[MOD] [BETA] Monastic Orders of Faerun

Aquadrizzt · May 2013

Monastic Orders of Faerun v0.41 is now available for download.

Monastic Orders of Faerûn (MO or MOoF) rebalances monk progression in order to provide viability at both low and high levels. It revises the three existing monks in an attempt to make them all balanced at all levels of play. It also adds four new Monk kits, inspired by various monastic orders throughout the Realms.

The current version of Monastic Orders (v0.4+) is designed to work with any of the released Enhanced Editions (BG:EE, BG2:EE, IWD:EE, EET). Many features of this mod rely heavily on the functionality added in the Enhanced Editions, and thus there are no plans to extend compatibility to the original games.

CORE REVISIONS
This component revises the Monk and its two kits (Sun Soul and Dark Moon) extensively, moving them to the Thief class, overhauling their class features, and making use of a modular Fighting and Defense Style system. This component also updates Rasaad to use the new system.

(All other components of this mod require this component to be installed.)

EXPANDED RACE OPTIONS
This component allow races other than Humans to become Monks.
- Monk: Any race
- Sun Soul: Human, Half-Elf, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling
- Dark Moon: Human, Half-Elf, Elf, Half-Orc

MONK MULTICLASSES
(Yes, you read that right.) This component introduces 6 multiclass kits for Monks.

- Fighter/Monk, Cleric/Monk, Mage/Monk
- Illusionist/Monk (for Gnomes, if available)
- Fighter/Sun Soul Monk, Cleric/Sun Soul Monk
- Illusionist/Dark Moon Monk

(Note that this component does not do anything unless you install the Expanded Race Options component of this mod, another mod that allows Humans to multiclass, or another mod that opens up racial options for all classes.)

NEW KITS
This component adds four more Monk kits to the mix.

- Hin Fist Monks: members of the shorter races that rely on agility and discipline over size and brawn
- Shining Hand Monks: protectors of the Weave, skilled at fighting arcane casters
- Long Death Monks: sneaky assassins devoted to the idea of death
- Broken One Monks: resilient devotees of Ilmatar who protect the weak

If you installed the Monk Multiclasses component, you also get the following multiclass options:
- Fighter/Hin Fist Monk
- Mage/Shining Hand Monk
- Fighter/Long Death Monk
- Cleric/Broken One Monk
- Fighter/Broken One Monk

ITEM RESTRICTIONS PATCH
(This is provided for mod compatibility purposes). Install it once you have installed any mod that adds items, to ensure that the Monks from this mod follow the proper item restrictions.

A full readme is available on the Monastic Orders GitHub page.

INSTALLATION
Get the latest release from GitHub here, and extract to your game directory, then run the SetUp-MonasticOrders.exe and follow the command prompts.

KNOWN BUGS
A list of known bugs is available here. If you encounter a bug while playing this mod, I encourage you to report it in this thread with important details so that I may attempt to fix it.

v0.4
- Multiclass monks receive the Set Snare innate ability.
- Dual-classing removes the Monk animations.
- The non-human Monk animations have slight graphical issues when wielding weapons.

CHANGE LOG
A list of all mod version changes is available here.

Version 0.42
- Changes to various Monk items to be usable by Thieves.
- Slight fix to IWDEE components (no multiclass kits right now).

Version 0.41
- Slight refinement of inter-component compatibility
- Added the Illusionist/Monk multi-class kit for Gnomes

Version 0.4
- Total feature overhaul (available on GitHub)
- Improved compatibility with mods and EET
- Removed the items component (for now)

Version 0.3 (available via the attached .rar)
- Fixed Shadowstep ability bug (discovered by @Draylyn).
- Added Polish translation (courtesy of @Cahir).

Version 0.2
- Renamed to Monastic Orders (of Faerun)
- Added IWD:EE compatibility
- Fixed a text string with the improve fists
- Fixed bugs with the fist progression

Version 0.1
- First public release as Monks Remastered

Ideas, criticism and comments always appreciated.

Have something you would like to see in this mod? Suggest it in the thread and I'll see what I can do.

lunar · May 2013

A few instant ideas:

Broken ones-Healer type. Gains clerical spells as special abilities at lvl ups, like cure wounds, aid, slow poison, mass cure, heal, and regeneration at highest levels. In return they lose all the monk walking speed, saving throw and catch missiles bonuses and acquire fist attacks/round slower.

Long Death-Necromantic-Undead basher type. should focus on necromancy and abilities that deal with undead. Chill, ghoul touch, and vampiric touch as special abilities instead of stun attack. Repulse undead and negative plane protection spells as ability and Disrupting touch:undead should save vs death or is destroyed, instead of high lvl Quiveringpalm ability. Gains permanent Death Ward instead of immunity no normal weapons.

Old Order-Mind over body type. wisdom based AC and saving throw vs spells bonus, bonus to hide in shadows, gain immunity to many mind effects at lvl ups:blindness, horror, charm, hold, domination, confusion, psionic blast, maze, even imprisonment. Lose lay on hands and disease/poison immunity.

Shining hand-Protection spells and magic. gains protection spells as abilities at lvl ups:shield, blur, mirror image, pro from missiles, stoneskin, spell imunity, mantle, pro from elements. Lose stun attack and gain fist attacks at a slower rate. Lose quivering palm and gain Shining hand:an enemy spellcaster hit must save or have his protections dispelled and suffer %20 non cumulative spell failure chance for 3 rounds.

Yellow rose-Tough and hardy type, bonus to stealth, d10 hit dice and extra CON bonus above 16, can specialise in a weapon, charm animal ability like a ranger, barkskin on self as ability, bonus to save vs death instead of spells, immunity to petrification at lvl 5 instead of disease, immune to entangle/web at lvl 9 instead of charm. Stunning blow 1/6 lvls instead of 4. No quivering palm, get Endurance ability instead 1/day:Self, +1 hit point bonus/level, +2 save vs death for 10 rounds duration.

Aquadrizzt · May 2013

Thank you very much for the suggestions. Here is a now fully fleshed out Long Death Monk description.

Prerequisites:
- Must be human.
- Must be lawful neutral or lawful evil.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency:
- May become proficient (1 point) in Shortsword, Scimitar, Dagger, Club, Dart and Sling.
- May become specialized (2 points) in Single Weapon Style.
- May only wear Robes of the Long Death.

Advantages:
- Immune to hold.
- Moves 2 points faster than other characters, plus 1 point for every 5 levels.
- Receives -1 bonus to Armor Class at first level and an additional -1 for every 2 levels.
- Uses monk fist progression for damage dice and enchantments.
- +2 bonus to Saving Throws vs. Death.
- 4th Level: May use Leeching Blow once per day. Additional uses are gained every 4 levels.

LEECHING BLOW: The next successful attack steals 1d8 health plus 1d8 per 2 levels after 4 (up to a maximum of 6d8).

- 5th level: Becomes immune to disease and poison.
- 7th Level: Can cast Repulse Undead once per day, plus one additional time for every 3 levels after 7.
- 10th Level: Becomes immune to charm and domination.
- 11th Level: Deadly Resilience bonus improves to +4.
- 13th Level: May use Strike of Truth Death once per day.

STRIKE OF TRUE DEATH: The next successful attack forces the opponent to make a saving throw vs. death. Living creatures that fail the save take 3 times the monk's level in damage. Undead creatures that fail the save are destroyed.

- 14th Level: Becomes immune to level drain.
- 16th Level: Can cast Negative Plane Protection once per day, plus one additional time for every 5 levels past 16.
- 17th Level: Your fists deal an additional 1d6 damage against undead, plus an additional d6 for every 4 levels past 17.
- 20th Level: Gains immunity to all death magic.

Disadvantages:
- -2 Charisma: An obsession with death makes these monks unable to relate to most people.
- Does not gain saving throw bonus vs. spells.
- Does not gain Deflect Arrows (bonus to missile AC).
- Does not gain Lay on Hands.
- Does not gain Stunning Blows.
- Does not gain Quivering Palm.
- Cannot benefit from the effects of Haste.
- Does not gain immunity to Slow.
- Does not gain Protection from Normal Weapons.
- Does not gain Magic Resistance.
- Cannot become proficient in long swords or katanas.

lunar · May 2013

I like it. Looks more refined than my crude ideas, heh. One hitch, though. This kit becomes immune to lvl drain at lvl 14 but gets Negative plane protection spell at lvl16? When he no longer needs it? So he masters the negative energies and he can protect others too? He can use it on party members, it can be interesting as monks normally never take on the party-buffer role, they are all about being self-sufficient and kicking butt. (Literally!) :-)

Aquadrizzt · May 2013

Mostly I was feeling uninspired for what to replace it with. I've pretty much given them everything in terms of fighting undead power. I feel like it needs another ability to fill the huge void that is caused by taking away MR. Maybe I'll just have it so that at 16 and every 5 levels thereafter they get another use of Strike of True Death.

revaar · May 2013

I'd stay away from Stat penalties as a Disadvantage, especially in non physical stats. I highly doubt that anyone commonly plays monks with CHA as high 18 anyway, or even 16 for that matter. It's something that looks good on paper, and would translate well to a P&P game, but the way that Stats are rolled in this game, it will just end up being irrelevant. Instead, I'd suggest maybe a permanent -2 to NPC reaction Checks if you want to keep the "not able to relate to people" flavor. Or, for a different idea, maybe they are so in tuned to the energies of death that they can be affected by an opponent's (or ally's) Turn undead?

Aquadrizzt · May 2013

@revaar: Yeah, after thinking about what you said I realized that a penalty to a monk's charisma is so insignificant that it's not worth implementing. I have abandoned that particular aspect all together, as I think it unnecessarily penalizes these monks, especially given that they do not receive MR, which I view as a big loss to balance other strong powers.

In terms of general mod stuff, the Monk of the Long Death kit is almost complete (just needs bonus damage to undead and the specialized robes) and I've started work on Monk of the Old Order kit.

(As an aside, after having fleshed out 1.5 monk kits, I realized that monks stand out among BG kits because they actually possess a level progression. In the vanilla BGEE, only the new kits [dragon disciple, sun soul, dark moon] posseses a similar style of class development. Perhaps once I finish this, I could go and implement actual level progressions for the other classes.)

Drow_Arrow · May 2013

this mod looks very interesting and i look forward to seeing a release...

in the meantime i'm bookmarking this for future reference, keep up the good work.

Aquadrizzt · May 2013

Update: The Monk of the Long Death kit is complete and working so far. Yellow Rose is half done and I've just begun work on the Old Order.

Drow_Arrow · May 2013

Aquadrizzt said:
Update: The Monk of the Long Death kit is complete and working so far. Yellow Rose is half done and I've just begun work on the Old Order.

keep up the good work

Aquadrizzt · May 2013

Two more kit descriptions (and an updated Long Death description):

||||||||| OLD ORDER |||||||||

Prerequisites:
- Must be human.
- Must be lawful.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency:
- May become proficient (1 point) in Longsword, Katana, Shortsword, Scimitar, Dagger, Club, Dart and Sling.
- May become specialized (2 points) in Single Weapon Style.
- May only wear Robes of the Old Order.

Advantages:
- Moves 2 points faster than other characters, plus 1 point for every 5 levels. Your speed cannot be modified through the effects of Haste or Slow spells.
- Receives -1 bonus to Armor Class at first level and an additional -1 for every 2 levels.
- Deflect Missiles: -1 bonus to Armor Class vs. Missiles every 3 levels.
- Uses monk fist progression for damage dice and enchantments.
- +2 bonus to Saving Throws vs. Spells.
- Immune to blindness, deafness and fear.
- 4th Level: May use Stunning Blows once per day.

STUNNING BLOWS: All successful attacks within the next round force the victim to save or be stunned. This special ability automatically modifies attacks; no specific targeting is need.

- 5th Level: Gains immunity to hold and charm.
- 7th Level: May use Lay on Hands to heal 2 hit points per level once per day.
- 8th Level: Gains an additional use of Stunning Blows. Additional uses are gained every 5 levels after 8th.
- 10th level: Gains immunity to confusion and psionic blast. Gains immunity to wisdom and intelligence drain.
- 14th Level: Gains 3% Magic Resistance per level, starting at 45% at 15th level.
- 15th Level: May use Moment of Serenity once per day.

MOMENT OF SERENITY: For 6 seconds (plus an additional 2 seconds per every 7 levels above 15th), you shift your perception of time so that it practically stops. You can act freely during these 6 seconds.

- 17th Level: Gain immunity to Maze and Imprisonment.
- 20th Level: Gain damage reduction 3/-.

Disadvantages:
- Does not gain Quivering Palm.
- Does not gain immunity to poison
- Does not gain Protection from Normal Weapons.

||||||||| YELLOW ROSE |||||||||

Prerequisites:
- Must be human.
- Must be lawful good or lawful neutral.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency:
- May become proficient (1 point) in Dart and Sling.
- May become specialized (2 points) in Longsword, Katana, Shortsword, Scimitar, Dagger and Club.
- May become specialized (2 points) in Single Weapon Style.
- May only wear Robes of the Yellow Rose.

Advantages:
- Moves 2 points faster than other characters, plus 1 point for every 5 levels. Your speed cannot be modified through the effects of Haste or Slow spells.
- Receives -1 bonus to Armor Class at first level and an additional -1 for every 2 levels.
- Deflect Missiles: -1 bonus to Armor Class vs. Missiles every 3 levels.
- Uses monk fist progression for damage dice and enchantments.
- Gains 2 additional hit points per level.
- +2 bonus to Saving Throws vs. Death.
- Immune to entangle and web.
- 4th Level: May use Entangling Strike once per day.

ENTANGLING STRIKE: The next successful attack causes the foe to be entangled for a number of seconds equal to twice your level.

- 5th Level: Gains immunity to hold.
- 7th Level: May use Lay on Hands to heal 2 hit points per level once per day.
- 8th Level: Gains an additional use of Entangling Strike. Additional uses are gained every 5 levels after 8th.
- 10th level: Gains immunity to petrification.
- 11th Level: May use Enduring Stance once per day.

ENDURING STANCE: For 12 seconds, you cannot move but regenerate 1 hit point per two levels (maximum 10 at level 20) every second. You gain a +4 bonus to all Saving Throws and while in Enduring Stance.

- 15th Level: Gains 3% Magic Resistance per level, starting at 45% at 15th level.
- 17th Level: Gain an additional use of Enduring Stance. Additional uses are gained every 8 levels after 17th.
- 20th Level: Enduring Stance no longer prevents movement. You gain 15% resistance to physical (crushing, piercing, slashing) attacks.

Disadvantages:
- Does not gain Stunning Blows.
- Does not gain Quivering Palm.
- Does not gain Protection from Normal Weapons.

||||||||| LONG DEATH |||||||||

Weapon and Armor Proficiency:
- May become proficient (1 point) in Shortsword, Scimitar, Dagger, Club, Dart and Sling.
- May become specialized (2 points) in Single Weapon Style.
- May only wear Robes of the Long Death.

Advantages:
- Immune to hold.
- Moves 2 points faster than other characters, plus 1 point for every 5 levels. Your speed cannot be modified through the effects of Haste or Slow spells.
- Receives -1 bonus to Armor Class at first level and an additional -1 for every 2 levels.
- Deflect Missiles: -1 bonus to Armor Class vs. Missiles every 3 levels.
- Uses monk fist progression for damage dice and enchantments.
- +2 bonus to Saving Throws vs. Death.
- 4th Level: May use Leeching Blow once per day. Additional uses are gained every 4 levels.

LEECHING BLOW: The next successful attack steals 1d8 health plus 1d8 per 3 levels after 4 (up to a maximum of 6d8).

- 5th level: Becomes immune to disease and poison.
- 7th Level: Can cast Repulse Undead once per day, plus one additional time for every 3 levels after 7.
- 10th Level: Becomes immune to charm and domination.
- 11th Level: Saving throw vs. death bonus improves to +4.
- 13th Level: May use Strike of Truth Death once per day.

STRIKE OF TRUE DEATH: The next successful attack forces the opponent to make a saving throw vs. death. Living and undead creatures that fail the save are destroyed.

- 14th Level: Becomes immune to level drain.
- 16th Level: Gain an additional use of Strike of True Death, plus one additional use for every 5 levels past 16.
- 17th Level: Your fists deal an additional 3 damage against undead, plus an additional 3 damage for every 4 levels past 17.
- 20th Level: Gains immunity to all death magic.

Disadvantages:
- Does not gain saving throw bonus vs. spells.
- Does not gain Lay on Hands.
- Does not gain Stunning Blows.
- Does not gain Quivering Palm.
- Does not gain Protection from Normal Weapons.
- Does not gain Magic Resistance.
- Cannot become proficient in long swords or katanas. ~

Drow_Arrow · November 2013

@Aquadrizzt
got much more to do then?

Aquadrizzt · November 2013

Yeah I've been intending to revisit this mod idea (as well as my NPC kit mod) but just haven't had as much time as I did when I started developing the concept. Yellow Rose monks are about half-implemented, Long Death is almost finished and Old Order won't take too long as it only has slight changes from the basic monk progression. I had sketched out progressions for both Shining Handa and Broken Ones but I can't find them currently.

Drow_Arrow · November 2013

@Aquadrizzt ok that's understandable.. well i hope you get it completed eventually XD i look forward to it.

Aquadrizzt · November 2013

Well this is a setback....
Just went looking for my monk kit files only to find that they had been completely overwritten by the new patch.

Time to start from scratch.

Aquadrizzt · January 2014

Status Update Time!

I am currently in the final stages of pre-release editing. Expect a release sometime this week.

Things to look forward to
- Revised race options for monks
- Revised monk progressions for existing monks and kits
- 5 new kits
- 2 new item types with over 20 new items

Aranthys · January 2014

Aquadrizzt said:
20th Level: Gain damage reduction 3/-.

This can't be implemented in BG2.

Aquadrizzt · January 2014

Aranthys said:
This can't be implemented in BG2.

The progressions show above represent my designs from several months ago before I had started coding at all and do not reflect the actual progressions that I'm releasing.

All abilities that the updated kits provide are fully implementable and implemented (although I'm sure there will be bugs.)

Aquadrizzt · January 2014

This mod is currently released in beta. If you would like to download/playtest, please download it from the first post in this thread.

booinyoureyes · January 2014

so cool man, thanks for working on such a great idea.
I've been dying to try a monk, so I'm gonna be doing a Dark Moon dude to romance Viconia (Shar guides our hands)

Quick question: is there any way at all for a monk to be allowed to use a quarterstaff?
Would be cool to have a monk who can use darts really well too.

Aquadrizzt · January 2014

booinyoureyes said:
Quick question: is there any way at all for a monk to be allowed to use a quarterstaff?

I believe the enhanced editions removed the annoying hardcoded "1 hand only" restriction for monks, so yes it is possible. I believe there is an old mod somewhere around here (Tiger Style Monk) that focused on staff usage, you might want to check that out.

http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/14940/mod-tiger-style-monk-kit-1-3-staff-style-release-w-descriptions-moved-from-fighter-to-monk

booinyoureyes said:
Would be cool to have a monk who can use darts really well too.

All of the monk kits in this version focus primarily on unarmed attacks. If I could come up with an interesting/unique enough concept for a dart-throwing monk, it could happen (although, when you make a monk's primary weapon anything other than fist, it quickly becomes a fighter with a bunch of special abilities). As always, suggestions welcome.

Drow_Arrow · January 2014

Aquadrizzt said:
This mod is currently released in beta. If you would like to download/playtest, please download it from the first post in this thread.

I can't find the attached archive on t he first post for the mod beta.. am i blind or is it not there?

Aquadrizzt · January 2014

Drow_Arrow said:

Aquadrizzt said:
This mod is currently released in beta. If you would like to download/playtest, please download it from the first post in this thread.
I can't find the attached archive on the first post for the mod beta.. am i blind or is it not there?

If you are using Opera (and probably Firefox), the file sometimes (or always, not sure) will not appear. I am not entirely sure as to why this occurs, but considering using Chrome (or Internet Explorer, if you really want to...) to download.

Menkalinan · January 2014

This looks really interesting! I may have to create a new monk PC after I finish my current shapeshifter playthrough.

Menkalinan · February 2014

I've now tested this mod a little in BGEE and BGEE2. In BGEE, it installed without problems, but I get several error messages when launching the game, something like this:

.\sql_compiler.c[515]: [Overflow] Can't add colum 'QDLNGDTH'. Too many strings on table 'WEAPPROF'.

Those messages don't appear when launching BG2EE.

However, there seems to be something wrong with the THACO and damage description boxes in the character screen. All the monk kits seems to have this problem. I've attached a screenshot showing the odd text.

This is a very interesting and promising mod! I hope you keep working on it.

wolpak · February 2014

Your install did not patch the dialog.txt file properly. Move it to the root folder and rerun the install. Then return it.

Aquadrizzt · February 2014

Menkalinan said:
I've now tested this mod a little in BGEE and BGEE2. In BGEE, it installed without problems, but I get several error messages when launching the game, something like this:

.\sql_compiler.c[515]: [Overflow] Can't add colum 'QDLNGDTH'. Too many strings on table 'WEAPPROF'.

Those messages don't appear when launching BG2EE.

However, there seems to be something wrong with the THACO and damage description boxes in the character screen. All the monk kits seems to have this problem. I've attached a screenshot showing the odd text.

This is a very interesting and promising mod! I hope you keep working on it.

As far as I can tell, the SQL errors, while annoying, are completely harmless. I am also not entirely sure how to get rid of them (it is a game engine "issue" regarding the maximum accepted width of .2DAs).

If strings are messed up, then there was some error during installation; uninstalling and reinstalling should fix it.

Menkalinan · February 2014

It seems I can't fix the problem by uninstalling and then reinstalling. The odd texts are always there when the mod has been installed. I don't get any error messages during the install process itself though.

I'm afraid I don't understand wolpak's post. I don't even know where that dialog.txt file is located.

Aquadrizzt · October 2014

So it's been a while, figured I stir this pot and maybe get some more testers.

Comments, criticism and suggestions wanted and welcome.

I'm specifically unsure about the balance of relative kits but I'll see what others think.

Darkersun · October 2014

This is a very nice looking mod. If I can find the time without RL getting in the way, I will test it

Grammarsalad · October 2014

Wait! Halfling monks? What did you do for the animations? I had an idea for 'tallfolk' monks--monks are not barred from non-humans in 2e--using the human animations with racial coloring, but I couldn't think of any options for shorties (other than, say, thief animations but unarmed animations are weird.)

Anyway, will try this asap