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As of today, the anvil is working and will dye items appropriately.

Small details worth noting who may or may not be intentional:
The item will change appearance - my mage robe became a loincloth.
The item will be renamed - my Mantle of the Little Bear became a House Aberdenn Mantle (Reforged)

As of v98, I dropped a Hyena's Mantle on the anvil, the anvil reported success, and I gained no item, nor was any item left in the anvil, resulting in the total loss of the Hyena's Mantle.

I was just curious, i saw a sorcerer cutting their hand and dripping blood implying a spell was being cast.

My character, and it's absolutely unrelated to spellcasting. It has everything to do with taking traditions and rituals a bit too far, however! It's also a concept I had shelved during EfU (no A).

I'll try to answer Howland's post as honestly as possible.

Firstly, I derive a lot of my enjoyment in NWN from playing flawed, quirky builds or restrictions and trying to overcome their mechanical disadvantages through some way or another. It's a very personal kind of challenge that means I'm not usually the best contributor to the party - especially in hardcore situations. For this reason, I don't usually enter tournaments, duels, and so on, simply because I'm aware that my personal challenge usually doesn't rank up to another PC's fine-tuned build.

Also, a character's end does not mean that I, as a player, no longer have interest in that character's unfinished business. Case in point: the Machine. But after a few characters with the same focus, it becomes frustrating to have to re-learn all the same first steps, so minimizing permadeaths is a good idea. This means I can misinterpret things, that I can misunderstand "odds stacked against you" for "it's the DM's way to tell us to flee".

So all this pretty much describes me as a Less Hardcore player, right?

Not necessarily. While my Machine lovers (to take my eternal example) would not go into the advertized tomb-raiding epic trips such as this one ( http://www.escapefromunderdark.com/old_forums/viewtopic.php?t=19074 ), because it is unrelated to what they're trying to achieve - they would have been the first to sign up on a similar venture had there been a 1% chance of finding the Machine's purpose (for instance), even though they'd likely have permadied within 5 seconds.

What I'm saying is, I'd see myself as a Hardcore-if-related-to-my-interests. I don't mind, for another example, the 50% chance of permadeath on the Bloodmage ritual, on top of the fact I have no clue whatsoever what such a prestige class brings - it could very well utterly ruin my character's already-shaky build.

Of course, I feel compelled to answer the specific malarite ceremony example, being one of the players present. A series of misinterpretations made me completely misunderstand what was awaited of us at that particular event.

Eyes were following us from the trees - I thought it was a sign the monsters would be spawning from the treeline, making hiding and running impossible. As it turns out, it was only a way to set the mood.
Even knowing that it wasn't the case, I would still have suggested the clearing as the place to make a stand, simply because it's a far more fun place to fight, instead of being the most mechanically advantageous.
Once we were ambushed, I managed to flee, but I hopelessly came back because I felt like the cheap guys in Starcraft who have one worker left and are building cheap buildings in hidden corners to make their opponent mad and quit. Far-fetched example, but it's the best way to illustrate it - it didn't feel right to draw out defeat and deprive the other team of their victory.

As you can see, we had it all wrong - and knowing whether or not we were facing PCs would have made very little difference in a fair or unfair fight, since that wasn't the format of the event at all. I'm disappointed if others were outraged by the result of the event. It was a beautifully organized one - juggling two PC parties at once is never easy.

Had we known every single detail - Seccanan would have participated nonetheless, because it was Related To Her Interests. On the other hand, Rousseau wouldn't have no matter what information was available, since it had nothing to do with what he wants.

Bottom line: I'm against EFUSL Hardcore tags or any similar concept, because they do not reflect my characters' spheres of interest. I think Hardcore events need to be handled on a case-to-case basis rather than with the broad sweep of a new rule or feature. Personally, I have never had any complaints about how Hardcore events have been handled in the past.

[does not]

Ironically, I have been trying out various builds in singleplayer with the Archeologist before I stumbled on this thread. I'm honored to have a character of mine mentioned here!

The PrC can be very strong under the right circumstances - however, it doesn't start to shine until its fourth level, so it needs to be taken extremely early. As noted, this can presumably be difficult to achieve at level 2. Its major caveat is that it simply can't beat a Bard in Lore checks - and Lore is a very very important component of exploration. The default Harper Scout gave Bardic Knowledge, it's unfortunate it got cut. The spell Identify does not take into consideration Archeologist levels.

Assuming 14 intelligence:
Level 7 Bard: 10 (ranks) + 2 (int mod) + 7 (bardic knowledge) + 17 (identify+level bonus) = 36 Lore (39 with Skill Focus)
Level 1 wiz/1 rog/5 arc: 10 (ranks) + 2 (int mod) + 11 (identify+level bonus) + 3 (skill focus) = 26 Lore

If this is viewed as problematic, the possible solutions are granting Identify 1/day (+15-11 = 30), Bardic Knowledge (+5 = 31), Epic Skill Focus: Lore (+10 = 36), or granting Legend Lore 1/day (+12 = 38 ).

I believe the worst ability the PrC grants is its hit dice upgrade. Since it applies solely to level 4 and 5, if you are extremely lucky this translates into a maximum of 4 additional hit points over two levels. Very underwhelming, but since it isn't the focus of the class, I prefer to see it as icing on the cake, and have no problem with it. Toughness would be better, since it's retroactive. I am aware, and others should be too, that for a casting class, the d6 base hit dice is a wonderful thing.

However, much more damaging to the class, is that the override does not grant Skill Focus: Disable Traps as it should - instead, it grants Skill Focus: UMD. Since this is the focus of the class, I hope it gets fixed eventually!

Spells: Arcane and Divine spell slots become available as if the character gained levels in their caster class; they do not gain caster levels or learn new spells.

For some reason, in singleplayer, it took 2 Archeologist levels to get the spell slot effects of one level of the caster class. For instance, a level 3 cleric/3 wizard/4 Archeologist had the spell slots of a level 5 cleric/5 wizard instead of 7 cleric/7 wizard. It's possible that this property works on EfU:A but not in singleplayer, I suppose. This ability working correctly would go a long way to making the class desirable!

Similarly, a Ranger does unlock his spell slots from the Archeologist levels, but will not know any spell to memorize until he has 4 Ranger levels. Silly Rangers.

My view of the Archeologist - and I would have taken it in a heartbeat with any of my exploring characters - is about high Lore, and navigating treacherous unexplored grounds thanks to his trap-negating abilities, supplemented by his spells. Unfortunatly, the absence of Skill Focus: Disable Traps (despite being mentionned here), as well as overall lower Lore than a Bard's, tarnishes this image somewhat.

I just wanted to touch on this real quick. I don't believe the old server was destroyed. In fact, you can return to the Underdark and do Underdark quests, visit Sanctuary, and prance around in Traensyr if that's your desire!

Maybe I'm missing something painfully obvious, and I sort of hope I am, since I have read and been told that point several times.

Isn't the Way to the surface exceedingly deadly and dangerous?
By all reasoning, going down the same way would be equally deadly and dangerous?
Not to mention you likely want to go back up after you're done with your expedition?

So then, how is the point of the areas remaining below a good selling point if it pretty much amounts to suicide?

I mean, in all my time on EfU, I never had a character that suffered from consumable bloat, or felt powerful to the point he could have escaped to the surface. Obviously, I don't expect to be able to make one on EfU:A who would be able to make the trip twice in one go, plus the usual hardships of the Underdark.

I'm honestly curious, I've been told what Sternhund said too many times to be a coincidence!

I figured a good idea of not wandering blind through the cursed lands of Ymph would be to use Arcane Eye to scout paths. Turns out it still makes the withering curse progress. Apparently this is a bug, and so I report it here. Please fix!