iirc, tgm said he wanted, in the distant future, do something about turning undead. imo its too powerfull. mighty monsters, as vamps are, can be turned away or charmed but not explode. and i also have to say that level draining is nasty (i hate it. thats why i hate vamps) and a monk immune to it is not a good idea.

Vampires are only "mighty monsters" if the DM or writer wants them to be. In most vampire fiction and film vampires are pathetic monsters, killed by the score by any competent foes. Only rare "master" vampires are a threat. Yes, Dracula was a threat against a bunch of low level foes; the Vamps in BG are going against legendary heroes.

95% of the work of difficulty increasing mods could be taken care of by just quadrupling the number of XP needed for each level. Those who want to play low level characters going against deadly monsters could do so, while those who prefer the fast advancement of the original game could have it. Just a thought.

The mod makers may or may not want to include level drain immunity, but that is a matter of personal taste. There is no genre or game balance reason not to.

No Bob, there is a reason. While I agree to the point (see my reply to Rathwellin) that it wouldn't unbalance the game completely, I would once again call the attention to the fact that I TRY TO MAKE THIS A LESS POWERFUL BASIS ABILITY. And since this is a permanent bonus, we must be a bit more cautious by using opcode immunities. While immnuity to Confusion and Domination is useful against various opponents and can give a boost in some situations, an immunity vs. Level Drain makes Vampires easy prey for all. I still think this is a considerable thing.

I guess it's in how you look at it.

By TOB, even by the end of SOA, having one cleric in your party makes vampires into a minor nuisance, as they should be. The only way to "fix" that is to make vampires immune to turning and/or to get rid of the anti-undead Cleric spells. You could do that, but then you'd both be nerfing one of the cleric's prime functions and going for a comletely out of genre solution, as basic Vampires are almost always only a threat to unarmed low level characters in fiction.

I don't see making a high level Monk immune to a nuisance monster's special attack as a problem.  

However, it is a matter of taste.

You can create and rename a duplicate of an NPCs .cre file, remove the NAMEJ association so it won't try to join, and build a custom item or spell to summon one of these "new" NPCs. When making the .cre file you will be able to give it any inventory items and equipment you'd like, and you can give it a script. You can't access it's inventory except through a script-and-dialog to turn it into a store keeper, and even more scripting might let it equip stuff (haven't tried that). You can have it follow you, fight, and cast spells. Never tested to see if any of the dialogs or interjections fired; I'm sure that force talking could be done.

So, this could be approximated.

Did this with an item to summon Jan Jansen. He couldn't follow from area to area (had to be re-summoned), but I know that there's a way to fix this as well.

Hurrah! Set me to a task and watch me do it! I can write banter

Shed, valiant Pratchett fan that thou art, welcome aboard. Do you think you have time for one TOB banter between Hubelpot and any other character? Also, one more SOA Hub-Imoen banter would be welcomed.

And yes, I do owe you one Mazzy and one Ano banter.

Maybe it could be way to reduce the level drain effect ?    I mean, if Bodhi drains 4 levels per hit, to have an ability which would allow it to drain only 2 levels ?

I think that all or nothing immunity is all that the engine can do. If you want to limit it, making it a limited duration power that has to be turned on is easy.

Bob, I have to ask: Do you really expect people to take you seriously?

It was all serious, except the bit that wasn't.

So, please, if you want to contribute, give us a shout.

Thank you one and all for your help with Beta1. We've had lots of wonderful feedback and support. The suggestions and bug reports you have given us were invaluable, and we are fixing what we can this week.

If you have any banters you'd like to see in the mod for Beta2, any interjections, or anything else, please try to get them to us by the 16th; we will be very grateful. What we need most right now:

1) Bug reports.

2) SOA Interjections.

3) TOB Banters.

4) TOB Interjections.

5) A portrait for Hubelpot's son Hamlish.

6) A portrait for Blake.

7) A portrait for Sweet Fanny Adams.

All help, ideas and suggestions (including the anatomically unlikely) are welcomed.

Vegetable merchants of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your amusing carrots! This message brought to you by Team Hubelpot. My not be available through divine revelation. No root vegetables were injured in the making of the Hubelpot mod. All characters in the mod are fictional, so far as we know. If not, we would really like to go on a pub crawl with these guys. Except Gnome #2, he's a complete bastard.

About Level Drain immunity: It is already established in the BG2 game that the "Rage" of barbarians can protect them from Level Drain. There are an endless number of Hong Kong martial arts films featuring martial artists fighting Vampires, martial artists fighting supernatural creaturs, and martial artists who are vampires (Jet Li's "Cult Master" from the early 90s and the 2003 "Twins Effect" movie come to mind, as well as the long running "Mister Vampire" comedy  series). Real world Spirit Fist kung-fu teaches practitioners to meditate on chanelling the spirits of dead kung-fu masters, and the practitioners do not think of it as a joke.

So, in BG2 we know that an internal power (Barbarian Rage) can protect from level drain, we know that official D&D includes all kinds of supernatural abilities for monks, we know that real world martial arts sometimes features mystic ritual, and we know the martial arts film genre that gives us the Monk's other special abilities includes vampire and undead fighting. The mod makers may or may not want to include level drain immunity, but that is a matter of personal taste. There is no genre or game balance reason not to.

"It's crude, but it works" is our slogan.

Just made you an Aerie The Cleric Sorcerer. I'll post it later today or early tomorrow, as soon as I get back from work, to which I must now go.

Won't be WEIDU: Youll need to drop it into your Overide folder.

Uh... any specific reason why not Aerie? Like... i like the girl... sorceress/cleric... uhm... so... anyway will my BG2 explode if i make her a s/c ?

The other two.. i dont play with them. i only play with 4 people... and this time around ill try Tsjulatha

Aerie is already a Cleric/Mage; the books will only turn her into a Cleric/Mage with an overcrowded spell book.

However, if you would like to make a SOrcerer/Cleric Aerie, it will take two minutes in Shadowkeeper or NI to make her a Sorrceress; at that point, you can give her the books. Best of both worlds.

For that matter, it would be dead easy to add a "Sorceress/Cleric for Aerie" component to the mod. I'd only have to edit three or four .cre files. I may do that, in which case thanks for the suggestion.

Ahh, great, and just another question: is this available for npcs as well or only the PC ?

Give the books to any Arcane NPC you'd like (except Aerie). Let Haer Dalis become your Blade/Cleric, and watch him turn undead like St.Cuthbert himself. Let Edwin put Cleric Spells in a spell sequencer. Turn Kelsey into a follower of Mystra and Cleric- Sorcerer.

Note: The next release should be out in a month or so, and will expand and streamline the mod. No quests, but better books, more spells, some dialog, etc.

I agree that the mods make a huge difference. I had stopped playing BG2 when I happened to stop by TeamBG and saw that the Big Picture was out. It was interesting enough to draw me back in, and the other mods have kept me here. I haven't been playing so much as modding for the last few months, but that seems to be the way it works.

Started a new game, but i cant find the kits to choose?

CLUA in the books and read them, or go to Waukeen's Promenade, find Mystra's Witness and talk to him.

Having the change occur from reading the book was my crude way of allowing for odd combos like Blade/Cleric, Skald/Cleric, Illusionist/Cleric, etc.

Immunity to weapons might be a fine option... there are also monk NPCs after all.
We want stuff that fits, not stuff to powerplay, in principle.

I'd say that some high level of immunity to all weapons would be very-good: Hardiness or a higher power version. Immunity to Normal Weapons would be as worthless to TOB Monk NPCs as it is to CHARNAME.

None of the new games that have come out so far have offered quite the same mix. The game that came closest was probably TOEE, which then blew it with dull NPCs, poor writing and buggy game play. KOTOR is probably the first real "threat" I've seen to BG2 from what I hear, though I haven't had a chance to play it.

I don't know if giving the monks more an ability with resist magic effect it's a good idea, because they already have magic resistance.

Well, looking at those descriptions again, the only other ability that matches up with Perfect Self (as per TG's request) in BG2:TOB would be immunity to normal weapons. That's an ability that CHARNAME may already have in TOB, and at any rate it's almost completely worthless anyway, as nothing worth worrying about in TOB uses normal weapons.

To be honest, I'd like to add something similar to the 3rdE counterpart of Diamond Soul/Perfect Self. Could you comment this idea (after checking on those abilities in IWD2 for example)?

From the SRD:

Diamond Soul (Ex): At 13th level, a monk gains spell resistance equal to her current monk level + 10. In order to affect the monk with a spell, a spellcaster must get a result on a caster level check (1d20 + caster level) that equals or exceeds the monk?s spell resistance.

Perfect Self: At 20th level, a monk becomes a magical creature. She is forevermore treated as an outsider rather than as a humanoid (or whatever the monk?s creature type was) for the purpose of spells and magical effects. Additionally, the monk gains damage reduction 10/magic, which allows her to ignore the first 10 points of damage from any attack made by a nonmagical weapon or by any natural attack made by a creature that doesn?t have similar damage reduction. Unlike other outsiders, the monk can still be brought back from the dead as if she were a member of her previous creature type.

So, make it a mix of Hardiness and Resist Magic?

Not sure how it's less magical than level drain immuity.

Just speaking as a long time fan of Wuxia films and Chinese martial arts, if you want something like Diamond Soul it might work as a souped up version of Hardiness, giving damage reduction or the same spell immunities as a Barbarian's Rage.

The closest I've ever seen n a martial arts film to this stuff would be the variations on Iron Shirt technique, where the practioner becomes highly resistant to all forms of damage until the shirt is "broken", usually by finding the practitioners one unproteted point.

You might be surprised at how much out and out magic is to be found in some Hong Kong martial arts films.

I'll give a few for each level; the rest you may figure out yourself.

-Color Spray, Magic Missile, Shocking Grasp
-Protection from Arrows (nice early on, but eventually wears off it's usefulness), Mirror Image, Blur
-Improved Invisibility (enemies don't see you even if you attack, unlike BG1/2 where they partially see you), Stoneskin, Mordenkainen's Force Missiles (it's bad early on, but at level 17 it's one of the best spells you can ever use)
-Lutzaen's Frequest Jaunt (a must have teleport-anytime spell), Sunfire, Cone of Cold, Lower Resistance, Domination, Hold Monster
-Globe of Invulnerability, Chain Lightning, Soul Eater, Circle of Death
-Finger of Death, Seven Eyes (a must-have), Elemental Barrier, Summon Djinni/Efreeti
-Horrid Wilting, Flaying, Iron Body (it's useful in only given circumstances), Symbol Stun, Fiery Cloud
-Power Word: Kill, Wail of the Banshee, Aegis, Black Blade of Disaster, Mass Domination

This is only a brief glance

-Galactygon

No Timestop ?  

There is no Time Stop in IWD2.

ps. what about Nalia, how can she become one of the council  

1) It's not the same Council.

2) Nalia has more than enough power by herself to slaughter the Council and all of their personal troops by the end of TOB, and with her allies she could reduce Athkathla to a smoking ruin. I think they would see reason.

Snowball Storm and Fire Ball. Area of effect damage is you friend.

magic items are not sold on every corner.

Ehhh... what do you mean, Bob ?    There is a restriction for selling magic items in Athkatla ?  

Magic items are too common in BGII as compared to the official Forgotten Realms, especially in a place like Athkathla where magic is legally restricted.

The point of all of this is that the government and ecconomics of BGII's Athkathla are not the same as the official Athkathla; it's a home brew setting.

Worth noting that the BGII Council is probably not the same as the "Official" council. In the official game the Cowled Wizards are not part of the city government, and magic items are not sold on every corner.

Good to see that the project is still rolling along, Andy.