Cross Class Kits (v1.0): Backstabbing Monks, Shapeshifting Fighters, and Thieves with Called Shot

semiticgoddess

This mod is an extension of the Universal Archer Kit, which allowed fighters, paladins, and thieves to gain Archer kit bonuses, and the Shapeshifter Fighter kit, which allowed a non-spellcasting class to get a stronger version of the Shapeshifter's werewolf form. In addition, this mod allows monks to choose the Stalker and Assassin kits (you can backstab as a monk!) and lets thieves take the Kensai kit, trading traps for stronger weapon damage and trading Use Any Item for a few fighter HLAs.

The Archer kit for fighters and paladins is the same as the kit for rangers, but the other kits are slightly tweaked to maintain game balance while still allowing the kits to stand out as truly distinct from the unkitted base class. The new kit descriptions are below:

Archer Thief

ARCHER: The Archer is the epitome of skill with the bow—the ultimate marks<PRO_MANWOMAN>, able to make almost any shot, no matter how difficult. To become so skilled with the bow, the Archer has had to sacrifice some of <PRO_HISHER> conventional skills as a rogue.

Advantages:
- +1 to hit and damage rolls with any missile weapon every 3 levels.
- May achieve Grand Mastery (5 slots) in shortbows, crossbows, darts, and slings.
- May achieve Specialization (2 slots) in daggers.
- May use the Called Shot ability once per day. Gains one use at level 4 and an additional use every 4 levels thereafter.

CALLED SHOT: All successful ranged attacks within the next 10 seconds have the following cumulative effects besides normal damage, according to the level of the Archer:
4th level: -1 penalty to target's THAC0.
8th level: -1 penalty to target's Saving Throws vs. Spell.
12th level: -1 penalty to the target's Strength score.
16th level: +2 bonus to damage roll.

Disadvantages:
– May not backstab.
– Only gains 15 skill points per level (30 at level 1).

Stalker Monk

STALKER: Stalkers serve as covert intelligence-gatherers, comfortable in both wilderness and urban settings. They are spies, informants, and interrogators, and their mastery of stealth makes them deadly opponents.

Advantages:
– +20% to Move Silently and Hide In Shadows.
– May use Backstab ability, although for a lower damage multiplier than Thieves:
Level 1-8: x2
Level 9-18: x3
Level 19+: x4

Disadvantages:
– May not use Stunning Blow or Quivering Palm.

- Hit Die: d8

Assassin Monk

ASSASSIN: This is a killer trained in discreet and efficient murder, relying on anonymity and surprise to perform <PRO_HISHER> task.

Advantages:
– +1 bonus to hit and damage rolls.
– May use Backstab ability:
Level 1-4: x2
Level 5-8: x3
Level 9-12: x4
Level 13-16: x5
Level 17+: x6
– May use the Poison Weapon ability. Gains one use at level 1 and an additional use every 4 levels thereafter.

Poison Weapon
Each successful hit within the next 5 rounds will inject poison into the target. Each target can only be affected once per round. The amount of poison damage depends on the character's level:

1st - Target suffers 1 poison damage per second for 6 seconds (Save vs. Death at +1 negates)
5th - Target suffers 1 poison damage per second for 12 seconds (Save vs. Death negates), and also immediately suffers 2 poison damage (no save)
9th - Target suffers 1 poison damage per second for 18 seconds (Save vs. Death at -1 negates), and also immediately suffers 4 poison damage (no save)
13th - Target suffers 1 poison damage per second for 24 seconds (Save vs. Death at -2 negates), and also immediately suffers 6 poison damage (no save)

Disadvantages:
– Only gains an extra unarmed half attack per round every 6 levels instead of 3
– May not use Lay on Hands

High Level Abilities:
– Assassination
– Power Attack
– Critical Strike
– Smite
– Hardiness
– Evasion
– Greater Evasion
– Avoid Death
– Resist Magic

- Hit Die: d8

Shapeshifter Fighter

SHAPESHIFTER: The Shapeshifter is a <PRO_MANWOMAN> who has willingly allowed <PRO_HISHER>self to become infected with lycanthropy, but due to intense training has learned to control <PRO_HISHER> affliction and gained the ability to transform into a werewolf.

Advantages:
- May shapeshift into a werewolf at will. While in werewolf form, the Shapeshifter gains a set of abilities that scale with level:

Level 1:
15 Strength, 16 Dexterity, 17 Constitution
6 AC, 10% magic resistance, +2 movement rate
+1 to hit and damage, 1d6 damage at 1.5 attacks per round
Regeneration: 1 HP per 60 seconds

Level 4:
17 STR, 18 DEX, 19 CON
4 AC, 20% MR, +4 movement rate, 10% resistance to elemental damage
+2 to hit and damage, 1d8 damage at 1.5 attacks per round (strikes as +1)
Regeneration: 1 HP per 30 seconds

Level 8:
18/50 STR, 20 DEX, 21 CON
2 AC, 30% MR, +6 movement rate, 20% resistance to elemental damage
+3 to hit and damage, 1d10 damage at 2 attacks per round (strikes as +2)
Regeneration: 1 HP per 12 seconds

Level 12:
18/00 STR, 22 DEX, 23 CON
0 AC, 40% MR, +8 movement rate, 30% resistance to elemental damage
+4 to hit and damage, 1d12 damage at 2.5 attacks per round (strikes as +3)
Regeneration: 1 HP per round
Immune to nonmagical weapons

Level 16:
20 STR, 24 DEX, 25 CON
-2 AC, 50% MR, +10 movement rate, 40% resistance to elemental damage
+5 to hit and damage, 1d12 damage at 3 attacks per round (strikes as +4)
Regeneration: 1 HP per second
Immune to +1 weapons and below

Level 20:
20 STR, 24 DEX, 25 CON
-4 AC, 50% MR, +10 movement rate, 50% resistance to elemental damage
+6 to hit and damage, 1d12 damage at 3.5 attacks per round (strikes as +5)
Regeneration: 1 HP per second
Immune to +2 weapons and below

Disadvantages:
– May not use any armor, helmets, or shields
– May not use missile weapons
– May only become proficient (one slot) with any weapon or weapon style
– Does not gain an extra half attack per round at levels 7 and 13

Kensai Thief

KENSAI: This class's name, which means "sword saint" in the common tongue, refers to a thief who has been specially trained to be one with <PRO_HISHER> weapon. The kensai is deadly, fast, and trained to fight without the protection of armor. (Note: Despite its common name, a Kensai may use any melee weapon with which <PRO_HESHE> is proficient.)

Advantages:
– +2 bonus to Armor Class.
– +1 to hit and damage rolls every 3 levels.
– -1 bonus to Speed Factor every 4 levels.
– May use the Kai ability once per day. Gains one use at level 1 and an additional use every 4 levels thereafter.

KAI: All successful attacks within the next 10 seconds deal maximum damage.

Disadvantages:
– May not wear any armor, gauntlets, or bracers.
– May not use missile weapons.
– May only assign 20 skill points per level (40 at level 1).
– May not take Use Any Item as an HLA.
– May not set traps.
– Backstab multiplier grows more slowly than that of other thieves:
Level 1-3: x1
Level 4-7: x2
Level 8-11: x3
Level 12+: x4

High Level Abilities:
– Power Attack
– Critical Strike
– Smite
– Assassination
– Evasion
– Greater Evasion
– Scribe Scrolls
– Alchemy
– Avoid Death

- Hit Die: d6

Let me know if you have other kits you want to open up for other classes.

jmerry

Some thoughts on the mechanics in the descriptions here...

Archer thief

Non-warriors don't get bonus attacks from specialization and beyond. As such, you'll be limited to relatively few attacks to use all those bonuses on. Maybe give them Whirlwind Attack as an HLA, as the Swashbuckler gets? The to-hit penalty makes it relatively weak with melee weapons, while still offering a serious burst of ranged damage.

Monk kits

Do you have the monk fist "weapons" set as backstab capable? They probably should be for these kits to feel right. The assassin monk should be able to punch someone in the back for extra damage just as well as using Quivering Palm to cause a save-or-die.

Assassin monk

Do you stop the unarmed bonus attack progression at level 18 like a standard monk, or continue it farther?
Also, that HLA list - Resist Magic is useless to a monk, since it sets magic resistance to a level lower than what they already have. Avoid Death... a high-level monk has a base save vs. death of 1, compared to a thief's 8. Add on the protection item they're wearing because they're not wearing enchanted armor, and a monk just isn't going to need any bonuses to their death save. I'd give them Deathblow/Greater Deathblow from the warrior list instead of those two.

Shapeshifter fighter

Shapeshifter druids can use helmets and shields (bucklers) just like other druids - why not the fighter version? Any shield you've got on isn't going to be active in shifted form anyway. For that matter, shapeshifter druids can use darts and slings (when not shapeshifted) just fine; no reason to block missile weapons. You're already shutting off all the warrior bonus attacks, so it's not like they'd be any good with those alternate weapons.

Forms that set constitution, with at will shapeshifting? That's going to do some weird things to hit points when you switch back and forth; it's probably a better idea to just cut that out out and use base Con. Trust me, -4 base AC/50% base magic resistance/50% base elemental resistance/1 HP per second regeneration is already a fantastic tank in most situations, even without a Con bonus or immunity to low-level weapons.

Kensai thief

Ooh, backstabbing and a big damage bonus! Except... not really. Compare a basic fighter/thief and this kit, with 2.5 million XP, a +4 short sword, and gauntlets of weapon specialization. The fighter/thief (13/15) gets +2 damage from specialization and +2 from the gauntlet, for 45-70 + strength damage on a backstab. The kensai thief (level 21) gets +7 damage from the kit, doesn't get specialization, and can't wear the gauntlets, for 48-68 + strength damage on a backstab. In regular battle, it's not even close; the fighter/thief gets 2.5 attacks per round to the kensai thief's 1. Skills? The fighter/thief has 390 total points so far, while the kensai thief has 440; not a huge difference.
So then, as you have it, a plain unkitted fighter/thief can basically match this kensai thief in its specialty of big backstabs, while being vastly more flexible in every other way. Sure, there's Kai - but you only get a few uses per day and it's rather hard to use with backstabs. The kit needs more; I'd recommend adding the ability to specialize in weapons and styles, like the swashbuckler.

semiticgoddess

@jmerry: Good points on the numbers!

A Kensai thief will have many uses of Kai (using the ability doesn't really interfere with backstabbing unless you wait more than an entire round before actually attacking), and switching from Cutthroat to Celestial Fury will give you a guaranteed 80 + strength damage on a backstab. Also, the Kensai thief's THAC0 will be 4 points better due to its kit bonuses outweighing the FT's better base THAC0 and specialization. Not sure if that's enough to make it equally balanced given the item restrictions and the lack of UAI (!), but the Kensai does get Critical Strike, and since Kai lasts 10 seconds and Critical Strike lasts 6, you can have both of them active and land a guaranteed 150+ damage backstab. The kit bonuses will also make dual-wielding fairly solid, and dual-classing to mage opens up some cool options with Kai: +10 damage in ogre form, +11 damage with BBoD, and +18 damage in iron golem, all of which can backstab. A level 12 dual-class in early ToB could be dealing 188 damage per backstab in iron golem form, or 152 + strength with BBoD if you needed better THAC0.

Still, versatility is pretty key for a thief, and those numbers are only somewhat better than a Fighter/Thief. Multi-classes are already powerful in general, though--the other thief kits seem on par with the Kensai thief.

Monk fists already are backstab-capable by default; I didn't have to do any tweaking on that front. They'll be able to do some pretty nasty backstabs, particularly when you get that ridiculous 1d20 monk fist.

Resist Magic is standard for monk HLAs. It's useless, but I decided to leave it in just in case the player had a mod that revised Resist Magic to make it more useful.

I've thought about the APR issue with Archer thieves. They really can't do the same stuff with Called Shot that an Archer warrior can. I think it's fairly balanced with the unkitted thief class, though, since the Archer thief only sacrifices backstabbing (which you wouldn't be using anyway in this kit) and the admittedly high skill point penalties. Giving them proficiency-based APR bonuses might be overkill, since GM grants another whole attack per round--that means a simple shortbow goes from 2 APR to 3 APR, a 50% increase in damage output!

The Constitution bonus could be removed from the Shapeshifter fighter, though that would be a notable nerf to an arguably underpowered custom kit. The reasoning behind the extra limits for the Shapeshifter fighter is that the armor restriction alone isn't very limiting. A fighter who can use bracers, helms, and shields, though, is still perfectly capable of tanking almost as well as a regular fighter, and it would be odd for the Shapeshifter fighter to be able to hit deeply negative AC values when not shapeshifted. The missile weapon restriction is conceptual: a werewolf fighter wouldn't use many missile weapons for the same reasons a monk wouldn't. The lower APR is to let the Shapeshifter's werewolf APR improve every 4 levels instead of having to have two of the bonuses happen on 7 and 13. It would probably be 4,7,10,13,16 instead of 4,8,12,16,20. That might be a solution to its sluggish early game damage output.

I wanted the werewolf form to be truly scary, like many players have complained the Shapeshifter druid's form isn't, and so I had to increase the drawbacks in order to balance for a more powerful werewolf form (this isn't a spellcaster who dabbles in fighting; this is a fighter). Not sure if the balance has quite been struck, though--the werewolf form's damage output is much less impressive at lower levels than many fighters' would be.

Are there any other kits you'd like to see ported, @jmerry?

StefanO

I just noticed that one can combine this mod with @argent77 Convient EE NPCs mod. So Rassad can be a Stalker Monk, and Hexxat a Kensai Thief. Cool.

Permidion_Stark

I think these look great and I am definitely going to give the Kensai Thief a go. I mentioned this on another thread but is there any way of making a separate category for throwing daggers so that it would be possible for an Archer Thief to specialise in them?

semiticgoddess

@Permidion_Stark: I gave them that. It's exclusive for the thief kit, though.

Permidion_Stark

semiticgod wrote: »

@Permidion_Stark: I gave them that. It's exclusive for the thief kit, though.

Excellent. Thanks for that. I'm really looking forward to trying this out.

DJKajuru

Brilliant. I'm loving the idea of separating the archetype from the class !
Suggestions:

-Kensai Monk (perhaps you could balance it by having less attacks per round than a fighter)

-Wizard Slayer Thief (quite balanced by not being able to use magic items+ less thief skill points per level, and you can make it unable to dual class to mage)

- Wizard slayer cleric (same thing, I think that WS's disavantages already balance it, also inability to dual class to mage)

- Beast Master bard (All the animal summoning skills and Limited to wooden weapons and leather armor)

OlvynChuru

DJKajuru wrote: »

Brilliant. I'm loving the idea of separating the archetype from the class !
Suggestions:

-Kensai Monk (perhaps you could balance it by having less attacks per round than a fighter)

A simple implementation of a Kensai Monk would be for it not to have the kensai attack and damage bonuses; just the Kai ability (which is pretty nice for a high-level monk with 1d20 damage fists) coupled with not being able to wear gauntlets or bracers.

DJKajuru

OlvynChuru wrote: »

DJKajuru wrote: »

Brilliant. I'm loving the idea of separating the archetype from the class !
Suggestions:

-Kensai Monk (perhaps you could balance it by having less attacks per round than a fighter)

A simple implementation of a Kensai Monk would be for it not to have the kensai attack and damage bonuses; just the Kai ability (which is pretty nice for a high-level monk with 1d20 damage fists) coupled with not being able to wear gauntlets or bracers.

Well, to differentiate from other monks I thought of one who specialized in a weapon instead of fists,but apart from that your idea is even more balanced !

Example:
Kensai Monk
Advantages : Kai ability (same as kensai)
Able to reach specialization at level 1 and grandmastery at higher levels.

+regular monk abilities (AC bonuses, resistances and immunities)



Disadvantages: Fist damage advances at a slower pace, doesnt become magical.
-No paralizing strike or quivering palm .

-Gains 1/2 attack per round at levels 7 ad 13.

-Cannot use missile weapons ans bracers of defense.

Et voila, you got a monk kensai who enjoys the speed and defenses of monk but can enjoy using a weapon of choice.

semiticgoddess

Fist progression is hardcoded; all monks use the same set of item files. The only way to nerf them is to impose THAC0 and damage penalties with levels (match them to enchantment bonuses, so it would be like a 1d12+0 instead of 1d12+2) and slow down or remove unarmed APR progression.

You could let the Kensai monk get APR bonuses from specialization, giving the monk better damage output with specialized weapons instead of a bare fist. You could keep Stunning Blow on hand so the monk would still have a reason to use fists occasionally.

Danacm

Or just use the kensai wothout monk hand progression, because kensai is fighting weapons not bare hand.
Give them a slight ac progression, 1 ac every 4-5 levels, allow to use bracers of defense and tone down thaco, dmg profression a bit, every 4 levels instead of 3. Give it kai, and fast movement etc abilities, like immunity to charm, haste or slow.

liberalbias

@semiticgoddess I just discovered this mod and I'm excited to try a Dwarf archer using crossbows! I've installed the mod and rolled up my character, and that worked exactly as advertised. As a quick test, I leveled her up to the level cap and checked that all the abilities and bonuses were present, and they were.

There is just one strange glitch that I am seeing when I create a custom party using my new Dwarf archer (I always create two custom characters for my runs). When I start the game with my two custom characters (one the Dwarf archer, the other a vanilla fighter), the fighter is fine, but the archer shows up with the gear you would expect to get in ToB (that is, the exact gear specified in the last argument to ADD_KIT in your tp2 file).

I re-installed the mod on a vanilla install (no other mods), and I see the same issue. Strangely, it does not show up if I start a game with just the archer (no other custom characters). I dug around in the tp2 files, and compared them to other mods with kits, and I don't see any obvious differences. Is this a bug in BG:EE (note that all of this testing was with BG1:EE, not BG2:EE or any other version)?

In any case, I can obviously just drop all the extra gear and carry on, but now I'm curious to hear if anyone knows why this is happening. Thanks!

semiticgoddess

It's because I assigned them an equipment list for ToB. I actually don't know how to prevent the behavior while still allowing them to bring inventory into ToB (it's probably not complicated).

liberalbias

I tried upgrading to the latest version of the fl#add_kit_ee.tpa file (your kit uses 1.13, but the latest is 1.15). That didn't help

Does this happen for all modded kits? This is the first new kit I've ever tried. I assumed that equipment meant to be added in ToB wouldn't be added in BG1:EE, but presumably there is a bug?

Thanks for the mod! Dropping some equipment is a small price to pay for having some new kits to play with! Cheers.

Endarire

@semiticgoddess @liberalbias
Is this mod EET compatible? What version of the game (2.5.x, 2.6.x) were you using?

liberalbias

@semiticgoddess

I found this in the "Improved Archer" kit from Argent77:

ACTION_IF (GAME_IS ~tob bgt bg2ee eet~) BEGIN
  OUTER_TEXT_SPRINT stweap ~LEAT14 * HELM07 BAG20 RING06 RING31 CLCK02 BOOT01 AMUL19 BRAC16 BELT06 AROW11,40 BULL03,40 BOLT06,40 POTN52,5 POTN04,2 POTN14,5 BOW18 XBOW09 STAF08~
END ELSE ACTION_IF (GAME_IS ~iwdee~) BEGIN
  OUTER_TEXT_SPRINT stweap ~USLTR4A * HELMLA * URING3A * * BOOT03 * BRAC09 BELT03 AROW11,40 BULL03,40 BOLT06,40 POTN05,2 POTN20,5 POTN08,5 BLCKBOW ULXBW3B ULSWD3A~
END ELSE BEGIN
  OUTER_TEXT_SPRINT stweap ~* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *~
END

LAF ADD_KIT_EX
INT_VAR
  kit_class = 2
  mixed     = RESOLVE_STR_REF(@1202)
  lower     = RESOLVE_STR_REF(@1201)
  help      = RESOLVE_STR_REF(@1200)
STR_VAR
  kit_name  = ~A7_MARKSMAN~
  unusable  = ~0x00008000~
  clasweap  = ~1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1~
  weapprof  = ~2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 5 5 5 5 5 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0~
  abclasrq  = ~9 0 0 0 0 0~
  abclsmod  = ~0 0 0 0 0 0~
  abdcdsrq  = ~17 0 0 0 0 0~
  abdcscrq  = ~15 0 0 0 0 0~
  alignmnt  = ~1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1~
  dualclas  = ~0 1 1 1 1 0~
  clab_path = EVAL ~A7#ImprovedArcher/kit/%CLAB_DIR%/CLABA7F1.2DA~
  kittable  = ~K_F_H K_F_D K_F_G K_F_E K_F_HE K_F_HL K_F_HO~
  luabbr    = ~A7fi1~
  stweap
  bdstweap  = ~LEAT05 * HELM01 * RING06 * * * * BRAC09 BELT02 AROW02,40 BULL02,40 BOLT02,40 POTN08,5 POTN17,3 * BOW06 XBOW05 STAF02~
  clsrcreq  = ~1 1 1 1 1 1 1~
  clswpbon  = ~1 0 2~
  hpclass   = ~HPWAR~
  numwslot  = ~4~
  clascolr  = ~30 91 93 23 93~
RET
  kit_id
END

It looks like he is setting the ToB equipment to a list of "*" when the game is BG1. I have no skill with Weidu, so I'm not sure how to make this work with your mod. I tried a couple simple minded things to incorporate this with your Universal Archer kit, but Weidu gives me errors when I try to run it. I'm not sure how to pass a variable (like the "stweap" variable defined in the OUTER_TEXT_SPRINT) to a function (like your call to ADD_KIT). I tried using "~stweap~", "~%stweap%~" and "%stweap%", but none of those worked.

semiticgoddess

As long as we're here, @argent77, can you tell us how to prevent a kit mod from granting extra equipment to multiplayer characters in BG1 while still giving them starting gear in ToB?

If I can get it fixed, by the way, the fix will be in the Expanded Classes mod, which contains all of my kit mods in one batch (Cross Class Kits is out of date in that sense).

argent77

The original ADD_KIT command is very limited in that it doesn't support EE-specific features and has issues with variable evaluations (which is a major pita if your mod supports multiple games). To provide game-specific default equipment you would have to add multiple calls of this function - one for each game.

I made an attempt to remedy all these weaknesses and more with the ADD_KIT_EX library. It fully supports all EE games, allows you to create true multiclass kits and provides several convenience features.

deratiseur

Hello. This is a french translation of Cross Class kits.

"Let me know if you have other kits you want to open up for other classes." -> Hundead slayer Warrior, Assassin Warrior , Wizardslayer thief, Swashbuckler monk (yes, even better AC), Kensai mage.

Edit: Forget: installed for tests, this mod isn't trayified, tra fils are useless.