A thought

[big teej]

hey playgrounders,

my group is very low op so on the whole, we are not in need of 'class fixes' for the weaker classes.

in fact, a straight fighter is one of our strongest members.

this leads me to....

The Monk.

I haven't seen somebody play one yet, but someone might, and in the event that it breaks down even at our level, I want to be prepared.


I am curious if the following changes are enough to bump it up any.

please note, bump it up ANY, not bump it up ENOUGH, I'm not getting that deep into the process.


changes:
1. full BAB
2. can enchant body as a weapon
3. can enchahnt 'monk's outfit' as armor

and, in the interest of races with natural weapons (I'm looking at you Skarn)
perhaps changing #2 too....
2. Can enchant natural weapons as if they were normal weapons


thoughts?
suggestions?

also, for those of you about to tear into this as "the monk is way to weak to fix so simply"

there is something I need to point out about my group.
back when we had a druid, the Fighter contributed more.
we have a cleric, and the Barbarian is outperforming it.
as is my Knight
and the party alchemist
and the party rogue
probably the party fighter too.
but I digress.

basically, 99% of all classes probably arn't weak enough for the disparate power levels to become painfully aparent in my group.
however, I did tell my players never to take the soulborn or the duelist. but hey.

[TroubleBrewing]

Monk doesn't really need a fix if your group is generally low-op. Play to have fun, enjoy the game, and don't worry about it.

[Benly]

These will probably improve the character with regard to the two problems easiest to run into in a low-op campaign (lack of magic items and Flurry of Whiffs). Countersynergistic abilities is less of an issue if nobody's taking good advantage of their ability interactions anyway.

[boomwolf]

Well, there ARE items for enchanting the natural attacks (mostly "amulet of natural attacks" or something...) and it counts unarmed as an option...so you might want to remove that part, its clunky...

As for enchanting normal cloths as armor, I think there are already rules about that somewhere.

Full BAB wont make it unbalanced,at all.


Generally I favor the NWN approach for monks and magic weapons/armor:
Robes are NOT armor, yet some have armor abilities (including a bonus to AC)
There are special "glove" like items that enchant your unarmed attacks in a verity of ways.

[jiriku]

Monk needs more skill points far more than it needs extra BAB.

[LOTRfan]

I also suggest allowing Monks to deal their unarmed strike damage when wielding special monk weapons, unless the weapon deals better damage.

[Sacrieur]

Things the monk needs:


Flurry of Blows, and not a Flurry of Misses
Higher AC
More skill points
Something better than slow fall


I would add his dex bonus as well as his strength to his attack rolls, to represent martial arts training. Maybe add a progression of 1/2 his Dex bonus, then full Dex bonus later on. Perhaps even add it to his damage rolls as well.

Higher AC is simple, just increase his natural AC bonuses.

More skill points. Easy.

As I was saying, something better than slow fall. Perhaps bonuses to resist feinting and tripping, as well as bonuses to feint and trip.

[DracoDei]

I have a very simple monk fix in my extended signature.

Slow fall exists for flavor reasons.

Amulet of Might Fists costs much more than equivalent weapon enchantments. This is very simple to fix, but mystical tattoos are harder (physically and ethically) to remove if captured.

[big teej]

I'll remember to take a look at that if/when someone finally gets around to playing a monk in our group.