How difficult would be to make a potion that grants temporary monk fighting skills?

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I was just talking to an old buddy and reminiscing about our D&D group. We recall one item that somebody at our high school thought up and used as a skit during morning announcements that we liked and decided to incorporate into our game. The item was called "Whoopass™ Kung-Fu in a Can".

In the game mechanics we worked out, it would last for 1 hour and allow the character to fight unarmed like a monk from 1st edition with effects similar to Tenser's transformation. Namely the THAC0 of a fighter of his/her highest class level, the doubling of HPs and the AC bonus. We didn't have the double-damage once the bonus HPs were lost, but the drinker did experience a strong urge to attack in melee as that was the point and required a saving throw each round he wanted to do something else besides attack in melee, drink a healing potion, or jockey for a better position to kick butt. Namely the "something else" were things like using ranged weapons (at normal THAC0), casting spells, or trying to sneak off to backstab. Backstab attempts were done at normal THAC0.

Obviously this came from a bunch of teenagers making juvenile jokes about how we were going to "open up a can of whoopass" on our enemies. Even the guy who was usually the DM (one of our friends) thought it was funny at the time.



How hard would it be to incorporate it into the game? It shouldn't be too unbalancing as it should simply be the equivalent of a potion of tensor's transformation. What I can't figure out is how to do the monk unarmed strike. Short of making a new fist weapon and copying how the werewolf transformation's paws work sans the dispelling. Nor can I figure out how to choose which weapon to give the drinker based on level or have the bonus's work based on level.

Can somebody make some suggestions? Should I just make the character have a set THAC0 and unarmed strike damage level? Setting it to do 20th level Tenser's for a low level character would make it overpowered, but doing only 10th level Tenser's for a mid to high level character would nullify the benefits. If that is the only way to go, I'd probably do 20th anyways.

I prefer IEEP, but I do have DLTCEP even if I'm not that proficient in it.


Oh well, it started about reviving our old joke, I didn't think it would be this hard. I thought it would be simple to whip up a potion that casts Tensor's Transformation along with granting the monk's unarmed attack effect, but I couldn't find that in IEEP. So much for a 5 minute mod. I spent more time than that typing up this message and proofing it.

 

Don't use IEEP. Use Near Infinity or DLTCEP. If you wanted a potion that did this, you'd need to have your potion create an off-hand item similar (or identical to) a monk's off-hand item. If you want a tenser's effect, too, have the potion also cast Tenser's transformation. Be warned -- if your potion drinker has an item in his off-hand or using a two handed weapon at the time he drinks the potion, you'll probably crash the game.

 

The question was can I make it level dependent? Can I have an 11 level mage drink the potion and get 11th level Tenser's Transformation cast on him while a 18th level thief gets 18th level Tenser's cast on her?

Ditto for choosing which monk fist to give the drinker. the 1d10, 2d6, or 2d10, etc.

 

Yes on both counts. Take a gander at any other level-dependent spell (like Tenser's Transformation) to see how this is formatted.

The short answer is that you have the potion apply different level-dependent effect. At level "x" you generate "fist" "y" and apply a level "x" Tenser's Transformation. Or whatever.

I've been thinking about it, though, and you don't necessarily have to generate an off-hand item and risk crashing your game. It would probably be easier and safer to just have the potion generate a "fist weapon" ala ghoul's touch and chill touch that sets the damage and has the attack bonuses and extra attacks -- even the Bonus HP -- built right in. The downside here is that you would only be able to use the "fist" until the potion's effects expire or are dispelled, but that's a hell of a lot better than potentially crashing your game.

 

I thought spells cast off scrolls were cast as a level 10 caster regardless of the level of the reader? Or am I confusing things with Baldur's Gate I?
I can't think of any level dependent items. All the damage dealing ones I looked at do a fixed set of damage even if they supposedly cast a level Dependant spell like lightning bolt. In the case of the Ring of Gaxx with the improved invisibility, I haven't noticed any changes in the duration, but I haven't payed that much attention since most of the time my need is pretty short term. Plus, that was an invoked item that uses the item button as opposed to a consumable item in the quickslot. I can't think of any level dependant effects cast from items

As for the fist item only lasting for the duration of the potion, that was the idea. The whole premise was based on a skit that was performed for our high school. The idea was that you open the can drink the contents which temporarily transforms you into a kung-fu warrior with complete with ghi and enhanced physique with a flash of light and poof of smoke. When the effect wears off you revert back to your previous self and normal clothes while losing the skills.


It would have been nice if I could also change the player's avatar to that of a monk in a way similar to how a druid looks when he shapeshifts for the duration of the potion, but that would probably gratuitous and too much work for the effect as I think they are accomplished via polymorph instead of a mere cosmetic change. On the other hand a polymorph like a a werewolf might work better, as I could give the drinker perfect physical stats of STR 18/100, DEX 18, CON 18..The only problem is that I think the same avatar is used for male and female shapeshifted druids of any kind, and the female drinkers would lack breasts on their avatars. Or the male drinkers would grow man-boobs.

 

No, you're right, but it's really easy to change this. G3 Tweaks has a component that does just that. You just format the effects of the scroll in the same way a spells effects are formatted. It works the same way. If you want to see what such a level dependent scroll would look like, I reccomend downloading G3 tweaks, installing the level-dependent scrolls component, and using those modded scrolls of Tenser's Transformation and, say, chill touch as your guide.