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[A scroll tube sealed with wax. Breaking it open reveals a parchment with a crude drawing of a key within it.]

I mostly agree with point 2 but I think 13 dexterity is too low. I think currently the requirement is 14, but wouldn't mind it going to 15 (paying a stat tax instead of a feat tax makes it costly but not prohibitive to any who don't get bonus feats/perks that can go towards dual wielding).

Can't really weigh in on point 1, I think the server's design has mostly balanced itself on the ac/ab front.

Houndmasters get a harsher penalty to their perk benefit dying than comparable classes such as ranger or druid companions (which are only dead until reset, at which point they return to full power).

I think it's very easy to trigger that penalty of the dog dying and the subsequent growth phase just from using the companion at all, especially in the early stages, due to AoOs when engaging followed by AoOs when disengaging because they took AoOs engaging. Giving Houndmaster dogs spring attack would make controlling them in combat a lot more fluid and a lot less stressful, not only in tightly controlled play but also in the case that the summon 'slips its leash' and runs through a pack of enemies, provoking tens of attacks.

I think the penalty is fine but I would prefer if it triggered due to mismanagement on my part and not due to baseline play and unavoidable AoOs (since summons run everywhere).

The original concept I had was going to be a spellblade going on a journey to reforge a mystic blade, which LiAl was kind enough to indulge me in. However, we learned that it had class OUBs and none of them were sorc, so I had to quickly reconcept.

The opportunity to do so came when  SFP made me a sword for the new PC event with some hilarious flavor which he let me riff on to take it over the top, and simultaneously brought me a new direction in which to take my character: that of an alcoholic man trying to use his manifested sorceror powers to become something greater than himself, filling the void left by Ticker square's destruction.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/689645545244983334/795455286915498004/unknown.png
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/689645545244983334/795455499063525396/unknown.png
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/689645545244983334/795456313256706118/unknown.png

At first, he was horrified to find that he had taken a perfectly good sword and painted all over the side of it, but it was his sword and it was his wielder, so when the call came for Night Vanquishing, he and his sword answered that call.

While his adventuring tenure was a short one, he died sword in hand facing impossible odds - as a hero would.

Also he got some boots for christmas, which were strong and made melee sorc a lot more fun to play.

Druid rituals currently do not give EXP to nearby PCs on completion. The accompanying fluff text also does not appear.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/689645545244983334/715041528921194496/unknown.png

No more images because spoilers, but this should be enough as an identifier.

1. Sendings do not appear in this quest. The Royal Herald made declarations while we were stuck due to potential oversight 2, but they did not appear in server messages.

2. The vertical climb zones at the start of the quest go down, but there is no counterpart on the other side that goes back up. This is true of the second of the vertical climbs but potentially also the first (could not check because stuck).

I saw Wakefield's toast to us at the pondsman ball, in stream. That he immediately crushed his next fight was no coincidence :P
I had hoped he would sweep the tournament from there, but alas

It was fun! Sorry I couldn't hold back with the 92 challenge coming up that same weekend :P

Among many plans half-entertained and often discarded by Enfys was one to groom Eupraxia into a worthy (read: druid/nature friendly) usurper to the King, though it seems that wouldn't have been possible anyway because of stuff related to King's blood that I only know vaguely from the sibilant invasion, and won't disclose because I think we have newer players :)

I've been putting this off mainly because I don't have any screenshots of my sweet loot, and I didn't want DMs knowing I had neglected taking pictures. Some of them had some lore on them that is better found out in game, but still. Sorry SFP for not taking screenshots. The other reason was that I didn't realise how impactful Enfys was to some PCs, especially while I was playing him. I first logged in as Redshirt under the expectation that I would be a ambient background prop, supporting cast at best, and then die a dog's death. The last part, at least, was achieved very successfully.

Enfys was a fey-touched druid. His druidic power and his empathy with nature came as a result or a side effect of his time in the twilit realm of the Fey. Discarded like the toy he was, he found himself amongst the other unwanted things at the edge of the city. Simultaneously jaded and sheltered, he made little attempt to hide his nature - talking to plants, weeping as animals died, and generally doing as he pleased. Even his way of speaking was intended to be archaic within the context of the setting, and not merely over-formal (I spent the first week learning how to use thee and thou correctly). I was honestly quite chuffed when the first tell I got in game was "Are you playing a fey druid?"

He was lucky to have been found early by sympathetic pondsfolk, and told that he must at all costs hide his 'changeling nature', especially from peers and the inquisitor. Without that I would not be surprised if he HAD died within the week, as was my expectation. Even then, his swings of passion, exultation, and desperation would see him shifting as they reached their most extreme.

As his connection to the City and his new environment grew, I found him rapidly sobering. He had found himself with real responsibilities, and the days of distracting himself from his loss with passing amusements had come to an end. And always there was the division between him and those closest to him, his nature and his duty walling him away and frequently pushing him into solitude, where his inscrutable goals would be realised.

While he had goals remaining, they were mostly duty driven and not personal. Enfys' story, at least from my end as the one playing him, felt very much like a coming of age where whatever his goal of the hour was, what compelled me to continue playing him to completion was to see how he would change next; how he would grow or regress. In that regard, I feel he was very much played to completion. He had started as a capricious child-minded young man without a desire to tie himself to anything, and died a far more duty driven individual. Every death that occurred because he failed to act cut him to the core and left him with a pain that he was not equipped to deal with, until he learned that the only way to avoid that pain was to BE the one who acted.

The reason for his intervention in the brawl with Vladislav Orza was to avenge the great bear that he had killed some weeks past, and his failed gambit led to a slaughter of the ponds. I would say that that was his only regret, but really he died too quickly to realise the consequences of THAT particular decision   ;D

Also some spoilers stuff happened/was learned/was set as goals, FOIG.

p.s. some other neat stuff happened that was pretty neat, like him verbally facing off with Imzel and also the Planar Paladin (before the oath was implemented! I believe he was a Book of Heroes paladin from where his priorities lay)

p.p.s A bunch of people thought he was a werewolf for some reason. I don't know if that's because Gavin Creedy had the same voice patterns or because he was so elusive or what. He wasn't a werewolf, but I'm surprised and flattered that so many people were speculating about him.

Having now been on both sides of the druid ritual, I have some observations to make:
1) The wide-range visibility of a ritual allows people to buff up, group up, and go in with fire and steel - often against a single druid
2) The long duration and prohibitively high breakpoints for sacrifice make it difficult to shorten the duration of the ritual, often demanding that druids stay alert (full buffed and ready for attack) for as long as half an hour. Wormsight helps this somewhat, by offsetting the need for a druid to drink see invis... all the time.

These points are fine as they promote conflict and/or interaction. However:

3) The rewards are randomised and frequently poor, and there is little incentive to make expensive sacrifice to reduce duration for every single ritual, as much of the time the reward can be as little as 10 tinctures of clw.

4) The ritual interruption requires only a spellcraft check and a conversation, and takes less than a round to complete. In the time it would take a druid to potion up enough to put up a fight against a group or even a single full buffed individual, the ritual can be interrupted and the group can withdraw without conflict taking place. The druid can opt to chase, but has already "lost".

Reducing the base duration of a ritual, or making it less expensive to meet certain breakpoints for reducing the duration would address point 3 (or simply remove many of the weaker items from the drop tables). However, I feel this is a lower priority compared to addressing point 4.

I would like the conversation to interrupt the ritual to initiate a vulnerable phase that is AT LEAST as long as that of opening the King's gifts, where the interrupting party must remain stationary and defenseless for a turn (or more!). This necessitates defeating or driving off any defenders, and more importantly gives them the OPPORTUNITY to defend (and opens up possibilities such as waiting and ambushing a single person, if they are arrogant enough to enter a grove alone).

I don't think this happens in vanilla nwn, which takes the highest AC Armor Modifier without stacking. It feels like there's a script in place to counteract a nonexistent problem of AC Armor Modifier stacking, and this results in the lower AC Armor Modifier value being subtracted from the higher one (I have since confirmed that +4 from Mage Armor also becomes a +3 in the face of the bracers).

While manually removing +1 from every bracer would fix the problem in the short term, identifying the offending script and removing it would allow +1 bracers to be made in future, without each one being hunted down and removed as they are made.

In the meantime, though, I have reported the bracers in question.

I have a +1 armour and +1 bracers, both of which give the "armour ac bonus".
When I wear the armour and the bracers together my AC is 1 lower than if I wear the armour without the bracers.