Monk advice

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That is something that is unique to MC druids. In all other cases, the armor restriction carries over, disabling abilities in the restricted class. A MC mage who wears armor can't cast spells. A MC thief who wears greater than leather armor can't use thief abilities, but a MC druid gets to wear any armor and still cast spells.

I can only guess that the developers felt that since the only combo class possible with a druid is fighter, that it would be too restricting if you had limitations both to weapons and armor? It can't be just a programming issue, as the developers had no problem implementing both weapon and armor restrictions on a cleric/thief or a cleric/mage.

 

What, the movie? AD&D 2nd Edition was printed in 1989, The 13th Warrior movie was released in 1999, and Antonio Banderas' character Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan did not exactly strike me as a druid.

But it can. Just like with the Ranger/Cleric getting all those Druid spells. Druids are divine spellcasters, just like Clerics. While there are provisions for "disable arcane spellcasting" and "disable thieving" when wearing certain suits of armor, there is no such provision for "disable divine spellcasting".

 

Because arcane magic uses complex gestures, ones that require precise coordination. And heavy armor screws your hands in a jiffy. Meanwhile, what divine spellcasting boils down to is... praying. Ergo, you put your palms together and ask your deity for a favor. Not much to be screwed there, even if you wear fifty pounds of steel on yourself.

 

The issue was why Fighter/Druids can use items forbidden to the Druid ethos without disabling their Druid spellcasting, not why people can't cast arcane spells or pick pockets while wearing gauntlets.

 

And it has already been pointed out to you, because developers probably felt it would be too much of a nerf the other way around.

 

The F/D armor rules in BG2 is a miss by the developers. In AD&D, Priests (both Clerics & Druids) followed a type of Etho, Clerics follow the rules of the Gods and Nature for the Druids. They are belief systems. These Ethos restricted what the various types of Priests could do/use. Priests can only use blunt weapons, irregardless of Multi/Dual classing. Druids were limited to a small weapon selection and non-metal armor selection even when Mutli/Dual classing. The developers missed(or ignored) the armor restriction for F/Ds. I say possibly ignored as there were various rule updates/tweaks/options made by TSR via Dragon Magazine/RPGA network and add-on rulebooks. Some of these rule changes allowed for Deity Favored Weapon for Clerics and Metal Armor for F/D.

It is not a "nerf" so much as a combination of their interpretation of what is the proper AD&D rules and what they thought would balance the game as created(a.k.a. the only thing Fighter would bring to the table for F/D is multi-attacks and Fighter HLAs to be evened out be slower level advancement for Multi-classing).

 

I thought in BG1 at least druid spells were disabled with metal armour? Or am I remembering with a tweak pack? I definitely remember times in both games where her spells are browned out unsuable with certain equipment.

 

I think you're all just reading way too much into it. We could theorize for years about what the devs thought, but there's a much simpler explanation: the game makes no provision for different types of divine spellcasting.

There's arcane spellcasting, which gets disabled by armor, and there's divine spellcasting, which does not get disabled. This means all divine spellcasting; Clerical and Druidic. That leaves the following choice:

1. Metal armor disables divine spellcasting. Fighter/Druids are as they should be, Clerics get royally screwed.
2. Metal armor does not disable divine spellcasting. Clerics are as they should be, Fighter/Druids luck out.

It stands to reason that, given this choice, they'd opt for the latter.

If you don't think that's how it is, then look at Ranger/Clerics and tell me why a level 9 Ranger/Cleric can cast Iron Skins.

 

You do know that the 13th warrior is based on a book written in the 1970s (Eaters of the Dead) that was partially based on an actual historical account (with fictional parts added of course in this case)?

Also that must be a tweak pack as jaheira is always wearing plate in my games and is able to cast all spells.

 

Her spells will be unusable when shapeshifted, not when wearing armor. This also applies when using the Wolf's Cloak in BG1.

I'm surprised that none of the fixpacks or tweak packs nerf the fighter/druid by making them obey druid armor restrictions as well as weapon restrictions.

 

We need a mod that implements the +one-half point of damage per level when attacking with a weapon for monks (any weapon they were proficient in). They lost their multiple attacks per round when using a weapon but partially compensated by hitting for more damage.

 

Ah, yes, the book... which is also based on Beowulf. Still, I see no connection between it and Druids other than "a curved blade" (despite it curving the other way than a sickle would.)

 

I can't see how to do that without the bonus also applying to the fists, but I'm the script kiddy of modders. I supose you could reduce the damage given by fists by one category per level, and the damage bonus would even it out somewhat.

 

I would prefer to just take it back to the original way it was handled in BG2 before the patch and have the monk have his full attack rate with any weapon. Fists will deal more damage most of the time but the magic weapons will give useful bonuses and it would allow you to be more effective against magic creatures earlier since you no longer have to wait for your fists. I would also love to eliminate the immunity to haste (or at least the immunity to imp haste) though I know that is also something from the original 1e monk (but not the 3e monk which the BG2 monk is also partially based).

 

Xi-Xi the Monk is now level 15, meaning she has all of the stuff that supposedly makes Monks cool... but I still fail to be impressed. Her only redeeming qualities seem to be her immunity to charm and OK-ish magic resistance. I suppose she'll eventually end up with good AC and loads of attacks, and the Gauntlets of Crushing will help, but she's still just a rather generic tank. There's nothing special about her.

Maybe I'm just spoiled rotten with all sorts of multi- and dual class combinations... but can someone remind me of what was so great about Monks? Can they keep up with a fully tooled-up warrior in Throne of Bhaal? Maybe she could reach 100% magic resistance... that'd be quite something.