Guide:Undocumented Patch 5 updates

Patch 5 released with an enormous changelog featuring major changes like the introduction of Honour difficulty and new epilogues. It also included hundreds of gameplay changes and fixes and ended with:

And many, many more fixes, improvements, tweaks, and labours of love!

This article aims to document these unlisted fixes, improvements, and tweaks.

Honour mode exclusive changes

Action economy changes

Honour mode features a number of changes to tighten the action economy.

• Extra actions granted through  Hastened or  Bloodlust no longer benefit from  Extra Attack.
  • As an example, if you are  Hastened and have  Extra Attack, you can attack twice with your first action, but only once with the second action.
  • The extra action from  Action Surge still benefits from  Extra Attack.
•  Pact of the Blade no longer stacks with  Extra Attack. Previously, a multiclassed  Warlock with any martial class could get 3 attacks per action, and earlier than  Fighter's  Improved Extra Attack.

Simplification of damage mechanics

The interaction between different damage boosts can lead to unexpected (and exploitable) behavior. In particular, damage riders could get applied numerous times in a single attack with damage rider sources (DRS) causing the attack to deal much more damage than expected. See Damage mechanics for details.

Honour mode makes sweeping changes to many items and effects to stop damage boosts from interacting with each other. Now, all (or most) damage bonuses are well-behaved and do not interact with each other. This essentially eliminated DRS as a concept in Honour mode. Many builds centered around exploiting DRS mechanics to deal hundreds (even thousands) of damage per round will not work in Honour mode.

In particular, the changes are:

•  Phalar Aluve: Shriek no longer creates a separate damage instance (DRS) for every damage source. Instead, it adds bonus damage to each damage source.
•  Tavern Brawler no longer creates a separate damage instance on throws.
• The weapons Assassin's Touch, Deep Delver, Dragon's Grasp, Exterminator's Axe, Firestoker, Shortsword of First Blood, Blooded Greataxe, Render of Mind and Body, Sword of Life Stealing, Crimson Mischief, and Duellist's Prerogative all have had their DRS bonus damage removed and replaced with ordinary damage boosts.
  • A sole weapon has survived the purge: Rat Bat (Editors note: Nobody tell Larian).
• The abilities  Sneak Attack,  Colossus Slayer,  Divine Smite,  Divine Strike have added checks to ensure that they do not receive extra bonus damage that should only be applied to the base attack.^{[Needs Verification]}

Miscellaneous balance changes

•  Perilous Stakes can only target allies. No more applying easy damage vulnerability to enemies.

Changes for all modes

The following are changes that apply to all difficulties and modes.

Spell changes

• The range of  Heal increased from  Range: 1.5 m / 5 ft to  Range: 18 m / 60 ft.
•  Otiluke's Resilient Sphere can now only be cast on targets of size large or smaller.
•  Wall of Ice now correctly deals its 10d6Cold damage explosion when broken. Previously, the only damage dealt was by the lingering cold air.
• Casting  Shield as an Abjuration no longer grants a stack of  Arcane Ward. (Was this ever the case?^{[Needs Verification]}).
• Lockpicking and disarming traps now breaks  Invisibility and has a chance to break  Greater Invisibility.^{[Needs Verification]}

Ability changes

•  Primal Stampede now has a Constitution saving throw to avoid  Prone. The DC is 10 + Strength modifier.
•  Aspect of the Beast (Chimpanzee) now has a Constitution saving throw to avoid being  Blinded. The DC is 8 + proficiency bonus + Dexterity modifier.

Item changes

• Stacks of Rhapsody's Scarlet Remittance are now only gained by killing enemies. Previously, you could easily max the stacks by destroying inanimate objects like crates.
• Diadem of Arcane Synergy now only gives  Arcane Synergy when you inflict an effect on an enemy ( Threatened doesn't count). Previously, it would activate whenever you inflicted any effect on anything.
• Potential new items. These items are listed in a treasure table associated with Araj Oblodra, but it is not confirmed that they are available in-game by normal means.^{[Needs Verification]}
  • Staff of Accretion (Quarterstaff): Gain  Arcane Charge when dealing damage with a close range spell (a spell with a range of 6 m / 20 ft or less).
  • Braindrain Cloak (Cloak): Whenever you succeed a Saving throw against a spell, apply 2 stacks of  Mental Fatigue on the caster.
  • Arcane Absorption Dagger

Effect changes

•  Arcane Charge has been significantly reworked.
  • Previously it provided bonus damage equal to your proficiency bonus to all damage against  Threatened targets. It also imposed a 50% movement speed penalty while it was active.
  • Now, it provides 2 bonus damage to spells against threatened targets. There is no movement speed penalty.
  • Bided Time now only activates when hit by an enemy melee attack. Previously, it could be triggered by an allied attack (for example, if you used a  Mage Hand to hit yourself).
•  Arcane Acuity has been slightly reworked.
  • It can now stack up to 10 times (up from 7).
  • When taking damage, you lose 2 stacks of Arcane Acuity.
  • This happens with any damage, including self-damage like  Heat. This means that Heat items and Hat of Fire Acuity may not work very well together.
•  Radiating Orb has been slightly reworked.
  • It can now stack up to 10 times (up from 7).
  • When an affected entity makes an attack roll (whether it hits or misses), 2 stacks will be removed.
  • Luminous Armour previously had a bug where it could exceed the normal stack limit. This has been fixed.
•  Mental Fatigue has been significantly reworked.
  • It can now stack up to 7 times (previously it couldn't stack).
  • When an affected entity fails a mental Saving throw with at least 5 stacks, they are discharged, dealing 1d4Psychic damage.
•  Momentum can now stack 5 times (up from 4).

Minor changes

• Summon Golem Bell now requires an action to use and no longer counts as a "dash" for the purposes of activating items like Boots of Arcane Bolstering. Previously, it functioned as a completely free way of activating on-dash items.
• Eternal Carafe of Wine (Or Sometimes Acid) now costs a Bonus action to use. Previously, it was a completely free source of  Alcohol (or sometimes  Acid).
•  Knowledge of the Ages: Wisdom now gives proficiency in  Animal Handling,  Insight,  Perception,  Medicine, and  Survival. It used to give proficiency in  Animal Handling,  History,  Investigation,  Nature, and  Religion.