Update 0.6a - The Arcanum Obscura Update - is Now Live!

Key changes:

• Magic and spells have been revised and expanded (see below)

• The HUD has been revised and expanded (see below)

• All playable characters and NPCs have updated portraits (and their in-game appearance has been updated to match)

• The Barbarian and the Rogue have been removed from the game - they will return as part of the Mighty Weapons and Dual Wielding content updates after the Early Access launch (respectively)

Magic changes

• Pyromancy has been revised and contains 6 spells: Firebolt, Fireball, Ignition, Bonfire, Fireforge, and Mantle of Fire

• Cryomancy has been revised and contains 6 spells: Snap Freeze, Winterchill, Iceshatter Mine, Blizzard, Frozen Needles, and Mantle of Frost

• Tempestry has been revised and contains 6 spells: Step of the Wind, Static Spark, Lightning Bolt, Wind Blast, Sparkdash, and Thunderstorm

• Divination has been revised and contains 6 spells: Starlight, Starsight, Cartography, Intuition, Clarity, and Astral Projection

• Iasotrophy has been revised and contains 6 spells: Heal, Regeneration, Bolster, Inoculate, Blightbolt, and Toxic Mist

• Most spells can now be "charged up" to cause a "better" version of the effect with different properties

• Charging up spells causes your character to chant, which is audible to nearby enemies

• If your spell is disrupted before it is properly unleashed, it is "disrupted" and appropriate effects indicate that you lost the charge

• Spells that create an effect at a target spot can be more precisely placed with a mouse

• More effects now have magical auras that can be percieved

• Magical auras now (once revealed) can display text that explains what a given effect or aura "does"

• Spell Tomes are now held items that passively increase your knowledge of a selected spell while equipped held

• There is no longer a way to spend Vitae to permanently learn a spell; this feature will return in an upcoming update that will revise character progression

• There are now additional popup tutorials explaining the above during gameplay

• "Heroism" invocations - Battlecry, Flicker Dodge, etc - have been removed from the game and will be reworked in a later update.

HUD changes

• The look and feel of the on-character menu + HUD has been entirely redone

• Your player character's portrait now appears in the HUD "root menu"

• There is a new on-character submenu - "Invocations" - that explains the effects of all invocations a player currently has access to (including those castable from items)

• There is a new on-character submenu - "Active Effects" - that shows a description of any active status effects/debuffs on your character

• Buffs/sustained effects are now dispelled via the "Active Effects" menu

• Status bars/icons now appear above the player during active gameplay

• The HUD is now colorized with your player color

• You can now change your player color during character select

Other Changes:

• Invocation order and focused carried item/invocation now properly persists between levels

• Bleed is now more dangerous

• Bloodfly clouds now apply bleed at a much faster rate

• Shock now damages entities that have negative lightning defense (such as from metal armor)

• The gates of the cages in the Prologue can no longer accidentally trap the player

• The shortcut in the Prologue can no be opened from the other side of the wall

• Knight Lossaire no longers cares about allies outside the boss arena

• Map generation should be more tolerant of rare errors

This is actually a giant update that brings the core game much closer to the "final" state for Early Access! Go give it a try!