First Look Release Notes: Litany of
the Dead

August 15, 2006

Introducing Five New
Dungeons (CR 5-6)!

Several centuries ago, a splinter group of the Blood of Vol
settled
near where Stormreach lies today. The leader of the group had great
aspirations, and after following in Vol's footsteps and becoming a
lich, he craved even more power and set out to become a god.



He recruited three vampire friars to write a sacred text for him, The
Litany of the Dead. Each vampire would be responsible for a third
of the book, The Heretical Path, The Twisted Apocrypha,
and The Black Prophecy.
When all three works are finished and combined, the lich will arise
from his rest and ascend to godhood. The first crypt opens now...



To read more about these dungeons please href="http://www.ddo.com/index.php?page_id=20&pagebuilder%5Bmodule%5D=article&pagebuilder%5Bdisplay_item%5D=494"
target="_blank">click here.



Performance

• We have made some changes to the Twilight Forge that should
  improve performance.

General

• The House Kundarak banking system has opened up a
  new branch in the harbor inside the Harbormaster's House! House
  Kundarak – striving to meet YOUR banking needs.
• Loot messages from other players can be filtered out using the
  chat options on your chat tab.
• Tells sent to invalid character names once again give a more
  correct error message.
• The spell exchange and energy spell selector dialogs behave
  correctly when you dismiss them using the escape button.
• Fixed more stuck points throughout the world.

Monsters

• Prolonged exposure to the Plane of Night has had
  negative effects on Velah and has stripped her of some of her former
  epic powers. Note that to compensate she has grown a bit smarter, and
  many of the old strategies used may not work as well as they once did.
  Experimentation, quick thinking, and valor will surely lead heroes to
  find new ways to defeat her.
  • Velah's spellcasting AI and line of sight recognition have
    been improved.
  • Her attacks are no longer flagged as unblockable.
  • The average damage of her physical attacks have been
    reduced.
    The critical hit ranges on various attacks have been modified.
  • Her tail knockdown attack now uses the same mechanics as
    other Knockdown effects.
  • Wing Buffet is now considered a physical attack rather than
    a
    spell. The knockback effect now has a reflex save.
  • Velah's
    Dragon Breath is no longer treated as a physical attack. It is now
    entirely fire damage with a single reflex save, and can no longer crit
    or miss.
  • Dispelling Breath now removes half as many magical effects
    as
    before.
  • Her Telekinesis ability now has a will save.
  • All spells cast by Velah now properly use her Charisma to
    determine DC's.
  • Fireballs spit by Velah are now entirely fire damage and
    scale properly on Hard and Elite.
  • Velah herself scales properly in difficulty on Hard and
    Elite.
• Wildmen apply the feeblemind effect less often, generally on
  critical hits and/or their special leap attack.
• Melee
  oriented Troglodytes will move closer to their targets - they should no
  longer attempt to make melee attacks from out of range.
• The
  effects caused by the warforged quori humanoids in the WFT area will no
  longer produce FX. Previously this on-damage effect could slow down
  performance due to the spam of visualized effects.

NPCs

• Laina the Excoriated will close her shop window properly.

Combat

• The critical threat range is no longer doubled on the 4th swing
  in a combo.
• The feeblemind bestowed by wildmen is now curable by
  player-cast
  restoration (an upcoming update will fix the NPC-cast heal).

Items

• Vorpal weapons will instantly kill monsters as per
  the beheading rules in the Players Handbook - you must roll a natural
  20 and confirm a crit to vorpal your target. Heads will not actually
  fall off (as cool as that would be!)
• Niac's Cold Ray and Knock scrolls are now available at Lorna
  Wyrmtouched, Arcane Scroll Vendor in the marketplace tent.
• The
  Freedom of Movement effect on the Kundarak Delving Boots will now ward
  the movement effects of Storm Giant weather control. It will no longer
  ward the Beholder's petrify eye beam or the Mummy's Despair ability.
• Items
  that cast Featherfall have gotten an upgrade in usability. These items
  are now fast-casting and use a self-only version of Featherfall.
• The
  "of Destruction" weapon effect is much weaker than intended. To make
  the effect worthy of its cost, "of Destruction" will now reduce the
  target's AC by 4 the first time it hits. There is no saving throw for
  this effect.
• The names for Seeker +1, Seeker +2, Seeker +3 etc.
  items have been changed to be consistent with other effect naming
  conventions - they are now named to match the bonus they give (Seeker
  +2, Seeker+4, Seeker +6 etc.)

Spells

• Hazadill was having such fun with Otto's Sphere of
  Dancing that he didn't realize that he was breaking the rules of the
  universe and casting area-of-effect Otto's IRRESISTIBLE dance rather
  than area-of-effect Otto's RESISTIBLE dance. This has been fixed. Don't
  forget to pack your will saves!
• Fixed a long-standing issue
  with dispel effects that was causing dispels from the Dispel Magic
  spell to be much harder than they should normally be.

Quests

• Gnarl's Tomb
  • Old Gnarl's ghost now opens
    his door after a fight if he dispatches any would-be thieves. This
    allows parties to attempt him again without resetting the dungeon.
• Restless Isles
  • The Runetusk Commander will no longer speak to you after he
    dies.
  • Several encounters were displaying their DM text
    repeatedly.
    This has been fixed.