Dungeons And Dragons Online: Weekly Development Activities (October 16, 2006)

Samera has posted this weeks development activies on the official forums:

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:
o /beckon
o /hug
o /flex
o /groan
o /grovel
o /kiss
o /no
o /poke
o /sigh
o /taunt
o /yes
o /cheer2
o /dance2
o /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
o The "New Mail" icon will now appear on the Focus Orb even if it is minimized.
o The "New Mail" icon will now vanish from the Focus Orb when the last NEW letter in your mailbox has been opened.
o It is no longer possible to put too much text into the Compose Mail' "To," "Subject," and "Message" fields.
o 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.
o 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
o When knocked over, the WFT will stay down longer.
o The laser can be moved more times before the power runs out.
o A crystal will keep the laser powered longer.
o The WFT's claw attack now makes less attacks per round.
o The WFT now fires less small shots per round.
o Reduced the damage on the WFT's small shots.
o Reduced the flight speed of the WFT's small shots.
o The detect boxes of falling pillars has been increased (watch out below!)
o 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
o Some mid- and high-level (mostly CR 7 and up) spiders have NEW stronger poisons.
o Most spiders on the hard and elite settings have had their attack damage reduced significantly, particularly those on the elite setting.
o Widow type spiders will once again shoot functional webs.
o NEW - Redfang - Redfang has been eating her Wheaties - her difficulty has been increased slightly to put her in line with other boss monsters.
o 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
o Slightly reduced the cooldown timer of all level 5 spells.
o The 'projectile' portion of Fireball and Ball Lightning have been sped up slightly.
o The Flaming Sphere ball of fire has been sped up slightly.
o Significantly sped up the casting time of Command to be in line with other spells of that level.
o Significantly sped up the casting time of Flame Strike.
o Significantly sped up the casting time of the Spell Resistance spell to be in line with other spells of that level.
o Significantly sped up the cast time of the sorcerer's Dimension Door spell to be in line with other spells of that level.
o Significantly increased the cooldown timer of the sorcerer's Suggestion spell to be in line with other Suggestion spells.
o 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
o 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).
o 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.
o Spiders now properly display an 'immune' message when hit with a web spell.
o Spider webs now have recurring str checks and hold players the same way the web spell does.
o Ghouls and wights can no longer run through webs freely (they were missing their entangled animations).
o 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).
o The area of webs effect has shrunk slightly to better fit the physical appearance of the web.
o 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).
o 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
o No longer consumes additional spellpoints while the Heighten spell feat is active.
o 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.
o Kelmar's Justice
o Sword of the Giant Slave-Masters
o Giant Stalker's Knife
o Spider Spike
o 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:
o If the target player is helpless, sneak attack applies.
o If the target player is blinded, sneak attack applies.
o If the target player is asleep, sneak attack applies.
o If the target player is stunned, sneak attack applies.
o If the target player is bluffed, sneak attack applies.
o If the target player is dazed, sneak attack applies.
o 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
o 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
o Duergar survey crew should no longer respawn.
* NEW - The Butchers Path
o 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
o The final fight in the Catacombs has been made more challenging.
* NEW - Delera's Tomb
o Charmed monsters should no longer prevent progression through the dungeon.
* NEW - Den of the Kobold Brothers
o 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
o Old Grey Garl will no longer fall through his hatch while fighting you.
* Ghola-Fan's Compound
o The chest in the Iron Golem training room inside Ghola-Fan's Compound will no longer pickable to help prevent quest completion issues.
o 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
o 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
o The experience granted for completing "Purge the Heretics" has been increased.
* NEW - Hiding in Plain Sight
o Fix an issue with unintentional respawns in the end room of Hiding in Plain Sight.
* NEW - Irestone Inlet
o If you use a tar keg and don't have a powder keg, the tar keg will remain useable.
* Osgood's Basement
o 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
o More spikes are now disabled by the control panel in the spike-trapped room, creating a wider "safe path" for travel.
* Restless Isles
o We have added another encounter.
o The locked gates in the tunnels beneath the isles can now be picked with a high enough dc roll.
* NEW - Ruins of Threnal
o 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.
o 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.
o NEW - It is no longer possible to "miss" the first giant encounter in the Threnal Ruins.
* Sharpwood's Warehouse
o The enemies will no longer respawn.
* NEW - Shrouded Vale
o Shrouded Vale now properly acts as an adventure area and not an individual quest.
o The cart will now take you back to Phiarlan.
* Sorrowdusk Island
o NEW - The Rest Shrine in Grey Moon Den is open for business again.
o 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."
o The puzzle wheels at the end of the Fane of the Six now work correctly.
o 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.
o 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.
o NEW - You can now carry the Libram of the Six out of the dungeon and Hragg will take it from you.
* Splinterskull
o Chief Ungurz will now offer an option to repeat the Splinterskull quest arc.
* NEW - The Sunken Sewer
o Reworked the final encounter in this dungeon to prevent players from getting stuck while fighting the boss.
* Tempest Spine
o 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
o 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
o More XP will be awarded for the optional objectives of Freshen the Air.
o 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.
o When the shamans left, the troglodyte tribe enlisted the aid of some kobolds to fill in the gaps in their ranks.
o Adventurers weary from battle with the Troglodytes now have a place to rest, but the clock's still ticking, so they shouldn't dawdle!
o 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.
o 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
o The dogs in the boss fight will now stop respawning after the mind flayer boss is killed.
o Made the locked chest in Twilight Forge easier to open.
* NEWVault of Night
o Plane of Night
+ It should no longer be possible to fall through the intact bridges in the Plane of Night dragon encounter.
o 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.
o Vault of Night
+ Rest shrines have been added to this dungeon to help weary travelers.
* NEW - The Waterworks
o Guard Branson's dialog now correctly indicates that there is a level requirement not a favor requirement to get the "Invasion" storyquest.
* Wavecrest Tavern
o 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
o When you take this quest, the mapnote will update to indicate you need to use the cart to go to the Black Anvil Forest.