Dungeons and Dragons Online
I have recently gotten into Dungeons and Dragons Online, which was made Free to Play two years ago. As anyone who knows my MMO habits can attest, I am an altaholic, with a love of creating lots of characters, and the character creation of this particular game definitely doesn't help things. I have eight characters across four servers (since free-to-play limits you to two characters a server). D&D Online, as MMOs go, is a lot like Vindictus in that everything is instanced. But unlike Vindictus, there's an explorative element to this game that in my view adds to the playability of this game. The game is based on the 3.5 version of the D20 system and is set in the world of Eberron, and in terms of giving a proper D&D 3.5 feel, nothing really tops it. Things do go a lot faster than they would in a typical tabletop session, and the fast-paced movement and action are a big draw to me.
Leveling is handled a bit differently than in other MMOs I've played. You mainly earn XP through killing shit, completing quests and completing quest objectives along the way. When you gain enough XP to fill the rank bar at the bottom of your screen, you earn an Action Point which allows you to improve your character's abilities when you go to your class trainer. Each level consists of four ranks of Action Points, plus a fifth rank which when reached gets you ready to advance in level the next time you visit the trainer. And much like 3.5 D&D, the level cap is 20. If you die, you have to either wait for someone to raise you or release your spirit and go back to where you have a spirit binder (similar in a lot of ways to the Bindstones in Rohan or the respawn points in Runes of Magic). Like a lot of MMOs, you have to repair your equipment after each run, especially if you fight certain monsters that like to eat your equipment for breakfast (Oozes, I am looking at you, and by the GODS do I hate you!)
Which reminds me -- nearly every monster you know and hate from D&D is in this game, including some really aggravating ones. Apart from the aforementioned oozes, there's also rust monsters that like to eat anything metal, undead and all the other enemies that are a big hassle for rogues because you can't sneak-attack them, spellcasting enemies later on that like to use some real bastard spells from straight out of the Player's Handbook, the works.
My main for this particular game is a Paladin on the Orien server by the name of Galtero Ironhand. I've gotten him up to level 3 so far, have gotten through Korthos Island (the starting area for newbies to the game) and have started getting down to the nitty-gritty in Stormreach, the main city where this game takes place. His main story is that he's a survivor of the Day of Mourning that destroyed his homeland of Cyre, and that he mainly adventures to protect others and destroy evil wherever it appears. He worships the Sovereign Host, Eberron's main pantheon of deities, with special tribute given to Dol Arrah (the goddess of honor and sacrifice) and Dol Dorn (the god of strength in arms), who he calls upon frequently as a paladin, and while he respects the Church of the Silver Flame (the other major Lawful Good religion of Eberron), he resents the often arrogant and intolerant attitude of some of its followers (and some of the Church's adherents are downright evil). Clerics in this particular setting are not like clerics in other settings, who have to cleave to the alignment of their god or lose their powers, which allows for tropes like the Corrupt Church, the Knight Templar and other Light Is Not Good and Dark Is Not Evil tropes to shine.
I'd give a detailed rundown on my experiences in running through the game with Galtero up to this point, but I hadn't played him in a while and so my memories of Galtero's journey through Korthos to Stormreach is a little sketchy to say the very least. My next post will be an as-thorough-as-I-can-manage recounting of Galtero's travels through this day's adventures, which saw Galtero going through two major quest chains.
Leveling is handled a bit differently than in other MMOs I've played. You mainly earn XP through killing shit, completing quests and completing quest objectives along the way. When you gain enough XP to fill the rank bar at the bottom of your screen, you earn an Action Point which allows you to improve your character's abilities when you go to your class trainer. Each level consists of four ranks of Action Points, plus a fifth rank which when reached gets you ready to advance in level the next time you visit the trainer. And much like 3.5 D&D, the level cap is 20. If you die, you have to either wait for someone to raise you or release your spirit and go back to where you have a spirit binder (similar in a lot of ways to the Bindstones in Rohan or the respawn points in Runes of Magic). Like a lot of MMOs, you have to repair your equipment after each run, especially if you fight certain monsters that like to eat your equipment for breakfast (Oozes, I am looking at you, and by the GODS do I hate you!)
Which reminds me -- nearly every monster you know and hate from D&D is in this game, including some really aggravating ones. Apart from the aforementioned oozes, there's also rust monsters that like to eat anything metal, undead and all the other enemies that are a big hassle for rogues because you can't sneak-attack them, spellcasting enemies later on that like to use some real bastard spells from straight out of the Player's Handbook, the works.
My main for this particular game is a Paladin on the Orien server by the name of Galtero Ironhand. I've gotten him up to level 3 so far, have gotten through Korthos Island (the starting area for newbies to the game) and have started getting down to the nitty-gritty in Stormreach, the main city where this game takes place. His main story is that he's a survivor of the Day of Mourning that destroyed his homeland of Cyre, and that he mainly adventures to protect others and destroy evil wherever it appears. He worships the Sovereign Host, Eberron's main pantheon of deities, with special tribute given to Dol Arrah (the goddess of honor and sacrifice) and Dol Dorn (the god of strength in arms), who he calls upon frequently as a paladin, and while he respects the Church of the Silver Flame (the other major Lawful Good religion of Eberron), he resents the often arrogant and intolerant attitude of some of its followers (and some of the Church's adherents are downright evil). Clerics in this particular setting are not like clerics in other settings, who have to cleave to the alignment of their god or lose their powers, which allows for tropes like the Corrupt Church, the Knight Templar and other Light Is Not Good and Dark Is Not Evil tropes to shine.
I'd give a detailed rundown on my experiences in running through the game with Galtero up to this point, but I hadn't played him in a while and so my memories of Galtero's journey through Korthos to Stormreach is a little sketchy to say the very least. My next post will be an as-thorough-as-I-can-manage recounting of Galtero's travels through this day's adventures, which saw Galtero going through two major quest chains.