Players manual

Here you'll find a list of helpful tips and commands for the game.

''See also PnP differences if you're familiar with the D&D system.

UI Tips

 * City areas and taverns are zoned. If you look in the upper left-hand corner of the screen, you'll see a dropdown that reads something like '5-The Harbor' which means you're in zone 5. If you're trying to meet up with someone, make sure you're both in the same zone. Change zones just by opening the dropdown and picking the one you want to transfer to.


 * The game has voice chat built in that allows you to hear and talk to your groupmates, but it's disabled by default. Go into your audio options and click the 'Enable voice chat' option so you can at least hear what people in your group are saying, even if you don't have a mic or don't plan on talking over it yourself. You can tell who's talking because their name is highlighted in green in the party area of your screen.


 * Hit 'm' to open your map, and hover over the different symbols to see what they are. If you want to travel to that place/NPC/whatever, left-click it on the map, then close the map. You'll now see a small, white arrow pointing in the direction of that map symbol in the mini-map.


 * To see detailed information about a person or item, click on them to target them. Then, in the circular window in the bottom-right, click on the magnifying glass button, or hit 'z' by default.


 * Icons dragged onto your Quickbar can be rapidly activated with a number key, but you will quickly use up those 10 spaces. Press Control-1, Control-2, etc to bring up different Quickbars, which can have separate sets of icons.  A mid-level cleric, for example, might have 4 Quickbars: one of weapons, ones of spells for friends, one of spells for enemies, and one for magic items (like wands and potions).  But the most important functions, like Cure Moderate Wounds, should probably occupy the same space in ALL of the Quickbars, so you can always cast it with a single reflexive keystroke.

Combat Tips

 * You must keep monsters in front of you in order to attack them.


 * You can block in combat by holding down the Shift key, even without a shield. This adds +2 AC making you roughly 10% less likely to be hit by attacks (although it works better with a shield due to damage reduction). Use this to your advantage by swinging your weapon in between the enemy's swings.


 * Your presence in a doorway will keep enemies from being able to pass through the door.


 * Do not move while in combat - tumble. To do this, while blocking you can hit your movement keys to roll or hop, and you receive an AC bonus while doing so if your tumbling skill is high enough. Otherwise, if you swing while moving, you will receive a -4 modifier to your attack rolls and a -4 modifier to your Armor Class. To avoid the movement modifier, you only need to stop moving for a brief instant to stop and swing. Watch the plusses on the D20 to see how it works.  Note that the moving attack penalty only applies to melee attacks - ranged attacks have a moving reload penalty instead.


 * Rogues will receive a sneak attack bonus when you attack something that has a target other than you. So help out a buddy - you'll do more and you'll help him out (although, possibly steal credit for the kill).


 * You'll receive a rear-angle attack bonus of +2 when you attack something that is facing away from you. So if two fighters are battling one monster, the one who isn't being attacked can circle around behind for likelihood of hits, while the one in front shield-blocks to protect himself.  When the monster changes targets, switch off roles.


 * When using ranged weapons, be sure to switch to a melee weapon when an enemy engages you in melee combat. You're easier to hit (-4 to AC, or roughly 20% more likely) while holding a ranged weapon, and will be attacking much slower.


 * Ranged attacks against an enemy who is partially behind cover won't work if you use Tab to target them, because the game aims at midsection level. Aim manually to shoot at their upper torso or head. Also, if an enemy is running around, it might step out of the path of your arrows before they hit. You can compensate by untargetting the enemy and "leading" the target with manual mouse-aiming, as in a FPS game.  Untargetted shooting also works when you believe there are monsters in a certain direction, but can't see them yet; in many situations, your shooting range is greater than your visual range.


 * Conversely, ranged attacks by an enemy when you are partially behind cover won't work (except for a homing projectile like Magic Missile). That can be applied to exploit terrain geometry for your protection.


 * Reload time is the bane of ranged weapons. Since you do not get your extra attacks figured into ranged combat, the only way to speed it up is by feats suchs as Rapid Reload.  Bows and throwing weapons reload slightly faster than crossbows, but the difference in neglible.  This has caused the Repeating Crossbow to become the weapon of choice amongst the most lethal ranged attackers, as it fires three shots per reload.


 * Thrown weapons, such as Darts and Shuriken reload at about the same rate as a bow. This makes them a highly substandard choice from a to-hit and damage perspective (since bows/crossbows can have a benefit as well as the arrows/bolts you load in them).  Thrown weapons, however, can be used while wielding a shield but you still suffer the -4 Armor Class penalty while wielding a thrown weapon.


 * Mobs in DDO are dumb. They can’t open doors, climb crates, climb ladders, or anything intelligent but run at you unless specifically programmed to do so.  You can use this to your advantage by tricking a mob into dropping into an area where they cannot get to you and taking ranged attacks at them.  However, in some instances, the developers have noticed the player tendency to exploit this and have given the monster the ability to traverse obstacles such as the boss in The_Miller%27s_Debt.  Others, like The_Seal_of_Shan-To-Kor have been completed redesigned because of player exploit.


 * You will often have to use your Swim skill to take dives. Combat in water is impossible.  However, you will find some creatures can still get attacks on you.


 * Wearing heavy armor provides incredible benefits to you since creatures can’t hit you as easily. It does virtually nothing against magic, however.  Furthermore, wearing armor causes you to suffer an Armor Check Penalty to a number of skills.  Encumbrance (carrying items which near or exceed your Carrying Capacity) causes many skills to suffer.  In fact, you can become Overloaded, which slows movement and causes your attacks to suffer.


 * Pen and paper includes a mechanic called Initiative. It is an artificial construct designed to create an order in which players take actions.  Initiative in DDO is replaced by player dexterity, because a more skilled player will dodge out of a trap quickly or observe the monsters.  Likewise, some skills like Spot and Listen factor in, as the character will be able to observe threats more quickly.


 * As your character advances in Base Attack Bonus or BAB, he receives additional attacks. This occurs in conjunction with your first attack occurring at a higher level of effectiveness.  Unfortunately, the extra attacks only apply to melee attacks.  The speed at which ranged attacks occur can only be improved by taking feats like Rapid Reload and Manyshot.


 * Melee attacks in DDO have a real life component to them – range of threat. Example: Greatsword > Longsword > Dagger > Shield Bash.  Mobs are aware of this radius of threat and use it to their advantage.  For example, an Iron Defender will fire a pool of Grease and then step forward to bite.  Once the Grease is gone, it will step back and release more Grease.  While up close, even a shield bash would hit the Iron Defender.  While firing Grease only a long weapon can hit it.  When you factor in the risks involved to to-hit and Armor Class while moving, this gives two handed weapons a unique (and real life-like) advantage.  Needless to say, this also plays in heavily to the effectively of feats like Cleave and Whirlwind Attack.  Equipping a two handed weapon before making the attack could double the number of targets hit.

Commands
All commands are typed into the chat box, and are preceded with a slash character (/).

/alias - The alias command allows you to assign a phrase or command to a short name that can be easily triggered. See the alias command page for in-depth details.