Getting started

Everywhere else on this wiki states what the game does; here players who have been through it tell you what worked for them.

This guide assumes you have played Neverwinter Nights before and know your way around the interface.

How to connect

Find A Dawn of Heroes on the servers list, or direct connect via play.adawnofheroes.org:5121

Your first character

Pick a surface race, as it has the easiest start. The race you choose decides your faction and where you start. A default race starts in Benzor, where the early quests are.

A caster has the easiest start: Cleric, Druid or Warlock. Casters depend on gear less than fighters do, and at low level a summon fighting for you helps more than any weapon. Leave some skill points for the crafting skills if crafting is your thing, and take Spell Focus (Conjuration) if you intend to rely on summons.

Put points in Ride if you want a fast mount: your Ride ranks cap how fast a mount moves. The Stable Master in Benzor Flats sells mounts.

Try before you commit. A character with TEST in its name starts in the test area, where every race, every skin, end-game gear and a target dummy are free. Build there, hit something, then make the real character.

The first hour

• Take the free gear from the Newbies store in the Gateway. The Player Menu reopens it if you walked past.
• Buy food for resting, and a couple of invisibility potions for getting out of trouble.
• Look in the donation and unwanted-gear chests at your faction capital temple (see Free gear and free gold). The temple also has the recall portal used for joining parties.
• Open your vault and put your spare items in it. The vault belongs to your account, not your character, so anything you leave there is also there for your next character.
• At any crafting station, turn on drawing materials from the vault (the buttons are above the ingredient list).
• Set up your fast cast slots so your buffs are one button instead of ten.
• Get Brock. Captain Henroid Tucker walks around town and gives you a Fighter henchman. Gear him, give him healing, and put Associates Control on your quickbar.

Where to go, roughly by level

The quests point you most of the way. This is the order people usually take.

Your first dungeons

Four of the tier 1 dungeons are the usual first ones, and they are the easiest to find.

Glondar's Rest is one room, and the easiest dungeon here. The crypt is deep in the Black Hills mines.

Graktan's Lair. Graktan leads the West Benzor goblins. His throne room is at the bottom of their caves, and the goblins on the way are a real fight.

Dread Castle, in the Legendary Forest. Go east from Brosna, past the beach and into the caverns; the entrance is visible once you are in the forest. Gundar is at the end of it.

Gorgoroth's Cave. Gorgoroth leads the Pitunk clan, and you fight the whole clan to reach him. Head for the Black Hills and look for a cave with orcs at the entrance.

Things worth knowing early

• Loot everything and keep the tokens. Tokens buy endgame gear, houses, mounts and skins.
• Crafted gear beats some found gear. A set bonus is the cheapest power a new character can get: 3 equipped items of any tier is the whole requirement. Masterful crafting raises an item by 1 tier, the same as vengeful does.
• Persistent haste exists on drops and can be crafted. Get some asap.
• Don't be afraid to run. An invisibility potion costs less than a corpse run (death).
• Watch what spawned before you arrived. Creatures left by a higher-level player can kill you. Look at a creature from a distance before walking into it.
• Undead either frighten you or kill you outright past the first few kinds. Carry something against fear and something against death magic.
• Lore pays for itself early, when you have no gold to identify items. 10 to 15 ranks is enough; after that the identify cost stops mattering.
• You can teleport home once an hour from the Player Menu, and change where home is at a bindstone.

Skills that earn their points here

Discipline, Concentration, Tumble, Use Magic Device, Spellcraft and Pick Pocket all do more here than in the campaign. Ride decides how fast a mount carries you. Appraise helps while you are poor. The crafting skills feed the whole trade system.

The conversation skills - Persuade, Bluff, Intimidate - do the least.

Free gear and free gold

Two things exist only to help new characters, and neither costs anyone anything.

Unwanted Gear Chests. Every faction temple has one. Players drop gear they have no use for, and anyone may take what they find. The contents survive a reboot, so check again later.

The Poors Donation pillar, in the temples of the big surface cities. Richer players put gold in. A new character who has not used the pillar that day can take a share out. The pool survives reboots too, and how much you can withdraw depends on how much has been given, so check back now and then.

Manners

• Say you are new. People here are helpful about it.
• Clean up what you spawn.
• Keep the shouting and the voicesets down.
• Not everyone reading you speaks English first.
• Form parties through the Player Menu, and don't loot while the fight is still on.

See also

• Game rules and Conduct - read these first
• Builds - plans written by other players
• Character development
• Resources - Discord, the map, the Build Creator