Resource management

In DDO, you can't just sit down in a quest and wait to get your resources back.

A party has limited resources which recharge only in certain conditions. If those resources become exhausted while under attack, your quest will likely fail.

The most important limited resources are hit points and spell points.

Conserving Hit Points
Hit points are represented by a red bar on your display.

Hit points are your life. If they drop to 0, you are incapacitated (knocked out). If your hit points drop to -10, you die.


 * All characters need to wear sufficient protection that raises their Armor Class rating. Most melee fighters should wear armor they are proficient in and with as much additional protections from the armor. For instance, a +3 Half Plate armor is nice, but a +3 Mithril Half Plate is better.
 * Shields are important. Many players get too enamored in the idea of using two weapons, ignoring the need for the additional protections that a shield adds against an enemy.
 * False Life effects boost HP, as do the repeatably-selectable Toughness feat and Racial Toughness enhancements available to some races and classes.
 * Be sure to get sufficient buffs that protect against elemental damage from fire, acid, and the like.
 * Be alert in game play. Don't zerg ahead or you may find a trap that forces you to use a healing potion or another player to use spell points to heal you.
 * Player Clerics and Favored Souls (unlike hireling versions) can not and do not heal automatically. Many of these players have expenses, and it is unfair to treat them as "endless" healing fountains. Be as self-sufficient as you can and carry healing potions into every trip--especially if you are a Warforged, as healing spells do not work as effectively on this race.
 * Use "Improved Recovery" enhancements to improve your overall hit points healed.

Conserving Spell Points
Spell points are represented by a blue bar on your display.

Spell points cannot be recharged as easily as hit points. There are spell point elixirs, but they can NOT be purchased at any vendor and are only found as part of rewards during quests.


 * Don't use spell points when someone in a party has a skill or ability that accomplishes the same thing. For instance, don't use your Knock spell when a Rogue in the party can open the lock. Likewise, don't kill something with a spell if a melee character can take out the enemy. Save your spells for mobs, as a rule of thumb.
 * Don't "go nuclear" throughout a quest by keeping your metamagic feats always active, such as Empower. Such spells may be unnecessary in scale and will drain your spell points rapidly.
 * Use low level spells over others to get the job done, especially when your character has a small pool.
 * Before buffing, ask a Monk in your party if they have the Aligning the Heavens ability. This skill will save you 25% on your spell point use for one minute.
 * Don't heal party members using spell points unless they have less than 1/3 hit points. Other players should have some self-sufficiency using potions or wands (or their own spell points).
 * Use wands. They aren't as fast as spells but can conserve spell points over a long quest.
 * Clerics and Paladins should use their Turn Undead charges (which recharge 1 per 2 minutes) to help in healing.

Ammunition
Characters with ranged weapons such as bows, or throwing weapons bolts have a limited supply of ammunition or number of throwing weapons. To save on ammo:


 * Take the Arcane Archer path if you can. They receive unlimited arrows.
 * Use weapons with Returning ability (unlimited) or ammo with "Sturdy" ability (75% returning), such as available with sufficient favor from House Deneith.
 * Use the right weapon for the job. A bow with "Flaming" ability will do more job per arrow than a bow that doesn't add damage per arrow.
 * If possible, use your melee weapons.

Special enemies
The right tool for the right job not only saves hit points and spell points, but items themselves.


 * Rust monsters and Oozes quickly degrade weapons. Use a glass weapon (such as Muckbane), a weapon with the Everbright ability, use conservative area-of-effect spells (such as Wall of Fire), or have an unarmed Monk destroy it (Handwraps take much less damage from acids or rusting).
 * Named monsters are completely immune from certain attacks. Target the monster and press and hold the "Z" key to bring up a window that tells the monster, it's type and, sometimes, it's resistances and immunities.
 * Good archers have high Spot skills. Use them to kill far-off enemies before they can reach you.

Monks and Ki
The Monk class uses ki, represented by a yellow bar on their display.

Ki is used like spell points for many monk attacks. Unlike spell points, ki is generated through attacking enemies or Meditation. So long as a monk has something to attack, they regenerate ki indefinitely.

However--unlike spell points, unused ki drains rapidly from the monk over time. They are opportunist fighters that need enemies to fight to keep their ki at a usable level.


 * If you have a Monk in your party, determine if they are a "Light Monk" or "Dark Monk."
 * "Light" Monks can act as a "light Cleric." They can use their ki to conserve spell points (using Aligning the Heavens), perform a mass heal (Healing Ki), and (in later levels) perform lesser restorations, remove curses and disease, and even raise dead, all with renewable ki. This can make a long quest very manageable, especially where few shrines exist.
 * "Dark" Monks use ki to de-buff and curse enemies, reducing the energy needed to slay them. Their ki attacks make enemies more vulnerable to some spells or attacks, saving HP and SP.
 * In later levels, Dark Monks use their ki more destructively, which is a big help on long quests.
 * Let the Monks finish off more targets to build up ki--other fighters should avoid trying to go for every kill so to let the monks charge their ki, especially on long quests.

Resting
Resting will recharge most, if not all HP, and all spell points. However, there are often few shrines in any quest, and a few quests have no shrines at all. Further, a quest's difficulty level limits how often you can use a shrine. On Casual and Normal difficulty, you can use a rest shrine once every 5 minutes. On Hard and Elite difficulties, you can use a rest shrine only once.


 * Experienced players may have played a particular quest before. When in doubt, ask if you should rest at a particular shrine. If you rest prematurely, you may not get another chance to rest at all.
 * If you are a divine caster with a small amount of spell points left, wait until other players have rested, use your remaining spell points to buff them, then use the shrine. Avoid wasting spell points prior to resting.
 * If you are a Monk, you should rarely, if ever, rest. Your accumulated ki in excess of your ki pool will drain on rest. If you have the Wholeness of Body feat, use it to recharge your HP. If you haven't enough ki, use your Meditation feat next. If you haven't Wholeness of Body, then resting is your only option outside of potions.
 * Clickies that can be recharged during a rest may save HP or SP down the road.

Emergencies

 * Bards and clerics have a limited ability to give spell points to other people. Clerics can use their Divine Vitality enhancement to convert Turn Undead uses into small spell point boosts when healing is not a serious matter, and when turning undead isn't an issue (Clerics with low Charisma are less effective).
 * Have wands handy, especially healing wands. They have a slow cast rate, and don't work well in the pace of combat. But, they are better than nothing.