Character creation

Character creation
The character creation process is a step-by-step procedure of selection various options to customize your character as much or as little as you wish. At any time, you may go back to previous steps and refine your choices.

Step 1
There are no restrictions on what class you may choose depending on your choice of race, although some combinations may be more effective than others.

Name
In the upper-right you can type in your desired name for your character. The surname field is optional and has no effect other than cosmetics. There cannot be more than one person with the same first name on a single server regardless of whether you would've had different surnames.

Alignment
Below the names, you have a little drop-down box listing the various alignments you can choose from. Only good and neutral alignments are available in DDO, no evil alignments. Some classes are restricted to certain alignments.
 * Lawful Good
 * Neutral Good
 * Chaotic Good
 * Lawful Neutral
 * Neutral
 * Chaotic Neutral

Race
On the left-side of the first page you can choose your race. Male options on the upper-half and female options on the lower half. Choice of gender has no bearing on your character other than cosmetic.
 * Elf
 * +2 Dex, -2 Con; sleep Immunity; +2 saves vs enchantment; +2 search, spot, listen; Proficient with shortbows, longbows, longswords, and rapiers


 * Dwarf
 * +2 Con, -2 Cha; +2 saves vs poison and spells; +2 search, +4 balance; treat dwarven axes as martial instead of exotic


 * Halfling
 * +2 Dex, -2 Str; +2 all saving throws, +2 saves vs fear; +1 attack roll, AC; +2 Jump, move silently, listen, +4 hide


 * Human
 * +1 starting feat, +4 skill points at level 1, +1 skill point each later level


 * Warforged
 * +2 Con, -2 Wis, -2 Cha; +3 saves vs Energy Drained, exhaustion, nausea, paralysis, poison and sleep; 25% chance to resist critical hits and sneak attacks; Use different armor system, built-in light armor with +2 AC and 5% arcane spell failure. Can be adjusted with feats.


 * Half-Elf
 * +1 Dilettante feat, sleep Immunity; +1 search, spot, listen; +2 diplomacy


 * Half-Orc
 * +2 Str, -2 Int, -2 Cha;

Class
On the lower-right of the page are the class choices. Click on the links for individual information on the various classes.
 * Barbarian
 * Bard
 * Cleric
 * Favored Soul
 * Fighter
 * Monk
 * Paladin
 * Ranger
 * Rogue
 * Sorcerer
 * Wizard

Step 2
Here you're given the option to customize how your character will look in the game world. You can alter your hairstyle, facial hair, eyebrow style, hair color, eye geometry, eye pupil color, nose geometry, lip geometry, facial details (scars mainly, a few race specific uniques like halfling glasses), and skin tone.

Step 3
This is a page showing your character with the default recommended selections for your class. You can choose to just play that character or to further customize exactly what you would like your character's abilities, skills, feats, and spells to be.

Step 4
DDO uses a point-buying system for setting your initial six ability scores. Normally you have 28 points to spend, though you can unlock 32-point builds buy spending Turbine Points or gaining enough Favor.

You start with 8 points in each of the six abilities: strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, and charisma. These are then modified by your race. To raise an ability, it costs 1 point for the first six raises, 2 points for the next two, and finally 3 points for the last two. You can only start with a maximum of 18 in an ability (20 with a racial mod). Every even multiple of 2 ability points higher or lower correspondingly raises or lowers your bonus from that ability by 1. These bonuses add to (or subtract from) actions related to that ability. For example, your dexterity bonus will affect your character's reflexes and dodging ability among other things.

The point cost to change an ability is based on its value before adding racial modifiers. Don't be confused if the cost looks wrong while you're adjusting an ability that has +2 or -2 due to your race.

Step 5
Here you can select with skills your character will start with. You can spend a maximum of 4 points into a single skill, but cross-class skills only rise +0.5 ranks per skill point spent. Don't forget that skills are modified by your stat bonuses. Generally it's better to keep a few skills high than to spread your skill points out and be mediocre in many skills.

As you level up, the max ranks you can have in a skill is (character level + 3) for class skills and half that for cross-class skills.

Step 6
Here you'll be selecting 1-3 feats depending upon your race and class. Most classes only get a few feats over their entire life, so you should really consider which feats you want your character to have the most, especially if you're working to get a feat that has other feats as prerequisites. Look over the list and take note of which feats sound the most interesting. If they're grayed out, you don't meet its prerequisites. It should list what they are, so you can figure out if it's possible (and/or worth it) to get that feat.

All characters get one feat at level 1 and gain another at every multiple of 3 total character levels. So for the current maximum level of 20, you eventually get 7 feats. Human characters get one additional feat at level 1, for a total of 8. These feats can be chosen from the entire list as long as you meet prerequisites.

Some classes gain more feat selections in addition to these. These bonus feats can't be chosen from the whole list; instead, they're restricted to feats that fit the class's area of expertise. Fighters gain an extra fighting-related feat at Fighter level 1 and at every even Fighter level. Wizards gain an extra Metamagic feat at Wizard level 1 and every multiple of 5 Wizard levels. Monks gain an extra martial arts-related feat at Monk levels 1, 2, and 6.

Some other classes automatically gain certain feats for free at certain levels.

Step 7
Bards, Sorcerers, and Wizards get a final page to select what spells they start with. Neither Bards nor Sorcerers have free spell swapping upon level-up, and doing so between levels is costly and slow, so you should really think about what spell you want before you need to pick.

As for Wizards, you should probably select at least one damage spell and then whatever you want. Even if you don't want to be a damage dealing Wizard in the long run, a damage spell will greatly get you through those early quests/levels where a Wizard is fairly weak. Since you can scribe spells into your spellbook whenever you have the scroll and required inscription materials, it's not a big deal if you choose some spells at start which you end up deciding you don't like.

Step 8
You're done. Now you can enter the world!