[Bertram Anders]

Following a recent adventuring expedition into the ancient creator ruins beneath Umratharos, the Red Wizards were alerted to previously unknown enchanting magics found within. While the original apparatus was badly damaged and inoperable, the Red Wizards deduced much from the rubble and applied the knowledge to the various enchantment forges throughout Thay and the Underdark...



-Through his hard work and brilliant code, William Draco has completely rebuilt Thay's enchantment forges! An enormous thanks go to him for the weeks of work he put into it, and to our entire DM team for their beta testing of it. While there is too much to cover here in detail, some important things to note are:

1. Many new options are available at the forges. You'll now see things like AC vs Race, or Damage vs Alignment, Immunity to specific spells, among others. In addition, DMs have even more new options that can be applied to unique rewards

2. It is now possible to modify an existing enchantment on an item if the item already has 3 or more (everyone rejoice!)

3. The notoriety levels at which certain enchantments become available have been reviewed and revised - in most cases to make them easier to get

4. A new item property called 'Returning' has been created and can be applied at forges to Throwing Axes, Darts, and Shuriken. If you've ever wished for a perpetual ranged attack that automatically uses your strength bonus, this is for you!



-Not satisfied with 'just' rebuilding our forge system, William Draco also included his custom Unlimited Ammo system. This awesome feature allows you to specify the enchantments on the ammunition a weapon's Unlimited Ammo enchantment creates.

For example, once you apply Unlimited Ammo to a bow, you can modify the ammunition it creates to have a +2 damage bonus, vampiric regeneration +1, and a chance to cause Daze OnHit. So dust off those ranged-attack character concepts, because now with the lowered cost of Unlimited Ammo, and the flexibility that comes with this system, you will no longer have to always 'pay' for every unique ranged attack you make against your opponents



-Due to Thay's many modified classes, skills, feats, spells, and so on; an OOC area for players to test character builds is now available. There are many neat things to try out in this Character Laboratory of Thay, such as the ability to quickly level and delevel a test PC, give it gold, play with neat custom items, modify your appearance or clothing, test all enchantments available to PCs at our newly revised enchantment forges, and more!

1. To create a test character, put a period (.) in front of a new character's name, for example: .Balanor of Thay

2. Test PCs do not count toward a player's special PC limit, and can be of any race/subrace available at character creation

3. Test PCs will always be jumped to, and may never leave, the Character Laboratory. Likewise, normal PCs may not enter that area

4. The laboratory may evolve over time, but as of now it is a non-PvP area with a focus on the features to create character builds specific to this PW



-The cost to purchase a raise dead contingency from a temple priest that can raise a PC from the dead has been halved



-The XP restriction on groups of 8+ PCs, originally in place to combat lag, has been removed to avoid penalizing larger groups of players who show up for DM events



-Once a PC has revealed a hidden door or object, which did not require a special item in their possession to be revealed, that hidden object will be automatically revealed by them in the future



-Melf's Acid Arrow has been changed to follow 3.5 rules which require a successful touch attack and causes 2d4 damage every round it lasts. Thanks go to William Draco for the code to do this



-When disguised, a PC's portrait and description will be suppressed to help ensure anonymity, if they desire it



-3 new Dynamic Magic Items have been created. Kuldfaern; a returning throwing axe that can also be used as a melee battleaxe. Armor of Dunli; powerful dwarven armor immune to Rust Monster attacks and which can also allow understanding of the Dwarven language. And...the Crown of Horns (enough said!)



-Expect to encounter more Rust Monsters in the world. Read the Treatise on Rust Monsters for tips to deal with them. Thanks go to Ninja_Monkey for this writeup and reviewing the Rust Monster AI scripts



-Robes have been limited for mounts when a PC tries to mount a horse, or when equipping an unsupported robe, while mounted. Since these limitations are determined by race, size, and gender, Tailor Models will now indicate which robes work while mounted for the race and size of the model being worked on



-Due to custom content modeling issues that we lack the expertise to fix; Alternate Combat Styles for large/fat characters have been restricted unless they are using a compatible head. Review the Alternate Combat Styles page of the Thay PW sourcebook for which large heads work based on race and gender



-The appearance of chickens has been improved and randomized



-The following bugs have been fixed:

1. Fat NPCs with an alternate combat style should no longer appear headless

2. Curst Rangers and Rogues get Curst Creature Properties which include undead immunities

3. The dates at which Iyachtu Xvim can be selected as a patron god have been corrected

4. The ILR valuation for items with charges/use being MUCH lower than they should has been partially addressed, with plans for a more permanent fix in the future