NS4 Change Log

[LinuxPup]

Various tweaks and improvements to AI... I've done lots of offline testing, but things can always surprise you, so please let me know if anything appears wrong...

[LinuxPup]

Added the Demonweb Pits plane.

Special thanks goes to:

Flailer (who designed most of the maps)

and

Lokey, whom I pestered all the time with questions

[LinuxPup]

Fixed bug in Knock spell where the door/placeable's lock DC was being used to determine the difficulty of unlocking instead of its unlock DC. The lock DC is usually 0, allowing a caster to unlock just about any locked door or chest with ease... no longer. Also transmutation focus feats no longer stack (max of +12 with all 3 feats), but now give the proper +6 max. Rogues and Assassins just became a lot more useful.

EDIT: Almost forgot, knock no longer gives an open lock skill bonus to everyone in a colossal area.

[LinuxPup]

Want more control of your summon? Pick up a Summon Focus Wand from Elvin!

Using it on an enemy creature tells your summon to exclusively attack that target. You can also tell your summon to bash doors when no enemies are nearby. If you target an invalid object like the ground or yourself, it disables focusing if it was previously enabled on the same summon.

[Binkyuk]

Ultravision and Summon III can now be scribed.

[LinuxPup]

-Nerfed Shifter Risen Lord form... used to have 50% pierce/slash immunity. Dropped it to 25% pierce/slash immunity and added 25% bludge vulnerability, 50% fire/divine vulnerability. Also dropped AC and AB, and reduced damage reduction from +20/10 damage reduction to +20/5.

-Fixed transition tag parsing error for faction-only portals. This should fix the TC/NC tunnel.

-Players can now go through doors to upper floor areas in Daeron: East Gates and Garagoth. Good for snipers while defending. This change won't take place till next reset.

[LinuxPup]

Did a pretty major overhaul of the Greater Wildshape polymorph code. Merged the NS3.5 code into NS4 (Thanks DM Fangorn!). This is an attempt at fixing server crashes from druid/shifters dying by applying merged armor/item effects differently. Because of this change, some of the forms' stats may be different and require tweaking and balancing, but preventing server crashes is top priority for now. If the server crashes when you die in a Greater Wildshape form, please let us know immediately.

Note: this change only affects Greater Wildshape forms, not all polymorph forms...

It affects:

-All shifter-only forms
-All epic shifter/druid forms (construct, outsider, undead, dragon shape)

Does not affect:

-Polymorph spells (e.g. level 9 wiz/sorc Shapechange spell)
-Druid-only forms (elemental forms and animal forms)

*crosses fingers*

[LinuxPup]

-Disabled export (saving) of player when transitioning or acquiring an item if player is polymorphed. Still exports when polymorphed during other events such as resting and logging off.

-Lowered Dragon Shape AC

-Water Genasi aura no longer evaporates in desert areas. Increased damage reduction in cold areas to character level / 4 (10 max).

[LinuxPup]

The following spells and abilities now unstealth a creature who is disabled (stunned, knocked down, or dazed) by them:

-Horn of Neversummer (LA job item)
-Stalwart Slammer (RK job item)
-Pure Barbarian's Bloody Roar
-Pure Fighter's Warlord's Rumble
-Grease
-Power Word Stun
-Earthquake
-Gust of Wind
-Great Thunderclap
-Stonehold
-Hellball
-Bigby's Crushing Hand
-Evard's Tentacles
-Hammer of the Gods
-Storm of Vengeance

Hellball is now improved: At 35 caster levels, it affects all targets (friend and foe) except the caster, and with 40 caster levels it only affects enemies.

Also, I put in a change that I hope fixes the bug where players become stuck in the planar store. Let me know if this problem continues.

[Metis]

Changes to shifters are in, expect special abilities to become useful and scale with shifter levels and the dragon aura is much more useful. Some of these will need tweaking but they are live now. Also, many shapes will need some changes and those are coming soon.

[LinuxPup]

-Fixed a bug where shifters and druids were losing their polymorph shape whenever a restoration or restoration-like spell was cast on them.

-Blackguard fiendish servant summons now receive their bonuses in a different way. Instead of spell focus necromancy feats, they now improve by both Blackguard level and Charisma. If your Blackguard receives a lower bonus because of this update (for example if you have a low charisma), it will use the older, spell focus necromancy feat method instead. Your summon shouldn't be any weaker either way.

-Shared Dark Blessing: Summon receives a bonus to all saves equal to the Blackguard's Charisma modifier.

-Corrupt Weapon: Blackguards have access to a special spell, Corrupt Weapon, which is the opposing counterpart of the Paladin spell Holy Sword. Instead of improving a weapon’s effectiveness against evil foes Corrupt Weapon makes a weapon more effective against good foes. Corrupt Weapon is gained with 15 Blackguard levels. Equipped weapon receives a divine damage bonus that scales with Blackguard level:

15 Blackguard levels: 1d4 divine damage vs. good
20 Blackguard levels: 1d6 divine damage vs. good
25 Blackguard levels: 2d4 divine damage vs. good
30 Blackguard levels: 2d6 divine damage vs. non-evil

-Contagion: Now applies a curse to target if they fail a will save. DC is Blackguard level + Blackguard's Charisma modifier. Curse is a penalty to all six abilities scores equal to half the Blackguard's Charisma modifier.

[LinuxPup]

Timer on Pure Fighter's Warlord's Rumble and Pure Paladin's Divine Protection no longer reset on rest... instead you must now wait between uses.

[LinuxPup]

New Subrace:

Azerblood (Dwarf subrace)

Azerblood resemble a dwarf of the Shield subtype for the most part, with some variations based on the outsider blood that flows in their veins. Common traits are metallic brass-colored skin, flame-red hair and irises that appear to move with flames. They favor the Azer way of dressing in metallic skirts of brass, bronze and copper. But they will dress for necessity, including heavier armors.

ECL: 2

+2 STR, +2 CON, -2 CHA

10 fire resistance
+2 to saves vs. fire

-Favored class: Fighter
-Clerics must take fire domain.
-Considered a plane-touched race.
-Non-chaotic alignment

Special ability: Azer Fire

Lasts 1 turn + 1 turn per 5 levels.

Once a day the Azerblood can exert the power of their Azer ancestry upon a weapon or even themself. They are given a token, which if used on themself gives them a fire damage shield that does 1d6 fire damage + 1 fire damage per 4 levels. If used on a weapon, it heats it, giving a fire damage bonus of 1d4 fire damage. This becomes 1d6 at level 20, 1d8 at level 30, and 2d4 at level 40. Very similiar to flame weapon, however it can be used on ammunition, throwing weapons, bracers, and gloves, as well as melee weapons. Only useable for weapons the Azerblood uses.

[Metis]

Couple minor changes:

Removed healing ability from undead
Bumped goblinoid cr a little
Removed Blackblade from vampire sorceress

[LinuxPup]

Relic XP bonus adjustment:

-No XP bonus for having no relics or just your faction's own relic.
-10% xp bonus for your own relic + 1 enemy relic.
-15% xp bonus for your own relic + 2 enemy relics.
-20% xp bonus for your own relic + 3 enemy relics.
-25% xp bonus for your own relic + 4 enemy relics.
-30% xp bonus for your own relic + 5 enemy relics.
-35% xp bonus for your own relic + 6 enemy relics.

-Neutralize Poison, Remove Disease, Restoration, and Lesser Restoration should no longer remove curse effects.
-Fixed Azerblood and Githyanki not receiving planar subrace bonuses to planar summons.