Arelith

Live Next Reset
============

From Xerah
==========
Gear changes (new and existing)
• Padded Vestments of the Holy Squire [From +4 DEX to +2 DEX]
• Fine Elven Boots [From +2 DEX to +1 DEX]
• Disciple’s Garb [From +2 WIS and +4 Discipline to +1 WIS and +2 Discipline]
• Armour of Immolation [From +5 Discipline to +2 Discipline]
• Duelist’s Cape [From +3 Discipline to +2 Discipline]
• Piker’s Ring [From +4 Discipline to +3 Discipline]
• Aspirant Sash [From +2 WIS to +1 WIS]
• Disciple’s Wraps [From +2 WIS to +1 WIS]
• Aspect Beads [From +4AC vs Chaos to -1 AC]

Rogue Grenade Changes:
Acid/Fire bomb
Old
Damage = target [10 + rogue / 2]d6 + splash [1 + rogue/3]d6
NEW
Damage = target [10 + rogue / 4]d6 + splash [1 + rogue/6]d6
Fire/Acid flask
Old
Damage = target [1 + rogue / 2]d6 + splash [1 + rogue/3]d6
NEW
Damage = target [1 + rogue / 4]d6 + splash [0 + rogue/6]d6

From Kenji
=========
Existing Yuan-tis should now be immune to poison again.
Yuan-tis, Duergars, and Imps should now have Venom Immunity feat instead of Diamond Body feat. 11+ monks with the aforementioned races will have both.

Devil's Table Leadership
========================

- The Devil's Table is now lead by a single entity for upcoming elections. The old three person system is still in effect for this leadership period and will go to a single leader next called election.

From Zaphiel:
-------------
(LIVE NEXT RESET ON PGCC)
Invisible Blade Changes:
* Improved Bleeding Wound (Passive):
Critical hits now leaves 1 stack of bleeding wound. (You don't need to activate Improved Bleeding Wound for this.)
* DC for removing bleeding wound by healing kits reduced from 35 to 25.
* Crippling throw gets +3 DC if it was a sneak attack.
* Unfettered Defense now grants +1 deflection AC per INT modifier. Capped with class levels.
* Removed 6 spot pre-requisite.
* Removed mobility feat pre-requisite.
* Can now benefit from class bonuses while wearing light armor.
* Uncanny Feint:
Every two round Invisible Blade will make a sleight of hand skill check vs his current opponent's discipline.
Upon success, opponent will lose 2 AC. If invisible blade changes his opponent, old opponent will gain his AC back.
If invisible blade fails a check after a successful check, opponent will regain his lost AC.
(And no, 5 Invisible Blade feinting same opponent will not result in -10AC. It still going to be -2AC.)

(Not every single detail will be explained here as this is already too much text for a huge update. And as always with a big update like this expect bugs and things to change as we tweak going forward. For reference, the words "square," "grid square," and "tile" will be used interchangeably below with regards to the new Naval Grid.)

Before jumping into the update notes I wanna give a huge thanks to Bat Country for initially coming up with the grid idea and helping out shaping the system. Also Irongron for helping out as well and brainstorming new ideas for this.

Here's a link to the update on the website:
http://nwnarelith.com/index.php/news-list/high-seas

Ship System 2.0
The Ship System has been completely overhauled. Although there will many elements players will recognize, most of it has changed one way or another. The biggest change here is the move to the Naval Grid, with ships having a physical location on the grid itself to navigate on.

The grid represents the area of the Trackless Sea surrounding Arelith, with Arelith in its center grid square. Arelith's square ("Origin," at 0,0) is considered "safe-waters," and within here you can travel to all Arelith-specific ports as before and still encounter some events like NPC vessels and Locations. However, any Player vs Player ship interaction is disabled within this center-tile.

Outside of the Origin square, we have the wider Trackless Sea: here Ships can now navigate a large grid with fixed landmarks and encounter random events based on the region of the map the ship is currently located at.

The CR of these events will increase with further distance from Arelith at the center. Sailing deep waters is now consistently dangerous, but can also be rewarding as some encounters will only be found so far from friendly coasts.

Player vs Player Ship Combat
The Trackless Sea is open for Player vs Player ship combat, but any direct interaction between ships can only be done if their locations are close enough to each other.

Ships are only valid targets to another ship if they fail a Hide check, and are physically close to one another on the grid. Furthermore, hostile actions such as Grappling and Ship Weaponry are only allowed if a target ship is within 1-tile distance (non-diagonal) of one's current location.

If a ship is diagonal from another ship's location, it may be spotted and one can scout its direction to try and pursue it but it can't be engaged by any hostile means until pursued and directly adjacent again.

Traversing The Naval Grid
When sailing outside of Arelith on the Trackless Sea you must choose a Cardinal Direction to move your ship towards. This will move your position between tiles on the map and the duration it takes to travel 1 tile in distance depends on a number of factors:
* A straight Cardinal Direction (North, South, East and West) will have a shorter duration than moving Diagonally (South-West, North-East etc).
* Ship's base Speed skill
* Weather
* Upgrades
* Ship Health

When reaching a new Tile on the map the ship will continue to travel along its given direction automatically and you have to order it to stop in that tile if you wish to stay there. As explaiend above some tiles offers unique landmarks
and events so staying there is always a valid option. The Ship's Navigator lets you plot a Direction.

Spyglass / Vicinity
Another new feature is the Spyglass option. This option lists everything your ship has spotted and found in the surrounding area. It can be a Landmark, Random Event or another Player Ship.

Landmarks are fixed and always spotted when in the same tile and can be docked at (ex.: Red Dragon Island).

Random Events are just that, random, and are based on Tile and Distance from the center tile of Arelith.

Player ship spotting mechanic takes a few things into consideration such as:
* Ship's base Hide skill
* Weather
* How the ship is moving
* Ship Health
* Docked or not

The Spyglass can be accessed from the Navigator and the Navigator will also report any findings each tick.

Ship Weaponry
Some ships can now hold ship weapons. Smaller ships are unable to use weapons but larger ones can and this comes in 4 Tiers:

* Tier 1 - Light Ballista
* Tier 2 - Heavy Ballista
* Tier 3 - Mangonel
* Tier 4 - Bombard

Ships have a Max Tier strength in how weapons can be deployed on them. For instance a Ship with a Max Tier of 3 can hold a Mangonel but not a Bombard. Alternatively It could also hold 3 Light Ballistas (Tier 1) that together becomes a total of a Tier 3 or 1 Light Ballista and 1 Heavy Ballista. This offers different loadouts one can experiment with. The penalty of using weapons on a ship is losing speed. For each Tier strength a ship will lose 7% speed, so a fully maxed weapon loadout at Tier 4 would give a 4 x 7 = 28% penalty to Ship's Speed.

Weapons behaves like fixtures and you simply place them on the Deck of a Ship to make use of them. Each weapon has its own type of projectile that is required to fire them. Valid targets are spotted within a straight, non-diagonal, vicinity of the ship as already explained.

You can always grapple a ship that is within vicinity but the more Health and Speed a target ship has the more difficult it will be to grapple it. Why its always better to weaken a ship first with weapons before grappling.

Upgrades
A ship can be upgraded by spending resources and gold at a Shipwright NPC. Higher Tiers require more rare and sometimes very unique resources or items. Currently we only have two upgrades:
* Hull - Increases a Ship's Hitpoints
* Sails - Increases a Ship's Speed

Rentable ships are excluded from this for now.

Ship Destruction
A ship can be destroyed and sink if its Health goes below 0. When this happens all players on board the ship will fall into the sea much like the "Jump Overboard" feature. A destroyed ship is useless until the next server reset where it will be brought back again. However, the penalty of losing a ship will also decrease all its Upgrades by 1 Tier and destroy any deployed weapons on deck.

You can repair your ship's hull at a Shipwright NPC.

Ship Abilities
Some ships have unique abilities that can be triggered from the Navigator. If a Ship has multiple abilities the cooldown of all abilities will be the last ability activated. Only one ability can be activated at a time. (Ex.: a "Horn Blast" which provides minor buffs to the attacking crew and debuffs to the defending crew.)

Persistant Locations
Ships are now storing their location persistently by Landmark or Dock. Meaning each time a ship reach a new harbor (Not random Location Events) it will spawn there next reset. Rentable ships are excluded from this.

Weather
The weather will change depending on region of the Trackless Sea a ship is currently located at: e.g colder in the North, warmer in the South. Weather has a large impact on many features of the Ship System. For instance a thick fog will make it more difficult to spot ships and target them and tailwind will increase the speed of a ship.

Most ships now have a map placable one can use. Interacting with this map lets you view the Trackless Sea grid and the ship's current location on this grid.

Skiffs
Skiff mechanics has been changed; instead of spawning a useable skiff for each ship at a location there is now instead a useable Dock placeable that everyone can use and it will list all ships currently anchored at this dock. Skiffs will still spawn but instead in the surrounding water purely for immersion purposes. Reason for this is several but mainly because its starting to get crowded with skiff spots and they always caused bugs one way or another mainly by pathfinding issues.

Here's a list of other, smaller, features in this update:
* Ship communication - Ships on the same tile (Outside of the center origin tile) can use the Shout channel to communicate with eachother.
* Cruisers - A new type of NPC controlled ship allowing journeys between two ports. Will see an introduction later this month probably.
* Navy Intel - Has been removed completley, its not used anymore as it doesnt fit the context of the new system.
* Critical Ship Alerts will now alert players below deck or in other areas linked to a ship.
* In general the feedback of the system has been greatly improved, e.g texts and highlights and statuses.
* Prepared for Undrenzee update
* Some new Event Locations. Wish I could've do more of these but this was taking too much time already.
* The full Sencliff estate has been opened to all who wear the ink, with certain amenities only available once you have reached the required rank.

Also live next reset
============
From Zaphiel:
-------------
* Trueflame sorcerer that is multi-classed with wild mage can no longer trigger wild surge(s).
* GSF: Transmutation's teleport ability now should correctly appear on -cooldown (-cd) list.

also from AR
-animal language will be limited to 25 characters like sign & thieves cant. No more esoteric conversations among the birds and bees. Embrace monke and hoot your meaning simply.

Next reset,

* Bunch of bug fixes related to the Ship update has been squashed. Let me know if things are still not working properly or seem off.
* Rentable Ships are now allowed Upgrades as well!

Live Next Reset
=============

From Garrbear
============
Hexblade Rework

New Spells
1: Shield, negative energy ray
2:
3: Negative energy burst
4: Shadow conjuration, haste
NOTES: Hexblade had little reason to invest in casting previously. The addition of these spells will add some flavor along with giving the class some more useful options with their spellcasting.

-Change the base hex effect to -AC
NOTES: This, along with the lower requirements for the bonus feats, will provide some incentive to dip hexblade rather than leaving it only viable for heavy investments.

-PreEpic Bonus Feats: 5, 10, 15, 20
-Epic Bonus Feats: 23, 26, 29
-Hex and Curse Weapon moved to level 2
-Curse of Blood granted for free at level 6

-All hex abilities will scale at 1 (3% if percentage based) per 5 hexblade levels (minimum 1) unless noted otherwise
-All damage except curse of sacrifice (magical) will be a damage increase effect that now works with critical hits (flat 2 damage, unaffected by damage resistance or damage immunity/vulnerability). Hex of duality and hex of elemental decay will increase this damage by a flat +1 for each damage effect in addition to their normal effect of damage vulnerability.
-Curse of Duality requires 15 str
-Hex of Duality / Hex of Elemental Decay require 17 str
-Removed the pure class DI
-Added a new curse which grants DI (curse of life) at the same scaling as the hex abilities (3%/5 lvls)
-Curse of Life requires 13 str.
-Change curse of neglect to do physical vulnerability (previously AC), min level 23
-remove level requirement from curse of sacrifice
-1 more max spell known and spell/day for each spell level
-Hex cooldown lowered to 2 turns
-Prevent hex debuffs from being removed by lesser restoration. Hex will still be removed by restoration
-Maledictum of Worms removed from selectable feat list. It will be available from a FOIG location for PCs with at least 25 levels in hexblade. This is not yet implemented, and will be added and announced in a separate update.

-Curse Weapon lasts 24 hours and can be cast unlimited times per day. It will automatically apply to offhand weapons. Repeated casts will not stack. The effects of curse weapon will be removed when the item is unequipped.

-Various VFX changes.
NOTE: ALL VFX INVOLVING HEXBLADE IS FOIG. IF YOU DISCOVER SOME NEW THINGS SOMEWHERE, PLEASE DO NOT SPOIL THEM FOR OTHERS OOC.

Developer Notes:
Hexblade was very strong in regards to DPS in PVE, but fell behind in mostly every other area. These changes will make spellcasting useful for it, make it more survivable and better able to multiclass, and give more synergy with strength builds and anything relying on crits. Additionally, they allow for lower level investments to be more viable. A 5 level dip for example can give you -1 AC with Hex, dark blessing, proficiencies, and 4 unresistable damage via curse of Duality.

From Zaphiel:
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* Invisible Blade hit die reduced to d8 from d10.

From Bat Country
================
- All inter-server transitions that were broken (Andunor-Abyss, various Astrolabe destinations, etc.) should be fixed. Many goats were sacrificed for this... please don't make me kill again.
- Significant mist reduction across the entire Plane of Shadow should help improve FPS for folks. Let us know in the Feedback thread if there are still significant performance issues with the remaining mist.

--------------------------------------

Hexblades will get a relevel but rebuilds will not be offered at this time

If you did not get your relevel as hexblade, reconnect and it will be granted to you

There was an error in updating the feat descriptions for the new Hexblade. Curse of Draining is Curse of Life, and some of the descriptions are inaccurate. The feats will still work properly, but if you encounter any issues please post them on the bug reports section of the forum. The descriptions will be fixed in the next day or so. Thank you for your patience

Hexblade releveling should be fixed, at max you should get one more relevel if you are transitioning away from surface.

- QoL Feature added: When engaging a Sea event a ship's destination progress (if any) won't be reset anymore. Instead when speaking to the Navigator again you will be prompted if you wish to carry on with your voyage where you last left off.

- Sextant added: Use this tool (Requires INT) on a ship to determine an approximate time left remaining to a destination or quadrant.

From Spyre:
===========

- Loot drops have been fixed for bones. There should only be one type of bone now being dropped now and all recipes using the incorrect bone has been updated to the correct one.
- Sylvan and Gnoll phrasebooks added to appropriate loot drops.

Should be live next reset:
From ActionReplay & Anatida:
4 new craftable Siege Weapons/Ship upgrades with 4 tiers of projectiles for each.

Siege Weapon - Light Ballista (Carpentry):
- Heavy Crossbow
- Hardwood 2
- Iron ingot(s) 2
- Hardening Finish 1

Siege Weapon - Heavy Ballista (Carpentry):
- Masterly Heavy Crossbow
- Rare Hardwood 3
- Steel ingot(s) 2
- Hardening Finish 1

Siege Weapon - Mangonel (Carpentry):
- Rare Hardwood 1
- Hardwood 2
- Animal sinew 5
- Steel Ingot(s) 2
- Brass Gears 4

Siege Weapon - Bombard (Smithing):
- Rare Hardwood 2
- Hardwood 2
- Iron Ingots 4
- Alchemist's Fire 2
==============================
Siege Projectile - Javelin (Smithing):
- 4 coal
- 4 Hardwood
- 2 Bronze ingot

Siege Projectile - Javelin +1 (Smithing):
- Javelin
- 1 Iron Ingots

Siege Projectile - Javelin +2 (Smithing):
- Javelin
- 1 Steel Ingots

Siege Projectile - Javelin +3 (Smithing):
- Javelin
- 1 Greensteel Ingots

Siege Projectile - Heavy Javelin (Smithing):
- 8 Coal
- 8 Hardwood
- 2 Iron Ingots

Siege Projectile - Heavy Javelin +1 (Smithing):
- Heavy Javelin
- 1 Steel Ingots

Siege Projectile - Heavy Javelin +2 (Smithing):
- Heavy Javelin
- 1 Silver Ingots

Siege Projectile - Heavy Javelin +3 (Smithing):
- Heavy Javelin
- 1 Greensteel Ingots

Siege Projectile - Firepots (Art Crafting):
- 6 Granite
- 8 Flask of Oil

Siege Projectile - Firepots +1 (Art Crafting):
- Firepot
- 5 Gem Dust Fire Opal

Siege Projectile - Firepots +2 (Art Crafting):
- Firepot
- 10 Gem Dust Fire Opal

Siege Projectile - Firepots +3 (Art Crafting):
- Firepot
- 20 Gem Dust Fire Opal
- 1 Alchemist's Catalyst (Lesser)

Siege Projectile - Powder Stone (Alchemy):
- 6 Granite
- 4 Fire Bomb

Siege Projectile - Powder Stone +1 (Alchemy):
- Powder Stone
- 5 Gem Dust Topaz

Siege Projectile - Powder Stone +2 (Alchemy):
- Powder Stone
- 10 Gem Dust Topaz

Siege Projectile - Powder Stone +3 (Alchemy):
- Powder Stone
- 15 Gem Dust Topaz
- 1 Alchemist's Catalyst (Lesser)

From Zaphiel:
-------------
Invisible Blade
* Reduced Sleight of Hand rank requirement to 6 from 8.

From Bat Country
================
- Blackguard Bull's Strength fixed to more reliably refresh for its cooldown, give the correct STR bonus, and buff any BG summon.
- A few more inter-server transition fixes as we track down the remaining rogue ones.
- Torches can now be fully enchanted (with stat bonuses etc.) at Dweomercraft basins.

Live after servers come back up
=========
From Anatida & Bat Country, with very honorable mentions for R0gue

This huge and exciting QoL update has been in the works for some time, adding new/updated inventory icons (1,145 total), many with corresponding models when dropped in the world. This includes gems, grenade-likes, healing kits, containers, and all miscellaneous small/thin/medium/large items. The icons and models themselves are both sourced from the Vault (and cleaned up/customized as necessary), as well as brand-new, original assets available only on Arelith. No more wondering which of the four items you’ve picked up that all share the same icon!

Distinguishing icons and models for all raw gems and gem dust!


As well as, metal ores and ingots.


This overhaul also splits "Miscellaneous" items into multiple baseitem categories both for ease of organization and for building on future updates, and allowing more granular control over item weights, the sounds when picked up/moved in inventory, and other quality of life features and polish.

Because of this, old items from before this update will not automatically change over to the new icons, nor will they stack with new items. These old versions will eventually fall out of circulation, and all new resources gathered/items crafted will use new icons where appropriate, and loot items will be updated over time with the new appearances.

NOTE: If you are able to place the item in a storage bag, then you will be able to remove it with the new item appearance. This will permit stacking for raw materials that can be placed in such a bag.

All crafting recipes will accept either the old or new items.

And speaking of bags; how about being able to visually differentiate them?


Further details on this update can be found on the Announcements forum post, here.

Just a few more pictures:







From Kenji:

Herbalist bags are here!

From Bat Country
================
- Underdark Writ "The Settlers" fixed, can now be completed again.

From Zaphiel:
-------------
* Bull's Strength problem with Caster Blackguards is now fixed. (viewtopic.php?f=12&t=30952)

Invisible Blade Changes

* Invisible Blade can now benefit from class bonuses if wielding a class weapon and off-hand is empty.
* Invisible Blade levels now stacks with Rogue levels for "Lightly Armored" bonus.
* Invisible Blade levels now contributes to cooldown reduction of Blinding Speed.
* Crippling Throw DC calculation changed to (Invisible Blade levels * 2) + INT modifier + (Sleight of Hands / 3). It was Invisible Blade levels + INT modifier + (Sleight of Hands / 3) before.
* Crippling Throw now applies 3 bleeding wound stacks and 25% movement speed decrease without reflex save. Reflex save is still rolled and upon fail, duration is extended to 2 rounds and also slow effect is applied.

From Anatida/Bat Country
================
Ongoing rollout of new items/icons in loot and shops:
- Many treasure chests and enemy types will now drop new versions of items. We will continue rolling this out.
- All UD merchants (Andunor, Great Grotto, misc.) have had their inventories updated with new items/icons.
- All Skaljard merchants have had their inventories updated with new items/icons. The rest of Skal is coming Soon.

- Ingot and ore weights fixed (9 lb -> 4 lb).
- Alchemist's Fire available at merchants.
- Misc other fixes.

From Bat Country
================
- Added a scroll sell option to Ragnvald the Scribe at the Skaljard Village Trade Post.
- Removed Ooze Tubes (and similar summoning items) from the Oozemaster. They can be found as chest loot.
- Added a new type of candy to the Oozemaster while I was at it because I'm just that nice.

Darrowdeep
------------------

Visual update to the interior areas of Castle Darrowdeep.


From Anatida:

- Cordor & Planes merchants and static containers (such as paper barrels) have been updated to use the new item categories, icons, and models.

(Live from Next Reset)

Live Now
=======
From Zaphiel:
-------------
Invisible Blade
* Unfettered Defense now grants +1 deflection AC bonus per base int modifier + 1. Cannot exceed class level. And it is capped with 4.
* After further discussion among team, Invisible Blade no longer reduces cooldown of Blinding Speed and it doesn't stack with rogue levels for rogue's "Lightly Armored" bonus.

New Castle Added - The Spires Citadel.
--------------------------------------------------------

Details on our News Feed

- Please note that this is a rework and large expansion of the 'Base Camp Tower' area, and while it intended for the Castle Brokerage in Mayfields bids will not begin until the new year to give the current owners a chance to prepare funds meet with interested settlements if they wish to retain ownership.

As well as a vastly improved and expanded area the castle includes a number of new merchants, henchmen, and a library with Printing Press.

Starting Gear
-------------------

On Arelith characters begin with different items in accordance with their selected class. I have added the infrastructure so that this will now also be possible with our custom classes - Shaman, Favored Soul, Hexblade & Swashbuckler

Details also on our News Feed

From Zaphiel:
-------------
(ON NEXT RESET)

* On-Hit Ability rework is now available on live servers.
* Invisible Blade is now available on live servers.

----------------------

From Zaphiel & Irongron

Pickpocket Rework
----------------------------

* Pickpocket skill renamed as Sleight-of-hand.

Skill Description:
Sleight-of-hand (also known as prestidigitation) refers to fine motoric skills of the wrist, hand and fingers, when used by performing artists in different art forms to entertain or manipulate. It is closely associated with card magic, grifting, and stealing.

A character developing ranks in this skill may use it to pick pockets, steal from NPC shops, cheat at card and dice games (With "Loaded Die" or "Spare Deck" Items) and unlock certain conversation options..

* Vanilla pickpocket is completely disabled. New pickpocket ability can be found under class radial. You still need to be trained to use it.

* It is no longer possible to pickpocket items from players only exception of keys. (Keys in keyrings cannot be pickpocket.) Golds can still be pickpocketed. Gold gain is increased and uses following calculation to determine gold amount: D(victim's level * 100). So pickpocketing a 30 level character will result in D3000 gold. If victim doesn't have enough coins, remaining gold will be reduced from victim's bank account. NOTE: This isn't actually intended as gold being lost from the bank account, but rather a representation of having lost expensive scarves, lockets, etc, all those things you're character might be carrying that aren't actual valued, and often irreplaceable inventory items, which was previously the case with this ability.

* Pickpocketed players will receive a notification that they have been pickpocketed after a 60-120s delay.

* Pickpocket is made against the target's Spot skill, if the thief is detected making an attempt, he cannot steal.

* It is no longer possible to pickpocket same character in 24 hour. This means if you pickpocketed Billy, you cannot pickpocket again for 24 hours. This is now enforced with code as well.

* Successful pickpockets against the same character will reduce the gold stolen for successive pickpockets. Eventually, the victim character will not provide any reward to pickpocketers. Every in-game day will gradually increase the gold available.

* You now only need to carry a single blade orb for a (low, but reasonable) base chance of intercepting any successful pickpocket attempt. However, carrying additional blade orbs (even stacked) will further increase this chance.

* Nearby players can now detect any pickpocket attempt from distance with a penalty. It is a spot of observer vs Sleight-of-hand of pickpocketer check. Observer character needs to be within 20 meters of pickpocket victim. Or cannot attempt to detect a pickpocket attempt.

* Pickpocketing hostile NPCs remains same, there is no change done to it.

* Pickpocketing non-hostile NPCs is completely changed and will result in good rewards compared to old system. A pickpocketed NPC cannot be pickpocketed by anyone again for 1 game day. (You will still need to do pickpocket attempt to determine whether NPC was pickpocketed by someone else with the chance of being detected.) Failing a pickpocket attempt will make NPC shout about they being pickpocketed and will put them into wary state. Every failed pickpocket attempt will increase the wariness level of NPC. DC for Sleight-of-hand check will increase based on current wariness level of NPC. Wariness of a NPC will decrease every 1 game day.

Also, failing a pickpocket attempt means pickpocketer is detected by the NPC (same for players).

* If the pickpocket target NPC has a shop, the pickpocketer will attempt to steal an item from shop with a delay between 1 - 10 rounds, continuously (while in this action, you cannot enter to stealth. And moving will cancel the theft process). Upon successful check and stealing the first item, DC for further Sleight-of-hand checks will increase and pickpocketer will receive a random item from the shop.

On any failure, the NPC will shout an alarm. If the NPC belongs to a nation, the pickpocketer will lose access to all merchants of that nation until next reset. Also, if the pickpocketer comes near the merchant that he failed the steal attempt against, NPC will shout about the thief again. Bluff or stealth can help to bypass this.

(It is still pickpocket attempt, I just worded it as steal attempt because it made more sense to me since you are dealing with merchant.)

* New command -observe added. It allows you to observe a character. While observing a character, you get +20 to your spot check for detecting your observation target's pickpocket attempt. Only one character can be observed at any time. Entering this command will put you into targeting mode. Then you just need to select the target you want to observe.


* Characters with 15 base Sleight-of-hand ranks can decide to use loaded die in dice table. They need to have "Loaded Dice" item in their inventory of course. Each ranks in Sleight-of-hand skill gives you 1% chance to swap regular die with loaded ones. This chance cannot exceed 95%. If success, you will able to set desired rolls for two die. In case of success, everyone that is in your 5 meters will roll a spot check against your Sleight-of-hand ranks to detect the dice swap. -observe command will work for this spot check as well and there is no distance penalty.

* Characters will able to cheat on card game with "Spare Deck" item. This is not implemented yet.


New Weapon – Throwing Daggers (Soon)

* Due to current limitations on NWN it is not possible to add in a new throwing weapon type, even with HAKs. On other servers this has only be done by overwriting (and thus losing) an existing ranged weapon.

However due to how we structure weapon proficiencies into groups on Arelith this is not necessary for us to introduce throwing daggers. Until such time as the base game is updated to allow custom content of this kind, we will be adding throwing daggers as an ALTERNATIVE APPEARANCE for darts. They will still show up on their own recipes, loot item, and in shops. They will have the same base stats as darts, but any bonus damage applied from weapon tier (steel, damask etc) will be slashing damage. They may also appear in thematic loot drops.

From Garrbear:

-Hex duration lowered to 30 seconds. Cooldown also lowered to 30 seconds.
-Fixed all descriptions and feat names for hexblade.
-Curse of sacrifice now properly doesn't have a level requirement.

Developer notes: Hex still had little incentive to invest in it due to the relatively long cooldown making it useless after someone uses restoration. This shorter duration means it'll have more uptime, and it will sting less if it gets restored or -prayed away.

Illegal Characters
==================

- Characters should no longer get deleted on creation. The issue has been resolved as far as I can see. If there are further issues, please update the bug thread.

Jewellery Boxes
===============

- These should function again as before. We resolved the issue where the item's tag was not what the code was expecting. Please report any further issues. Those with bugged boxes are still requested to contact the DMs for a replacement.

From Zaphiel:
* Blackguard's Bull Strength now should stack with Bull's Strength as how it is used to be.
* For pickpocket action, we have reverted the new feat addition to class radial. You can use the pickpocket action as how it was in vanilla version. It will still follow the new pickpocket rework changes. You will need to assign "Sleight-of-hand" action to toolbar by clicking an empty slot. It can be found under "Assign Other Actions" radial.

Pickpocketing hostile NPCs doesn't grant EXP currently. I will fix it soon.

Next reset:

* Spyglass Item added
Can be used on the Deck of a Ship and allows the user to select a spotted Vessel in the vicinity to Assess.
The user must make a Spot skill check to reveal further information about a Vessel. Failing the check reveals basic information.
Succeeding the check reveals the Vessel's Speed (vs your own Ship), Hull Integrity, Number of Players on Deck and what weapons are deployed on the Vessel. Can be bought from the Trading Ship merchant.

* Siege projectiles can now be split into stacks without issue.
This only works on newly crafted Projectiles or bought from the Trading Ship merchant. Older projectiles won't work anymore. Ask a DM to have them replaced for you.

* Shipwrights now display Max weapon capacity of a Vessel
* Doing some minor bug fixes to the new Sunken City dungeon
* Travel time has been reduced when leaving Arelith / Center tile
* Travel time has been reduced when sailing on the Center tile between Destinations.
* Fixing Siege Weapon Sounds

Live next reset
===========
From Hoodoo

Recommends enabled for all. Only 30/40RPRs can raise 10s to 20s still, however

From Zaphiel:
* Shadowdancer's Summoned Shadow can no longer be dispelled.
* Blackguard's Summon can no longer be dispelled.

From Bat Country
================
- Jotun, Roushoum, and Xanalress can now be used as the basis for player-applied runes. (Note that randomly-generated runic loot still won't use these languages.)

From Zaphiel & Anatida:
====================
44 new weapon VFX (may not be available on all new custom weapons)

For a closer look:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... rEEbeFK9-w

From Aellowyn:
=============
2 new full face-covering hoods for all races

From Aniel
=========

Earthkin Defender update on PGCC only:

Class progression changed to the following:
1: Defensive Stance, Dodge, Class Feat
2: Earthkin Resilience
4: Class Feat
7: Class Feat
9: Evasion
10: Class Feat
11: Epic Earthkin Defender
13: Epic Class Feat
15: Armor Skin
16: Epic Class Feat
19: Epic Class Feat

The standard DR scaling has been removed. Earthkin Resilience grants 1 DR per 2 levels instead.

Defensive Stance: It has been changed to +1 AB, +2 dodge AC, +2 uni saves, and temporary health equal to double the character's earthkin defender levels. In addition the movement speed penalty is substantially less than it was before.

Epic Earthkin Defender: The feat grants an additional +2 DR and further reduces the movement speed penalty of Defensive Stance.

Class feats can only be spent on a special pool of Earthkin Defender feats. The majority of these feats have three tiers to them, the THIRD tier will always cost an epic feat. In addition there are a few epic feats independent of the tiered options. Bonuses will be displayed in the format of 1/2/3 in regards to what the benefit is depending on the tier.

Class feats:
Iron Stance: Prerequisite: Constitution 15. The benefits of Defensive Stance are replaced with +2 AB, +4 dodge AC, +4 uni saves, and temporary health equal to quadruple the Earthkin Defender's class level. Defensive Stance's speed is decreased by this feat.

Safeguard: Prerequisite: Constitution 15. All other allies (not the Earthkin Defender) are granted 10/15/20 physical damage immunity and 0/16/26 SR for 24 seconds. This ability has a 2 minute cooldown.

Debilitating Strike: Prerequisite: Strength 15. Make a melee touch attack at -12/-8/-4 AB against a target. On a successful hit the target's movement speed is decreased by 25% for 3 rounds. At the third tier the target will make a fortitude saving throw (with spellcraft) vs. a DC equal to half of the Earthkin Defender's levels + strength modifier + 20. On a failed save the target is affected by the Slow spell instead for 3 rounds.

Banner: Prerequisite: Charisma 13. Deploy a stationary fragile banner that will stand for 60 seconds. Allies within its radius receive +1/+2/+3 AB, +1/+2/+3 Uni, +10/+16/+26 SR, +1/+2/+3 to all skills, +1/+2/+3 damage, and +10%/+20%/+40% movement speed.

Mounting Resistance: Prerequisite: Constitution 15. The Earthkin Defender receives +3/+6/+9 regeneration while in Defensive Stance.


Epic Feats:

Magebane: Prerequisite: Constitution 15. The Earthkin Defender passively gains SR equal to 12 + their Earthkin Defender level.

Aegis: Prerequisite: Constitution 15. The Earthkin Defender and their allies gain temporary health equal to sextuple the Earthkin Defender’s total class level.

Deterrence: Prerequisite: Constitution 15. All other allies near the Earthkin Defender receive biteback damage. The damage is calculated by a number of d3 dice equal to the Earthkin Defender’s base constitution modifier.


Developer Commentary:

While Earthkin Defender has always been effective it has often not been a particularly exciting class. It’s slow and dated, often feeling outclassed by other options. The aim of this update is to provide more build choices and more combat options for the Earthkin Defender while making them more engaging to play.

This is still a work in progress and will spend some time on the PGCC for testing. Feedback on the forums is welcome. Numbers and balancing are not final.