Greetings,

In one week, on next Saturday, the massive changes to the Burn spell will go live. A summary of said changes is as follows:

1) Burn will require a bright moon(Xibar, Yavash) or the Sun to be cast.

2) Burn will no longer automatically jail you if cast in the city. You will still be charged with a crime, however, unless your target is truly evil (IOW, an evil GMNPC or critter).

3) Some internal changes took place to make the code work a little more efficiently. Additional damage messaging has been incorporated, as well as fixes to messaging bugs (notably, the "beam passing through" a rock guardian, and the scorch mark on the ground in water areas).

4) Existing damage on the target (as well as its armour) is now being correctly figured into damage. Thus, no more plinking a stubborn critter to death while doing no further appreciable damage.

5) Cold-based creatures are now slightly more susceptible to Burn. This is a trend I hope, as Magic Supervisor, to see implemented in other spells for other guilds (notably the War Mage ones).

6) Critters should now drop items held when their arms are destroyed. Critters picking them back up again is a seperate issue from the spell, and is being addressed by GM Veyl and GM Dammisak.

7) Casting on a Calmed creature will now enrage it, as it always should have done, just like any other attack.

8) Items that are *on the ground* can be destroyed by casting Burn on them. You will always miss if you hold them in your hands and attempt, as it's assumed your character has enough sense not to direct a white-hot beam of light so close to him/herself. ;)

9) It will now be possible to cast in foggy areas with enough power.

10) Burn now checks for armour. This means it is also possible to damage or destroy armour on a critter or person. Due to the nature of the spell, shields do not factor into Burn at all.

11) Naphtha has been temporarily unplugged until Team Magic and the Alchemy GM can work out a realistic naphtha function for all fire-based spells. No, I won't tell you what's on our minds, but it'll be much more realistic and a lot more fun. <cackles>

These changes will go live sometime on Saturday, November 3rd. Overall, I do not feel that this will be considered a downtweak -- simply a change. I find it unlikely that anyone will have to alter their hunting habits because of it.

GM Rigby

PS - Oh yeah, and that annoying thing with the beam "hitting where the right arm used to be" is going away.