IAv6 for BG2EE, public beta Options

[Azoth]

Doom's spell description says casting time of 9. When casting in game it's much faster...

[critto]

OK, will fix it, thank you.

[Azoth]

Resist Fire/Resist Cold and Protection from Fire are stacking to fire resistance of 127. Not sure if this is the intended behaviour?

144- The 3rd level clerical spell "Protection from Fire" is fixed to set resistance to fire to
100% rather than adding 100% to the current resistances.

This post has been edited by Azoth: Jun 14 2015, 11:12 AM

[Krell]

Protection from Fire does indeed sets the value of Fire res to 100%. However, Resist Fire/Resist Cold actually adds +50% to fire/cold resistance. There are numerous spells/items that actually *set* the value, and other spells/items/potions which actually add +% to the already set value. Will list the most notable:

*Set* resistance value: ProFire, Cold, Acid, Electricity, Lightning, Dragon Helm, and several more.
*Added* resistance value: Resist Fire/Cold, Protection from the Elements, Protection from Energy, all resistance-type potions like Fire, Absorbtion, Cold, etc, all green protection scrolls, Ring of Fire Resistance, Ring of Fire Control, Drizzt's scimitar Frostbrand, a number of other fire res items, Boots of Grounding, Boots of the North, Hammer of Thor, Fireshields Red and Blue, and many many more.

Not sure about the spell Protection from Magic Energy, in v5 it actually added 100% to the Magical resistance, maybe in v6 it has been changed to set it.

[critto]

I'll check it out, thanks.

[bulian]

Hello glad to see more developmemt being done on IA! Wondering whether its possible to provide a description of the new monk class? Also any thoughts on pace of future development? After a long break from BG2, I happened to start up a game in 6.0 a couple weeks before 6.1 was released so if 6.2 will be coming out "soon" i would just finish my current game before starting over with 6.1.

Lastly, are there any issues with installing 6.1 with vanilla vs EE? I havent and dont have immediate plans to purchase BG2:EE.

Thanks again! Im quite excited for more IA adventures!!

[critto]

Wondering whether its possible to provide a description of the new monk class?

See the note in the end of my post. It is copied verbatim from the current monk's description. Monk kits that are added by EE function in the same way except for those abilities that they get (we haven't made any changes to those).

Also any thoughts on pace of future development?

I try to keep working on it regularly. We're testing the v6.2 which'll probably be the last "training" release before we get back to v7 full-time. I don't think that v6.2 will be out earlier than the middle of July. As for v7, there's plenty to be done, so the optimistic prognosis is mid-autumn.

Lastly, are there any issues with installing 6.1 with vanilla vs EE? I havent and dont have immediate plans to purchase BG2:EE.

No, there aren't. We are testing the game on vanilla and everything should be ok. In fact, I strongly recommend playing the mod on vanilla if you haven't tried 6.0 before. I love EE mostly for the fact that it gives me opportunity to work on the mod (it installs on my macbook, so I can always steal a few minutes here and there in my erratic schedule; I never had had the time to sit for a good several hours long modding session with a windows laptop) and there has put me back on track with the progress towards long-promised v7. However, EE is very buggy right now, path finding is bad and issues are numerous in the game itself. Which is why, honestly speaking, EE is not the best platform for the first run-through of IA.

CODE

MONK: Monks are warriors who pursue perfection through contemplation as well as action. They are versatile fighters, especially skilled in combat without weapons or armor. Though Monks cannot cast spells, they have a unique magic of their own: they channel a subtle energy, called ki, which allows them to perform amazing feats. The Monk's best known feat is their ability to stun an opponent with an unarmed blow.

CLASS FEATURES:

- May not wear any armor.
- May only use weapons available to the Thief class (except two-handed).
- May only become Proficient (one slot) in any weapon class.
- May only become Proficient (one slot) in Single-Weapon Style and may not put slots into any other style.
- Moves 2 points faster than other characters. Movement rate further improves by 1 every 5 levels.
- May make 1 unarmed attack per round. An additional 1/2 attack per round is gained every 3 levels. Damage dealt by unarmed attacks increases with level as follows:
  Level 1-2: 1d6
  Level 3-5: 1d8
  Level 6-8: 1d10
  Level 9-14: 2d6
  Level 15-20: 2d8
  Level 21-28: 2d10
  Level 29+: 3d8
- At level 6, unarmed attacks are treated as a +1 magical weapon and gain a +1 bonus to hit and damage rolls. This enchantment improves to +2 at level 9, +3 at level 12, +4 at level 18, and +5 at level 25.
- Receives a +2 bonus to Saving Throws vs. Spell.
- Deflect Missiles: +1 bonus to AC vs. missile attacks every 3 levels.
- Starts with an Armor Class of 9 at 1st level and gains an additional +1 bonus every 2 levels.
- May use the Stunning Blow ability once per day. Gains one use at level 1 and an additional use every 4 levels thereafter.
- May use the Flurry of Blows ability once per day. Gains one use at level 11, 16 and 21.
- May use the Diamond Body ability once per day. Gains one use at levels 17, 22 and 27.

STUNNING BLOW: All successful attacks within the next round force the victim to save vs. Spell or be stunned. This special ability automatically modifies normal attacks; no targeting needs to be done.

FlURRY OF BLOWS: Agility and prowess are key factors that allow a master of hand-to-hand combat survive in a fight against heavily armed bandits and spell-wielding sorcerers. Trained monks are capable of engaging their opponent with extraordinary speed, effectively doubling the amount of attacks they make. For 3 rounds + 1 round / level, a monk's number of attacks per round doubles.

DIAMOND BODY: Experienced monk channels his inner energy to induce a restorative state that heals the wounds and protects the self. For 5 rounds, the character receives 25% resistance to physical damage, regenerates 6 Hit Points per round and acquires immunity to Level Drain, Petrification and Imprisonment.

- 5th level: Becomes immune to all diseases and cannot be slowed or hasted.
- 7th level: May use the Lay On Hands ability on <PRO_HIMHER>self to heal 2 Hit Points per level.
- 8th level: Gains a -1 bonus to Speed Factor.
- 9th level: Gains a +1 bonus to all Saving Throws and becomes immune to charm.
- 11th level: Becomes immune to poison.
- 12th level: Gains another -1 bonus to Speed Factor.
- 13th level: May use the Quivering Palm ability once per day.

QUIVERING PALM: The next successful attack forces the opponent to save vs. Spell or die. This special ability automatically modifies normal attacks; no targeting needs to be done.

- 14th level: Gains 3% Magic Resistance per level (starting with 42% at 14th level).
- 20th level: Becomes immune to non-magical weapons.
- Alignment restricted to lawful.
- Hit Die: d8

This post has been edited by critto: Jun 15 2015, 06:04 AM

[Krell]

No offense, but I've seen several IA HLAs and items which grant immunity to Petrification, and now the Monk has it too (Diamond body). IA enemies don't use petrification attacks. There is still a number of vanilla-game traps and enemies (Trademeet Genies) which use that spell, but those are early-game encounters. So NPCs don't really get anything from those *immune to petrification* late-game items and HLAs. Probably some other immunity would be more useful?

[critto]

Yes, this is definitely worth exploring. However, I thought that beholders still employ petrification rays, don't they?

[Krell]

Yes, this is definitely worth exploring. However, I thought that beholders still employ petrification rays, don't they?

Probably, however even beholders are early-to-mid-game monsters, and by the time a char gets an item or ability that grant immunity to petrification, his/her saves are already good enough to make a successful save roll every time. IA v6 Beholders are more fond of other rays however, I don't remember seeing them using FtS rays.

[blastermaster]

Monk looks really good! Of course Improved Haste is a welcome addition.

If I were playing a Monk, I would gladly trade the increased damage for the proper Thac0 development though (ending at 0 Thac0 like fighters). Monks have a bit of a tough time getting to 25 Strength, so they're looking at 5 base Thac0, -5 due to gauntlets, -5 due to fist enchantment, -5 due to strength (for example), and maybe -2 from an Ioun stone. -12 Thac0 is very nice for some characters but for a pure fighter it's not great for the type of enemies you'd want them to help out with at the end.

[SparrowJacek]

Monks now have warrior's thaco and warrior's level progression tables if I'm not mistaken, so natural 0 is achievable.

[critto]

Yes, SparrowJacek is right. Monks now have warrior THAC0, which is not mentioned in the class description. I'll make a note of it in the readme files for v6.2. However, to compensate for THAC0 growth, monks now adhere to figher level progression table. In the past, they had clerical XP tables which led to very quick development.

[blastermaster]

Ah, that's wonderful! A viable addition to any party then, that's really exciting!

[chaser]

I checked setup.tra file of IA v6.1,the swashbuckler is improved a lot,I believe Swash/Fighter would be a good choice.Now I wonder who would be the next improved one,the bard(poor thac0 and APR),wizard slayer(equipment limitation)…or someone else?

[critto]

I haven't thought about it yet. We'll try to bring a vanilla druid kit to a usable state in v6.2. If it goes well, two druid kits (Auramaster and another one) will be a target for v7 protagonist choices. Other than that, there weren't any definite plans.

[bulian]

Thanks for the fast response Critto. I will certainly wait for 6.2 before rebooting. I'm not a frequent forum poster but have completed and shared several runs of both IA v5 and v6 on this board.

The new monk class looks quite powerful and attractive! I think the only reason I would hesitate to use the class is that forging and using powerful items is one of the fun parts of the mod! One follow up question:

Will flurry of blows be dispellable? It seems like "flurry of blows" is more of an intrinsic ability (e.g. Kai/Berserk) rather than a spell and shouldn't be dispellable. I can't speak to whether that would make the ability unbalanced but I don't think it will since monks cannot be otherwise hasted.

By the same token, I don't know that giving RB the ability to cast IH makes much sense, and might suggest coming up with a new name, even potentially just using "flurry of blows." In this case, I think having the RB ability be dispellable is balanced since they can be hasted by other casters.

[Krell]

Will flurry of blows be dispellable? It seems like "flurry of blows" is more of an intrinsic ability (e.g. Kai/Berserk) rather than a spell and shouldn't be dispellable. I can't speak to whether that would make the ability unbalanced but I don't think it will since monks cannot be otherwise hasted.

Monks can definitely be hasted. Use mutliple Energy Drain spells on the Monk to decrease his current level to 4, cast Improved Haste, cast (lesser) Restoration. However, I think that Flurry of Blows should also have some sort of Improved Haste icon in order for the two not to be cumulative with each other, or bugs may appear for going over 10 APR. About warrior abilities - some like Kai/Berserk are undispellable, other like Hardiness or Chain Breaker Stance are dispellable. For me, it's much more annoying that warrior abilities are more or less a subject to the penalties which spells have. Meaning, a Silenced warrior cannot activate Critical Strike or Hardiness or any other warrior HLA, Kai and Berserk can be interrupted (casting time of 1, not 0) and many other similar issues, all of this is very lame and definitely should've been fixed a long time ago instead of developing silly anti-soloing scripts and abilities for example.

[critto]

IIRC, the Monk's haste should be undispellable, the reason being that it's more a part of their training rather than a spell. I'll check it to make sure.

[Krell]

IIRC, the Monk's haste should be undispellable, the reason being that it's more a part of their training rather than a spell. I'll check it to make sure.

Then the same should be valid for Chain Breaker Stance or Hardiness (Hardiness should still be Breachable naturally).