OpenID users have many abilities on Dreamwidth. They can upload up to six icons, set a style for their reading page, and do most things on the service except post to their journals or communities.

OpenID users can subscribe to other users and be given access to other users' locked content.

Because some features depend on access (like restricting what information is shown on your profile) or subscription (like getting notified when an account has a new icon uploaded), users can subscribe to OpenID accounts and OpenID accounts can give other users access.