Reaper difficulty

Reaper Difficulty or Reaper Mode, introduced in Update 34, is the highest difficulty in DDO. This game mode has ten sub-difficulties, known as "skulls," that can further increase the challenge rating. In this difficulty, many things are changed, so proceed with caution! Most notably, self healing in reaper mode is significantly reduced. Players will also find that they do less damage and take more of it, including attribute damage. There are special monsters only found in this game mode known as Reapers (see below) which have dangerous, powerful abilities. As a reward for braving this difficulty, players will earn more experience points, more named treasure (with increased chances Mythic Bonuses and exclusive chances for a "Reaper Bonus"), and Reaper Experience, which unlocks Reaper enhancements and cosmetics.

Update 34 Release Notes:
 * Reaper Difficulty offers a new challenge for the toughest adventurers! Reaper difficulty can be selected from the quest portal UI for many quests and raids throughout the game. When you select Reaper difficulty, there is also a drop-down list of between one and ten Skulls, which affects quest/raid difficulty and reward. Special Reaper Bonuses can be found on items acquired in Reaper Difficulty, there is an increased chance to get named items, and you'll earn Reaper Experience. Reaper XP will award a Reaper Point at certain thresholds that can be spent on abilities in a special Reaper benefit tree, among other things! Warning: Reaper difficulty is meant for players who enjoy a serious challenge. You have been warned!

= Game mechanic = Reaper is the fifth difficulty setting for quests, above Elite. Further, Reaper allows players to decide how much of a challenge they want by selecting an appropriate number of "skulls" (1 Skull = easiest vs 10 Skulls = hardest), adding further difficulty if the player so chooses.

A quest can be opened on Reaper difficulty by any character who can open Elite difficulty. This means VIP accounts can do so at any time, but Free-to-play and Premium characters must have already completed the quest on Hard, or have reincarnated at least twice (same as opening for Elite difficulty), or are in a party with a member who can open on Elite. (There is a level gate in effect, see Lockout below.)

The following applies to reaper mode:

Reapers

 * See Reaper race article for more details.

Monsters are stronger
(Tests)
 * Monster damage is increased.
 * Many monsters are Champions, often with multiple buffs. The strongest and most dangerous of the three tiers of champions, red-crown, is found in Reaper difficulty (and nowhere else).
 * All monsters receive bonus to saving throws ( have shown a +1.5 to saves per skull)

Players are weaker
(Tests)
 * Player damage is reduced.
 * Self-healing is dramatically weaker (60% in 1 Skull; an additional 4% per skull, up to 96% reduction for 10 Skulls.) (This applies also to Lesser Restoration pots, making them fairly ineffective for restoring ability damage.)
 * General-healing is weaker (0% at 1 Skull; an additional 4% per Skull, up to 36% reduction for 10 Skulls.)
 * As of U40, damage and healing values now have a minimum value of one due to Reaper scaling. If Reaper scaling would reduce a value for damage or healing that is above zero to zero, then the value will now be at least one.
 * This does not include Ability damage to enemies.


 * Crowd control effects have reduced duration (If a CC is reduced, it is reduced to 6 seconds minimum. It keeps the shorter, single target CC relevant, particularly tactical stuns from enhancement trees.) On reaper 10, cc is reduced by a factor of ~8.5.
 * Death timer: Dead players cannot be raised for some time (6 seconds per skull?). Being returned to the Soul Stone because of distance will reset the timer. NOTE: Will also reset raid death timers.


 * Incorporeality and Concealment (Blur/Displacement/...) have reduced effect. Reaper Difficulty introduces a flat 5% Concealment bypass, with a further 5% Concealment and Incorporeal bypass per Skull difficulty. Beginning with combined total of 10% Concealment and 5% Incorporeal bypass at Reaper 1.

Lockout

 * Characters cannot enter a quest on Reaper Difficulty if they are more than four (Heroic) / six (Epic) levels over the level of the dungeon or raid (based on Normal difficulty, not the modified level on Elite Difficulty).
 * Characters also cannot enter a Reaper Dungeon if they are Epic Level (level 20) and the Dungeon is Heroic. This applies to level 18 and 19 quests, but not to level 20 heroic quests. Epic characters above level 20 can enter the heroic level 20 quests.
 * Reaper dungeons lock their instance when a player leaves. No other player may enter (or re-enter) the instance again.
 * Tip: Dungeon does not lock if you close DDO (for example using Alt+F4) and party leader dismisses you while linkdead.

Other changes

 * Defeated enemies can drop Lost Souls. One character in a party can consume them to recharge some of their spell points. The amount of restored spell points depends on quest level and is equal to 5 * (base quest level + 3)
 * Hirelings cannot interact with the Lost Souls, and so cannot regain SP in this method.
 * Interacting with Lost Souls breaks Invisibility, Stealth and Ki Finishers, much as interacting with a lever does. May or may not be WAI.
 * Since Update 42 Patch 4 the appearance of Lost Souls scales with party size and Reaper skulls. Fewer souls appear for smaller parties and on lower reaper levels.
 * Upon entering dungeons on Reaper difficulty, characters are restored hit points and spell points equal to what's granted by their reaper enhancements.

= Rewards =

Experience
Completing quests on Reaper difficulty provides more Heroic or Epic experience points (XP). Reaper quests award both regular experience and Reaper experience (RXP).
 * Base XP is the same as Elite
 * First-time completion bonus for Reaper difficulty is +95% (which is +50% more than for Elite).
 * Bravery Bonus for Reaper difficulty is +100% (same as Elite).
 * Sagas progress as on Elite.

Reaper experience
In addition to the regular heroic or epic experience (XP), completing quests on Reaper difficulty yields Reaper experience (RXP). ''NOTE: RXP is only awarded when at least ten enemies are defeated in a quest. Killing 9 or fewer enemies still gives regular XP with bonuses for Reaper difficulty, but yields zero RXP.''
 * RXP grants you Reaper Points (to be invested in Reaper enhancements)
 * RXP unlocks Reaper vendors (see below)

Starting at Level 4, Reaper Points can be invested in any of three Reaper enhancement trees. There are 3 trees available, which are essentially: These work in a similar manner to enhancement trees, but are only actively applied to a character while within a quest on (any) Reaper difficulty. As with enhancement trees, these points are never actually spent, so a character can pay PP to re-allocate them as desired.
 * melee/ranged - Dread Adversary
 * casting - Dire Thaumaturge
 * defense - Grim Barricade

The base RXP reward (displayed at the top of the experience log) is the based on dungeon level and the number of skulls selected.
 * Base RXP = (50 + 3 * (quest level on Normal) * (number of skulls))

In dungeons with a base level of 30 or higher the equation becomes
 * Base RXP = (50 + 3 * (quest level on Normal) * (number of skulls)) * 2

This base RXP number is then multiplied by a quest length modifier before being used in any following calculations.
 * Modified Base RXP = (Base RXP * Length Bonus) (0.8 (short), 1 (medium), 1.2 (long), 1.4 (very long))

The final RXP total (displayed at the bottom of experience log) is modified in exactly the same way as "normal" xp is modified with the following exceptions:
 * Bravery bonus does not count
 * does not count
 * First time completion of any given quest in Reaper gets a +200% first time completion bonus (followed by the normal established repetition penalties in subsequent runs)

Regular experience boosts such as Heroic Inspiration, VIP boost, guild airship buffs, and experience elixirs also increase RXP granted.

These boosts are not reflected in the Experience Report for the quest, but are instead calculated based on the entire amount of XP gained from the quest and reported in the chat window upon completion.

A character continues to acquire RXP when capped for heroic or epic experience (i.e. after reaching the XP banking cap or level cap, quest completions will continue to award RXP).

RXP persists through reincarnation, but must be re-allocated once a character hits Level 4 (or higher).

See also:
 * Reaper enhancements/XP per Point
 * Reaper enhancements

Overlevel penalties
For Heroic quests (only), there is an RXP over-level penalty. Since Update 42 Patch 4 the penalties are the same as for regular XP - namely, if the highest level player is four levels over the quest's base level, they are 2 levels over the effective level, and a 10% XP penalty applies to all characters. Further penalties are impossible, as characters five levels or more over the base level are locked out.

There are no overlevel penalties in Epic quests, just the six level lockout. 

Note: The over-level penalty also applies to hirelings, including gold seal hirelings. A particularly punishing example is summoning a level 20 hireling, such as the Onyx Panther (ML18) in heroic reaper. This prevents all RXP.

Quest length multiplier
As of Update 34 Patch 2, RXP is modified based on the length of the dungeon/raid:
 * Short - 0.8
 * Medium - 1.0
 * Long - 1.2
 * Very Long - 1.4

Reaper Vendors / Rewards
Reaper Vendors are available in the Hall of Heroes. They sell Creature Companions and potions that grant special cosmetic feats.

Very high totals of Reaper Experience are rewarded with special cosmetics or a creature companion. There are three different vendors, each with a different Reaper Experience requirement that must be met before they will talk with you. The platinum costs are high; buy these items when you have high haggle.

Note that the eyes and wings last for a single life and need to be purchased again after you TR.
 * Raven Queen Messenger (625,000 Reaper Experience), or 25 reaper points
 * Cosmetic eyes, base cost 1M Platinum.
 * Raven Queen Augur (2,500,000 Reaper Experience), or 50 reaper points
 * Reaperling creature companions
 * Access to Reaper Forge
 * Raven Queen's Herald (5,625,000 Reaper Experience), or 75 reaper points
 * Cosmetic wings

Items
The contents of chests and end-loot, including the presence of named items, have (slightly) improved chances of better results on Reaper difficulty, often with higher reaper difficulty (aka "most skulls") resulting in slightly higher percentages of that better result.

Benefits
 * 1) Higher treasure level in randomly generated loot
 * 2) More Monster Champions = more Mysterious Remnants
 * 3) Increased chance of dropping named items: +1% per skull level.
 * 4) Increased chance of named items having Mythic bonus.
 * 5) Chance of named items having Reaper bonus.

Notes
 * Each of these chances increase in likelihood for each reaper skull.
 * Applies to static named items from quests. Crafted items or end rewards don't have this benefit.
 * Some dev quotes available here.

Non-reaper quests
Certain quests are not available on Reaper difficulty:
 * Korthos quests
 * Solo-only quests
 * Protect Baudry's Interests
 * Stop Hazadill's Shipment
 * Tangleroot Gorge quests
 * Mask of Deception
 * Precious Cargo
 * Hound of Xoriat and its legendary equivalent were disabled on reaper difficulty in Update 41, and later reinstated in Update 42 Patch 4.

Development
Prior to Lamannia Update 33, Reaper Mode was a whiteboard idea for a dungeon difficulty harder than elite in development internally and mentioned to the Player's Council. Some of its simple text leaked onto the Lamannia preview server while Update 27 was being previewed.