Cleric update 2011

On Saturday January 22nd 2011 underwent a major code port that brought in new changes for Clerics. In the following days the mud experienced major failures and was offline for several days. Here is a record of those changes.

Realms of Despair: Cleric Update Information We are pleased to announce the following changes to the Cleric class: In an effort to draw more followers to their particular pantheons, Clerics have been given special new spells and skills to further enhance their abilities, based upon the Deity they follow. The following additions have been made:

Arcana Eviae: This group of Deities, including A’enari, Vl’aresch, Mak’kor, Bael, Sarane and Esthathius, have granted Clerics more prowess in battle, especially against the undead. The spells and skills included within this grouping are: (Note some are align based)

• Defense against Devout
• Detect Undead
• Banish Undead
• Anoint Weapon
• Turn Undead
• LightShield
• Indurate
• BoneShatter
• Defense against Undead
• Divine Power
• Death Knell
• Conviction
• Spiritual Weapon
• Greater Sanctuary
• Hand of Righteousness or Hand of Extirpation.

An undead mob is defined in HELP UNDEAD. Note: Vampire classed players are also included as ‘undead’.

Amnis Umbra: This group of Deities, including Bron’trel, LaChte, Shivvan, Adendra, Sh’Vath, Ghordohl and Keltas have granted their Clerics more ability to heal and support others. The spells and skills included within this grouping are: (Note some are align based)

• Ameliorate
• Divine Agility
• Feast of Champions
• Expunge
• Mass Blessing
• Cascading Heal
• Rangecast
• Ethereal Elixir
• Compound Brew
• Complete Heal
• Ward of the Divine
• Greater Sanctuary

Note: LaChte and Shivvan have also granted their followers the Death Knell and Defense against Devout spells.

Vis Liberata: This group of Deities, including Z’hyal, Gre’Vos, Kalerd, Tirebaen, Cawyn, Sil-Galith, and Masefi are based more in the elements and, as such, have granted their Clerics more power and control over the same. The spells and skills included within this grouping are:

• Frost Shield
• Adjust Clime
• Endure Elements
• Hold Person
• Caustic Rain
• Providence
• Cloud Travel
• Divine Draft
• Searing Light
• Cold Fire
• Storm of Vengeance

In addition to the above Deity based spells, all Clerics will receive the following new spells and skills:

• Prayer
• Create Holy Water
• Create Fire
• Celestial Might
• Surestrike
• Ressurect
• Visage of the Deity

Lastly, the following changes have been made based on input from players:

• Aid: This spell will now work on players stunned by summoning.
• Remove Curse: Fixed to remove a curse from a player (but not an object)
• Remove Hex: Fixed to remove a hex from an object carried by a player.
• Necromantic Touch: Base damage and healing have been adjusted.
• Fatigue: Removed
• Exorcism: Will now only use the holy water created by the Cleric’s ‘create holy water’ spell.
• Restoration: Amount of HP’s healed increased. Additionally, this spell was adjusted to no longer stop working when the caster utilized melee damage.
• Solar Flight: This spell has been adjusted to work in daylight hours (full sun not needed but is helpful towards success).
• Scribe: Adept percent raised to 70.
• Spiritual Wrath: This spell was adjusted to no longer stop working when the caster utilized melee damage.

It should be noted that Control Weather (and the Vis Liberata spell ‘Adjust Clime’) now work nearly instantly to adjust the weather in an area for a short duration. Please see the individual help files for information about the preceding skills and spells. Please also see HELP Undead, HELP Wards and Auras, HELP Deity, HELP Clerics. While there had been discussion of the Cleric upgrade for nearly a decade, the results had not been what we wanted, so we decided to start from scratch in August. My thanks to our group of Mortal Testers who ended up making a lot of excellent change suggestions, including the additions of a number of skills, to The Symposium for their work in brainstorming many of the ideas, to the CoE and other Immortals for excellent discussion and debate while we paired down our choices, to Conran and Altrag for helping provide some of the background and skill/spell code, and to Romani for adding the multitude of help files. Special thanks to Belkira for his work on this project in creating many spells and skills, and background code (see HELP Wards and Auras).

This has been a very major project, with around 55 new or adjusted skills for Clerics to access. While our testers have done an excellent job, there is more than likely something that may not work quite right. Please expect adjustments in the coming days as we find and resolve these issues. As always, should you find an exploit, please tell an Immortal immediately or mudmail Kinux if no immortal is on. Have fun!