+++++++++++++++++++ Dungeons And Dragons Online Stormreach Guide By: Jonathan W. Coughlin +++++++++++++++++++ =============== Introduction: =============== The goals of the FAQ is to be a guide to the game including advice on how to complete quests and how the interactions between the game mechanics work. It is my hope that in the end this guide will answer most, if not all, questions new and old players alike might ask. I will explain in detail what cetain abilities actually do, how they work, and how they interact with each other. I will give stragedy on how to defeat quests, give descriptions and solutions to the challenges encountered, and describe the locations of collectables. I will not be simply relying on my own experiences but also from a wide array of sources and friends. This is however my first time writing a FAQ so I am open to any advice or idea's. IF you would like to contact me, please send an e-mail to duranavox@yahoo.com It is my hope to update this FAQ at least 3 times a month, and with your help I believe that can be possible. =============== What is DDO: Stormreach =============== First Dungeons and Dragons is a roleplaying game using dice. It has been around for just over 30 years and is a game that has embedded itself into our culture. Dungeons and Dragons Online is a MMORPG, which stands for Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. This means it is an online game that you when you log on, you interact with a multitude of other people in one large massive game. For more information please go to [http://www.ddo.com/]. +++++++++++++++ CHARACTER CREATION +++++++++++++++ As of right now this section of the guide will be an explanation on the facets of each aspect of character creation: Races, Classes, Skills, Feats, and eventually spells. Hopefull improvements will be Class pathways and advice on the actual creation. =============== Races =============== As of current there are five races to choose from: Human, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, and Warforge. Each have their own special abilities and charactaristics. HUMAN: Humans are extremely flexible, and are a popular choice because of this. While they do not hold nearly as many abilities as an elf, the freedom they allow to morph your character is often a tough call to pass up. *Abilities: Bonus Feat: At first level humans gain a bonus feat. Feats, as we will explain, are special qualities that alter the performance of your character. Feats are very valuable as they come only every three levels not including first level. On average a character will only have 4 feats by the time he reaches 10th level. Once he has chosen those feats he cannot take them back and for better or for worse he is stuck with them. Chosen wisely though, and feats become extremly helpfull and will aid you immensly. Given a bonus feat at first level increases the capabilities of your character from the start. Rather than a slow progression, you get a quick boost. *Abilities: Extra Skill Points: Humans also gain extra skill points each level. The first level provides them with a bonus 4 points, allowing you to again increase the capabilities of your character from the start. From that point on you gain a bonus skill point every level. In total that is 13 extra skill points by 10th level. This allows humans to be more veristile than other races because often they have spare points to spend on either improving their class skills, or increasing a cross class skill. This also allows humans to be a little laxed when choosing their intellegence. ELF: *Abilities: Score Adjustments: [+2 DEX / -2 CON] These adjustments mean that elves excel in ranged combat, rogue skills, and lighter armor, but at the same time are more vulnerable than other races to poison, damage, and need to compensate for the loss of spell points as wizards. EXPLANATION: Ranged Combat: Your chances to hit with a ranged weapon is deterimed by your dexterity. Where as melee combat relies on strength to determine the bonus you recieve on your chances to hit, ranged combat will use you dexterity modifier, adding it to your base attack bonus. Note that unlike melee combat dexterity will not increase the damage dealt by your ranged attacks the same as strength will do in your melee attacks. With bows and crossbows no ability modifier will be added to the damage dealt. For any thrown weapons (Throwing daggers, shurikens, ect.) your strength modifier will be added to the damage dealt. EXPLANTION: Rogue Skills: Rogues rely on dexterity a great deal. Their stealth skills (hide and move silent) are both dexterity reliant as well as their tumble skill which helps them avoid combat damage and lethal falls. The dexterity modifier also increases their reflex saving throw which is neccesary in avoiding many spells, and overcoming many traps. Also rogues may only wear light armor, which generally has a low Armor Class. The increase in dexterity helps compensate for this because the dexterity modifier is added to the Armor Class bonus of a character so long as his armor allows it; Lighter armor generally allows a high dexterity bonus to it's AC. *Abilities:Immune to Magic Sleep Effects: Found mostly on the harder difficulties, being forced to sleep by a enemy spell can devestate a party. Sleep puts you out of combat and leaves you open to all kinds of attacks with no way to defend yourself. Immunity to it can save your life. *Abilities: +2 vs Enchantment: This gives you a +2 bonus to your saving throws against enchantments. What this means is that if an enchantment spell is cast on you (Otto's Irresistable Dance, Charm, Curse) your normal save is increased by 2. *Abilities: +2 Listen, Spot, Search: These are prime rogue abilities normally, but even non-rogues can take advantage of these checks. Many dungeons have hidden messages that are unlocked only by having a specific listen or spot check. These messages can guide you to the correct action ("A rough arrow was drawn in the dirt in a hidden manner.") or warn you of danger ("On the other side of the door you hear thunderous footsteps.").Search itself is an especially valuable rogue ability because without a proper search skill a rogue cannot find the disarming mechanism for a trap. An undisarmed trap could spell doom for an entire party. *Abilities: Proficient with Longbow, Longsword, Rapier, Shortbow: While many classes have access to these martial weapons (Fighter, Barbarian, Bard, Paladin, Ranger, and Rogue) the caster classes must settle for simple weapons. This proficiency gives those classes a wider array of weapons to choose from and promotes them to be able to participate in combat past their spell slinging. DWARF: *Abilities: Score Adjustments: [+2 CON / -2 DEX] These adjustments mean that dwarfs are natural tanks. *Abilities: +2 Search: This ability makes dwarfs usefull rogues, and even if you choose another class, having a higher search skill can help you find those hidden doors for when your missing a rogue. *Abilities: +4 Balance: Balance's only purpose is to help you recover when you've been tripped. At early levels this ability isn't especially usefull, but against minotaurs, hobgoblins, and wolves this ability can bring you back into the fold quicker. *Abilities: +2 vs Poison: Poison is a very common danger, and this ability gives you a +2 to your save against it. Common sources of poison are spiders, scorpions, and traps. *Abilities: +2 vs Spells: This applies to your saving throws against spells cast against you by enemy casters. This includes will saves, fortitude saves, and relfex saves. *Abilities: +4 AC vs Giants: This applies to all giants, including ogres and trolls. *Abilities: +1 attack vs Orcs and Goblins: While I haven't yet seen any orcs, goblins are very common in mid-levels namely Hobgoblins. *Abilities: Dwarven Waraxe treated as a Marital Weapon: The Dwarven Wareaxe is normally an exotic weapon, and you require an exotic weapon porficiency in order to use it. As a martial weapon it can be used without the normal -4 penalty to attacks by barbarians, fighters, paladins, and rangers. Other classes need to take the martial weapon proficency feat. HALFLING: *Abilities: Score Adjustments: [+2 DEX / -2 STR] These adjustments mean that a halfling is not much of a melee combater without the weapon finesse feat. Their low strength lowers the amount of damage they do in combat as well as their likeliness to hit. Their high dexterity however provides them with pletnty of bonuses to many skills (including Hide, Move Silently, Open Lock, and Tumble), and makes them good ranged combatents, which is good since ranged combat rarely relies on the strength attribute. *Abilities: +1 AC; Because they are smaller than other races, halflings are harder to hit. This bonus to AC is permentant and can't be denied by heavy armor, low dexterity, or negative abilities (example panicked). Along with a bonus to dexterity halflings generally have a higher starting AC then most other races. *Abilities: +1 Attack Rolls: Because halflings are smaller than other races, everything else, being bigger, is easier to hit. This is bonus is to attack rolls only and applies to both melee and ranged attacks. *Abilities: +4 Hide: The Hide skill is one of the rogues and ranger's most survivalistic skills. While most parties only care about a rogue who can disarm traps, sometimes its important to have a character that can't be seen; such as when an obstacle must be passed without agroing the nearby monsters. This +4 to hide is invaluable to any rogue. *Abilities: +2 Jump, Listen, Move Silently: The move silently bonus compliments the hide bonus quiet well, and for its benefits read above. The Listen ability can help warn you of the dangers ahead in a dungeon (see ELF). Jump is an important skill in some dungeons that require manuvering. A nasty fall at the wrong time can devestate, or even kill a hapless character. The trouble is that most people ignore the jump skill, thus have to struggle to get to those hard to reach places or to jump from giant mushroom to giant mushroom. A halfling has less to worry about this. *Abilities: +1 to all Saving Throws: This increases both Fortitude, Will, and Relfex saves. *Abilities: +2 vs Fear: Fear is one of the most annoying inflictions that can be cast on you. Being helpless takes you out of the game for a short while and leaves you vulnerable to attacks. This +2 to your saving throw against fear will prove invaluable in your adventures. Coupled with a paladins Aura of Courage you will rarely have to worry about being taken out of the fold by a nasty spellcaster. *Abilities: +1 attack rolls with thrown weapons: Thrown weapons include Throwing knives, throwing axes, and shurukins. Coupled with your +1 to all attack rolls fro before and that's a +2 to attack rolls with thrown weapons! *Abilities: -25% carrying capacity: This means that because you are smaller you can't carry as much as other characters. This means that in high loot dungeons you may have to be a bit more selective about what you decide to keep. WARFORGED: COMMING SOON =============== Classes =============== As of right now there are nine classes: Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Sorceror, and wizard. Your choice in class is the most important aspect of character creation as it will define your role for the rest of the game. BARBARIAN: DESCRIPTION: Your role is to be in the front lines. Using your rage ability, your damage reduction, your high hit points, and your overal tendacy to deal loads of damage, you will find yourself in the middle of combat in every situation. +Ability Explanations+ *Rage: For a short time youg ain +4 Strength +4 Constitution, +2 on Will Saves, and a -2 to your AC. This has the following effects: You will have a +2 to your attack rolls, damage rolls, and ability checks. You will gain 2 extra hp per level (temperailiy), +2 to your fortitude saves (helpfull against poison and disease) and a +2 to your jump and swim skills (helpfull during those precision jumping challenges). The negative to your AC can be detrimental, and supposedly your additional hit points are meant to be a fair trade for this; which is true against a heavy hitter. But against swarms of weaker creatures you may find the reduced AC to be a bit of an annoyance. *Damage Reduction: Damage Reduction (or DR) basically is literally what it says. It's how much damage is reduced from every physical attack done against you. THe first number is how much damage is subtracted from the total, while the second number is what overcomes this ability. If there is just a dash in this place then no physical attack can overcome the DR. EXPLANATION: For the sake of clarification here is an indepth explanination of how Damage Reduction works. You have DR 1/- and 12 hit points. Thi smeans any claw, sword, bite, spear, or bow attack will have its damage dealt to you lessened by 1. You are hit for 3 damage by a kobold. Normally this would reduce your 12 hp to 9 but your DR kicks in and you only take 2 damage, reducing you to 10 hp instead. The same kobold is hasted by a shaman (not possible as far as I know) and hits you twice in a row for 3 and 2 damage. This would normally reduce your 10 hp to 5hp, but 1 damage is taken off of each attack turning the 3 into a 2 and the 2 into a 1. Thus instead of taking 5 damage you take only 3, leaving you with 7 hp. Lets start over with the following adjustments; Instead of a kobold you are fighting another player (rumor has it that this will soon be possible) weilding a cold iron weapon. You are wearing a suit of chainmail that gives you damage reduction 5/silver. What this means is that for you will take 5 lessdamage from every physical attack unless that attack was from a silver weapon.So your opponent attacks you with his cold iron weapon for 4 points of damage.Since you have DR 5/silver and the cold iron weapon is not a silver weapon youtake no damage. Realizing his mistake your opponent switches to a sliver weapon and attacks again. This time he does 3 damage and you take the full 3 damage because the weapon was able to bypass your reduction. This kind of damage reduction you'll encounter mostly on other creatures such as giants or elementals. *Fast Movement: This is pretty much self explanitory. As long as you are wearing light or medium armor you'll move 10% faster than normal. As far as I can tell this ablity does not stack with the striding ability of some items. *Uncanny Dodge: An ability that, when activated, increases your AC and your Saves by a small amount. This is usefull when raging as it makes up for lost AC. It is also usefull for when your rogue fails to disarm a trap and you need to get by. At level 5 this ability also negates flanking bonuses enemies get for attacking you from behind. Usefull in attacking groups of enemies. *Trap Sense: This ability provides you with bonus to your reflex saves against traps. Note this does not give you protection from the effects of traps, just to avoid them. That means this bonus will not be added to your fortitude save if you wander into a poison trap. This bonus will get stronger as you level. BARD: COMMING SOON CLERIC: COMMING SOON FIGHTER: COMMING SOON PALADIN: COMMING SOON RANGER: COMMING SOON ROGUE: COMMING SOON SORCERER: COMMING SOON WIZARD: COMMING SOON +++++++++++++++ QUEST INFORMATION / ADVICE +++++++++++++++ =============== Durks Got A Secret a.k.a: Kobold Brothers =============== Durks got a secret, the kobold brothers leading a gang of kobolds are having a fued, and you can take advantage of this oppertunity to rid Stormreach from another clan of the vermin... as well as steal their treasure of course. MONSTERS: Kobold, Kobold Warrior, Kobold Thrower, Kobold Shaman, Kobold Cheiftain, Lesser Grey Ooze, Grey Ooze, Troglodyte, Troglodyte Shaman. NAMED MONSTERS: *Witch Doctor Rakhat (Kobold Shaman) CR 3 RANDOM Location: Before Rear Section on the East Kobold Cheiftain's side *Witch Doctor Zizoo (Kobold Shaman) 3 RANDOM Location: Near the beggining of the quest, take the first left. Named Item Drop: Zizoo's Spangle *Muck (Grey Ooze) CR 4 RANDOM Location: Other side of the door leading to the rear section on the west kobold brother's side Named Item Drop: Muckbane RECOMMENDED CLASSES: *Rogue; 2 traps, 1 locked door, 1 secret door *Barbarian/Fighter: 1 switch requiring 17 strength to open. A bull's strength potion will due as well. TRAPS: TRAP 1: Fire Trap; Single Function; Find DC: 7-10; Disarm DC: 15-21 Location: After the fork that seperates the kobold brothers take the west route. The trap is on the pillars at the next T junction leading to the kobold brother. Box is by the right pillar. TRAP 2: Acid Trap; Continuos Function; Find DC ?; Disarm DC: 22-30 Location: After the forck that seperates the kobold brothers take the east route. The trap is after the T junction in the last alcove to the right. It is blocked by a grate that requires a 17 strength to open. The box is located in the alcoveon the other side. WARNING: The Witch Doctor Rakhat occasionally spawns here. XP NOTE: Alot of people will attack the last kobold cheiftain before clearing out the rear section of the sewer. This is ok and works for alot of people, but if you want the conquest bonus and the mischief bonus to your experience total, leaving the last cheiftain until you've cleared out everything else can net you up to an extra 100 xp! MORE QUESTS: COMMING SOON +++++++++++++++ GENERAL ADVICE +++++++++++++++ =============== On Fighting Oozes =============== Slimes and oozes are a constant danger, especially in early dungeons. They're immune to fire and erode weapons. This weapon erosion is often the most annoying aspect of an ooze. There are several ways to deal with oozes as I have experienced: *RANGED: This is the most obviouse choice and should be the option chosen by rangers and crossbow rogues. The theory is that if you never get close to the ooze you can never get hurt by it. The problem is that these modes of attack are often slow and don't always contribute enough in combat. *MELEE COMBAT: This is the problem with fighting oozes in the first place. Magic Weapons are costly to repair and take a large chunk out of your reward. My solution is to buy a cheap non-magical weapon. Paying 50gp for a regular weapon is alot cheaper than paying 100gp in repairs. Don't bother with a masterwork weapon, as oozes have the lowest AC in the game as far as I can tell. Use the most damaging weapon you are proficient with. Don't worry about blocking, unless you are willing to repair your sheild as well. *SPECIAL WEAPONS: The most popular way to deal with oozes is to bring out the good ole muckbane. Obtained as a rare drop in Durk's Secret, this weapon is not only lesser bane to oozes but does not take damage from them. Unfortunetly muckbane has become hard to find. Another theory suggested is to use the club of silver flame obtained from the secound part of Delera's Tomb. Supposedly this club can be damaged but is repaired for only 1 cp. I am in the middle of confirming this rumor. MORE ADVICE COMMING SOON Legal Stuff: Copyright 2006 Jonathan W Coughlin This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders.