EfU:A, The Missing manual

[Egon the Monkey]

EfU:A, The Missing Manual

Discussing on IRC earlier, it's clear that a lot of the mechanics page is rather outdated, and also that there are a large number of undocumented features that players simply don't know about. This makes it hard for new players and even non-nosey old players to pick it all up. Add to that that there are a lot of mechanical updates that are scattered throughout the Announcements without an index, and it's difficult to keep track.

Therefore, rather than expect the DMs to pick out every change, I'm asking the rest of the playerbase to help me fill in the gaps. If we get as much as possible, someone can add it to the Mechanics page. Where the Mechanics page is correct, I haven't added it here.

So, here goes! Please tell me if I'm incorrect or missed something, and a bit thank you to the DMs who've made all the amazing custom stuff we have. Going over everything I can find, I realise just how much effort's gone into making this a truly distinct game in its own right. Rock on, guys.

Captain Obvious's Obvious Disclaimer:
The DMs are not responsible for the upkeep of this post. If you take this info as accurate and it gets your PC eaten by a Great Lizard/blown into little bits/cursed with boils, direct all hate mail/IRC rants/yelling through letterboxes to me, Egon, personally. I will be only too happy to listen to your whinging ignore it.


The Mechanics
This page is mostly correct, but there are some notable changes, described below. Overrides are all optional, and you can start playing EfU right now. No Overrides, No Haks? No Problem!


Environmental Hazards

Underwater
Underwater areas will slow your PC down. This speed decrease is worsened the heavier the armor or shield you have equipped. The penalty is reduced by the EFUSS Swimming skill and removed by Freedom of Movement. You have a limited air supply, after which you will have to make Fortitude saves or suffer damage each round. Your ability to hold your breath is improved by high CON, the Steel  Lungs Perk and Sea Caves domain.

Corpse Blight
A contagious disease contracted in certain areas. Can be cured by Remove Disease or Salutary Tonics, but not by Remove Poison. Will infect other PCs close to you.

Hostile "weather"
 Some areas are just plain nasty and will regularly hit you for a specified amount of damage as a result of the dangerous conditions.


Spells

Protection from Alignment/Magic Circle from Alignment
Now have the Protection from Law and Protection from Chaos options, if you use the override here.

Stinking Cloud, Cloud of Bewilderment, Cloudkill, Web
These only trigger on a creature entering the cloud, not on consecutive rounds.

 Grease
As above, but additionally no knockdown effect.

Vampiric Touch
 Does not require a touch attack in order to work.

Ghoul Touch
Does not require a touch attack in order to work.

Poison
If cast on a potion or food item, will cause it to be poisoned with Large Scorpion Venom. Anyone consuming the item will suffer the effects.

Bestow Curse
If cast on an equippable item, will add a hidden "cursed" property, but no other penalties.

Darkness
Bioware standard, Mechanics Page outdated

Ultravision
Bioware standard, Mechanics Page outdated

Summon Creature
Using a Conjurative Focus on a suitable reagent will set the next one of these spells that a PC casts to using that reagent's summoning theme.

Lesser Dispel/Dispel Magic
Spell Resistance applies to these, and therefore so does level-based Spell Immunity such as Globe of Invulnerability. Added an SR debuff for lesser dispel, dispel magic on any creatures with  SR of -1 and -3 cumulative, respectively, lasting for 2 turns.

                              Firewall
Now applies a 2d6 damage combust burning effect to  anyone going through it.

 Ball lightning
Projectiles do 2d6 instead of 1d6 damage.

Animate Dead/Create Undead
The summons from these can be upgraded by  the caster. See here.

Flame Weapon/Darkfire
May be set to one of several elemental damage types by DM request or certain perks. See here.


Cleric Domains
We have more of these available, so the majority of Forgotten Realms domains from 3rd edition D&D exist. See here for more information and here to download the override.


Summoning
Summon Creature spells all require a certain number of summoning points to call. You may summon multiple creatures, provided you do not exceed your summoning points total. The number of summoning points available is based on your levels in caster classes, and is boosted by Spell Focus/Greater Spell Focus Conjuration, and by certain perks. Summon Themes will change the creatures summoned from the default "wildlife" theme to a variety of others. Themes can be modified by Cleric Domain chosen, certain Perks, the Conjurative Focus item, and by selecting one in the OOC area. Different classes have different themes available to select there and Wizard spell school affects the themes available.


Animation
Animate Dead and Create Undead now produce summons that are semi-permanent and last throughout rests. Both spells require a certain number of Animation points to call. You may Animate multiple creatures, provided  you do not exceed your Animation points total. The number of Animation  points available is based on your levels in caster classes, and is  boosted by Spell Focus/Greater Spell Focus Necromancy.  Animated minions may be enhanced with various effects via a conversation with them. This will cost you HP, so be careful. They may be additionally given a weapon using the same conversation. More here.


Weapons
Whip
These may be dual-wielded if you download the override here

Quarterstaff
This is now a double weapon like a diremace. The main hand is a weapon with 1d6 damage 19-20 x2 critical hit range. The offhand is a weapon with 1d3 damage, 19-20 x2 critical hit range.This is a server-wide change, no override needed.


Light Sensitivity
In sunlight, suffer -2 Ab, -2 all saves. Fortitude save DC 13 periodically  (increases as  time passes) or become blind and recieve an additional -2  penalty to  saves and attack bonus for one round.


Stealth
A PC that is translucent has  been heard but not seen. You can't describe them for example. A PC that  is solid but has a glowing orange outline has been spotted. Feel free to  yell "Hey you in the brown leathers! What you sneakin' about for  foo'!".


Polymorph Forms
Most forms are modified slightly for EfU. Additional forms available from the Crafting Menu. Most of these forms are purely for IC disguising/RP, rather than having any significant combat ability. The occasional green flash that happens when polymorphed is a bug not an IC cue, please ignore it.

Kobold
No weapon.

Goblin
No weapon.

Boy/Girl
No weapon. Cute as a button. Can speak in annoyingly childish way. Prone to being clipped around the ear by irritated PCs after a while.

Nymph
Immunity all L2 and under spells, Immunity Enchantment School. Supernatural hawtness. !!May be incorrect, I haven't used it in ages!!

Parrot
Creature Weapon. Taunt. Looks good around pirates. May talk while in this form.

Zombie
Added Immunity to Drowning.


Wild Shape Forms
 No longer refreshes duration on server save, lasts 1 hour per druid  level. Most standard shapes have been modified. Additional shapes available via  the crafting menu. The druid gains access to a selection of improved  forms at level 8. In addition the druid may also apply for and earn even more powerful  shapes. In order to unlock and use these shapes the druid must be level 8  or higher.
 
See here.


Misc. Crafting Menu Options
Reset Spawnpoint: Resets your PC's post-reset spawning point to the bottom of the Ziggurat.

Thief Mode: Attempts to conceal  what items you pick up. The diffculty of doing so is based on the detection skills of other PCs and your skill at Pick Pocket and possibly other factors. Yes this is IC and PCs can conceivably get angry over your sneaky tricks.

Player Tools
All are accessible via the Crafting Menu, and when set, they show up under Class Abilities on the Radial Menu.

Command Companion
Click a henchman, summon familiar or companion you own to select. Click on the floor to move them, an item to have them bash it, or a character to attack them.

Yank Pack/Search/Detect Evil
These all work as per the chat commands for these features, detailed here. Click on a PC to activate them.

Ally/hostility System
/c hostile all will set the entire server except allies to hostile.
/c hostile [playername] will set [playername] hostile.
Use unhostile instead of hostile to set character back to neutral.
The command /c setally [character name] will set a PC as your ally, so that when you use a hostile command, these PCs are excluded. You must be standing next to a PC to ally with them. More here.

Further Chat Commands
Put familiars and companions into stealth mode, detect Evil or Good on appropriate PCs, diagnose illnesses, dispel your own buffs when you don't want to walk around looking like a tree, steal packs off subdued PCs and more besides. See here.



EfU Custom Items

Heal Skill items
Heal no longer works as standard. Instead, the following items are used  with the Heal Skill.

Antivenom
Removes the "poisoned" status, does not heal any  Attribute Damage. Application DC: 15 (30 when the healing PC is in  combat.)

Salutary Tonic
Removes the "Diseased" status, does not heal any  Attribute  Damage. Application DC: 15 (30 when the healing PC is in  combat.)

Medicinal Herbs
Adds 1 HP per round regeneration for a number of rounds  equal to the amount the PC beats a DC 11 heal Check by. DC is 21 when  the PC is in combat.


Custom Grenadelikes
Flash Powder
Save vs Stun effect

Laughing Gas
Save vs Tasha's Hideous Laughter Effect.

Rotten Fruit
Applies a cloud of flies and splatter effect to the  target. No mechanical penalty. Throwing this at a PC is a PVP action.

Dispel Stone
Casts the Area Of Effect version of a dispel at the target location

Custom Potions
Potion of Duty
Casts Protection from Chaos

Potion of Caprice
Casts Protection from Law

Potion of the Radical Soul
Casts Protection from Neutrality


Other
Shackles
Applies a movement speed penalty and large chance of spellfailure to a PC. May be removed using a shackles key. only to be used on subdued or consenting PCs

Oil
Makes a campfire, to be used for cooking (use the power from meat on it) or to rest near.

Crowbar
Allows opening of doors by using your STR modifier +10 instead of the Open Lock skill. ???I am unsure on the exact stats???



 Player Characters

Character Appearance Customisation
Players may toggle their heads between normal and hooded, and set backpack and scabbards on their PCs back using  chat commands.


EFU Skill System (EFUSS)
Custom secondary skill system, accessible via chat commands. These skills are a combination of purely RP ones, and ones that add a small bonus to standard skills, or have scripted checks IG. See here.  To start, the following commands are helpful.
/c efuss help (help)
/c efuss list (lists skills and available points)
/e efuss add [skillname] [no of points to add] (add points to a skill)



EFU Crafting System
Totally customised crafting system scripted for EfU. Allows production of grenadelikes, summon reagents, healing supplies, potions and more! See here and here.


Perks
At level Five, PCs may select a "perk", a special bonus ability. Some of these have both bonuses and drawbacks, some are class restricted and some are earnable by in-game actions or application. See here.



The World

EfU Hunting System
PCs may hunt animals and harvest meat (for RP, or for wilds characters to trade with NPCs for gear and XP) and furs (to trade in with the Skinner for gold and XP). See here.


EfU Tracking System
You've got to find it before you can kill it! Rangers and Druids may track hostile monsters and NPCS via this ability. See here.


Random Encounters
EfU:A has a fully custom Random Encounter System. Encounters can appear as placeable transitions in areas, or by area transitions randomly directing to a new location, so don't be surprised if you get lost! Of course, this goes both ways, and large numbers of monsters don't just wait around, they have been known to attack the city or set up raiding parties. NPC scouts tend to warn of this. More on the random events here.


Games and Gambling
EfU:A offers PCs plenty of opportunity to lose their hard earned money, or maybe win some. There is a fully scripted Royal Dragon (equivalent of Twenty-One, Blackjack, Pontoon) in-game at Kingsman's Inn and a Dartboard in the Wanton Wastrel. The server also offers arenas in the Gobsquat and Wanton Wastrel where PCs may hold "friendly" brawls without requiring a DM.

[Thomas_Not_very_wise]

Note that some mechanics changes are constantly being implemented or removed!

but this is a grand idea.

[djspectre]

heal check in combat is not doubled its +10 for a total of DC 21.

[Egon the Monkey]

Ah true, that's only the others that go from 15 to 30. Fixed

[Howlando]

Just from a quick glance there's a lot missing but I have to say I definitely endorse a player created "missing manual" that explains a lot of the systems and mechanics changes in one place.

[AceOfSpadesX]

This is really awesome. Thank you for organizing everything in one page.

Edit: I believe there are changes to the spell Spell Resistance. I think it provides a bonus against dispel, I'm not sure about the exact mechanics.

[core]

Sweet idea.

[TheImpossibleDream]

Light sensitivity

During the day -2 Ab, -2 all saves. Fortitude save DC 13 periodically (increases as time passes) or become blind and recieve an additional -2 penalty to saves and attack bonus for one round.

Wildshape

No longer refreshes duration on server save, lasts 1 hour per druid level.

Most standard shapes have been modified. Additional shapes available via the crafting menu. The druid gains access to a selection of improved forms at level 8.

In addition the druid may also apply for and earn even more powerful shapes. In order to unlock and use these shapes the druid must be level 8 or higher.

Application forms (Incomplete): Ancient Dire Cave Bear, Saber Tiger, Great Lizard

[Thomas_Not_very_wise]

Other Applicable Forms include

Fire Elemental, Water, Air, and Earth Elementals respectively.

[Drakill Tannan]

The Mechanics
Spells
Stinking Cloud, Cloud of Bewilderment, Cloudkill, Web: These only trigger on a creature entering the cloud, not on consecutive rounds.
 Grease: As above, but additionally no knockdown effect.

I thought this wasa  bug being worked on? is it really intentional?

[Snoteye]

The formatting stinks. Other than that, nice work.

[Egon the Monkey]

it's a problem, but it's there. May as well list it until it is fixed.
Edit: ...And now the formatting's better spaced. A single post is never going to be the best permanent layout though.

[TheImpossibleDream]

Uh Crimson Brew is +3 ac 5~10% immunity negative energy.

[PlayaCharacter]

The zombie polymorph form can breathe underwater.

[John Poirot]

Wildshape

No longer refreshes duration on server save

Yesssssss!

lasts 1 hour per druid level.

Spell hour (5 mins real time) or day/night time hour (27 mins real time)?