The Lawful, the Chaotic, and the
Neutral:
Alignment Choice and Your Character
by Brennie
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While creating your character,
you may already have an idea of his persona. Have you decided that he
will be an upright, noble do-gooder; or a wild, maniacal crazy
man? To reflect your character's mentality, you will likely be
choosing an alignment to match. From a roleplaying perspective, that
part's easy enough. But if you're like me, you'll find yourself asking,
How does alignment choice affect my character from a gameplay
standpoint?
Alignment plays both a more and less important role in Dungeons and
Dragons Online than it does in its pen and paper counterpart. It is
less important in that alignment does not restrict the actions or
personality of your character. You can say, do, act, and simply
style="font-style: italic;">be anything you desire to,
regardless of your chosen alignment. What your alignment does affect is
your class and multiclass selections, and your access to special
alignment-restricted weapons, armors, and items.
Here is a Pros and Cons list of each alignment available to players:
Lawful Good:
May have levels in Paladin, but not Bard or Barbarian.
May wield weapons with True Law or Pure Good enchantments.
This is important because most of the enemies you will face in DDO are
of the Evil persuasion, and a majority of those are also Chaotic.
Thus, a weapon with a good enhancement and lawful enhancement will do
extra damage to a significant number of enemies throughout the
game. Furthermore, the longsword Retribution is a lawful good
weapon, and highly sought after.
style="text-decoration: underline;">Recommendation: I would
suggest this alignment for any non-Bard/Barbarian concerned about
maximizing their melee/ranged damage potential.
Neutral Good:
May have levels in Bard or Barbarian, but not Paladin.
May wield weapons with Pure Good enhancements. While Pure
Good is widely considered the best enhancement for weapons, you're
hedging out the possibilities of Pure Chaos or Pure Law weapons, while
gaining access to both Axiomatic and Anarchic weapons.
style="text-decoration: underline;">Recommendation: I would
suggest Lawful Good or Chaotic Good over Neutral Good, but Neutral Good
does allow for slightly more versatility.
Chaotic Good:
May have levels in Bard or Barbarian, but not Paladin.
May wield weapons with Pure Chaos and Pure Good enchantments, and
wear Iron Manacles. While not quite as useful as Lawful Good for
damage (because there are less lawful enemies, but still a few), there
are some nice chaotic only items.
style="text-decoration: underline;">Recommendation: I would
suggest this alignment for Barbarians or Bards who don't plan on having
a high Use Magical Device skill, and anyone who wants access to Iron
Manacles.
Lawful Neutral:
May not have level in Bard, Barbarian or Paladin.
May wield weapons with True Law enchantments. This leaves
you without the ability to use Pure Good weapons, which is arguably the
most useful enchantment a weapon can have.
style="text-decoration: underline;">Recommendation: With the
class restrictions, and lack of Pure Good enhancements, I would
strongly recommend against this alignment. There is no reason (other
than roleplaying) not to simply be Lawful Good.
True Neutral:
May have levels in Bard or Barbarian, but not Paladin.
May not wield Pure Good, True Law, or Pure Chaos weapons or
items. But, to compensate, True Neutral may use Stability armors,
robes, and shields (Adding +2 Armor Class and Saves).
style="text-decoration: underline;">Recommendation: I suggest
this alignment to anyone who doesn't rely heavily on weapons
(Sorcerers, Wizards, and healing-oriented Clerics). Additionally, I
strongly recommend this alignment to Rogues and Bards who plan on
having a very high Use Magical Device, which will allow them to bypass
alignment restrictions on good, chaotic and lawful items, while still
being able to capitalize on Stability enchantments.
Chaotic Neutral:
May have levels in Bard or Barbarian, but not Paladin.
May wield True Chaos weapons, and use Iron Manacles.
Recommendation:
Like Lawful Neutral, I would strongly caution players away from this
alignment. It offers no benefits that Chaotic Good doesn't offer and
more.
I feel that I should make a note here about the Use Magical Device
(UMD) skill. UMD, if high enough, may be used to bypass alignment
restrictions of good, lawful and chaotic items, but will not function
on Stability items.
The following is a list of known weapon and armor enchantments effected
by alignment:
True Law: +1d6 damage to True
Neutral/Neutral Good/Neutral Evil and Chaotic creatures. Bypasses
Damage Resist/lawful. Only usable by lawful characters. Is
subject to UMD.
Axiomatic: +2d6 damage to
Chaotic creatures. Bypasses Damage Resist/lawful. Usable by
Lawful or True Neutral/Neutral Good characters. Is subject to UMD.
Pure Chaos: +1d6 damage to True
Neutral/Neutral Good/Neutral Evil and Lawful creatures. Usable only by
Chaotic characters. Is subject to UMD.
Anarchic: +2d6 damage to Lawful
creatures. Usable by True Neutral/Neutral Good and Chaotic
characters. Is subject to UMD.
Pure Good: +1d6 damage to True
Neutral/Lawful Neutral/Chaotic Neutral and Evil creatures. Usable
only by Good characters. Is subject to UMD.
Holy: +2d6 damage to Evil
creatures. Usable by all characters. Is subject to UMD.
Pure Evil: +1d6 damage to Good
creatures. Not usable by any characters (You must be evil, which is not
a character option). Is subject to UMD.
Unholy: +2d6 damage to Neutral
and Good creatures (I do not know if good creatures even exist). Usable
by True Neutral/Lawful Neutral/Chaotic Neutral characters. Is subject
to UMD.
Stability: +2 AC and +2 saves.
Can be found on robes, shields, or armor. Wearable by any character,
but only take effect for True Neutral characters. Is not subject
to UMD.
And lastly, 2 notable alignment specific items:
Retribution: +1 Holy True
Law longsword of Pure Good. Obtained from the Threnal quests.
Irons Manacles: +4 deflection
bonus to AC. Chaotic only. Obtained from Delaras Tomb
quests.
As you can see, choosing an alignment is not only a personal choice
based on your ideas for your character's personality, but it can also
affect the choices you're able to make later on. Choose wisely!
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