More Martial Monk

[Jalil]

The monk, as it stands, is basically crap; a repository for a bunch of nifty abilities the game designers had left over after putting everything else together. Look at this:

"Woohoo! Level 17! Almost epic, suckers!"
"Hello there, chap!"
"Eh? You're a frog."
"Brilliantly spotted! I am a frog, indeed."
"When did I learn to talk to frogs? I think this quest has fried my brain..."

To try to make some of this make more sense, I've tried knocking together a little something for an unarmed fighter to take, rather than the current monk.

Start with PHB Fighter.
Give up Weapon Proficiencies For Imp. Unarmed Strike.
Armor Prof. goes to power Monk's AC bonus.
Level one Fighter feat grants the Scaling Unarmed Damage.
Level 2 Bonus feat starts Flurry, which works at the same rate as a monk level -1.

I'm not sure how well this will work, so I'm throwing out a playtester, to see how it functions in a group.

[Rumpus]

Yeah, it always seemed like a dedicated pugilist fighter ought to be able to whup an equal-level monk, just as the best archers in the game ought to be bow-specialized fighters, not rangers. The variant I've been thinking of allows a fighter to trade in one level of armor proficiency at creation for a fighter bonus-feat (ie if he keeps light armor he gets 2 feats, if he has no armor proficiency he gains three). This would also allow players to reflect differing martial styles (games that occur in certain time periods may not have ANY heavy armor, and it then becomes a worthless ability).

A fighter who decides to never wear armor can spend his three slots on Improved Unarmed Strike, Cleave, and the Scaling Unarmed Damage mentioned above. I'd probably also allow Flurry of Blows as a fighter bonus feat.

Anyway, I wouldn't give him the boost to AC. Yes, he'll be hit more often than his armored counterparts, but he's choosing not to wear armor in exchange for greater mobility.

[Fax Celestis]

You might be interested in the Brawler (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11110&highlight=Brawler).

[Jalil]

Yup. This is essentially what I was looking for. Nice.