Pathfinder: Monk Homebrew

[Hutch_Hogan]

Hey all,

I know it's not Monkday, but my campaign is Sunday and I'm new, so hopefully there aren't too many complaints.

I know that monks are a class that really needs some overhaul to get the class to be as good as so many starting players believe it is.

I know that some have mentioned balancing the monk class by adding some homebrew, but I was looking for some specific homebrew that would be able to help the monk out without ruining the experience.

As of right now, there are no casters in the party (they're currently in a location where magical powers are suppressed, but either way, no casters currently.

I was thinking of balancing the monk by adding some homebrew items. If I could get some opinions on whether the items work, or how they should be tweaked, etc. Please let me know.


Shaolin Hand wraps - heavy hand wraps that are used to train a monks fists and palms for combat.

Effect: treat your unarmed damage as being on size category larger.


Monk Robes - a heavy tunic made with a thick wool weave and dyed. These robes are woven with tough oxen hair, irritating the skin for constant awareness to the suffering of life.

Effect: add a +2 bonus to deflection bonus to AC, these robes do not affect a monks ability to use flurry of blows or fast movement.

Additional Ki Pool abilities:

Fluid attack - A monk can use 2 ki points to make a flurry of blows as a standard action instead of a full round action.

Iron Mind, Iron Body - A monk can expend all of his remain ki points to become a protective ward, he doubles his AC (before magical enhancements) and is unable to move from the location where he activates this ability. This ability lasts for 4 rounds.

Any input is appreciated.

[NamelessNPC]

The items don't seem very good. Enlarging a monk costs 1 round of time by a 1st level character, or a 25 gp potion, both of them very small prices.
And bracers of armor would work better than the proposed robes, because they stack with rings of protection.

What you need is better attack bonus and something else to do when punching is not the answer. Qinggong monk helps a bit.

[Hutch_Hogan]

The items don't seem very good. Enlarging a monk costs 1 round of time by a 1st level character, or a 25 gp potion, both of them very small prices.
And bracers of armor would work better than the proposed robes, because they stack with rings of protection.

What you need is better attack bonus and something else to do when punching is not the answer. Qinggong monk helps a bit.

The wraps were to make it like enlarge person but not quite for two reasons:
1. as listed above, spells, etc. are suppressed in their location.
2. no AC penalty.

[Andreaz]

I say you take the Diablo route and let them use any melee weapon as if it was the unarmed strike. For example: A +3 longsword would deal your unarmed strike damage, plus the weapon's enchantments damage type.


For armor... no need to go "all-new" here. Armor enchantments can be put on mundane clothing, like robes. Just tailor them to your tastes and slap the magic in.


More importantly, focus on the other class features: Flurry is nice, but can't be used in movement. And movement is the other half of the class.

[Hutch_Hogan]

I say you take the Diablo route and let them use any melee weapon as if it was the unarmed strike. For example: A +3 longsword would deal your unarmed strike damage, plus the weapon's enchantments damage type.


For armor... no need to go "all-new" here. Armor enchantments can be put on mundane clothing, like robes. Just tailor them to your tastes and slap the magic in.


More importantly, focus on the other class features: Flurry is nice, but can't be used in movement. And movement is the other half of the class.

The weapon suggestion is a good idea.

For the last bit, what do you think of this idea:

"Fluid attack - A monk can use 2 ki points to make a flurry of blows as a standard action instead of a full round action. "

[NamelessNPC]

Sorry about that, I just skimmed over the setting description bit. The changes seem ok then, but keep in mind that if there are not magic items, then the monk has nothing to spend his cash on once he has the robes and the hand wraps.

[Hutch_Hogan]

Truth.

The explanation is that they are in a prison on an island which suppresses magic to essentially nothing. Though once they reach a certain point, the island is going to lose this suppression and the casters on the island will become a large threat to the group.

[Crasical]

Instead of having special monk robes, you could just rule that armor with a max dex rating of - interferes in no way with the monk' movement or flurry of blows. Add that using the un-errata'd version of brass knuckles, where you are allowed to use your unarmed damage value if it's higher, and you've opened the normal range of weapon and armor enchants to a Monk, instead of having to buy things like Amulets of Mighty Fist.