Changelog

2026-04-25 — Affix Rebalance

Affix balance pass. Low-ilvl drops now feel proportional to their level. A Common Rally on a Bronze sword no longer rolls the same percentages as one on a Mithril sword: it rolls about a third of those values at ilvl 1 and ramps up linearly to today’s full values at ilvl 45. Endgame is unchanged; the climb is just more visible from early levels up.

Stat-score affixes (STR / DEX / CON / INT / WIS / CHA) are now Rare-or-better only, and capped at +2. They no longer appear on Common or Uncommon drops. Rare and Epic stat scores roll +1; Legendary rolls +2. Stat scores do not scale with item level — the integer is fixed by rarity alone.

Any rarity can drop at any item level. An ilvl-1 mob can occasionally cough up a Legendary, and the values will scale appropriately for the level. Frequency tables are unchanged, so Legendary at low ilvl is still a memorable event, not the new default.

v1.0.0 — Initial Release (April 2026)

The first public release of Natural 20. Multi-phase quests with d20 skill checks, six D&D ability scores, ARPG-style loot with 40+ affixes, group encounters, and procedural settlements.

Quests

Multi-phase quest system. Quests split into one or more phases, each paying its own XP and item reward.
Six objective types: Collect Resources, Kill Mobs, Kill Boss, Fetch Item, Peaceful Fetch, Talk to NPC.
Quest markers above NPCs: gold ! for available quests, blue ? for waiting turn-ins.
Difficulty multipliers on phase XP (Easy 0.5×, Medium 1.0×, Hard 2.0×).
Per-accepter item rerolls so no two party members receive duplicate drops.

Dialogue and skill checks

D&D-style d20 skill checks in dialogue, rolled as d20 + stat modifier + proficiency bonus (if trained).
Six DC tiers from Trivial (5) to Nearly Impossible (30).
Authored DCs for narrative-pinned checks; procedural DCs scale to the NPC’s zone level.
Natural 20 auto-passes; natural 1 auto-fails.
On-screen dice animation showing each roll outcome.
Per-NPC, per-player disposition tracking (0–100, persistent across sessions).
Nine dialogue tone brackets (Hostile, Scornful, Unfriendly, Wary, Neutral, Cordial, Friendly, Trusted, Loyal) pulling from different dialogue pools.
Three roll mode bands set by disposition: 0–24 disadvantage, 25–74 normal, 75–100 advantage.
Disposition deltas: +3 on quest accept, +5 on phase turn-in, +10 on full quest completion, +3 on check pass, -2 on check fail.

Ability scores and progression

Six ability scores (STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, CHA) ranging 0 to 30.
Universal modifier curve: floor(score / 3), capped at +10. The same modifier feeds combat math, gear scaling, and skill checks.
Level 1 to 40 progression with +1 ability point and +5 max HP per level.
Background presets for new characters. Each background distributes starting ability scores and provides a starter kit.
Proficiency bonus scaling +2 to +6 by character level on trained skills.
Character Sheet UI accessible via /sheet, showing stats, level, XP, quests, party, and NPC dispositions.

Leveling and XP

XP from kills, quest turn-ins, and successful skill checks.
Source weights: regular Nat20 kill 1.0×, champion 2.5×, boss 5.0×, dungeon boss 8.0×, quest phase 7.0×, skill check pass 5.0×, vanilla mob 0.5×.
12% XP-per-level growth across the full curve.
Roughly 685,000 cumulative XP to reach the level 40 cap.

Loot and gear affixes

Five rarity tiers (Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary) with coloured tooltip outlines.
Item-level system. Drops scale with the killing mob’s level and biome.
Eight affix families plus stat affixes:
- Offensive (12): Crit Chance, Crit Damage, Attack Speed, Deep Wounds, Crushing Blow, Backstab, Precision, Life Leech, Mana Leech, Vicious Mockery, Hex, Rally.
- Defense (6): Absorption, Evasion, Resilience, Thorns, Block Proficiency, Gallant.
- Ability (9): Indestructible, Fortified, Haste, Telekinesis, plus five mutually exclusive tool block shapes (Quake, Delve, Rend, Fissure, Resonance).
- Utility (3): Focused Mind, Water Breathing, Lightweight.
- Elemental Damage (4): Fire, Frost, Poison, Void flat damage on hit.
- Elemental DoT (4): Ignite, Cold, Infect, Corrupt.
- Resistances (4): Fire, Frost, Poison, Void resistance on armor and shields.
- Weakness (4): Fire, Frost, Poison, Void debuffs amplifying same-element damage.
Six stat affixes (+STR, +DEX, +CON, +INT, +WIS, +CHA) adding flat ability-score points that cascade through every stat-scaled system.

Champion and boss encounters

Group spawning: every Nat20 mob encounter is 1 boss with 3–7 champions sharing role and tier.
Four difficulty tiers (Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary) applied as full-body tints (green, blue, purple, gold).
Tier adds an mlvl bonus to the zone’s base level.
21-affix mob pool drawn from the gear affix system. Evasion explicitly excluded.
Affix counts per role and tier: Champions 1–3 affixes (Uncommon to Epic), Bosses 2–5 affixes (Uncommon to Legendary). Champions never reach Legendary.
Boss compound naming: prefix + suffix with optional appellation. Appellation chance scales by tier (Uncommon never, Rare ~50%, Epic always, Legendary always).
Champion drop rate roughly 1 in 6 kills. Bosses always drop, with tier-stacked bonus rolls so Legendaries often hand out three or more pieces.
Kill credit: any damage dealt to a mob in the 30 seconds before its death credits the dealer for loot, XP, and quest progress. Killing blow does not need to come from the player.

Party system

Every player is in a party. Solo is a party of one with no separate “solo mode” toggle.
No upper size cap. Invitations and management through the Character Sheet’s Party tab.
Quest accepter snapshot: party members at the moment of accept become the accepter list, locked in for the duration of the quest. Later joiners do not see the quest.
Shared quest progress. One counter, one set of phases, one quest record.
80-block proximity check at phase completion. Accepters in range receive the phase’s reward; those outside see a Quest Missed banner and forfeit only that phase’s reward (still on the quest for later phases).
Collect Resources phases are exempt from the proximity check.
Per-accepter unique item drops at turn-in. Items reroll for each recipient.
Monster level scaling: +1 monster level per nearby online party member at spawn, capped at +6. The bump locks in at spawn and persists through chunk reloads.
Leadership succession: explicit handoff or automatic transfer via the seven-day ghost leader rule.
Friendly fire blocked between party members on PVP-enabled servers.

World generation

Procedurally placed settlements with role-specialized NPCs (Villager, Guard, Artisan, Traveler).
Hostile POI generation with anchored quest mob group spawns. Difficulty, affixes, and boss names lock in at first visit.
Ambient surface mob group spawns during travel, with per-player cooldowns to prevent saturation.
Compatibility with already-explored worlds. The stat, dialogue, NPC, and quest systems work on existing saves. Settlements and hostile POIs only appear in chunks generated after install.