As we come up to the night before the release, let’s finish up with the Insectoid Hunter for our final Legends and Pariahs DLC preview!

Equipped to track and bring down foes from afar, the Hunter uses special arrows and a magic boomerang to ensure they never have to fight toe-to-toe.

---

The Insectoid Race:

Much like the Automaton, the Insectoid has a unique mana and hunger system represented by a green ‘Energy’ bar. This bar is a representation of your current hunger level and decreases slowly over time as hunger normally does.

Casting spells will directly expend Energy and can be replenished by eating food. The maximum Energy an Insectoid can obtain is 50 total.

As an Insectoid, you will be able to digest any food item without becoming sick from spoiled food! You will also get a benefit from consuming sweet liquids such as fruit juice, restore magic potions and booze. Be mindful of over-indulging however, eating while full can cause you to projectile acid!

Insectoids have access to the following starting spells:

Dash:

• Casting this ability launches the Insectoid at high speed in the direction of their current movement. Can be cast while stationary to backpedal.

• Running into doors while dashing will instantly break them.

Flutter:

• The Insectoids wings allow a short duration of flight at the expense of energy.

Spray Acid

• A short range 3-way projectile that poisons and damages enemy equipment.

Finally, Insectoids are immune to the effects of poison and are natural allies of other Insectoids, scorpions and scarabs.

---

---

The Hunter Class

The Hunter class comes prepared with some new quiver ammunition as well as new ranged weaponry! Quivers are worn in the off-hand slot, and create stacks of up to 50 arrows that are consumed when firing bows and crossbows.

As the new update brings projectile gravity to ranged weapons, the Hunter is best equipped to take on foes at a safe distance!

New Item - Longbow:

• +10 ATK, slow draw speed.
• The longest range out of all bows and crossbows

New Item - Boomerang:

• +0 ATK, upgradeable via repair. A magical thrown item that automatically returns to your inventory and hotbar slot.

New Item - Quiver of Silver Ammo:

• +2 ATK to ranged shots, bonus damage against demons and undead.
• Handy against demons, skeletons and ghouls!

New Item - Quiver of Hunting Ammo:

• +4 ATK, bonus damage against most non-humanoid creatures. Inflicts temporary slow and poison.
• Perfect for hunting big game creatures such as trolls or spiders!

New Item - Quiver of Swift Ammo:

• -2 ATK, reduces time taken to ready a shot for bow weapons.
• When all else fails, sometimes a good defense is a lot of arrows in a short amount of time.

You will also start with:

• Amulet of Poison Resistance
• Bracers
• Leather Boots
• Scrolls of Conjure Arrow
• Meat, Fish
• Blindfold of Telepathy
• Potions of Speed

Hunters start with 50 proficiency in Ranged and Swimming, 25 in Stealth, 20 in Appraisal and 10 proficiency in Spellcasting and Tinkering.

Perception and Dexterity are two favored stats on levelling up, while Strength and Constitution are unlikely to increase.

---

---

Wrapping Up

Let us know what you think! Feel free to share your thoughts in the Steam discussion thread or join our discord!

What’s Next?

The Legends & Pariahs DLC is releasing with our new V3.3.0 update on December the 27th 2019!

Grab your friends and join the party! Or play the Mechanist and build your own buddies.

Until next time!

-wallofjustice

It’s time for another Legends and Pariahs DLC preview - the Automaton Mechanist!

Mechanists come equipped to take advantage of the new Tinkering skill to craft traps, tools and allies! Weak in close combat, the Mechanist prepares for the situation ahead and lets the tools get to work and clear the path for them!

---

The Automaton Race:

Just as Automatons in the world have shown goodwill to the Humans, Automatons are the only non-human race allied with Humans and Shopkeepers! You will able to freely trade and recruit humans without the need for underhanded tactics playing as this race.

Cursed items also will be freely unequippable, though still provide negative effects and reduced effectiveness - Turns out you can't curse these machines. On that note, Incubi and Succubi are neutral creatures and share no interest in the cold heartless body of the Automaton.

To augment the Tinkering skill, these machines also get an innate +20 Tinkering Skill bonus when repairing items using Tinkering, meaning any item can be repaired at 80 Tinkering.

Automatons also start with a new Salvage spell to gather materials and sustain themselves:

Salvage Spell:

• Transmutes all nearby items on the ground into Metal and Magic scrap without the need for a Tinkering Kit.

Automatons are also immune to the harmful effects of burning - heat is in fact the best way to keep a well-oiled Automaton running! See how with the new boiler hunger mechanic:

---

Automaton Boilers:

Automaton have a shared mana and hunger system through their boiler

Mana is represented as “heat” (HT). Casting spells consumes HT.

• All food for the Automaton is consumed and added to the boiler’s burning time.

  • Gemstones, scrolls and readable books are consumable and are the primary sources of boiler fuel
  • Magical gems and scrolls generate an instant HT increase as well as fuelling your boiler.
  • Consuming organic food has no effect.
  • Automatons can consume scrap in a pinch to keep their boilers running, though can not reach maximum boiler capacity using scrap alone.

• When the boiler is burning, the Automaton internal temperature raises (HT)

• The boiler can reach a superheated state (blue) by continuing to add fuel. Superheated boilers rapidly increase HT but burn faster.

• If the boiler is empty, HT is gradually lost over time. HT loss is percentage based and will deplete fully in the same time, no matter your HT capacity.

• At 0 HT, the Automatons gears start seizing and start taking damage over time.
• The Automaton starts to slow down with <25% HT.

Environmental notes:

• Swimming in lava rapidly raises your HT, but will deal damage to your exterior. Burning effects while out of lava will not damage you.

• Swimming in water rapidly cools your boiler and HT. Drinking a bottle of water cools your boiler, but the steam generates an instant HT increase.

---

A Flair for the Dramatic

Also when you die as an Automaton you explode in cinematic fashion!

---

The Mechanist Class:

Starting Equipment:

The Mechanist class comes equipped with everything needed to get started in the new Tinkering skill! This includes a Tinkering Kit, some scrap, and a few select Tinkering creations to help the beginning of your expedition.

If you need a refresher on all the new Tinkering skill features and items, check out the previous blog post here!

New Item - Leather Apron:

• +1 AC, +2 PER, immunity to the Burning status effect.

Other starting items:

• Tinkering Kit
• 4x Lockpicks
• 2x Bear traps
• Crossbow
• 16x Metal Scrap
• 8x Magic Scrap
• 1x Dummybot
• 1x Sentrybot
• Scroll of fire (Automaton) / Basic food (Human)

Mechanists start with 40 Tinkering Skill and 10 proficiency in Trading, Alchemy and Ranged.

Perception and Dexterity are two favored stats on levelling up, while Strength and Consitution are unlikely to increase.

---

Wrapping Up

Let us know what you think! Feel free to share your thoughts in the Steam discussion thread or join our discord!

What’s Next?

My next upcoming DLC blog update: I'll share some details about the Insectoid Hunter, and what we’ve done to overhaul ranged combat!

Until next time!

-wallofjustice

As part of the upcoming DLC update, we’ve reworked the existing Locks skill into something a little more exciting!

Tinkering lets you salvage, repair and craft new kinds of tools to help fight through the dungeons. Like Alchemy, this skill will be available to everyone once the DLC drops!

All of the existing Locks interactions are included in the Tinkering skill, with a couple modifications:

• Lockpicking doors

  • 10% chance to raise Tinkering on unlock, up to a Basic (20) skill level. 2x higher chance to unlock than previous patch.

• Lockpicking chests

  • 10% chance to raise Tinkering on unlock, up to a Skilled (40) skill level. 2x higher chance to unlock than previous patch.
  • Unlocking chests with a lockpick now also includes a chance to find some Metal and Magic Scrap materials - useful stuff, more on that later!

• Lockpicking Automatons

  • 33% chance to raise Tinkering on unlock.
  • Successfully “disarming” an Automaton is now guaranteed past Expert (60) Tinkering. Higher base chance than previous patch for lower skill levels.
  • Disarming Automatons will drop lucrative amounts of Metal and Magic Scrap based on your skill level.

---

Mastering Tinkering:

First things first, you’ll need a new item to get deeper into the skill tree - the Tinkering Kit! This kit is your all-in-one tool to branch out into creative endeavors.

Like the Alchemy Alembic, you’ll be able to get a Tinkering Kit from hardware shops and chests in special loot tables. Alternatively, starting as the Automaton Mechanist from the Legends and Pariahs DLC will gear you up with a Tinkering Kit right from the beginning!

Using the Tinkering Kit:

There’s two interactions with the Tinkering Kit - “Wield” or “Tinker”. We’ll start with the “Tinker” option and open up the Tinkering menu.

You’ll see three headings, Craft, Salvage and Repair (plus an asterisk to view every option in a single scrollable menu), as well as a count of Metal and Magic Scrap currently held in your inventory.

• Crafting lets you create new items and tools.
• Repair lets you upgrade the status of Tinkering creations, armor and weapons.
• Salvage breaks down items into scrap materials.

Crafting and Repair both require scrap, so let's show how to get your hands on some Metal and Magic Scrap!

---

Salvaging and Scrap:

Most items in Barony can be Salvaged into Scrap and you’ll be able to see the amount you get in the Tinkering menu.

• Metal Scrap:

  • Mostly obtained from weapons, tools and armor
  • Trace amounts can be found in gemstones, magicstaffs, pieces of clothing or jewelry

• Magic Scrap:

  • Mostly obtained from magicstaffs, gemstones and spellbooks
  • Items that are either blessed/cursed or have a special effect (Glasses, Iron Boots of Waterwalking, Ring of Conflict) also provide Magic Scrap

Scrap quantities are generally 1-4 per item. Some items like food or scrolls do not produce any scrap and won’t show up in the menu.

Some example scrap values:

• Bronze Sword

1 0

• Gloves of Dexterity

1 2

• Scroll of Light

0 2

• Steel Axe

3 0

• Spellbook of Cold

0 6

As your Tinkering skill level increases you will have a chance to recover extra scrap from each item!

Quick Salvaging:

While looking at all the scrap values in the menu helps familiarise yourself with each item’s worth, eventually you will intuit what scrap you’ll get from the equipment on the dungeon floors.

So to Salvage items quicker, the Tinkering Kit can be wielded in your shield slot! Pressing the Defend key with the kit allows you to instantly Salvage an item or torch in the world when picked up. Defending and pressing the Attack key will also bring up the Tinkering menu for quick access in the world.

---

Now with Salvaging out of the way, let’s see what you can Craft with your Tinkering Kit!

Crafting:

Crafting is done through the Tinkering menu where you’ll see the Metal and Magic Scrap costs for each item. Simply click with the required materials and you’ll get the item in your inventory. Items you can craft include bombs, tools and new robotic allies!

Crafted items have a general Tinkering skill requirement before they are able to be created. Your effective skill level takes into account your Tinkering skill + Perception stat.

When crafting, your Tinkering skill has a chance to increase depending on the amount of materials used, so building higher quality items raises your skill more reliably!

---

Bombs:

There are four new bomb items exclusive to Tinkering:

• Flame Trap

8 12

• Freeze Trap

8 12

• Sleep Trap

4 8

• Teleport Trap

4 8

Each bomb is equippable in your main hand and require throwing to arm them. When thrown they stick to most surfaces - floors, walls, even doors and chests! They make a great ambush or emergency escape tool on the run.

By default, bombs are set to trigger on enemies only. By interacting with a lockpick in hand, you can change the sensitivity of the bombs to trigger on any creature if desired.

Applying a bomb to a door or chest will trigger the effect on any creature in an AOE if the object is disturbed or attacked. Bombs on the wall may also be shot with ranged weaponry to trigger in an AOE.

When bombs explode they leave behind a Broken Detonator Charge - collect these to Salvage later to recover materials for the next bomb!

• Flame Trap:
  • Deals 5 + (Perception / 2) base damage
  • Spawns a Fireball spell that hits each monster. Deals additional magic damage and burns
  • Requires 40 Tinkering to craft

• Freeze Trap:
  • Deals 5 + (Perception / 4) base damage
  • Spawns a Cold spell that hits each monster. Deals additional magic damage and slows
  • Requires 40 Tinkering to craft

• Sleep Trap:
  • Deals no damage
  • Spawns a Sleep spell that hits each monster and inflicts Sleep status
  • Requires 20 Tinkering to craft

• Teleport Trap:
  • Deals no damage
  • Teleports the target to a random location
  • Can be interacted with a lockpick to set a “receiver” location
  • If there is one or more “receiver” traps on the level, Teleports targets to a random receiver location.
  • Requires 20 Tinkering to craft

---

Mechanisms:

A tinkerer’s arsenal isn’t complete without the whirring of spinning cogs! This category of craftable items add utility and firepower for your allies. All of these mechanisms are deployed like bombs - equipped into your main hand and thrown a short distance to activate.

• Noisemaker:

8 1

• Small box with a crank that attracts idle monsters in an AOE towards it
• Lasts a short duration before requiring to be rewound
• Chance on expiring to break
• Requires 0 Tinkering to craft

---

The remaining mechanisms are all allied units with HP that can be commanded using the Follower Wheel. There are 4 quality types for each:

• Simple
• Complex
• Intricate
• Artisan

Each unit starts as Simple when crafted at the first skill level requirement.

Every 20 Tinkering + Perception above the base requirement increases the quality for all subsequent crafts. For example, a Simple Dummybot is created at 20 skill level, while an Intricate Dummybot at 60.

Upgraded quality levels for mechanisms improves their HP and abilities.

When a unit’s HP is depleted, it becomes “Broken” and unusable. Broken units can then be Salvaged to recover some of your materials for more tinkering!

---

• Dummybot:

8 4 - Requires 20 Tinkering to first craft

An immobile dummy useful for drawing enemy fire and tanking blows. All monsters will attack Dummybots on sight. Can be commanded using the Follower Wheel to return to its box to preserve its life.

Each quality tier increases the Dummybot’s HP and defence.

---

• Gyrobot:

16 12

• Requires 20 Tinkering to first craft

A small multipurpose gyrocopter - a Tinkerer’s best friend! Gyrobots are unique allies that scout areas ahead of their leader. Immune to most dangers, they are ignored by all monsters and projectiles.

Each quality tier improves the movement speed of the Gyrobot.

Gyrobots have several functions using the Follower Wheel. Each function requires an appropriate quality tier and skill level to use.

Commands available at 20 Tinkering:

• Return & Land - Flies to your location and returns to an item.
• Move to… - Moves to location specified and waits..
• Detect Metal, Detect Magic (toggleable) - Shows nearby items on the minimap that contain Metal or Magic Scrap for Salvaging. Only one Detect option can be active on the Gyrobot at one time.

Commands available at 40 Tinkering:

• Interact - Pick up and hold a single item or toggle switches
• Drop item - Drops held item
• Detect Exits, Detect Traps - Shows nearby exits or traps on the minimap.
• Light - Gyrobot emits a faint, bright or no light.

Commands available at 60 Tinkering:

• Detect enemies - Shows nearby enemies on the minimap.

Commands available at 80 Tinkering:

• Detect valuables - Shows nearby items on the minimap that have a large gold value.

---

• Sentrybot:

16 8

• Requires 40 Tinkering to first craft

A portable turret that fires ranged projectiles, the Sentrybot is a staple of a Tinkerer’s offense. Sentrybots have low defence and can be taken out quickly in melee combat. A well placed Dummybot or freeze trap can help enemies at bay while the Sentrybot lays down fire.

Sentrybots are immobile but can be remotely commanded to rotate and attack targets.

Each quality tier improves HP, damage and turn rate.

Commands available at 40 Tinkering:

• Hold Aim / Free Look - The Sentrybot will randomly look around when initially placed, Hold Aim locks rotation to a narrow cone.

Commands available at 60 Tinkering:

• Look at... - Commands the Sentrybot to look at a given direction and Hold Aim.

Commands available at 80 Tinkering:

• Attack - Commands the Sentrybot to attack the selected target instead of acquiring a target automatically.

---

• Spellbot:

8 16

• Requires 60 Tinkering to first craft

Similar to the Sentrybot, the Spellbot is a portable turret that fires magic projectiles. The Spellbot starts with the Forcebolt spell that upgrades to Magic Missile at Artisan quality. Each upgrade tier improves HP, turn rate and rate of fire.

Commands available at 60 Tinkering:

• Hold Aim / Free Look - The Spellbot will randomly look around when initially placed, Hold Aim locks rotation to a narrow cone.

Commands available at 80 Tinkering:

• Look at... - Commands the Spellbot to look at a given direction and Hold Aim.

Commands available at 100 Tinkering:

• Attack - Commands the Spellbot to attack the selected target instead of acquiring a target automatically.

---

Craftable Tools:

Some existing items are also now craftable using Tinkering:

0 Tinkering Requirement:

• Lockpicks
• Glasses
• Empty Bottles

20 Tinkering Requirement:

• Beartraps
• Lanterns

60 Tinkering Requirement:

• Alembics

80 Tinkering Requirement:

• Backpacks

---

Repairing / Upgrading:

The final Tinkering menu to cover is the Repair menu. As we’ve just been through crafting, let’s explain repairing and upgrading your Mechanisms.

Mechanism Repairs and Upgrading:

The Dummybot, Gyrobot, Sentrybot and Spellbot each has HP and can take damage in the world. When you recall your Mechanisms, they will retain their health at intervals of 5%, 25%, 50%, 75% or 100%.

For example, a 75% Dummybot with 100 max HP will spawn with around 75 HP when re-deployed.

For a fraction of the crafting cost, you can repair the Mechanism to the next percentage interval - keeping them in good working order and stacking neatly in your inventory.

A reminder - when you first build your Mechanism it will have one of the 4 quality states - Simple, Complex, Intricate or Artisan. Every 20 Tinkering increases the abilities of your creations, but existing Mechanisms stay at their current quality.

A Mechanism can be upgraded at 100% health to keep them up-to-date for a cheaper cost than crafting new ones as your skill level raises.

Equipment Repair:

Another feature of the Tinkering Kit is the ability to repair weapons and armor starting at 60 Tinkering!

60 Tinkering:

• Able to repair weapons and armor with a Metal Scrap value of 1. Items with a Magic Scrap value are non-repairable at this skill level.

80 Tinkering:

• Able to repair weapons and armor with a Metal Scrap value of 2. Items with a Magic Scrap value are non-repairable at this skill level.

100 Tinkering:

• Able to repair weapons and armor with any Metal or Magic Scrap value.

The repair cost of each item is 8x per scrap value. Blessed or Cursed items increase the Magic Scrap repair cost, but may only be repaired at 100 Tinkering.

---

Wrapping Up

Let us know what you think! Feel free to share your thoughts in the Steam discussion thread or join our discord!

What’s Next?

My next upcoming DLC blog update: I'll show off the Automaton Mechanist's loadout and mechanics!

Until next time!

-wallofjustice

Up next for our Legends and Pariahs DLC preview - the Incubus Punisher! A primarily melee class aided by unique demonic spells, Punishers are adept at singling out their opponents from a fight and forcing them to come to terms with their inner demons.

---

The Incubus Race:

Mechanically, Incubi operate much the same as Succubi from our previous Myths and Outcasts DLC - blessing or curse effects on worn equipment have the opposite effect on these demonic beings! Cursed items can freely be unequipped while blessed items are bound to your person.

The reversing effect also extends to our new upcoming spellbook mechanics - a cursed held spellbook becomes a boon for the Incubus, increasing the power of spells cast through it. Blessed spellbooks will also improve your spells, though will degrade faster while bound to you.

The Incubus race also starts with the Teleport spell already learnt, as well as the new “Arcane Mark” spell - an ability that allows the user to control their teleportation magic!

Arcane Mark Spell:

• Fires a projectile that places a “mark” upon an ally or enemy. Marked targets are revealed on the minimap for a fixed duration.
• Casting Teleport while Arcane Mark is active will teleport the caster behind the marked target!
• Teleportation spells mana costs are halved while Arcane Mark is active.
• Only one Arcane Mark can be active at one time, marking a new target will lose the previous one.

---

The Punisher Class:

Starting Equipment:

The Punisher class comes with 2 new pieces of equipment - the new Whip weapon as well as an ominous Executioner’s Hood! You will also have in your inventory:

• Ring of conflict
• An axe
• Some basic food
• Teleport Other spell
• Inner Demon spell

Stats and Proficiencies:

Punishers have basic level proficiencies in Axe, Ranged, Spellcasting and Magic.

Strength and Dexterity are two favored stats on levelling up, while Constitution is unlikely to increase.

---

New Items!

Executioner’s hood: The signature hood of the Punisher. Slaying weakened foes with the Executioner’s hood provides increased mana regeneration for a short duration!

The Whip: The Whip is a low ATK, utility melee weapon with some unique mechanics - foremost it is the only “melee” weapon to have an increased striking distance! (Despite the ongoing rumours, polearms have the same attack range as every other axe/sword/mace!).

Outgoing damage takes into account half of the wielders STR and DEX primary stats, and uses the Ranged proficiency for damage variance.

Apart from increased attack range, whipping an enemy under an immobile status effect (e.g sleep/paralyze) disarms their equipped weapon or shield each strike!

If they otherwise are confused, drunk or disoriented, there is a % chance to disarm.

Striking with the whip requires a longer windup than standard melee weapons, a mastery of the timing and use of status effects allows the Punisher to safely disarm foes and overpower them.

---

New Starting Spells!

Teleport Other:

• Fires a projectile that teleports the target in front of the caster.
• Enemies teleported a certain distance away from their location will be inflicted with “Disoriented” status effect. The further away the monster is teleported, the greater the duration.
• Disoriented enemies lose track of their current target and do not retaliate to attacks for a brief duration.
• If cast while Arcane Mark is active, no projectile is fired and the marked target is teleported to the caster.

Inner Demon:

• Fires a projectile that exorcises an allied “Inner Demon” Incubus out of the target.
• Inner Demon taunts the target and reflects a % of melee damage received back to the target.
• Consumes a % of max HP from the caster on cast to imbue the Inner Demon with your current HP and AC.
• Most creatures can only be exorcised once, and purely demonic creatures are unable to be exorcised.

---

Wrapping Up

Let us know what you think! Feel free to share your thoughts in the Steam discussion thread or join our discord!

As an aside - in the next update Succubi will also be getting an adjustment to their starting loadout to be further unique from the Incubus.

What’s Next?

My next upcoming DLC blog update: I'll share some details about the Automaton Mechanist, and what we’ve done to overhaul the Locks skill!

Until next time!

-wallofjustice

Welcome to the first class preview for the Legends and Pariahs DLC! The Shaman is the signature class of the Goblin race, a tribal spellcaster that uses Shapeshifting magic to transform into various creatures to take advantage of unique abilities and allegiances.

---

The Goblin Race:

As mentioned previously in the Revisiting Magic and Spellbooks blog post, Goblins are an adaptable race that cannot permanently learn spells via the traditional spellbook reading mechanic - instead they must rely on casting by holding spellbooks! The Shaman class aims to provide a level of unique permanence to the Goblin’s magic repertoire and lean into flexible character growth.

A summary of the Goblin’s gameplay mechanics:

• Increasing a melee weapon skill also increases every other melee weapon skill at the same time.
• Base chance to increase weapon skills is lower than other races.
• All worn equipment on the Goblin has a reduced chance to degrade - armor, weapons, magicstaffs and spellbooks included.
• Unable to learn spells from spellbooks, even through the effects of Polymorph.
• Friendly with other Goblins in the world.

With these mechanics in mind, let’s explore what the Shaman class has to offer!

---

The Shaman Class:

Starting Equipment: The Shaman starts their loadout with some new visible items - a Magicstaff of Poison and a cool looking Skull Mask! You will also have in your inventory:

• An Enchanted Feather
• A basic melee weapon
• Some throwable rocks

A very minimalistic inventory loadout, but if you check your hotbar or learned spells when you start the game, you’ll also see 5 new Shapeshift spells which form the core gameplay of the Shaman class:

• Rat Form
• Spider Form
• Troll Form
• Imp Form
• Revert Form

The Enchanted Feather:

A new item! This feather is an enchanted scribing tool used to imbue magic into blank scrolls and also repair spellbooks. With the Enchanted Feather, the Goblin Shaman is able to keep their dwindling spellbook supply in good shape while also making use of cheap blank scrolls!

Also, the Enchanted Feather is not exclusive to the Shaman! You will also find they can populate the world in magical chests, shops, and perhaps carried by some of the smaller magic-loving creatures in the dungeon...

---

Shapeshifting:

There are 4 creature types the Shaman can change into at will - Rat, Spider, Troll and Imp. To transform, you equip the corresponding spell and expend mana to shapeshift for a fixed duration. Your 5th starting spell, “Revert Form”, transforms you back into your natural humanoid form if you wish to end the effect prematurely.

However, not every form is selectable from the start of the game - at player level 1 only the "Rat Form" spell is selectable, while the Spider, Troll and Imp forms unlock at levels 3, 6 and 12 respectively. Once you reach the level requirement, the spell icon will no longer be greyed out and you’ll be able to equip and cast the spell.

Each Shapeshift form has their own unique hotbar that persists after changing forms. You can rearrange your potions, spells and food between forms to keep them in a consistent location!

Some key mechanics for Shapeshifting:

• When you transform, you take on the creature characteristics and you will be able to recruit similar other monsters as you go through the dungeon.
• You gain 2-3 additional temporary magic spells which are unique to each creature. The first tier spell is available when you reach the level requirement for the creature (LVL 1, 3, 6, 12 as mentioned earlier) and the second/third tier spells are available some levels after the unlock threshold.
• You can cast any spells that you have learned while Shapeshifted.
• You are unable to use weapons and armor as they no longer conform to your body. Items remain “equipped” and in your inventory but do not provide +ATK or +AC.
• Rings, Amulets, and equipment with magical effects (levitation, invisibility etc) still provide their effects while Shapeshifted.
• The Skull Mask starting item provides bonus mana regeneration only while shapeshifted.
• Each Shapeshift form gives % based primary stat bonuses (STR/DEX etc) to augment your survivability.
• The Shaman class has a random stat growth, preferring no stat over the other. Levelling up while Shapeshifted changes which player stats are likely to increase. By changing forms, you can manipulate your stat growth to address weaknesses or to be better prepared for the challenges ahead!
• Swimming in water does not wash away the Shapeshift like the Polymorph effect.

Now let's have a look at the abilities and features of the different Shapeshift forms!

---

Shapeshift Forms

Rat Form (LVL 1):

A frail friend to other rats with the ability to sniff out food and make quick getaways out of a bad situation.

Spells:

• Detect Food (LVL 1)
  • Highlights food on the ground in your minimap for the current level.
• Speed (LVL 3)
  • Grants the “Speed” effect on the caster and in an AoE for your allies.

Stat modifiers while Shapeshifted:

• +3 + 25% base DEX
• +3 + 25% base INT
• +3 + 25% base PER

Favored stats on levelling up:

• DEX (Primary)
• INT (Secondary)

---

Spider Form (LVL 3):

Hardier than rats, spiders have a mix of damage and support magic to help keep danger safely away from them. Friendly with other insects and bugs.

Spells:

• Spray Web (LVL 3)
  • Sprays 3 short-range web projectiles from the caster that slow the target. Ensnared targets also receive a knockback effect on hit from melee attacks. Hitting a target with 2 or more projectiles compounds the slow/knockback effects.
• Poison (LVL 6)
  • Low level damage spell that also inflicts the poison effect for a short duration.

Stat modifiers while Shapeshifted:

• +3 + 25% base STR
• +3 + 25% base CON
• +5 + 33% base PER

Favored stats on levelling up:

• PER (Primary)
• CON (Secondary)

---

Troll Form (LVL 6):

Slow yet powerful, a troll can draw danger away from his allies and deliver crushing blows to those who are too scared to move.

Spells:

• Power Strike (LVL 6)
  • The caster charges an incredibly strong melee punch that deals 2x melee damage and inflicts knockback on the target. Walls and boulders are able to be destroyed on impact if hit with this attack. Caster is immobile during the charge time.
• Troll’s Blood (LVL 12)
  • Grants a HP regeneration effect on the caster and in an AoE for your allies for a duration.
• Fear (LVL 15)
  • The caster unleashes a primordial roar that inflicts a new status effect, “Fear”, on enemies in an AoE around the caster. While under the “Fear” effect, monsters are unable to attack and change their current monster target to the caster once the effect ends.

Stat modifiers while Shapeshifted:

• +5 + 33% base STR
• -5 - 33% base DEX
• +5 + 33% base CON

Favored stats on levelling up:

• STR (Primary)
• CON (Secondary)

---

Imp Form (LVL 12):

Imps have innate levitation and can equip spellbooks and magicstaffs while Shapeshifted. They prefer the company of other imps and use unique powerful magic to take down their foes.

Spells:

• Lightning (LVL 12)
  • Moderate damage spell.
• Confuse (LVL 12)
  • Inflicts “Confuse” status on an enemy.
• Amplify Magic (LVL 15)
  • Sustained spell with high mana upkeep cost. While under the effects of “Amplify Magic”, any Fire/Cold/Lightning/Magic Missile spells cast will be concentrated into a short range falling projectile that erupts into a tower of magic on impact with the ground or enemy.

Stat modifiers while Shapeshifted:

• +5 + 33% base INT
• +3 + 25% base PER

Favored stats on levelling up:

• INT (Primary)
• DEX (Secondary)

---

Wrapping Up

Let us know what you think! Feel free to share your thoughts in the Steam discussion thread or join our discord!

We hope you enjoyed this preview piece on the Goblin Shaman - it has been challenging to create, but has ended up being great fun to seamlessly meld between all the different forms. (At times during playthroughs I’ve definitely forgotten I was a Goblin!) We're constantly trying new ideas in this DLC and can't wait to show you the rest!

What’s Next?

My next upcoming DLC blog update: I'll share some details about the Incubus Punisher.

If you haven't seen already, Mistersneak has also put up some original monster concept art for our previous Barony: Blessed Addition expansion - check it out!

Until next time!

-wallofjustice

With the Myths & Outcasts DLC currently available, and the Legends & Pariahs DLC on the way, I thought it'd be a good time to tell you where a lot of these monsters come from.

If you're a Barony fan, you probably already know that all the DLC races are enemies or NPCs in the game. But did you know that many of them weren't always part of Barony's world?

Editions and Additions

Several months after Barony's launch, we shipped the "Cursed Edition". A complete art overhaul of Barony's base content. We started planning our next game (which is still in the works), but it required a substantial technology upgrade, which takes time!

Several months go by, with a lot of work completed on the new engine, and design / art planning, but there was a long way to go. We considered it might be a good time to do a quick little content update for Barony while a new engine remained in development. You know, just a little update that an artist / designer guy like me can throw together with a tiny bit of code support.

Shouldn't be too big of a deal right?

We had just brought WallofJustice onto the team and, in addition to our existing group of Turning Wheel rad dudes, we were confident it wouldn't be a huge investment.

My first goal was simple - Take the existing monsters, use them as a template for similar monsters with bigger, badder stats and new art. That's it. Like a palette swap, but a little more effort to help them feel fresh. Add a couple more tilesets that are pretty straightforward to make in our level editor, and boom! It'll be an awesome expansion. Many players were hungry for more content, and this seemed like a fast and effective way to provide it.

Oops

From that simple idea, ultimately came what you now know as the Blessed Addition. A massive upgrade with 50% more monsters, classes, items, a new end boss, new story, new books, achievements... --Ahem-- and it took a year to ship.

Yeah, we get excited sometimes and overdo it. Our feature-creep is your gain. If you're patient anyway.

Oh right. The monsters.

So that was the premise I started from when I put together quick drawings of new monsters. I threw these together in a night, basing each one on existing monsters to make implementation as quick and painless as possible.

Scarab The scarab was to be a swap for the rat using the same methods for animation.

Crystal Golem We had decided that one of the additional tilesets should be the Crystal Caves, so this guy fit right in as a replacement for the troll.

Cockatrice Believe it or not, this danger-chicken shares animations with the Imp.

Kobold Swapped out assets from the Gnome to create these guys.

Humanoids

The remaining characters were to be based roughly on Humans, Skeletons and Goblins, as these characters can wield equipment properly, and we would use gear and varied allegiances to make these new races interesting, all while being able to share similar animations.

Automaton

Insectoid

Vampire

Incubus

Goatman

In case you weren't keeping count, that's 5 of the 8 races represented in the Myths & Outcasts + Legends & Pariahs DLC packs coming straight out of the Blessed Addition monsters! Goblins, Skeletons and Succubi are the remaining monster races in the DLC which were included in Barony's original release.

The game sure has grown!

More Than a Palette Swap

Each of these monsters (plus the Shadow we haven't mentioned yet; also based on humanoids originally) had a lot more work put into them than originally expected. This included new animations, powers and behaviors not found in other creatures in the base game. We probably could've shipped them with that minimal amount of work and it would've been pretty good. But the team, especially Wall of Justice, took the time to make each monster much more robust.

The unique gameplay found in the new humanoid monsters has gone on to inspire how each monster race should play as we developed the DLC packs.

I hope you enjoyed this tidbit of Barony development history! While these quick concept sketches aren't exactly fit for promotional material, we felt you might enjoy this glimpse behind the curtain.

A quick story on how the Conjurer and Accursed DLC classes came together.

Since we originally started planning our original Myths and Outcasts DLC, our feature set changed a lot during development. I'm looking back through old documents now, and we never had new classes on the table when we first talked about it - just races!

---

The Conjurer Class

Some people might recall a Magicstaff of Conjure Familiar in the game files when Barony: Blessed Addition was released in 2018, accessible only via the /spawnitem console command. When I added new magicstaffs for Bloodletting and Stoneblood, I also kept Conjure Familiar in as a placeholder to maybe one day mimic the effects of a Scroll of Summon. I loved the idea of summoning monsters - but the follower AI at the time couldn't be controlled at all by the player and we already had the Scroll of Summon in the game to suit this purpose. By the end, its only use was to be a stick for debugging particle effects as I worked on Blessed Addition, kept in as a personal TODO item.

In June 2018 - three months after Blessed Addition came out, I added the follower menu so you could order your companions around and actually have a chance at keeping them alive in the dungeon. Finally - a use for my staff! When talk started around DLC I wanted to get at least 1 new Conjurer class in alongside the playable races since we were back to adding new content into the game.

As we talked about new class archetypes, the idea of linking classes with races came up and the Skeleton Conjurer seemed like a perfect fit! You needed mana to resurrect yourself, and if you had excess mana you could summon allies and store your magic power inside them!

---

The Accursed Class

For the Accursed Vampire, the complement of a class/race pairing gave us a lot more freedom to create a new "hard" game option which might not have happened otherwise.

I wanted a new hard mode character and initially designed the Vampire to be just that - a stealth killing machine where every run was a race against time. However it didn't feel right to commit a quarter of our DLC to be extremely difficult, so the Accursed class was created with the "cursed" hunger mechanics and the OG Vampire race was toned down to be easier.

Splitting the DLC into classes and races turned out to be a much better solution since we could provide a new hard mode AND also let you play as a more casual Vampire! It felt great to come to an accessible design that let everyone use the cool Vampire blood mechanics and HP-as-mana system.

---

Remember the Stick

So there you have it - we only planned for races at the start and maybe an extra class. Eventually 1 class became 2, 2 then became 4 and suddenly we knew what Myths and Outcasts was going to look like!

Sadly in the end, the Magicstaff of Conjure Familiar never got added to the level drop lists. The spell was balanced to be castable from the start of the game and your skeleton buddies would level up with you. A magicstaff version ended up being found too late or not have enough charges to make your allies strong enough to match your level progression. Nevertheless, you can still play around with it in-game currently using the console command "/spawnitem magicstaff of conjure familiar". Hold it, and remember the history behind the stick.

---

Initial Conjure Familiar particle effect testing. Would you believe this clip is from 2 years ago?

In the next content update, you'll be able to equip a castable spellbook into your off-hand equipment slot while also keeping another spell equipped. This is part of the free update that will be available to all owners of Barony when the Legends and Pariahs DLC drops!

So how does it work? Read on to find out!

---

Revisiting Spellbooks

The idea to hold spellbooks started with our upcoming Goblin race.

Goblins are great fighters; versatile, adaptable, green, but magically inept (staffs don't count!). When playing as a Goblin, all of your equipment lasts longer and raising one weapon skill will raise every weapon skill at the same time! The catch - you are unable to memorize spells from books and must cast directly by reading from them each time.

This spellbook hook ended up becoming a feature for any race, as from a development perspective changing the HUD and in-game player model is more or less the same shared code for any humanoid monster. Also since this mechanic uses a finite spellbook resource - let's add some bonuses to your spells cast through the book!

Here's the list of effects when casting from a spellbook:

• Spellbooks are equipped in your off-hand equipment slot. Casting is done via the block/sneak key.
• You are able to have a selected spell ready via the normal casting key [F], so you can ready a support and offensive spell at the same time or double down and have fire/cold at the ready!
• Casting from a blessed spellbook increases the damage/heal of a spell by varying amounts per blessing!
• Casting a learnt spell from a spellbook improves cast times for spells that cost over 10 MP.
• Casting an unknown spell from a spellbook can let you use a spell you normally wouldn't have access to - though based on your Spellcasting skill you may have a longer cast time and a chance to fumble the spell.
• Spellbooks degrade on use, but Goblins keep their books in better shape for longer!

Fire and Cold make a great offensive pairing.

---

Revisiting the Intelligence stat

For the longest time spell damage values were fixed and did not scale during the game. Fantastic in the early game, but could become a harsh experience for spellcasters during the later portions of the game where monsters have higher HP pools.

So looking back at the Intelligence stat, its uses currently are:

• Providing passive mana regeneration up to a hard limit of 1 MP per 3 seconds.
• Letting you learn higher level spells without needing the specific Magic skill (INT + Magic skill is used for the skill check)

So to give Intelligence a little more utility - INT now will provide +1% spell damage/heal to the same areas that blessed spellbooks would. Since our damage system works in whole numbers, high INT characters and high damage spells (e.g. bloodletting/magic missile) are what you want to use to get the most damage output!

Finally, I also adjusted the hard MP regeneration cap from 1 MP every 3 seconds to 1 MP every 2 seconds to give spellcasters a little more mana to play with in the late game.

---

What's next?

My next upcoming DLC blog update: I'll share some details about the Goblin Shaman from the Legends and Pariahs DLC. I gave a little peek into the Goblin race mechanics in this post, but next time we'll get to see what unique magic powers the Shaman class has to play with!

Until next time!

-wallofjustice