I think I've figured out D&D's "fatal flaw", so to speak. And it has pen and paper roots.
Being finally a little fed up with trying to solo the cleric and/or running around at the mercy of others, watching them do stupid things, get killed, and feeling obligated to revive them somehow, and yet totally helpless, because one has just ran out of spells to do so...(Gee, it feels just like D&D, doesn't it, I could have sworn I read this scenario - or a similar variation thereof - in any number of Forgotten Realms / Dlance books...)
I decided to make the toughest freaking warrior I could think of. Since this was Eberron, there's a race called the Warforged. Which are basically sentient golems. +2 to con, -2 to wis and cha. And they can choose a beginning level feat which gives them adamantine armor - some amount of damage absorption. (I forget the number, if there's one thing I dislike about D&D 3.5, it's the insane amount of numbers, it's better off calculated by the computer and shown to me.) No problem about the negative stats, because I wanted to be a warrior-type. Fighter was a possibility. Paladin = no, because it's reliant on charisma and later wisdom. Ranger in this game is a ranged attacker - not exactly tanky - so no. Oh look. A BARBARIAN! Base stat is CON.
Muhahaha. Give him 18 con, +2 = 20 con. I start with 37 hp at 1st level, and high damage absorption. As well as excellent saves vs poison, sleep, nausea, fatigue, and some other stuff.
Man, the difference in the low-level dungeons. I smoked the mobs with a giant greatclub. When I got into a group, I just charged like a dumbass barbarian into the kobolds, swinging wildly. That's my job anyhow, beat stuff down, be tanky, distract stuff from the squishies - and I think a greatsword in one's gut is mighty distracting. I like his look. But then I've always been a sucker for playing giant brutes. And I have to say, seeing the greatsword and its animation swing was worth the price of admission.
It's almost the splitting image of what I envisioned Flame to be swinging around.
Which reminds me, DDO is good for the imagination. That, and reading Elminster's Daughter, something I picked up recently in a secondhand bookshop. I'm almost feeling like I can imagine myself back into a fantasy world with my characters and start writing again. Almost. Not quite there yet, but a sight better than before.
The problem, that oh-so-annoying 'game design' flaw, that I think I've found...It's in the level gaining of D&D. You know why? Spellcasters at level 1...suck. They have limited amount of spells, they are like these little nooblet apprentices firing off one or two castings, and then cowering behind a table again. Meanwhile, fighters at level 1 are kicking butt and taking names.
Tell me, who is going to bother to pick up spellcasters at this stage to group with? They will just speed past to the higher levels. Meanwhile, the spellcasters are getting pwned by kobolds and are not getting any xp at all.
In the higher levels when a spellcaster would be really handy, and all the fighters are running around spellbound, cursed, feared, blinded, etc. Oops, there seems to be a lack of high level spellcasters for some reason...
I wonder why.
So sue me, I'm feeling just a little bitter. I know nothing can ever be totally balanced. But it's slightly galling when you realize the class difference and ease of soloing in DDO is larger than that of say, a brute vs a dominator.
I still don't mind working on the cleric, patiently trying to get her up a few levels. But it's just the sense of helplessness as you watch people run to their deaths, the frustration of feeling like a novice out of her depth, and the mad rush to stabilize them as they lie dying on the ground. Meanwhile, you still harbor some vague sense of guilt whenever you run up to whack something, because you're always thinking, should I be hitting, or should I be healing or saving someone...
Tricky, very tricky, multitasking a cleric.
On ironic news, I bumped into a random level 5 in a tavern who gifted Liara with a +1 mace and a +1 shield. Is it "female toon" syndrome at work again? But I think I'm suddenly a little buffer than the game expected, so doing some quests with her is worth another try. But possibly AFTER I do them with Silverstone, my warforged barb, so that I know wtf is coming.
Teaming's been weird. I've been having periods of not getting any teams at all. I've had periods of getting three tells and invites in a row, usually just as I accept the first one. Once we get into the dungeon, people are generally quite well-behaved since the first time, stick together relatively well - or maybe I'm getting better at chasing. No one has shouted or gone berserk at any behavior (from me, or even from some other moronic players - eg. a mage running around clubbing stuff and not spellcasting counts even in my nooblet book as being more than a little odd) yet, so maybe the elitist 'tude on the forums is just that, a forums thing.
The annoying part is the time in between 'quests'. Because everyone scatters out to go heal at a tavern, repair/sell/buy stuff - it's very hard to get refocused on a new quest if the leader doesn't pick one and decide in a hurry. So you end up standing around with a lot of downtime, wondering if the leader is ever going to tell you what they're going to do next.
Of course, all this could be the low level scene. Just as Hollows teams at 6-12 are not indicative of the entire CoX teaming game, I can't conclude anything much of DDO from this perspective yet. It's going to take the poor cleric some time to grow out of this viewpoint though. Perhaps a little sooner for the barbarian.
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