Returning players

This is a page for people who have returned after a long time and need a short reminder of important things.

Welcome back to DragonRealms and Elanthipedia!

You are encouraged to join the unofficial Discord text/voice chat service for real time communication with other players.

General

Both a lot has changed and not as much as you'd think has changed. The basic HELP (it actually is useful now), ADVICE, VERB, and DIRECTION commands still work.

The DragonRealms 3.0, its linked pages, and the What's New page have more details on major changes.

First things you will want to consider, since they are on a 24 hour timer from when you first awaken, is if you want to respec your stats or your magic skills.

Also you may want to turn off your bonus pools of magic, lore, and survival until you understand how they work.

For a handy explanation of your bonus pools and how to switch around your magic skills, see Experience command for EXP SWITCH and EXP BONUS towards the bottom of the page.

For stat re-specification, type RESPEC. If you are eligible it will tell you.

Combat

• Chained attack combos are gone. Each attack now has its own benefits and flaws and no longer depends on your previous attack. The properties of each attack can be brought up with <move> HELP FULL, and a list of all with <move> HELP LIST (any move will work).

• Some of the weapon skills have been combined, usually the most similar ones, such as Light Edge and Medium Edge becoming Small Edge. As your new skill was set to the highest of your previous skills, you won't lose any effectiveness. The actual weapon categories still exist, for the few systems that still need the differences (backstab, offhand wielding, and a few others), but the skills themselves have merged.

• Weapons and armor now take durability damage again, but do not become permanently lost due to damage. Poorly repaired items are not very effective at protecting or dealing damage. Be sure to repair your gear occasionally.

• Combat in general has been slowed down, with both creatures and PCs taking less damage. Current vitality will act as a barrier to the amount of damage body parts take, with higher vitality almost completely preventing it. This has had a variety of effects, among them being that first strike in PvP is no longer an almost guarantee of winning.

• While brawling still exists, all non-damaging maneuvers are now covered by the Lore skill, Tactics.

• RETREATing adds a stacking penalty to attacks for a time. ASSESS will show if the penalty is in effect.

• An room cannot be left for a period of time after an attack, whether mundane or magical, to prevent "drive by" attacks.

• ANALYZE was added, allowing an additional way to train Tactics, via disabling moves.

• APPRAISing a creature CAREFULLY will now attempt to compare both your chances to succeed at a wide variety of things, as well as whether it will teach well.

• Charged maneuvers, special attacks that take several seconds to trigger, were added.

• The new forging and tanning systems have vastly improved combat gear over previously crafted gear. This does not yet apply to bows or crossbows, but is planned to.

• The HUNT command will show creatures and PCs in an area around user, as well as allowing them to move directly to the target. This both utilizes and teaches Perception.

• Stance points assigned to Parry will automatically be utilized as Shield stance in the event of an attack that cannot be parried, but can be blocked. Ranged weapons (thrown weapons, bows, crossbows) as well as non-DFA (Death From Above; Lightning Bolt, Soul Attrition, Burn, etc.) spells that create projectiles (Fire Shards, Fists of Faenella, Dinazen Olkar, etc.)

Magic/Supernatural Abilities

• All non-quest spells were wiped, due to massive changes to magic.

• Magic Feats were added for magic users, giving generic bonuses in return for costing spell slots.

• It is no longer possible to pay TDPs for addition spell slots, nor is it currently intended to ever be.

• There has been a significant change in magic skills, beyond the renaming of them to "Supernatural Skillset." Some skills have been split and others have been merged. Reading the pages on Magic 3.0 (the biggest change) should help with understanding the basics, but in short, Primary Magic now exists only to bonus the other new magic skills, which cover specific types of magic.

• Cyclic spells and cyclic-like abilities will no longer teach for the entire time. They begin teaching poorly, ramp up to full, then taper off to nothing after approximately five minutes. To begin learning from them again, the spell/ability will need to be reactivated.

• The previously named Magical Devices skill was renamed Arcana, and is planned to encompass new areas.

• The DISCERN command was added to give more information on spells, though the difficult Arcana skill check may make it less useful.

Crafting

Many of the old crafting systems have been rewritten and standardized under the new Lore skills. They are fairly complex systems, but all of them require a crafting books sold at their respective crafting society. The STUDY and ANALYZE commands are used to gain information about nearly all aspects of the system, including use on the involved NPCs.

While it is possible to cut off exactly how much is needed prior to beginning to craft, more material than is necessary can be used to begin the process. Any excess will automatically be separated and placed on the ground. This excess material can be used in other processes.

Also note that the noun of the item may change during the crafting process.

Unfortunately, not all crafts are converted yet, and not all towns have all of the societies that are converted.

Currently, all of forging, carving from engineering, most of tailoring, and the basic healing remedies from alchemy.

Guild Specific

Barbarian

• Most of the Barbarian abilities have undergone massive changes even compared to a short time ago.

• All abilities are now picked from a common set of "slots," allowing much greater customization. In addition, several abilities can running at once.

• All abilities now use the renamed "Supernatural Skillset" (previously magic) and the skills within to power them. Targeted Magic, Utility, and Sorcery are still banned skills, and all others cannot be taught to a Barbarian by magic users. However, it should be noted that the Barbarian system utilizes these skills in a different way that magic, and the two systems should not be compared.

• STUDYing the local guildmaster will give you most of the important syntax, and nearby is usually a series of signs with information. Also, Barbarian Abilities page can help.

• Barbarians now possess a guild-only skill called Expertise. This skill represents the Barbarian's mastery of all things weapon.

• Barbarians can ANALYZE themselves in order to determine a series of attack moves that will bonus certain aspects.

• MEDITATE RESEARCH <ability> will not only give a brief explanation of the ability, it will teach a small amount of the skill that ability uses. This does not require that you possess the ability, but it does not work on skills utilizing Debilitation.

Bard

• Bards have also undergone many major changes, and many of their spells have been converted to normal spells. This allows a greater flexibility than was possible before, but requires a study of the new powers. See Category:Bard Spells for more details.

• STUDYing the local guildmaster will give you most of the important syntax.

• All instrument skills have been combined into a single Performance skill.

• The guild-only skill is now called Bardic Lore.

Cleric

• Theurgy added as a guild-only skill.
• Several communes have been reworked and one has been added. Clerics who did their commune quests before 3.0 will need to repeat the quests for Tamsine, Eluned I, and Meraud before they can be used. Note: These may not be offered in "original" order.
• Clerics can align themselves to a specific deity, gaining a bonus in some magic skills while penalizing others. Note: You will be aligned to Faenella by default if you cast any spell before having chosen your alignment via the align ritual.
• Murrula's Flames and Persistence of Mana have become ritual spells.

Empath

• There are now two primary healing spells instead of four, and several new advanced healing spells.

• The take commands have been redone with added options, and also now allows for the use of a single command to take all of a patient's wounds (where as in the past this required a script.)

• Empathic Shock is no longer binary, and there is a quest to cure it.

• Additional healing link and transference options are available (see Unity Link, Hand of Hoderina).

• Empaths may now hunt constructs without receiving shock. They may also hunt the undead with the use of the Absolution spell.

Necromancers

This guild now exists.

Thief

Thief abilities have been massively rewritten, and have a number of new features.

• All abilities now use the renamed "Supernatural Skillset" (previously magic) and the skills within to power them. Targeted Magic, Warding, and Sorcery are still banned skills, and all others cannot be taught to a Thief by magic users.

• Khris now have several ways to activate them, including a delay or while kneeling, that will reduce their cost to activate.

• Backstab is now has a bonus to damage vs. PCs for the first one done within an unknown period of time. This allows for a true first strike, while limiting the damage from repeated re-hiding and stabbing. It is now trainable with Blindside.

• KHRI MEDITATE will consume some concentration and bonus the next learning pulse from activated abilities.

• If you become stuck in trying to remember some old secrets, you can find tips and clues here: Thief Spoilers.

Warrior Mage

• STUDYing the local guildmaster will give you most of the important syntax.

• The Elementalism skill has been added as the guilds unique skill. It is trained primarily through the rewritten Aethereal Pathways system.

• Y'ntrel Sechra has been rewritten, making wearing of heavy armor much more difficult. The GMs have expressed that it does not do what they want, but that it will not be returning to its previous form.

• Elemental weapon has been added to replace the previous weapons generated from the old, disabled spells Fist of Stone (2.0) and Frost Scythe (2.0). The default ability, which creates a weapon based upon your highest related skill, is available upon joining the guild and can be improved upon (better quality weapons, additional weapon types or damage types) by adding optional metamagic spells.