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Origomar
2009-06-25, 12:17 AM
Alright now almost everyone agrees that monks have some problems, and i have taken the liberty(aka i have too much free time) to put together a list of things that would make the monk slightly if not better, more unique to play.

Basically everything here is a slight buff from his existing self.

One of the key issues with monk IMO is that his class abilities are completely useless in most situations due to certain limitations(Ex. abundant step limited to once a day quivering palm limited to once a WEEK, timeless body being acquired at level 17 which by then some may be campaigns already over, ect ect ect.)

So Ive made some changes to the list to make abilities more attractive/more all around useful.

1. Timeless body is now a class feature(but remember you still don't want to be too old because even though your body is timeless you can still die, this also helps monks be less MAD not much but every bit counts rite:smalltongue:)

2. Slow fall can be used without being next to a surface as you are falling, BUT you take a 50% penalty on the effectiveness of the(Ex. Mr.monk is getting attacked by an overwhelming force, and he forgot to put points into his tumble check! ohnoes there doesnt seem to be a conveniently placed wall for him to slow his descent on, no worries he only takes 30 feet of fall damage instead of 60) Oh and at level 20 he can feather fall all day.

3. Quivering Palm, the bane is that no matter what level you are you can only use it once a week, well no more. Now depending on your level you can use it up to once a day! The equation goes as follows, you can use it twice a week at level 15 when you get it(Note: you CANNOT use it more than once a day) and every day after that you can use it once more time a week until 20.

4. Abundant Step, more useless because of its limitation like Quivering Palm. As you probably suspected, no more! At level 12 you gain the ability to use it once a day, then every two levels you gain the ability to use it 1 more time a day, giving a total of 5 uses a day.

5. Damage reduction! Yet another ability that can be used for level gains making the class more attractive for cross classing. Instead of waiting 20 levels for your well earned reward of 10/magic damage reduction you can gain access at it at level 2!Not all of it though...At level 2 and every two levels after you gain +1 damage reduction/magic. This is supposed to symbolize the increase in toughness of the characters body through the art of iron fist.

6. Here we are to the anti caster part of monk's. Yup spell resistance, (im not exactly sure on this but i heard people discussing how its only usefulness is blocking out friendly spells so..) now you can control it. The monk can choose whether or not he wants said spellcaster's spell to effect him.(im sure this is a general houserule but i decided to put it on here anyway.)

7. Large portions of this community also dislike, one of the supposed positive factors of the monk and that is Flurry. Many people wish they could have full BAB to improve effectiveness, or make it a standard action to compliment the monks fast moving fighting style. I have come to a conclusion that would offer more varieties to the monk without uber buffing him or changing anything in existence already. A monk can now, instead of using a full round action to make his 5 pronged ancient tiger fist attack and then stand there for no reason afterwords, he can make his 3 pronged ancient tiger fist attack. But he can only do this if he is specialized in the arts of flurry in the first place( Essentially, a monk can now if they have improved flurry, attack with their regular BAB bonus as a standard action.) BUT, if they use TWF, it still counts as a full round action.

8. While i dont think monks should be a healbot, at their current state at rank 20, with an average health of 90(not including constitution bonus's, item bonus's ect.) they can heal 4/9ths of their health as a standard action(Im fairly certain it is if Im wrong don't be mean :smallbiggrin:) I would like to raise this to x3 to be more useful.

And that's all for the changes i think should happen to monk.(please post constructive answers and if i have a lapse in knowledge please correct me ignorance just spreads ignorance:smallwink:



Well there's one more thing id like to change and it has to do with his gear, the weapons he use aren't grade A stuff they lack real...oomph they kind of aren't very..well they suck. So Ive taken the liberty(once again using my free time whilst bored over the summer)

Since there are only 4 and 3 of them have fairly minor changes changes this section isnt very long.

1. Siangham instead of a critical hit damage of x2 they now have one of x3. Essentially making it the same weapon as a hand axe. I believe this is appropriate because like a punching dagger they are deep cut weapons therefore do a lot of damage on crits.

2. Sai, all damage stats, throwing ranges and such stay the same, except when using it for disarming purposes (aka the disarming attack roll) you treat it as a one handed weapon instead of a light weapon and it gains a +2 bonus to it's disarming attack roll. So instead of the regular +0 it receives a slight upgrade to give an edge to disarming since it basically was made FOR disarming.

3. Nunchaku, like the sai it retains all damage rolls for the weapon and also is treated as a one handed weapon for purpose's of disarming and receives a +2 bonus. Once again, this weapon's purpose was to disarm, and as of before it did not fulfill that purpose(and i mean purpose IRL, bringing a wee bit of realism doesn't always hurt)

4. This is the weapon that i had difficulty designing something new for. In fact its barely even what it used to be, instead of a Kama it is a Kusurigama. Essentially the same thing except its a Kama with a chain and weight attached to the other end of the chain. This ones long so ill be numbering changes

A. Although for attacking purposes it is considered a light weapon(for both ends but we will get to that later) it requires he use of both hands.

B. You can still make regular attacks with the Kama just as before.

C. Now, if they are at a 10 foot range(similar to a reach weapon) you can trip them, but NOT if they are closer than that then you have to attack(or run or do whatever just if your attacking) with the kama end. Anyway you can make a 10 foot reach attack or tripping attempt

D. You get a +2 to these trip attempt rolls, and if you fail a trip you can avoid being tripped by dropping the weapon.

E. If you succeed in the trip and you have improved trip you (instead of making an extra attack) do 1d6 points of damage+ damage modifiers(like if you have a high strength you would pull their feet from underneath them faster than normal therefore more damage is taken.)

F. You can attack regularly with the weighted chain at 10 feet as well, but it does 1d4 of bludgeoning damage.

G. AoO can be made two times if the enemy runs into a square that is adjacent to one of your adjacent squares and then into your square(if you have combat reflexes or something else that allows you to make more than one AoO per round) So pretty much it goes like this, an enemy charges to 10 feet away from you, you make an AoO with the weighted end, they then charge right next to you, you make an AoO with the Kama end.

H. This is NOT a double weapon, you cannot attack at any time with both ends of the weapon at the same time( although you can flurry and attack with one end of the weapon several times)

If you have any questions, complaints, tips, corrections or improvements they are all welcome.( though don't make me look stupid, i do enough of that without YOUR help :smalltongue:)

Pharaoh's Fist
2009-06-25, 12:25 AM
3. Quivering Palm, the bane is that no matter what level you are you can only use it once a week, well no more. Now depending on your level you can use it up to once a day! The equation goes as follows, you can use it twice a week at level 15 when you get it(Note: you CANNOT use it more than once a day) and every day after that you can use it once more time a week until 20.
Quivering Palm can be used as long as you are willing to give up 2 Stunning Fist attempts to activate it.


4. Abundant Step, more useless because of its limitation like Quivering Palm. As you probably suspected, no more! At level 12 you gain the ability to use it once a day, then every two levels you gain the ability to use it 1 more time a day, giving a total of 5 uses a day.
Horizonwalker gets it every 1d4 rounds at 11th level. It needs to be once every 5 rounds for monks.

Origomar
2009-06-25, 12:29 AM
Quivering Palm can be used as long as you are willing to give up 2 Stunning Fist attempts to activate it.


Horizonwalker gets it every 1d4 rounds at 11th level. It needs to be once every 5 rounds for monks.

Those are pretty good ideas but would a monk be able to just spam quivering palm that way?

Edit: and anything that wasnt immune to criticals would basically eventually die

Eldariel
2009-06-25, 12:42 AM
Edit: and anything that wasnt immune to criticals would basically eventually die

How is that different from just...y'know, attacking? You still need to hit for Stunning Fist/Quivering Palm to be useful, and really, if they fail their save vs. either one, it should be good enough. But if you're hitting enough to force them to fail a Fort-save, chances are they'll die of the damage, not the Fort-save...

Origomar
2009-06-25, 12:51 AM
How is that different from just...y'know, attacking? You still need to hit for Stunning Fist/Quivering Palm to be useful, and really, if they fail their save vs. either one, it should be good enough. But if you're hitting enough to force them to fail a Fort-save, chances are they'll die of the damage, not the Fort-save...

I guess your right, and anything with a low fort save deserves to die anyway -.-

Eldariel
2009-06-25, 12:59 AM
I guess your right, and anything with a low fort save deserves to die anyway -.-

Things with low Fort-saves generally have low Con and therefore die to your flurry if you actually get to beat 'em up. And it's not like the Wizard couldn't just Disintegrate/Finger of Death/Baleful Polymorph/Stinking Cloud/whatever low-Fort opponents into submission with their insane save DCs anyways, saving you the trouble of having to beat 'em up.

Origomar
2009-06-25, 01:00 AM
Things with low Fort-saves generally have low Con and therefore die to your flurry if you actually get to beat 'em up.

i wasn't being sarcastic.

Eldariel
2009-06-25, 01:04 AM
i wasn't being sarcastic.

Yeah, I just pointed out you don't usually really need to Stunning Fist them if you get in there to beat them up as they're dead anyways, and just oldfashioned facebashing saves you a daily use.