Misc Changes

With the extensive lifespan of Arelith, also come a large number of mechanical changes. Some of them, easy to classify, merit their own page, such as the Spell changes and the Feat changes, and others may be fewer modifications in a larger spectrum. This page covers the latter.

Weapon Changes

All the below-mentioned changes are in effect; if you classify to wield a weapon in one hand, you will not be able two use it as a two-handed even if you forego the use of a shield. The same way that the quarterstaff will always be considered a two-sided weapon, and will always attack as a two-sided weapon.

All double-sided and weapons held as two-handed by the character will grant an additional +2 AB.

Dire Mace:

Will benefit from monk's UBAB progression
- Cannot be used with Flurry of Blows.

Katana:

Is now affected by the Weapon Finesse feat.
Size changed from medium to small (thus smaller races can dual-wield them or use them with shield).
Weigh changed from 10 lbs to 6 lbs.

Quarterstaff:

Are now double-sided weapons, like the double-axe and the two-bladed sword.
- The offhand damage is based on your base unarmed damage score (default is 1d3, or 1d4 and above for monks)
Will be affected by the Weapon Finesse feat
Will benefit from monk's UBAB progression
- Cannot be used with Flurry of Blows.

Shuriken:

Will benefit from the monk's UBAB progression.

Spear:

Damage lowered from 1d8/x3 to 1d6/x3
Size changed from large to Medium, thus they can be wielded with a shield. Smaller characters, such as halfings and kobolds may use them as two-handed weapons.

Note that due to a bug, a spear with shield may not be quickslotted. There's a file to fix this available at Google Drive, just download and install in the Override folder.

Throwing Axes:

Will work along with Arelith's Barbarian Rage.

Trident:

Dice changed from 1d8/x2 to 2d6/x3. They are still large weapons, and thus they cannot be wielded with shield.
Due to a bug, Weapon Focus feat will not work for tridents.

Some modified weapons will not be displayed correctly in the character sheet (the information displayed will not affect the performance of the weapon), such as the spear and trident. The same Google Drive file as above includes the fix.

Misc Items

Blade Orbs

A blade orb is an anti-pickpocket item. A character that pickpockets a blade orb will be paralyzed for a couple of rounds.

Blade orbs are usually found as part of loot in the modules, either from mobs or chests.
A high Search score from part of the pickpocketer will allow the pickpocketer to avoid the blade orbs altogether.
Pickpocketing grabs one slot. If they're stacked and a pickpocket grabs them, it'll take all the stacked blade orbs at once with effect of only one.
With unstacked blade orbs, the pick-pockets have a better chance to be caught.

Lasso

A lasso has three functions. It can be either used to capture certain mobs, or it can be flung to certain specific locations to generate shortcuts, OR it can be used as a climbing rope to help other characters perform climb checks.

The lasso can only be used to capture a limited array of creatures, following a few conditions:

Not boss-type creatures;
Not flagged as plot or immortal;
Not PC associates;
Medium or Small sized;
Near Death.

Attempting to capture a creature is a ranged touch attack. On successful touch attack and with all conditions met, the creature is captured and added to the party as a henchman. They will not attack, and cannot be controlled in any way, and only passively follow the lassoer.

After capturing, bear in mind that:

One PC can only capture one creature at a time.
When you drop the lasso item, log off, or die, the captured creature will flee.
You can use the lasso item again on the captured creature to release it (it will flee) or you can use the lasso item on another PC, to transfer the captured creature to the targeted PC.
Captured creatures can be taken through transitions, portals and servers.
You can sell the captured creature to certain NPCs in the modules. The NPC buyers will demand different specific creatures each reset; selling these creatures will double the gold reward.

Selling the creature grants a relatively small sum of gold and adventure XP.
Alternatively, characters can surrender creatures like criminals to the jailer of Cordor's Outskirts, but they won't receive any gold for it, only the capture XP.
Lassoed creatures will not incur an experience penalty like other summons or companions.

Alternatively, the lasso can be used to generate shortcuts or paths to otherwise unreachable areas.

For these purposes, you will have a "Rope Use" skill calculated out of different elements.

Dex + Str modifier
+1 for each level in: Ranger, Rogue, Assassin, Arcane Archer, Shadowdancer.
+5 with Good Aim feat (Halfling)
+5 With Exotic Proficiency feat.

Along with this skill, you will also use the highest of your Spot or Search when you use the lasso.

The lasso can only be used in specific location. If your Search/Spot score is high enough, a floating text will appear when you approach one of these locations. Using the lasso in these locations will make a hookable element appear, like a rock or a ledge. If you click (just click, don't use the lasso again) on the element you will fling the lasso, putting the location DCs against your Rope Use skill.

Once the lasso is set, you can interact with it from either side to open a dialogue box with three options:

Climb - this uses the usual climbing mechanics (similar to the ones required to determine the Use Rope skill), but the DC is the DC of the location minus the lassoer Rope Use skill - this means that a lassoer with enough skill can make the climbing DC fall to 0!
Retrieve - This will return the lasso to the inventory, with a DC equal to the lassoer Use Rope skill - this means that the owner of the lasso can always retrieve their own lasso, provided that their stats didn't change.
Cut - This will destroy both the path and the lasso. There's no DC for this option.

Shovel

There are many secrets and treasures buried in the island of Arelith, around, and below it. If you think you've found the place where one of these secrets are hidden, you can try luck with the shovel!

If you are lucky - or clever - enough to find something, you will receive a small amount of experience, along with hauling to the surface whatever that was buried.

Note that these secret locations can only be dug once per reset, and if somebody has already dug it, you will get the same feedback as if there was nothing there!

Bags

There are no Bags of Holding, per se, in Arelith, but there are a few bags that can carry a few specific items. Currently the available bags are:

Headbag - for bounty heads.
Mining Bag - For ores (coal, gold chunks, raw gems)
Hunting Bag - for meats and hides.

All the bags have a limit of how much how much they can carry.

Mundane bags will carry up to 105 lbs - these can be usually bought from merchants.
Magic bags will carry up to 262.5 lbs and will reduce the content's weigh to 40% of its max value - these are part of the loot matrix of most dungeons.
Greater magic bags will carry up to 525 lbs and will reduce the content's weigh to 20% of its max value - these are the rarer to find, and part of the matrix loot of legendary and epic dungeons.

For example, a bounty head weighs 10.5 lbs - this means that a mundane bag can carry up to 10 heads. A magic bag can carry 25, and a greater magical bag 50.

Keyring

A keyring, usually bought from merchants, can store a very high number of keys, as long as they are not "cursed" keys. Quarter keys can be used automatically from within the keyring, but most other keys will require to be manually extracted from the keyring to be used.

Fire and Ice Berries

In certain locations, these bushes will appear with their unique fruit - the ice and fire berries. These berries can be fed to the druid or ranger's animal companion, extremely boosting their abilities for a duration of 1 hour/level. Some of these boost include: Elemental damage (fire or cold), haste and damage reduction (physical, and fire or cold).

Mundane Items

Some classes in Arelith (and vanilla NWN) are prevented from using certain items. Specialist wizards of certain schools may never cast spells from their opposing schools, True Flame sorcerers may only cast evocation spells, kensai may never use any magic at all.

Enter mundane items, which through completely non-magical, chemical and other sorts of means, basically mimic some of these effects. Due to their mundane nature, they can be used by those who would be normally exempt, including the above-mentioned classes.

These items ignore spell resistance, and will not be affected by Wild Magic or Null Magic areas.

To see whether an item is mundane or not, simply check its description.