With the new forums and the Josh Strife video I figured now would be the best time for new player guides. DDO is a complex game and what may be the optimal choices for experienced players and characters may not be the most optimal choices for new players. We have many lovely builders that share their creations with the community but a guide, rather than a build, is less common to find. The great thing about DDO is creating the character you want to play so I wanted something that would empower a new player to make their own choices rather than give them a cooking recipe to play a game.
This is a guide to playing a Paladin in Dungeons and Dragons Online intended for new players or players new to Paladin. Due to the immense complexity of DDO the scope of this guide was narrowed in build choices and what I believe the most common new player experiences may be. It focuses on pure Paladin, no archetypes, no universal trees, and no reaper mode.
I know reaper mode is often considered the default and I will mention it when appropriate but the focus will be on Normal/Hard/Elite. If you are a competitive new player that will likely want to get into the higher difficulties at some point, this guide can still help you jump straight into DDO. The advice is focused on new players and the leveling experience but the build choices are easily respecced to be optimized for endgame/reaper mode at a later point.
I stole Arcanaverse’s idea to format similar to RPGBot’s guides which uses a rating system they stole from Treantmonk who is apparently some Pathfinder guy.
★☆☆☆ Red: Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
★★☆☆ Orange: OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
★★★☆ Green: Good options. Useful often.
★★★★ Blue: Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.
This is more meant to be a class guide, not a build guide. I will point out the better build options and may give examples but ultimately I want to empower you to be able to create the Paladin that you want to play and make it your own. There are many content creators who have made a number of different Paladin builds aimed for new players, these can be helpful to look at and hopefully this guide can help make sense of their build decisions.
This guide is also not all encompassing, I do not provide a description of what every feat or ability is. I simply comment on its usefulness. I highly recommend going to the DDOWiki or DDOCompendium websites to look things up and get familiar with the wikis.
Guide is in a google doc because it's easier for me to format and add pictures, so here's the link below. The guide is not totally complete yet, there are still some details I want to expand on and add visual aids for but I wanted to open it up to feedback that is constructive for it being a new player guide.
Please feel free to share it if you think it can be useful.
Table of Contents
Edit: Added a skills section and changed some stuff on archers after playing one.
5/21: Added epic and legendary content.
5/29: Added advanced section going over damage/defense systems and did some formatting.
This is a guide to playing a Paladin in Dungeons and Dragons Online intended for new players or players new to Paladin. Due to the immense complexity of DDO the scope of this guide was narrowed in build choices and what I believe the most common new player experiences may be. It focuses on pure Paladin, no archetypes, no universal trees, and no reaper mode.
I know reaper mode is often considered the default and I will mention it when appropriate but the focus will be on Normal/Hard/Elite. If you are a competitive new player that will likely want to get into the higher difficulties at some point, this guide can still help you jump straight into DDO. The advice is focused on new players and the leveling experience but the build choices are easily respecced to be optimized for endgame/reaper mode at a later point.
I stole Arcanaverse’s idea to format similar to RPGBot’s guides which uses a rating system they stole from Treantmonk who is apparently some Pathfinder guy.
★☆☆☆ Red: Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
★★☆☆ Orange: OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
★★★☆ Green: Good options. Useful often.
★★★★ Blue: Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.
This is more meant to be a class guide, not a build guide. I will point out the better build options and may give examples but ultimately I want to empower you to be able to create the Paladin that you want to play and make it your own. There are many content creators who have made a number of different Paladin builds aimed for new players, these can be helpful to look at and hopefully this guide can help make sense of their build decisions.
This guide is also not all encompassing, I do not provide a description of what every feat or ability is. I simply comment on its usefulness. I highly recommend going to the DDOWiki or DDOCompendium websites to look things up and get familiar with the wikis.
Guide is in a google doc because it's easier for me to format and add pictures, so here's the link below. The guide is not totally complete yet, there are still some details I want to expand on and add visual aids for but I wanted to open it up to feedback that is constructive for it being a new player guide.
Please feel free to share it if you think it can be useful.
Table of Contents
- The New Player Paladin Handbook
- Class Features
- Fighting Styles
- Ability Scores
- Races
- Skills
- Eberron Deities
- Feats
- Melee Fighting Style Feats
- Ranged Feats
- Dex 13 Required
- General and Flex Feats
- Metamagics
- Dragonmarks (Race Specific Feats)
- Knight of the Chalice (KotC)
- Sacred Defender (SaD)
- Vanguard (Van)
- Spells
- Epic Paladin (Level 20+)
- Feats (Level 20+)
- Heroic Feats
- Epic Feats
- Epic Destiny Feats
- Epic Destinies
- Main T5 Destiny
- Epic Strike
- Mantle
- Feats (Level 20+)
- Building A Paladin Continued
- Premium Races
- Iconic Races
- Forgotten Realms Deities
- Multiclassing Paladin
- Ability Scores for “Mainstat”
- Universal Trees
- Understanding Damage
- D20 System
- Criticals
- Melee Power
- Double Strike and Doubleshot
- Sneak Attack
- Understanding Defenses
- Effective Hit Points (EHP)
- Physical Resistance Rating
- Dodge
- Concealment
- Incorporeality
- Armor Class
- Effective Hit Points (EHP)
- Magical EHP
- Magical Resistance Rating
- Saves
- Absorption
- Avoidance
Edit: Added a skills section and changed some stuff on archers after playing one.
5/21: Added epic and legendary content.
5/29: Added advanced section going over damage/defense systems and did some formatting.
Last edited:
