Coming Soon: Announcement Thread (2023)

[Rhifox]

Hello BGTSCC players,

In the next patch there will be a few adjustments to our death and religion systems, to better support the divine lore of the setting, and better differentiate KO'ed characters versus dead characters.

First off, divine spellcasters will now be able to select heresies and dead gods as patrons. By default, divine spellcasters with these patrons do not receive spells. However, the character can take the Heretic of the Faith or Servant of the Fallen feats in order to gain spellcasting. These feats, like True Believer, also grant a +2 to Lore: Religion.

Secondly, Stabilize and Bloodstaunch now only work up to 5 minutes after death. Revivify and Recall Spirit now only work up to 10 minutes after death. After this time, players must use Raise Dead, Resurrection, or an NPC priest in order to raise the character. Raise Dead now costs 5 diamonds to cast, and Resurrection now costs 10 diamonds or 1 canary diamond. Diamonds can now drop throughout the leveling experience. NPC priests now cost 6000 gp to raise a deceased character. NPC priest cost may eventually be adjusted, due to this value artificially limiting the player market cost of diamonds. Self-rezzing at the Fugue continues to work as normal.

Player characters at level 21 or above now have a maximum bleedout threshold of Constitution score x2. In addition, mobs now have a chance of changing targets after downing a player. This only occurs if they have other targets in the area. Most newbie zone mobs will not attack downed players at all. All dying characters now have a 10% chance per tick to stabilize and begin healing, rather than a Fortitude save.

The No Deity patron has been divided into two separate patrons: No Patron and Faithless. The default choice is No Patron, and any character that currently has No Deity will now have No Patron. No Patron simply reflects a character having not yet chosen a patron, but still respecting and worshiping the gods. The Faithless patron reflects the active choice of rejecting the gods entirely.

Characters who serve a heresy, dead god, archdevil, demon prince, or who are Faithless can no longer self-rez by default, and they cannot be resurrected with the Raise Dead or Resurrection spells by default. They can still be brought back with Stabilize, Bloodstaunch, Revivify, or Recall Spirit, up to the maximum of 5 minutes (Stabilize/Bloodstaunch) or 10 minutes (Revivify/Recall Spirit) after death. Heretics with the Heretic of the Fallen Feat, dead god worshipers with the Servant of the Fallen Feat, archdevil worshipers with the Disciple of Darkness feat, and demon prince worshipers with the Thrall to Demon feat can self-rez and be resurrected normally. Faithless characters can never self-rez or be raised if dead longer than 10 minutes. This only affects heretics/dead god worshipers/archfiend worshipers/Faithless characters, characters who follow all other gods continue to play normally aside from the new time limits on different abilities detailed above.

The Wish and Miracle spells have been added. These spells have no mechanical effects. They are DM-only spells and each use involves a DM request and quest arc to develop and acquire the proper materials for the desired effect. Wish and Miracle can be used to bring back heretics/dead god worshipers/archfiend worshipers/Faithless characters who have died after the 10 minute maximum, with DM support. Wish/Miracle cannot be used to bring back Permadeath System characters at this time, as that is an OOC system rather than an IC one (and better reflects characters whose souls refuse to come back).

The Restoration line of spells now takes several rounds to cast. 3 rounds for Lesser and Normal Restoration, 6 rounds for Greater Restoration.

Casting a multicast spell from an item no longer bypasses the multiround cast. Sorry, hellfire warlocks and users of sending amulets. This will still only expend one use/charge of the item.

[Planehopper]

There is still a bit of work ahead, and icons to create, but a falconry system is coming along and I wanted to share it with you as it is working thus far:

• Purchasing the falcon - I will ensure that vendors are set up in Baldur's Gate and Soubar to start.
• The falcon will be exactly identical to the current hawk pet (the model is a sort of generic bird of prey - a sort of peregrine, sharp shinned, coopers hawk mash up), with the added functionality of hunting.
• The falcon can be named, and will use that name when using it as a pet (as you can currently) as well as while it is hunting.
• Areas suitable for hunting will be discoverable through exploration. Skill checks for the Profession:Hunting skill will offer information. There may be NPCs that can point you toward one or two well-known areas as well.
• When in a suitable area the falcon can be released and fly off - it may come back with nothing, it may come back with its quarry (there are 8 potential prey animals at this time), or it may not come back at all. Success will be impacted by a number of things - among them skill(s), falcon level, and weather conditions.
• XP will be awarded, dependent upon prey. At this time the same XP cap for fishing will be shared with hunting.
• The falcon will 'level up' with successful hunts. The level will persist, and will aid in the chance of success with that specific bird (and only that bird). Feedback messages after each successful hunt will share its current level as well as a percentage of progress toward the next level.
• As with all new systems, I will be looking for feedback. Is it too fast, is it too slow? How well does the leveling system work? When its live I would appreciate some testing to make sure the kinks are worked out.

Associated with this I will be adding a "camp knife" tool (name TBD). This tool will be used to process the prey items from this system into meat and other byproducts. The meat can be sold, or cooked, as other meat currently in game. The byproducts can be sold (for now), and perhaps will be useful for something else down the road..

This knife will also be able to process/clean fish - with cleaned fish able to be cooked in the fire as other meat items are now (which I would like to expand upon, another time).

This was a requested system. I am hopeful it will fit some niches of RP, allow for some friendly competition on training up the best falcon, etc.

This is also a work in progress. While most of this has been tested and found to be working, there are pieces yet that are still in progress, so it won't be immediate. A big thanks to Endelyon and Rhifox for helping me along as I blundered through my first system via script!

[DaloLorn]

This change has been brought up many times, both in and outside staff channels, and after extensive deliberation, BG will be abolishing its historical 3b20 multiclassing restriction in an incoming patch. In its place, we are introducing a 3b30 (3+ levels in each class at level 30) restriction. All PCs will be required to maintain 3b30 eligibility at all times, and will be barred from exiting the Nexus until they become eligible again.

Previous Rule (for reference)

You must have at least 3 levels in all your classes at level 20. Level 20+ characters with fewer than 3 levels in one or more of their classes are barred from leaving the Nexus.

New Rule

You must have at least 3 levels in all your classes at level 30. Characters incapable of meeting this requirement are preemptively barred from leaving the Nexus. This is done by summing up your level in each class (or 3, whichever is greater) and checking if the total is greater than 30. Consequently, we are also able to predict 3b30 violations before your character reaches level 30.

For instance, a level 30 character with 28 levels in one class and 2 levels in another class will have a required level total of 28 + 3 = 31, and be illegal. Meanwhile, 27 levels in the first class would result in a legal total of 27 + 3 = 30. In an extreme case, a character with 21 levels in one class and 1 level in three other classes would have a total of 21 + 3 + 3 + 3 = 30, and would remain legal so long as they made sure to take 2 more levels in each of their secondary classes.

What do I do if I violate 3b30?

You will always be made aware of having broken the rule immediately on taking an illegal level. At that point, the simplest choice will probably be to use the XP removal NPC in the Nexus to delevel to your previous level, so as not to deal with the hassle and massive XP loss of a full RCR.

You will also be warned on login/levelup if your next level puts you at risk of violating 3b30. (That is to say, if your required level total is 30 but you are not yet at level 30.) We recommend that you take particular care while taking further levels in that state, so as not to accidentally take a level in the wrong class.

[DaloLorn]

As of yesterday's patch, the teleport location system has received an extensive overhaul for reliability and flexibility:

• Virtual runes are now in SQL.
• Added conversion mechanics between virtual and physical runes.
• Added a number of feedback messages to various rune management functions.
• (Not a new change, but listed anyway for visibility!) The contents of physical runes are now wiped when you acquire them from any source.

SQL Runes and their significance

---

Previously, virtual runes were stored as a series of local variables on your scry tool. Due to technical issues we have not yet been able to diagnose, this resulted in them only saving correctly if you hadn't disconnected from the server for any reason since its last reset.

In the current system, they are cached as a series of local variables on your player character, with inter-reset persistence being achieved via the server's SQL database. In addition to fixing the abovementioned persistence issues and ensuring that the runes should always be saved/deleted correctly, this has the added benefit of allowing your runes to persist through an RCR, as they are now bound to your PC's identity in the same way as your storage vault. (And like your storage vault, they can be transferred to a new name, or reclaimed by another of your characters, by asking a DM to rename your character.)

As with the previous system, you can hold 50 virtual runes per character at a time. This may be increased at a later date if it turns out the restriction is unnecessary, but I make no promises. (This limit is enforced by location type: Teleport and plant locations are counted separately.)

Virtual-Physical Interoperability

---

Some mechanics, such as using runes with the Dimension Door spell to extend its range across the entire space of a map (as opposed to a short-range, LoS-restricted teleport), can currently only be used with physical runes. However, as a general rule, we are moving to deprecate the use of physical runes to the fullest extent possible, as they do not accurately represent the IC requirements of being familiar with a teleport destination. (Neither do virtual runes, but they're the best we've got.)

As a compromise between these two stances, until we have managed to fully enable the use of virtual runes in all contexts, two new functions have been added to the Manage Locations feat:

1. When targeted on an empty physical rune, it will pop up a menu asking you to choose which virtual rune to save to it. This will copy the relevant information from your virtual rune cache, as though you had cast Mark Rune on the item while standing in exactly the location stored by the virtual rune.
2. Conversely, when targeted on a marked physical rune, it will prompt you to specify a name for the location held by the item, as if you had cast Mark Rune on the exact location stored on the physical rune. This can only be done if that location is not already held in your virtual rune list.

(Again, all of this is also applicable to leaf holders and the plant-specific variant of Manage Locations.)

Feedback Messages

---

Previously, you received little to no notification when you had done something with one of your runes, whether virtual or physical. Many functions within the new system now come with feedback messages in your combat log, confirming that you have or haven't successfully performed a rune management operation (including marking a new rune).

(Yet again, this is also applicable to plant locations.)

Rune Wiping

---

The DM ruling on Teleportation Runestones, dating back to the 30th of May, 2015, specifies that PCs are only intended to be able to teleport to locations that they are themselves familiar with. It also stated that a mechanical correction was on the way, and such a correction was indeed implemented.

Unknown to the team, that mechanism has never worked. Until recently. (The "Great Rune Purge" that ensued from the first attempted fix was entirely my fault for assuming an "onAcquire" event would only fire when you had, in fact, actually acquired an item. Turns out it also runs on your entire inventory every time you log in. )

The current and intended behavior is that picking up a marked rune, or receiving it in trade, will immediately and irreversibly delete the location stored in that rune, returning it to a blank slate. (It won't affect any virtual rune it may have been bound to, though.) You are also unable to use Manage Locations to convert any physical rune not currently held in your inventory into a virtual rune.

(Need I say it a fourth time? Also applies to plants.)

WARNING: This unmarking mechanic does not currently distinguish between runes acquired from other PCs, containers, etc., and runes retrieved from your storage vault. There is no current ETA on a fix, as its technical details have not yet been determined. Until this issue has been resolved, please do not withdraw marked runes from storage. (You can put them into storage, but you're not getting them back intact before this is fixed.)

[Ashenie]

Hello everyone,

We have been working on expanding the experience of gathering, herbalism, cooking, cosmetics, healing kits and alchemy in minor ways. You should find several tool for this, easily accessible. These minor expansions don't replace a crafting system, on which there are still many discussions and interest. In fact, those systems we expand today might be revisited by a more complete crafting system at some point in the future. Those systems still offer the opportunity to merge items and refine them when possible. It's a first step in adding ressources for a better system.

Surgery Tools
Those tools will help you merge bandages, emergency kits, field medicine kits in order to make Refined Surgery kits. You need to interact with the placeable, often found in infirmaries, or in towns. You need to have enough medicine knowledge to know what to merge. They need to be in your inventory for merging options to display.

Herbalism
With many herbs and mushrooms added to the ecology of our corner of the Sword Coast, we have tried to better the experience of herbalism. You can take them to Herbalist's Bench in order to display the options for merging, or preparing herbs. They just need to be in your inventory. Feel absolutely free to use the book system to share your discoveries with other players. You might find some tools for herbalism (Mortar & Pestle, Herb Pouch) in various shops to help you. Having empty bottles in your inventory can also be proven helpful.

All herbs can be distilled for a minor amount of experience with the distilling tools. Flowers can be distilled into perfume for more experience and possibly something to sell.

Gathering and preparing herbs still uses the same sets of skills as it currently does : Survival for gathering, Craft : Alchemy for preparation. The difficulty challenge happens through a roll, ranging from very low near 0, to very high near 40, for gathering. For preparing, the system is set as a match. You need to match the difficulty challenge (including spells and gear that grant bonuses on Craft : Alchemy). There is for now no rolls. This ranges from low near 0, to high near 30.

In addition, Brew Potion feat is needed for preparing magic brews from herbs and magical herbs. This represent a very small number of brews. Some spells can be needed too, such as cure wounds or neutralize poison, for those magical brews. These represent enchantments on herbs. They might be revisited later, as this whole system might be. Magical brews are just a few preparations in the system. An herbalist without brew potion and spells will still be able to prepare the major part of the brews in the system.

Mortar & Pestle can be used to prepare herbs in a very few numbers (those that can be prepared only though mashing) away from an herbalist bench.

Cooking
Cooking involves several small systems, allowing you to effectively cook fish and meat with cookwares. You can also find butter churn to make your own butter once you collected enough milk, and interact with mills to make flour from harvested wheat. Cooking comes with a minor option to earn experience, when cooking recipes. Having some cooked items in your inventory can help you reproduce those recipes.

In addition, some farmers will ask for help in harvesting their fields. You can turn the harvested good back to them for an experience gain.

Cooking primarily uses "Craft : Food Preparation" as it is an addition to the current system.

Collecting farm products (Milk, Honey, wheat...) uses the skill Profession : Agriculture.

Feel free to explore these systems, offer feedback and suggestions, and report errors if you find some. Our work is not always perfect, but we try to perfect it when we can.

On a last note, if player houses or guilds already possess an alchemist bench, we can turn it into an herbalist bench. Note that, however, this would mean that for further proper alchemy development, you will have to fund another bench.
Places with kitchen can be offered cookwares and butter churn upon request.
We will not by default change guilds and player houses, and those are yours to request so we don't assume what you want or need, but act accordingly to your wish.

I hope this will be enjoyable,

Cheers,

Ashenie

[Ashenie]

Hello there,

I made a small update to the initial post to give more clarity on what is mechanically required to explore the systems. We might add more information in the future. Those currently added felt needed to better understand which mechanics the system was using and is using now.

For those who explored the system already, the need of brew potion feat was reduced to magical brews and enchanting only, which is a very minor part of herbalism. The difficulty challenge remains untouched even with this removal.

I hope this helps,

Cheers,

Ashenie

[Rhifox]

Hello,

As has been accidentally revealed for awhile now, Master of Disguises is getting reworked into Master Spy, a combination of the pnp Zhentarim Spy and Spymaster classes. This change is being done due to the fact that Master of Disguises was very buggy, with many abilities that didn't even work, and certainly had almost zero usability in BGTSCC gameplay.

The new Master Spy is a class that is focused around enhancing a character's Bluff skill (along with Disguise and Gather Information), and thus will benefit in particular Feint builds.

Master Spy

Master spies rarely work with others unless they are under cover. The special skills that serve them so well in the field ironically make them exceptional leaders, but a master spy's natural inclination toward secrecy pushes her away from the limelight. Note that a master spy among adventurers may not intend to betray them; armed heroes provide excellent cover for a master spy's true mission, whether or not they know the spy's intent. They are skilled at infiltration, stealing, and assassination, and thus often must go undercover to avoid their identity being revealed. The spy can contribute utility, scouting, and/or fighting prowess to a party. They are extremely versatile, and trained to expect the unexpected.

Class Requirements:

- BAB: +5

- Skills: Bluff 5, Disguise 5, Linguistics 5, Gather Information 5.

- Feats: Deceitful.

Class Features:

- Hit Die: d6

- Base Attack Bonus: Medium.

- High Saves: Reflex, Will.

- Weapon Proficiencies: Master Spies are proficient with simple weapons.

- Armor Proficiencies: Masters Spies are proficient with light and medium armor.

- Skill Points: 6 + Int modifier.

- Class Skills: Acrobatics, Appraise, Athletics, Bluff, Diplomacy, Disable Device, Disguise, Escape Artist, Gather Information, Hide, Intimidate, Linguistics, Listen, Lore: Local, Move Silently, Open Lock, Search, Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand, Spot, Use Magic Device.

- Cover Identity (Ex): A Master Spy is rigorously trained to establish nearly flawless cover identities. While disguised, she gains a +2 circumstance bonus on Disguise checks and a +1 bonus to Bluff, Disguise, and Gather Information checks for every 5 ranks that the Master Spy possesses in a Craft or Profession skill as she becomes more skilled at living out the life of her assumed identity. At the DM's discretion, these bonuses may be reduced or eliminated in regions where the cover identity would seem out of place (bakers from Shadowdale, for example, would attract suspicion in the ruins of Myth Drannor).

The cover identity ability does not provide any additional skills that might be necessary to make a cover identity believable, such as knowledge of the proper homeland, the ability to speak a foreign language, spellcasting ability, or the like. Thus, Master Spies generally pick cover identities that complement their existing skills.

- Disguise Self (Sp): At 2nd level the Master Spy learns to cast the spell disguise self once per day. The caster decides what to disguise and may at any time remove the disguise. Unlike regular disguises, the disguise self spell creates an illusion which can be detected and dispelled. The detection DC for the spell is the Master Spy's hit dice + 10.

- Sneak Attack (Ex): This ability functions like the rogue ability of the same name. The extra damage dealt increases by 1d6 points at 2nd level, and by another 1d6 points at 4th level. If a Master Spy gets a sneak attack bonus from another source (such as rogue levels), the bonuses on damage stack. Furthermore, Master Spy levels stack with any other appropriate class levels (such as rogue or assassin) for the purpose of overcoming improved uncanny dodge.

- Undetectable Alignment (Ex): At 2nd level, the web of different identities and agendas inside a master spy's mind makes it impossible for others to detect her alignment by means of any form of divination. This ability functions like an undetectable alignment spell except that it is always active.

- Unlikely Cover (Ex): At 3rd level, the DC for Spot checks made to penetrate the Master Spy's disguise increases by 4.

- Use Poison (Ex): At 3rd level, a Master Spy receives training in the use of poison and never risks accidentally poisoning herself when applying poison to a blade.

- Slippery Mind (Ex): A character with this feature can wriggle free from magical effects that would otherwise control or compel her. If the character is affected by an enchantment and fails her saving throw, she can attempt her saving throw again. She only gets this one extra chance to succeed at her saving throw. If it fails as well, the spell's effects occur normally.

- Deep Cover (Ex): At 5th level, the Master Spy gains an additional +2 circumstance bonus to her Bluff, Disguise, and Gather Information checks while disguised. Furthermore, when the Master Spy is disguised within one of her cover identities, her mind is so thoroughly trained and conditioned to think like the person she pretends to be that any magical scrying or mind reading at a power level short of deific reveals nothing about her true nature. Only the thoughts, alignment, and emotions of the fictitious persona can be detected. While disguised, all scrying attempts made on the Master Spy automatically fail. She additionally gains the benefits of an unbreakable non-detection spell while disguised.

The prerequisite Deceitful feat provides a +2 bonus to both Linguistics and Disguise.

[Ashenie]

Hello there,

After long work and testing, and thanks to Dalo Lorn's implementation, we are able to add specialty bags (under the form of herb bag today) in the server.


There are 3 different herb bags :

• Herb Satchel (40 herbs maximum) - 4 lbs
• Small Herb Bag (150 herbs maximum) - 12 lbs
• Large Herb Bag (250 herbs maximum) - 20 lbs
  
  
  Note that those are individual herbs, not stack. A stack of 10 is always 10 herbs.
  Note that the weight is flat. We have no easy technical mean to make it increase and decrease.
  You can have as many herb bags as you can carry.

You can find them accordingly in herb shops :

• Sorcerous Sundries, Sshamath Elixir, Winding Water shops : All 3 bags unlimited
• Soubar : Herb Satchel, Small Herb Bag - unlimited
• Uruk Lurra : Herb Satchel unlimited, Small Herb Bag x1 per restart
• Temple of Ilmater : 5 Herb Satchels per restart
  
  
  All areas are not equal, but the idea is also to reflect the mercantile capacity while having everything remaining relatively accessible. It's obvious that the Temple of Ilmater, while versed in herb preparation as described in lore, has little mercantile capacity compared to Sshamath or Winding Water herb shop.

Herb bags comes with 4 possibilities. They are instructed in the description :

Select Bag Use this to prioritize bag content when crafting. Use a second time to deselect.

Deposit Specific Item Use this in an eligible stack of herb in your inventory to desposit in the bag.

Deposit Loose items Use this on yourself or a container to deposit all eligible herbs within the bag capacity.

Retrieve items Use this on yourself or a container to retrieve all herbs within the bag.


We are very hopeful that they might improve the experience in game and ease the burden that herbs had become for inventories. Any feedback, questions, or need of clarification are welcome. I am not always clear and there is never nothing wrong in asking or suggesting.

A warm thanks to Dalo Lorn who kept correcting everything, issue after issue, and who beared my lack of skill and knowledge, and took always time to explain everything with simple words.
A warm thanks to all developers and everyone who contributed, gave ideas, and feedback.
A warm thanks to all players to contributed to suggestions.

Cheers,

Ashenie

[DaloLorn]

For a long time, packhorses have paid for their mobility and usefulness with volatility (modified saddlebags could be wiped entirely on a server crash) and an inability to correctly cross server boundaries. They've also been difficult for staff to interfere with in the event that rollbacks or repairs to the saddlebag data were needed, with very few people having a complete notion of how to work with them.

Not anymore.

This weekend's update will release a new SQL saddlebag, modeled after the bank storage system. (In fact, it reuses like 99% of the storage scripts/GUI, and the same database table.) At the same time, deposits to the old saddlebag system will become impossible, though the bags will be available for item withdrawal indefinitely due to our current inability to automatically migrate their contents out of the system.

FAQ
The storage UI sucks! Why couldn't we have just fixed the old system?
A combination of ignorance and technical issues. I don't fully understand how the old system works, so retrofitting it to use SQL is a big ask. Worse, this would not have any effect on the possibility of losing your entire saddlebag in a server crash. Consequently, this was both the biggest and the easiest upgrade possible at the moment.

(I'm open to suggestions on how to improve storage QoL, though!)

I used to use the saddlebag as an improvised storefront. Don't I lose that ability now?
Nope. One of the biggest changes I made to the storage code was to allow other PCs preview-only access to a horse's storage. (One of the other big changes was to make horses always read their owner's vault instead of whoever was accessing them.)

This has been tested already on the live server - one member of QC would pull out a horse and put a few items into their SQL saddlebag. Another QCer would then try to access the saddlebag: The deposit and withdraw buttons were removed, leaving only the preview button.

Can we preview saddlebag items wherever we go?
... Unfortunately not. I've got some theoretical solutions that would let stored items be previewed on any map without risking item-duping exploits, but for the time being, only maps with a storage preview box will support saddlebag preview. Sorry.

(For instance, Soubar or FAI is fine, but Boareskyr Bridge will only show names and let you withdraw items without previewing. As a rule, maps not containing a regular storage NPC should not be expected to have a preview box.)

What's the storage capacity?
Shared with the storage vault, at a combined total of I think 1000 items? A considerable increase for anyone who isn't currently in danger of maxing out their storage vault, considering the old bags could, IIRC, only hold 100 items.

Won't both systems get cluttered up by each other?
The saddlebag only shows saddlebag items, so it won't experience any clutter from the regular vault. That said, the inverse is currently not the case, but this may change at a later date. There's ups and downs to both approaches, so I went with the path of lesser resistance by default.

When will we lose access to our old saddlebags?
Although we advise migrating at your earliest convenience, there is currently no timetable for the full removal of the old saddlebag system. Too many items could be irretrievably lost if we removed the bags too soon, and there's no telling how long it might be before we can safely say there's nothing left in the system.

Someday, surely... but not in the foreseeable future.

What other differences exist between the two systems?
The new saddlebags don't have any weight. They've got the same contents on both servers, they're basically incapable of losing items... (The same failure modes necessarily apply as for the storage vault, and I can't really imagine how you'd lose a vault item in the first place unless the whole database started falling apart...)

There might have been one or two more, but I can't remember right now.

[Rhifox]

Just noting this separately of the patch notes so that people are aware:


Armor Optmization was changed from a passive to an active ability. You must drag the feat to your hotbar, unequip your armor, and then activate the feat on the armor to optimize it. Once optimized, the armor is permanently optimized until you choose to unoptimize it (using the same feat). An optimized armor cannot be traded. You can have as many optimized armors as you like.

This may be changed back to passive at a future point, but due to issues with the previous implementation it was set to an active ability in the short term.


Staff Attunement, meanwhile, is now automatic. The attunement feat has been removed and equipping any previously attuned staff will automatically set it to CL 8 and remove the attunement properties. The spellhook now correctly identifies whether or not you are using a staff (quarterstaves, short staves, and certain DM-modified items) and uses your full caster level and DC for them if it is higher than the staff's CL.