First Look Release Notes: Litany of
the Dead
August 15, 2006
Introducing Five New
Dungeons (CR 5-6)!
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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.