Dungeons & Dragons Online Update 81.4 Brings Back Night Revels and Adds Cantrips

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Dungeons & Dragons Online Update 81.4 is live as of October 7, bringing back the Night Revels Halloween event and adding a new cantrip system for several caster classes. The event runs until November 1, with players starting at the entrance to Delera’s Graveyard in House Jorasco.

This year’s Night Revels adds new rewards, including Night Revels’ Gifts filigree and a yellow Reaper Steed. Loot now scales up to level 36, while challenges can scale as high as CR 41.

The bigger mechanical change is cantrips. These are free spell-like abilities granted at level 1 to certain classes, meant to give casters a basic no-cost attack option from the start. They don’t cost spell points, share a 0.75-second cooldown, scale with character level up to caster level 20, and work with Empower, Maximize, and Intensify.

  • New cantrips include Acid Splash, Jolt, Finger of Fire, Ray of Frost, Disrupt Living, Divine Strike, Sharp Whisper, Cut, and Alchemist vial options.
  • The old level 1 arcane bolt spells have been removed, except where they still appear on certain items.
  • Mental Toughness feats now improve cantrip damage dice.
  • A new Sparks of Magic effect from Magical Training restores spell points when a cantrip hits.

Monster damage reduction has also been reworked. Instead of every monster using its own DR value, failing to break DR now reduces weapon damage by 25 percent for bludgeoning, slashing, piercing, or bane DR, and by 50 percent for other DR types. Examining a monster now shows its DR and highest saving throw, which should make gearing and spell choices a little less opaque.

Update 81.4 also includes a broad balance pass. Several enhancement trees have been adjusted, including Archmage, Swashbuckler, Warchanter, Battle Engineer, Warpriest, Vanguard, and Harper Agent, with active enhancement abilities reduced to a single rank. Two-handed fighters get a new Lock In feat, Morningstars and Warhammers now count as hand-and-a-half weapons, Doublestrike is no longer capped, and many single-target damage spells cost fewer spell points.

Further reading: Official DDO Update 81.4 release notes