Monk Fist: findings and questions

[suy]

Hello. I would like to tune a bit the Monk class, and the first and easiest thing I would like to do is balance the progression of damage, enchantment and APR of the unarmed damage (and probably something about using weapons as well). I don't know yet how I want to change it, so I'm just exploring what it's possible. For now I don't want to go too radical, just editing files a bit, and balance the DPS.

First, this is what I've found:

• monkfist.2da: Controls the fist item that the monk has equipped as Fist at any given level. MFIST1.ITM, MFIST2.ITM, etc.
• profs.2da: Controls the amount of proficiency points gained at first level and the amount of levels needed to gain another proficiency point.
• weapprof.2da: Controls the amount of proficiency points that a class/kit can allocate in a certain weapon or weapon style.
• wspatck.2da: Controls the extra attacks per round given class level and number of proficiency points.
• clswpbon.2da: Controls which classes can get extra APR from the previous table, and how many levels are needed to gain half attack per round with fists.

Feel free to correct if anything above is wrong. Now, the questions:

1. I've not found where the cap of 4 APR with the Fist is defined, so should I assume is an engine limit? I've read that without Haste or Whirlwind, there is a limit of 5 APR, so if one has to be the off-hand, that would explain it. Is there any workaround? Can some granted spell increase the number of attacks, or should it go through some kind of innate haste-like effect?
2. Why the MFIST*.ITM items have the flags they have, and what could be changed? The default is that only one bit is active, the one that in NearInfinity shows as "Fake two-handed" and in IESDP is named "force two-handed animation". Removing it the punches and kicks animations goes away, but equipping an off-hand weapon, which is possible, also changes that. I wanted to make it a proper 2-handed weapon (like a spear, for example), that disallowed the off-hand weapon when using the fist, but still allowed dual wielding, but I failed. Enabling on the fist the "Two-Handed" flag that is true in real two-handed weapons, doesn't seem to behave the same (with or without the default bit on). It disallows equipping anything in the off-hand, in any circumstance, with the "Two-handed weapon equipped" error message, so I could not dual wield at all. I tried to find out if the fist is somehow permanently equipped, but it doesn't seem so: I gave it critical hit protection, and equipping a sword in the main hand, the critical hit protection is gone.

I think that's all for now. Thank you!

[Grammarsalad]

Okay, it's been a while, but I remember that there is a way to change the mfist item, and I think the fist item, to act like a "normal weapon" (i.e. where it acts like any other weapon re proficiency, specialization, etc.) I don't remember how. I'll check in a bit, but thought I'd throw that out there

[Azazello]

On 4/25/2020 at 6:35 PM, suy said:

I would like to tune a bit the Monk class...so I'm just exploring what it's possible.

There are several mods that make changes to the class; you can review them to see how & what the modding achieves:

(Monk Remix) Details of changes to the Monk class - Sword and Fist

Monk Tweak: scaled Wisdom bonus to AC

Monks - Kit Revisions (Unreleased Projects)

"The punchy-kicky [animation] stuff monks do is their two-handed melee attack sequence (cause mfist.itm is a two-handed weapon with no equipped appearance)"

 

[suy]

First, a big (but late) thank you for the links, Azazello. I was aware of only some of them.

Second, just note that I found the answer to the first question: I want to enable the "left handed" bit, and then the Monk can dual wield weapons, but not use an off-hand weapon while making attacks with the first. The fist becomes then like a two-handed weapon, like I wanted. Thanks auiwqi in the Discord chat for the finding.

About the second question, the APR cap with unarmed attacks: if there is a limit that states where the progression stops, I have not found it. But increasing the rate to 1 per level allows you to achieve 5 APR at level 8 (as you gain half APR per gained level, and the first counts, so 1+(4*0.5)). In the vanilla game you stop gaining attacks after the 4th per round, at level 18. Maybe it just caps at level 20? Because at level 25 there is still fist progression (it changes the enchantment level only though).