Getting started
Which rules apply
The game ships with mods built in and switched on. They change combat, loot, prices, levelling and more, and online they are the same for everyone.
Daggerfall Online is not classic Daggerfall. It ships with a set of well-known mods built in, and almost all of them are on by default. Several rewrite core rules. This codex describes the game as it plays with those mods on, and says so where classic Daggerfall differs.
The ones that change the rules
| Mod | What it changes |
|---|---|
| Physical Combat And Armor Overhaul | Armour cuts damage instead of making you harder to hit; skills decide hits; shields block; critical hits multiply damage. See Combat basics. |
| Meaner Monsters | Rewrites the health, damage, level and armour of most monsters. See Enemies. |
| Unleveled Loot | Drops no longer scale with your level; the metal depends on your Luck and where you are. See Loot and drops. |
| Roleplay & Realism: Items | Prices, weights and condition of items, two extra weapons and twelve extra armour pieces, rebalanced loot and weapon damage, skill-based starting spells and gear. See Items. |
| Roleplay & Realism | Bow draw time, encumbrance, repair and training prices, the bank’s loan cap, underworld guild expulsion, climbing with a weapon drawn, and more. |
| Oblivion Remaster Like Leveling | An alternative levelling system. New characters are asked which one they want. See Levelling and skills. |
All of them are listed with what they do in Built-in mods.
Online, the room decides
Online, every one of the mods above is fixed by the room: everyone plays with them at their shipped settings, whatever you set offline. Only a few settings stay your own, such as which levelling system your character uses and how some NPCs look. Offline you can switch any of them off in the Mods pane, and then the classic rules return; they are listed on Classic rules, for when the mods are off.
What stays the same
The rest does not depend on those six mods: the custom class builder, the history questions, the Thieves Guild’s count of thefts, resting and the clocks, death and lineage, the Wild Zone, online crafting and the key bindings. The food and survival rules come from other built-in mods, listed in the same database.
Category: Getting started