Dungeons & Dragons Online Interview

GamerGod has conducted an interview with Turbine's Alex Rodberg and Dave Eckleberry, in which the product marketing manager and senior games system designer answer quite a few questions about Dungeons & Dragons Online. A snip:
Q: Recently it was announced that "advancement moments" will co-exist with the traditional D&D level system to heighten the sense of advancement for players. How will this work?

A: I proposed the advancement moment system, and it went through WotC for approval. Basically, this system gives short term or passive boosts to skills and abilities. Example: Giving a fighter a boost that gives +4 to hit for 15 seconds.

The levels will be broken up into four ranks each, so a character will progress from 'Third Level, Rank One' to 'Third Level, Rank Two' and so on as they gain experience. As this happens, they will open up potential abilities to activate via Action Points.

Four enhancements can be acquired at one time. Players can choose new and different enhancements, as they gain in levels and experience. This allows us to make the enhancements more impressive. For example, an action point can be spent to reduce the cost of empowered spells for high level mages.

Most of these benefits are based on class; a few are based on race. This matches the WotC race books and notion that race benefits do not end at level 1. Some examples would include Warforged getting better immunities, Elves getting improvements for the bow (racial weapon), and so forth.