A note has been added to the Year 5 and Year 7 abilities of Metamorphmagus to clarify the height change that these users are able to accomplish. Year 3 has always stated that they can adjust by 3cm and in later years they can do a bigger height difference, but the height difference for the later years was not stated before now.

Year 5 - Also, at this age they can now make themselves 15 cm taller or shorter.

Year 7 - At this age, they can now make themselves 30 cm (1 foot) taller or shorter.

The effects that abilities have in Broom Racing have been clarified and edited. Every single ability that has an effect in Broom Racing has now been added into the rules.

Here is a list of the abilities that had notable changes:

Broken Broomshaft:
OLD: Critical hits made by racers with this ability with their spells or attacks have a 25% chance to also break a rider's broom.
NEW: Successful hits on improvised projectiles and critical hits on [Attack] spells made by racers with this ability have a 25% chance to also break a rider's broom.

Catch:
OLD: Becomes a free action to catch another user (as long as it is stated to do so). The downside? The catcher would end their turn in the unit they caught their ally in. They must be within 3 units of their ally to use this ability. The catcher determines if they simply lower the ally to the ground (free action) and they can retrieve their broom or they ride on two-headed dragon style
NEW: If a player with this ability has the action save they can catch two allies rather than one. If on a round following the catch of two players, all three users declare their action to be return to broom, both passengers get returned to their broom rather than one. The player with this ability must be within 3 units of their ally to use this ability.

Healing Sage:
OLD: Reparifors can be cast on self even if already effected by the Full Body-Bind Curse or Immobulus.
Ferula Once cast, this prevents the bleed effect on the subject from future bleed the duration of the race. Bleed can be the result of Thorns, Sagitta and Fumus Lamina.
Minor Healing Charm buff to the healing done
NEW: +30% healing done with potions and spells by this user. When a player with this ability casts Ferula, the subject of the spell (whether self or ally) has bleed immunity for the duration of the race.

Keen Eye:
NEW: Players with this ability have a 50% chance of immediately finding the exit of a maze and escaping the obstacle. This can be used to bypass the wisdom check.

Sixth Sense:
OLD: Can be used to counter the cheating system, the cheating DC for opponents is raised by 2, this effect does not stack. The 25% chance to auto-detect only applies to stealth users. However in Fumos and Nebulus there is a 25% chance that they see an action being performed. There would be a normal roll for detecting a cheat attempt.
NEW: Immune to charmer ability. The cheating DC for opponents is raised +2. This cannot stack.

Spell Spread:
OLD: The second target must be within 1 unit of the first.
NEW: Can cast the same spell on two opponents if the second target is within 1 unit of the first. Accuracy is decreased by -2, wisdom DC is increased by +2, and the critical failure range is increased by +1.

The Martial Artist:
NEW: The four martial artist moves are able to be used in broom racing, however, they are all considered illegal moves. The cheating wisdom DC is decreased by -2 for these actions.

While these are the few notable changes, all of the abilities that affect Broom Racing have been amended to add clarity and make an easier user and moderator experience. To view the clarifications in full, look here.

The effects that abilities have in Quidditch have been clarified and edited. Every single ability that has an effect in Quidditch has now been added into the rules.

Here is a list of the abilities that had notable changes:

Broken Broomshaft:
OLD: Broken Broomshaft is an ability intended for Quidditch Games.
NEW: Bludger attacks that knock a player off a broom (KOB) made by players with this ability have a 25% chance to also break said player's broom. Bludgering, bludger backbeats, and richochets apply.

Catch:
OLD: Catch is an ability that is intended for Quidditch Games and has additional interplay with brooms that can be used to catch additional targets.
NEW: If a player with this ability takes the action save they can catch two allies rather than one. If on a round following the catch of two players, all three users declare their action to be return to broom, both passengers get returned to their broom rather than one.

Calming Presence:
OLD: Calming Presence effects allies (user must define at the start of the match, otherwise it would be automatically considered to be the opposite Quidditch Team) accuracy.
NEW: Allies gain a 10% chance to auto-succeed on all actions needing an accuracy roll. This applies for quaffle scores, blatches, bludgers, and does not stack. This does not cancel out terrible presence, each ability is rolled for separately.

Paragon of Health:
NEW: Two allies of players with this ability (which must be defined at the start of the thread/upon entry) gain +10% temporary health points calculated from their stamina. This cannot stack or be healed. If a benched player has this ability, it does not take effect until the player is on the field.

Terrible Presence:
OLD: Terrible Presence would effect both allies and opponents. Interplay exists with Perfectionist, Seer's Fifth Year Skill Indiscriminate Knowledge and the ability Fearless.
NEW: All players from both teams receive a 10% auto-miss for scoring, bludgers, and blatching. Bludger damage is reduced by 10%. This is countered with the ability fearless, does not stack, and does not cancel out with calming presence.

The Martial Artist:
OLD: A Martial Artist's punch, kick and choke hold can occur during a game but would be considered a foul and get the user detention as well.
NEW: The four martial artist moves are able to be used in quidditch, however, they are all considered fouls. The round after taking one of these actions, the player will take a penalty lap, this can be prevented with the ability foulplay.

While these are the few notable changes, all of the abilities that affect Quidditch have been amended to add clarity on the Quidditch rules page. This makes it clearer what abilities can help during a Quidditch match and creates an easier moderator experience. To view the clarifications in full, look here.

The following details have been clarified in the iNPC rules:

• iNPCs cannot take Restricted abilities, for the same reason that they cannot take Prodigal abilities. They share spells with the PC.
• iNPCs cannot have corporeal patroni unless they have the Corporeal Patronus Messenger ability. This is as we do not have a patronus system that can link to a profile for iNPCs, and this ruling is the same as with Wandmaker and wand descriptions for iNPCs.

There are some changes in our system, some small and some bigger that we would like to share with you. If you have any questions please feel free to reach out and we will answer your questions. You can always ask questions in our FAQ thread [LINK] and an available captain will be there to answer you.

Match Ups / Pairings

We will no longer take into account stat points given through the means of abilities such as Statistically Relevant in our match making process. We have found that it would be unfair to punish those students picking such an ability by making them duel against more threatening duellists as it would nullify their ability slot.

Reduced Round Limits

We have decided to reduce our round limit to 10 rounds.

Getting Up Action

The Getting Up action after a critically successful Flipendo will now receive half of the dodge bonus as a passive, similar to the Search for Wand action which has already been using that mechanic.

Extension

As you know we don't usually offer extensions, the only reason for extension so far was if we forgot to tag the duellists. We have decided to get rid of this rule, it is the duellist's responsibility to keep track of their own duel and its deadlines.

List of Spells

We have decided to add the spell tag [Quick] in our list of spells for spells that apply in the same round. This means that our [Counter] spell tag will now only function for spells that counter other spells or protect you from spells such as the Shielding charm.

Otherwise we have made some small changes for clarity, consistency and gotten rid of typos.

• The Standardised Trunk Form is now located within the Index Registration thread itself, together with the rest of the information
• Tutorial threads are now pinned in FAQ and duplicated in Rules for ease of reference
• Abilities and Stat informational threads are now located in Characters. This puts them in the same subforum as the applications for index and re-index, so that players can more easily reference them when applying under these processes
• Stats for Animagus (i.e. "the how to build") are now also located in the RP thread together with the application itself
• A number of threads have been combined (For example, the advice from Winnie Harper and tips from Marius Brown as to BBCode can now be found in the pinned tutorial, requests for changes to your profile and to your name are now in one thread, first instance of magic and character creation resources can now be found in the Character Creation Assistance announcement.)

The following abilities have been edited, the edits here are in red.

Patronus ability - removed the fact that you need the messenger ability to get a corporeal patronus, included that you need to apply for a corporeal patronus in this thread: viewtopic.php?t=16853

Reducio

16.)

Corporeal Patronus Messenger

The Patronus is ‘a kind of Anti-Dementor – a guardian which acts as a shield between you and the Dementor.’ It’s also ‘a kind of positive force, a projection of the very things that the Dementor feeds upon – hope, happiness, the desire to survive – but it cannot feel despair, as real humans can, so the Dementors can’t hurt it.’

The Patronus has two forms, non-corporeal and corporeal. A non-corporeal Patronus can appear as ‘a thin wisp of silver’ that hovers ‘like mist’. Whereas a corporeal Patronus has a form that is clearly defined and is more than vapor or smoke. The spell that serves as the prerequisite produces a non-corporeal Patronus whereas this ability allows a Patronus to be physically manifest.

Prerequisite: Must know the spell Expecto Patronum. Must have the Patronus charm in your trunk. Must have applied for a corporeal patronus in this thread: viewtopic.php?t=16853

Effect: Ability to use your patronus as a messenger. This does more than bring forth your patronus, you can send your patronus from the topic that you are in to another location. Your patronus can bring others to your location. Takes three rounds for them to find your general location. While the patronus can move through areas of difficult terrain or even locked doors, those following the patronus cannot.

Restricted Section spells/potions - clarified the RP approval process, which is that a professor will approve your applications before they can be added to your trunk

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43.)

Restricted Charms Section

Due to your academic successes and efforts, you have been admitted among the academic elite in your school. You have decided to pursue forbidden lore in the library, thanks to your access and your skill you now have access to some additional spells.

Restriction: Must have an OWL in Charms (6th Year or above)

Effect: Must post 400 words in the Restricted Section of the Library. Able to learn up to 5 restricted charms.

How this works? In the restricted section of the library you will find a list of charms that you can learn. These charms are not taught as a part of the Hogwarts curriculum. You can pick any charm from this list as long as you meet any prerequisites listed. Then you simply write a 400 word post in the Restricted Section where you practice this spell. You can claim you already practiced this at home and are demonstrating it there at a later date, but you must do the RP there for the sake of consistency and papertrails. Provide a word count total at the end of your roleplay (this does not include the directions necessary to perform the spell that must be described), wait for the Charms professor to approve your roleplay, and then contact the index team to have these charms added to your trunk like you would any spell.

Note: This has to be done for each of the charms learned.

How this works for NPCs: This does not work for NPCs. Your iNPC has the same spells your player character has.

44.)

Restricted Defense Against the Dark Arts Section

Due to your academic successes and efforts, you have been admitted among the academic elite in your school. You have decided to pursue forbidden lore in the library, thanks to your access and your skill you now have access to some additional spells.

Restriction: Must have an OWL in Defense Against the Dark Arts (6th Year or above)

Effect: Must post 400 words in the Restricted Section of the Library. Able to learn up to 5 restricted DADA spells.

How this works? In the restricted section of the library you will find a list of DADA spells that you can learn. These DADA spells are not taught as a part of the Hogwarts curriculum. You can pick any DADA spell from this list as long as you meet any prerequisites listed. Then you simply write a 400 word post in the Restricted Section where you practice this spell. You can claim you already practiced this at home and are demonstrating it there at a later date, but you must do the RP there for the sake of consistency and papertrails. Provide a word count total at the end of your roleplay (this does not include the directions necessary to perform the spell that must be described), wait for the DADA professor to approve your roleplay, and then contact the index team to have these spells added to your trunk like you would any spell.

Note: This has to be done for each of the DADA spells learned. If you are a Parselmouth with this ability, you may learn all of the spells this way rather than only 5.

How this works for NPCs: This does not work for NPCs. Your iNPC has the same spells your player character has.

45.)

Restricted Potions Section

Due to your academic successes and efforts, you have been admitted among the academic elite in your school. You have decided to pursue forbidden lore in the library, thanks to your access and your skill you now have access to some additional potions.

Prerequisite: Must have an OWL in Potions (6th Year or above)

Effect: Must post 400 words in the Restricted Section of the Library. Able to learn up to 5 restricted potions.

How this works? In the restricted section of the library you will find a list of potions that you can learn. These potions are not taught as a part of the Hogwarts curriculum. You can pick any potion from this list as long as you meet any prerequisites listed. Then you simply write a 400 word post in the Restricted Section where you brew this potion. You can claim you already practiced this at home and are demonstrating it there at a later date, but you must do the RP there for the sake of consistency and papertrails. Provide a word count total at the end of your roleplay (this does not include the recipe), wait for the Potions professor to approve your roleplay, and then contact the index team to have these potions added to your trunk like you would any spell potion.

Note: This has to be done for each of the potions learned.

How this works for NPCs: This does not work for NPCs. Your iNPC has the same spells your player character has.

46.)

Restricted Transfiguration Section

Due to your academic successes and efforts, you have been admitted among the academic elite in your school. You have decided to pursue forbidden lore in the library, thanks to your access and your skill you now have access to some additional spells.

Restriction: Must have an OWL in Transfiguration (6th Year or above)

Effect: Must post 400 words in the Restricted Section of the Library. Able to learn up to 5 restricted transfiguration spells.

How this works? In the restricted section of the library you will find a list of spells that you can learn. These transfiguration spells are not taught as a part of the Hogwarts curriculum. You can pick any transfiguration spell from this list as long as you meet any prerequisites listed. Then you simply write a 400 word post in the Restricted Section where you practice this spell. You can claim you already practiced this at home and are demonstrating it there at a later date, but you must do the RP there for the sake of consistency and papertrails. Provide a word count total at the end of your roleplay (this does not include the directions necessary to perform the spell that must be described), wait for the Transfiguration professor to approve your roleplay, and then contact the index team to have these spells added to your trunk like you would any spell.

Note: This has to be done for each of the transfiguration spells learned. If you are a metamorphmagi with this ability, you may learn all of the spells this way rather than only 5.

How this works for NPCs: This does not work for NPCs. Your iNPC has the same spells your player character has.