Dungeons & Dragons Online Update 34: Death or Glory Released

A new update for Dungeons & Dragons Online, called Death or Glory, is now out. With the Update 34 release, the folks at Standing Stone Games have added a variety new content to the game, with the most notable being a free-to-play adventure and an all-new new way to challenge players with “Reaper” difficulty levels that make “Elite” difficulty look soft:

A New, Free Dungeon!

Visit a wizard’s tower in The Tower of Frost. This free quest is available at level 14 on Heroic difficulty, and level 28 on Epic Difficulty. The NPC to acquire the quest can be found in The Marketplace, near the fountain by the Phoenix Tavern, and is named Crawben Bix.

Reaper Difficulty

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!

A fair share of tweaks and fixes is included in the update. Here’s the changelog with the exception of the lengthy Reaper Difficulty details:

Champions

• The Champion system has been updated. Champion crowns will now designate whether the Champion is Tier 1, Tier 2, or Tier 3. Champion buffs now randomly pick between a set of template themes after the Outer and Inner Planes where they get their boost.
• Champions still do not appear on Normal, and will only be Tier 1 on Hard. Elite will have Tiers 1 and 2, while Reaper difficulty will have up to Tier 3.
• The global damage modifier for champions has been reduced to account for new abilities. This does not affect mini boss champions.
• Players can see the kind of Champion they are fighting by looking at the creature’s title. Additional detail can be found in the examination window.
• Red-named bosses can no longer be Champions.
• Fixed some stacking damage-over-time effects on Champions that were not applying correctly.
• Champion damage-over-time effects on players now last for ten seconds per stack instead of six.
• Most defender NPCs and allies will no longer be eligible for Champion status.
• Champion titles appear when overhead health bars are visible.

Classes

• Ranger’s paralyzing arrows no longer refresh their duration when re-applied to an old copy. This gives monsters a small window to make a saving throw.
• Cleric’s Martyrdom now removes Turn Undead charges reliably.
• Paladin’s Eternal Defender now removed Turn Undead charges reliably.

Combat

• Bluff’s difficulty scaling has been toned down.
• Shiv’s bluff now effects red-named bosses again for the purposes of Sneak Attack.
• Monster assist range has been reduced. Monsters will not share aggro if a player in stealth kills them, unless their friends are actually looking at them. This allows assassins to attack monster packs in stealth as long as they also manage monster sight lines.
• Death effects, including the Warlock Feat Hurl Through Hell and the spell Trap the Soul, are now properly blocked by death wards. These effects will continue to work on undead or monsters who are only protected by their own racial traits, genius, or other effects, but will be specifically blocked by death ward effects. Additionally, Hurl Through Hell now has a spell point cost of 20 Spell Points.

Enhancements

• Human and Half-elf Action Boosts no longer have separate cooldowns from other sources of Action Boosts. They continue to retain a separate number of uses per rest.
• Human and Half-elf Action Boost: Damage is now called Human or Half-elf Action Boost: Melee and Ranged Power.
• Bladeforged’s Power of the Forge now grants +20 Melee and ranged Power instead of +20% damage. This ability now shares a cooldown with other Action Boosts.

Epic Destinies

• Draconic Incarnation’s breath weapon attacks now count as Evocation spells and get full Metamagic feats.
• Draconic Incarnation’s breath weapon attacks no longer require hard targeting.

Feats

• Master of Knowledge no longer procs on spells other than the ones it is intended to.
• Hellball and Eldritch Ball no longer proc extra times if you are within melee range of your target(s).

Items

• Most named items in the game can now be found with special Mythic bonuses on them. Additionally, named items found in Reaper Difficulty can have a special Reaper bonus on them.
  • ​NOTE: Upgrading some older named items (through the Scroll, Shard, and Seal system, for example) may cause them to lose their Mythic and Reaper bonuses.

Monsters

• Orcs in Eberron are now less likely to fire a bow after you’ve attacked them in melee.
• The generic Sunder effects feature on many melee monsters now apply a 10% Armor Class penalty instead of a -4 penalty to scale better into the upper levels. We’ve also fixed an issue with DCs not scaling on older versions of these Sunder effects.

Quests and Adventure Areas

• The second chest in Secrets of the Slaver Stockades is now pickable.
• We’ve adjusted some lighting issues in What Goes Up that could cause overly-bright purple skies.

Miscellaneous

• External URLs now launch properly on the Mac/OSX game client.
• Adjusted some text references to reflect the transition to Standing Stone Games.
• Changed some coin icons to reflect the transition to Standing Stone Games.

You can also preview the descriptions and screenshots of items you can get in the new dungeon that include potions that freeze your enemies, snowballs, and a rune arm that shoots books.