11 replies to this topic

[Andyr]

The first component of the mod is NiGHTMARE's Monk Remix, designed to bring Monks closer to their 3E pen-and-paper counterparts. Like the others it is an optional component. Installing it gives the Monk the following abilities:

Quote

MONK: Monks are warriors who pursue perfection through action as well as contemplation. The key feature of the monk is his ability to fight unarmed and unarmored. Thanks to his rigorous training, he can strike as hard as if he were armed and strike faster than a warrior with a sword.

Though a monk casts no spells, he has a magic of his own. He channels a subtle energy, called ki, which allows him to perform amazing feats, the best known of which is the ability to stun an opponent with an unarmed blow. As a monk gains experience and power, his mundane and ki-oriented abilities grow, giving him more and more power over himself and, sometimes, over others.

Monks may be of any Lawful alignment.

Advantages:
- Gains a +2 bonus to maximum unarmed damage at 1st, 4th, 8th and 12th levels, and a +4 bonus at 16th, 20th and 24th levels.
- Gains a +1 bonus to minimum unarmed damage at 12th and 24 levels.
- Gains 1/2 an extra unarmed attack per round every 3 levels (starts at 3rd level, ends at 18th level with a total of 4 unarmed attacks per round).
- Fists are considered magical weapons at 4th level, +1 at 10th, +2 at 16th, +3 at 22nd, +4 at 28th, +5 at 34th, and +6 at 40th.

- Gains a +1 bonus to all saving throws at 2nd and 9th levels.
- Gains a +2 bonus to saving throws vs. spells at 3rd level.
- Gains a +1 bonus to Armor Class every 5 levels (starts at 5th level).
- Gains a +1 bonus to Armor Class vs. missiles every 3 levels (starts at 2nd level).
- Gains a +1 bonus to movement rate every 3 levels (starts at 3rd level).
- Gains immunity to disease at 5th level.
- Gains immunity to poison at 11th level.
- Gains magic resistance equal to current level + 10 at 13th level.
- Gains immunity to charm at 20th level.
- Gains immunity to non-magical weapons at 20th level.

- May use 'Flurry of Blows' ability at will. The monk gains 1 additional attack per round for the next turn, but also suffers -4 THAC0 penalty. This penalty is reduced to -3 at 5th level, -2 at 9th level, and -1 and 13th level.
- May use 'Stunning Fist' ability once per day per level. All attacks made by the monk in the next round force the victim to save or be stunned. NOTE: this special ability automatically modifies a Monk's normal attack, so no targeting needs to be done.
- May use 'Wholeness of Body' ability once per day at 7th level. The monk heals a number of his own hit points equal to twice his current level.
- May use 'Quivering Palm' ability once per day at 15th level. The monk's next succesful melee attack sets up vibrations in the target's body, causing it to save vs. death or die. NOTE: this special ability automatically modifies a Monk's normal attack, so no targeting needs to be done.
- May use 'Empty Body' ability once per day per level at 19th level. The monk assumes an ethereal state for 1 round, becoming invisible and immune to all damage, but also unable to launch any attack.

- Can Hide In Shadows and Move Silently.
- Can Find Traps.
- Can read clerical scrolls.

Disadvantages:
- Cannot wear any armor.
- Cannot make use of shields.
- Can only use one-handed weapons available to the thief class.
- Cannot dual-wield.
- May only be proficient with his permitted weapons.

This component does not alter a Monk's HLA table: we strongly suggest using Kish's Oversight mod in combination with Sword and Fist to take advantage of the High Level Abilities.

Edited by Andyr, 16 September 2006 - 01:54 PM.

[NiGHTMARE]

Whoops, typo: "becoming invisible and immune to immune to all damage". It's in the .tra as well as above.

[Salk]

Dear guys, could you possibly point out briefly what the changes are compared to the original Bioware class ? And also, do you think Refinements' Monk HLAs would work fine with Sword and Fist ? Thanks a lot!

[NiGHTMARE]

Any changes or additions to the monk's HLA should be just fine, since this mod doesn't touch the HLAs itself.

Quote

Maximum unarmed damage: originally increased by +2 at 3rd, 6th and 9th levels, and + 8 at 15th. This has been changed this to +2 at 4th, 8th, and 12th levels, and +4 at 16th, 20th and 24th levels.

Minimum unarmed damage: originally increased by +1 at 9th, 12th, 15th and 25th levels. This has been changed to +1 at 12th, 24th and 36th levels.

THAC0 bonus to unarmed damage: originally increased by +1 at 9th, 12th, 15th and 25th levels. This has been removed.

Enchantment bonus to unarmed damage: originally increased by +1 at 9th, 12th, 15th and 25th levels. This has been changed to +1 at 10th, 16th, 22nd, 28th, 34th and 40th levels.

(Note: if ToB is not installed, none of the above will improve after 18th level.)

Number of unarmed attacks per round: this remains unchanged.

Movement rate bonus: originally increased by +2 at 1st level, and +1 every 5 levels thereafter. This has been changed to +1 at 3rd level and +1 every 3 levels thereafter.

Speed Factor bonus: this has been removed

Armor class bonus: originally increased at 1st level and every 2 levels until 21st, then every 3 levels until 30th, and finally every 5 levels until 40th. This has been reduced to +1 at 5th level and every 5 levels thereafter.

Armor class vs. missiles bonus: this remains unchanged.

Saving throws bonus: originally increased by +1 at 9th level. This remains, but there is now an additional a +1 bonus at 2nd level.

Saves vs. spells bonus: originally increased by +2 at 1st level. This has moved to at 3rd level.

Magic resistance bonus: originally increased by +42% at 14th level and +3% every level thereafter. This has been reduced to +23% at 13th level and +1% every level thereafter.

Immunity to disease: this remains unchanged.

Immunity to slow and haste: this has been been removed.

Immunity to poison: this remains unchanged.

Immunity to charm: originally gained at 9th level. It is now gained at 20th level.

Immunity to non-magical weapons: this remains unchanged.

Flurry of Blows: this is a new ability gained at 1st level, usable-at-will. It grants an additional attack per round for 1 turn but also causes a THAC0 penalty (-4 at 1st level, -3 at 5th, -2 at 9th, and -1 at 13th). The additional attack applies to weapons as well as unarmed strikes.

Stunning Blow: originally usable once per day per 4 levels. This has been increased to once per day per level, and renamed 'Stunning Fist'.

Hide In Shadows: this remains unchanged.

Lay On Hands: this has been renamed 'Wholeness of Body'.

Quivering Palm: this remains unchanged.

Empty Body: this is a new innate ability gained at 19th level, usable once per day per level. It causes the monk to become invisible and completely invulnerable (but unable to attack) for 1 round.

[Salk]

Thank you very much, NiGHTMARE!

[yarpen]

But a one thing - Empty body is so similiar to etheralness

[SixOfSpades]

Small error in fist-as-enchanted-weapon description: "magical weapons at 4th level, +1 at 10th,"

The Flurry of Blows ability is too powerful to be usable at will. +1 ApR for an entire turn, with practically no penalties at all? You might as well just grant a permanent +1 ApR bonus and leave it at that. I would limit this to 1 use/day per 6 levels or so, and even then it's dangerously close (when combined with Improved Haste) to making Greater Whirlwind entirely obsolete.

I greatly approve of drastically toning down the Monk's Magic Resistance, but why did you keep the way it kicks in so suddenly? Why not simply 1%/level +10, starting at Level 1?

[NiGHTMARE]

Andyr, on Sep 16 2006, 11:53 AM, said:

designed to bring Monks closer to their 3E pen-and-paper counterparts.

[Mebyon]

Quote

- Gains a +2 bonus to maximum unarmed damage at 1st, 4th, 8th and 12th levels, and a +4 bonus at 16th, 20th and 24th levels.
- Gains a +1 bonus to minimum unarmed damage at 12th and 24 levels.
- Gains 1/2 an extra unarmed attack per round every 3 levels (starts at 3rd level, ends at 18th level with a total of 4 unarmed attacks per round).
- Fists are considered magical weapons at 4th level, +1 at 10th, +2 at 16th, +3 at 22nd, +4 at 28th, +5 at 34th, and +6 at 40th.

I've just installed this mod (and the oversight mod too in the hope that it'll make the Monk class a bit more interesting for me.)
I do have a question tho, I can't work out what damage the fists should do!

The old class description used the format 1d10 and 1d12 to show damage for the fists but the new description doesn't.
to para phrase:
"A +2 bonus to maximum at 1st, 4th, 8th and 12th and +1 bonus to minimum at level 12"
Assuming that at level 0 he'd have to do 1d1 damage, does that mean that at level 1 he does 1d3?
Then at level 12 does minimum damge 1 + 1 = 2 and Maximum: 1+2(Level 1)+2(Level 4)+2(Level 8)+2(Level 12) = 9 which is 2d9?
No, wait, that can't be! it'd have to be 2d(4+1) or 1d8+1 but that doesn't tally with the fists being considered +1 at 10th Level!

Can you please clear this up for me, as you can probably tell I’m a bit confused!

It'd be really helpful to be able to compare the fists directly to a weapon (such as a certain ninja-to that i might want to use )

I believe that originally fists were considered blunt weapons, Is this still the case?

(Just re-read my post and it sounds like I’m having a big old moan! I'm not, I think the original Monk class was a bit naff and this mod will do a great job balancing him out...!)

Edited by Mebyon, 28 March 2007 - 12:30 AM.

[NiGHTMARE]

The damage bonuses are on top of the damage unarmed attacks do for any class, which is 1d4. Therefore:

Level 1: 1d6 (1-6)
Level 4: 1d8 (1-8)
Level 8: 1d10 (1-10)
Level 12: 2d6 (2-12)
Level 16: 2d8 (2-16)
Level 20: 2d10 (2-20)
Level 24: 3d8 (3-24)
Level 36: 4d6 (4-24)

(For some reason I forgot to mention the bonus gained at level 36.)

"Considered +1" etc has nothing to do with the amount of damage done; rather, it's the enchantment level of the weapon. What this does is determine whether you can hit enemies who are immune to weapons below a certain enchantment level (for example, they're under the effects of the spell 'Protection from Magical Weapons'.)

(Note: it seems I forgot to give the 22nd level fist the +3 enchantment it's supposed to have, but all the others seem to be fine.)

The monk fists are still blunt weapons.

Edited by NiGHTMARE, 28 April 2007 - 02:33 AM.

[Mebyon]

Thanks, Just what i needed to know...

[Bursk]

Perhaps it's the lateness of the hour and I'm just getting confused, but you suggest using the Oversight Monk HLAs, one of which does this:

'Stunning Blow - The monk has one more use of the Stunning Blow ability per day.'

Yet post #4 in this thread says this:

'Stunning Blow: ...renamed 'Stunning Fist'.'

So how do the two work together? Oversight is giving you greater use of Stunning Blow, but Stunning Blow no longer exists in your mod.

And is SoS correct about the Flurry of Blows ability being too powerful to be usable at will? If so, should it be toned down, regardless of the 'designed to bring Monks closer to their 3E pen-and-paper counterparts.' bit? Shouldn't balance and gameplay take precedent over (um, what's the word?) ideology?*



* Please note, I'm not trying to be a dick and saying "This mod sucks, change it!", I'm just trying to throw some ideas around and have a discussion on the mod. I'm also very tired.