fighter and don't cast any spells you are free to put your stats where you like them, to maximize your choice of feats. Fighters gain Strength enhancements as they level up.


 * Paladin
 * A warrior that trades some of his melee power for the ability to cast divine spells. He also has a higher ability to avoid getting hit, better saves against poison, and he can do crowd control as his Charisma rises. The Paladin has the best saving throws of any character, gains immunity to fear and disease, and may greatly heal someone once per rest. They also have passive auras that aid their party members when facing evil creatures. Paladins gain Charisma enhancements as they level up.


 * Barbarian
 * A warrior that has special powers when angry and specializes in damage dealing. He wears less armor than a fighter, but has more HP, some damage resistance, and Uncanny Dodge allows the Dexerity AC bonus to apply in all directions. Barbarians gain Constitution enhancements as they level up.


 * Ranger
 * An archer and a dual-wielding melee (in exchange for removing animal companions, DDO gives all rangers both combat styles). He also has stealth options and can cast divine spells, and may pick four kinds of monsters to specialize in fighting. He may detect secret doors and traps (but not disable them).
 * The proverbial jack of all trades. Rangers gain Dexerity enhancements as they level up.


 * Rogue
 * Has the most skills in the game. He can find and disarm traps. His ability to disarm traps is a key skill, preventing the party from being hit with nasty traps. Rogues can also open locks and find hidden doors. Rogues gain Dexerity enhancements as they level up. Rogues can be considered an "unstackable class", since one Rogue can be very useful to a party, but a second adds little further benefit.


 * Bard
 * Has a lot of skills and is a weak arcane spell caster. The closest you come to a hybrid without multiclassing. He also has the ability to "sing", making his party stronger. His arcane spells focus on crowd control, healing, and buffs. He is also the best class at learning the Use Magic Device skill to operate any kind of magic wand. Bards gain Charisma enhancements as they level up. Bards can be considered an "unstackable class", since adding a second bard to a party is rarely more useful than having just one. Bards have been called the "best sixth man", because using a Bard to fill the final slot in a party means that his powerful musical buffs will be boosting five other players.


 * Wizard and Sorcerer
 * Are powerful arcane spell casters.
 * A Wizard is an adaptive caster. He/she can switch the spells he/she wishes to use at resting points or when in taverns.
 * A Sorcerer is a focused caster. He/she only knows a small subset of all available Wizard/Sorcerer spells, but he/she casts that subset faster, and has more spell points. Wizards/Sorcerers gain Intelligence/Charisma enhancements as they level up, allowing the casting of more and stronger spells.


 * For an introduction see:
 * DDO Class Guide: Wizard/Sorceror.


 * Cleric
 * The Cleric domains are gone in DDO.
 * In DDO there is no evil Cleric so all Clerics will be great Undead killers (no one will be controlling Undeads).
 * He is a strong divine spell caster that uses all armor without penalties. The Cleric is the only good healer in DDO, and will be the class most invited to parties because of this. Clerics gain Wisdom enhancements as they level up.

Multiclassing
DDO has the option to Multiclass. In DDO there is no experience point penalty (as opposed to 3.5 rules).

When multiclassing, the hit points of the different classes are added. The base attack bonus of the different classes are added. The saving throws of the different classes are added. So you could say that a 5/5 Cleric/Fighter are getting the hit points of level 5 Cleric and a level 5 Fighter. All his stats will be an average of the two classes.

The Pros gained in multiclassing:

Skills
By only taking one level in a class that has proficiency with a skill, you get the possibility to max out that skill. So if you are a Ranger that would like to max out a Rogue-only skill or a Rogue that wants to max out a Ranger-only skill, just take a level in the other class. However, keep in mind when levelling as the Ranger it will cost two skill points to keep the Rogue-only skill at maxiumum.

Feats
If you take a class that has a feat, you gain that feat. For example, if you don't have proficiency with all martial weapons, you can take one level as a Fighter and you will gain them (plus the ordinary level 1 Fighter feat).

Drawbacks of multiclassing
The power of spells does not scale linearly. Spells that a Wizard/Sorcerer/Cleric can use at level 20 is more than four times as powerful as the spell that a Wizard/Sorcerer/Cleric can use at level 5.

Ability scores will be less optimized. A single-class character can have abilities finely tuned for the needs of one class. Dual or tri-class characters will need to make compromises between the ability needs of all classes. The more similar the ability scores used by the classes, the better multiclassing will work. Combinations that fit together nicely are Fighter/Barbarian (linked by Strength, Constitution, and Dexterity), Rogue/Ranger (linked by Dexterity), and Bard/Sorcerer (linked by Charisma). Additionally, the fact that spell points stack can make it tempting for any spellcaster to take one level of Sorcerer.

Many granted class feats do not stack. A Fighter/Paladin has martial weapon and heavy armor proficiency granted from both classes, but recieves no extra benefit from getting them twice. (This would be more of a concern if the level cap was raised, because then it would apply to feats like Improved Uncanny Dodge and Improved Evasion).

Enhancement slots do not increase. This is quite an important drawback, and unique to DDO (See Multiclass Enhancements). All characters can have only four enhancements at a time. The ones available are determined by both your race plus total levels, and your levels in each class. A multiclass character won't have access to the same high-power enhancements, and yet she also can't take any more enhancements than a single-class.

Consider a halfling who wants a high Dexerity, and might play either a Ranger 4/Rogue 4, or a single-class Ranger 8. The pure class can take Halfing Dexerity II and Ranger Dexerity III, for an increase of +5 DEX with two enhancements leftover for other things. But the Rogue/Ranger is stuck with Halfing Dex II, Rogue Dex I and Ranger Dex I, adding up to only a +4 increase, and yet leaving only one enhancement open for anything else. High-level enhancements are SO powerful (much better than a single feat) that multiclassers suffer tremendously without them.

A disadvantage NOT present in DDO is the experience percentile penalty used in PnP. However, with all the other significant drawbacks, gaining more than one or two levels in any secondary class is discouraged as what happens when taking from a full class.

Classes and feats
At level 16 this is how many feats a non-human of a class will have. Add one extra feat if Human:


 * Fighter: Nine Fighter bonus Feats plus six regular feats
 * Wizard: Four bonus Metamagic Feats plus six regular feats
 * Ranger: Six feats plus the entire Two Weapon Fighting line (Two Weapon Fighting, Improved Two Weapon Fighting, and Greater Two Weapon Fighting) as well as Rapid Shot, Multishot, Precise Shot and Improved Precise Shot.
 * Rogue: Six feats and three Rogue special abilities (granted at level 10 and every three levels thereafter)
 * Paladin/Barbarian/Cleric/Sorcerer/Bard: Six feats

Classes and skills
This is how many skill points they will gain per level plus bonus spell if high Intelligence (non-human).
 * Rogue: Eight skill points
 * Ranger/Bard: Six skill points
 * Barbarian: Four skill points
 * Fighter/Paladin/Cleric/Sorcerer/Wizard: Two skill points

Classes and highest spell level
At level 14 this is the highest spell level that character will have key ability in, spell level at class level 20 in []:
 * Sorcerer (Cha) / Wizard (Int) / Cleric (Wis) level 7 [9]
 * Bard (Cha) level 5 [6]
 * Ranger (Wis) / Paladin (Wis) level 4 [4]

Which class should I choose?
For comparing classes look at:
 * I would like to create a Warrior. Should I pick a Paladin, Fighter, or Barbarian?
 * I would like to create an Archer. Should I pick a Ranger or a Fighter?
 * I would like to create a Healer. Should I pick a Paladin or a Cleric?
 * I would like to create a Mage. Should I pick a Wizard or a Sorcerer?
 * I would like to create a ranged damage dealer. Should I pick a Ranger or a Sorcerer?
 * I would like to create a stealthy damage dealer. Should I pick Ranger, Rogue or Bard?

Read more about Group roles for the diffrent classes.

Class Stacking
If a class stacks well, that means that adding two to a group is much better than adding one. Choosing a more stackable class will increase your chance of being invited to a group. In decreasing order of stackability, the classes are Cleric Fighter/Barbarian/Ranger Paladin/Sorceror Wizard Bard Rogue However, additional teammates will almost always help some, even if their class skills are basically redundant with a previous member. Also notice that although Wizards and Rogues are low on stackability, some quests are almost impossible without them, so they will still be popularly invited. (Clerics are also usually considered an essential class, which combined with their stacking means they are more popular to groups than any other class)