Exploring Eberron: Which race should I play?

Hallelujah, I finally get to cover the races of Dungeons and Dragons Online! This is a fun topic for me, but it's been getting pushed back by current events lately.

We needed the counterpart for our recent class discussion, though, because choosing a race can be almost as complicated as trying to choose a class. Each race has its own inherent strengths and weaknesses, and you want to find something that you like and that works well with your chosen class. So what are our choices?

Follow along after the jump to find out!

I'm going to handle this a bit differently than I did the class discussion, mainly for one reason. The DDO wiki carries a race overview that's simpler and a bit less confusing than the class overview for newer players. Each brief race description outlines the racial strengths and weaknesses as well as a list of classes that it is best suited for. If you want to know more about a particular race, click the title for a very detailed overview.

There are currently eight races available, but only half of them are available for free at the outset. To be very honest, I view this as an asset. I've mentioned before that things in DDO can get a little overwhelming, so the four free races -- Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, and Human -- are more than enough to get you started. Spend some time playing around with these four and get a feel for them.

I strongly recommend that you begin by combining the human race with a couple of different classes. The Human is the most well-rounded and balanced race in the game and is the only one that can really excel at any class. While Humans aren't quite the DDO Easy Button, they make things a bit easier as you are learning. Humans get four extra skill points at the outset and an extra feat, further strengthening your character while you become familiar with the game.

Once you've used the Human race as a learning tool, feel free to branch out into the other three races to get a feel for the ones with slightly more complicated skills and ability sets. You'll have the advantage of your hands-on experience playing the human character to give you a feel for what sort of class you prefer. Once you've got that, you'll be able to look at the other races and decide what sort of trade-offs you want to make.

For example, what if you find you really love the Barbarian class as a Human and want to see what more you can do with it? Check out the Dwarf race. Dwarves are lacking in the area of charisma, but a Barbarian usually doesn't need it, so it's a loss that you probably won't even notice. On the other hand, Barbarians have got a higher constitution score, something that benefits them immensely. It's a great trade -- choosing a Dwarf will make you a more effective Barbarian thanks to the racial advantages.

Once you've spent a bit of time growing familiar with the four basic races, move on and check out any of the four premium races: Drow Elf, Warforged, Half-Elf, and Half-Orc. I suggest this for two reasons, the first of which is money. You can spend some cash to unlock the Drow Elf race in the DDO Store, or you can get it for free by gaining 400 total favor on your account. This favor is account-wide, so it builds up on the same "track" no matter what server or character you are playing on. As a result, you'll find that it accumulates surprisingly quickly while you're busy getting a feel for the other races -- allowing you to save your Turbine Points for something else.

Second, if you've laid the groundwork with the first four races, you'll be much more proficient with the four premium ones due to experience. It's not that they are some mysterious elite group of racial choices, but rather that they are a bit more complicated and it's a good idea to have a feel for the basics.

Finally, I want to address character appearance a bit. It's a purely cosmetic thing, but one that a lot of players really enjoy, so let's look at it. Spend some time fiddling with the character creation screen, because it's your best indication of what the different races look like. DDO characters may not be as glossy and flawless as those in some other games, but they're pretty darn impressive and the customization is great.

Go to character creation, click down to the race tab, and click next. Play around with facial features, hairstyles, details like scars and piercings, and see what you like. Doing that will give you a good idea of the variations available for that race as well as the underlying basics.

Hopefully this will get you started learning the basics of race selection and how it plays into class selection. I know it seems like a bit of a complicated process, but I promise you that if you take a little bit of time to get familiar with these heroes of Eberron, you'll be sailing through before you know it!

Exploring Eberron is a novice's guide to the world of Dungeons and Dragons Online, found here on Massively every Friday. It's also a series of short summaries of lower-level DDO content, cleverly disguised as a diary of the adventures of OnedAwesome, Massively's DDO guild.