The first thing you’ll do when logging into DDO is select a race, gender, and class. The playable races at launch will be: human, elf, dwarf, halfling and warforged. Classes are: fighter, paladin, barbarian, rogue, ranger, cleric, wizard, sorcerer and bard. If you like, you can choose to watch a brief movie that describes your class and its area of expertise; a very nice, and particularly newbie-friendly, touch. I chose to create a human bard.

Character customization in DDO is fun. My human female came complete with 30 different hairstyle choices. (Hey, I’m a girl--these things matter to me.) I did notice that males have slightly fewer options, although they have the added goodness of facial hair. I could customize my hairstyle and hair color, eyebrow shape, eyes (both their color and shape), nose shape, and lip shape and color. I could also add a facial detail such as a scar or piercing. All in all, it took me about 15 minutes to get my character just so, but if you don’t want to mess with your character’s look there’s a random appearance generator you can keep clicking away at until you’re satisfied.