Dungeons & Dragons Online Forum News (Jan. 22, 05)

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Here are today's Dungeons & Dragons Online forum highlights, collected from Dungeons & Dragons Online forums. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context. Bear in mind also that the posts presented here are copied as-is, and that any bad spelling and grammar does not get corrected on our end.

Xundau, Community Relations

Tricks and Traps

Traps are admittedly tricky to balance -- there's a fine line between "If we can't find a rogue there's no way we're going to be able to do this," and "All of those points I put into Disable Device are useless. Useless I say!"

First of all, we're mostly avoiding insta-death traps. In our experience, these aren't really all that fun -- dying from an insta-death trap tends to feel cheap, and we're not really into cheap deaths. When you die, we want you to feel like you deserved it.

So what do we have? A lot of traps inflict a small amount of damage and/or negative effects (ability drain, temporary paralysis, etc.). If these aren't found and disarmed, they cause a drain on the party's resources. Other traps create obstacles for players -- think spiked floors and flame-spitting statues -- and if these obstacles aren't disarmed, the players have to navigate carefully to avoid taking damage, which is easier said than done when a squad of angry hobgoblins is hot on your tail.

However, my favorite types of traps are the ones that alter the party's path through the dungeon. So, for instance, there may be a trapped floor that will collapse if it isn't disarmed. If it does collapse, anyone that fell in will have to figure out where they are, and navigate back to the rest of the party (or maybe the rest of the party just jumps in with them in order to stick together).

As far as altering the dungeon based on party composition, we're generally shying away from this -- we don't want people turning down rogues because they don't want to deal with any traps in the dungeons, for instance.

How Point-Buy Works

One thing that hasn't been mentioned in this thread is that stat bonuses work much differently in 3.x than they do in 1st or 2nd edition. For instance, you used to need a Str of 17 to get a measly +1 bonus on to-hit and damage. In 3.x, you get that with a Str of 12. In general, while the names of the ability scores and the stat ranges are the same as in earlier versions of D&D, the underlying mechanics have changed significantly.

In any event, we understand that everyone has a different idea of what their hero's stats should be -- some people think that the stats generated by 28 (or even 25) points are just fine, and some people think that any character without one or more 18's at 1st level is worthless. We wish we could please everyone, but in the end, we have to pick a number; randomly-generated stats are simply not something we're considering for a variety of reasons.

According to the 3.5 DMG, a 25 point buy is recommended for a standard campain, while 28 points are for a tougher campaign, and 32 points are for a high-powered campaign. Right now, we're going with 28 points. If we do adjust this number in beta, I can almost guarantee that it will never go above 32.

I'm going to keep this thread open for now, but please watch it with the personal attacks.

To "nerf" or not to "nerf

Good question. The fact that nerfs happen in MMORPGs is definitely unfortunate. But the reality is that they are sometimes the best choice in the long run, even when all of the drawbacks (making players angry, having to hand out respecs, etc.) are factored in.

IMO, the easiest way to prevent nerfs is to properly design things in the first place. When features go into a game that haven't been thoroughly tested for balance, future nerfs become almost inevitable. As mentioned in this thread, we have a big head start here because the 3.5 D&D ruleset has been thoroughly tested and balanced by countless players around the world.

That being said, I'm hesitant to say that we'll never have to nerf anything. If one or two character classes turn out to be so efficient that groups insist on having them, to the exclusion of anything else, we'll probably have to make adjustments. We really, really hope to get all of these adjustments made in beta, but these games are dynamic, and as the player base evolves and we add new content to the game, certain things might become overpowered where they weren't before.

The bottom line is that we recognize that nerfs are bad. We'll still turn to them as a last resort if we absolutely need to, but we know the negative effect they have on the player community and the health of the game in general. We feel that nerfs can be largely avoided by good up-front design and thorough testing, and we have both in spades, as well as a tried-and-tested ruleset.

Justin Quimby, DDO Dev Team

Tricks and Traps

Traps will kill your character.
All the time.
Even when you aren't logged in.

In all seriousness, traps need to span the spectrum from annoyance to death-dealing. As your character advances in level, the traps will move toward the deadly side, while not being just "insta-death". Insta-death just isn't fun.

Owlbear, Owl Bear

How Point-Buy Works

For those of you who think that 28 points is just not enough, Owlbear invites you to preview his new game, Owls & Bears Online (OBO).

A sample 1st-level OBO character:

Str 18 (16)
Dex 12 (4)
Con 18 (16)
Int 8 (0)
Wis 12 (4)
Cha 10 (2)

Owlbear racial adjustments: +3 Str, +3 Con, -6 Int

Total point buy: 42 points

Owlbear special restrictions: Must attack anything larger than a mouse without provocation. Must always fight to the death. Cannot be domesticated.

Owlbear avatar options: brown-black coat, yellowish-brown coat.

Nik Davidson, Administrator

Don't Undermine the Healer!

Let's discuss healing potions in a pen and paper context for a minute.

Potions cap at third level spells, so the best cure potion you'll find is a Cure Serious Wounds. So there's the question of efficiency, for one - if you're in need of a big heal, right now, the potion is not the answer.

Two, drinking a potion provokes an AoO, so it's not always a practical option. The wounded fighter can't heal himself with a potion if he's in melee, with a sword in one hand and a shield in the other. Would take too long, and he might end up taking more damage than he healed from the oppys. (We refer to Attacks of Opportunity as "oppys." It's probably not technically correct, but it's fun to say. Oppy!)

Three, drinking a potion is something that only the wounded character can do. If the fighter is at -1, his belt full of healing potions does precisely squat for him. If the barbarian is busy holding the door closed, he's not drinking a potion. If the wizard is taking arrow fire while he's translating runes, he's not drinking a potion.

Even if you were tripping over healing potions as you walked down the street, (which won't be the case) I don't think that would obviate the role of the cleric as walking hospital. Potions are great for conserving party resources, so that the cleric doesn't have to spontaneously cast his heals, and can save his Holds, buffs, and protection spells for the dangers ahead.

In DDO, the cleric's role is alive and well, as a healer, and more.

Time cards, is it gonna be an option?

Not a question we're able to answer today, but something we're definitely talking about.