Enhancements

Overview
As a character advances in experience and level, they will gain action points (aka AP) which can then be spent on enhancements. The available enhancement selection is based upon a character's race and class, and consists of improvements to those race and class strengths. For example, a Rogue would be offered enhancements to improve skill at hiding or disarming traps, while a Barbarian would be offered enhancements to improve their ability to Rage.

Enhancements are offered via different "trees", which are a collection of thematically related enhancements. Classes usually have 3 trees each, while races have 1 each. There are also several special trees that are independent of race or class; these usually require specific favor or a special purchase to unlock.

Each tree is broken into 2 parts - the "core abilities", and 4-5 "tiers", with each successive tier offering (usually) more powerful enhancements. Each higher tier requires a certain number of AP to be spent on previous trees, called "progression", so you cannot spend all your points on the highest, most powerful tiers. Tiers also require certain character or class level; tiers 1-4 require level 1-4, respectively, while tier 5 trees require (class or character) level 12. The "core" abilities work slightly differently; those enhancements also have a minimum point expenditure required, but also are only available once a certain class level (for class trees) or character level (for racial/special trees) is reached. You must purchase the Core 1 ability before spending any AP on the Tiers, but any further core abilities are purely optional.

Enhancements from a class or race usually stack with other enhancements from a class or race, even when they give identical bonuses. Elven Dexterity and Ranger Dexterity can be taken together. However, if they have identical names, they may not stack. For instance Awareness is available on several trees, but only the highest Awareness bonus will apply.

Ability bonuses from enhancements or equipped items do not count towards enhancement or feat prerequisites.

Enhancements can be reset using platinum or astral shards while in a public area. The platinum cost is determined by the number of action points currently spent in that tree, as well as a multiplier determined by the number of enhancement resets you have done recently. When resetting your enhancements, you may choose to reset any tree individually or clear all trees and enhancements at once and start over entirely.

Limits
Characters are limited to enhancements from a maximum of 6 class or special trees plus their racial tree, for a possible 7 total.

A character can only have enhancements from one tier 5 tree at any one time. Both class and special trees have 5 tiers, racial trees have 4.

Action Points
Action Points (APs) are points gained in the process of increasing in level. The character can then spend those points into enhancements. However, he must meet the progression and any prerequisite there is, otherwise he won't be able to pick the desired enhancement.

A character gains an action point at ranks 1, 2, 3 and 4, for a total of four action points per level. At the level cap (20), there are no ranks, so you instantly gain the last four Action Points for a final total of 80.

Banking experience or levels does not gain additional AP past the 4 for the current level. However, once you take your next level, any banked experience that results in additional ranks is immediately translated into available AP.

Enhancements cost one or more Action Points. For this reason, you do not lose your action points when leveling up, and can save, or "bank", as many as you wish, unspent for the time being.

Additional racial action points


In addition to the 80 action points gained from levels, characters that have undergone Racial Reincarnation may receive additional action points that may only be spent on racial enhancements. These bonus AP are not level-gated, you can spend them all at level 1.

Characters get 1 additional action point for each non-iconic race that has undergone racial reincarnation 3 times. (Additional reincarnations with the same race have no additional effect.) As of Update 36 Patch 3, DDO has 11 non-iconic races; thus characters can get 11 extra racial AP.

With the release of the Mists of Ravenloft expansion, Racial Enhancement Point Tomes can grant additional racial AP to your characters.

Tips

 * In game, you can pull up your Enhancement screen at any time by hitting Ctrl + r. You can spend or respec your AP any time you are in a public area (no need to visit a trainer, but that works too).
 * At most, you can take enhancements from 6 class or special trees plus your 1 racial tree for a total of 7 trees simultaneously.
 * Spending points in one class tree might make another class tree or specific enhancement unavailable (e.g. The various Sorcerer's savant trees lock out all enhancements of the "opposite" element (fire/water, air/earth), and you cannot spend AP in both the Ranger: Arcane Archer and racial Elf/Half-Elf/Morninglord Arcane Archer trees, etc.)
 * Use the big arrows on the sides of the enhancements UI to access additional trees.
 * You can rearrange the order of your enhancement trees by dragging/dropping the round class icon at the bottom-left of each tree, or by clicking on the drop-down box near the bottom of the trees.
 * The first core enhancement (only) is required to take any other enhancements in a tree.
 * You can only take tier 5 abilities in one class tree.
 * Enhancements with the same name in multiple trees might not stack (inconsistent).

Enhancements list
Select a category from the table below for detailed information about enhancements available for that race or class.

Pre Mod 3.3
The enhancement system was totally redesigned in Mod 3.3. Before that date, a player could only have four enhancements. However, one line of enhancements only counted as one enhancement. For example, a level 10 dwarf could only select Dwarven Armor Mastery III, he could not select the second nor the first and that counted as one of his four enhancements.

Back in that time, player could not save action points before leveling. In fact, if a player had unspent action points when leveling, he received a warning message.

Once a character had reached the maximum level possible at that time, he received a free action point every 20,000 XP so that he could change his enhancements if he so chose.

Post Unlimited
In Unlimited/Module 9, Capstone enhancements and Prestige enhancements were added. For each class 1 Capstone was implemented and it was announced that for each class 3 tiers of 3 different Prestiges were planned. However, even to this day, many of these Prestiges remain unavailable, limiting some classes' player choice.

On Update 7, class specific enhancements like Cleric Heal I has been replaced with generalized enhancements like Improved Heal I. This also brought down costs of the four tiers of the skill enhancements. Before, tier I, II, II and IV cost 1, 2, 3 and 4 AP respectively. Now, all tiers cost 1 AP each for generalized enhancements. This improved the viability of Prestige enhancements for many builds.

Update 19 Enhancement Pass
Total redesign in the user interface and the way AP is spent. All enhancements, including previous Prestige enhancements and Racial enhancements, are integrated onto Enhancement Trees.