I’m hoping we can create a monster manual for Improved Anvil. I would like to know about monsters, particularly named monsters, vulnerabilities. Are they susceptible to:
* vorpal kills
* level drain
* stat drain
* stun
* slow
* magic (0% resistance)
* elements (fire, cold, acid, or lightning; 0% resistance)
* physical damage (crush, slash, or pierce; 0% resistance)
* spells (i.e. is the monster immune to level 5 and below, level 7 and below, level 9 and below, etc. This is especially important to know if Breach and Lower Resistance have a chance to work!)
* normal (unenchanted) weapons
* enchanted weapons of less than x (i.e. requires a +3 weapon, +4 weapon, or +6 weapon to hit)

A monster manual would greatly improve tactical play. I just assume any of the special golems are immune to everything and have to be beat down with +3 or better magic weapons (sometimes more than +3 may be required?). I have also found that most opponents in Improved Anvil are highly resistant to many different types of damage. So, if you KNOW something about any particular enemy that you would like to share on the forum, please do so.

there is a book in the game called "Elminster's Ecologies: Appendix IIIa" which contains some information about the new monsters added to the original BG2 after the release of TOB (i.e. Magic Golems et al).

Do you suggest: (1) to add a similar book to the game containing information about new monsters IA adds to the game? Or (2) to extend the abovementioned book and add new entries to it for IA's monsters? Or (3) do you prefer not to be spoiled with such a book and to discover everything by yourself?

I think option (2) is the worst as that book is very easily available in the game. If option 1 is picked, then the new book should be somwhat difficult to find.

Do you want me to create a poll in the forum for players to vote and choose between option (1) and option (3)?

Um... maybe his intention was a MM thread at which players could take a look, if they want or are somewhat desperate?

... on the other hand: You could always CTRL+Q them into your party to take a look at the basic stats, resistances etc. or use NI (or SK, of course) to look at the monster files.

So, what did you have in mind?

I like Sikret's idea and would choose 1. Of course, the book should only contain fairly vague hints - not full spoilers, eg. "such and such has 50% fire resistance and 100% acid resistance" would be too much detail, perhaps something more like "Of the few adventurers who have survived their encounters with [x monster], some claim that fire arrows had hurt the beast the most". An approach like this leaves open the possibility that it was either ranged weapons or fire which had done the damage...perhaps a nice bit of ambiguity?

I'd also restrict it to giving info on only some of the additional monsters (and certainly not the major new bosses) to stop it giving too much away.

As for how the book is obtained...it could either be bought for an extortionate amount of gold or be one of the randomised treasures deposited with one of the bosses. Alternatively, another quite nice approach might be to disperse individual pages of the book around Amn, for the player to collect as part of a quest?

I'd prefer this to be done "in game" rather than just read a thread (or open up the game with an Infinity Engine editor), which to me would give the game away completely about how to fight particular enemies, and take a lot of the fun experimentation away.

cheers

coaster

This is a superb idea, coaster! Thanks for sharing it. I also agree with you that the information should be vague.

@Arkain
Ctrl-Qing enemies into your party is dangerous and wrong as I have said before. It may create serious bugs in your game under certain conditions (unless you return to a saved game before the use of the cheat). Using editors is safer, though I fully agree with coaster that doing such things will add a strong anti-roleplaying atmosphere to your game. Try to discover things *inside* the game.

Correct. But why would one do that anyway if not to get a look at the creatures' "character sheet"?
It's the same with editors: one shouldn't do it, but if he's desperate to know whatever effects, immunites and whatnot the creature has, he can take a direct look at it by simply using the editor. 'tis still highly questionable though. Especially because the satisfaction after beating that certain strong enemy (for example by finding his weakness) is somewhat lessened if you knew it all before.

The idea of a book involved in a quest is really good, as it would add more atmosphere. Creating a poll would be good, after some more ideas are collected. Who knows if there isn't a genius who already has the whole awesome quest in mind?

I think adding some details in the game concerning the new monsters of Improved Anvil would be a great idea! I also like the idea of discovering pages. It would be nice to find pages that describe monsters that we may likely encounter before or at the same time we may find them. (So, descriptions of coin golems may be discovered early, while supreme golems may (or may not) be discovered in ToB.) These pages wouldn't have to be total give aways of how to win the battle tactically, more like hints to the beginners. Personally, I think that an Epic level wizard (intelligent scholarly type of the magical and supernatural) would know about many of these enemies. Similarly, an epic level cleric would probably know about undead and demon/devil princes.

What I had in mind for this thread is *much* more detailed - subject to the cooperation of the people who *know* about the monsters. I hate the experimention of reloading and reloading more. You've probably got that idea by now.

As I've finished the game up to the Divine Encounter, I would not consider myself spoiled by the extra information. Many readers of this forum have also completed at least one run through of the game. People who have already played through Improved Anvil could work out much more efficient tactics if they really knew their enemy.

People familiar with DnD know what a Monster Manual is and realize that reading this thread may "spoil" somewhat their experience. (No one HAS to read this thread. It's their choice.) Still, beginners could refer to this thread if they are desperate for a little information that will allow them successful tactics. After all, this game can be very difficult for a person who has never played it.

I wouldn't be averse to having a resource thread here that lists the stats of IA's most frustrating monsters. It could list off their HP's, ApR, class levels, immunities and % resistances. I'd def. label the thread spoilers since it is fun to discover how to beat new enemies but it's also nice to know when you have no chance to kill them and you have to come back later.
(e.g. trying to kill Skeleton Lords with < +3 weapons)

I didn't know using SK to view monster stats was even possible, I've never played around with the options there, just made my changes and closed it again Anyway, I was checking some monsters I know, just to make sure I understood this function properly, but there are several entries for certain characters and creatures. How come? How do I know which one I'm interested in? Like Mustard Jelly, there are four entries, two with the same resistances, but all four has some differences somewhere in the sheets.

To write something on the topic too:
Having some way to get vague info about certain monsters ingame would be great. Quest for gathering pages (unreadable before quest is finished, weird language or something), and choice between book or other powerful item as reward? Would it be possible to randomize this in a way too? So that the actual text in the book could vary per game, and also vary the stats of some (probably quite few) monsters according to what's in the book? That would solve the "i know what's in the book from my last game so i'll take the weapon of killing monsters +4 in this game" issue too I know nothing about modding, and I imagine it'd be horrible/impossible to write into the mod, but it seemed like an idea worth sharing.

Edit: Maybe it could be possible to let the book give some vague info about 10 of 15 or 12/15, whatever's appropriate, monsters from a list of possible monsters, so you get information about different creatures in each game. And maybe even let you choose between reward or keeping the book, while keeping the book leads to killing a certain monster (where you need info from the book, either for accessing or for the actual fight). Both the monster and the initial quest reward (if you don't take the book) could be random, so you could take your chances with either inital reward or loot from the creature. I fully expect "random" to be hard to code, mod, write, whichever term applies, hope you can get some use out of this post

hmmmm.... adding a page here and there sounds like a wonderful idea. Perhaps you could add an extra bit of challenge there, instead of having the pages in the same place every game add them to your randomize program.

Perhaps have one monster drop a page of a lesser monster (Gem golem drops a coin golem page, Elemental = Gem, ect...). But only have 1 random monster drop the scroll. For example add the pages to the randomize program but limit the possible locations to a single monster type. That way there will always be an element of suprise on where you are going to get the page. This is probably not a possibility though due to the fact that you would probably have to add a new entry for each IA monster in the game.

I would vote for the idea of placing a page here and there. That's really a great idea. Don't know if it has to be bound to a quest, but...