This update adds 15 new encounters to the free encounter mode, one for each character level from 1 to 15. These are simple combat encounters with minimal story. They're available in free encounter mode and are intended to be a kind of white-room encounter experience where you can quickly test out your party at various levels.
The encounters are all Severe on Medium difficulty, Severe or Extreme on Hard, and always Extreme on Insane. You are expected to "go nova" on each of them and use your highest-level spell slots first. To play encounters 10 to 15 with custom characters prior to the release of the Four-Leaf Clover expansion, you'll want to subscribe to the level 20 unlock mod. (We're still implementing more spells and class feats for levels 10–15 but you should have a good amount of options available already, and of course, you can always take lower-level feats and upcast lower-level spells.)
Together, these encounters are "The Fifteen Obelisks." They're only tangentially related to the main story of Dawnsbury Days and have no cutscenes, just pure combat. You can play them, for example, to quickly do some basic fights when testing party compositions, or perhaps because you seek a different kind of challenge that the main adventures provide!
Other than that, this update fixes a number of bugs and rules fidelity issues, and makes the balancing of monsters more consistent, especially by having DCs for monster abilities scale properly when the monster is weak or elite.
The update also adds a bunch of high-level content beyond the current level cap, in preparation for the Four-Leaf Clover.
Speaking of the Four-Leaf Clover, I would take this opportunity to show off some of the art that you'll be able to see in the upcoming expansion!
If you want to talk to or fight against these characters, please consider wishlisting the upcoming level 10–15 expansion!
Full patch notes follow:
Encounter content:
Added The Fifteen Obelisks, a set of 15 combat encounters, one for each character level from 1 to 15. These are simple combat encounters with minimal story. They're available in free encounter mode and are intended to be a kind of white-room encounter experience where you can quickly test out your party at various levels. The encounters are all Severe on Medium difficulty, Severe or Extreme on Hard, and always Extreme on Insane. You are expected to "go nova" on each of them and use your highest-level spell slots first. To play encounters 10 to 15 with custom characters prior to the release of the Four-Leaf Clover expansion, you'll want to subscribe to the level 20 unlock mod.
Character content:
New ranger feats: Favored Terrain, Terrain Master
New sorcerer feat: Ancestral Blood Magic
New item: aeon stone of Perception
Art:
New art: Armor potency runestones (+1, +2, +3), armor resilient runestones (+1, +2, +3)
New familiar portrait: Rat
Rules fidelity:
Classes (Fighter): Fixed that you could use Aggressive Block also against creatures larger than you.
Classes (Kineticist): Fixed that kineticist impulse save DC wasn't affected by save DC adjustment effects such as from the Frightened condition.
Feats (Disturbing Knowledge): Now costs 2 actions instead of 1 action.
Feats (Quicken Spell): Fixed that a confused creature would expend a once-per-day ability on casting a quickened cantrip which a confused creature should not be allowed to do.
Items (property runes): You can no longer put two runes of the same series (e.g. frost and greater frost) on the same item.
Rules (battleforms): Fixed that you couldn't sustain spells or use the Lightning Storm secondary effect while in battleform.
Rules (combat maneuvers): Fixed that an incorporeal creature could make combat maneuvers against corporeal creatures.
Rules (combat maneuvers): Fixed that an incorporeal creature couldn't make combat maneuvers against incorporeal creatures.
Spells (Blazing Armory): The upcast versions now correctly give greater flaming runes instead of flaming runes.
Spells (battleforms): Fixed that you could continue using your base form unarmed attacks while transformed into a battleform.
Rules (doomed): When your doomed condition reaches a value that reaches or exceeds your dying threshold, you now die immediately.
Monsters (Cloaker Darkmaster): Cloaker now has flying.
Spells (Shocking Grasp etc.): Many monsters were now updated to be tagged as wearing metal armor.
User interface:
QoL: You can now upgrade property runes into upgraded versions of them by drag-and-drop.
User interface: Fixed that terrain and creature information for tiles and creature underneath other UI elements sometimes confusingly displayed anyway.
Balancing:
Rules (undetected): Fixed that computer-controlled enemies "knew" where undetected creatures are for the purposes of cone, line, burst, and emanation area actions. Now, enemies will act as though undetected creatures don't exist when determining what spell to cast or where to use their breath weapon. They may still affect an undetected creature by chance if they aim to hit a detected creature but will never cast a breath weapon into what they think is an entirely empty space anymore.
Tactics (Awakened Husk): Now uses mindless tactics (e.g. it doesn't reposition to make best use of flanking).
Tactics (Cinder Rat): Now uses mindless tactics.
Tactics (Giant Dragonfly): Now uses mindless tactics.
Tactics (Giant Spider): Now uses mindless tactics.
Tactics (Gnoll Hunter): Now uses pack-attack tactics (e.g. it prefers to cluster with allies around a single enemy even at the cost of moving farther away)
Tactics (Gnoll Rabble): Now uses pack-attack tactics.
Tactics (undetected): If you are undetected, enemies will now consider Seeking. They may still choose to buff or heal themselves instead, and they will definitely consider (and usually prefer) simply attacking a detected creature. If they Seek, they will generally seek around your last-known position where they detected you last.
Tactics: Enemies with both a grab attack and a non-grab attack are now more likely to use the grab attack if they don't yet have anyone grabbed.
Balancing: Due to a bug in the map editor (which I have fixed in this update), some maps accidentally didn't give the elite adjustments to some enemies on the Hard difficulty. This regression was introduced in Dawnsbury Days 4.8 in December 2025 with the map editor. This update thus restores the affected encounters back to their original intended difficulty, which is slightly harder than how they were for the past six months.
S3E2 (Hard): 3x Skeleton Archer -> 3x Elite Skeleton Archer
S3E5 (Hard): Tiefling Adept -> Elite Tiefling Adept
S4E4 (Hard): 6x Fire Mephit -> 4x Fire Mephit + 2x Elite Fire Mephit
S5E5 (Hard): Demon Pest -> Elite Demon Pest
S6E1 (Hard): Skeletal Champion Sniper -> Elite Skeletal Champion Sniper
S6E4 (Hard): 2x Giant Rat -> 2x Elite Giant Rat
S7E5 (Hard): Baraquielle -> Elite Baraquielle
S10E1 (Hard): 3x Babau -> 3x Elite Babau
S11E4 (Hard): Vrock -> Elite Vrock; Gnoll Green Sorcerer -> Supreme Gnoll Green Sorcerer
S11E5 (Hard): Frost Worm -> Elite Frost Worm
S11E6 (Hard): 4x Elite Tarantula + 2x Tarantula -> 4x Elite Tarantula + 2x Supreme Tarantula
Hotel of Serenity (Hard): 11x Gnoll Hunter -> 7x Gnoll Hunter + 4x Elite Gnoll Hunter; 3x Gnoll Cultist -> 2x Gnoll Cultist + 1x Elite Gnoll Cultist
Balancing: The DCs of almost monster abilities now scale appropriately based on weak/elite adjustments and game difficulty. This has varied impact on game difficulty, depending on when such adjustments are used, but the Easy difficulty will now be easier, the Insane difficulty will now be harder, and the impact on Medium and Hard difficulties will be more muted, sometimes making them easier and sometimes harder, though generally the Medium difficulty will now get a little bit easier and the Hard difficulty will get a little bit harder, but again, the impact on the Medium and Hard difficulties will not be that pronounced. This update affects the following monsters and abilities:
Universal monster abilities:
Breath Weapon (Icewyrm, Cold Phoenix, Frost Worm, Elemental Wyrms, Wood Mephit, Electricity Mephit, Fire Mephit, Ice Mephit, Faerie Dragon, Sea Serpent)
Constrict (Ochre Jelly, Black Pudding, Tiberius, Linnorm Manifestation)
Fightful Presence (Lich, Adult Fire Dragon, Brutarion, Megadragon, Sea Serpent, Specter, Aeon-Lich)
Intense Heat (Megadragon, Firewyrm, Adult Fire Dragon)
Individual monster abilities:
Abrikandilu: Mutilating Bite
Acid Draugr, Acid Draugr Archer: Explosion
Animated Fireplace: Fan the Flames
Babau: Reactive Slime
Between: Energy Suffusion, Stupefying Aura, Dimensional Rend
Blizzardborn: Shattering Ice
Bodak: Draining Glance, Death Gaze
Brimorak: Boiling Blood
Cinder Rat: Fetid Fumes
Cloaker Darkmaster: Infrasonic Moan
Crystalline Sentinel: Crystal Corruption
Cthepaltangoulgi: Ancient Sleep
Decrepit Mummy: Lesser Mummy Rot
Draugr, Draugr Warrior: Grotesque Gift
Flumph: Spray Perfume
Forst Worm: Explosive Unburrow
Ghost Mage: Frightful Moan, Telekinetic Storm
Ghost Pirate Capitain: Curse Ye Scallywags!, Savvy Joinin' Me Crew?
Grandmother Demay: Drain Life, Harsh Scolding, Unknowable Display
Graveknight Warmaster: Hungry Armor
Great Shrieker: Shriek
Hamatula: Frightful Strike, Impaling Barb
Hezrou: Poisonous Postules, Stench
Icewyrm: Explosion
Lich: Paralyzing Touch
Living Grove: Vine Prison
Lunar Sharpbeak: Shining Halo, Light Shatter
Mire Hag: Enfeebling Humors, Exhale Miasma
Morning Dewdrop: Expel Pollen
Mummy Guardian: Mummy Root
Nabasu: Death-Stealing Gaze
Naiad: Focus Beauty, Nymph's Beauty
Nyogoth: Caustic Blood, Nauseating Display
Pixie: Pixie Dust
Proselytizer: Pain Link, Hidden Shadow Chain
Sacristan: Staggering Servitude
Sea Serpent: Celestial Aqua Eruption
Skeletal Monstrosity: Screech, Eat Marrow, Destructive Collapse
Skymetal Striker: Temporal Stutter
Soul Eater: Mind-Numbing Touch
Specter: Spectral Corruption
Succubus: Kiss
Talia: Cold Wave
The Inevitable Death: Bone Skewer, Death Belch
Troll King: Primordial Roar
Vault Keeper: Constraining Crystal, Crystal Burst
Vrock: Spore Cloud
Wight: Drain Life
Yangethe: Feeding Tentacles, Psychic Blast
Zetogeki: Mangle
Bugfixes:
Ancestries (Aasimar): Fixed that Empyreal Blessing didn't give you proficiency in spellcasting.
Ancestries (Leshy): Fixed that Bark and Tendril didn't give you proficiency in spellcasting.
Ancestries (Tiefling): Fixed that Malicious Bane didn't give you proficiency in spellcasting.
Character editor: Single spell selections, such as for spontaneous spellcasters, sometimes didn't display the rules text of selected spells.
Classes (Alchemist): Fixed incorrect display of the Combine Elixirs additive in the stat block.
Classes (Alchemist): Fixed that Bypass Poison Immunity didn't apply to the secondary saving throws the defenders made on the rounds following the initial injury.
Classes (Alchemist): Fixed that you could exploit perpetual infusion with Combine Elixirs to expend reagents you do not have.
Classes (Alchemist): Fixed that you couldn't combine a lower-level mutagen with a higher-level non-mutagen with Combine Elixirs.
Classes (Rogue): Fixed that Distracting Feint didn't work.
Classes (Rogue): Fixed that sometimes a level 15 rogue wouldn't apply both debilitations on a sneak attack if one was pre-selected.
Crash (Steam): Suppressed a rare crash that sometimes happened on startup if the connection to Steam failed.
Crash: Fixed a rare crash that could happen in story mode when a non-spellcaster wields some items, especially modded item, that allow you to cast spells, such as the faith symbol of heal.
Encounters (S12E1): Fixed that the Proselytizer's Hidden Shadow Chain could be overridden by a standard grab.
Encounters (S4E5): Fixed that one square that looked free was actually marked as lava in the rules layer.
Encounters (S9E1): Fixed that if the Specter dominated Tarnak and the Spectral Corruption somehow survived through Tarnak's turn, then Tarnak might die outright the next time he falls to 0 HP instead of starting Dying.
Encounters (S9E1): Fixed that the Specter's Spectral Corruption ability's secondary save DC was 0 instead of 24.
Encounters: Fixed that several encounters were incorrectly set to be outdoors when they were in fact indoors.
Feats (Evangelize): Fixed that you could use Evangelize multiple times against the same target.
Feats (Paragon Battle Medicine): Fixed that you couldn't use Paragon Battle Medicine on a creature who is at full HP.
Feats (Scare to Death): Fixed that the action didn't work if the caster was immune to death effects.
Items (aeon stone of cheating death): Fixed that it removed your Dying condition entirely instead of keeping it at 1 under the maximum.
Items (bestial mutagen): Fixed that the jaws attack was agile instead of the claw attack.
Items (improved frost vial): Fixed that it inflicted a -5-foot Speed penalty rather than -10-foot Speed penalty.
Items (improved necrotic bomb): Fixed that it inflicted sickened 1 rather than sickened 2.
Items (improved thunderstone): Increased deafened effect DC from 17 to 24.
Items (necrotic bomb): Fixed that the sickened condition used your alchemist class DC rather than your best class DC.
Map editor: Fixed that the map editor sometimes didn't properly save elite adjustments for the Medium and Hard difficulty.
Modding: Fixed that AreaTarget.WithAdditionalRestrictionOnCaster overwrote previous additional restrictions.
Modding: Fixed that CommonFeatTemplates.CreateDuplicateFeatForDifferentClass didn't add the ClassFeat trait and the new class trait.
Modding: Fixed that SelfTarget.WithAdditionalRestriction overwrote previous additional restrictions.
Modding: Fixed that Trait.IgnorePropertyRuneLimit did not work on the inventory screen.
Modding: Fixed that the deadly trait added only 1 extra die instead of 3 extra dice for monster attacks which has 5 or more damage dice.
Modding: Striking runes on handwraps of mighty blows no longer reduce the number of damage dice on natural attacks that naturally have more than one damage die.
Rules (damage): Fixed that creatures that deal negative damage on a Strike, such as Shadows and Specters, would use them against undead creatures.
Rules (drained): Fixed a regression that some plot-relevant creatures killed through being drained didn't properly show their corpse tokens.
Rules (grapple): Fixed that if you had any reach weapon, you could attempt to grapple beyond your natural reach. This grapple would end immediately and so have no effect but you shouldn't be able to attempt it in the first place.
Spells (Black Tentacles): Fixed some minor usability issues with the spell.
Spells (Black Tentacles): Fixed that the spell benefited from Dangerous Sorcery.
Spells (Black Tentacles): Fixed that there were two contextual actions to escape from the grapple, including an incorrect one against the caster's Fortitude DC.
Spells (Breath of Life): Fixed that Breath of Life didn't cause your wounded condition to increase.
Spells (Dragon Form): Fixed incorrect attack modifiers on the battleform's unarmed attacks.
Spells (Dragon Form): Fixed that property runes on handwraps of mighty blows multiplied infinitely on natural attacks of this spells' battleforms.
Spells (Elemental Form): Fixed that property runes on handwraps of mighty blows multiplied infinitely on natural attacks of this spells' battleforms.
Spells (Hydraulic Torrent): Fixed that the spell always applied the standard damage regardless of the result of the Reflex save.
Spells (Plant Form): Fixed incorrect attack modifiers on the battleform's unarmed attacks.
Spells (Plant Form): Fixed that property runes on handwraps of mighty blows multiplied infinitely on natural attacks of this spells' battleforms.
Terrain: Mud now shows up as mud rather than as shallow water. This has no effect on rules.
Text: Fixed typos in some stat blocks.
User interface: Fixed a regression that sometimes caused overhead flyouts to appear twice when casting a spell.
Modding:
Modding (reversal!): Normalized the "IsIndoors" flag capitalization to "IsIndoors". Unfortunately, this means that modded maps that set the "is indoors" flag using the map editor may no longer have it set. This doesn't matter all that much and is only relevant for a couple of weird effects, so you don't need to worry too much about getting this flag right.
Modding: Added QEffect.AfterYouTakeActionAgainstTargetReaction.
Modding: Added QEffect.AfterYouTakeActionReaction.
Modding: Added a .WithItem() to Raise Shield so that the Raise Shield action contains that physical shield as Item.
Modding: Added overloads for CommonItems.CreateNaturalWeapon that take an Illustration instead of an IllustrationName.
Modding: Added the Portcullis/Grille tile which blocks movement but not line-of-effect.
New character content (beyond the level cap):
New spells: spirit song, power word kill, weird, deity's strike, antimagic field, time beacon, space beacon, contingency, collective transposition, dimensional lock, divine vessel, ethereal jaunt, visions of danger, volcanic eruption, foresight, implosion, earthquake, momentary recovery
New feats:
Alchemist: Merciful Elixir, Greater Merciful Elixir
Barbarian: Unbalancing Sweep
Bard: Triumphant Inspiration
Cleric: Ebb and Flow, Fast Channel, Swift Banishment
Fighter: Lunge, Lunging Stance, Determination, Stance Savant, Mirror Shield
Kineticist: Effortless Impulse, Rattle the Earth
Monk: Stance Savant, Prevailing Position, Wind Flight, Dodging Roll, Focused Shot, Mountain Quake (also for Martial Artist)
Oracle: Mysterious Repertoire
Ranger: Terrain Transposition (terrain transposition), Targeting Shot, Distracting Shot
Rogue: Critical Debilitations, Reactive Interference, Leave an Opening
Sorcerer: Ancestral Mage
New items:
flame tongue, runestone of brilliant
greater and major bombs (ghost charge, alchemist's fire, acid flask, necrotic bomb, frost vial, thunderstone, bottled lightning, mud bomb, dread ampoule),
greater energy weapon property runes (greater flaming, greater thundering, greater frost, greater corrosive, greater shock)
high-level aeon stones (aeon stone of courage, aeon stone of ghost touch, aeon stone of morning vitality)
high-level sturdy shields (greater, major, supreme)
Four-Leaf Clover:
Balancing (Alchemical Laboratory): Now gives 3 random potions, plus 2 greater healing potions on each downtime.
Balancing (Astral Observatory): The status bonus to initiative is now +2 (up from +1).
Encounters (S10E1): Fixed art for the warning in the opening cutscene.
Mansion: Added improvements Augury Circle, Shrine to Ancestors, Aeonite Cascade Resonator, Lifethread Engine, Spell Battery, Hellstrider Connection
Mansion: Mansion improvements, books, and scenes that happen in the future are now hidden as a spoiler.
New item: stone of revival
