Realms of Chaos
2013-01-03, 05:51 PM
The Monk
Ah, the monk. What could I say about the monk that hasn’t already been said a hundred times? Despite the cool (if somewhat scatterbrained) flavor and the ton of class features it gets, the class is still weak, unfocused, hobbled by the lack of magical arms and armor, and suffers from some serious MAD. Perhaps this is why tons of people have taken a crack at fixing the thing up. I myself have looked over a good many fixes in the past and I’ve seen stuff that I’ve liked and haven’t liked but apart from my somewhat gimmicky Ascendant (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=164099), I haven’t really ever taken a crack at the monk myself. As the forums seem to be in the midst of a monk-renaissance, however, this seemed like a perfect time to take a look at the class and see what I could do with it. Here’s what I aimed to do:
1. Give the monk a role in combat
2. Help handle MAD without just giving the class SAD. I know that quite a few monk fixes have simply tied everything to Wisdom so players could focus on cranking it up through the roof but I’ve never been a real fan of SAD so I’m seeing what I can do without it.
3. Give the monk a small selection of decently powerful abilities (including most of the checklist of things we expect from high-level characters) without turning the monk into a caster or using ToB
4. Hopefully attain tier 3 (though high tier 4 is still a happy place to be).
I’m just about out of things to say so here’s the class.
Alignment: Any
HD: d8
Class Skills: Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), and Tumble (Dex).
Skill Points Per Level: 6 + Int Modifier
Notes & Explanation:Yeah, I’m in the camp that thinks that the monk needs more skill points. It’s not that I think that monks are inherently skill-monkeys but rather a simple necessity, more often than not. With the MAD that monks face, intelligence becomes a dump stat for most monks (Kung Fu Genius notwithstanding) and few can afford anything other than the basic maneuverability skills that most people think of when they think of (eastern) monks.
The Monk
{table=head]Level|Base Attack <br /> Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Combat Style |Peerless Grace |Unarmed Damage
1st|
+0|
+2|
+2|
+2|Flurry of Blows, Ki Pool, Peerless Grace, Unarmed Strike|0|+10 ft.|1d6
2nd|
+1|
+3|
+3|
+3|Combat Style, Evasion|1|+10 ft.|1d6
3rd|
+2|
+3|
+3|
+3|Sense Void, Still Mind|1|+20 ft.|1d6
4th|
+3|
+4|
+4|
+4|Chasing Perfection, Empty Stride|1|+20 ft.|1d6
5th|
+3|
+4|
+4|
+4|Diamond Body|1|+30 ft.|1d8
6th|
+4|
+5|
+5|
+5|Uncanny Dodge|2|+30 ft.|1d8
7th|
+5|
+5|
+5|
+5|Wholeness of Body|2|+40 ft.|1d8
8th|
+6/+1|
+6|
+6|
+6|Flowing Approach|2|+40 ft.|1d8
9th|
+6/+1|
+6|
+6|
+6|Diamond Mind|2|+50 ft.|1d10
10th|
+7/+2|
+7|
+7|
+7|Improved Evasion|3|+50 ft.|1d10
11th|
+8/+3|
+7|
+7|
+7|Diamond Tongue|3|+60 ft.|1d10
12th|
+9/+4|
+8|
+8|
+8|Abundant Step|3|+60 ft.|1d10
13th|
+9/+4|
+8|
+8|
+8|Diamond Soul|3|+70 ft.|2d6
14th|
+10/+5|
+9|
+9|
+9|Improved Uncanny Dodge|4|+70 ft.|2d6
15th|
+11/+6/+1|
+9|
+9|
+9|Diamond Resilience|4|+80 ft.|2d6
16th|
+12/+7/+2|
+10|
+10|
+10|Unbound Stride|4|+80 ft.|2d6
17th|
+12/+7/+2|
+10|
+10|
+10|Touch of Eternity|4|+90 ft.|2d8
18th|
+13/+8/+3|
+11|
+11|
+11|Empty Body|5|+90 ft.|2d8
19th|
+14/+9/+4|
+11|
+11|
+11|Diamond Essence|5|+100 ft.|2d8
20th|
+15/+10/+5|
+12|
+12|
+12|Perfect Self|5|+100 ft.|2d8 [/table]
Class Features: All of the following are class features of the monk.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency Monks are proficient with club, crossbow (light or heavy), dagger, handaxe, javelin, kama, nunchaku, quarterstaff, sai, shuriken, Shortbows, siangham, sling, and unarmed strikes.
Monks are not proficient with any armor or shields
When wearing armor, using a shield, or carrying a medium or heavy load, a monk loses her AC bonus, as well as her peerless grace and flurry of blows abilities. Similarly, while wearing armor or using a shield, you lose all armor or shield enhancements (respectively) gained from your chasing perfection class feature.
Ki Pool: As a monk, you possess a wellspring of spiritual energy that you can use to power some of your class features. At any time, you may possess a number of ki points up to 3 + half of your class level + one fourth of all other HD you possess, rounded down. After resting for 8 hours, you may spend 1 hour in meditation to regain all spent ki points. So long as you possess at least one point of ki in your pool, you may add your Wisdom modifier (minimum +0) to your AC if you are unarmored and carry no more than a light load. You retain this bonus while flat-footed, but not when helpless. Unless specifically mentioned, all abilities activated by spending Ki points are supernatural and they do not stack with themselves.
Notes and Explanation:One thing that I loved from the Pathfinder Monk class was the use of a ki pool. As the rest of the AC boost is coming from another source, I decided that this was the best and most organic way to plug in the traditional Wisdom bonus to AC.
Trying to think of how I’d implement the ki pool was hard, though. After reviewing several different recharge methods (ranging from the daily recharge above to meditation at any time to regain them to per-encounter uses) and different pricing schemes for abilities, this is what I ended up hitting upon.
Right now, every single other class feature can use ki points for some sort of benefit. The supply of ki that you get, however, remains small throughout your career and you can only reset your ki with a long rest. With that said, most of the ki benefits are either things you’d want in the heat of the moment (such as immunity to something you’ve been exposed to) and/or last the entire encounter. Combining the long-lasting/situational effects with tons of swift action activations (stopping the monk from going nova), ki conservation becomes a real task but you shouldn’t always be eking by after the first couple of levels. At the same time, the limitation on ki supply (in my opinion) gives a level of depth to an otherwise relatively passive class without making the class all about those abilities all the time.
Unarmed Strike: You possess great skill with unarmed combat, allowing you to deliver lethal strikes with any part of your body and to deliver multiple strikes in quick succession. You gain Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat. Your unarmed attacks may be made with either fist interchangeably or even from elbows, knees, and feet. This means that you can make unarmed strikes with your hands full. There is no such thing as an off-hand attack for a monk striking unarmed. You may thus apply your full Strength bonus on damage rolls for all of your unarmed strikes.
Your unarmed strikes usually deal lethal damage but you can choose to deal nonlethal damage instead with no penalty on your attack roll. You have the same choice to deal lethal or nonlethal damage while grappling.
Your unarmed strike is treated both as a manufactured weapon and as a natural weapon for the purpose of spells and effects that enhance or improve either manufactured weapons or natural weapons (such as the magic fang and magic weapon spells).
You also deal more damage with your unarmed strikes than a normal person would, as shown on the table above. If you pay a ki point as a swift action, you may treat your monk level as being 4 higher and your unarmed strikes count as magical for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction and harming incorporeal creatures for 5 rounds or until the end of the encounter, whichever comes last. A Small monk deals less damage and a Large monk deals more as indicated on the table below.
{table=head]Level|Small Monk|Large Monk
1-4|1d4|1d8
5-8|1d6|1d10
9-12|1d8|2d6
13-16|1d10|2d8
17-20|2d6|2d10[/table]
Notes and Explanation:I haven’t done too much here. Small monks are effectively 4 levels weaker while Large monks are 4 levels stronger, making it easy to trace your advancement if you change size. Overall damage is slightly lower, though monks now have an extra source of damage below in flurry of blows. The ki ability here is basically an easy way to somewhat boost your damage and overcome incorporeality or simple DR. If you raise your effective level above 20 with the ki ability, medium monks deal 2d10 damage while small monks deal 2d8 and large monks deal 3d6.
Peerless Grace (Ex): As a monk, you have taught yourself to move with unmatched speed and agility while unarmored and carrying no more than a light load. You gain an enhancement bonus to your speed for all forms of movement you possess, as shown on the table above. If you pay a ki point as an immediate action, the enhancement bonus is increased by +20 for 5 rounds or until the end of the encounter, whichever comes last.
With this enhanced speed comes greater agility and grace. For every +10 feet of enhancement bonus you receive in this way, you gain a +4 bonus to tumble and balance checks and you ignore the first two dice of damage that you would take from falling. For every +20 feet of enhancement bonus you receive in this way, you also gain a +1 dodge bonus to AC so long as you are capable of movement.
Finally, your can use your skills at movement to fall back after attacks. Once per round, immediately after making a flurry of blows, you may move a distance equal to half of your enhancement bonus to speed. This movement provokes no attacks of opportunity from creatures attacked during the preceding flurry of blows.
Notes and Explanation:Warning: Tangent: As I said above, I wanted to give the monk a more definite role in combat. Following what most people seem to think of the monk (at least from what I’ve heard), I chose to make it into a skirmisher. Rather than meaning someone who runs up and hits you (like the scout class), however, I made these monks so that they can run into the battle, hit people, and effectively retreat before repeating the process. When things work as they should, a monk should be able to deliver good amounts of damage before falling back and letting the damaged opponent choose whether to make a full attack on a nearby front-liner or to chase down the monk to likely make a single attack (probably provoking an attack from the frontliner in the process). I’ve always felt as though every sort of combat other than straight-up melee combat has always been overlooked in 3.5 (just ask people who like ranged weapons) but I feel that I did this role some justice in allowing the tank to actually serve as a tank to some extent. As a final note on this role, the reduced number of attacks that most monks stand to face helps to reduce the importance of huge AC and hit points, a small step toward soothing the wounds of MAD.
and now to talk about the ability itself: This is a rather busy little thing, isn’t it. I guess that I should go over it one step at a time, then. First, the speed bonus is notably higher. If you spend a ki point at 19th level or higher, you may well have a speed of 150 feet. While this is impressive, however, speed means relatively little unless you’re trying to escape and by the time you’d be fast enough to guarantee a clean getaway, a good portion of foes you’d face could simply teleport after you. The skill bonuses, though lower, were inspired by the “dance with the elements” class feature Jiriku put on his fix. The extra +5 bonus (potentially +6 now) from the monk’s normal AC bonus are here now. Likewise, slow fall was simply improved and added into the equation (and is the reason why the ki ability can be used as an immediate action). While a lot of stuff, the last ability is probably the most important, basically granting a variation of spring attack and saving you from the normal AoO associated with running back away. While this ability is most certainly busy, I don’t think that it could truly be called overpowered unless there’s something I’m missing.
God, that was long. Thankfully, the other notes aren’t nearly as long… except for the next one, maybe.
Flurry of Blows When unarmored, you may use the full force of your training to strike with a series of blows. Whenever you make an attack or full attack (including attacks of opportunity), you may choose to make it a flurry of blows. When making a flurry of blows, your Base Attack bonus from levels in monk equals your monk level and you take a -2 penalty to all attack rolls. For each attack that your base attack bonus would provide you (up to a maximum of 1/5 class levels, rounded up), however, you may make an extra attack at that base attack bonus (these attacks need not target the same creature). Extra attacks from other sources (such as haste effects or two-weapon fighting) don't stack with these extra attacks. Finally, for each extra attack made in this way, all attacks made in the flurry of blows gain a +1 bonus to the attack roll and deal +1d6 damage (this effect stacks with itself). If you spend a ki point as a swift action, the threat range for all attacks you make as part of a flurry of blows are doubled for 5 rounds or until the end of the encounter, whichever comes last. This effect does not stack with others that increase threat range (such as the keen weapon property) When making a flurry of blows, attacks may only be made with unarmed strikes or with special monk weapons.
Notes and Explanation:Flurry of blows has returned, though with quite a few changes. So, let’s review what it does now. As before, the flurry must be made unarmed or with monk weapons, need you to be unarmored, and gives you a -2 penalty to the roll. Kind of like the pathfinder monk, you use your monk level as your BAB.
Instead of giving you a single extra attack and another single extra attack later, I tried to make the ability grow organically by simply doubling the attacks that your base attack bonus provides (allowing for two attacks as a normal attack or AoO).
Furthermore, to overcome the traditional issue people have with the old “flurry of misses”, you get +1 to your attack rolls and +1d6 damage to all attacks for each extra attack you make in the flurry (meaning that you have to choose the size of your flurry as you start the action). You aren't penalized, however, if you kill an enemy and run out of targets before you finish making all of the attacks (though if your first attack only kills a target due to +4d6 damage, you can't go back and say that it wasn't a full attack). With the help of these attack bonuses and damage bonuses, pushing your strength thankfully becomes a bit less of a priority for this class, again hopefully aiding the MAD. It should also be notes that these extra attacks do not stack with extra attacks from other sources, another new addition.
If you make all of your attacks against one creature as a Monk 20, your attack bonuses will be +24/+24/+19/+19/+14/+14/+9/+9 and each attack will deal 2d8 + 4d6 + Str bonus. With a modest Str bonus of +5 and a +5 enhancement bonus (see below), that makes for an average of 33 x 8 = 264 damage.
Evasive Dodge: Starting at 2nd level, you can avoid even magical and unusual attacks with great agility. If you make a successful Reflex save against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, you instead take no damage. If you spend a ki point as an immediate action, you may move a distance up to half of the enhancement bonus to your speed from your peerless grace class feature every time you succeed on a Reflex saving throw within the next 5 rounds or until the end of the encounter, whichever comes last. This ability can be used right after succeeding on such a saving throw to get the movement immediately. Evasive Dodge can be used only if you are wearing light armor or no armor. You do not gain the benefits of evasion when helpless.
Notes and Explanation:When I said that all of the abilities had ki usages, I was not exaggerating. Still not much to say about this ability, however. It’s evasion with a bit of mobility thrown in.
Combat Style: Though monks act as martial artists, there is far more than raw muscle and speed to the way that they act in combat. You may select a number of combat styles from the list below equal to the number on the table above. Once chosen, they cannot be changed. That same value is used to determine the benefits of each combat style, though the value is limited to a maximum of your Wisdom bonus for this purpose. By paying a ki point as a swift action, the size of the value is increased by +1 up to 5 rounds or until the end of the encounter, whichever comes last. This ability temporarily grants you another combat style of your choice for an equal duration. For every 6 HD you possess from sources other than monk levels, increase the value by +1.
Combat Styles
Meteoric Fists: You may reduce the damage reduction or hardness of any target you attack with an unarmed strike by twice the indicated amount.
Find the Gap: You may reduce the total of the shield bonus, armor bonus, and natural armor bonus of any target you attack with an unarmed attack or monk weapon by the indicated amount.
Versatile Combatant: You add the bonus to all rolls made to initiate, continue, resist, avoid, and/or escape bull rush, disarm, feint, grapple, overrun, sunder, and trip attempts.
Weaving Stride: You add the indicated bonus to your AC against attacks of opportunity and against all forms of ranged attacks.
Weakening Barrage: You may apply the indicated value as a penalty to all attack rolls or to the AC of any creature you hit with more than one attack during a flurry of blows for 1 round.
Unshakable Resolve: You reduce all damage you would take from any source by the indicated value and add twice that value as a bonus to Constitution checks.
Vigilant Assailant: You add the indicated value to initiative checks and to the number of attacks of opportunity that you can make each round.
Zen Archery: You add the indicated value x 10 ft. to the range increment of all ranged attacks and to damage rolls made with such attacks.
Leaf in the Hurricane: If a creature is threatened by at least one of your allies, apply the indicated value as a penalty to attack rolls it makes against you.
Flurry of Movement: Enemies that start a round adjacent to you suffer spell failure equal to the indicated value x 5% until the end of the round.
Notes and Explanation:And now for a new ability and the closest to an SAD mechanism that the class gets. Seeing as pumping your Wisdom beyond 20 (or 22 if you charge this ability) won’t do much for you, wisdom is able to help out if your other scores are lacking while setting a ceiling of sorts on how much you really want to pump your Wisdom. As for the specific abilities, I don’t really have too much to say. I’m not sure if flurry of movement might be a bit too powerful (even though it’s barely more effective than deafness at full strength) so let me know what you think.
Still Mind (Ex): At 3rd level or higher, you gain a +2 bonus on saving throws against spells and effects from the school of enchantment. If you fail such a saving throw against an effect with a duration other than instantaneous, you may spend a ki point as an immediate action to delay the effect by one round before succumbing. This round does not count towards the effects duration.
Notes and Explanation:An old staple, now with the ability to actually come in handy every now and then.
Sense the Void (Su): At 3rd level, you gain the ability to roughly sense your surroundings, even if you are kept from sight. As a swift action, you can gain blindsense out to 5 feet/class level for 1 round. If you use this ability as a move action and spend a ki point, you gain blindsight out to half of that distance and the ability instead lasts for 5 rounds or until the end of the encounter, whichever comes last. As this information comes as much from your sixth sense and intuition as anything else, you may use this ability even if robbed of all of your other senses.
Notes and Explanation:Honestly, I must admit that I don’t have too much of a sense of how powerful this ability is. The sight you get comes at a pretty limited range until you’re higher level but it’s possible that I still went a bit too early (though I think that I’m probably fine). Feel free to leave your thoughts if you think otherwise, though.
Chasing Perfection: At 4th level, you start your pursuit of perfection in earnest. At 4th level and every 4 levels afterwards, you may permanently increase one of your ability scores by +1. If you spend a ki point as a swift action, you gain an additional +4 bonus to an ability score of your choice for 5 rounds or until the end of the encounter, whichever comes last. If you use this ability a second time, the first bonus vanishes even if it was applied to a different ability score.
Furthermore, you gain the ability to improve your body much as a magic item. You effectively gain the benefits of craft magic arms and armor, except that you can only enchant yourself and that there is no XP cost for doing so (though you must pay the normal cost in time and materials). At any time, you may enchant yourself as a suit of armor, a shield, and as up to two weapons (you may select which “weapon” you are using with each unarmed strike, though the effects are not bound to any particular limb). Special abilities that physically separate an item from its wearer (such as animated, dancing, or throwing) or that alter the physical properties of an item (such as sizing and metalline) can’t be added in this way. Only you may enchant yourself in this way and you need not provide the spells necessary to do so, though your effective caster level equals your monk level. You are incapable of enchanting yourself as other forms of items, even if you possess the relevant feats. For all other purposes, you follow the normal rules and restrictions of crafting magical armor and weaponry. By spending any number of ki points over the course of one hour of meditation, you may redistribute an equal number of points of enhancement bonus. Thus, you could change a +2 weapon into a +1 flaming weapon if desired. You may not switch enhancement bonuses from one item to another (turning a +1 weapon and +1 shield into a +2 shield, for example), however, and you can not change items with a flat cost in place of an enhancement bonus (such as shadow or slick).
Notes and Explanation:This class feature is probably my favorite out of all of them. First of all, it grants you regular ability boosts so that you can even things out sooner and gives you a larger boost if you ever need it. Secondly, it gives you the ability to effectively enchant yourself. As one ruling for this ability, I’d say that the shield you craft for yourself, like your armor, are always in effect even if you aren’t keeping one hand open to serve as shield.
Empty Stride (Ex): Starting at 4th level, you can move at great speeds even across otherwise treacherous terrain. You ignore all forms of difficult terrain that don’t require skill checks or saving throws to pass through, though areas magically altered to slow movement still function. If you spend a ki point as a swift action, you can balance and walk across liquids and up vertical surfaces at your full speed for 5 rounds or until the end of the encounter, whichever comes last. During this time, the maximum height you can achieve with jumps equals your jump check result.
Notes and Explanation:Another more situational ability to secure your maneuverability. The ki ability in particular seems useful if you find yourself out at sea or in need of scaling a large vertical surface. And in case anyone was thinking to ask, I doubt that I’ll make a feat to let this ability carry over to mounts, no matter how awesome that horse mount would become.
Diamond Body (Ex): By 5th level, you possess control over your body, allowing you to resist almost all forms of disease and poison. You gain immunity to all nonmagical forms of disease and poison. By spending a ki point as a standard action, you may instantly cleanse yourself of any magical poisons or diseases you may be suffering from and you gain immunity against such effects for 5 rounds or until the end of the encounter, whichever comes first.
Notes and Explanation:Not too much to say, Purity of body and diamond body got kind of squashed together but everything should still be in order.
Uncanny Avoidance (Ex): Starting at 6th level, you can react to danger before your senses would normally allow you to do so. You retain your Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) even if you are caught flat-footed or are struck by an invisible attacker. However, you still lose your Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized. If you spend a ki point as an immediate action, you may not only act in a surprise round but take a full round of actions within it. If you already possess uncanny dodge form a different source, you automatically gain improved uncanny avoidance (see below) instead, though you may not spend ki points on it until 14th level.
Notes and Explanation:Everything is ki-powered. This ability may be of somewhat less frequent use, however.
Wholeness of Body (Ex): By 7th level, your fine control over your own body allows you to repair your more grievous wounds. So long as you are at half of your maximum hit points or lower, you gain fast healing equal to your Wisdom modifier. By spending one or more ki points as a standard action, you can heal yourself further. You may heal hit points at a rate of 10 per point spent, ability damage at a rate of 4 per point spent, ability drain at a rate of 1 per point spent, or negative levels at a rate of 1 per two points spent. All ability damage or drain healed at a time need not be to a single ability score.
Notes and Explanation:Behold, the last use for a high wisdom score that this class has to offer. As a note, I had considered letting people do several types of healing with one action but I couldn’t think of any wording that couldn’t be construed as paying 2 ki points to heal 1 negative level and 2 ability drain and 8 ability damage and 20 hit points. With things as they are right now, however, it shouldn’t become too much of a headache so I’m not in any great rush to fix this particular ability.
Flowing Advance (Ex): When you reach 8th level, you can charge in ways that others would scarcely believe. You may make any number of turns when charging, can incorporate jump checks, climb checks, swim checks, tumble checks, and balance checks into your charges, and can make a full attack at the end of each charge. By spending a ki point as a swift action, you can move as far as four times your speed and as little as 10 feet when making a charge for the next 5 rounds or until the end of the encounter, whichever comes last.
Notes and Explanation:Funny story about this ability. I originally placed it at 8th level before I decided to let flurry of blows set your BAB at your monk level, meaning that you’d have medium BAB and get your first iterative attack at 8th level. By the time I realized that the new change lets you get full attacks a full 2 levels before you could charge, I couldn’t find a way to shuffle things around without causing something else that looked weird (such as uncanny dodge at level 8). Considering as it is only 2 levels, however, it shouldn’t be too painful. As for what this ability does, it just allows you to charge and do so well (making your charges better than running if you pay ki).
Diamond Mind (Ex): Starting at 9th level, your mind is strong and disciplined enough to ignore certain forms of manipulation. You gain immunity to charm effects unless you allow them to affect you. Whenever you fail a saving throw against a mind-effecting effect with a duration other than instantaneous, you may spend a ki point as an immediate action to make one last attempt at freedom. If you do so, you may make a new Will save at the start of your next action against the same DC to end the effect early. You only gain this one extra attempt, however, and you cannot use this ability again if you fail on the second saving throw.
Notes and Explanation:Yeah, another mental resistance effect. The ki ability on this one can’t be combined with the one on still mind, either, though things still likely work out as still mind seems better if you rolled high the first time while this seems better if you rolled low the first time.
Improved Evasion (Ex): At 10th level, your evasion ability improves. You still take no damage on a successful Reflex save but henceforth take only half damage on a failed save. Furthermore, whenever a source of damage would lower you below 0 hit points, you may spend a ki point as an immediate action to make a Reflex saving throw (DC = damage dealt). If you succeed, the damage is halved (if you would still be lowered beneath 0 hit points, this ability provides no further benefits). This saving throw is unaffected by this class feature or by your evasion class feature. You gain no benefit from improved evasion while helpless.
Notes and Explanation:Improved evasion, now with a defensive roll feature.
Diamond Tongue (Ex): Starting at 11th level, you can communicate with any living creature. By spending a ki point as a standard action, you can speak to any inanimate object within 100 feet as if using stonetell with a caster level equal to your class level.
Notes and Explanation:I have always been a fan of Tongue of the Sun and Moon and I finally found a good secondary ability thanks to Kellus.
Abundant Step (Ex): Starting at 12th level, you can pass through great distances with little more than a thought. As a standard action, you can teleport a distance up to your speed so long as it ends in a space that you possess a line of sight with. Alternately, you may use this ability by spending a ki point as a swift action.
Notes and Explanation:Abundant step at will with some faster teleportation hijinks thrown in. Seems pretty balanced on my end but let me know if you see something I’ve missed.
Diamond Soul (Ex): If you are 13th level or higher, you gain spell resistance equal to your class level + 10. So long as you are conscious, you may allow any number of spells to ignore your spell resistance. If you spend a ki point as a swift or immediate action, you may make a dispel check against any number of active spell effects on your person, rolling 1d20 + your class level against a DCs of the caster level of each spell effect to be targeted. Effects that aren’t affected by dispel magic can’t be affected in this way.
Notes and Explanation:I didn’t change the primary ability too much, though the ki ability gives monks some way to handle spells that get through (if they weren’t simply save-or-dies, at least).
Improved Uncanny Avoidance (Ex): Though few monks truly desire to be surrounded by foes, you can ignore the worst of this disadvantage if you are at least 14th level. You can no longer be flanked. This defense denies rogues the ability to sneak attack you by flanking you, unless the attacker has at least four more rogue levels than you possess monk levels. If a creature who would otherwise be flanking you attacks you, you may spend a ki point as an immediate action. If you do so, that attack targets both you and the creature opposite of you (even if that creature is outside of the attacker’s reach).
If you already have uncanny dodge (see above) from another class, the character automatically gains improved uncanny avoidance instead, and the levels from the classes that grant uncanny dodge stack to determine the minimum rogue level required to flank you. You may not spend ki points on improved uncanny avoidance until you reach 14th level, however.
Notes and Explanation:As this monk isn’t at his best when surrounded and kept from moving around, it only seemed right to give the monk some way to handle such situations at some point. Rather than working with the rest of the class features, improved uncanny dodge reduces the sting of being caught in a bad situation.
Diamond Resilience (Ex): By 15th level, your body is so strongly controlled that you can endure almost anything. You gain immunity to death effects and you no longer automatically fail saving throws on a natural 1, though you may still fail such rolls normally. Finally, you may spend a ki point as an immediate action to gain immunity to critical hits and death from massive damage for 5 rounds or until the end of the encounter, whichever comes last.
Notes and Explanation:Yup, another defensive ability. While the traditional monk stopped after diamond soul, this class still gets a couple of final additions.
Unbound Stride (Su): By 16th level, very little could ever hope to truly stop you for long. You gain the benefits of a freedom of movement effect at all times. You may also spend a ki point as an immediate action to either target yourself with a freedom effect at the start of the next round or to gain the benefit of an Air Walk effect for 5 rounds or until the end of the encounter, whichever comes last.
Notes and Explanation:Another ability that a mobility-based class seemed to be wanting. Not too much to say.
Touch of Eternity (Su): Starting at 17th level, your body seems to lose touch with the flowing of time around it. You take no further penalties to your ability scores for aging and you cannot be magically aged. Any such penalties that you have already taken, however, remain in place. Bonuses still accrue, and you will still die of old age when your time is up. Finally, you may pay a ki point as a swift action to become acutely aware of time, gaining an additional round of actions immediately after your current one. After using this ability, however, you cannot do so again for 1d4 rounds.
Notes and Explanation:Again, not too much to say. It’s timeless body with a small touch of timestop/greater celerity. The ki ability seems pretty powerful but the limited supply of ki makes me wonder if it is really as strong as it seems.
Empty Body (Su): By 18th level, your bonds to the mortal realm have slipped to the point where you can shake them off nearly at will. You may travel to the ethereal plane for as long as you concentrate on doing so. If you pay a ki point over the course of one hour of meditation, you can instead create an Astral Projection effect. Your astral form, however, is incapable of regaining spent ki points, though it can spend what you have remaining.
Notes and Explanation:This ability, however, seems quite strong. Astral Projection has always been a powerful effect. I’m not quite sure how the etherealness ability measured up. You can’t really do too much on the ethereal plane but it still gives a good deal of maneuverability and unlimited ethereal travel isn’t really a thing that I’ve seen before (outside of greater planeshift, I suppose).
Diamond Essence (Su): By 19th level, your essence is beyond the comprehension of most mortals and beyond the sway and detection of nearly all magic. You gain the benefits of a Mind blank effect at all times. Furthermore, you may pay a ki point as a swift action to gain the benefits of a Foresight effect for 5 rounds or until the end of the encounter, whichever comes last.
Notes and Explanation:And, at the last possible moment, one more defensive ability. One last mental defense (and probably the best in the business) with a small defensive option for those with ki to spend.
Perfect Self: At 20th level, you finally reach the pinnacle of perfection, tuning your body with skill and mystical energies until it has transcended the limits of mortality. You cease aging and your type changes to outsider, though you are still treated as being your old creature type when beneficial. Furthermore, you gain Damage Reduction 10/Chaotic and you gain a +2 perfection bonus to each of your ability scores. Finally, you may spend all of your remaining ki points (minimum 4) to imitate a Limited Wish effect with a caster level equal to your class level (save DCs are Wisdom-based). Unlike most supernatural abilities, you must still pay the XP costs for wishes made in this way.
Notes and Explanation:Okay, I suppose I lied. THIS is the last use for your Wisdom score if you use a wish and copy a spell with a save DC. Otherwise, this is a pretty tame ability with the normal ascension, decent DR, and a bonus to your scores if anything was still hurting.
Final Thoughts: For the most part, I’m pretty happy with how the class turned out. Even so, there are a few clunkier or less flavorful mechanics that might need a bit of assistance. I’m also getting the feeling that this thing seems a bit powerful for my tastes but I’ll see what all of you guys think before I hop back in there and make adjustments.
Changelog:
1/3/13
Specified that extra attacks from TWF aren't doubled by Flurry of Blows.
Clarified the wording of Leaf in a Hurricane.
Added necessary rulings to Chasing Perfection.
You may now switch enhancements gained through chasing perfection.
(Improved) Evasion and (Improved) Uncanny Dodge have been renamed.
The ki ability of flurry of blows no longer stacks with similar abilities.
Combat Styles has been clarified and zen archery now helps ranged damage
Abundant step has traded long-distance teleportation for swift action normal teleportation. All the better to flurry with.
Instead of telepathy, diamond tongue now lets you speak to objects.
Altered Flurry, Ki Pool, and Combat Styles to no longer hose multiclassing.
Altered Flurry so that there are no complicated numbers to keep track of.
Altered Empty Stride to allow for high jumps and Unbound Stride to allow for Air Walk.
Altered Zen Archery to allow for flurries.
2 more uses of ki pool so it's actually usable at 1st level
Wish from perfect self has become limited wish.
Flurry of Blows no longer stacks with extra attacks form any other source.
Ah, the monk. What could I say about the monk that hasn’t already been said a hundred times? Despite the cool (if somewhat scatterbrained) flavor and the ton of class features it gets, the class is still weak, unfocused, hobbled by the lack of magical arms and armor, and suffers from some serious MAD. Perhaps this is why tons of people have taken a crack at fixing the thing up. I myself have looked over a good many fixes in the past and I’ve seen stuff that I’ve liked and haven’t liked but apart from my somewhat gimmicky Ascendant (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=164099), I haven’t really ever taken a crack at the monk myself. As the forums seem to be in the midst of a monk-renaissance, however, this seemed like a perfect time to take a look at the class and see what I could do with it. Here’s what I aimed to do:
1. Give the monk a role in combat
2. Help handle MAD without just giving the class SAD. I know that quite a few monk fixes have simply tied everything to Wisdom so players could focus on cranking it up through the roof but I’ve never been a real fan of SAD so I’m seeing what I can do without it.
3. Give the monk a small selection of decently powerful abilities (including most of the checklist of things we expect from high-level characters) without turning the monk into a caster or using ToB
4. Hopefully attain tier 3 (though high tier 4 is still a happy place to be).
I’m just about out of things to say so here’s the class.
Alignment: Any
HD: d8
Class Skills: Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), and Tumble (Dex).
Skill Points Per Level: 6 + Int Modifier
Notes & Explanation:Yeah, I’m in the camp that thinks that the monk needs more skill points. It’s not that I think that monks are inherently skill-monkeys but rather a simple necessity, more often than not. With the MAD that monks face, intelligence becomes a dump stat for most monks (Kung Fu Genius notwithstanding) and few can afford anything other than the basic maneuverability skills that most people think of when they think of (eastern) monks.
The Monk
{table=head]Level|Base Attack <br /> Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Combat Style |Peerless Grace |Unarmed Damage
1st|
+0|
+2|
+2|
+2|Flurry of Blows, Ki Pool, Peerless Grace, Unarmed Strike|0|+10 ft.|1d6
2nd|
+1|
+3|
+3|
+3|Combat Style, Evasion|1|+10 ft.|1d6
3rd|
+2|
+3|
+3|
+3|Sense Void, Still Mind|1|+20 ft.|1d6
4th|
+3|
+4|
+4|
+4|Chasing Perfection, Empty Stride|1|+20 ft.|1d6
5th|
+3|
+4|
+4|
+4|Diamond Body|1|+30 ft.|1d8
6th|
+4|
+5|
+5|
+5|Uncanny Dodge|2|+30 ft.|1d8
7th|
+5|
+5|
+5|
+5|Wholeness of Body|2|+40 ft.|1d8
8th|
+6/+1|
+6|
+6|
+6|Flowing Approach|2|+40 ft.|1d8
9th|
+6/+1|
+6|
+6|
+6|Diamond Mind|2|+50 ft.|1d10
10th|
+7/+2|
+7|
+7|
+7|Improved Evasion|3|+50 ft.|1d10
11th|
+8/+3|
+7|
+7|
+7|Diamond Tongue|3|+60 ft.|1d10
12th|
+9/+4|
+8|
+8|
+8|Abundant Step|3|+60 ft.|1d10
13th|
+9/+4|
+8|
+8|
+8|Diamond Soul|3|+70 ft.|2d6
14th|
+10/+5|
+9|
+9|
+9|Improved Uncanny Dodge|4|+70 ft.|2d6
15th|
+11/+6/+1|
+9|
+9|
+9|Diamond Resilience|4|+80 ft.|2d6
16th|
+12/+7/+2|
+10|
+10|
+10|Unbound Stride|4|+80 ft.|2d6
17th|
+12/+7/+2|
+10|
+10|
+10|Touch of Eternity|4|+90 ft.|2d8
18th|
+13/+8/+3|
+11|
+11|
+11|Empty Body|5|+90 ft.|2d8
19th|
+14/+9/+4|
+11|
+11|
+11|Diamond Essence|5|+100 ft.|2d8
20th|
+15/+10/+5|
+12|
+12|
+12|Perfect Self|5|+100 ft.|2d8 [/table]
Class Features: All of the following are class features of the monk.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency Monks are proficient with club, crossbow (light or heavy), dagger, handaxe, javelin, kama, nunchaku, quarterstaff, sai, shuriken, Shortbows, siangham, sling, and unarmed strikes.
Monks are not proficient with any armor or shields
When wearing armor, using a shield, or carrying a medium or heavy load, a monk loses her AC bonus, as well as her peerless grace and flurry of blows abilities. Similarly, while wearing armor or using a shield, you lose all armor or shield enhancements (respectively) gained from your chasing perfection class feature.
Ki Pool: As a monk, you possess a wellspring of spiritual energy that you can use to power some of your class features. At any time, you may possess a number of ki points up to 3 + half of your class level + one fourth of all other HD you possess, rounded down. After resting for 8 hours, you may spend 1 hour in meditation to regain all spent ki points. So long as you possess at least one point of ki in your pool, you may add your Wisdom modifier (minimum +0) to your AC if you are unarmored and carry no more than a light load. You retain this bonus while flat-footed, but not when helpless. Unless specifically mentioned, all abilities activated by spending Ki points are supernatural and they do not stack with themselves.
Notes and Explanation:One thing that I loved from the Pathfinder Monk class was the use of a ki pool. As the rest of the AC boost is coming from another source, I decided that this was the best and most organic way to plug in the traditional Wisdom bonus to AC.
Trying to think of how I’d implement the ki pool was hard, though. After reviewing several different recharge methods (ranging from the daily recharge above to meditation at any time to regain them to per-encounter uses) and different pricing schemes for abilities, this is what I ended up hitting upon.
Right now, every single other class feature can use ki points for some sort of benefit. The supply of ki that you get, however, remains small throughout your career and you can only reset your ki with a long rest. With that said, most of the ki benefits are either things you’d want in the heat of the moment (such as immunity to something you’ve been exposed to) and/or last the entire encounter. Combining the long-lasting/situational effects with tons of swift action activations (stopping the monk from going nova), ki conservation becomes a real task but you shouldn’t always be eking by after the first couple of levels. At the same time, the limitation on ki supply (in my opinion) gives a level of depth to an otherwise relatively passive class without making the class all about those abilities all the time.
Unarmed Strike: You possess great skill with unarmed combat, allowing you to deliver lethal strikes with any part of your body and to deliver multiple strikes in quick succession. You gain Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat. Your unarmed attacks may be made with either fist interchangeably or even from elbows, knees, and feet. This means that you can make unarmed strikes with your hands full. There is no such thing as an off-hand attack for a monk striking unarmed. You may thus apply your full Strength bonus on damage rolls for all of your unarmed strikes.
Your unarmed strikes usually deal lethal damage but you can choose to deal nonlethal damage instead with no penalty on your attack roll. You have the same choice to deal lethal or nonlethal damage while grappling.
Your unarmed strike is treated both as a manufactured weapon and as a natural weapon for the purpose of spells and effects that enhance or improve either manufactured weapons or natural weapons (such as the magic fang and magic weapon spells).
You also deal more damage with your unarmed strikes than a normal person would, as shown on the table above. If you pay a ki point as a swift action, you may treat your monk level as being 4 higher and your unarmed strikes count as magical for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction and harming incorporeal creatures for 5 rounds or until the end of the encounter, whichever comes last. A Small monk deals less damage and a Large monk deals more as indicated on the table below.
{table=head]Level|Small Monk|Large Monk
1-4|1d4|1d8
5-8|1d6|1d10
9-12|1d8|2d6
13-16|1d10|2d8
17-20|2d6|2d10[/table]
Notes and Explanation:I haven’t done too much here. Small monks are effectively 4 levels weaker while Large monks are 4 levels stronger, making it easy to trace your advancement if you change size. Overall damage is slightly lower, though monks now have an extra source of damage below in flurry of blows. The ki ability here is basically an easy way to somewhat boost your damage and overcome incorporeality or simple DR. If you raise your effective level above 20 with the ki ability, medium monks deal 2d10 damage while small monks deal 2d8 and large monks deal 3d6.
Peerless Grace (Ex): As a monk, you have taught yourself to move with unmatched speed and agility while unarmored and carrying no more than a light load. You gain an enhancement bonus to your speed for all forms of movement you possess, as shown on the table above. If you pay a ki point as an immediate action, the enhancement bonus is increased by +20 for 5 rounds or until the end of the encounter, whichever comes last.
With this enhanced speed comes greater agility and grace. For every +10 feet of enhancement bonus you receive in this way, you gain a +4 bonus to tumble and balance checks and you ignore the first two dice of damage that you would take from falling. For every +20 feet of enhancement bonus you receive in this way, you also gain a +1 dodge bonus to AC so long as you are capable of movement.
Finally, your can use your skills at movement to fall back after attacks. Once per round, immediately after making a flurry of blows, you may move a distance equal to half of your enhancement bonus to speed. This movement provokes no attacks of opportunity from creatures attacked during the preceding flurry of blows.
Notes and Explanation:Warning: Tangent: As I said above, I wanted to give the monk a more definite role in combat. Following what most people seem to think of the monk (at least from what I’ve heard), I chose to make it into a skirmisher. Rather than meaning someone who runs up and hits you (like the scout class), however, I made these monks so that they can run into the battle, hit people, and effectively retreat before repeating the process. When things work as they should, a monk should be able to deliver good amounts of damage before falling back and letting the damaged opponent choose whether to make a full attack on a nearby front-liner or to chase down the monk to likely make a single attack (probably provoking an attack from the frontliner in the process). I’ve always felt as though every sort of combat other than straight-up melee combat has always been overlooked in 3.5 (just ask people who like ranged weapons) but I feel that I did this role some justice in allowing the tank to actually serve as a tank to some extent. As a final note on this role, the reduced number of attacks that most monks stand to face helps to reduce the importance of huge AC and hit points, a small step toward soothing the wounds of MAD.
and now to talk about the ability itself: This is a rather busy little thing, isn’t it. I guess that I should go over it one step at a time, then. First, the speed bonus is notably higher. If you spend a ki point at 19th level or higher, you may well have a speed of 150 feet. While this is impressive, however, speed means relatively little unless you’re trying to escape and by the time you’d be fast enough to guarantee a clean getaway, a good portion of foes you’d face could simply teleport after you. The skill bonuses, though lower, were inspired by the “dance with the elements” class feature Jiriku put on his fix. The extra +5 bonus (potentially +6 now) from the monk’s normal AC bonus are here now. Likewise, slow fall was simply improved and added into the equation (and is the reason why the ki ability can be used as an immediate action). While a lot of stuff, the last ability is probably the most important, basically granting a variation of spring attack and saving you from the normal AoO associated with running back away. While this ability is most certainly busy, I don’t think that it could truly be called overpowered unless there’s something I’m missing.
God, that was long. Thankfully, the other notes aren’t nearly as long… except for the next one, maybe.
Flurry of Blows When unarmored, you may use the full force of your training to strike with a series of blows. Whenever you make an attack or full attack (including attacks of opportunity), you may choose to make it a flurry of blows. When making a flurry of blows, your Base Attack bonus from levels in monk equals your monk level and you take a -2 penalty to all attack rolls. For each attack that your base attack bonus would provide you (up to a maximum of 1/5 class levels, rounded up), however, you may make an extra attack at that base attack bonus (these attacks need not target the same creature). Extra attacks from other sources (such as haste effects or two-weapon fighting) don't stack with these extra attacks. Finally, for each extra attack made in this way, all attacks made in the flurry of blows gain a +1 bonus to the attack roll and deal +1d6 damage (this effect stacks with itself). If you spend a ki point as a swift action, the threat range for all attacks you make as part of a flurry of blows are doubled for 5 rounds or until the end of the encounter, whichever comes last. This effect does not stack with others that increase threat range (such as the keen weapon property) When making a flurry of blows, attacks may only be made with unarmed strikes or with special monk weapons.
Notes and Explanation:Flurry of blows has returned, though with quite a few changes. So, let’s review what it does now. As before, the flurry must be made unarmed or with monk weapons, need you to be unarmored, and gives you a -2 penalty to the roll. Kind of like the pathfinder monk, you use your monk level as your BAB.
Instead of giving you a single extra attack and another single extra attack later, I tried to make the ability grow organically by simply doubling the attacks that your base attack bonus provides (allowing for two attacks as a normal attack or AoO).
Furthermore, to overcome the traditional issue people have with the old “flurry of misses”, you get +1 to your attack rolls and +1d6 damage to all attacks for each extra attack you make in the flurry (meaning that you have to choose the size of your flurry as you start the action). You aren't penalized, however, if you kill an enemy and run out of targets before you finish making all of the attacks (though if your first attack only kills a target due to +4d6 damage, you can't go back and say that it wasn't a full attack). With the help of these attack bonuses and damage bonuses, pushing your strength thankfully becomes a bit less of a priority for this class, again hopefully aiding the MAD. It should also be notes that these extra attacks do not stack with extra attacks from other sources, another new addition.
If you make all of your attacks against one creature as a Monk 20, your attack bonuses will be +24/+24/+19/+19/+14/+14/+9/+9 and each attack will deal 2d8 + 4d6 + Str bonus. With a modest Str bonus of +5 and a +5 enhancement bonus (see below), that makes for an average of 33 x 8 = 264 damage.
Evasive Dodge: Starting at 2nd level, you can avoid even magical and unusual attacks with great agility. If you make a successful Reflex save against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, you instead take no damage. If you spend a ki point as an immediate action, you may move a distance up to half of the enhancement bonus to your speed from your peerless grace class feature every time you succeed on a Reflex saving throw within the next 5 rounds or until the end of the encounter, whichever comes last. This ability can be used right after succeeding on such a saving throw to get the movement immediately. Evasive Dodge can be used only if you are wearing light armor or no armor. You do not gain the benefits of evasion when helpless.
Notes and Explanation:When I said that all of the abilities had ki usages, I was not exaggerating. Still not much to say about this ability, however. It’s evasion with a bit of mobility thrown in.
Combat Style: Though monks act as martial artists, there is far more than raw muscle and speed to the way that they act in combat. You may select a number of combat styles from the list below equal to the number on the table above. Once chosen, they cannot be changed. That same value is used to determine the benefits of each combat style, though the value is limited to a maximum of your Wisdom bonus for this purpose. By paying a ki point as a swift action, the size of the value is increased by +1 up to 5 rounds or until the end of the encounter, whichever comes last. This ability temporarily grants you another combat style of your choice for an equal duration. For every 6 HD you possess from sources other than monk levels, increase the value by +1.
Combat Styles
Meteoric Fists: You may reduce the damage reduction or hardness of any target you attack with an unarmed strike by twice the indicated amount.
Find the Gap: You may reduce the total of the shield bonus, armor bonus, and natural armor bonus of any target you attack with an unarmed attack or monk weapon by the indicated amount.
Versatile Combatant: You add the bonus to all rolls made to initiate, continue, resist, avoid, and/or escape bull rush, disarm, feint, grapple, overrun, sunder, and trip attempts.
Weaving Stride: You add the indicated bonus to your AC against attacks of opportunity and against all forms of ranged attacks.
Weakening Barrage: You may apply the indicated value as a penalty to all attack rolls or to the AC of any creature you hit with more than one attack during a flurry of blows for 1 round.
Unshakable Resolve: You reduce all damage you would take from any source by the indicated value and add twice that value as a bonus to Constitution checks.
Vigilant Assailant: You add the indicated value to initiative checks and to the number of attacks of opportunity that you can make each round.
Zen Archery: You add the indicated value x 10 ft. to the range increment of all ranged attacks and to damage rolls made with such attacks.
Leaf in the Hurricane: If a creature is threatened by at least one of your allies, apply the indicated value as a penalty to attack rolls it makes against you.
Flurry of Movement: Enemies that start a round adjacent to you suffer spell failure equal to the indicated value x 5% until the end of the round.
Notes and Explanation:And now for a new ability and the closest to an SAD mechanism that the class gets. Seeing as pumping your Wisdom beyond 20 (or 22 if you charge this ability) won’t do much for you, wisdom is able to help out if your other scores are lacking while setting a ceiling of sorts on how much you really want to pump your Wisdom. As for the specific abilities, I don’t really have too much to say. I’m not sure if flurry of movement might be a bit too powerful (even though it’s barely more effective than deafness at full strength) so let me know what you think.
Still Mind (Ex): At 3rd level or higher, you gain a +2 bonus on saving throws against spells and effects from the school of enchantment. If you fail such a saving throw against an effect with a duration other than instantaneous, you may spend a ki point as an immediate action to delay the effect by one round before succumbing. This round does not count towards the effects duration.
Notes and Explanation:An old staple, now with the ability to actually come in handy every now and then.
Sense the Void (Su): At 3rd level, you gain the ability to roughly sense your surroundings, even if you are kept from sight. As a swift action, you can gain blindsense out to 5 feet/class level for 1 round. If you use this ability as a move action and spend a ki point, you gain blindsight out to half of that distance and the ability instead lasts for 5 rounds or until the end of the encounter, whichever comes last. As this information comes as much from your sixth sense and intuition as anything else, you may use this ability even if robbed of all of your other senses.
Notes and Explanation:Honestly, I must admit that I don’t have too much of a sense of how powerful this ability is. The sight you get comes at a pretty limited range until you’re higher level but it’s possible that I still went a bit too early (though I think that I’m probably fine). Feel free to leave your thoughts if you think otherwise, though.
Chasing Perfection: At 4th level, you start your pursuit of perfection in earnest. At 4th level and every 4 levels afterwards, you may permanently increase one of your ability scores by +1. If you spend a ki point as a swift action, you gain an additional +4 bonus to an ability score of your choice for 5 rounds or until the end of the encounter, whichever comes last. If you use this ability a second time, the first bonus vanishes even if it was applied to a different ability score.
Furthermore, you gain the ability to improve your body much as a magic item. You effectively gain the benefits of craft magic arms and armor, except that you can only enchant yourself and that there is no XP cost for doing so (though you must pay the normal cost in time and materials). At any time, you may enchant yourself as a suit of armor, a shield, and as up to two weapons (you may select which “weapon” you are using with each unarmed strike, though the effects are not bound to any particular limb). Special abilities that physically separate an item from its wearer (such as animated, dancing, or throwing) or that alter the physical properties of an item (such as sizing and metalline) can’t be added in this way. Only you may enchant yourself in this way and you need not provide the spells necessary to do so, though your effective caster level equals your monk level. You are incapable of enchanting yourself as other forms of items, even if you possess the relevant feats. For all other purposes, you follow the normal rules and restrictions of crafting magical armor and weaponry. By spending any number of ki points over the course of one hour of meditation, you may redistribute an equal number of points of enhancement bonus. Thus, you could change a +2 weapon into a +1 flaming weapon if desired. You may not switch enhancement bonuses from one item to another (turning a +1 weapon and +1 shield into a +2 shield, for example), however, and you can not change items with a flat cost in place of an enhancement bonus (such as shadow or slick).
Notes and Explanation:This class feature is probably my favorite out of all of them. First of all, it grants you regular ability boosts so that you can even things out sooner and gives you a larger boost if you ever need it. Secondly, it gives you the ability to effectively enchant yourself. As one ruling for this ability, I’d say that the shield you craft for yourself, like your armor, are always in effect even if you aren’t keeping one hand open to serve as shield.
Empty Stride (Ex): Starting at 4th level, you can move at great speeds even across otherwise treacherous terrain. You ignore all forms of difficult terrain that don’t require skill checks or saving throws to pass through, though areas magically altered to slow movement still function. If you spend a ki point as a swift action, you can balance and walk across liquids and up vertical surfaces at your full speed for 5 rounds or until the end of the encounter, whichever comes last. During this time, the maximum height you can achieve with jumps equals your jump check result.
Notes and Explanation:Another more situational ability to secure your maneuverability. The ki ability in particular seems useful if you find yourself out at sea or in need of scaling a large vertical surface. And in case anyone was thinking to ask, I doubt that I’ll make a feat to let this ability carry over to mounts, no matter how awesome that horse mount would become.
Diamond Body (Ex): By 5th level, you possess control over your body, allowing you to resist almost all forms of disease and poison. You gain immunity to all nonmagical forms of disease and poison. By spending a ki point as a standard action, you may instantly cleanse yourself of any magical poisons or diseases you may be suffering from and you gain immunity against such effects for 5 rounds or until the end of the encounter, whichever comes first.
Notes and Explanation:Not too much to say, Purity of body and diamond body got kind of squashed together but everything should still be in order.
Uncanny Avoidance (Ex): Starting at 6th level, you can react to danger before your senses would normally allow you to do so. You retain your Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) even if you are caught flat-footed or are struck by an invisible attacker. However, you still lose your Dexterity bonus to AC if immobilized. If you spend a ki point as an immediate action, you may not only act in a surprise round but take a full round of actions within it. If you already possess uncanny dodge form a different source, you automatically gain improved uncanny avoidance (see below) instead, though you may not spend ki points on it until 14th level.
Notes and Explanation:Everything is ki-powered. This ability may be of somewhat less frequent use, however.
Wholeness of Body (Ex): By 7th level, your fine control over your own body allows you to repair your more grievous wounds. So long as you are at half of your maximum hit points or lower, you gain fast healing equal to your Wisdom modifier. By spending one or more ki points as a standard action, you can heal yourself further. You may heal hit points at a rate of 10 per point spent, ability damage at a rate of 4 per point spent, ability drain at a rate of 1 per point spent, or negative levels at a rate of 1 per two points spent. All ability damage or drain healed at a time need not be to a single ability score.
Notes and Explanation:Behold, the last use for a high wisdom score that this class has to offer. As a note, I had considered letting people do several types of healing with one action but I couldn’t think of any wording that couldn’t be construed as paying 2 ki points to heal 1 negative level and 2 ability drain and 8 ability damage and 20 hit points. With things as they are right now, however, it shouldn’t become too much of a headache so I’m not in any great rush to fix this particular ability.
Flowing Advance (Ex): When you reach 8th level, you can charge in ways that others would scarcely believe. You may make any number of turns when charging, can incorporate jump checks, climb checks, swim checks, tumble checks, and balance checks into your charges, and can make a full attack at the end of each charge. By spending a ki point as a swift action, you can move as far as four times your speed and as little as 10 feet when making a charge for the next 5 rounds or until the end of the encounter, whichever comes last.
Notes and Explanation:Funny story about this ability. I originally placed it at 8th level before I decided to let flurry of blows set your BAB at your monk level, meaning that you’d have medium BAB and get your first iterative attack at 8th level. By the time I realized that the new change lets you get full attacks a full 2 levels before you could charge, I couldn’t find a way to shuffle things around without causing something else that looked weird (such as uncanny dodge at level 8). Considering as it is only 2 levels, however, it shouldn’t be too painful. As for what this ability does, it just allows you to charge and do so well (making your charges better than running if you pay ki).
Diamond Mind (Ex): Starting at 9th level, your mind is strong and disciplined enough to ignore certain forms of manipulation. You gain immunity to charm effects unless you allow them to affect you. Whenever you fail a saving throw against a mind-effecting effect with a duration other than instantaneous, you may spend a ki point as an immediate action to make one last attempt at freedom. If you do so, you may make a new Will save at the start of your next action against the same DC to end the effect early. You only gain this one extra attempt, however, and you cannot use this ability again if you fail on the second saving throw.
Notes and Explanation:Yeah, another mental resistance effect. The ki ability on this one can’t be combined with the one on still mind, either, though things still likely work out as still mind seems better if you rolled high the first time while this seems better if you rolled low the first time.
Improved Evasion (Ex): At 10th level, your evasion ability improves. You still take no damage on a successful Reflex save but henceforth take only half damage on a failed save. Furthermore, whenever a source of damage would lower you below 0 hit points, you may spend a ki point as an immediate action to make a Reflex saving throw (DC = damage dealt). If you succeed, the damage is halved (if you would still be lowered beneath 0 hit points, this ability provides no further benefits). This saving throw is unaffected by this class feature or by your evasion class feature. You gain no benefit from improved evasion while helpless.
Notes and Explanation:Improved evasion, now with a defensive roll feature.
Diamond Tongue (Ex): Starting at 11th level, you can communicate with any living creature. By spending a ki point as a standard action, you can speak to any inanimate object within 100 feet as if using stonetell with a caster level equal to your class level.
Notes and Explanation:I have always been a fan of Tongue of the Sun and Moon and I finally found a good secondary ability thanks to Kellus.
Abundant Step (Ex): Starting at 12th level, you can pass through great distances with little more than a thought. As a standard action, you can teleport a distance up to your speed so long as it ends in a space that you possess a line of sight with. Alternately, you may use this ability by spending a ki point as a swift action.
Notes and Explanation:Abundant step at will with some faster teleportation hijinks thrown in. Seems pretty balanced on my end but let me know if you see something I’ve missed.
Diamond Soul (Ex): If you are 13th level or higher, you gain spell resistance equal to your class level + 10. So long as you are conscious, you may allow any number of spells to ignore your spell resistance. If you spend a ki point as a swift or immediate action, you may make a dispel check against any number of active spell effects on your person, rolling 1d20 + your class level against a DCs of the caster level of each spell effect to be targeted. Effects that aren’t affected by dispel magic can’t be affected in this way.
Notes and Explanation:I didn’t change the primary ability too much, though the ki ability gives monks some way to handle spells that get through (if they weren’t simply save-or-dies, at least).
Improved Uncanny Avoidance (Ex): Though few monks truly desire to be surrounded by foes, you can ignore the worst of this disadvantage if you are at least 14th level. You can no longer be flanked. This defense denies rogues the ability to sneak attack you by flanking you, unless the attacker has at least four more rogue levels than you possess monk levels. If a creature who would otherwise be flanking you attacks you, you may spend a ki point as an immediate action. If you do so, that attack targets both you and the creature opposite of you (even if that creature is outside of the attacker’s reach).
If you already have uncanny dodge (see above) from another class, the character automatically gains improved uncanny avoidance instead, and the levels from the classes that grant uncanny dodge stack to determine the minimum rogue level required to flank you. You may not spend ki points on improved uncanny avoidance until you reach 14th level, however.
Notes and Explanation:As this monk isn’t at his best when surrounded and kept from moving around, it only seemed right to give the monk some way to handle such situations at some point. Rather than working with the rest of the class features, improved uncanny dodge reduces the sting of being caught in a bad situation.
Diamond Resilience (Ex): By 15th level, your body is so strongly controlled that you can endure almost anything. You gain immunity to death effects and you no longer automatically fail saving throws on a natural 1, though you may still fail such rolls normally. Finally, you may spend a ki point as an immediate action to gain immunity to critical hits and death from massive damage for 5 rounds or until the end of the encounter, whichever comes last.
Notes and Explanation:Yup, another defensive ability. While the traditional monk stopped after diamond soul, this class still gets a couple of final additions.
Unbound Stride (Su): By 16th level, very little could ever hope to truly stop you for long. You gain the benefits of a freedom of movement effect at all times. You may also spend a ki point as an immediate action to either target yourself with a freedom effect at the start of the next round or to gain the benefit of an Air Walk effect for 5 rounds or until the end of the encounter, whichever comes last.
Notes and Explanation:Another ability that a mobility-based class seemed to be wanting. Not too much to say.
Touch of Eternity (Su): Starting at 17th level, your body seems to lose touch with the flowing of time around it. You take no further penalties to your ability scores for aging and you cannot be magically aged. Any such penalties that you have already taken, however, remain in place. Bonuses still accrue, and you will still die of old age when your time is up. Finally, you may pay a ki point as a swift action to become acutely aware of time, gaining an additional round of actions immediately after your current one. After using this ability, however, you cannot do so again for 1d4 rounds.
Notes and Explanation:Again, not too much to say. It’s timeless body with a small touch of timestop/greater celerity. The ki ability seems pretty powerful but the limited supply of ki makes me wonder if it is really as strong as it seems.
Empty Body (Su): By 18th level, your bonds to the mortal realm have slipped to the point where you can shake them off nearly at will. You may travel to the ethereal plane for as long as you concentrate on doing so. If you pay a ki point over the course of one hour of meditation, you can instead create an Astral Projection effect. Your astral form, however, is incapable of regaining spent ki points, though it can spend what you have remaining.
Notes and Explanation:This ability, however, seems quite strong. Astral Projection has always been a powerful effect. I’m not quite sure how the etherealness ability measured up. You can’t really do too much on the ethereal plane but it still gives a good deal of maneuverability and unlimited ethereal travel isn’t really a thing that I’ve seen before (outside of greater planeshift, I suppose).
Diamond Essence (Su): By 19th level, your essence is beyond the comprehension of most mortals and beyond the sway and detection of nearly all magic. You gain the benefits of a Mind blank effect at all times. Furthermore, you may pay a ki point as a swift action to gain the benefits of a Foresight effect for 5 rounds or until the end of the encounter, whichever comes last.
Notes and Explanation:And, at the last possible moment, one more defensive ability. One last mental defense (and probably the best in the business) with a small defensive option for those with ki to spend.
Perfect Self: At 20th level, you finally reach the pinnacle of perfection, tuning your body with skill and mystical energies until it has transcended the limits of mortality. You cease aging and your type changes to outsider, though you are still treated as being your old creature type when beneficial. Furthermore, you gain Damage Reduction 10/Chaotic and you gain a +2 perfection bonus to each of your ability scores. Finally, you may spend all of your remaining ki points (minimum 4) to imitate a Limited Wish effect with a caster level equal to your class level (save DCs are Wisdom-based). Unlike most supernatural abilities, you must still pay the XP costs for wishes made in this way.
Notes and Explanation:Okay, I suppose I lied. THIS is the last use for your Wisdom score if you use a wish and copy a spell with a save DC. Otherwise, this is a pretty tame ability with the normal ascension, decent DR, and a bonus to your scores if anything was still hurting.
Final Thoughts: For the most part, I’m pretty happy with how the class turned out. Even so, there are a few clunkier or less flavorful mechanics that might need a bit of assistance. I’m also getting the feeling that this thing seems a bit powerful for my tastes but I’ll see what all of you guys think before I hop back in there and make adjustments.
Changelog:
1/3/13
Specified that extra attacks from TWF aren't doubled by Flurry of Blows.
Clarified the wording of Leaf in a Hurricane.
Added necessary rulings to Chasing Perfection.
You may now switch enhancements gained through chasing perfection.
(Improved) Evasion and (Improved) Uncanny Dodge have been renamed.
The ki ability of flurry of blows no longer stacks with similar abilities.
Combat Styles has been clarified and zen archery now helps ranged damage
Abundant step has traded long-distance teleportation for swift action normal teleportation. All the better to flurry with.
Instead of telepathy, diamond tongue now lets you speak to objects.
Altered Flurry, Ki Pool, and Combat Styles to no longer hose multiclassing.
Altered Flurry so that there are no complicated numbers to keep track of.
Altered Empty Stride to allow for high jumps and Unbound Stride to allow for Air Walk.
Altered Zen Archery to allow for flurries.
2 more uses of ki pool so it's actually usable at 1st level
Wish from perfect self has become limited wish.
Flurry of Blows no longer stacks with extra attacks form any other source.