The beginning.
This page will try to give some help for character creation.
The hints mentioned above must not prevent you from taking time to read
carefully the DSO manual. You will find it here. It's a PDF file (Adobe Acrobat Reader).
First, and as you can have 4 different screen names, i.e. 4 different
characters, I recommend that you start playing with a "draft" character,
that you will delete (or you can use it as a vault, too) after you have understood what you can do and what
you must not do in Athas. Don't spend to much time rolling for that one,
you'll have opportunity to spend hours in the roller later...
Abilities.
6 different abilities are rolled when you clic on the damn dice: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma. You have also a roll for HPs (Hit Points) and PPs (Psionic Points). The maximum for each ability is 20 for a human, demi-humans (Elves, Halflings, etc.) having some modifiers (see racial adjustments table p87 of manual). Note that being a male or a female doesn't change anything to character's abilities or Hit Points etc.
Strength:
Strength is important, of course, but not that much.
Always remember that at high levels, magic will always be more powerful
than steel! Also, you can "Strengthen" yourself with some spells and psionics
abilities...
Dexterity:
Try to have a high Dexterity for it lowers your armor class. Be as close as 18 as possible, that will give you -4 to AC, but no need to have more, the next bonus (-5) is only given at 21 Dexterity.
Dexterity should be important for thieves, but actually I'm not sure it gives bonus to skills! Also, high Dexterity gives no bonus for initiative at fight...
Constitution:
As Constitution will give you some Hit Point bonus, it is maybe the most important ability, at least for Fighter classes (Fighters, Gladiators, Rangers). Try to have at least 16 if non-Fighter, and as high as possible if Fighter!
Intelligence:
If you want to play a Preserver, try to have at least 14, which is required to learn level 7 spells. Also, higher intelligence will give you a little more Psionic Points if you are a Psionicist, but this is not their most important ability.
Wisdom:
Having high Wisdom has many benefits, such as extra Cleric/Druid spells, or more Psionic points. Note that you need 18 Wisdom to memorize level 7 Druid/Cleric spells.
Charisma:
Except for some specific cases (dualing a human to a Druid), don't fear to be ugly. Nobody will know :-)
Hit Points:
Of course, try to have high Hit Points at start, but having high abilities is more important. So don't waste a good roll if you have but 10 HPs! Otherwise, here is the way you get HPs when gaining levels... Or I should precise that you'll find here how it "should" work and how it actually works!
Psionic Points:
Unless you are a psionicist, you don't care of Psionic Points. Maybe at low level you can use some abilities like "Improved invisibilty" or "Disentegrate", but it won't last long as you have little
PPs... And the only use of "Improved invisibilty" is lowering AC by 4 as ALL monsters see you if you are invisible (game decision from SSI).
If you are a Psionicist, you will of course gain much more PPs. I haven't spend too much time to figure out how PPs are calculated (maybe someone who found that could EMail me), but it's based on Constitution, Intelligence and Wisdom. I think you gain one PP per level for each Wisdom point over 15, and less for Constitution and Intelligence...
Just try to have high Constitution, Intelligence and Wisdom if you want to be a good Psionicist!
Experience Points:
There are two ways to gain XPs: killing monsters and completings quests (Note that you don't have any XPs for killing another player).
At low levels, it will be probably wise to run some "delivery jobs" or some "tavern errands", you can easily gain some levels that way. But soon you'll find that boring so it will be time to slay some monsters... You will find here a table with monsters XPs.
Level advancement tables are at page 85 and 86 of the manual. Note that a Druid is a pain to get to level 15!
Death will gain make you loose XPs since 1.6 release of the game, but only if you have over 1.100.000 XPs. You will loose one level and all XPs over that level. You can have the level restored, though, but it's expensive!
You can see some infos on the player's level by looking at his profile. If you are over 3 million XPs, you are "heroic"...
Alignement:
Alignement possibilities in Dark Sun Online is the same as in regular AD&D rules, with same restriction to some classes (Rangers must be Good, Druids must be True Neutral, etc)...
Well, as usual in online RPGs, alignement behavior is NOT respected by most of the players. Actually Druids are one of the most powerful class in DSO, but they must be of Neutral alignement. So anybody who includes Druid in his multiclass character is NOT supposed to jump and PKill other players, is he?
Well, guys, in "Role Playing Games", you have the words "Role Play"! So, when will you play your role?
Roleplay or PvP?
Before you choose character race and class(es), just ask to yourself what you will do with it? Are you gonna be a fine roleplayer, or do you want to challenge other players?
Character classes.
Before starting playing for good, you must STUDY CAREFULLY the tables in pages 87 and 88 of the DSO manual. For now, the maximum level advancement for characters is level 15. Note that, as far as I know, the tables concerning "Racial Classes and Level Limits" and "Exceeding Level Limits", page 87 and 88, aren't implemented...
Also, and contrary as what is written on page 88, some combinations are impossible because of Alignement, such as Ranger/Druid/Preserver (though a biclass elven Ranger/Druid might be possible).
Druids are very superior to Clerics, as they can use all "Cosmos" sphere spells plus all the spell of their own sphere (Earth and Fire being the most interesting). Clerics can use spells from their sphere and those of Cosmos till level 3 only. As most of the powerful spells are of the Cosmos sphere, playing a Cleric is very uninteresting. Their only advantage is that they can wear all armors and destroy undeads...
Out of that, character classes are very similar to that on you can meet
in regular "AD&D" world(s). Remember that Preservers (magic-users)
can't wear armor, or actually multiclass Preservers can wear armor but
they can't cast in that case.
Preserver spells.
You can learn ONE spell for each preserver level you pass. So you'd better choose wisely, as there is NO way to change that if you make a bad choice!
First there are spells that you can buy (copyable scrolls). Check here for a list. Some spells that you might want to learn, like "Mirror Image" of "Minor Globe of Invulnerabilty" or "Delayed Blast Fireball" are available in copyable scrolls, so you dont want to learn them at level, do you?
As for DSO 1.6, here are some of the most interesting spells:
Psionic disciplines.
Like Preserver spells, there are some disciplines that you can learn and improve by buying some bracelets at Chesia, the owner of the School of Thoughts, in Caravan Way. It's expensive but it's worth the price... Here is a quick list of Psionic Bracelets. As for DSO 1.6 here is a list some of disciplines that you might want to learn and improve (by order of importance) as they aren't available in bracelets at Chesia (note that Energy Control bracelet can now be found as quest treasure):
Clerical (and Druid) Sphere.
Note that you don't need to learn Cleric or Druid spells, you have them all automatically (unless you don't have the required Wisdom).
When you start a Druid or a Cleric, you have to choose among 4 spheres: Earth, Air, Fire and Water. Note that this will make the name "Druid" appear in different colors when you look at your character's status: Brown for Earth, Red for Fire, etc.
You have to choose carefully what sphere you want to enter and be careful with the "sphere bug", later. Here is a quick word about each sphere:
Multi-class characters (demi-humans):
According to most of players, and for now, half-elves multiclasses rule in Athas. They can be tri-class with level 15/15/15! The most powerful combinations for halve-elves are Fighter/Druid/Preserver, Fighter/Psionicist/Preserver or Ranger/Psionicist/Preserver, the most deadly being without a doubt a Psionicist/Druid/Preserver.
The drawback is that everything is shared between the 3 classes. Experience is divided by the number of classes, so the progression is very slow.
But the main advantage is that you can be everything at once, like
the combat abilities of a Fighter and the magic of spell-casters...
Examples of multi-class:
Here are some example of multiclass characters which are really fun to play. Of course you can choose something else, this is just to give hints of how to roll...
Half-Elven Druid/Psionicist/Preserver:
You should try to have a high Constitution, say 18 of 19 (19 is the max for a Half-Elf). This will allow you to have good HPs...
You will also need a high Wisdom, as close a possible to 20, in order to have more Druid spells (see "Cleric Wisdom Spell Bonus Table" p 86), and more Psionic points.
You can have a relative weakness in Intelligence, as you will need only 14 to learn level 7 preserver spells.
Well now you can also try to have a good Dexterity to lower your AC, or a good Strength but remember that you have plenty of spells and psionics to improve Strength...
Halfling Druid/Psionicist/Thief:
Halflings can't be Preserver so in PvP they really miss all the protective spells like Globe of Invulnerability, Mirror Image, Blink, etc., but beware! Even if dispelled they can be lethal! Also they can wear armor (like Drake hide armor), and due to their small size they can hide easily in various places...
Like any other demi-human, you might want to have a high Constitution (19 is the max for a Halfling), but HPs are not that important for the small ones.
Rather, I should try to have a 22 Wisdom, the goal being to boost it to 23 with a Ioun stone. This will give you a incredible stock of Druid spells, like 8 Ironskins (if you choose Earth sphere)... Of course, it will allow you to have close to 275 PPs too.
You can also try to have a good Dexterity, only to to lower your AC, but no need to have over 18 (even if a Halfling can have 22 Dexterity), as I noticed that high Dexterity has nothing to do with gaining initiative in combat, or improving thieving skills...
You don't care of Strength, as you will most certainly use "Enhanced Strength" Psionic discipline if really you want to fight hand-to-hand. It will be expensive in terms of PP cost, but with around 275 PPs, it won't hurt that much!
Anyway, the best weapon of a halfling is not brute force but spells and disciplines like Id Insinuation, Poison, Disintegrate, Blade Barrier, etc. By the way, Athasian thieves can't read Preserver scrolls (too bad), but they can use a staff of Hold Monsters...
You don't care neither of Intelligence and Charisma, nobody will know that you are stupid and ugly... Note that having a low Charisma will not prevent you from maxxing as Druid.
Human duals:
One interesting ability of humans in Athas is that they can change class TWICE, thus having benefit from 3 different classes at their "max". The advantage is that XPs aren't shared between several classes, as you advance one class at a time, so you gain levels quite fast.
The drawback is that when you advance as a Fighter, you can't use magic, and when you dual and start as a Preserver (as an example), you must fight with but one level-one spell, no armor, daggers as weapon, etc.
Be careful that you will gain benefit of former class ONLY if your level in new class EXCEEDS level in former one. If you play a Fighter till level 13 and dual to Druid for example, you will not be a Fighter again till you are level 14 Druid. Note that you can build a 14/14/15 dual, and have use of the 3 classes at max.
One of the best human dual combination might be to start as Ranger, then advance to level 14
(hopefuly having around 120 HPs, and striking 2 times a round), then dual to Psionicist (to be a Psionicist a absolute necessity for PvP) till level 14 again, then dual again to Preserver till level 15. You will gain benefits of both Ranger and Psionicist classes when at level 15 Preserver. And you will be a rather powerful guy for both questing and PvP!
You can also try a Gladiator/Psionicist/Preserver, which will allow you to be Chaotic Evil...
Gladiator/Druid/Preserver (or Fighter/Druid/Preserver) is cool too if you don't want to PvP.
Actually you can be anything you like when a human (even Fighter/Gladiator/Ranger ;-), Just you can't be Ranger and Druid because of alignement.
Some people choose to be human Druid/Psionicist/Preservers, which normally is more interesting when being a half-elf, but the difference is that for a half-elf triclass, XPs are forever shared by 3, when for a human you will forever score XPs at normal rate. So it's much easier for a human to reach the top of the score boards...
The real drawback is that to have a human capable of doing that, you must roll a character with almost GODLIKE abilities: You need at least 15 in prime requisites of first class, AND at least 17 in the classes you wish to dual! So, to be Fighter/Druid/Preserver, you need 17 or more in Intelligence, Wisdom, and... Charisma! And, of course, you might want to have at 19 or 20 Constitution, and high Dexterity and Strength...
Fortunately you can use some Ioun stones that will help you in rising ability. As an example, you can have "only" 16 Charisma and wear a Charisma stone at the moment of dual to Druid. Then you can just drop the stone, you will never need it again...
When you are rolling, check is dual is possible as some little "marks"
will appear by the classes you will be able to dual.
Some tips
Magic items that will modifie abilities (thus helping you in exceeding racial limits, or dualing humans):
Ioun stones (+1): They exist for each ability, Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma. They all can be found as treasure from quests.
Important note: Rings that could modifie abilities, like Auto 18 Intelligence ring, have been removed from the game code and transformed into other miscellaneous rings, like +1 to +4 ring of protection, Invisibity ring, etc.
Known bugs:
These two main bugs haven't really been fixed and are really annoying: