Post by Spookypatrol [Delia] on Jan 15, 2022 14:09:16 GMT -5
Welcome to the first patch notes of 2022! We've already got some big changes in store, so let's get to it!
Full Actions, Bonus Actions, and Free Actions:
We have been playing with the idea of implementing Bonus and Free actions into DnD for a little while now, and while we have had certain skills that use these mechanics in effect, we haven't implemented a more rigid system... until now! Although the system is still in its infancy for us, we have some basic outlined information as to what these types of actions mean:
Full Action: These actions take up your entire turn; you cannot take another action (including taking a bonus action) on your turn when you've taken a Full Action, unless you are taking a Free Action along with it (more on that in a second).
Standard Action: These are your regular actions, and what take up the vast majority of DnD. These include using most skills, items, etc. A Bonus Action and/or a Free Action can be taken alongside a Standard Action.
Bonus Action: Certain skills, items, etc. will allow you to use a Bonus Action alongside of them. Bonus Actions are typically basic actions such as Basic Attacking, Defending, and, if you have the Epicurean Feat, consuming food & drink. In most cases, the type of Bonus Action that can be taken will be specified (such as an Aggressive or Defensive action), but in some cases where specified, any type of Bonus Action can be used. A full list of Bonus Actions will be provided at a later time.
Free Action: Free actions allow users to use an additional Full and/or Bonus Action on their turn. This type of action is usually reserved for Alacrity or basic attack modifying skills such as the Weapon Mastery feat, Spellblade, or stat-damage swapping skills like Clever Combat.
In most cases, a skill or item will specify if a Bonus Action or Free Action can be used alongside of them, or if they themselves count as a bonus action. For example, the Scholar Skills Planned Attack and Clever Combat count as Free Actions, and can be used in the same turn as a Standard Action such as using an item or another skill. Similarly, the Visimorph Mask Swaps in many cases allow a Basic Attack to be made as a Bonus Action alongside of them. Some items, such as the Boots of Speed (see below) allow the user to gain a free Bonus Action after a certain amount of Rounds have passed. For many classes with Taunts, those skills allow the user to take a defensive action (such as Defending) as a Bonus Action alongside taunting.
Glancing Blows:
Some skills, spells, and items currently include rules for Glancing Blows. This will continue to be the case. In essence, Glancing Blows allow for players to still gain a benefit for not meeting their accuracy check, so long as they rolled close to it. Generally, Glancing Blows have greatly reduced effects, such as partial (usually halved or less) damage or the absence of secondary effects. Most skills, items, etc. do NOT have Glancing Blow rules, but those actions that do have Glancing Blow Rules have case-by-case stated effects. For example:
The Dominion Rod's Hammer Guardian performs a Glancing Blow if it rolls within 10% of its accuracy (i.e., if the Hammer Guardian's accuracy is 50%, a 51-60% is considered a Glancing Blow), which causes it to deal no damage, but instead gives it a lower percentage chance to Stagger.
All players now have an additional equipment slot: the Free Slot! This slot allows players to equip an additional Accessory item of their choice into it. Because of the vast number of items (and growing) currently in DnD, it was becoming difficult for players to debate on what items to keep and equip because of slot restrictions. Hopefully, this'll help!
Note: You can ONLY equip Accessories into it, so Helmet, Chest, Gloves, Boots, and Cloak slot items cannot be placed here!
User-Specific:
SICARII:
SICARII (Mask)'s Mask Maker's Execute has had its potential heal amount capped to 30% of the user's Max HP.
Killer's Deception: SICARII's Concealed Mind Feat has been replaced with the unique Killer's Deception, which acts as a sidegrade to the original feat. The feat grants the same alignment concealment, but provides SICARII a bonus to all social checks and a +5% success rate on Surprise checks, instead of Mental CC resistance. This Feat has been provided to SICARII for free as a Roleplay bonus.
Scholar:
Exploit Weakness: Cooldown has been adjusted to 5 Rounds after the effect ends instead of 6 Rounds from when the skill is cast. Originally, this meant EW had an effective cooldown of 3 Rounds, which felt too strong for its effect.
New Items:
Boots:
Soldier's Greaves: +10 Defense. Grants a chance equal to 10%+10% of the wearer's Defense stat to reduce the damage from an incoming attack by 35%. When blocking, 70% of Defense stat is used instead of 50%.
Zora's Flippers: +6 Defense. Allows the user to swim and dive without penalties. Prevents negative effects from water-based traps and field effects. When Soaked, Drenched, in Rain, or in Water, the wearer takes 50% reduced damage for as long as those effects are up. In addition, being under one or more of those conditions grants the ability to use a whirlpool attack:
The wearer summons a magical whirlpool that surrounds up to three adjacent enemies, dealing 50% damage, Rooting them and Soaking them for 2 Rounds. If this effect applies critically, the targets are Drenched instead. This effect must pass accuracy across all targets, but has an additional +20% chance to hit. 4 Round cooldown.
Boots of Power: +8 Defense. Grants flat bonus damage equal to 20% of the wearer's Defense stat minus 10% of the wearer's Attack or Comp stat, whichever is higher (minimum +5 at Tier 4, minimum +3 per tier).
Boots of Speed: +7 Defense. Beginning on Round 3, and every 5th Round afterwards, grants the wearer a Bonus Action.
Gloves:
Titan's Mitts: +8 Defense. The wearer may lift up a nearby heavy object and use it to create a barrier between themselves and/or their allies. Each object has its own fragility property and corresponding secondary effect. For example:
Fragile: Ice crystals, Glass; Average: Wood, Clay; Sturdy: Stone, Metal
If there is no nearby object, the wearer may "magically" manifest a barricade rock, which counts as Average sturdiness.
When placing the object down, the object provides all allies with a 20% chance to take cover, causing the targeting attack to hit the barrier instead. Each barrier has a set amount of HP and Defense depending on its sturdiness, as well as other secondary effects, as follows:
Fragile: 200 HP (T4) +50 HP per tier. 20 Def (T4) +10 Def per tier. When destroyed, the barrier's pieces shatter, dealing 50% of the user's attack or competency (whichever is higher) in damage to the target that destroyed it, plus bonus damage equal to 50% of the amount of excess damage dealt to the barrier (i.e., if the barrier had 50 HP left and was struck for 200 damage, it would deal additional bonus damage equal to 150/2, or 75. This damage has a 20% chance to crit, regardless of the user's source crit. The target must perform an evade (User Atk/Comp:Target Def) check to try and avoid being damaged. If the user succeeds their evade check but are still within 20% of accuracy, the shards still deal a glancing blow and deal half damage.
Average: 300 HP (T4) +100 HP per tier. 30 Def (T4) +10 Def per tier. Whenever this barrier is struck by a direct attack, small pieces chunk off and deal 20% of the damage dealt as recoil damage to the attacker, including damage dealt in excess of the barrier's HP. This damage does not need to pass accuracy.
Sturdy: 400 HP (T4) +150 HP per tier. 50 Def (T4) +10 Def per tier. No secondary effects.
The barrier may be directly attacked by enemies. The barrier may be active for up to 4 Rounds, or until it is destroyed. 7 Round cooldown after the barrier expires.
On a grid, this object must be placed in an adjacent square to the user, takes up a 2x2 square, and is considered impassable terrain unless an enemy or ally is airborne. The object can be destroyed early at any time as a bonus action, or can be moved to a new location after the effect's cooldown finishes.
Gold Gauntlets: +8 Defense. The wearer may lift up a nearby heavy object and strike at a target of their choosing. Each object has its own damage property and corresponding secondary effect. For example:
Impact: Boulders, Trees; Slashing: Large, ornamental weapons (such as those found on statues); Piercing: Stalagmites/Stalagtites, Large icicles.
If there is no nearby object, the wearer may ""magically"" manifest a large pillar, which counts as impact damage.
When attacking with the object, the attack deals 1.3x bonus damage plus an additional 0.1x damage to enemies of standard size, 0.2x damage to enemies of small size, and 0.3x damage to enemies of tiny size. In addition, the attack has the following bonuses depending on the damage type:
Slashing: +20% crit chance.
Piercing: Ignores defensive buffs and increases the damage dealt to the target by 10% for 2 Rounds.
Impact: Knocks down target for 2 Rounds. Additionally Concusses for 2 Rounds on a crit.
When lifting an object, the user's evasion boosts - if any - are lost for 1 Round. If no evasion boosts are present, the user's evasion is penalized by -5% for the same duration. 7 Round cooldown.
Mogma Mitts: +8 Defense. Its sharp claws can be used to make a special swipe attack, dealing standard damage +10% crit chance as slashing damage with a 50% chance to cause a bleed. If this attack crits, it additionally causes Anemia. 5 Round Cooldown.
These gloves may also be used for digging... which was likely what they were actually designed for, in retrospect!
Soldier's Gauntlets: +8 Defense. +10% mitigation when Taunting or Taunted.
In addition, Defense may be used in place of Attack or Comp for calculating damage. 3 Round Cooldown.
Helmet:
Ancient Helm: +10 Def, +10% efficacy to Utility slot items or items marked with the Guardian or Ancient Tech tags. +10% bonus damage versus Constructs and Guardians.
Stealth Mask: +6 Def. +10% Sneak, Stealth, and Surprise. Halves Perception bonuses used against the user while they perform any of these three actions.
Adjusted Items:
Consumables:
Potions now heal for percent of health instead of a flat number.
Water of Life: Heals for 30% of max HP.
2nd Potion: Heals for 50% of max HP. Turns into the Water of Life once consumed.
Red Potion: Heals for 10% of max HP.
Red Potion+: Heals for 15% of max HP.
Red Potion++: Heals for 25% of max HP.
Blue Potion: Heals for 35% of max HP.
Great Fairy's Tears: Heals for 50% of max HP. Doubles damage for 2 Rounds.
Soup: Heals for 10% of max HP.
Tasty Soup: Heals for 20% of max HP.
Gourmet Soup: Heals for 30% of max HP.
Milk: Heals for 10% of max HP. 2 helpings.
Premium Milk: Heals for 15% of max HP. 2 helpings.
Bottled Fairy: Now heals for 50% of max when used, or 25% of max when it resurrects a KOed character. This has been halved from its original values of 100% and 50% respectively, to ensure it isn't overly strong for our overall game mechanics.
Non-healing Potion adjustments:
Purple Potion: The 50% increased damage duration has been decreased from 4 Rounds down to 2.
Black Potion: Injures player for 5% of their max HP when consumed. If coated on a weapon, the weapon deals flat bonus damage equal to 10% of their Attack or Comp, whichever is higher, for 3 hits.
Chateau Romani: Reduces the cooldown on all active cooldowns by 4 Rounds. Increases spellpower by 10% for 3 Rounds.
Several new charms felt more like Utility slot items in terms of the complexity of their item activation. Some of these items, indeed, were intended as Utility slots, but were moved to Charm due to the at-the-time low number of Charms and high number of competitive Utility slots. After weighing the benefits and drawbacks and reevaluating the current items, we have decided to allow certain Charm Slot items to be equipped in Utility instead - this way players can have some more flexibility about their item shuffling, without messing anyone up who may have planned to use one of the Charm slots that would be newly tagged as Utility.
The following Charm-slot items can now be equipped in either the Charm Slot OR the Utility slot:
Horse Whistle
Dark Mirror
Sacrificial Dagger
Uniques that can be slotted in Utility or Charm:
Brodongo's Whistle
Eating People is Wrong
Nacreous Dagger
Merciless: Merciless no longer procs against targets inflicted with a DoT. Instead, it can be triggered by non-DoT Status Conditions and CCs, and can now modify DoT damage.
Damage immunities are being looked at. As it stands, having a target be completely immune to certain damage types is simply not fun, and is a hinderance to certain builds depending on the prevalence of certain enemy types (i.e., ghosts and skeletons being immune to bleed, other Undead being immune to disease and sometimes poison, fire elementals being immune to fire, etc).
We are looking into a way to remove immunities while still providing some resistances to enemies that would sensibly resist those damage types. We'll provide a more thorough update as soon as these adjustments have been made.
That's all for now!
Mechanics
Full Actions, Bonus Actions, and Free Actions:
We have been playing with the idea of implementing Bonus and Free actions into DnD for a little while now, and while we have had certain skills that use these mechanics in effect, we haven't implemented a more rigid system... until now! Although the system is still in its infancy for us, we have some basic outlined information as to what these types of actions mean:
Full Action: These actions take up your entire turn; you cannot take another action (including taking a bonus action) on your turn when you've taken a Full Action, unless you are taking a Free Action along with it (more on that in a second).
Standard Action: These are your regular actions, and what take up the vast majority of DnD. These include using most skills, items, etc. A Bonus Action and/or a Free Action can be taken alongside a Standard Action.
Bonus Action: Certain skills, items, etc. will allow you to use a Bonus Action alongside of them. Bonus Actions are typically basic actions such as Basic Attacking, Defending, and, if you have the Epicurean Feat, consuming food & drink. In most cases, the type of Bonus Action that can be taken will be specified (such as an Aggressive or Defensive action), but in some cases where specified, any type of Bonus Action can be used. A full list of Bonus Actions will be provided at a later time.
Free Action: Free actions allow users to use an additional Full and/or Bonus Action on their turn. This type of action is usually reserved for Alacrity or basic attack modifying skills such as the Weapon Mastery feat, Spellblade, or stat-damage swapping skills like Clever Combat.
In most cases, a skill or item will specify if a Bonus Action or Free Action can be used alongside of them, or if they themselves count as a bonus action. For example, the Scholar Skills Planned Attack and Clever Combat count as Free Actions, and can be used in the same turn as a Standard Action such as using an item or another skill. Similarly, the Visimorph Mask Swaps in many cases allow a Basic Attack to be made as a Bonus Action alongside of them. Some items, such as the Boots of Speed (see below) allow the user to gain a free Bonus Action after a certain amount of Rounds have passed. For many classes with Taunts, those skills allow the user to take a defensive action (such as Defending) as a Bonus Action alongside taunting.
Glancing Blows:
Some skills, spells, and items currently include rules for Glancing Blows. This will continue to be the case. In essence, Glancing Blows allow for players to still gain a benefit for not meeting their accuracy check, so long as they rolled close to it. Generally, Glancing Blows have greatly reduced effects, such as partial (usually halved or less) damage or the absence of secondary effects. Most skills, items, etc. do NOT have Glancing Blow rules, but those actions that do have Glancing Blow Rules have case-by-case stated effects. For example:
The Dominion Rod's Hammer Guardian performs a Glancing Blow if it rolls within 10% of its accuracy (i.e., if the Hammer Guardian's accuracy is 50%, a 51-60% is considered a Glancing Blow), which causes it to deal no damage, but instead gives it a lower percentage chance to Stagger.
Free Slot
All players now have an additional equipment slot: the Free Slot! This slot allows players to equip an additional Accessory item of their choice into it. Because of the vast number of items (and growing) currently in DnD, it was becoming difficult for players to debate on what items to keep and equip because of slot restrictions. Hopefully, this'll help!
Note: You can ONLY equip Accessories into it, so Helmet, Chest, Gloves, Boots, and Cloak slot items cannot be placed here!
Skills
User-Specific:
SICARII:
SICARII (Mask)'s Mask Maker's Execute has had its potential heal amount capped to 30% of the user's Max HP.
Killer's Deception: SICARII's Concealed Mind Feat has been replaced with the unique Killer's Deception, which acts as a sidegrade to the original feat. The feat grants the same alignment concealment, but provides SICARII a bonus to all social checks and a +5% success rate on Surprise checks, instead of Mental CC resistance. This Feat has been provided to SICARII for free as a Roleplay bonus.
Scholar:
Exploit Weakness: Cooldown has been adjusted to 5 Rounds after the effect ends instead of 6 Rounds from when the skill is cast. Originally, this meant EW had an effective cooldown of 3 Rounds, which felt too strong for its effect.
Items
New Items:
Boots:
Soldier's Greaves: +10 Defense. Grants a chance equal to 10%+10% of the wearer's Defense stat to reduce the damage from an incoming attack by 35%. When blocking, 70% of Defense stat is used instead of 50%.
Zora's Flippers: +6 Defense. Allows the user to swim and dive without penalties. Prevents negative effects from water-based traps and field effects. When Soaked, Drenched, in Rain, or in Water, the wearer takes 50% reduced damage for as long as those effects are up. In addition, being under one or more of those conditions grants the ability to use a whirlpool attack:
The wearer summons a magical whirlpool that surrounds up to three adjacent enemies, dealing 50% damage, Rooting them and Soaking them for 2 Rounds. If this effect applies critically, the targets are Drenched instead. This effect must pass accuracy across all targets, but has an additional +20% chance to hit. 4 Round cooldown.
Boots of Power: +8 Defense. Grants flat bonus damage equal to 20% of the wearer's Defense stat minus 10% of the wearer's Attack or Comp stat, whichever is higher (minimum +5 at Tier 4, minimum +3 per tier).
Boots of Speed: +7 Defense. Beginning on Round 3, and every 5th Round afterwards, grants the wearer a Bonus Action.
Gloves:
Titan's Mitts: +8 Defense. The wearer may lift up a nearby heavy object and use it to create a barrier between themselves and/or their allies. Each object has its own fragility property and corresponding secondary effect. For example:
Fragile: Ice crystals, Glass; Average: Wood, Clay; Sturdy: Stone, Metal
If there is no nearby object, the wearer may "magically" manifest a barricade rock, which counts as Average sturdiness.
When placing the object down, the object provides all allies with a 20% chance to take cover, causing the targeting attack to hit the barrier instead. Each barrier has a set amount of HP and Defense depending on its sturdiness, as well as other secondary effects, as follows:
Fragile: 200 HP (T4) +50 HP per tier. 20 Def (T4) +10 Def per tier. When destroyed, the barrier's pieces shatter, dealing 50% of the user's attack or competency (whichever is higher) in damage to the target that destroyed it, plus bonus damage equal to 50% of the amount of excess damage dealt to the barrier (i.e., if the barrier had 50 HP left and was struck for 200 damage, it would deal additional bonus damage equal to 150/2, or 75. This damage has a 20% chance to crit, regardless of the user's source crit. The target must perform an evade (User Atk/Comp:Target Def) check to try and avoid being damaged. If the user succeeds their evade check but are still within 20% of accuracy, the shards still deal a glancing blow and deal half damage.
Average: 300 HP (T4) +100 HP per tier. 30 Def (T4) +10 Def per tier. Whenever this barrier is struck by a direct attack, small pieces chunk off and deal 20% of the damage dealt as recoil damage to the attacker, including damage dealt in excess of the barrier's HP. This damage does not need to pass accuracy.
Sturdy: 400 HP (T4) +150 HP per tier. 50 Def (T4) +10 Def per tier. No secondary effects.
The barrier may be directly attacked by enemies. The barrier may be active for up to 4 Rounds, or until it is destroyed. 7 Round cooldown after the barrier expires.
On a grid, this object must be placed in an adjacent square to the user, takes up a 2x2 square, and is considered impassable terrain unless an enemy or ally is airborne. The object can be destroyed early at any time as a bonus action, or can be moved to a new location after the effect's cooldown finishes.
Gold Gauntlets: +8 Defense. The wearer may lift up a nearby heavy object and strike at a target of their choosing. Each object has its own damage property and corresponding secondary effect. For example:
Impact: Boulders, Trees; Slashing: Large, ornamental weapons (such as those found on statues); Piercing: Stalagmites/Stalagtites, Large icicles.
If there is no nearby object, the wearer may ""magically"" manifest a large pillar, which counts as impact damage.
When attacking with the object, the attack deals 1.3x bonus damage plus an additional 0.1x damage to enemies of standard size, 0.2x damage to enemies of small size, and 0.3x damage to enemies of tiny size. In addition, the attack has the following bonuses depending on the damage type:
Slashing: +20% crit chance.
Piercing: Ignores defensive buffs and increases the damage dealt to the target by 10% for 2 Rounds.
Impact: Knocks down target for 2 Rounds. Additionally Concusses for 2 Rounds on a crit.
When lifting an object, the user's evasion boosts - if any - are lost for 1 Round. If no evasion boosts are present, the user's evasion is penalized by -5% for the same duration. 7 Round cooldown.
Mogma Mitts: +8 Defense. Its sharp claws can be used to make a special swipe attack, dealing standard damage +10% crit chance as slashing damage with a 50% chance to cause a bleed. If this attack crits, it additionally causes Anemia. 5 Round Cooldown.
These gloves may also be used for digging... which was likely what they were actually designed for, in retrospect!
Soldier's Gauntlets: +8 Defense. +10% mitigation when Taunting or Taunted.
In addition, Defense may be used in place of Attack or Comp for calculating damage. 3 Round Cooldown.
Helmet:
Ancient Helm: +10 Def, +10% efficacy to Utility slot items or items marked with the Guardian or Ancient Tech tags. +10% bonus damage versus Constructs and Guardians.
Stealth Mask: +6 Def. +10% Sneak, Stealth, and Surprise. Halves Perception bonuses used against the user while they perform any of these three actions.
Adjusted Items:
Consumables:
Potions now heal for percent of health instead of a flat number.
Water of Life: Heals for 30% of max HP.
2nd Potion: Heals for 50% of max HP. Turns into the Water of Life once consumed.
Red Potion: Heals for 10% of max HP.
Red Potion+: Heals for 15% of max HP.
Red Potion++: Heals for 25% of max HP.
Blue Potion: Heals for 35% of max HP.
Great Fairy's Tears: Heals for 50% of max HP. Doubles damage for 2 Rounds.
Soup: Heals for 10% of max HP.
Tasty Soup: Heals for 20% of max HP.
Gourmet Soup: Heals for 30% of max HP.
Milk: Heals for 10% of max HP. 2 helpings.
Premium Milk: Heals for 15% of max HP. 2 helpings.
Bottled Fairy: Now heals for 50% of max when used, or 25% of max when it resurrects a KOed character. This has been halved from its original values of 100% and 50% respectively, to ensure it isn't overly strong for our overall game mechanics.
Non-healing Potion adjustments:
Purple Potion: The 50% increased damage duration has been decreased from 4 Rounds down to 2.
Black Potion: Injures player for 5% of their max HP when consumed. If coated on a weapon, the weapon deals flat bonus damage equal to 10% of their Attack or Comp, whichever is higher, for 3 hits.
Chateau Romani: Reduces the cooldown on all active cooldowns by 4 Rounds. Increases spellpower by 10% for 3 Rounds.
Several new charms felt more like Utility slot items in terms of the complexity of their item activation. Some of these items, indeed, were intended as Utility slots, but were moved to Charm due to the at-the-time low number of Charms and high number of competitive Utility slots. After weighing the benefits and drawbacks and reevaluating the current items, we have decided to allow certain Charm Slot items to be equipped in Utility instead - this way players can have some more flexibility about their item shuffling, without messing anyone up who may have planned to use one of the Charm slots that would be newly tagged as Utility.
The following Charm-slot items can now be equipped in either the Charm Slot OR the Utility slot:
Horse Whistle
Dark Mirror
Sacrificial Dagger
Uniques that can be slotted in Utility or Charm:
Brodongo's Whistle
Eating People is Wrong
Nacreous Dagger
Feats
Merciless: Merciless no longer procs against targets inflicted with a DoT. Instead, it can be triggered by non-DoT Status Conditions and CCs, and can now modify DoT damage.
Future Plans
Damage immunities are being looked at. As it stands, having a target be completely immune to certain damage types is simply not fun, and is a hinderance to certain builds depending on the prevalence of certain enemy types (i.e., ghosts and skeletons being immune to bleed, other Undead being immune to disease and sometimes poison, fire elementals being immune to fire, etc).
We are looking into a way to remove immunities while still providing some resistances to enemies that would sensibly resist those damage types. We'll provide a more thorough update as soon as these adjustments have been made.
That's all for now!