Module 2 Patch 1: Litany of the Dead Part 1: The Necropolis

=Overview=

=Release date= 16th Aug, 2006

=Litany of the Dead Part 1: The Necropolis Update - Release Notes= Introducing Five New Dungeons (CR 4-5)!

Several centuries ago, a splinter group of the Blood of Vol settled near where Stormreach lies today. The leader of the group had great aspirations, and after following in Vol's footsteps and becoming a lich, he craved even more power and set out to become a god.

He recruited three vampire friars to write a sacred text for him, The Litany of the Dead. Each vampire would be responsible for a third of the book, The Heretical Path, The Twisted Apocrypha, and The Black Prophecy. When all three works are finished and combined, the lich will arise from his rest and ascend to godhood. The first crypt opens now...

To read more about these dungeons please click here.

Performance

 * We have made some changes to the Twilight Forge that should improve performance.

General

 * The House Kundarak banking system has opened up a new branch in the harbor inside the Harbormaster's House! House Kundarak - striving to meet YOUR banking needs.
 * Loot messages from other players can be filtered out using the chat options on your chat tab.
 * Tells sent to invalid character names once again give a more correct error message.
 * The spell exchange and energy spell selector dialogs behave correctly when you dismiss them using the escape button.
 * Fixed more stuck points throughout the world.

Monsters

 * Prolonged exposure to the Plane of Night has had negative effects on Velah and has stripped her of some of her former epic powers. Note that to compensate she has grown a bit smarter, and many of the old strategies used may not work as well as they once did. Experimentation, quick thinking, and valor will surely lead heroes to find new ways to defeat her.
 * Velah's spellcasting AI and line of sight recognition have been improved.
 * Her attacks are no longer flagged as unblockable.
 * The average damage of her physical attacks have been reduced. The critical hit ranges on various attacks have been modified.
 * Her tail knockdown attack now uses the same mechanics as other Knockdown effects.
 * Wing Buffet is now considered a physical attack rather than a spell. The knockback effect now has a reflex save.
 * Velah's Dragon Breath is no longer treated as a physical attack. It is now entirely fire damage with a single reflex save, and can no longer crit or miss.
 * Dispelling Breath now removes half as many magical effects as before.
 * Her Telekinesis ability now has a will save.
 * All spells cast by Velah now properly use her Charisma to determine DC's.
 * Fireballs spit by Velah are now entirely fire damage and scale properly on Hard and Elite.
 * Velah herself scales properly in difficulty on Hard and Elite.
 * Warforged Titan
 * Fixed an issue that was locking the Warforged Titan to ranged combat mode. He should chase targets on the ground more often now.
 * Made improvements to the Warforged Titan's target recognition and fixed an issue which was keeping the Warforged Titan's attention locked onto one target longer than intended.
 * Wildmen apply the feeblemind effect less often, generally on critical hits and/or their special leap attack.
 * Melee oriented Troglodytes will move closer to their targets - they should no longer attempt to make melee attacks from out of range.
 * The effects caused by the warforged quori humanoids in the WFT area will no longer produce FX. Previously this on-damage effect could slow down performance due to the spam of visualized effects.

NPCs

 * Laina the Excoriated will close her shop window properly.

Combat

 * The critical threat range is no longer doubled on the 4th swing in a combo.
 * The feeblemind bestowed by wildmen is now curable by restoration.

Items

 * Vorpal weapons will instantly kill monsters as per the beheading rules in the Players Handbook - you must roll a natural 20 and confirm a crit to vorpal your target. Heads will not actually fall off (as cool as that would be!)
 * Niac's Cold Ray and Knock scrolls are now available at Lorna Wyrmtouched, Arcane Scroll Vendor in the marketplace tent.
 * The Freedom of Movement effect on the Kundarak Delving Boots will now ward the movement effects of Storm Giant weather control. It will no longer ward the Beholder's petrify eye beam or the Mummy's Despair ability.
 * Items that cast Featherfall have gotten an upgrade in usability. These items are now fast-casting and use a self-only version of Featherfall.
 * The "of Destruction" weapon effect is much weaker than intended. To make the effect worthy of its cost, "of Destruction" will now reduce the target's AC by 4 the first time it hits. There is no saving throw for this effect.
 * The names for Seeker +1, Seeker +2, Seeker +3 etc. items have been changed to be consistent with other effect naming conventions - they are now named to match the bonus they give (Seeker +2, Seeker+4, Seeker +6 etc.)

Spells

 * Hazadill was having such fun with Otto's Sphere of Dancing that he didn't realize that he was breaking the rules of the universe and casting area-of-effect Otto's IRRESISTIBLE dance rather than area-of-effect Otto's RESISTIBLE dance. This has been fixed. Don't forget to pack your will saves!
 * Fixed a long-standing issue with dispel effects that was causing dispels from the Dispel Magic spell to be much harder than they should normally be.

Quests

 * Gnarl's Tomb
 * Old Gnarl's ghost now opens his door after a fight if he dispatches any would-be thieves. This allows parties to attempt him again without resetting the dungeon.
 * Restless Isles
 * The Runetusk Commander will no longer speak to you after he dies.
 * Several encounters were displaying their DM text repeatedly. This has been fixed.
 * Twilight Forge
 * If you are carrying a party member's soulstone, the crystals will no longer fire at you if you die while you have the appropriate key. Conversely, the crystals will resume firing at you if you pick up a soulstone. Additionally, we fixed a visual bug where the crystals appeared to fire at other players if they had the appropriate key.