Module Changes
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8686
Added NPCs for upcoming stuff
Minor quest updates
Cosmetic changes to various areas
based on player suggestion, I added Fishmongers to 4 locations: high crimmond, irondrake, dhedluk, collinwood
https://forums.cityofarabel.com/topic/67518/ice-spider-cave-too-fast-ticking-damage-and-cold-immunity-does-not-work/6
Updated traps with TrapLevel variable on :- Kobold Quest (in the sewer)
- Maela's Sewers
- Ants Quest (also added variety - they were all set to Tangle)
Removed old CNR spawners from
- ZQA: Immertrail Yeoman Bridge
- ZQA: Immertrail Woods
- ZQA: Immertrail Western Cliffs
https://forums.cityofarabel.com/topic/67591/pc-corpses-dont-spawn/2
8687
imported updates for the quest system
imported changes to guards in various city & outskirts areas
https://forums.cityofarabel.com/topic/67465/immersea-island-ferry-system/2
8688
https://forums.cityofarabel.com/topic/67698/helmlands-hyphae/2
imported moloch's quest changes for fey, goblins, and cleanup crew
imported folklores changes to various areas
https://forums.cityofarabel.com/topic/67470/golem-summoning-books/7
8689
removed some of the PointOfInterest Tag from placeables in Eveningstar
imported some areas for moloch
resolved gilded helm issue https://forums.cityofarabel.com/topic/67676/crafting-gilded-helm-returns-no-item-on-success/5
resolved long stave of oak issue https://forums.cityofarabel.com/topic/67662/long-stave-of-oak-requires-hickory-instead-of-oak/3
resolved flame touched bracer not having charges https://forums.cityofarabel.com/topic/67651/flame-touched-bracer-no-charges/2
Resolved Grig's harp not having any charges https://forums.cityofarabel.com/topic/67650/grig-s-harp-no-charges
resolved locust wing boots not having charges https://forums.cityofarabel.com/topic/67649/locust-wing-boots-no-charges/2
fixed traps on all the wyvernwater quest areas and redwoods quest areas
8691
removed a lot of old/unused items/ scripts/ conversation files
imported moloch's HP changes
resolved Gilded Chain Mail issu https://forums.cityofarabel.com/topic/67735/gilded-scale-mail-recipe-success-doesn-t-yield-any-item/2
Started the groundwork to add a bounty hunter for fish.
8692
cleaned up old/unused NPCs and areas
water tub changes - you can now fill empty bucket and make holy water at the same station via conversation - this combined 5 scripts into 2, and 3 conversations into 2.
ZQA: Hillmarch, Ogre Cave: Added waypoints to test unbound ore nodes
visual changes to haunted halls & eveningstar
8696
Water Tubs: I had put the wrong convo script in the OnUsed. Replaced with correct scripts.. Water tubs should work again. Added updated water tubs to collinwood interiors and high crimmond. Removed old "holy pools" since their function is now covered by the water tubs
High Crimmond https://forums.cityofarabel.com/topic/67871/high-crimmond
Wild Cooshee https://forums.cityofarabel.com/topic/67872/gooshe-spawns-in-the-hullack/3
Gavel Hall Spawn Point https://forums.cityofarabel.com/topic/67860/gavel-hall-spawn-point-not-working/2
Historic Farmland traps https://forums.cityofarabel.com/topic/67855/zqa-arabel-historic-farmland-minor-electric-trap/2 -
v8706
Arabel Updated Significantly - This represents one of the largest module updates I've ever been part of, outside a full module rebuild. This represents over 100+ hours of work by the entire team to put together; but we do still apologize that we know its size means there will be bugs to hammer out this week.
Historic District and Noble District entirely redesigned.
Over 15 areas updated to reflect recent events connected to the coming of the Storm.Incomplete List -
Arabel Outskirts: Calantar's Road
Arabel Outskirts: Moonsea Ride
Arabel Outskirts: High Road
Arabel Outskirts Eastway
Arabel House Goldfeather
Arabel House Mossmere
Arabel Interiors
Arabel Sewers
Eveningstar
Calantar's Way
Aunkspear
East Way Road: Bospir
Haunted HallsAlmost every area of the module the touches the storm was also edited. Some areas are now within the storm and inaccessible (it'll be obvious when this is the case.)
Added two new areas of the module to explore (these are VERY DANGEROUS but you'll also get a clear visual representation of just how dangerous so you'll know you want to leave before that representation of the danger reaches the obvious bad point.)
Quest Redesigns
Shamrock Garden was entirely redesigned, now in the Arabel Library; will have more enemy variety, a selection of thematic loot that is updated, and connects directly into the new setting.Haunted Mansion was given a major facelift, now connects directly into the danger of the Storm and the last few weeks of plot and storyline. New opportunities to roleplay with some of the deranged workers.
Warehouse Quest new quest giving some indications about how desperate some people are to escape the storm, partially built on the memories of the original from v2 of the module. This is entirely updated version.
Calantar's Road Orc Quest - added substantive new story elements, reduced the length (but not the challenge of the quest). This isn't finished, more polish will come here.
Haunted Ruins -- Major redesign of enemies, new loot.
Tessarils Tower -- Added a new theme of enemies, redesign of existing enemies, fixed setting that locked out variety of things that should have spawned there, more thematic loot added to the tables.
Edits to almost every conversation that gave directions to an introductory quest; in theory, you can now follow from NPC to NPC to do about 60% of the introduction quests. Some you will still have to go looking for. Same adjustment to the Letter Delivery Quest.
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v8709
Just a ton of bug fixes - PLEASE check bugs people have reported and let us know if the fixes worked so we can clear these. :) Big thank you to folks reporting anything that looks even remotely wrong, I want to clean house quick.
Also, put 5th level wizard scrolls into the wizard shop. Player suggested this was a useful tweak to help wizards, originally, they were taken out because sorcerers may use them - but - and I think this matters - that's why quests give players rewards, so they can buy things. :) If it becomes a problem, we'll just look at the gold price.
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Many more bug fixes.
ECL has been removed for most application subraces; it now remains at +1 ECL only for lycanthropes.
Oh, and have you found the new casino?
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v8713
Improvements made to the rat summoning theme to bring it closer into alignment with the other themes in terms of power and utility. Rats tend to be sneaky and work well with stealth builds. Think low damage, stealthy abilities, but good AC and AB to allow them to distract foes.
Deer, rabbits, and squirrels should start acting like herbivores, if you attack one, it will not cause all other docile animals to become hostile to you - so if you kill a deer for a hide, cows won't attack you in town. These animals should also run from players even if you don't attack them.
Adjusted the Flagons Held High (Traitor) quest in the Pride of Arabel. Our data indicated the boss on this quest was the most dangerous NPC in the module in terms of players killed this week (that included Avalanche). This NPC has been redesigned to better match the power-level you expect on an introductory quest, its damage shifted from dual wielded 2d4 weapons to 1d4 weapons, its HP went from 70 to what should be found on a low-level rogue. The final encounter went from a minimum of 5 creatures to a minimum of 3 creatures spawning.
This quest is still due a redesign, but our data indicated it needed an immediate fix.
If you look at the data, Red Wizards and Thayan Warriors also killed a lot of players, the Warehouse quest was meant for 6-10th level PCs in a party. It was accidently set at a testing status (1-10th level characters of 1-10th level). This is now better aligned to our other 6-10 quests.
Mithril Boots were adjusted in terms of power. SR 16 was too powerful, and data backed this up too. Instead of SR, the boots give a Haste (5) for 5 charges with 50 charges total. There were some excellent ideas for revising the boots, but some of those proposed by players would require adding haks to create powers the game doesn't have (such as saves vs spells). Data showed that these were the single most purchased item in the module's stores; beating out potions in the amount of gold players put down for them. That was a strong indicator they were overpowered.
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8720v
The Infested Ruins quest in the Redwoods: Cursed Ruins had far too many poison traps per player feedback.
I cut the number of poison traps in half, made it easier to spot several traps, removed several non-poison traps that didn't make sense on a quest with barely intelligent fungus and aberrations.
Additionally, I noticed many foes (Infected mostly) lacked any creature attacks, provided them slam attacks appropriate to their challenge rating.
Adjusted the area cosmetically to suit the quest (let me know if any placeables block vision).
Created additional loot and provided more variety in the monsters that spawn. Some of which hints to the history of the ruins, more of this history can be learned in other ways too.Will revisit this quest in a few weeks to look at how these changes affected it over all. I'm not 100% happy with this update, and think we can do a little more polish here - open to feedback or suggestions.
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8722v
Several minor bug fixes implemented.
Second Wind now heals 1/2 of your max HP instead of 1/2 your missing HP.
Invisibility now lasts 1 turn (10 rounds) per level.Most NPCs should not react with horror if you have a subrace or a low Charisma score. NPCs who still do this probably are bugs, please report.
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More bug fixes, most bugs from the big update seem to be fixed now.
Added Trash Cans around Old Gate, Historic, and Noble Districts per player request.
Made it easier to reach the Selune Temple in Immersea Borders and added items to the Siamorphe Store in Immersea.
Looked over the Arachnid Theme and made adjustments - sparked initially by concern 1-3 was too weak - but led to conclusion 4-5 were really outpacing the 'base line' elemental themes. Arachnid theme is meant to have low HP with good AC at higher levels, low damage, but provide poison attacks and some limited crowd control (at the lower levels). With immunity to mind spells and webs (not not to poison).
The SM1 (Summon Monster 1) is on par with other summons, but just for fun I gave it a single use of a bolt web attack.
The SM2 is also on par with other summons, but had a skin that gave it Freedom of Movement; which was likely an effort to make immune to its own web attack. I replaced that with a spider skin that makes it immune to webs only. Gave it additional AC so its more in line with other summons.
The SM3 is where things got odd - it had 20 poison bolt attacks, so it was just going to stand there and shoot a DC 14 minor venom at things. I reduced its bolt attacks to 1; gave it a bite attack with small spider venom and 1d6 damage - it didn't even have a bite attack before at all. Gave it weapon finesse so its attacks hit more often.
The SM4 had 1d8 STR draining poison - meaning one hit could do 2d8 STR damage; that is just too good (better than higher level summons). So this was reduced to a 1d6 STR drain poison; twice as good as the SM3, but not better than SM5.
The SM5 had higher damage output than most elementals + poison. So shifted its STR down, gave it more DEX and Weapon Finesse.
This should improve the 1-3 summons but also probably brings the rest of the spider summons down a little in terms of damage at 4-5.
Open to feedback on these moving forward - but this should be a decent boost to the 1-3; probably not very noticeable on the 4-5 I hope. That said, this theme will soon be open as a sorcerer bloodline theme. We're not done with summoning, there's a thread in discord for feedback.
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Dwarf Rescue Quest is available again, it is now in Stormlands Widdershins.
Subraces and low charisma PCs will no longer that special penalties on Appraise Checks. The DM team does not feel this is necessary any longer since subraces are application approved and appraise already is a charisma based skill leading to higher costs.
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Did some updates to the Sunken Ship quest in Immersea. It was a 7-10 quest but wasn't hard - in fact - it was very easy. So I've made some tweaks to the challenge of the enemies, but also removed their dispel spamming. This should still feel like a typical average-level quest that requires a party. It is now 6-10th level in keeping with that as well.
The quest also now has a hard optional part to it. You'll get an OOC message from a placeable to start it, and that placeable has a red name so it stands out.
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v8744
There should now be prestige chests for the Sentinels and Black Wheel faction; both located in the Old Gate Inn. (Please report anything odd about them, its the first time I've set this up for a group before).
The Sunken Ship and Immersea Lizardfolk quests are both now 6-10 level quests; this was based on their difficulty supported by number of player deaths, how long it takes people to complete them, and a review of the CR of creatures appearing on them combined with a decision to make a few more quests available to 6-10 groups.
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v 8747
Maps should now automatically be explored if you own the map.
You still need to use the map in an area to "show it to your party" so it is explored for them as well, but for you personally, areas you have maps for will be mapped already.Historic and Noble district, as well as Bospir, Immersea, and Eveningstar, will all be auto mapped for everyone.
Discount for historic district potion store is based on black wheel having more prestige than Justiciars.
Discount for magic shop in Noble district is based on Justiciars having more prestige than Black Wheel. -
8748v
Please help us out, Summoning Theme Books should not be working for sorcerers anymore; wizards, clerics with certain domains, and bards should still be able to use them. That said, I think I over-complicated this, and should go back and revise it.
https://forums.cityofarabel.com/topic/68515/summoning-theme-books
There are now three new quests on Wyvernwater Isles Stormbreak Isle. The Quest List is up-dated. You can get to the island from the ship-captain in Immersea who hires boats for you. These quests pay 50 more than their counter-parts to help make up for the cost of sailing to the island (which means, you come out ahead if you do all three quests). The quests are done, but I may add a few features/challenges/etc that play-testers suggested.
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v8752
Taught NPCs how to use the new Edevars Eviction and Oberians Ousting spells.
They didn't really know they existed even if they had them prepared/available.
Now they do, so will cast them if they feel the need.
Tweaked AI priorities little as some appeared to be doing silly things like casting stuff over and over or getting stuck without something to do.
Tweaked/fixed the auto stealth for creartures with stealth skills.
Some may pop out of stealth and attack you now, portentially, if it works, and such creatures exist.Fixed the AoE size of Edevars eviction (it was wrong) and changed the VFX for edevars, and Oberians, so that they match more closely their actual effect radius.
Put a new AI flag into testing where NPCs can contact allies more effectively if they are under threat.
Added the Edevars and Oberians spells to a few more NPCs (some quest bosses, some quest mobs a couple of exploration based mobs) it's not much but there are a few more (some already existed, but could not cast the spells)
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v8756
Stormland areas should now have the proper number and kinds of spawns appearing to represent the danger of these areas - specifically Stormland Deosil and Widdershins.
Major problems with the Sorcerer Shadow Theme summons, these were fixed to put their power back in alignment with other summons.
Updated Stormhorns: Wailing Slopes to -
Add missing treasure map location.
Add missing hidden nooks.
Add Castle Kilgrave Quest back to the module.
Add CRN resources to the area and gardening area. -
8762v
Making adjustments to the new quests that went in last week. I'm being very upfront with these changes since the original versions, while tested several times, proved much too powerful. Data showed too many player deaths for these quests, I've provided DM raises to most affected and will be replacing lost XP for other players (DM me please if I don't find you first, there are two people left on the list).
The Rotting Carcass Quest:
Gormeels had Prismatic Dragon Breath, but the script had a death effect and flat damage that made them too dangerous. This had not been an issue in testing with players during Beta but was still not appropriate to our power level.Gormeels still fire the same effect, but the damage is now randomized and instead of death, there's a possibility of a 6 second knockdown effect. Damage scales on the Hit Dice of the Gormeel, so weaker ones do much less damage than higher level ones now; this is how most breath/bolt attacks work in the module.
The Ancient Temple Quest:
Certain creatures on this quest summoned other creatures, but these creatures were hardcoded in NWN. I have changed them to use our custom summons instead, this allows us to make encounters here more adjustable for balance issues moving forward and reduces the power of the creatures they spawn.
Additionally, a specific creature on here spawned in large numbers with a Dispel Effect, this was proving very powerful against small groups of players in non-optimized teams. This Dispel was replaced with a Lesser Spell Breach.
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Lots of Updates:
1). We've added a new base class, the Divine Soul.
2). All the quests formerly in the Stormhorns that became unavailable when those areas were lost to the Storm in-game are now returned to the module.
3). A new 7-10th level quest has been put in the module, Minotaurs, Cultists, and Pirates, Oh My!
The quest list is updated.
The mysterious Ice Spire in the Stormlands is now an exploration area for players; repeat visits will yield more and more of the secrets hidden there, and puzzles and plot hooks to boot.
Wizards casting cantrips will see they are more effective.
Ice Dagger damage now continues to scale 2 points of damage per level over 5th.
Be wary, more and more creatures that have Blindsight in canon D&D are going to start having it (it seems this was missed when a lot of monsters were made.)
Clerics should be able to use Summoning Books as is appropriate (fix for rangers is coming - sorry rangers).
Most importantly: Gnomes are now considered small creatures for the purpose of using Small Holes. That's right, everyone go make a gnome.
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Major Change: Potion prices are now back to standard D&D/NWN prices for potions. This is an immediate change that lays the foundation for a bigger change coming down the line, specifically, we'll be adjusting pay outs on quests moving forward for higher consistency than we've had so far.
Many of our orc spawns have had minor adjustments to their stats and abilities. Some more varied spawns will appear on the Calantar Road Orc quest - challenge shouldn't change much, but a few enemies will have usually a 5% better chance to hit.
Be aware - more enemies that should have Blindsight (ex. Oozes) will have it now. This was an oversight I believe in the past.
Various Boars in the game use to have a number of rages they would use one after another, standing their raging instead of fighting. They should no longer do this.
Additional creatures will be appearing in random encounters created by the CARES system - the goal here isn't to make anything more challenging or dangerous, more just to give you all more variety in what you find when out exploring.
Quest Type XP Pay Gold Pay 4-6 Introduction Quests 150 150 4-10 Solo Quests 250 250 6-10 Medium Quests 350 350 7-10 Hard Quests 400 450 Please let us know if you find quests that are outside these ranges or values (too high or too low) except quests on the Wyvernwater Islands (they will all pay 50 gold more than typical). Eventually, quests in very difficult to reach locations, or that take a very long time to complete [ex. Gnolls at 60 minutes on average] will also get additional payouts in XP and/or gold. It will take some time to implement this though.
The DM Team is open to feedback on these changes; we think it will benefit the community.
Some spell changes:
Name School Bar Cle Dru Pal Ran S/W Components Target/Radius Range Spell description Monstrous Regeneration Conjuration - 5 5 - - - V,S Single Target Touch The target creature regenerates 5 HP per caster level. Clairvoyance/Clairaudience Divination 3 3 Knowledge 3 - - 3 V,S Personal Self You gain +10 spot and +10 listen for 1 minute per level. Spell Focus Divination and Greater Spell Focus Divination increases the duration by one-minute each. Find Traps Divination - 3 2 - - 3 V,S 30 meters Personal Reveals all traps within 30 meters to the caster. With Spell Focus Divination, traps are revealed to your allies. With Greater Spell Focus, traps with a Disarm DC less than 10 + your base Knowledge Lore are disarmed. Lesser Premonition Divination - - 4 - - 4 V,S Single Touch Grants the caster 10/+1 damage reduction, 5/+2 damage reduction and 20% concealment for one turn per caster level; Spell Focus Divination increases concealment by 5%; Greater Spell Focus increases that concealment by 10% above base. -
The Ancient Watch Tower Quest got some updates and redesign. Our data said it was the most often done Hard quest right now.
1). I noted almost everyone used tunnels to get to it because it was hard to reach; now you can just walk north from High Road Haunted Halls to reach it.
2). Most undead on the quest were redesigned; can't lie, these weren't made to provide any semblance of a challenge to players before with a few notable exceptions. They should be hard, but fair now. Some had effects that could kill a player with a failed saving throw; they still have this, I didn't change it (just letting folks know).
3). Added a chance to do a little more roleplaying of your character on the quest.
4). Treasure tables were updated to have a wider variety of loot and rewards.
5). The boss is no longer a pathetic chump I hope, he should feel like a boss fight now on a hard quest.As always; these updates are designed to make quests more fun (not more lethal, even with the caveat this is still suppose to be a hard quest). If we overshot/undershot the mark, let us know. I'll help out to fix errors in appropriate ways. Feedback is always very welcome and taken seriously!
Due to IC actions, an agent in the Historic district now is offering people ship passage to the Immersea Isles; seems the Black Wheel is cutting some deals with someone.
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The third part of the Stormbreaker Isle trilogy; the Ancient Temple quest given by the Ominous Cave has been tweaked based on viewing some different groups doing it.
There was a specific bug with one encounter that used a NWN hak resource instead of one of our custom resources that created an unbalanced situation. This is now resolved. The optional boss fight NPC's AB was much too high, this was lowered and some of his DR was removed to make him more manageable.
The overall loot rewards (especially consumables) was increased so players are more likely to walk out ahead.
Polar Bear Gloves had their damage reduced from d6 slashing d6 cold to do d4 slashing and d4 cold (this is still probably too powerful for monk gear; but a little more reasonable than monks doing 200% extra damage with a flurry of blows).