Dungeons & Dragons Online: Difference between revisions

when?
m (cleanup categories)
(when?)
 
(10 intermediate revisions by 5 users not shown)
Line 2:
[[File:DDOdog.jpg|frame|Nice doggy...]]
 
'''''Dungeons & Dragons Online''''' (or ''DDO'') is the [[Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game|MMORPG]] counterpart to [[Dungeons and& Dragons (Tabletop Game)|the pen-and-paper game we all know and love/hate]] (mostly based on edition 3.5). As such, it has all the dice-rolling, kobold-smacking goodness of Dungeons and Dragons, with all the button-mashing, leet-speaking addiction of an MMORPG.
 
It was launched by Turbine in 2006 as ''Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach''. The game has since been renamed ''Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited''. (The latest{{when}} update appears to have removed ''Eberron Unlimited'' from the logo, but is still referred to as such in reference materials and on the main website.) It is based in the campaign world of [[Eberron]] (yeah, [[Magitek|the Magitek one]]) and is set on the fictional continent of Xen'drik. After years of being a pay-to-play game, it was rebranded as a free-to-play game with premium content that could be accessed by becoming a VIP (which is simply maintaining a paid subscription) or spending Turbine Points on it.
''Dungeons & Dragons Online'' (or ''DDO'') is the [[MMORPG]] counterpart to [[Dungeons and Dragons (Tabletop Game)|the pen-and-paper game we all know and love/hate]] (mostly based on edition 3.5). As such, it has all the dice-rolling, kobold-smacking goodness of Dungeons and Dragons, with all the button-mashing, leet-speaking addiction of an MMORPG.
 
The player character is initially thrust into a plot that involves an evil Devourer cult, sahuagin, a dragon, and a lot of snow.
It was launched by Turbine in 2006 as ''Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach''. The game has since been renamed ''Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited''. (The latest update appears to have removed ''Eberron Unlimited'' from the logo, but is still referred to as such in reference materials and on the main website.) It is based in the campaign world of [[Eberron]] (yeah, [[Magitek|the Magitek one]]) and is set on the fictional continent of Xen'drik. After years of being a pay-to-play game, it was rebranded as a free-to-play game with premium content that could be accessed by becoming a VIP (which is simply maintaining a paid subscription) or spending Turbine Points on it.
 
For additional examples, see [[Eberron]] for the general setting, and [[Dungeons and& Dragons|the ''Dungeons and Dragons'' page]] for general gameplay tropes.
The player character is initially thrust into a plot that involves an evil Devourer cult, sahuagin, a dragon, and a lot of snow.
 
{{tropelist}}
For additional examples, see [[Eberron]] for the general setting, and [[Dungeons and Dragons|the Dungeons and Dragons page]] for general gameplay tropes.
----
=== Contains examples of: ===
* [[Absurdly Sharp Blade]]: Vorpal weapons.
* [[Absurdly Spacious Sewer]]: ALL of them! Why else would there be monsters down there for you to kill?
Line 20 ⟶ 19:
*** You'll need all of them too. It's a 12th level raid, and the end boss is level 22.
* [[All Monks Know Kung Fu]]: The Monk class can follow two prestige paths, both a type of [[Warrior Monk]] where you are a Whirling Dervish of punching destruction or a serious bane to undead or extra-planar creatures with some Cleric abilities. The Monks have it cool by using [[Ki Attacks]] and not spellpoints (mana) to power their elemental and special attacks.
* [[All Trolls Are Different]]: These ones are tall, green, have tusks, and regenerate from anything and everything unless you hit them with a dose of fire or acid after knocking them out.
* [[Allegedly Free Game]]: Theoretically playable for free after about level 12... but only if you're willing to do a lot of grinding. Or suffer from major [[AltitisAlt-Itis]]. Which is quite likely.
** Mind you, you will probably accumulate enough Turbine Points by then to buy an adventure pack. Also,with the new Lordsmarch Plaza free to play chain and some high level free to play quests afer that,you can get that number higher.
* [[AltitisAlt-Itis]]: The extensive character customization and the number of paths you can take tends to encourage this in players.
* [[An Adventurer Is You]]: And everyone ELSE, too! Including several of the NPCs, [[Informed Attribute|apparently]], but they're worse at it than you are.
* [[Annoying Arrows]]: Enemies with ranged attacks are pretty pathetic compared to enemy spellcasters. You can take several arrows to the face and keep going, relying on your magical equipment and lots of hitpoints to keep you alive, but there's not a lot that can save a low-medium level character from a Disintegrate, Harm, or Touch of Death spell.
Line 32 ⟶ 31:
* [[Big Bad]]: None, really, but the closest the game has are Horoth, the Black Abbot, the Stormreaver, the Devourer of Dreams, and {{spoiler|in the near future, Lolth.}}
* [[The Big Guy]]: The melee classes: Fighter, Barbarian, Paladin, and (to a lesser extent, it depends on the build) Monk. Clerics have a bunch of [[Hit Points]] and good armor, and shields, too.
* [[Brainwashed and Crazy]]: Happens a few times.
** The Cultists in the Korthos Island chain.
*** And their dragon. Upon being freed, she kills her controller and leaves.
** Near the end of the Maleficent Cabal chain, {{spoiler|Yewil d'Phiarlan and her troops}} are victim to this, and eventually {{spoiler|[[Dying Asas Yourself|Die As Themselves]]}}.
** The Silver Flame agents who were sent into the Cursed Crypt. Also, if you linger too long in there, the player characters.
** You find out that this is the case after picking up the first journal in {{spoiler|Let Sleeping Dust Lie}} with regards to {{spoiler|the Crimson Feet}}.
Line 50 ⟶ 49:
** Evil items will give you a permanent negative level until you take them off, unless you are of neutral alignment.
* [[Character Customization]]: Stat-wise, this is one of the most flexible games on the market. Appearance-wise... maybe not so much.
* [[Cheap Gold Coins]]: The currency in the game is worth a hundred silver to one gold and a hundred coppers to one silver.
* [[Class and Level System]]: Much like D&D 3.5 core.
* [[Climbing the Cliffs of Insanity]]:
Line 74:
* [[Enemy Mine]]: Pretty much the entire storyline in the Necropolis quests regarding [[Religion of Evil|The Emerald Claw]] and the [[Corrupt Church|Silver Flame]].
* [[Escort Mission]]:
** The crazed, ineffective magic attacks of Coyle, a non-player character you must protect for 15 eternally-long minutes in a Ruins of Threnal quest chain. If he dies, you fail the quest. Keeping the little bastard from attracting any attention that will get himself killed was made a little easier when the game developers allowed players to give Coyle a [[Tap Onon the Head]] as required.
** Gladewatch Outpost Defense involves protecting the captain of a defense regiment while she defends the outpost from attacking goblinoids and ogres. Oh yeah, and she left her soldiers at home too, so it's just your team and her. Make sure to have at least two healers, since she tends to run off to attack whenever a new enemy spawns. You can try to talk her out of it, but even then you have to make sure she doesn't see anything hostile on the way to wherever you're hiding her.
* [[Fake Balance]]: Rogues get the shallow end of the DPS pool. Sure, sneak attack can do some [[For Massive Damage|massive damage]], but it doesn't catch up to a fighter's damage output until about level 12, and even then it doesn't work against undead, elementals, oozes, constucts, an enemy with a Fortification (depending on how much it gives) item, or other human players in 1-on-1 [[PvP]].
Line 80:
* [[Five Races]]: Eight, actually: Humans, Elves, Halflings, Dwarves, Warforged, Drow ([[Our Elves Are Better|which are like other elves, but with more stat boosts]]), [[Half-Human Hybrid|half-orcs]] and [[Half-Human Hybrid|half-elves]].
* [[Gadgeteer Genius]]: The Artificer class.
* [[Game Master]]: A well-voiced narration to help set the tone.
** One of the quest areas is even GM'd by [[Gary Gygax]] himself, and another by fellow ''D&D'' creator Dave Arneson.
* [[Golem]]: the Warforged race, a living construct that (paying) players can choose to use. Not-so-nice golems populate the dungeons as well.
Line 90:
** The Silver Flame is a bit of a [[Corrupt Church]] in places, mired in their own bureaucracy that hobbles them from working as well or as effectively as they could.
** The [[Good Is Dumb]] trope is actually lampshaded by Archbishop Dryden, who refers to the guards as "quarter-wits." {{spoiler|At the time he was possessed by his wraith brother, so we don't know how valid this statement is.}}
** {{spoiler|They also had a ''[[Always ChaoticExclusively Evil|rakshasa]]'' in their ranks for several years, and no one had a clue.}}
* [[Gotta Catch Em All]]: Collectibles, trade-able items, quests, favor... take your pick.
* [[Highly-Visible Ninja]]: If your teammate is using the Hide command, you see them crouching with their avatar slightly darkened, and 1-5 luminescent eyes next to them to indicate how much light is hitting them. Also, some enemies will use the Sneak command, with almost no effect due to their pitiful skill checks; you can still tab-target them and hit them just fine.
Line 99:
* [[Invisible Wall]]: There are some places in Stormreach harbor or marketplace that you just can't get your character to go, despite logic. This was made especially evident when Turbine released the Head In The Clouds festive buff; your character can jump insanely high, but if you jump too high you hit your head on Stormreach's invisible ceiling.
* [[Kamehame Hadoken]]: The Touch of Death [[Ki Attack]] by dark Monks often kills most enemies in a single strike. Not quite used at a distance, however.
* [[Kill It Withwith Fire]]: Neophyte spell-casting adventurers will throw Walls of Fire at the blink of an eye. That's fine and all until they realize that the enemy AI sets its sights on them and squishes them flat. Not a tactic against Iron Golems (fire heals them) or [[Devil|Devils]] and Demons (they eat fire for breakfast).
* [[Knight Templar]]: Inquisitor Gnomon of the Silver Flame. He has characters wipe out a shrine to the ''Sovereign Host''. {{spoiler|Turns out that he's actually a powerful rakshasa working for the Lords of Dust, so it makes sense that he would try to corrupt any adventurers that pop up}}.
* [[Large Ham]]: Lars Heyton coincidentally has the same initials as this trope. "Sahuagin SCUM! Keep coming, I won't die that easily!"
** The DM for the new version of Heyton's Rest is also quite given to hammery.
* [[Leeroy Jenkins]]: Player characters that do a Leeroy in a quest are likely to get themselves (and any guild they represent) a blackballing reputation. While in a quest, a party leader can't dismiss a player, but others may choose not to heal the offending player or even carry his Soulstone (death token) to where he has a chance to revive.
* [[Le Parkour]]:
** Running around on top of the buildings in the Stormreach marketplace can be kinda fun. It more or less requires a Feather Fall spell of some kind, though.
** Players with light or no armor and high Jump skills often use this way to get about town very quickly. For Monks, it fits their [[Wuxia]] style, obviously.
* [[Level Grinding]]: Thankfully, every character gets bonus experience for doing a quest on any difficulty the first time, and most quests come with 3 or 4 difficulty levels to shake things up a little bit. You also get bonus XP for [[Die, Chair, Die!|Breaking everything you can]], [[Omnicidal Maniac|killing everything you can]], [[Actual Pacifist|not killing anything]], not dying, not leaving the quest until it's done, and disabling traps/finding secret doors.
* [[Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards]]: Just like the original ''DnD''; Fighters (and the like) start off doing respectable damage that increases slowly over time, while wizards go from their 1d6 [[Magic Missile]] damage to spamming Quickened Meteor Swarm for 4 times 8d6 damage twice a second, not to mention the crapton of damage boosts they get by that point.
* [[Literally Shattered Lives]]: The common fate of enemies who die to a cold weapon or cold-related spell.
Line 119:
** In the "Irestone Inlet" quest, you rig a boat with barrels of gunpowder and light the fuse. It's even possible to do this without the guards on board realizing you're there. Oh, and if you're standing too close to the boat when it blows up, the shockwave pushes you away.
** Players in the quest "Siegebreaker" encounter an entire room filled with explosive barrels that cascade their explosions. There are two HUGE super-barrels that will outright kill anyone on exploding if the player is on the same plane of the things. The Dungeon Master voice [[Lampshade Hanging|puts a light on this humorously.]]
** Also the "Blown to Bits" quest, where the crates of weapons get [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin]]. Even has an optional golem boss who offensively uses mines.
* [[Magitek]]: The cranes in Stormreach Harbor, for instance. Also pretty much every light source in the game, except the sun and a few fire pits.
* [[Mass Monster Slaughter Sidequest]]:
** The Slayer bonus, which gives you experience for killing X amount of enemies in a wilderness instance.
** Certain dungeon quests, such as "The Butcher's Path," will also have you killing X amount of monsters as one of your objectives on the quest, either as a main objective, or as an optional objective for extra experience.
* [[Mechanical Lifeforms]]:
** The Warforged, created and given souls by [[A Wizard Did It|ancient and vaguely defined magic]].
Line 132:
** Non-divine Drow spellcasters. +2 to intelligence and charisma? They're popular for a ''reason''. Actually, even Clerics might want to play a drow, since they'll get another turning check.
** Leads to some amusement when a DDO player also plays tabletop D&D, as if they forget which system they're building for they'll turn up with a character sheet that is completely inappropriate for a tabletop game (e.g. a healbot cleric with no strength or combat ability).
* [[No OSHA Compliance]]: House Deneith's trash incinerator, "The Pit," is a multi-level subterranean building dug out around two [[Lava Pit|Lava Pits]], which are inhabited by man- and equipment-eating Oozes. The only way to move from one level to the other is to use a network of twisting, railing-less walkways that extend across the lava pits. In addition, the system's "Security System" is really just a series of deadly traps that blast said narrow walkways at 10-second intervals. The system is electrically powered, and the circuit breakers inexplicably channel the electricity through the room they're housed in. In addition, if you turn the trash incinerating furnaces on in the wrong order, you'll blow up half the city. (You can't do this because the rooms unlock in order, but it's [[All There in Thethe Script|stated in the quest introduction]])
* [[Not the Fall That Kills You]]:
** Using a Feather Fall spell or wearing a feather-falling item lets you avoid falling damage. So does [[Literal Cliff Hanger|grabbing a ledge or ladder]] or [[Soft Water|landing in water more than 7 feet deep]].
Line 142:
* [[Oxygen Meter]]: Used when you swim. Wearing an amulet or ring of Underwater Action gives you [[Super Not-Drowning Skills]].
** Warforged have [[Super Not-Drowning Skills]] as a racial ability: They don't have lungs, and therefore don't need to breathe.
** Unfortunate players may often find their chest loot filled with [[Useless Item|Underwater Action items that are racially restricted to Warforged.]] Thankfully, players now have access to an [[Item Crafting]] area to crunch these things into a fine powder.
* [[Platform Hell]]:
** "The Pit" quest, again. Two rooms involve platform puzzles. One involves running around on pipes while jets of steam push you backwards and fire elementals shoot at you, but is relatively easy if you are prepared for it. The other one involves co-ordinating at least four team members, two of whom must be simply ludicrous at platforming (jumping some 15 feet horizontally to catch some crosswise pipes and pull yourself up) while your friends on the ground deal with equipment-eating oozes that respawn indefinitely while manipulating the correct valves for the platforming team. Also, if you get hit while using a valve, your action stops. Oozes are immune to almost all status effects and most elemental magic ([[ColourColor-Coded for Your Convenience|varies by color]])? Oh, and watch out for the hobgoblins with bows, and the room at the top that's full of exploding barrels {{spoiler|an ooze drops down in that room and tries to attack you, occasionally igniting the boxes}}.
** As stated above, "The Coalescence Chamber." You have to navigate up a winding spiral of narrow ledges while being assaulted by troglodyte snipers and sorcerers. The real pain in the ass here is that jumping will sometimes cause you to be pushed away from the ledge, resulting in a hair-tearing plummet all the way back down to the bottom. Note that it's usually impossible to make your way back up without help from fellow party members because the monsters respawn.
** "The Tear of Dhakaan" also has a couple platform sections... with most of the platforms ''trapped''. Imagine the surprise of many players who, going in for the first time, realized that their first leap landed them in the middle of an acid spewer.
Line 155:
** Just to be funny, the developers created a quest chain giver in House Phiarlan (a village of elven performers ''cum'' spymasters) named "Rouge".
* [[Scars Are Forever]]: Some of the appearance customization are a scar somewhere on the face. Naturally, nothing short of reincarnation (basically reroll, but keep used tomes, equipment and levels) can remove it.
* [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can]]: There are several boss monsters that are or were imprisoned in some fashion. Three of them are arc villains, and can be [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|punched out]]. The Devourer cult at the beginning of the game tries to release a "Devourer beast" that cannot be punched out, meaning that you have to reverse their efforts to thaw it out.
* [[Self-Imposed Challenge]]: [https://web.archive.org/web/20120116044124/http://www.massiveonlinegamer.com/news/usersubmitted/155-perma-death-in-ddo The Perma-Death Challenge.]
* [[Squishy Wizard]]: Even with 20 extra hit points at start, it's still not a good idea for most sorcerers or wizards to get into melee, especially at lower levels.
* [[Steampunk]]: Considering [[Eberron|the setting]], the game has this and [[Dungeon Punk]] all over the place, from the low-level The Waterworks and Shan-To-Kor, to the advanced adversaries in the Cannith Manufactuary.
Line 164:
** There's rumors that they are making the Broccoli a playable class with veggie themed attacks.
** There's a quest-giving NPC that asks you to [[World of Warcraft|retrieve 10 rat tails]]. When your character reacts incredulously ("You can NOT be serious!"), the NPC's whole table bursts out laughing. He then gives you the REAL mission.
* [[The Undead]]: They tend to be [[Goddamn Bats]] to rogues, because a +5 Holy Shortsword of Disruption is a mite costly at lower levels (and can't be used anyway until [[Took a Level Inin Badass|you're MUCH higher in character level]]).
* [[Understatement]]: After you destroy the Quori Mindsunder in "Misery's Peak," the Dungeon Master notes that the dragon you just freed from its power looks "very annoyed" -- as she uses her ice breath on the Mind Flayer that had her under its thrall and [[Literally Shattered Lives|turns it into a popsicle]].
* [[Unusually Uninteresting Sight]]: Fred, the resident [[Eldritch Abomination]] brain-eater/feat retrainer.
Line 177:
* [[Villain Ball]]: [[The Dragon|Suulomades]] apparently grabbed this while planning his attack on Stormreach. As opposed to simply waltzing through a city where not a single living soul is strong enough to take him on, he sends an army of mid-level Mooks to do his dirty work while he was back on Shavarath. This resulted in the devils losing the battle when it could have been won with very little effort.
** Tremas also does this when he tries to kill Suulomades by [[Too Dumb to Live|aging him to death]]. Suulomades then does it again while overlapping with [[Lawful Stupid]] by taking Tremas to Shavarath to face the prescribed punishment (torture) instead of entering a battle that his much weaker minions are losing.
* [[Villain Forgot to Level Grind]]: Averted. Malicia is the main antagonist of a level 5 story arc, and is also the main antagonist of a level 18 quest. In both cases she is of a higher level than the characters.
* [[WalkWalking Onon Water]]: Become a Monk, choose the Path of Inevitable Dominion (dark) path, choose the right enhancements and eventually gain the ability to focus your ki to walk (well, ''run'', really) on water (''and'' lava, but you might still take damage). Your [[The Destroyer|Remo Williams and Master Chiun dreams come true.]]
* [[You All Look Familiar]]:
** Inverted. The [[NPC|NPCs]] are fairly varied... it's the player characters who tend to all look the same.
** The enemy NPCs (i.e. monsters) will all use the same character model. Any given batch of cultists will look an awful lot like any other given batch of cultists.
** The final quest of Korthos Island has the player (or player in front, if in a party) turn a corner to see several cultists dressed in all white marching in a 2x3 formation. All identical down to walking in step.
* [[You Have to Burn Thethe Web]]: Some of the earlier quests involve webs that block your progress. You can get through them with a cutting weapon, a flaming weapon, or a fire spell... [[Fridge Logic|Or any other mundane weapon, or your fists, or any kind of attack spell]]. It's worth noting though, that the webs WILL simply shrivel away if you light them on fire.
** The actual Web spell can be burned away with a fireball or burning hands spells or some other fire area effect.
* [[Zerg Rush]]: Kobolds and zombies are fond of this tactic. There is a quest where the player must kill 200 kobolds, who come in large waves.
Line 189:
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game]]
[[Category:Dungeons and Dragons Online]]
[[Category:Video Game]]
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Microsoft Windows]]
[[Category:Mac OS]]
[[Category:Licensed Game]]