Question on flurry of blows

[Legolam]

Am DMing a game for the first time, for a group of 4 at the moment (Scout, Cleric, Monk, Fighter). Having read up on how under powered monks can be, I was considering making Flurry of Blows a standard action. The intention being to allow him to make his flurry of blow attacks after he moves (just the flurry of blows, so 2 attacks up to lvl 11, then 3).
Question is, I'm not sure how this would balance against the rest of the party or in general, so was wondering what the general consensus was.

[nedz]

Scout and Fighter are of similar power to the Monk.
It really all depends upon how the Cleric is played. If he mainly supports the other characters, rather than steal their spotlight, then you should be fine.

[ThiagoMartell]

Anyway, if the Cleric does seem to become a problem, the best option would be to nerf one character instead of boosting everyone else IMHO.

[Legolam]

Cleric is playing as a shield fighter mainly, as in shield as main weapon, spells mostly for buffs and healing so far. Has the magic and knowledge domain, so has picked up wands and scrolls for blasting.

[Ceaon]

IMO... Don't preemptively change stuff around for the first game. Be vigilant, not paranoid, about imbalance.

[Jeff the Green]

Pretty sure this belongs in the 3.5 forum.


Be vigilant, not paranoid, about imbalance.

If he does that, he should change it. Truth is, monk is easily the worst class in core (and definitely worse than scout), and allowing him to actually use his class features is not going to break anything.

[Ceaon]

If he does that, he should change it. Truth is, monk is easily the worst class in core (and definitely worse than scout), and allowing him to actually use his class features is not going to break anything.

Only if, during play, the monk player feels inadequate and he or the others feel he's not contributing enough.

[kitcik]

I am all for boosting the monk, but with a new groupd letting one guy take an extra attack all the time at low level could annoy the other players.

Better you give him full BAB and show him the online Monk Handbook (just Google) so he can make informed choices about alternative class features. If the other players are beginners, this will probably be enough to make him ok.




Note: I realize the monk class is not NEARLY fixed by these changes, but taking into account the low optimization level one would expect from thsi group and the fact it is their first campaign...

[nedz]

The many and various comments about Monk which you will find on this forum mainly apply to High OP or High Tier parties. Parties of newbies: not so much.

You can argue, and there is supporting evidence, that the Monk class was created as a trap for new players. In which case you ought to let them learn.

In any event the first two levels of Monk are pretty good, its only later that they begin to fall behind. Oh and all melle classes fall behind well played casters, but I have seen Tier 1 classes played badly.

There following is always worth bearing in mind.
Player Ability > Build > Class

[Darrin]

Question is, I'm not sure how this would balance against the rest of the party or in general, so was wondering what the general consensus was.

I find it a little odd that the "consensus" seems to be, "Don't fix it if no one notices there's a problem." At least in this forum, that is. I would have expected a bunch of:

"Yes, do it. It's not a problem. The Monk's poor BAB and underwhelming unarmed damage more than makes up for this advantage."

And that's my advice: fix it before it becomes a problem. It won't unbalance the game. In fact, the monk will probably still be underpowered, but it will take longer to notice.

[ericgrau]

Maybe in a high optimization group. If it's not high optimization then don't go by everything you read. That could cause a big damage bump when perhaps you should try everything unchanged first. If you want to err on the side of the monk not being underpowered then what you could do is give a more minor flat bonus that won't break the game even if he turns out to be par.

If it's a full attack skirmish scout, DMM persist cleric and shocktrooper fighter then I might jump in and make a bunch of monk changes before the game. Otherwise play first.

Besides lack of high optimization support, players often have a lot of bad preconceived notions about monk. Here are some tips for the monk to avoid basic mistakes:
Weapons, even monk weapons, deal more damage than unarmed strikes. Unarmed strikes are for stunning fist or grapple. Even at high level magic weapons outpace unarmed strike scaling. Even at low level the masterwork +1 to hit makes a big difference.
Str>wis. Often con>wis or con=wis.
Even with boosts unarmored AC is low. Go for the back line away from heavy melee and/or stun/grapple/trip/disarm to keep yourself safe (and the party too). Consider potions of mage armor or better yet see below. Most of your special attacks rely on size so potions of enlarge person are extremely helpful.
Make friends with the cleric; you're a great buff target. Hour/level spells like magic vestment, greater magic weapon and shield other can affect you all day so he can do other things in combat.