Monk Fix 2.0

[Deepbluediver]

This is actually my SECOND attempt to fix the monk, as part of an ongoing project to bring the 11 core classes more into balance, ideally at the tier 3 level. I've learned a lot more about the game while working on these homebrews than I ever did while playing, and I realized that my original monk fix boosted the monk's power slightly, but still lacked true versatility and synergy with other classes. So I decied to try again. This monk has the choice of 3 basic archetypes which should help him emulate other classic roles, and fit in better with the rest of the party. Also, much of the boost in power comes from his special abilities, which have been extensively reworked, and are in the second post.
Special thanks for this fix goes out to The_Boz, who's own monk fix provided much inspiration.
As usual, further comments will be in the spoilered text.
The standard monk was a pretty poor copy of the idea of a "shaolin monk", I think, but there are many other cultures that had groups that dedicated themselves to a life of study and ongoing personal improvement without the goal of wordly gain. I consider my version of the monk to be a warrior-scholar, fluffable for virtually any culture.

Monk

Alignment
Any lawful

Hit Points at each level
1d4+4

Class Skills
The monk's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Appraise (Int), Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (all skills taken individually) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Cha), Search (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), and Tumble (Dex).

Skill Points at each level
7 + Int modifier



Level

BAB
Fort
Ref
Will

Special
Unarmed Damage
AC Bonus


1st

+0
+2
+2
+2
Ki Pool, Improved Unarmed Strike, Path to Enlightenment

1d6

+1


2nd

+1
+3
+3
+3
Ki Strike, Graceful Fall

1d6

+1


3rd

+1
+3
+3
+3
Fast Movement

1d8

+2


4th

+3
+4
+4
+4
Monk Feat

1d8

+2


5th

+2
+4
+4
+4
Path Ability

1d10

+2


6th

+4
+5
+5
+5
Wholeness of Body

1d10

+3


7th

+5
+5
+5
+5
Monk Feat

2d6

+3


8th

+6/+1
+6
+6
+6
Improved Ki Strike

2d6

+3


9th

+6/+1
+6
+6
+6
Path Ability

2d6

+3


10th

+7/+2
+7
+7
+7
Monk Feat

2d8

+4


11th

+8/+3
+7
+7
+7
Diamond Body

2d8

+4


12th

+9/+4
+8
+8
+8
Superior Unarmed Strike

2d8

+4


13th

+9/+4
+8
+8
+8
Path Ability, Monk Feat

2d10

+4


14th

+10/+5
+9
+9
+9
Flawless Body

2d10

+4


15th

+11/+6/+6
+9
+9
+9
Greater Ki Strike

2d10

+5


16th

+12/+7/+7
+10
+10
+10
Monk Feat

3d8

+5


17th

+12/+7/+7
+10
+10
+10
Path Ability

3d8

+5


18th

+13/+8/+8
+11
+11
+11
Timeless Body

3d8

+5


19th

+14/+9/+9
+11
+11
+11
Monk Feat

3d8

+5


20th

+15/+10/+10
+12
+12
+12
Limited Perfection

3d10

+5



CLASS FEATURES
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies
Monks are proficient with simple weapons, which includes unarmed strikes. A monk may also choose any 3 exotic weapons that she is proficient in; the monk does not need to meet the normal prerequisites for these weapons. In addition, the monk does not need to ever meet the prerequisites for taking exotic weapon proficiency feats when the feat is gained from a level in her monk class.
A monk is not proficient with any kind of armor or any sort of shield.

Unarmed Damage (Ex)
A monk is trained in rare forms of combat that specialize in being every bit as competent as a fully armed and armored warrior, without needing a single weapon. (this doesn’t stop monks from using weapons, they just don’t need to rely on them).
A monk’s increased unarmed damage is given on the above table. Any time any feat, class feature, spell, or other source would affect the monk’s unarmed damage, they use whichever value is the highest from all sources.



Level
Damage (small)
Damage (large)


1st-2nd

1d4

1d8


3rd-4th

1d6

1d10


5th-6th

1d8

1d12


7th-9th

2d4

2d8


10th-12th

2d6

2d10


13th-15th

2d8

2d12


16th-19th

3d6

3d10


20th+

3d8

3d12


The damage for the monk definitely ramps up faster at the higher end, it is not linear and that was intentional. I am working on an improved homebrew system for upgrading weapons; this monk's damage parallels my goal with that. If you feel the damage is too high, it is easy enough to reduce it back to the RAW level.
AC Bonus
A monk gains a perfection bonus to her AC, which increases with level. The monk retains this bonus while flatfooted, but loses this bonus when unconscious or otherwise completely immobilized.
In the original write-up, I had removed both the monk's AC bonus as a class feature, and restricted the Wisdom AC bonus to only some monks. I figured that three different methods to gain AC where probably too much.
I've been convinced to put the AC bonus back, though it's improvement slows down as the monk's level increases. This is opposite to how I normally do things, but I hope that at higher level between rising Wisdom and easier access to armor, the progression will be acceptable.
Ki Pool (Sp)
At first level, a monk gains access to a pool of ki points (also known in some cultures as quintessence or vital energy) which she uses to fuel her special abilities. The number of ki points in the monk’s pool is equal to all her levels in classes that grant her a ki pool, plus her Wisdom modifier.
A ki pool is completely refilled after 8 hours of rest, much like spellcasters regain their daily allotment of spells.
A monk can expend one ki point as a free action to gain a +2 perfection bonus on any skill check that takes one round or less to complete. She cannot spend more than one ki point on a single skill check.
If the monk ever becomes chaotic, she loses access to her ki pool, but she may regain access if she returns to the lawful alignment.
My intent is that (someday) I will add the same ki pool to several other classes (samurai, ninja) so that it is a more standarized feature.
Improved Unarmed Strike
At first level, a monk gains Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat (see below).
This has several benefits, including allowing the monk to deal lethal damage with her unarmed strikes and increasing the critical-threat range of her unarmed attacks by 1 (to 19-20/x2).

Whenever a combination of feats, class levels, or other features could be interpreted multiple ways, always choose the interpretation which gives the monk the highest unarmed damage (assuming it doesn't completely violate common sense).

Path to Enlightenment
The ultimate goal for most monks is to achieve a higher state of awareness and a deeper understanding of the purpose of life. All monks focus on one of three disciplines, and once this choice is made at first level, it cannot be changed.
At first level, a monk chooses a path and gains a number of special features. They also have a choice of learning one of several abilities associated with their chosen path. They learn an additional ability at every 4th level (5th, 9th, 13th, etc).

*Path of the Vigorous Body
Monks of the path of the vigorous body value strength and durability. These monks are some of the most likely to choose a wandering life of adventure and combat over decades of contemplation in a monestary.
Monks of this path have a BAB equal to their level, as a fighter of the same level.

Monks of this path may choose from the following special abilities: Abundant Step, Armored Monk, Flurry of Blows, Force Push, Healing Hands, Ki-arrow, Quivering Palm, Restorative Meditation, Super Sprint, and Wall of Will

*Path of the Expansive Mind
Monks of the path of the expansive mind embody many of the more scholastic aspects of the monk’s role as a “warrior-scholar”, studying and mastering many different skills.
Monks of this path gain 10 skill points per level from their monk levels instead of 7.

Monks of this path may choose from the following special abilities: Armored Monk, Battle Meditation, Ethereal Scouting, Flurry of Blows, Future-sight, Ki-arrow, Ki-enhanced Spell, Quivering Palm, Super Sprint, and Tongue of the Sun and Moon

*Path of the Overwhelming Soul
Monks of the path of the overwhelming soul tend to focus more on interactions with others rather than introspection; they tend to be the most outgoing of all monks.
Monks of this path gain a bonus to the number ki points in their ki pool equal to their Charisma bonus (if any). At level 8 they gain 1.5 ki points per point of Charisma bonus, and at level 15 they gain 2 ki points per point of Charisma bonus.

Monks of this path may choose from the following special abilities: Abundant Step, Battle Meditation, Ethereal Scouting, Force Push, Future-sight, Healing Hands, Ki-enhanced Spell, Restorative Meditation, Tongue of the sun and Moon, and Wall of Will

Ki-Strike (Sp)
Starting at 2nd level, the monk learns to channel her ki into devastating attacks. By expending one ki point from her ki pool as a free action at the beginning of her turn, the monk gains a +1 perfection bonus on all attack rolls made until the end of her turn. She also increases the damage she deals by 10% (minimum +1), and all attacks empowered by ki are counted as magical weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage resistance.
The monk can only expend one ki point at a time in this manner.

The monk can use this ability with any melee weapon (not including ranged weapons such as bows) she is proficient with, including unarmed strikes.
The monk cannot use her ki-strike when wearing armor or carrying more than a light load.

Improved Ki-Strike (Sp)
At level 8, the monk can improve her ki-strike by expending two ki points at once, increasing the attack roll bonus to +2 and the damage bonus to 25% (minimum +2).

Greater Ki-Strike (Sp)
At level 15, the monk can improve her ki-strike by expending three ki points at once, increasing the attack roll bonus to +3 and the damage bonus to 50% (minimum +4).

Graceful Fall (Ex)
Monks undergo special training in which they learn how to land and tumble in such a way that allows them to shrug off damage from falls or jumps that would shatter the limbs of other people. At second level, the monk treats damage from a fall as 20 ft. less than normal. This value increases to 50 ft. at level 6, and to 100 ft. at level 11. At 16th level, a monk may fall any distance without injury.
The monk may not use this ability when wearing armor or carrying more than a light load worth of gear.
This ability is not active if the monk is unconscious, helpless, or otherwise immobilized.

Fast Movement (Ex)
Beginning at 3rd level, a monk gains a +5 ft enhancement bonus to her base land speed. This bonus increases by 5 feet every 3 levels (+10 at 6th, +15 at 9th, +30 at 18th, etc).
A monk loses this ability when wearing heavy armor or when carrying a medium or heavy load.
Rather than having it's own speed-boost progression, the monk gets the same Fast Movement deal that my ranger and barbarian get.
Monk Feat
At 4th level, the monk gains a bonus feat chosen from the monk-feat list. She must still meet all of the normal prerequisites for the feat, with the exception of Exotic Weapon Proficiency feats.
The monk gains an additional feat from this list every 3 levels (7, 10, 13, etc)

The monk feat list includes the following, as well as any other feats your DM approves: Deflect Projectiles, Stunning Fist, Elemental Fist, Dodge, Toughness, Mobility, Spring attack, Whirlwind Attack, Power Attack, any Weapon or Armor Proficiency feat, Imp. Initiative, Imp. Trip, Imp. Grapple, Imp. Disarm, Imp. Feint, Imp. Aid Another, Imp. Bullrush, Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, Skill Focus, Leadership, Weapon Focus (and related feats), Disciple of the Path (new feat), Imp. Ki Pool (new feat), any of the TWF feats (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=12788526&postcount=2), Reach feats (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=14527317&postcount=4), One-weapon style feats (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=14527323&postcount=5), Ranged feats (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=12895205&postcount=2), and any of the combat Style Feats (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/style-feats) from Pathfinder.

Wholeness of Body (Sp)
Starting at 6th level, the monk can make a Heal check (DC 10) and expend one ki point to heal herself for 1d8 plus her wisdom bonus (if any) HP. This is a full-round action, and is not a positive-energy based healing effect.
At level 11 the monk can use this ability as either a standard action or move-equivalent action. At level 17 the monk can use this ability as ability as a swift action (still only once per turn), or twice in a turn as a full-round action.

Flawless Spirit (Ex)
Starting at level 11, the monk becomes immune to all poisons and diseases, including magical poisons and diseases.

Superior Unarmed Strike
At level 12, the monk gains Superior Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat.
Among other benfits, this increases the monk’s critical damage multiplier on her unarmed strikes by 1.

Diamond Body (Ex)
At level 14, a monk can expend 3 ki points as a swift action to harden her skin. Until the beginning of her next turn, the monk takes half as much damage from all sources.

Timeless Body (Ex)
At 18th level, a monk no longer takes penalties to her ability scores for aging and cannot be magically aged. Any such penalties that she has already taken, however, remain in place. The monk also ages half as quickly as a character of her race normally would, and has a maximum age equal to twice her race's normal maximum age.
Bonuses still accrue, and the monk still dies of old age when her time is up.

Limited Perfection (Su)
Upon reaching 20th level, a monk can channel huge amounts of ki energy through herself for a brief boost in power and ability. A monk must make a Concentration check (DC 25) as a full-round action to activate this ability. Activating this ability consumes 10 ki points.

When this ability is active, a monk gains a +5 perfection bonus to all attack rolls, spellcraft rolls, combat maneuver rolls (trip, grapple, etc), saves, ability checks, and skill checks for which the monk has trained ranks. She also gains 10% of her max HP as temporary hit points, and +50% bonus to damage rolls. The monk also gains Darkvision out to 100 ft., and loses light blindness and light sensitivity, if she had them; the monk's speed also increases by 20 ft.

This ability lasts for 1 minute (10 rounds), and when it ends the monk is fatigued. Attempting to activate this ability while fatigued increases the DC of the check by 5, and when the ability ends the monk is exhausted. Attempting to activate this ability while exhausted increases the DC of the check by 15, and when it ends the monk dies (no saving throw, drop immediately to -10 HP or is destroyed, etc).

Note: as the monk is already channeling massive amounts of energy, she cannot use her Ki-strike ability to further enhance her attacks, any any ki-based ability that would improve any of the aforementioned values; attempting to do so would cause her limbs and/or head to explode, and not in the good “it deals force damage” kind of way. She may, however, activate other abilities that are powered by ki.


UPDATE 6/26/2015: Removed a few of the path-features and tweaked other bonuses. There's a fine line between being good and being OP and I keep shifting back and forth over which applies.

[Deepbluediver]

Some of these abilities are old names with new rules, and some are brand new entirely. They are (almost) all fueled by the monk's ki pool.
Many of them are Spell-like abilities, and are subject to the same limitations.

Abundant Step (Sp)- As a full-round action, the monk may teleport to a nearby location. The monk must be able to see the location they wish to teleport to, or be very familiar with it (very familiar usually means they have spent at least a week living or working there). The monk may become very familiar with a location by studying it for 10 minutes, though this recollection fades within 2d6 hours.

A monk can transport other living beings along with her, provided the combined weight of the creature and all the gear both the monk and the creature are carrying does not exceed the weight of a light load. The maximum range of this ability is 100 ft.+10 ft./level.
Activating this ability consumes 2 ki points from the monk’s ki pool.

At level 6, the monk may use this ability as a move-action, but may not teleport more than once per turn.
At level 10, the monk may expend an additional ki point to teleport the equivalent of a medium load.
At level 14, the monk may use this ability as a swift-action, but may not teleport more than once per turn.
At level 18, the monk may expend an additional ki point (3 total) to use this ability as a free-action, but she cannot teleport more than once per turn.
The monk cannot teleport when wearing armor.


Armored Monk (Ex)- When the monk chooses this ability, she gains proficiency with light armor. By using 25gp worth of cloth padding, leather straps and metal fasteners, the monk may convert any light armor into special monk-armor, a process taking 8 hours. Special Monk armor does not interfere with any of the monk’s other special abilities (including Graceful Fall, Ki-strike, AC bonus, and Path abilities), though load limits still apply.

[Note: Fast movement is not unique to the monk, and is therefor not considered a "special monk ability". The Monk can use medium and heavy armors with this ability, but she must take the feats to again proficiently separately or recieve them from another source.]

If the monk is at least level 6 she may take 2 days (16 hours of work-time) and use 50gp worth of materials to convert medium armor into special monk armor.
If the monk is at least level 11 she may take 3 days (24 hours of work-time) and use 100gp worth of materials to convert heavy armor into special monk armor.


Battle Meditation (Sp)- This ability allows the monk to project strength and power to his allies. The monk must expend 2 ki points and make a concentration check (DC 15) as a full round action to activate her battle meditation, after which it lasts for 4 additional rounds (5 rounds total). The monk can affect one target with her meditation, plus one additional target every 3 monk levels (the monk may choose to include herself as one of the targets). The range of the monk’s meditation is 25 ft.+5 ft/2 levels. The monk can expend one additional ki point as a swift action to maintain the meditation for another 5 rounds, for as long as she chooses.
When activating this ability, the monk chooses one of the following meditations to project.

Foster Constitution: all affected creatures gain a perfection bonus on Constitution checks equal to the monk’s Wisdom bonus. They also gain temporary hit points equal to their HD times the monk's Wisdom bonus. In addition, any targets wearing armor have their ACP decreased by 2.
Array of Strength: all affected creatures gain a perfection bonus to Strength checks, and attack and damage rolls (melee, ranged, and spell damage) equal to the monk’s Wisdom bonus.
Launch of Dexterity: all affected creatures gain a perfection bonus to their AC equal to the monk’s Wisdom bonus. In addition, their movement speed increases by 10 ft. per round.
Astound with Intellect: all affected creatures gain a perfection bonus on Intellect checks and skill checks equal to the monk’s Wisdom bonus. In addition, they gain a +1 perfection bonus to attack rolls.
Keen Wisdom: all affected creatures gain a perfection bonus on Wisdom checks and Initiative checks equal to the monk’s Wisdom bonus. In addition, they cannot be caught flat footed, and are immune to being flanked.
Merit of Charisma: all affected creatures gain a perfection bonus on Charisma checks equal to the monk’s Wisdom bonus. In addition, any time a creature would use an ability or feature with a limited number of uses (including casting a spell, activating a psionic technique, wildshape, rage, etc) there is a 25% chance that the spell slot/power points/other use will not be consumed.

At 7th level the monk may expend 3 ki points to activate 2 of the meditations at once (extending the meditation requires 1 ki point for each, or 2 total).
At 17th level the monk may expend 4 ki points to activate 3 of the meditations at once (extending the meditation requires 1 ki point for each, or 3 total).

While maintaining Battle Meditation, the monk may only take a move action or standard action each turn; she may choose to end the meditation early. If the monk is dealt damage, she must succeed on a Will save equal to one-half the damage dealt or the meditation ends.

The monk cannot use this ability while wearing armor or carrying more than a light load.


Ethereal Scouting (Sp)– After learning this ability, the monk may separate her body and spirit to see onto and interact with the ethereal plane.
A monk must expend 3 ki points to activate this ability, and succeed on a Concentration check (DC 20) as a full-round action. The ability lasts for 1 minute (10 rounds); the monk may expend 1 ki point to extend the scouting trip by 1 additional minute for as long as she desires.

While in this state, the monk’s spirit passes onto the ethereal plane, and can interact with creatures in the same manner as on the material plane. The monk will retain an ethereal copy of any items she had with her on the material plane. The monk can move in any direction (including up and down) at her normal speed and pass through solid objects. Sight and sound of objects on the material plane is limited to 60ft, and the monk’s spirit is invisible to anyone on the material plain. While in this state, a monk will know instantly if anything happens to her body (such as taking damage) and knows in which direction her body lies.

Normally, whatever occurs on the ethereal plane will not affect the monk when she returns to her body, but if the monk’s spirit is reduced to 0 HP, it is instantly transported back to her body, and the monk takes 1d4 Constitution and 1d4 Wisdom damage.
If the monk’s body is slain, her spirit will remain trapped on the ethereal plane for 3d6 days before fading away entirely.

At level 7, the monk can use this ability to become invisible while on the material plane. Activating invisibility requires a Concentration check (DC 15) as a standard action, and lasts for 5 rounds. Extending the invisibility for an additional 5 rounds consumes an additional 2 ki points.
At level 10, she can use this ability to become incorporeal while on the material plane. Activating invisibility requires a Concentration check (DC 15) as a standard action, and lasts for 5 rounds. Extending the invisibility for an additional 5 rounds consumes an additional 2 ki points.

At level 15, the monk can project her spirit onto the ethereal plane as a standard action, or activate her invisibility/incorporealility as a swift action. She may expend 3 ki points to become both incorporeal and invisible simultaneously (and expend 3 additional pointes to extend the duration).

Extending these or any other abilities may be done at any time the ability is still active, or when the ability would end. No additional concentration checks are necessary to do so.

The monk cannot use this ability while wearing armor or carrying more than a light load.


Flurry of Blows (Ex)- This ability grants the monk extra attacks at the expense of accuracy when striking unarmed, or with light or one-handed melee weapons. Any attacks made while employing flurry of blows with unarmed strikes or light weapons take a -2 penalty to the attack roll; any attacks made with one-handed weapons take a -3 penalty instead.
At first level, the monk may make an additional attack at their full BAB (minus the penalty) when using a Full-round attack action. The monk gains an extra additional attack for full-round actions at levels 7, 13, and 19. (meaning that a monk at level 19 could make a total of 7 attacks in a full-round action)

At 4th level, the monk gains the ability to make an additional attack as a standard action, and learns to make one more attack at 12th and 20th level (for a total of 4 attacks as a standard action).

At 9th level, the monk learns to make an additional attack when striking with an Attack of Opportunity, and one more attack at 16th level (for a total of 3 attacks).

The monk may use Flurry of Blows with a 2-handed weapon, but any such attacks take a -5 penalty on the attack rolls.

All attacks made with Flurry of Blows must be with weapons the monk is proficient with. The additional attacks, as well as any penalty to attack rolls, stack with other additional attacks from other sources such as Two-Weapon fighting.
A monk may not use Flurry of Blows when wearing armor or while carrying more than a light load.

Table: Bonus attacks by Level



Level
Bonus Attacks


1st
+1 Full


2nd



3rd



4th
+1 Standard


5th



6th



7th
+2 Full


8th



9th
+1 AoO


10th



11th



12th
+2 Standard


13th
+3 Full


14th



15th



16th
+2 AoO


17th



18th



19th
+4 Full


20th
+3 Standard




Force Push (Sp)- This ability allows the monk to use her ki to move other creatures or objects around the battlefield. By expending 1 ki point and making a Concentration check as a Standard action (DC 15) the monk can push one creature or object within 25 ft.+5 ft./2 levels directly away from her. The target cannot weigh more than double the monk’s maximum load, and can be pushed 5 ft. If targeting a creature, it may make an opposed strength check to resist being moved, however the monk gets a bonus on her check equal to her monk level.

If the target slams into any solid object (such as a wall or a tree) it takes 1d8 bludgeoning damage per 3 levels (minimum 0d8 if the monk is less than level 3). If the target slams into a creature, the creature makes a reflex save to avoid the damage. If it fails the Reflex save, it must also make a Fortitude save or be dazed for 1d3 rounds (DC equal to 10+the monk’s level for both checks).

At level 3, the monk can make a Concentration check (DC 15) and expend one ki point to mimic the effects of a Mage Hand spell for 1 minute.
At level 5, the monk can push targets to the left and right as well.
At level 7, the monk can push targets that weigh up to quadruple (4 times) her maximum load and the bonus on strength checks increases by +2.
At level 9, the monk learns to propel targets an additional 5 ft. be expending an additional point when she activates this ability (10 ft. total)
At level 11, the monk can push targets that weigh up to decuple (10 times) her maximum load and the bonus on strength checks increases by +4.
At level 13, the distance the monk can propel a target increases to 10 ft. (20 ft. total if the monk expends 2 ki points).
At level 15, the monk can pull creatures towards her.
At level 17, the monk can push creatures that weigh up to centuple (100 times) her maximum load and the bonus on strength checks increases by +6.
At level 19, the distance the monk can propel a target increases to 20 ft. (40 ft. total in the monk expends 2 ki points).

A monk cannot use this ability while wearing armor or while carrying more than a light load.


Future Sight (Sp)- Monks have uncanny ability to predict the outcome of certain events based on their observation of the surroundings and their knowledge of other creatures. Some people even say that the wisest and most powerful monks have the ability to actually reverse the flow of time.

Using this ability, a monk may make a Concentration check (DC 15) as a free action and expend one ki point to reroll all attack rolls from attacking as a standard action, or one skill check that takes less than one full-round to complete, or any other roll that is made as a free or swift action.
If the monk is level 6, she may expend 3 ki points to reroll all attack rolls made as a full-round action, or a skill check that takes a full-round to complete, or any other roll that is made as a full-round action.
A monk may only use this ability to reroll each action once.

At level 12, the monk may expend 4 ki points and make a Concentration check (DC 20) to reverse all actions that occurred during her most recent turn, provided no other creature has yet acted as part of their turn yet. The monk returns to the location she was in when her turn began, with all changes to her status reversed (including changes to HP) to exactly the way they were before she began her turn (except for the ki points expended to activate this ability).
After using this ability, the monk must wait 1d3 rounds before using it again.

At level 19, she may expend 7 ki points and make a concentration check (DC 25) to reverse to everything that has happened for the entire round, between the current moment and the end of the monk’s previous turn. All creatures are returned to their former locations, all changes to status are reversed, and all uses of limited abilities (spells, power points, wildshape, rage, etc) are restored to what they where, except for the ki points the monk spent to activate this ability.
After using this ability, the monk must wait 1d4 rounds before using it again.


Healing Hands (Sp)- This ability allows the monk to use her Wholeness of Body ability to heal other players within reach; the DC for the Heal check is increased by 5 (to 15) and the monk expends 1 ki point, as normal.
In addition, if the monk is at least 4th level, she may expend ki to generate other healing effects. To repair ability damage to herself, the monk must designate an ability (Strength, Intellect, etc) then meditate for one hour and make a Concentration check (DC 15). If the monk succeeds on the check, she restores 1d4 points of the chosen ability. By every 5 points for which the monk exceeds the DC, the monk restores one additional point to the chosen ability. Using this ability consumes 3 ki points.

At level 7, she may use this ability to repair ability damage in another creature. Both characters must meditate (or the non-monk must be resting quietly) and the DC of the check is increased by 5 (to 20). Using this ability consumes 3 ki points.
At level 12, she may use this ability to restore 1d4 points of ability drain in herself or others. As usual the monk must meditate for one hour to use the ability; successfully utilizing this feature has a DC of 20. Using this ability consumes 3 ki points.

If the monk is at least level 10, she may mimic the effects of a Raise Dead spell; the monk must meditate over the body to be raised for one hour and make a Heal check (DC 20). This consumes 6 ki points, and rare oils, herbs, incense, and diamond dust worth 1,000 gp.
At level 14, she may mimic the effects of a Resurrection spell; the monk must meditate over the body to be raised for one hour and make a Heal check (DC 25). This consumes 10 ki points, and rare oils, herbs, incense, and diamond dust worth 3,000 gp.
None of these abilities are positive energy based effects.


Ki Arrow (Sp)- With this ability, the monk gains two separate new skills. The first is the ability to use her ki strikes to improve attacks made with ranged weapons.

The second allows the monk to attack distant foes with a blast of pure ki as a standard action. This attack is considered a ranged touch attack that deals force damage. The range increment for this ability is equal to 25 ft.+5 ft/2 levels; damage dealt is equal to the monks regular unarmed damage, but modified by the monk’s Wisdom instead of Strength.

Launching a blast of ki consumes 1 ki point from the monk’s ki pool; the monk cannot use her Ki-strike ability to improve these attacks.
The monk may use a full-round action to launch multiple ki-blasts at her normal attack bonus for multiple attacks, but each one consumes a separate point of ki (this ability may not be combined with Flurry of Blows).

A monk can not launch ki blasts while wearing armor or while carrying more than a light load.


Ki-enhanced Spell (Sp)- With this ability, the monk may expend a point of ki to gain a bonus on her spellcraft rolls exactly as she does for her ki-strikes and attack rolls.
If the spell would deal direct damage and has a duration of "Instantaneous" (for example, a fireball or a blast of lightning) the monk also gains a bonus to her damage dealt, but any extra damage is dealt as force damage.
If the spell does not deal damage but has a duration, the spell will last for 25% longer than normal per ki-point expended (minimum +1 round, maximum double normal duration).

Enhancing a spell with ki drains one point of ki from the monk’s ki-pool.
The monk may expend additional ki points for a corresponding bonus, exactly as her Improved and Greater Ki-strikes apply to melee attacks, provided she has reached the appropriate level (8th and 15th, respectively).
A monk may not use this ability while wearing armor or carrying more than a light load.


Quivering Palm (Ex)- The quivering palm is a series of special techniques that allow the monk to strike at certain pressure points on her target’s body. A monk must expend 2 ki points to and make a quivering palm attack as a full round action; the attack must be announced before the attack roll is made. The monk must also announce before she attacks if she is targeting pressure points that are aligned along mental, spiritual, or physical essences.

If the monk strikes her target, in addition to the normal damage, the target must make a save depending on which pressure points the monk targeted: physical- fortitude save, mental- reflex save, spiritual- will save. The DC of the save is equal to 10+1/2 monk level+Str/Dex/Wis, whichever is highest. If the target fails the save, they are afflicted by one of the following conditions for 1d4 rounds: mental- Confused, spiritual- Sickened, physical- Stunned. Creatures that are immune to critical hits gain a +5 bonus on their save to avoid the condition.

At level 6, the monk may make a quivering palm attack as a standard action. In addition, she may expend one additional ki point and make a full-round attack that targets two sets of pressure points, forcing their target to make two separate saves to avoid both conditions.
At level 10, and her target fails the save by 5 or more, the conditions are worsened as followed: Confused becomes Unconscious, Sickened becomes Nauseated, Stunned becomes Paralyzed.
At level 13, the duration of the conditions increases to 1d6+1 rounds.
At 18, the monk may expend 2 additional ki points to target all 3 sets of pressure points as a full round action; if the target fails all 3 saves it immediately drops dead (reduced to -10 HP or destroyed as appropriate).

The monk cannot use this ability while wearing armor of carrying more than a light load.


Restorative Meditation (Ex)- This ability allows the monk to more quickly restore ki points or spell slots; at higher levels, the monk can extend this ability to others.
To restore ki points, the monk must meditate for one hour, then make a Concentration check. The monk gains a number of ki points depending on the result. The monk cannot exceed her normal maximum amount of ki points.


Check Result
Ki Gained



5

1



10

3



15

6



20

10



25

15



30

21



35

28



40

36


At level 3, she may meditate either by herself or with another player to recharge spell slots or power points (or any other resource the DM approves). The monk and her target both meditate for one hour and make concentration checks; the target must make a check of DC 10 to gain any benefit. When restoring power points, the amount gained is equal to one-half the equivalent amount of ki from the monk’s concentration check. When recharging spell slots, a check of 5 restores one level 0 spell. Each increase in the monk’s check by 5 allows the monk to restore one spell of 1 higher level (10- 1st level spell, 15- 2nd level spell) or two spells of a lower level (15- two 1st level spells).

The monk can never use two of these abilities at the same time, cannot use them on more than one person at the same time, and cannot undertake any other action while meditating.
The monk cannot use this ability when wearing armor or carrying more than a light load.


Super Sprint (Ex)- This ability allows the monk to move much more quickly than normal. When using this ability, for 5 rounds the monk’s movement speed triples (including running, swimming, flying, burrowing, or other). The monk gains a speed bonus equal to one-half her monk level to any jump checks made to move horizontally, to any tumble checks made to pass through an occupied square, and to her reflex saves. The monk doubles her dexterity bonus to AC (if the monk has a zero or negative Dexterity modifier, it becomes +2 for the duration).

In addition, any creature who tries to attack the monk with an attack of opportunity must succeed on an Initiative check, DC=10+the monk's level.

Activating this ability consumes 2 ki points, and once active, the ability can be extended at any time as a swift action for an additional 5 rounds by expending another ki point.

The monk cannot use this ability while wearing armor or carrying more than a light load.


Tongue of the Sun and Moon (Ex)- This ability grants the monk several separate skills. This first is that the monk may learn new languages easier; it only costs the monk one skill point to become fully literate in a new language, rather than two.

This ability also grants the monk the ability to communicate with sign language and hand gestures with creatures who do not speak a language she knows, or any language at all. This communication can convey most general concepts fairly easily, but more intricate details often remain out of reach. For example, the monk might be able to say “there is a monster living nearby that we want to fight” or “your town is suffering from an attack by someone with evil intent; we are here to help”. Details such as “your town has been invaded by demonic cultists who have mind-controlled the king and are working to summon a creature of the abyss” are likely beyond reach.

This ability allows the monk to communicate with animals or other creatures with similar intelligence, although any such concepts are likely limited by the creature’s comprehension. For animals or other creatures that do not have a language the monk gains a +5 bonus to Handle Animal checks, can understand basic emotions from the creature (hungry, in pain, something big!, etc), and can give basic instructions (calm down, go away, eat this, etc).

Lastly, this ability grants the monk a perfection bonus to her Bluff, Diplomacy, and Intimidate checks, as well as any check which involves speaking or using the monk’s voice (such as Perform, if she is singing). This bonus is equal to one-half the monk's level, minimum +1.


Wall of Will (Sp)- The monk uses this ability to channel her ki energy into an impenetrable barrier. Activating this requires the monk to make a concentration check as a full-round actions (DC 20) and consumes 4 ki points.
When activated, the monk chooses to form either a 10 ft. square wall, or a dome with a radius of 5 feet and a height of 10 ft. (enclosing an area of 4 5x5 ft. squares) that forms around the monk. When created, the barrier is treated as an object with HP equal to 1d10+the monk’s wisdom modifier per level (minimum 1 per level) and an AC of 0. The barrier prevents passage by all creatures, materials, and energy as long as it remains in place. The barrier has no special resistances or vulnerabilities, and will last for a maximum of one minute before dissolving into nothingness. It cannot be moved, and if the monk travels more than 10 ft. from the barrier it shatters. The monk may expend 2 ki points at any time to increase the barrier’s duration by an additional minute.

At level 5, she may expend one additional ki point during the barrier's creation to give it immunity to any one type of energy (fire, cold, physical, sonic, acid, etc) or 50% resistance to physical damage. The monk may spend as many ki points as she wishes this way.

At level 8, she may expend one additional ki point during the barrier's creation, which will prevent the barrier from shattering if the monk moves out of range. The monk may still expend ki points to increase the barriers duration, but cost increase to 3 ki points per minute.

At level 11, the area of the barrier may be increased to a square 15 ft. on a side, a 10x20 ft. rectangle, or a dome with radius 7 ft. and a maximum height of 15 ft. (enclosing an area of 9 5x5 ft. squares).

At level 18, the area of the barrier may be increased to a square 20 ft. on a side, a rectangle of 15x30 ft., or a dome with radius 15 ft. and a maximum height of 20 ft. (enclosing an area of 21 5x5 ft. square, essentially a 5-block square with the corners cut out).

The monk cannot use this ability while wearing armor or carrying more than a light load.

[Deepbluediver]

New and Modified Feats (for use with this class or any other homebrew)

Improved Unarmed Strike
Prerequisite: BAB +3

Benefit: This feat has several effects. Primarily, your Unarmed Strikes now deal lethal damage; you can however choose to deal nonlethal damage without penalty. Second, your Unarmed Strikes deal additional damage, which increases based on your BAB. Finally, your Unarmed Strikes (including those with weapons that count as Unarmed) do not provoke attacks of opportunity.

In addition, your unarmed strikes count as mithral weapons for the purpose of overcoming hardness.

Table: Unarmed Damage


BAB
Small
Medium
Large


1-4
1d3
1d4
1d6


5-8
1d4
1d6
1d8


9-12
1d6
1d8
1d10


13-16
1d8
1d10
2d6


17-20
1d10
2d6
2d8


21+
2d6
2d8
2d10



Special: The monk recieves this feat at level 1, and does not need to meet the prerequisites. Also, unarmed monk damage always supercedes this feat if it would be greater.


Superior Unarmed Strike
Prerequisite: BAB +7, Improved Unarmed Strike

Benefit: You deal damage with your unarmed strikes equal to a monk of your total ECL.
Also, the critical damage value of your unarmed strikes increases by 1 (from x2 to x3) and the critical threat range of your unarmed strikes is increased by 1 (from 20 to 19-20).

In addition, your unarmed strikes count as adamantine weapons for the purpose of overcoming hardness.

Special: The monk recieves this feat at level 12; improvements to a monk's unarmed damage (from feats, class features, racial features, or other sources) are always interpreted so that the monk recieves the greatest benefit.


Dodge [General]
Prerequisite: Dex 13

Benefit: At the start of a round, you designate one or more opponents and receive a +2 dodge bonus to Armor Class against attacks from those opponents until the start of the next round. The maximum number of opponents you may designate is equal to your dexterity bonus.
A condition that makes you lose your Dexterity bonus to Armor Class (if any) also makes you lose dodge bonuses. Also, dodge bonuses stack with each other, unlike most other types of bonuses.

Special: A Fighter may select Dodge as one of his Fighter bonus feats.


Toughness [General]
Your health and vigor make you unsually durable

Benefit: You gain additional hit points for each Hit Dice you possess, and each HD you gain as a result of class or level increases.
You gain 1 HP for every d4 or d6, 2 HP for every d8 or d10, and 3 HP for every d12.

Special: A character may gain this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.


Deflect Projectiles [General]
You can react so quickly to ranged attacks that you are capable of slapping aside bolts and arrows, either with your weapons or even your bare hands.

Prerequisites: Dex 13, Improved Unarmed Strike OR Base Attack Bonus +11

Benefit: Once per round when you would normally be hit with a ranged weapon, you may deflect it so that you take no damage from it. You must be aware of the attack and not flat-footed. The maximum size of projectiles you can deflect are those fired or thrown by creatures one size category larger than you.

If you also have the Combat Reflexes feat, and you have not used all of your available Attacks of Opportunity yet this round, you may deflect additional projectiles. Each projectile you deflect in this manner decreases the number of AoO you can make before the start of your next turn by one.

If you have at least one hand free (holding nothing), and Dexterity 17+, you may catch the projectiles instead of deflecting them.

If you have Strength 25+, you may use this feat to block projectiles up to one size category smaller than yourself fired from siege weaponry.

Special: A fighter may select Deflect Projectiles as one of his fighter bonus feats.


Disciple of the Path
Prerequisites: Monk level 7

Benefit: You may learn an additional special Path Ability from the list available to you.

Special: You may take this feat more than once, but not more than once for every 7 monk levels you possess.


Improved Ki Pool
Prerequisites: You must posses a ki pool, as well as have access to it (not have chaotic alignment).

Benefit: The maximum size of your ki pool increases and you gain additional ki-points each day equal to 3 + 1 per 3 HD.

[toapat]

well, here is a pretty glaring mistake:

You still didnt make them proficient with unarmed strikes

as far as weapon damage: I actually sugest changing magic weapons from +1/+1 to +1/+1Die

[Midwoka]

well, here is a pretty glaring mistake:

You still didnt make them proficient with unarmed strikes


Weapon and Armor Proficiencies
Monks are proficient with simple weapons.

"Unarmed strike" is listed under simple weapons in the equipment table, so... Didn't Deepblue give this fix the proficiency right there?

[Deepbluediver]

Feats are up. Mostly they're nothing special, I think, compared to the rest of the fix, but feel free to critique them as well.


as far as weapon damage: I actually sugest changing magic weapons from +1/+1 to +1/+1Die

Was this something specific about the monk or to weapons in general? As I mentioned, I have a weapons fix/tweak/rebuild in the works, and it accomplishes pretty much this same thing (so great minds think alike, I guess? :smallbiggrin:)
Its still just a spreadsheet though (nothing posted) because making a table that large is a pain in the arse and I'm being lazy.


"Unarmed strike" is listed under simple weapons in the equipment table, so... Didn't Deepblue give this fix the proficiency right there?

That was my intent. I'll add a note spelling this out to avoid further confusion.

[toapat]

Was this something specific about the monk or to weapons in general? As I mentioned, I have a weapons fix/tweak/rebuild in the works, and it accomplishes pretty much this same thing (so great minds think alike, I guess? :smallbiggrin:)
Its still just a spreadsheet though (nothing posted) because making a table that large is a pain in the arse and I'm being lazy.

Weapons in general, basically it is an even more extreme version of what DDO did with weapon damage. Basically a standard greatsword deals 2d6 damage, but a +1 greatsword does 4d6 damage per swing.

the significant problem then of course is that magic weapon damage was not balanced to be efficient

[Realms of Chaos]

I consider my version of the monk to be a warrior-scholar, fluffable for virtually any culture.

I'll be considering this as I look through class features. If any of the class features wouldn't sound natural on something called the "combat sage", I'll let you know.


Monk

Alignment
Any lawful

Hit Points at each level
1d4+4

Class Skills
The monk's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Appraise (Int), Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (all skills taken individually) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Cha), Search (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), and Tumble (Dex).

Skill Points at each level
(4 + Int modifier) (x4 at first level)

I'll assume that the hit point change is your own modification that you're using everywhere so I won't comment on it too much. The lawful restriction and comparatively low amount of skill points (especially now that all knowledge skills can be used) are bound to disappoint some but it is by no means a deal-breaker, just a matter of opinion.


{table=head]Level|BAB|Fort|Ref|Will|
Special|
Slow Fall|
Unarmed Damage

1st|
+0|+2|+2|+2|Ki Pool, Improved Unarmed Strike, Path to Enlightenment|
10 ft.|
1d6

2nd|
+1|+3|+3|+3|Ki Strike, Monk Feat|
10 ft.|
1d6

3rd|
+2|+3|+3|+3|Fast Movement, Monk Feat|
20 ft.|
1d8

4th|
+3|+4|+4|+4|Path Ability|
20 ft.|
1d8

5th|
+3|+4|+4|+4|Wholeness of Body|
30 ft.|
1d8

6th|
+4|+5|+5|+5|Monk Feat|
30 ft.|
2d6

7th|
+5|+5|+5|+5|Monk Feat|
40 ft.|
2d6

8th|
+6/+1|+6|+6|+6|Path Ability|
40 ft.|
2d6

9th|
+6/+1|+6|+6|+6|Diamond Body|
50 ft.|
2d8

10th|
+7/+2|+7|+7|+7|Improved Ki Strike, Monk Feat|
50 ft.|
2d8

11th|
+8/+3|+7|+7|+7|Superior Unarmed Strike, Monk Feat|
60 ft.|
2d8

12th|
+9/+4|+8|+8|+8|Path Ability|
60 ft.|
3d8

13th|
+9/+4|+8|+8|+8|Flawless Body|
70 ft.|
3d8

14th|
+10/+5|+9|+9|+9|Monk Feat|
70 ft.|
3d8

15th|
+11/+6/+6|+9|+9|+9|Monk Feat|
80 ft.|
3d12

16th|
+12/+7/+7|+10|+10|+10|Path Ability|
80 ft.|
3d12

17th|
+12/+7/+7|+10|+10|+10|Timeless Body|
90 ft.|
3d12

18th|
+13/+8/+8|+11|+11|+11|Greater Ki Strike, Monk Feat|
90 ft.|
4d10

19th|
+14/+9/+9|+11|+11|+11|Monk Feat|
100 ft.|
4d10

20th|
+15/+10/+10|+12|+12|+12|Limited Perfection|
100 ft.|
4d10[/table]

Are you really sure that this class is meant to be non-oriental? I don't really have too much of a reference for scholarly warriors who can break out the kung fu or perform great acrobatic feats like slow fall and both of those are kind of baked into crust. While it's true that "Asia" doesn't exist in 99% of settings, I typically try to understand homebrew through real-life correlates so all that I'm getting is Shaolin monk, so far. I'll let you know if that changes later on down the road.


CLASS FEATURES
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies
Monks are proficient with simple weapons, which includes unarmed strikes. A monk may also choose any 3 exotic weapons that she is proficient in; the monk does not need to meet the normal prerequisites for these weapons. In addition, the monk does not need to ever meet the prerequisites for taking exotic weapon proficiency feats when the feat is gained from a level in her monk class.
A monk is not proficient with any kind of armor or any sort of shield.

Nothing particularly wrong here. Spiked chains finally make monks decent trippers, though, I suppose.


Unarmed Damage (Ex)
A monk’s improved unarmed damage is given on the above table. Any time any feat, class feature, spell, or other source would affect the monk’s unarmed damage, they use whichever value is the highest from all sources.

Just letting you know that the wording of this ability seems to suggest that things like superior unarmed strike or improved natural attack don't stack with the monk's unarmed damage any more. Is that intended?


Slow Fall (Ex)
Monks undergo special training in which they learn how to land and tumble in such a way that allows them to shrug off damage from falls or jumps that would shatter the limbs of other people. At first level, the monk treats damage from a fall as 10 ft. less than normal. This value increases by 10 ft. every 2 monk levels, to a maximum of 100 ft. at 19th level.
The monk may not use this ability when wearing armor or carrying more than a light load worth of gear.
This ability is not active if the monk is unconscious or otherwise helpless or immobilized.

Why doesn't the last increase to this ability let you withstand falls of any distance like the original monk? While this is definitely an improvement for not requiring a nearby wall, the ceiling seems unnecessarily lower (especially when the full version is still less useful than feather fall).


Ki Pool (Sp)
At first level, a monk gains access to a pool of ki points which she uses to fuel her special abilities. The number of ki points in the monk’s pool is equal to all her levels in classes that grant her a ki pool, plus her Wisdom modifier.
A ki pool is completely refilled after 8 hours of rest, much like spellcasters regain their daily allotment of spells.
A monk can expend one ki point as a free action to gain a +2 sacred bonus on any skill check that takes one round or less to complete. She cannot spend more than one ki point on a single skill check.
If the monk ever becomes chaotic, she loses access to her ki pool, but she may regain access if she returns to the lawful alignment.
My intent is that (someday) I will add the same ki pool to several other classes (samurai, ninja) so that it is a more standarized feature.

Seems pretty okay, though using Sacred bonuses is kind of throwing me off. To my knowledge, Sacred bonuses are good-aligned (opposing profane bonuses) rather than lawful-aligned so the idea of evil monks getting sacred bonuses seems a bit weird. Would insight bonuses work?

Also, again, the term "ki" might be avoided if you aren't trying to add a specifically oriental flavor.


Improved Unarmed Strike
At first level, a monk gains Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat (see below).
This has several benefits, including allowing the monk to deal lethal damage with her unarmed strikes and the increasing the critical-threat range of her unarmed attacks by 1 (to 19-20/x2).

To be nit-picky, you should probably remove the second "the". To be more serious, though, I'm a bit surprised that this is listed as a second class feature from improved unarmed damage when both of them are combined in the original monk. You could probably combine them here and save some room if you wanted.


Path to Enlightenment
The ultimate goal for most monks is to achieve a higher state of awareness and a deeper understanding of the purpose of life. All monks focus on one of three disciplines, and once this choice is made at first level, it cannot be changed.
At first level, a monk chooses a path and gains a number of special features. They also have a choice of learning one of several abilities associated with their path. They learn an additional ability at level 4, and a new ability every 4 levels after that except for 20th (8, 12, & 16).

A very nice way to personalize. I like it.


*Path of the Vigorous Body
Monks of the path of the vigorous body value strength and durability. These monks are some of the most likely choose a wandering life of adventure and combat over decades of contemplation in a monestary.
Monks of this path have a BAB equal to their level, as a fighter of the same level.
Monks of this path have developed special techniques to improve their durability; they add their Wisdom bonus (if any) to their Constitution modifier before calculating hit points gained from monk levels.

Monks of this path may choose from the following special abilities: Abundant Step, Armored Monk, Flurry of Blows, Force Push, Healing Hands, Ki -arrow, Quivering Palm, Restorative Meditation, Super Sprint, and Wall of Will

I was going to express disappointment that none of these paths gave specific abilities in a specific order before I looked down at the abilities and realized that they grow with level. Giving one of three paths and then giving only 5 of the 10 abilities makes for lots of combinations. Nice work.


*Path of the Expansive Mind
Monks of the path of the expansive mind embody many of the more scholastic aspects of the monk’s role as a “warrior-scholar”, studying and mastering many different skills.
Monks of this path add their Intellect bonus (if any) to their strength modifier when calculating damage from from melee attacks, including ranged weapons. This does not stack with other sources of precision-based damage.
Monks of this path have developed special techniques to learn more quickly and more easily than others; they add their Wisdom bonus (if any) to their Intellect modifier when calculating how many skill points they gain each monk level, including extra points gained at the first level.

Monks of this path may choose from the following special abilities: Armored Monk, Battle Meditation, Ethereal Scouting, Flurry of Blows, Future-sight, Ki-arrow, Ki-enhanced Spell, Quivering Palm, Super Sprint, and Tongue of the Sun and Moon

Whereas the first monk focuses more on combat, this one is most certainly more focused on being skilled, though it still doesn't seem to have too much to do outside of combat.


*Path of the Overwhelming Soul
Monks of the path of the overwhelming soul tend to focus more on interactions with others than introspection; they tend to be the most outgoing of all monks.
Monks of this path gain a bonus to the number ki points in their ki pool equal to their Charisma bonus (if any).
Monks of this path can also gain a bonus to their AC equal to their Wisdom score. The monk loses this bonus if they are unconscious or otherwise helpless; the bonus is reduced by half if they wear medium armor and they loose it entirely if wearing heavy armor.

Monks of this path may choose from the following special abilities: Abundant Step, Battle Meditation, Ethereal Scouting, Force Push, Future-sight, Healing Hands, Ki-enhanced Spell, Restorative Meditation, Tongue of the sun and Moon, and Wall of Will

Oh... wow... just realized that only these guys get an AC bonus but that all of them have no armor proficiency. Honestly, this kind of sucks for all three kinds of monk. There is a very strong pressure for monks of the first too paths to get armored monk as soon as possible (which kind of reduces choice) and because this AC bonus doesn't scale and cuts you off from armored monk, it forces you to waste a feat gaining light armor proficiency.


Ki-Strike (Sp)
Starting at 2nd level, the monk learns to channel her ki into devastating attacks. By expending one ki point from her ki pool as a free action, the monk gains a +1 sacred bonus on her next attack roll made within one round. She also increases the damage she deals by 10% (minimum +1). The monk can only expend one ki point at a time in this manner.
The monk can use this ability with any melee weapon (not including ranged weapons such as bows) she is proficient with, including unarmed strikes.
The monk cannot use her ki-strike when wearing armor or carrying more than a light load.

I can definitely understand why you want to increase damage by 10% (it scales naturally) and it's not too much calculation but at the same time, D&D hasn't really ever uses percentages outside of d% rolls and so this thing kind of sticks out like a sore thumb. It isn't bad, mind you, but it is most certainly odd. Also seems to be a pretty weak "smite" ability but I'll roll with it for now.


Improved Ki-Strike (Sp)
At level 10, the monk can improve her ki-strike by expending two ki points at once, increasing the attack roll bonus to +2 and the damage bonus to 25% (minimum +2).

Greater Ki-Strike (Sp)
At level 18, the monk can improve her ki-strike by expending three ki points at once, increasing the attack roll bonus to +3 and the damage bonus to 50% (minimum +4).[/Quote]

Oh, the smite grows later on. Some part of me feels that it kind of defeats the purpose of using %s in the first place if your just going to create improved versions of the ability later (you might as well have just given flat damage boosts) as I don't really see too much evidence that monks of the three paths would have too much difference in damage per attack so far. Just my two cents.


Monk Feat
At 2nd level, the monk gains a bonus feat chosen from the monk-feat list. She must still meat all of the normal prerequisites for the feat.
The monk gains an additional feat from this list at levels 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14, 15, 18, and 19.

The monk feat list includes the following, as well as any other feats your DM approves: Deflect Projectiles, Stunning Fist, Elemental Fist, Dodge, Toughness, Mobility, Spring attack, Whirlwind Attack, Power Attack, Imp. Initiative, Imp. Trip, Imp. Grapple, Imp. Disarm, Imp. Feint, Imp. Aid Another, Imp. Bullrush, Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, Skill Focus, Leadersip, Weapon Focus (and related feats), Studious Path (new feat), Imp. Ki Pool (new feat), any of the TWF feats (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=12788526&postcount=2), Reach feats (WIP), One-weapon style feats (WIP), Ranged feats (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=12895205&postcount=2), and any of the combat Style Feats (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/style-feats) from Pathfinder.
I realize that the pattern of "feats for two levels, no feats for two levels, feats for two levels..." is unusual, but it was the best way to arrange things without having dead levels.

That's a lot of feats right there, including a few that don't yet exist and quite a few links to other sources. I'm fairly certain that you've got a good selection going and you're aware of the oddness of the progression so there's not much to say. My only suggestion (more of a pet peeve) would be to remove leadership from the list. As one of the most powerful feats in existence, seeing it on any bonus feat list kind of makes me cringe.


Fast Movement (Ex)
Beginning at 3rd level, a monk gains a +5 ft enhancement bonus to her base land speed. This bonus increases by 5 feet every 3 levels (+10 at 6th, +15 at 9th, +30 at 18th, etc).
A monk loses this ability when wearing heavy armor or when carrying a medium or heavy load.
Rather than having it's own speed-boost progression, the monk gets the same Fast Movement deal that my ranger and barbarian get.

The modesty of the speed bonus certainly seems okay.


Wholeness of Body (Sp)
Starting at 5th level, the monk can expend one ki point and making a Heal check (DC 10), to heal herself for 1d8 plus her wisdom bonus (if any) HP. This is a full-round action, and is not a positive-energy based healing effect.
At level 11 the monk can use this ability as a standard action. At level 17 the monk can use this ability as ability as a swift action.

Yeah, this definitely doesn't seem as "combat-sage-y" as it does "monk-ish". I can tell that you're trying here, however, as you made the ability pretty weird/"realistic". I... think it's more effecient overall but it's still a kind of odd concept (and a less useful one in battle until 17th level), especially with the inclusion of the throwaway skill check that would realistically do little other than make all monks take a few ranks in heal to auto-succeed.


Diamond Body (Ex)
Starting at level 9, the monk is immune to non-magical poisons and diseases, and gains a +5 sacred bonus to ignore the effects of magical poisons and diseases. In addition, she gains damage Reduction 3/magic.

DR 3/magic seems really random by this point. Maybe I'm just a sucker for round numbers like 5 but is there any reason you chose 3? :smallconfused:

Otherwise, a pretty solid ability.



Superior Unarmed Strike
At level 11, the monk gains Superior Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat.
Among other benfits, this increases the monk’s critical damage multiplier on her unarmed strikes by 1.

Oh, I guess that superior unarmed strike has been repurposed, then. Do not that you forgot to size and both the name of the ability.


Flawless Body (Ex)
Starting at level 13, the monk is immune to all poisons and diseases, and her damage reduction increases to 5/-.

So... they have immunity to the greatest phages forged in the rotting carcasses of disease gods? :smalltongue:

Yeah, I know, level 13. Just poking some fun.


Timeless Body (Ex)
At 17th level, a monk no longer takes penalties to her ability scores for aging and cannot be magically aged. Any such penalties that she has already taken, however, remain in place. The monk also ages half as quickly as a character of her race normally would, and has a maximum age equal to twice her race's normal maximum age.
Bonuses still accrue, and the monk still dies of old age when her time is up.

I must say, actually having timeless body extend your lifespan is so obvious that I'm surprised I've never seen it before. Good job.


Limited Perfection (Su)
Upon reaching 20th level, a monk can channel huge amounts of ki energy through herself for a brief boost in power and ability. A monk must make a Concentration check (DC 25) as a full-round action to activate this ability. Activating this ability consumes 10 ki points.

When this ability is active, a monk gains a +5 sacred bonus to all attack rolls, spellcraft rolls, combat maneuver rolls (trip, grapple, etc), ability checks, and skill checks for which the monk has trained ranks. She also gains 10% of her max HP as temporary hit points, and +50% bonus to damage rolls. The monk also gains Darkvision out to 100 ft., and loses light blindness and light sensitivity, if she had them.
[Note: as the monk is already channeling massive amounts of energy, she cannot use her Ki-strike ability to further enhance her attacks, any any ki-based ability that would improve any of the aforementioned rolls; attempting to do so would cause her limbs and/or head to explode, and not in the good “it deals force damage” kind of way. She may, however, activate other abilities that are powered by ki.]

This ability lasts for 1 minute (10 rounds), and when it ends the monk is fatigued. Attempting to activate this ability while fatigued increases the DC of the check by 5, and when the ability ends the monk is exhausted. Attempting to activate this ability while exhausted increases the DC of the check by 15, and when it ends the monk dies (no saving throw, drop immediately to -10 HP).

Mini-nova for your ki points. I'm kind of on the fence about such skills in general but you seemed to pull it off fairly well.

Specific Notes on Path Abilities:
Abundant Step: When the free action teleport says 1/round, does that mean that you can only teleport 1/round as a free action or was the intention that you could only teleport 1/round at all (in which case you may want to be clear so I don't spend two move actions and a swift action to also teleport around).
Armored Monk: Kind of sucks that the two paths in need of armor still have to spend feats getting medium and heavy weapon proficiency but I can kind of see what you're going for.
Battle Meditation: I guess that this would be the way that a monk would buff others but it bodes ill for this class being anything but a monk.
Ethereal Scouting: Well, you were certainly serious about having the monk do all sorts of things. Even so, the static skill checks you've thrown into class features don't really seem to add anything. As for questions:
Do you need to pay ki to extend durations when you first use the ability or when the ability would end?
Are additional skill checks needed when you extend the duration?
What happens if your ethereal self travels to another plane of existence (something that astral projection seems to account for but not this ability)?
What happens if your body is revived from the dead after you die in mid-projection?
Flurry of Blows/Force Push: While both abilities seem serviceable and both do what you want them to, both of these abilities are quite long as well. Also, wouldn't it make more sense to evolve force push into simply telekinesis after a while rather than adding each bit of functionality separately?

Final Thoughts:
This is really a monk fix that plays to its own rhythm. It accomplishes all of the goals you've set out for it (except being generic, perhaps) but there are so many oddities and quirks (unorthodox HD, paths that can change your BAB, dealing +%s of damage, having selected abilities with 8 or more enhancements as you level up, static skill DCs all over the place, etc.) that I'm not sure how consumable it is for the general populace. It seems to work for the most part but it is really quite odd as well.

[Deepbluediver]

Meant to get back to this sooner, but I've been busy. Twice I started to compose a reply and got distracted halfway through.

I've spoilered the entire thing to keep from clogging up the thread with my extreme verbosity.


I'll assume that the hit point change is your own modification that you're using everywhere so I won't comment on it too much.
Yes, I started a thread a while back where I complained that low rolls for HP penalized melee combatants more than casters, because they had a wider range of outcomes and more of a need to soak damage. Many options where discussed, and this was the one I liked best. All classes have the same "HD" but split in half, so that a wizard gets 1d2+2 HP per level and a barbarian gets 1d6+6


The lawful restriction and comparatively low amount of skill points (especially now that all knowledge skills can be used) are bound to disappoint some but it is by no means a deal-breaker, just a matter of opinion.

I retained the lawful requirement because I picture monks as a fairly disciplined bunch, and while I don't want to start an alignment debate, I've always found an outward focus (such as the monk's pursuit of enlightenment and spiritual understanding) to be more easily fluffed to concepts of order than chaos.
I wasn't certain just how high to push the skill points, particularly since I really want only one of the three potential monk builds to be a skill monkey, so I stayed relatively conservative. Maybe I'll consider another method to let monks use the Knowledge checks easier. Monkish Learning vs. Bardic Lore, or something like that.


Are you really sure that this class is meant to be non-oriental?...
I typically try to understand homebrew through real-life correlates so all that I'm getting is Shaolin monk, so far.

The monk doesn't NEED to be non-asian, I just wanted the option to make it less shaolin-monk and more knight-templar if the player wanted. I suppose I could fold slow-fall into one of the other special abilities (I don't think it's got enough potential to stand entirely on it's own), but it seemed like such a unique and iconic monk trait that I was worried about getting rid of it altogether.


Just letting you know that the wording of this ability seems to suggest that things like superior unarmed strike or improved natural attack don't stack with the monk's unarmed damage any more. Is that intended?

Yeah, this is probably a little confusing. I'll add in a note up above to explain further.
Basically, I reworked both the Improved Unarmed Strike and Superior Unarmed Strike, and the monk gets them as class features. The feats still probably aren't very worthwile for anyone not trying to specifically build a non-monk bare-fisted brawler, but they are a little closer to what I think a feat should look like.
I remember reading somewhere that going by a strict RAW, at least one quirky build would end up with lower unarmed damage because some combination of feats overwrote the listed damage. I intended that if the feats and unarmed damage and other class levels could be interpreted multiple ways, then the one that provided the highest unarmed strike damage was the correct one.

With my new feats, a monk would have to have quite a few levels of other classes before the damage from Imp. US exceeded monk damage, but if there was a build that had 11+ levels of monk and some other number of class levels, then Sup. US would provide damage as if the ECL was pure monk.


Why doesn't the last increase to this ability let you withstand falls of any distance like the original monk?

There are several reasons, and I admit that none of them are very good.
The shortest answer was that I figured by removing the wall requirement, the ability gained more usefulness than it lost with unlimited wall-grinding.
In roughly decreasing order of importance: (1) It fit the standard 10-ft/2 levels increase (2) I figured that jumping an unlimited distance wasn't so common that it would be missed (3) I wanted to save something in case I ever made an epic-monk progression
I've renamed this ability Graceful Fall and changed how it works, hopefully to be a little simpler. It now starts at level 2 (helping to spread out the stuff a 1st level monk gets) and increase at set intervals. It also now allows you to fall any distance without injury at it's highest level.


Seems pretty okay, though using Sacred bonuses is kind of throwing me off. To my knowledge, Sacred bonuses are good-aligned (opposing profane bonuses) rather than lawful-aligned so the idea of evil monks getting sacred bonuses seems a bit weird. Would insight bonuses work?

I am intending that the "ki-pool" is a standard lawful-aligned ability, sort of like Rage is for chaotic characters, and classes like the Samurai and Ninja will also end up with one (though it will power different abilities). That's neither here nor there, but I wanted something that at it's most basic, could be transposed between classes.

I didn't know that "sacred" bonuses where supposed to be "good" and where opposed by a "profane-bad" bonus. I just assumed it meant "divine" which I figured was rare enough it wouldn't conflict with much else. I could use either insight bonuses or make up something specifically for the monk.

Edit: I found that the BoED introduces something called a "perfection" bonus, which is probably rare enough that I don't have to worry about it overlapping with too much else.
Also, this is still not supposed to imply inherent goodness in the monk; afterall you can be perfectly evil.


Also, again, the term "ki" might be avoided if you aren't trying to add a specifically oriental flavor.
Mostly it was a case of "couldn't come up with anything better". I'd be happy to replace it, but generic terms like "spirit", "soul", and "energy" mostly already have very specific definitions in D&D. I could use a term like "vital energy" or "life force" but that doesn't role off the tongue very easily, and sounds like I'm being different just for the sake of difference.
I did, briefly, think about making the monk a psionic class, since Ki works a lot like power-points, but I decided that gave it a whole different flavor and I didn't want to step on the existing psionic classes toes.
If anyone has ideas for a replacement, I'd be happy to consider them.


To be nit-picky, you should probably remove the second "the". To be more serious, though, I'm a bit surprised that this is listed as a second class feature from improved unarmed damage when both of them are combined in the original monk.

Thanks for pointing out any formating errors you find; I want my write-ups to look nice and professional.
See my above explanation above for how the "unarmed damage" and "Imp. US feat" are now two very different features.


I was going to express disappointment that none of these paths gave specific abilities in a specific order before I looked down at the abilities and realized that they grow with level. Giving one of three paths and then giving only 5 of the 10 abilities makes for lots of combinations. Nice work.

Thanks! In my ideal world, every core class would have at least some variablity for how it was built and played. I can't always achieve this to the degree I would like (my rogue fix, for example, is pretty static) but with over a year's worth of effort into the monk at this point I'm glad it turned out reasonably well.


Whereas the first monk focuses more on combat, this one is most certainly more focused on being skilled, though it still doesn't seem to have too much to do outside of combat.
This was intended to be a "lighter combatant/more skill-monkey build". If the first path is the warrior-equivalent, then this would be the rogue-monk. The boost to damage from Intellect was to give them some reason beyond skill points to want Intellect, but I'll try to come up with a more versatile benefit. Again, I'd welcome ideas from any source.


Oh... wow... just realized that only these guys get an AC bonus but that all of them have no armor proficiency. Honestly, this kind of sucks for all three kinds of monk. There is a very strong pressure for monks of the first too paths to get armored monk as soon as possible (which kind of reduces choice) and because this AC bonus doesn't scale and cuts you off from armored monk, it forces you to waste a feat gaining light armor proficiency.

I figured that monk-class-AC+Wisdom AC+Armor AC would be a bit too much, and figured that with everything the monk was gaining, players would miss the flat passive bonuses the least. I'll consider adding back in a monk-level AC so that each selection has access to two of the three forms of AC.

Edit: I have now done so, with a slightly tweaked progression. With all the stuff I'm giving the monk, I'm starting to worry that it will drastically exceed my other melee class fixes. To compensate, I've knocked back the unarmed damage a bit from my initial listing and have so far resisted upping the skill points.


I can definitely understand why you want to increase damage by 10% (it scales naturally) and it's not too much calculation but at the same time, D&D hasn't really ever uses percentages outside of d% rolls and so this thing kind of sticks out like a sore thumb.
*snip*
Oh, the smite grows later on. Some part of me feels that it kind of defeats the purpose of using %s in the first place if your just going to create improved versions of the ability later (you might as well have just given flat damage boosts)

I admit that some of the fixing gets pretty quirky, but I would rather fix things in an unusual manner than half-fix them in the usual manner and not address the remaing usual problems. Anyone who doesn't like the percentage damage is free to just use the minimum values as a flat-damage increase.
Also, all of the Ki-strikes will burn through the player's ki-pool pretty quickly at the level they become available, and even at high levels they are more of a "use as needed, not every round" sort of thing.
Also also, I realize that I didn't include the "ki-strikes-are-magic" for overcoming damage resistance. I didn't mean to leave it out, I just forgot about it. Even with a monk's improved ability to use weapons, I should probably add this back in.


That's a lot of feats right there....My only suggestion (more of a pet peeve) would be to remove leadership from the list. As one of the most powerful feats in existence, seeing it on any bonus feat list kind of makes me cringe.

Any DM is free to ban Leadership if he feels the players can't handle the responsibility, but I've got no particular attachment to it.
Out the door it goes!


Yeah, this definitely doesn't seem as "combat-sage-y" as it does "monk-ish". I can tell that you're trying here, however, as you made the ability pretty weird/"realistic". I... think it's more effecient overall but it's still a kind of odd concept (and a less useful one in battle until 17th level), especially with the inclusion of the throwaway skill check that would realistically do little other than make all monks take a few ranks in heal to auto-succeed.

I consider the ability to self-heal very useful, even if it's not in combat, and I try to hand it out to as many classes as possible. I think the general consensus on in-combat healing is that it get's LESS usefull as you level up, but if I want any monk to really be a healer-monk then I probably need to change the Healing Hands special ability to be useable at a range.
I can get rid of the Heal check, but in general, I like needing SOME sort of roll to activate abilities (I really don't like at-will stuff).


DR 3/magic seems really random by this point. Maybe I'm just a sucker for round numbers like 5 but is there any reason you chose 3? :smallconfused:
Because a progression of 5/10 seemed too high? And 3/5 seemed more sensible then anything else like 3/7, 4/8, 2/6, etc.

Anything higher feels like it shifts the monk to far away from speedy-avoid-the-hits combatant to a damage-sink. What I might change is to either make it 3/- right away, so I'm not picking on melee classes, or give players the choice of 3/magic or 3/non-magic, so anyone who is trying to build a mage-slayer (to use your term :smallwink:) doesn't get screwed.
If anyone knows the proper notation for damage resistance against magic but not physical attacks, please let me know.


So... they have immunity to the greatest phages forged in the rotting carcasses of disease gods? :smalltongue:
Yeah, I know, level 13. Just poking some fun.
:smallsigh:
The only reason I brought that up in your build was that you gave the monk the ability to heal ALL poison and disease at the same level he was only immune to non-magical ones.
I'm still debating including your "heal-poison/disease for a ki-point" somewhere.


Mini-nova for your ki points. I'm kind of on the fence about such skills in general but you seemed to pull it off fairly well.
Alright, I confess! You managed oto torture it out of me! This was entirely inspired DBZ and other anime/manga. Feel free to deduct as many nerd points as needed. :smallfrown:



Abundant Step: When the free action teleport says 1/round, does that mean that you can only teleport 1/round as a free action or was the intention that you could only teleport 1/round at all (in which case you may want to be clear so I don't spend two move actions and a swift action to also teleport around).

It was intended to be a limit of just one teleport per round at all levels; I'll add a note for clarification. (thanks for bringing this up, this is the kind of shenanigans that I'm perpetually wary of)


Armored Monk: Kind of sucks that the two paths in need of armor still have to spend feats getting medium and heavy weapon proficiency but I can kind of see what you're going for.
Hmm, I was thinking that you could multiclass with other melee-centric classes to gain more feats/proficiencies, but I admit it's poor design to plan for that.
Also, none of my fixed classes get heavy-armor proficiency as a class feature; I want people to consider taking it as part of their character customization (armor really needs a buff, but oh look! there's a link for one in my extended sig, and plenty of more fixes floating around)
I'll reconsider having this grant at least medium armor proficiences at higher levels, or some other combination.


Battle Meditation: I guess that this would be the way that a monk would buff others but it bodes ill for this class being anything but a monk.
I'm not certain exactly what you mean by that? Is it the fluff or the mechanics that you don't like?
The inspiration for this ability was actually some of the EU Star-Wars comics, where one of the bad guys is using some sort of force-based power to buff up their army. One thing that I had not considered until this moment was a similar setup for providing debuffs to the enemy instead. Perhaps the simplest thing to do would be to take a page from the Truenamer's book and let the meditations simply be inverted to penalties as an alternate option.


Ethereal Scouting: Well, you were certainly serious about having the monk do all sorts of things. Even so, the static skill checks you've thrown into class features don't really seem to add anything. As for questions:
Do you need to pay ki to extend durations when you first use the ability or when the ability would end?
Are additional skill checks needed when you extend the duration?
What happens if your ethereal self travels to another plane of existence (something that astral projection seems to account for but not this ability)?
What happens if your body is revived from the dead after you die in mid-projection?

If the static skill checks don't really corelate well, and end up being nothing more than annoyances, I'll take them out.
As for the questions:
I had intended you to be able to pay ki to extend the ability at any time.
No additional skill checks should be needed.
I had not considered it; I'll look up how Astral Projection deals with the issue, and if it's not too complicated, I'll simply port it over.
I think that I intended you to be able to continue just as you had been. In fact, this sort of provides a last-ditch effort for the monk to escape if their physical body is about to be killed. It's not much better than being dead, but it might buy you a couple of extra days to contact help and get your body rescued. I'll consider this further.


Flurry of Blows/Force Push: While both abilities seem serviceable and both do what you want them to, both of these abilities are quite long as well. Also, wouldn't it make more sense to evolve force push into simply telekinesis after a while rather than adding each bit of functionality separately?
I'll set up a table for FoB so that it's easier to see what you get and when you get it.
I'd honestly been trying to avoid anything that was "like spell X, but costs y ki points". Still, I'll review telekinesis and if it fits what I want then sure.

Edit: Looked up the spell, and decided it maxes out at too low a level. With my version, you probably won't be throwing dinosaurs around, but at high levels you should be able to use the ability on almost any creature up to Huge size. I will consider letting the Mage Hand alternate use evolve into Telekinesis.


Final Thoughts: *snip*
I admit that many of my fixes are not very generic, but that's because I've never seen a "simple" or "easy" or "standard" fix that really addresses all the monk's problems (or all the issues from several of the core classes, really). There's a question that I like to ask: Do you want something done quick or do you want it done right?

This is what I think it takes to make the monk a workable (if somewhat complex) tier 3 class. I don't expect players to memorize everything about this class, just like you wouldn't expect anyone playing a wizard to memorize the 100+ pages of spells in the PHB. Much of the stuff you mentioned (strange HD, static skill checks, etc) can be done away with and have very little overall change. At worst, players and DM's can take this fix and simplify down to whatever level they feel comfortable with for their game, or use it for inspiration for their own fix.

[WaylanderX]

As per the PEACH trading business, I hereby PEACH you!

Letsa gette d'wn t' business:


Path to Enlightenment

It all seems a bit frontloaded to me, with all the abilities gained from the Path being aviable at level 1. Maybe spread it out a bit and get rid of some of the Huuuuugggee amount of bonus feats this class seems to get.

Maybe something like this: (Changes are in Bold, comments are in Italic)


*Path of the Vigorous Body
Monks of the path of the vigorous body value strength and durability. These monks are some of the most likely choose a wandering life of adventure and combat over decades of contemplation in a monestary.
At level 1, Monks of this path may treat all monk level as having a BAB equal to their level, as a fighter of the same level.
At level 6, the blows you have gotten in the heat of the fray, combined with special techniques Monks of this path have developed made you tougher beyond mortal limits; they add their Wisdom bonus (if any) to their Constitution modifier before calculating hit points gained from monk levels.

Monks of this path may choose from the following special abilities: Abundant Step, Armored Monk, Flurry of Blows, Force Push, Healing Hands, Ki -arrow, Quivering Palm, Restorative Meditation, Super Sprint, and Wall of Will

*Path of the Expansive Mind
Monks of the path of the expansive mind embody many of the more scholastic aspects of the monk’s role as a “warrior-scholar”, studying and mastering many different skills.
At level 1, Monks of this path add their Intellect bonus (if any) to their strength modifier when calculating damage from from melee attacks, including ranged weapons. This does not stack with other sources of precision-based damage.
At level 6, Monks of this path have developed special techniques to learn more quickly and more easily than others; they add their Wisdom bonus (if any) to their Intellect modifier when calculating how many skill points they gain from each monk level. including extra points gained at the first level.

(This also could make the monk a very very good skill/trap monkey, something that I really cannot imagine with a monk, but maybe that is me.)

Monks of this path may choose from the following special abilities: Armored Monk, Battle Meditation, Ethereal Scouting, Flurry of Blows, Future-sight, Ki-arrow, Ki-enhanced Spell, Quivering Palm, Super Sprint, and Tongue of the Sun and Moon

*Path of the Overwhelming Soul
Monks of the path of the overwhelming soul tend to focus more on interactions with others than introspection; they tend to be the most outgoing of all monks.
At level 1, Monks of this path gain a bonus to the number ki points in their ki pool equal to their Charisma bonus (if any).
On level 6, Monks of this path can also gain a bonus to their AC equal to their Wisdom Charisma score
(To decrease MAD maybe it is a good idea to have Charisma on AC instead of Wisdom).
The monk loses this bonus if unconscious or otherwise helpless; the bonus is reduced by half if the monk wears medium armor and the bonus is removed entirely if wearing heavy armor.

Monks of this path may choose from the following special abilities: Abundant Step, Battle Meditation, Ethereal Scouting, Force Push, Future-sight, Healing Hands, Ki-enhanced Spell, Restorative Meditation, Tongue of the sun and Moon, and Wall of Will


Improved Ki-Strike (Sp)

Here maybe, to further enhance the concept of a lawfull monk, add the lawfull descriptor to the attacks made by the monk?


Wholeness of Body (Sp)

Nice ability, quite like it. Just wanted to say that. :smalltongue:


Flurry of Blows (Ex)

4 attacks at a full BAB as a standard action?.....I would give attack after the first a penalty to attack to compensate a bit, because imo, this is really really strong. (As in, Hydra madness strong and trust me, I've played with Hydra's and drove my DM insane :smalltongue:)


At level 11, the monk gains Superior Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat.

This is put under Diamond Body, needs its own space. (Why you no love the Superior Unarmed Strike? :smallfrown:)


Diamond Body (Ex)

Maybe, due to the Monk being lawfull and such, and DR 3/something isn't that big of a deal, why not make it DR 3/Chaotic? It kinda fits the theme.



Limited Perfection (Su)

Nice capstone, very flavorfull. First I thought it was too strong with the 50% damage increase, but then I saw the "You may not use Ki" line. Even then though, it is quite powerfull with the right optimizing. I propose the change that instead of +50%, you get your monk level on damage (+20 on each attack) when wielding 2 weapons, +30 when fighting unarmed, and +40 when wielding a two-handed weapon. And 1 more thing, why is this a supernatural ability while almost all other Ki related things are Sp abilities? I would make them all the same type (Imo, Supernatural seems best fit for meditative powers like this.)

Just my 2 cents, I'll read it again tomorrow to see if I can find anything else.

[Deepbluediver]

It all seems a bit frontloaded to me, with all the abilities gained from the Path being aviable at level 1. Maybe spread it out a bit and get rid of some of the Huuuuugggee amount of bonus feats this class seems to get.

Yeah, that was something I was worried about. But the monk is such a unique class, a lot of the abilities are almost required to be frontloaded so that the opening levels set the tone and flavor.

This class was in the works for a while, and every time I thought of something new it got bolted on. The Monk feats started out as a way to fill in dead levels, and then I added other features on top of them. And I still want there to be some sort of logical progression, so it doesn't feel like I'm just throwing things together will-nilly.

I've been messing around with everything on a spreadsheet, and I think I've worked out an alternative progression that isn't too wonky, and should allow me to cut down the number of bonus Monk feats from 10 to 6.

Most of the features, including the path abilities, will get bumped to one level higher, although a few, like Improved and Greater Ki Strike, will slide down. And the only level other than 1st where you get more than one Special should be 13th.

Edit: Done, let me know what you think.


Maybe something like this: (Changes are in Bold, comments are in Italic)
Yeah, most of those seem like good ideas. I might make them come into play early than 6th, but they can certainly be pushed back from first level.

The only thing I'm wary about is the third type of monk, the Charisma based build. I never really had a very clear vision for how this type of monk would be played, but I'm wary of converting more abilities to Charisma instead of Wisdom. I'm worried it will change the flavor of the class too much. Let me think about it some more.


(This also could make the monk a very very good skill/trap monkey, something that I really cannot imagine with a monk, but maybe that is me.)

Most of the recent flurry (ha ha :smallamused:) of monk fixes rely on making the monk a mobile skirmisher, but I've also seen several that prefer to give the monk the rogue's skill-points and focus on non-combat utility. What I like about my monk is that you can play him (almost) any way you prefer.


Here maybe, to further enhance the concept of a lawfull monk, add the lawfull descriptor to the attacks made by the monk?

I have no objections, but since the monk's ki strikes are already magic, would it really add much of anything besides flavor?


4 attacks at a full BAB as a standard action?.....I would give attack after the first a penalty to attack to compensate a bit, because imo, this is really really strong. (As in, Hydra madness strong and trust me, I've played with Hydra's and drove my DM insane :smalltongue:)

I think you might have missed something; all the attacks already get a -2 penalty with unarmed strikes and light weapons, and bigger penalties for one-handed and two-handed weapons. And unlike the RAW monk it never goes away.
Do you really think it needs more of a penalty? I don't want this to become Flurry of Misses, again.


This is put under Diamond Body, needs its own space. (Why you no love the Superior Unarmed Strike? :smallfrown:)

GAH! I swear I fixed this once already! I fail at teh internetz :smallfrown:


Maybe, due to the Monk being lawfull and such, and DR 3/something isn't that big of a deal, why not make it DR 3/Chaotic? It kinda fits the theme.

I might consider bumping these up to something like 3/6 or 4/8, but it's not really my intent to transform the monk into a damage-soaking beast. I'll leave that to the barbarians and fighters.

Also, I've never really liked the rationale behind most of the DR/alignment bonuses. Most of them are DR/opposite-alignment, with the explanation that "only [opposite alignment] is strong enough to overcome the strength of dedication to your own alignment".

But think about the pally: they get DR/evil, except that practically everything they fight is (supposedly) evil, so it doesn't really help them that much. As a paladin, I'd rather have damage reduction/resistance AGAINST evil!

I would think that an attack that matches your alignment would be harder to defend against because it's that much more unexpected.
If you want to use this class in a game though, feel free to homebrew it further to whatever specifications you prefer.


Nice capstone, very flavorfull. First I thought it was too strong with the 50% damage increase, but then I saw the "You may not use Ki" line. Even then though, it is quite powerfull with the right optimizing. I propose the change that instead of +50%, you get your monk level on damage (+20 on each attack) when wielding 2 weapons, +30 when fighting unarmed, and +40 when wielding a two-handed weapon.

I've never had a problem dealing with percentages (especially easy ones like "half"), and the flat damage boosts always seemed to never hit quite the right level that I wanted.
If anyone else wants to use this class but doesn't like the percentages, I would certainly encourage them to work out flat bonuses instead.


And 1 more thing, why is this a supernatural ability while almost all other Ki related things are Sp abilities? I would make them all the same type (Imo, Supernatural seems best fit for meditative powers like this.)

I couldn't really decide which was more appropriate. Normally non-casters get Extraordinary or Supernatural abilities, so that they are harder to shut down with an anti-magic field, but the monk got so many more new options that I was worried about them being invincible (or at least very hard to defend against).
I'll try to make a final decision and convert everything to the same type, one way or the other.

Edit: for now I think I'll leave things as they are. Many of the monk's abilities do mimic spells, and Limited Perfection can just remain as the odd man out. The flavor, of course, is that the monk it tapping into a little bit of that Outsider/non-mortal power.