Weekly Development Activities

October 16, 2006

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Check out the latest updates to the "Weekly Development Activities."
The goal for this feature is to give solid expectations on what you can
expect to see in future updates.



In QA

These items are in QA and should be a part of Module 3.



General

NEW - Fixed an issue
where going link-dead/disconnecting during teleportation into a dungeon
could prevent you from getting XP from that dungeon. NEW - Fixed an issue which prevented
your XP panel from refreshing after returning from link-death into a
dungeon. NEW
- If your party completes an adventure, and you miss it (link dead, or
healing in a tavern), the adventure will now complete when you reenter
the dungeon. This way, you won't miss out on your XP, or miss out on
advancing your quest. You will now slowly regenerate Hit Points and Spell Points while
walking around the city and not just in taverns. NEW
- Previously when players used a stat-enhancing tome (such as the
Manual of Bodily Health) the increase in ability score from the tomes
were not being considered as part of your "base ability." This means
that they were not being counted for purposes of advancement. This has
been fixed. Players who have used tomes in the past will see the
correct behavior in the future. If you used the "Tome of Clear Thought"
you will receive the correct number of skill points when you advance in
the future, but will not receive retroactive skill points. A number of new emotes have been added to the game:
/beckon
/hug
/flex
/groan
/grovel
/kiss
/no
/poke
/sigh
/taunt
/yes
/cheer2
/dance2 /show (allows you to /show off your right-hand weapon).
The
Silver Flame has recognized that the brothers stationed in Taverns have
been casting an inferior version of Restoration. From now on, the spell
cast in taverns will remove 1 negative level in addition to all the
other Restoration effects. Raid parties for the Dragon or the
Warforged Titan will now have the option of setting the raid loot
shards to go to a random member of the party rather than to the leader.
The leader can switch the shard designation by right clicking on the
party health-bars (in the same place he/she clicked for
"convert-to-raid"). All members of the party will be notified in party
chat when this happens, and later arrivals will be notified when they
join the party. Once the party has been switched to "random loot", it
cannot be switched back. Shards will be randomly assigned to any member
of the party who is alive and still in the dungeon as soon as someone
attempts to pick up the shard. Fixed a bug which prevented the player's encumbrance from being
updated when sending an item through the mail. Some
new Tips have been added to the game that will be displayed when
loading a new area. Special thanks to ddo.com forum members apollojuly,
Berjik, Chardros, Denomicon, DeusMortis, DrAwkward, Drogon,
DuckOfDeath, Elurian, Fu-Inator, Furee, oronisi, patnodewf, Squeg,
Thanatos, Thistle, tihocan, toddfox2, tr0tsky, Ustice, Volund, whysper,
winsom, and Worg2k6 for the new helpful tips! Players will no longer get stuck while dismounting from ladders. NEW
- Freedom of movement items and spells will now allow you to ignore the
effects of slippery surfaces (i.e. grease and sleetstorm areas). We
are pleased to announce the addition of the /showhelmet <on |
off> command which can be used to hide your helmet graphic. We
are improving the combat/damage feedback mechanism. This will not only
eliminate "false" hits where the target would flinch but no attack roll
would take place, but also give better feedback as to the strength of
the hit. When you successfully swap a spell, you will now get an alert
telling you that it worked. Poison
dart and poison grenade traps will now actually poison you instead of
doing poison hp damage. In addition, we have fixed several broken traps
throughout the world. Soulstones are now ethereal to almost everything which means
they'll fall properly if you die in mid-air, over water, etc. NEW - The barkeeps of Stormreach have
started carrying and increased variety of food and drink. Lava Cam! When your camera is in lava, it now looks more like
it's in lava, as opposed to water. Made
some small tweaks to our avatar animations. For example, human female's
wrists won't twist in the dual weapon combo attack, dwarven arms won't
over-extend when they use an axe to cleave, etc.

Performance

The landscape renderer has been overhauled to
provide better performance (especially load times). In addition, the
new landscape engine enables huge draw distances that were not possible
before. The overall frame rate has been improved and ‘hitching' reduced. Avatars
and monsters are now a bit brighter than other objects (the intensity
depends upon the environment and lighting conditions). Overall
bandwidth of the game will be reduced another 1-3%, and certain
problematic dungeons and laggy areas will be significantly improved by
20-50% (when your client gets flooded with information about objects in
your local area). These changes will be most noticeable for modem
users.

UI Improvements

The text on the XP bar has been clarified
to make it more obvious that you have not lost the XP you were accruing
toward your bonus AP when you die and get an XP debt while you are
working toward bonus action points. Race and Alignment requirements to equip items will now be shown
in RED text. We've
added a new button to the focus orb! The new "tell" icon appears next
to the "invite" button when you have another player selected. Mail The "New Mail" icon will now appear on the Focus Orb even if
it is minimized. The "New Mail" icon will now vanish from the Focus Orb when
the last new letter in your mailbox has been opened. It is no longer possible to put too much text into the
Compose Mail' "To," "Subject," and "Message" fields. It
is no longer possible to compose new mail while your mailbox is full.
The Mail Box is considered full when it has fifty or more letters
inside of it. The "To" and "Subject" line of the Compose Mail UI no longer
accept carriage returns. NEW
- The options panel now provides the choice to reset the chat windows
back to their default window configuration (General, Party, Guild,
Combat). All other windows will be removed. /retell can now be used with the alias /rt as well. When
you type in "/r " the chat box will automatically replace that text
with "/tell X," This works with "/r", "/reply", ";r", and ";reply".
This functionality has also been added to the /retell command and
should help eliminate mistells. NEW - Guild Officers should now see
their own chat message appear in the Guild chat tab. NEW - The spell swap window will no
longer get stuck closed if you close it by backing away from the
trainer. NEW
- The affordability status will now update when you acquire currency
(i.e., from selling things) while the shop panel is still open. NEW
- Mummy rot and mummy curse have new alert icons which look different
from one another. Also, the alert icons for when players get hit by
monsters using the feats stunning blow, sunder, and bewildering blow
have been replaced with clearer ones which better depict the effect or
feat rather than the exclamation point icon. In an effort to help clear up some confusion Ranks will now start
at 1 instead of 0. ALT-Z will now hide/show the main UI. You will now see the dice rolls for dispelling. When
using something other than the mouse to move the mouse cursor (for
example, an Xbox 360 controller), the mouse cursor will not be allowed
to move outside the game window.

Monsters

NEW - A few old
familiar spellcasters have discovered some of the same new spells that
players have discovered and have added them to their spellbooks and
repertoires, in some cases replacing older spells. While the difficulty
of these spellcasters may change slightly (up or down) as a result of
these additions, overall difficulty should not change by a significant
amount. Many human enemies have had their alignments updated or
corrected. For example, Agents of the Emerald Claw are now Chaotic
Evil; Warriors of the Emerald Claw are now Neutral Evil; the
necromancer Gerti is now Chaotic Evil; all Blackguards are now Evil,
and many are Lawful Evil; City Guards are now Lawful Neutral; and
several misaligned thieves and rogues are now Chaotic Neutral. Monsters can no longer remain stealthed/invisible when they are
casting harmful spells on you. Adjusted
some monster sneak attacks to function properly – some were not being
blocked by fortification, while others were not triggering in situation
where they should have (for example, with a blinded target). Monsters will now deal properly when hit with multiple behavior
states (for example, mesmerized while dancing). The
behavior of monsters that cannot reach their target because other
creatures are in the way has been improved. Preventing a monster from
reaching its target is now an effective way to gain the creature's
attention. NEW - Summoned monsters now appear at
the spellcaster's location. NEW - Some monsters (primarily on large
landscape areas) will no longer follow opponents indefinitely. NEW
- A pass was made for consistency on breath weapons of monsters.
Several of these attacks were being applied incorrectly, preventing
Protection from Energy or Resist Energy from functioning against them. NEW - Warforged Titan
When knocked over, the WFT will stay down longer. The laser can be moved more times before the power runs out. A crystal will keep the laser powered longer. The WFT's claw attack now makes less attacks per round. The WFT now fires less small shots per round. Reduced the damage on the WFT's small shots. Reduced the flight speed of the WFT's small shots. The detect boxes of falling pillars has been increased
(watch out below!) The detect box of the laser has been increased (do not shine
directly into your friends' eyes).
Troglodyte
Stench is no longer called 'nausea' but is instead properly called
'Troglodyte Stench' and flagged as a sickness. The functionality of the
stench has not been otherwise changed. Liches can no longer be
affected by command undead, halt undead, the undead fear portion of the
chill touch spell, or control undead (not in game yet). Mephits now fly faster. NEW - Some wraiths can now cast spells. Most named troglodytes have been given more hp on the hard and
elite settings. Trolls should no longer attempt to make melee attacks from out of
range. Wight priests now cast attack spells with greater frequency. NEW
- Ghouls now properly apply the Sickened condition on opponents rather
than the Slow effect. Sickened creatures have a -2 penalty to attack
rolls, weapon damage rolls, skill checks, and saving throws. Effects
that remove or protect against poison function on sickness. NEW
- Iron golems can now be slowed for a short time by electric attacks
which do at least 1 point of damage. When iron golems are hit by fire,
they are now healed by 1/3 of the amount of damage rather than the full
amount. Fire damage will also cancel out the electricity induced slow
effect if present. NEW - Fixed a bug
that was preventing spiders and dwarven enemies from being affected by
the Slow spell and similar effects that reduced their movement. Spiders Some mid- and high-level (mostly CR 7 and up) spiders have
new stronger poisons. Most
spiders on the hard and elite settings have had their attack damage
reduced significantly, particularly those on the elite setting. Widow type spiders will once again shoot functional webs. NEW
- Redfang – Redfang has been eating her Wheaties - her difficulty has
been increased slightly to put her in line with other boss monsters. NEW
- Whisperdoom - Players should follow Ungurz's advice and not attempt
to slay her – there is something in the air near Splinterskull that
makes her practically invincible. The mind flayer and vampire's dominate abilities no longer dispel
protection from evil. Vampires no longer cast shadows. Vampiric Domination is now properly "Dominate Person" rather than
"Dominate Monster" (Celestial Dogs and Warforged rejoice!) Undead bosses can no longer be affected by turn undead fear. Some ogres have been eating their veggies and will be able to see
and hear better than they could before. Several
bow wielding enemies will now shoot various energy arrows like flaming
arrows or cold arrows. These will do the typical piercing damage (1d6
and up) in addition to various amounts of energy damage. Several
resourceful enemies have begun using various alchemical substances in
battle. In most cases, these will affect players as energy damage over
time. Elemental Empathy will work properly on Earth Elementals that
have used their Earthgrab ability. NEW - All earth elementals will now
react appropriately to creatures they cannot reach. NEW
- Flesh to Stone has been updated to only affect creatures that have
flesh. As such, beholders will no longer petrify Warforged. NEW - Fire Elementals will no longer get
stuck dancing at times. NEW - Mummy spellcasting AI updated. More
powerful versions of Mummy Rot are now labeled accordingly: Pernicious
Mummy Rot is more dangerous than regular Mummy Rot, and Virulent Mummy
Rot is even more lethal. NEW - It is
no longer possible to have more than one type of mummy rot on you at a
time (if you were fighting a normal and elite mummy simultaneously). NEW
- Brother Salasso and other creatures capable of going gaseous,
ethereal, or otherwise incorporeal, should no longer have a chance of
becoming permanently stuck in a half-ethereal state where they can
affect you but you cannot affect them. Adran ir'Karsmore relies less on natural AC and more on his
clerical buffs to provide him enough AC. NEW
- General Xanti'lar - His fireshield now protects him from cold and
does fire damage to attackers, more like the regular fireshield spell,
the difference being that his fireshield gives him immunity to cold
instead of half damage from cold. Additionally, his caster level has
been brought up to the normal level instead of being improperly set low. Female humanoid villains will no longer charge into melee range
if armed with spells or bows. Mind flayers no longer reappear after being killed by a fiery
death. We
are fixing an issue with the death animations of Arcane Skeletons. They
will no longer "eat collectables" they should be creating. NEW - Humanoid monsters will no longer
throw weapons from their feet.

Combat

All enemy trips and knockdowns now have dual saves
(an initial save and a secondary save). Most give you an ability
modifier check for the initial save to determine whether or not you
fall. This is usually your Strength or Dexterity modifier, whichever is
greater on your character. Some knockdowns like grease give a reflex
save as the initial save. Once you fall down, your secondary save
checks will occur every two seconds and are versus your balance skill
to determine when you stand back up. NEW
- Bard songs can no longer be interrupted by people hitting you. Cleric
enhancements that use turn-undead charges can no longer be interrupted
by people hitting you. Turning on action boosts can no longer be
interrupted by people hitting you. NEW - Player level no longer adds to DCs
to resist your feats (trip, sap etc). NEW - All Construct Bane weapons now
affect Warforged. Vermin Empathy and Elemental Empathy will now properly deduct
from your Wild Empathy uses per day. Rangers
can now choose Favored Enemy: Gnoll as one of their favored enemies,
either during advancement or by using a feat respec. Favored Enemy: Construct now works on warforged opponents. Smiting weapons and other death effects now give better combat
feedback in your chat box. Boss monsters will now give better feedback on spells that they
are immune to. NEW
- Critical confirmation rolls are now shown in the chat log. Victims of
sneak attacks and crits will now get clearer messages about it.

Spells

Spell Changes

NEW - We have
optimized and polished many of the spell effects, so don't be alarmed
if your favorite spell doesn't look exactly like it did before.. The valid arc for casting spells on a target has been increased
from a forward 90 degree arc to a forward 120 degree arc. Resist
Energy is now available for clerics, paladins, rangers, and wizards.
Protection from Energy is now available to Rangers, Wizards, and
Clerics. This change allows these classes to cast Protection From
Energy and Resist Energy the same way a sorcerer can, by memorizing a
single spell and then choosing which damage type to ward against. The
days of memorizing several Resist Energy: (Element) are no more! NEW
- Spell crits were not working properly on some AOE spells; now they
will properly register the crit when casting and then apply the extra
damage to all targets for the full duration of the spell. Spell crits
will now also work properly on burning hands and cone of cold. Protection
from Evil has been fixed to work correctly. It no longer protects
against *all* charms and compulsions (including Otto's, command, hold
monster/person, etc). Rather, it only protects against charms and
compulsions that give ongoing mental control, such as the vampire's
dominate ability. Also, as per D&D rules, it no longer protects
against mental control from evil creatures, but ALL mental control,
regardless of the target's alignment. NEW - Break enchantment now removes all
petrification effects (such as from the beholder). NEW - Since the Heal spell is now
available for players, Restoration no longer removes Feeblemind. NEW - Dispel Magic now correctly
bypasses Spell Resistance. Phantasmal killer is now a fear effect. NEW - Phantasmal Killer damage on a
successful save is no longer negative energy damage, but rather untyped
damage. NEW
- Sleep spells (Sleep and Deep Slumber) now have recurring saves every
minute that the spell is active. This allows players who have been
affected by sleep to have a chance to break free of it before the full
duration has elapsed without significantly impacting its usefulness in
combat situations. Players will now be immune to charm and suggestion spells.
Players will no longer be immune to command spells. Stinking Cloud is now properly considered a 'nausea' effect. Holy smite will now damage spiders. The
Teleport spell no longer has a Somatic casting component so players
will not suffer an arcane spell failure chance for Teleport while
wearing armor. The Dispel Magic spell (for bards, clerics,
paladins, sorcerers, and wizards) no longer requires a material
component to cast (as per P&P rules). Niac's cold ray now uses the proper ray cast animation. Mind Blast now affects all enemies within the area of effect. The
flame arrow spell now allows the caster to choose what type of ammo
he/she would like to add the "flame" property to. Choices include
Arrows, Bolts, Throwing Daggers, Throwing Axes, Darts, and Shuriken.
Each requires 1 base unmodified type of that ammo (so Flame Shuriken
requires 1 plain shuriken) and produces a stack of 50. All players and
items that can cast flame arrow will now cast the "new" version. Ice
storm no longer creates a slippery surface on the ground that causes
players or monsters to fall. Instead it slows the land movement speed
of enemy monsters for a very short time while in the storm area. Stoneskin
and Protection from Energy spells now work as per PHB - they have a
total amount of damage that they protect you from, after which they
will vanish. When blind, you will no longer see the names
floating above the head of named friends/foes. In an update sometime
after Module 3 we will be restoring the ability to see friend's names. Casting/Cooldown
Slightly reduced the cooldown timer of all level 5 spells. The 'projectile' portion of Fireball and Ball Lightning have
been sped up slightly. The Flaming Sphere ball of fire has been sped up slightly. Significantly sped up the casting time of Command to be in
line with other spells of that level. Significantly sped up the casting time of Flame Strike. Significantly sped up the casting time of the Spell
Resistance spell to be in line with other spells of that level. Significantly sped up the cast time of the sorcerer's
Dimension Door spell to be in line with other spells of that level. Significantly increased the cooldown timer of the sorcerer's
Suggestion spell to be in line with other Suggestion spells. Made
several minor tweaks to casting times and cooldown timers of other
spells to bring them in line with similar spells of the same level.
The
cloud spells Acid Fog, Cloudkill, Fog Cloud, Glitterdust, Mind Fog,
Obscuring Mist, Sleet Storm, Stinking Cloud, and Solid Fog have had
their FX altered slightly. Now, if you or an ally cast any of these
spells you will see the particle effects only, and not the obstructive
visual overlay. Cloud spells cast by enemy spellcasters will still
display screen overlays on any target that didn't resist the spell. NEW
- Stinking Cloud, Obscuring Mist, and Fog Cloud no longer blind
players. Instead, Stinking Cloud, Obscuring Mist, Fog Cloud, Solid Fog,
Acid Fog, and Cloudkill now give a 20% concealment miss chance to enemy
attackers due to the obscuring of sight. Players in sleet storm,
however, are still considered to be blinded. Obscuring mist, fog cloud,
and sleet storm effects can no longer be avoided with blindness ward
items. NEW - Changes to Web
The
vast majority of monsters that had previously been flagged as immune to
web now can save against it normally. This includes both per-genus
immunities (like giants) and immunities based on hit dice (which was
causing many monsters on hard and elite settings to suddenly become
immune to web). The monsters that will continue to be immune to
web are incorporeal creatures, spiders, oozes, fire elementals, other
creatures largely comprised of fire, and bosses. In other words,
incorporeal creatures can pass through webs, spiders are spiders, oozes
squish through webs, and creatures that look like they're on fire can
burn through the webs. Spiders now properly display an 'immune' message when hit
with a web spell. Spider webs now have recurring str checks and hold players
the same way the web spell does. Ghouls and wights can no longer run through webs freely (they
were missing their entangled animations). To
compensate for the removal of many of the immunities to web, web now
has recurring saves. Any monster that fails the initial reflex save can
attempt to make a strength check to break out of the web. After
succeeding on a save the monster cannot be affected by a web again for
the rest of the round (~3 seconds). The area of webs effect has shrunk slightly to better fit the
physical appearance of the web. Area
of Effect fire spells, both friendly and harmful, now properly burn
through webs (previously they were burning the web itself, but leaving
creatures that were already caught entangled, now all creatures that
are entangled when the web is destroyed will be freed). Players caught in webs cast by enemy monsters can no longer
move freely. Obscuring Mist can now be burned away with fire spells (like the
Web spell - as per D&D rules). Glitterdust's penalty to hide is no longer resistible with a Will
Save. The teleport spell now uses the correct particle FX. NEW - Bards now get feather fall as an
optional level 1 spell. NEW
- Beneficial AOE spells, such as haste or remove fear, will now center
on the caster rather than some distance in front of the caster when
cast without a target selected (or with a monster target selected).
These spells when cast with a friendly player targeted will still
center around that target. NEW - Fiery
Inferno, Burning Touch, Thaarak Hound Breath, and Scorch will now be
stopped by the appropriate Resist Energy spells and items, and not by
physical DR. The visual for the Grease spell now matches more closely the area
of effect. You will now get chat feedback in the combat window when you hit
someone with a non-damaging spell (like fear or slow). NEW
- The delay between when some AOE offensive and defensive (buff) spells
are cast and when the spells actually applies their effects has been
shortened. This makes these spells easier to land on moving creatures
and make it slightly less likely that the party barbarian will keep
running out of range of haste before it lands. NEW - The radius of Sleep, Deep Slumber,
and Feather Fall have all been increased to "standard" AOE radii. NEW
- Fixed a problem with the Dismissal spell wasn't adding the spell
level (4 for clerics, 5 for sorc/wiz) to the spell's save DC, making it
much harder to land than it otherwise would be. NEW - Protection from Energy and Resist
Energy selector spells now all share the same cooldown timer across all
versions.

Metamagic Fixes

Characters using the Quick feat will find their spellcasting
greatly improved. Resistance, Restoration, Raise Dead and See Invisibility spells
can now be used with the Eschew Materials feat. The spell point cost of using your Eschew Materials metamagic
feat has been reduced. Find
Traps, Ice Storm, Magic Missile, Scorching Ray and Searing Light no
longer consume additional spellpoints while the Heighten Spell feat is
active. Holy Smite and Niac's Cold Ray can now be used with the Heighten
Spell feat. Dismissal no longer consumes extra spell points while the
Maximize or Empower spell feats are active. Feeblemind and Waves of Fatigue no longer consume extra spell
points while the Extend Spell feat is active. Ray of Exhaustion can now be used with the Heighten spell feat. Sleet Storm no longer consumes addition spell points while the
Heighten spell feat is active. Wall of Fire No longer consumes additional spellpoints while the Heighten
spell feat is active. Wall of Fire can now be used with the Extend Spell feat. Shocking grasp can now be affected by the Heighten Spell
metamagic feat. Solid Fog and Grease no longer consume additional spellpoints
when under the effects of the Heighten Spell metamagic feat. Melf's Acid Arrow no longer consumes additional spellpoints while
the heighten spell feat is active. NEW
- The enlarge spell metamagic feat no longer consumes additional
spellpoints when used on the self-only spells Find Traps, Divine Favor,
Divine Power, Detect Secret Doors, Expeditious Retreat, and False Life NEW - The enlarge spell metamagic feat
now works properly with Wall of Fire.

Spell Description Updates

(these are just text changes, not changes to spell functionality)

Spell descriptions now use color for greater readability! Player
spells will now state in their descriptions if the spell has a saving
throw to resist, and if so, the results of a successful save. Niac's Cold Ray now properly includes max damage (please note:
there has been no functional change to this spell). Ray
of Enfeeblement description fixed, it had been indicating an extraneous
+1 STR damage that it did not do, and was missing max caster level
information. Hold spells have been updated to state that they have a save
interval. Player spells that have a max Hit Dice cap should now state this
in their description. Melf's Acid Arrow description has been updated to list the
correct interval. Wall of Fire description now been updated to include damage
amounts. Scorching Ray description now includes information about
additional rays and their levels. NEW
- Updated Solid Fog description to remove reference to blocking missile
attacks (which did not work) and added information about melee attack
and damage penalties. There has been no functional change to the spell. NEW - We have corrected several other
spell descriptions as well.

Skills, Feats, & Abilities

NEW - Trained-only skills now require a
full rank, not half a rank, to use. NEW - Resolved an issue where only the
first person to walk near a secret door would make a spot check to see
it. The
magnitude of the bonus provided by Action Boost: Attack and Action
Boost: Skills have been reduced at the higher level enhancements. Bards
can now activate their singing abilities while moving! The activation
time on their singing abilities has been reduced significantly as well.
An animation glitch has also been fixed! Fixed a bug with some
AOE abilities and spells. Formerly, if you had a dead monster targeted,
Turn Undead would fail. Now, it will work, but will be centered on you
since your selected target is dead. The same is true of other feats,
skills (Intimidate, etc.), and spells (Burning Hands, etc.), for which
the default behavior on an invalid target should be "happen, centered
on me", or "happen, aiming directly forward". NEW
- At level 6, Drow erroneously received the option to purchase an Elven
ranged combat enhancement intended for high elves only. Drow can no
longer select this enhancement. The description for the
Paladin's Lay on Hands ability has been corrected to better describe
the amount of healing/damage that the ability does. The Bard
Inspire Competence ability is now correctly flagged as a 'competence'
bonus to skills, not a 'morale' bonus as it was.

Enhancements

Warforged who take the fighter's armor
mastery enhancements will now see it affect the max dex bonus from
their armored body feat. The Divine Healing enhancement now affects warforged characters
equally effectively as non-warforged characters. The Human Improved Recovery Enhancements now will properly
increase the value of heals cast on you.

Items

NEW - When you attack most
creatures, the chance that your weapon will be damaged is now
significantly less (on average). Weapon damage chance after hitting
oozes and rust monsters has not changed. The prohibition the
Coin Lords had placed on the sale of handaxes in Stormreach has been
lifted. Handaxes now for sale in fine weapon shops near you. NEW - Docents should now always appear
properly both on your screen and on everyone else's. NEW - Removed a bug causing equipment to
be generated with race restrictions, but without setting the UMD
difficulty on the item. NEW
- Tomes and Manuals that grant statistic increases can no longer be
destroyed by monster attacks. They will instead become broken and can
be repaired. NEW - Stacks of higher level Resist
Energy potions now list the energy resistance gained (either 20 or 30
points). NEW
- Superior [ENERGY] Lore item effect descriptions now match the actual
bonuses given by these items, a 15% chance to critical for 1.5x damage
when casting a spell of the correct [ENERGY] type. There is a
new weapon effect "Vicious". This effect causes the weapon to do an
additional 2d6 of damage to the target, but also does 1d6 of damage to
the wielder. Generic Masterwork and +1 items sold in various shops around
Stormreach are no longer bind on acquire. NEW - The Grease Scroll now has the
appropriate caster level for a level 1 spell. NEW
- Fixed an issue with Bane weapons where they were not getting the
proper +N bonus to damage their specified enemy (they were getting the
+d6, just not the +1 on lesser/+2 on normal/+4 on greater). Bolts
of X Bane have had their minimum required level reduced to match Arrows
of X Bane. This change is not retroactive, but all new bane bolts found
will have the new minimum required level. Corrected a treasure
issue where some slashing weapons were generated without an intended
effect. The affected weapons will not suddenly gain a new effect but
they will retain their inflated monetary value for sale to vendors. NEW - Steel Bucklers will now have steel
hardness. The
following bane weapons will now have the appropriate attack bonus. At
the moment there is not a retroactive fix for older copies of the
weapons that do not have the bonus but we are working on one.
Kelmar's Justice
Sword of the Giant Slave-Masters
Giant Stalker's Knife
Spider Spike
Spiked Mace of the Elements
NEW
- Darkleaf Banded Mail will now actually be made out of Darkleaf. This
benefits of Darkleaf include; +1 to max dex bonus, armor skill check
penalty reduced by 2, arcane spell failure reduced by 5%, and armor is
non-metallic (which matters if a rust monster bites you). NEW
- Any new Roguebane Breastplates from Gwylan's Stand will now have a
minimum required level of 4 as well as having a higher value and
durability. NEW - The Star of Irian
that drops in Tempest's Spine is getting a makeover. All existing and
new Stars of Irian will have the Righteous effect work as described (+2
to-hit/damage vs. Evil creatures). It will no longer do an additional
1d10 damage on critical hits. Newly created Star's of Irian will have
increased durability and hardness as well as an increased minimum level
requirement. The durability change will not affect already existing
Stars. Crests will now sparkle to make them easier to see. Thrown
weapons (axes, daggers, darts, and shuriken) will now rotate
appropriately when thrown. Thrown daggers and axes now also have
streaks as they spin through the air. Elemental weapon particle FX have been toned down. The
"Protection from Chaos" effect found on the Planar Gird and the
Chaosgarde has been renamed "Chaosguard". This is to prevent confusion
with the D&D rules Protection from Chaos which includes a ward
against mental control. Our effect was never intended to include that
ward (and never has). There is no change in the actual benefits of
these items.

NPCs

Wandering NPCs (such as Altan Eguilan) should no longer slide
away while talking to players. NEW - Petra Pollister the Potion Peddler
in the Portable Hole has a new potpourri of puissant potions. NEW - Guard Joalam in the marketplace is
no longer suicidal. Summoned and charmed monsters should no longer attack Derward
Ironhill. Durk the Deranged has noticed that his friend Loghan is no longer
in the Leaky Dinghy.

PVP

Sneak attack works as follows: If the target player is helpless, sneak attack applies. If the target player is blinded, sneak attack applies. If the target player is asleep, sneak attack applies. If the target player is stunned, sneak attack applies. If the target player is bluffed, sneak attack applies. If the target player is dazed, sneak attack applies. If the target player is flanked, sneak attack applies. In PvP arenas only, inflict wounds spells can be used to heal
friendly undead.

Quests

NEW - It should no longer be possible to
find an empty chest in a low level adventure in solo mode. Fixed a problem where some floor puzzle tiles weren't lighting up
when they should have. NEW - Arzag-Khor Sewers Several
new champions of the Arzag-Khor have joined them in their sewers. These
are powerful warriors who have the potential to be guarding new special
equipment. /
NEW - Black Anvil Mines
Duergar survey crew should no longer respawn.
NEW - The Butchers Path
A secret door that wasn't so secret has been fixed - players
will now need to use the search skill to locate the secret door.
NEW - Catacombs
The final fight in the Catacombs has been made more
challenging.
NEW - Delera's Tomb
Charmed monsters should no longer prevent progression through
the dungeon.
NEW - Den of the Kobold Brothers
Balanced
the treasure tables on the chests in the Den of the Kobold Brothers to
be more in line with dungeons of similar length and difficulty.
Garl's Tomb
Old Grey Garl will no longer fall through his hatch while
fighting you.
Ghola-Fan's Compound
The
chest in the Iron Golem training room inside Ghola-Fan's Compound will
no longer pickable to help prevent quest completion issues. NEW
- The ogres under the instruction of Master Tar-Lom will now attack
those who seek to rain missiles down on them from above, instead of
sitting around wondering what to do. Haunted Library
The floor puzzle in the Haunted Library now requires that all
4 runes be lit at the same time in order to open the door.
NEW - Hidden Chapel The experience granted for completing "Purge the Heretics"
has been increased. NEW - Hiding in Plain Sight Fix an issue with unintentional respawns in the end room of
Hiding in Plain Sight. NEW - Irestone Inlet
If you use a tar keg and don't have a powder keg, the tar keg
will remain useable.
Osgood's Basement
Some breakables in this dungeon were not counting towards the
XP bonus for number of breakables smashed. This has been fixed.
The Pit NEW - The experience granted for this
dungeon has been raised dramatically. NEW
- A powerful and well equipped conjurer is rumored to have been killed
in the Pit. Wonder if the slimes have left any of her equipment intact… NEW - The third furnace room is now more
friendly to players. Made some changes to the Pit's instruction manual - Step 9 is a
little bit difference since the final objective has changed. Redfang's Nesting Ground
More spikes are now disabled by the control panel in the
spike-trapped room, creating a wider "safe path" for travel.
Restless Isles
We have added another encounter. The locked gates in the tunnels beneath the isles can now be
picked with a high enough dc roll.
NEW - Ruins of Threnal
We've
made some changes to the giant caves in the Ruins of Threnal adventure
area to balance and spread out the loot across all 3 of the caves. Each
cave will now have 1 chest at the end of it which will give level
appropriate loot. The chest at the end of the Gate of the Black
Moon has been re-added. Also, the door that Kharvos Valadan opens at
the end of the Southern Threnal Ruins quest will close after a time and
will not reopen. NEW - It is no longer possible to
"miss" the first giant encounter in the Threnal Ruins. Sharpwood's Warehouse
The enemies will no longer respawn. NEW - Shrouded Vale
Shrouded Vale now properly acts as an adventure area and not
an individual quest. The cart will now take you back to Phiarlan.
Sorrowdusk Island
NEW - The Rest Shrine in Grey Moon
Den is open for business again. NEW
- After players complete "Cult of the Six" by speaking to Lord Hragg,
they can revisit Bruku the Elder to repeat the "Cult of the Six" quest
without also repeating "Grey Moon Waning." The puzzle wheels at the end of the Fane of the Six now work
correctly. NEW
- The chests at the very end of the Cult of Six quest series will now
only spawn after both the Fire Reaver and the Idol have been destroyed. The 2 floor puzzles in Sorrowdusk Temple now require that all
3 of their runes be lit at the same time to complete the puzzle. NEW - You can now carry the Libram
of the Six out of the dungeon and Hragg will take it from you. Splinterskull
Chief Ungurz will now offer an option to repeat the
Splinterskull quest arc.
NEW – The Sunken Sewer
Reworked the final encounter in this dungeon to prevent
players from getting stuck while fighting the boss.
Tempest Spine
The
"Bridge to the Inevitable" gate trap will now open after 3 minutes to
prevent parties from getting stuck should someone run ahead, trigger
the trap, and then die.
NEW - Three Barrel Cove
Previously,
Lars Riflee would behave as if you had already done his quest before if
you had done the Sunken Sewer quest, not his. This has been fixed.
NEW – Troglodyte Clutch
More XP will be awarded for the optional objectives of
Freshen the Air. The
Troglodyte Shamans were not getting along with each other. Some have
left the clutch entirely while others simply put some distance between
themselves and their brethren. As a consequence, Harven Gralak now
requires fewer Troglodyte Shaman to be killed. When the shamans left, the troglodyte tribe enlisted the aid
of some kobolds to fill in the gaps in their ranks. Adventurers
weary from battle with the Troglodytes now have a place to rest, but
the clock's still ticking, so they shouldn't dawdle! The
Troglodytes have cleared a hallway and expanded their lair to include
room for their breeding grounds. Rumor has it that an especially rank
Troglodyte, Matriarch Sishliss, has taken up residence there, fiercely
guarding her eggs and treasure. Doggart now requires
adventurers to meet him at the exit before he will declare the job
done, and he won't let you leave without clearing both the vents and
the source of the troglodyte infestation.
Twilight Forge
The dogs in the boss fight will now stop respawning after the
mind flayer boss is killed. Made the locked chest in Twilight Forge easier to open.
NEWVault of Night
Plane of Night
It should no longer be possible to fall through the
intact bridges in the Plane of Night dragon encounter.
Prison of the Mind
Monsters should no longer fall off Prison of the Mind.
A rest shrine has been added to Prison of the Mind. Vault of Night Rest shrines have been added to this dungeon to help
weary travelers.
NEW - The Waterworks
Guard
Branson's dialog now correctly indicates that there is a level
requirement not a favor requirement to get the "Invasion" storyquest.
Wavecrest Tavern
Kobolds will no longer attack you through doors in the
Basement.

Under Development

These items are currently in development and are scheduled for some
time after Module 3.



Quests

NEW - Black Anvil Mines
When you take this quest, the mapnote will update to indicate
you need to use the cart to go to the Black Anvil Forest.

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