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mercury19
2015-01-20, 07:42 PM
This is a project I thought up.

So I was looking at homebrew classes to use in my new campaign, and came across two that looked really cool. The first one was Jiriku's Monk Remixed (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?150122-3-5-The-Monk-Remixed) and the other was Tempestfury's Zen Blade (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?337344-Zen-Blade-PEACH). And then there is the case of one of my players wanting to play a psion/monk multiclass but the flavor was almost entirely monk, and I said "Why not just combine the two?"

So I thought, why not make a class that can be any one of those three, depending on the choices they make, or the monastery they studied?

The premise of the class is that there are multiple paths to enlightenment, but they all stemmed from similar teachings. I guess you'd call it a bunch of monk archetypes, but just for fun I want to make it into one class with different options.


What I have thus far:


Sage




Level
Base Attack
Fort
Ref
Will
Special
Unarmed Strike Dmg
Flurry (std)
Flurry (full)
AC Bonus
Movement Bonus


1st
+1
+2
+2
+2
Unarmed Strike, AC Bonus, Path
1d6
-1/-1
-1/-1
+0
+0 ft.


2nd
+2
+3
+3
+3
Combat Focus, Evasion, Combat Prowess, Zone of Awareness
1d6
+0/+0
+0/+0
+0
+0 ft.


3rd
+3
+3
+3
+3
Path Ability, Still Mind
1d6
+1/+1
+1/+1
+0
+10 ft.


4th
+4
+4
+4
+4
Slow Fall 20 ft.
1d8
+2/+2
+2/+2
+1
+10 ft.


5th
+5
+4
+4
+4
Wholeness of Body
1d8
+4/+4
+4/+4
+1
+10 ft.


6th
+6/+1
+5
+5
+5
Path Ability, Slow Fall 30 ft.
1d8
+5/+5
+5/+5/+0
+1
+20 ft.


7th
+7/+2
+5
+5
+5
Wise Speaker
1d8
+6/+6
+6/+6/+1
+1
+20 ft.


8th
+8/+3
+6
+6
+6
Improved Evasion, Slow Fall 40 ft.
1d10
+7/+7
+7/+7/+2
+2
+20 ft.


9th
+9/+4
+6
+6
+6
Path Ability
1d10
+9/+9
+9/+9/+4
+2
+30 ft.


10th
+10/+5
+7
+7
+7
Diamond Body, Slow Fall 50 ft.
1d10
+10/+10
+10/+10/+5/+0
+2
+30 ft.


11th
+11/+6/+1
+7
+7
+7
Diamond Soul
1d10
+11/+11/+11
+11/+11/+11/+6/+1
+2
+30 ft.


12th
+12/+7/+2
+8
+8
+8
Path Ability, Slow Fall 60 ft.
2d6
+12/+12/+12
+12/+12/+12/+7/+2
+3
+40 ft.


13th
+13/+8/+3
+8
+8
+8
Improved Critical
2d6
+13/+13/+13
+13/+13/+13/+8/+3
+3
+40 ft.


14th
+14/+9/+4
+9
+9
+9
Tongue of the Sun and Moon, Slow Fall 70 ft.
2d6
+14/+14/+14
+14/+14/+14/+9/+4
+3
+40 ft.


15th
+15/+10/+5
+9
+9
+9
Path Ability
2d6
+15/+15/+15
+15/+15/+15/+10/+5/+0
+3
+50 ft.


16th
+16/+11/+6/+1
+10
+10
+10
Thick Skinned, Slow Fall 80 ft.
2d8
+16/+16/+16
+16/+16/+16/+11/+6/+1
+4
+50 ft.


17th
+17/+12/+7/+2
+10
+10
+10
Timeless Body
2d8
+17/+17/+17
+17/+17/+17/+12/+7/+2
+4
+50 ft.


18th
+18/+13/+8/+3
+11
+11
+11
Path Ability, Slow Fall 90 ft.
2d8
+18/+18/+18
+18/+18/+18/+13/+8/+3
+4
+60 ft.


19th
+19/+14/+9/+4
+11
+11
+11
Empty Soul
2d8
+19/+19/+19
+19/+19/+19/+14/+9/+4
+4
+60 ft.


20th
+20/+15/+10/+5
+12
+12
+12
Enlightenment, Slow Fall any distance
2d10
+20/+20/+20
+20/+20/+20/+15/+10/+5/+0
+5
+60 ft.


Hit Die: d8
*The Sage's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Forgery (Int), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (all skills, taken individually) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), and Tumble (Dex).
Skill Points at 1st level: (4 + Int modifier) x 4.
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier.

CLASS FEATURES

*Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Sages are proficient with unarmed strike, club, dagger, shortspear, spear, longspear, kusari-gama(DMG), short sword, longsword, kama, nunchaku, quarterstaff, tonfa, lajatang, sai, shuriken, siangham, and sling. Sages are not proficient with any armor or shields. When wearing armor, using a shield, or carrying a medium or heavy load, a Sage loses her AC and movement bonuses.

*AC Bonus (Ex): When unarmored and unencumbered, the Sage adds her Wisdom bonus (if any) to her AC. in addition, at 4th level, a Sage gains a +1 bonus to AC when unarmored and unencumbered. This bonus increases by 1 for every four Sage levels thereafter (+2 at 8th, +3 at 12th, +4 at 16th, and +5 at 20th level).


These bonuses to AC apply even against touch attacks or when the Sage is flat-footed. She loses these bonuses when she is immobilized or helpless, when she wears any armor, when she carries a shield, or when she carries a medium or heavy load.

Unarmed Strike (Ex): At 1st level, a Sage gains Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat. A Sage’s attacks may be with either fist interchangeably or even from elbows, knees, feet, or even head. This means that a Sage may make unarmed strikes with her hands full. There is no such thing as an off-hand attack for a monk striking unarmed. A monk may thus apply her full Strength bonus on damage rolls for all her unarmed strikes.


A Sage’s unarmed strike is treated both as a manufactured weapon and a natural weapon for the purpose of spells and effects that enhance or improve either manufactured weapons or natural weapons. This is also true for feats and class abilities that affect manufactured and natural weapons. Thus, a Sage's unarmed strike qualifies for use with feats like Improved Natural Attack, Two-Weapon Fighting, and Weapon Focus.

A Sage also deals more damage with her unarmed strikes than a normal person would, as shown on Table: The Monk. The unarmed damage on Table: The Monk is for Medium Sages. A smaller or larger Sage deals increases or decreases this damage as appropriate to her Size Category.

Path (Ex): At 1st level, a Sage chooses a Path that represents their Monastic Order, as well as their Way to Enlightenment. Each Path has a different focus, but none are (intended) to be more powerful than any other. At 3rd level and every third level afterwards, the Sage gains abilities based on the Path he or she has chosen.

*Flurry of Blows (Ex): When unarmored, a monk may strike with a flurry of blows at the expense of accuracy when performing an attack or a full attack action, or as part of a charge. When doing so, she may make one extra attack in a round at her highest base attack bonus, but this attack takes a -2 penalty. The resulting modified base attack bonuses are shown in the Flurry of Blows Attack Bonus columns on Table: The Monk. When a monk reaches 5th level, the penalty lessens to -1, and at 9th level it disappears.


When using flurry of blows, a monk may attack only with unarmed strikes or with special monk weapons, although she may use them interchangeably as desired. When flurrying with a weapon, a monk applies her Strength bonus (not Str bonus × 1½ or ×½) to her damage rolls, whether she wields a weapon in one or both hands.

A monk with the Combat Reflexes feat can declare a flurry of blows when taking an attack of opportunity.

A monk with Flyby Attack, Ride-By Attack, Shot on the Run, Spring attack, or Swim-By Attack can combine flurry of blows with these feats to flurry on the move. If the monk obtains additional attacks via Bounding Assault or Rapid Blitz, she gains the extra flurry attacks only once.

Greater Flurry: When a monk reaches 11th level, her flurry of blows ability improves. In addition to the standard single extra attack she gets from flurry of blows, she gets a second extra attack at her full base attack bonus.

Combat Focus (Ex): At 2nd level, Sages begin to master the art of focus in any situation. They may add their Wis or Str to their attack roll, whichever is higher.

*Evasion (Ex): At 2nd level or higher if a Sage makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, she instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if a Sage is wearing light armor or no armor. A helpless Sage does not gain the benefit of evasion.

**Zone of Awareness (Ex): At 2nd level, a Sage gets Blindsense extending out to 20ft. This extends an extra five feet per Sage level taken afterwards. At 10th level blindsense is changed to blindsight.

Combat Prowess (Ex): At 2nd level, a monk may select Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Combat Expertise, or Stunning Fist as a bonus feat. At 4th level, she may select Deflect Arrows, Improved Grapple, Improved Feint, or Mobility as a bonus feat. At 6th level, she may select either Improved Disarm, Improved Trip, or Spring Attack as a bonus feat. A monk need not have any of the prerequisites normally required for these feats to select them.

*Still Mind (Ex): A Sage of 3rd level or higher gains a +2 bonus on saving throws against spells and effects from the school of enchantment.

*Movement Bonus (Ex):At 3rd level, a Sage gains a bonus to her speed (which grants bonus to her Jump checks as normal; see the Jump skill for details), as shown on Table: The Monk. A Sage in armor or carrying a medium or heavy load loses these benefits.

*Slow Fall (Ex): At 4th level or higher, a monk learns to balance upon the sky. She can fall the listed distance without taking harm, and reduces the effective distance of longer falls by the same amount when determining how much falling damage she takes.

*Wholeness of Body (Su): At 5th level or higher, a Sage can use a standard action to heal a her own wounds with a touch. She can heal a number of hit points of damage equal to ½ her monk level rounded up times her Wisdom bonus (minimum +1) each day, and she can spread this healing out among several uses.

*Wise Speaker (Ex): A monk of 7th level or higher may use her Wisdom modifier in place of her Charisma modifier on Diplomacy checks and Handle Animal checks.

*Improved Evasion (Ex): At 8th level, a Sage’s evasion ability improves. She still takes no damage on a successful Reflex saving throw against attacks, but henceforth she takes only half damage on a failed save. A helpless Sage does not gain the benefit of improved evasion.

*Diamond Body (Su): At 10th level, a Sage gains immunity to poisons and diseases of all kinds. At 13th level, the Sage gains immunity to those that are magical in nature.

*Diamond Soul (Ex): At 11th level, a Sage gains spell resistance equal to her Sage level + 10. Unlike spell resistance gained from other sources, the Sage can automatically choose to waive her resistance without taking an action whenever she would be affected by a spell, so long as she is conscious. When she is unconscious, her spell resistance does not block harmless spells (such as healing spells), but will interfere with any other spells that would affect her.

Improved Critical (Ex): At 13th level, a Sage gains Improved Critical as a feat applied to her Unarmed Strike.

*Tongue of the Sun and Moon (Ex): A monk of 14th level or higher can speak with and understand any living creature.

Thick Skinned (Ex): At 16th level, a Sage gains a resistance of 10 to all basic damage types (slashing, piercing, bludgeoning, etc.).

*Timeless Body (Ex): Upon attaining 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. Bonuses still accrue, and the monk still dies of old age when her time is up. Furthermore, a dozen years are like a mere season to her, so she no longer requires food, drink, or sleep (although if she prepares spells, she still needs 8 hours of rest to prepare).

*Empty Soul (Su): Upon reaching 19th level, a monk achieves a state of complete emptiness, reacting to all situations without premeditation or thought. She continuously gains the benefits of the foresight spell upon her person at all times.

*Enlightenment (Su): At 20th level, a monk becomes a magical creature and her type changes to outsider. When targeted by spells and magical effects that consider her type, she may choose whether to be considered an outsider or a member of her former type, whichever is most advantageous. Additionally, the monk gains DR 15/chaotic. Unlike other outsiders, the monk can still be brought back from the dead as if she were a member of her previous creature type. In addition, they gain an ability specified by their Path.


So this is what I have so far. Quite a bit of wording was taken directly from Jiriku’s monk and Tempestfury’s Zen Blade, partially because I’m lazy and partially because I could think of no better way to word it. These entries have been marked with an asterisk.



Paths


Description: Sages who follow this Path learn to have absolute control over the energy that binds their souls to their bodies, known as Ki. By manipulating this Ki, they can push their bodies to amazing feats of strength and agility.

Passive: A Soul Sage has learned that their body is much more durable than many think it is. At 1st level, they have learned to control their body temperatures and are treated as though under a continuous Endure Elements spell. When the Sage gains Diamond Body at 7th level, they also gain the ability to breath any air as if it were clean, and ignore the non-magical adverse effects of breathing in smoke or other contaminated air. This does not include breathing liquid, and they will still suffocate if there is no air at all.



Level
Abilities


1st
Unending Endurance


3rd
Ki Strike (+1, Magic), Mettle


6th
Dance of the Elements, Ki Strike (+2, Basic Damage)


9th
Elemental Fist, Improved Mettle, Ki Strike (+3, Alchemical Silver)


12th
Quivering Palm, Ki Strike (+4, Cold Iron)


15th
Empty Body, Ki Strike (+5, Lawful)


18th
Breath of the Dragon, Ki Strike (+6, Adamantine)


20th
Awaken the Soul







Unending Endurance: Once per day, a Sage may gain either the effects of the feat Diehard or Endurance, and need not meet the prerequisites for either. The effects last for a number of rounds equal to ½ Sage level + Wis mod, or 2 + Sage level hours, depending on the situation.

Mettle (Ex): Whenever a Sage makes a successful Fortitude saving throw against an attack that normally deals partial effect or half damage on a successful save, he instead does not suffer from the effect or takes no damage. A helpless Sage does not gain the benefit of mettle.

Ki Strike: The monk's ki focus grants her a +1 enhancement bonus to attack and damage rolls with her unarmed strikes, and her unarmed strikes gain the magic descriptor and bypass DR/magic. For every three additional Sage levels, the enhancement bonus increases by +1 and the Sage’s unarmed strikes gain a new descriptor, as noted on the table above.

Dance of the Elements: A Sage has learned to attune his or her Ki to the flow of the elements within nature, and uses this to his or her advantage. Once per day, the Sage may gain a +2 bonus to AC, which functions as the AC Bonus class feature. In addition, the Sage must choose one of the four elements, and gain an ability accordingly.

Air: The Sage gains the speed of the wind, and can move freely out of harms way. They gain the benefit of the Mobility feat, even if they don’t meet the prerequisites.
Water: The Sage learns to flow like a river, and can turn their enemies momentum against them. They gain the benefits of the Defensive Throw feat, even if they don’t meet all of the prerequisites.
Earth: The Sage’s skin is covered in solid rock, and enemies who strike her are dazed for one round.
Fire: The Sage’s body is wreathed in flame, which lashes out at any enemy who tries to attack her. Enemies who attack with a close quarters weapon take 1d6 fire damage.


Elemental Fist: Once per day, one of the Sage’s unarmed strikes for the round gains an elemental descriptor and deals extra damage, as well as providing an extra ability. These attacks may be used during any attack, but only apply to one strike if used in a Flurry of Blows. This ability is usable once per day, and one additional time per day for every three Sage levels taken afterwards. Only one element may be active at a time.

Air: Your fist becomes sheathed in crackling lightning, and a thunder clap sounds as you strike your opponent. The Sage’s strike gains +1d6 Lightning damage and has a chance to stun, as the stunning fist feat.
Water: Your fist is covered in jagged ice, and gives off an aura of freezing cold that saps the strength of those it touches. The Sage’s strike gains +1d6 Cold damage, and deals 1d4 Strength ability damage.
Earth: Your fist is enveloped in a case of solid rock, and your strike crushes the enemies defenses. The Sage’s strike gains +1d6 Acid damage and becomes a Touch attack.
Fire: Your fist bursts into flame. The Sage’s strike gains +1d6 Fire damage, and has a 50% chance to ignite the target.


Improved Mettle (Ex): At 9th level, a Sage’s mettle ability improves. She still takes no damage or suffers from no effect on a successful Fortitude saving throw against attacks, but henceforth she takes only half damage or partial effect on a failed save.

Quivering Palm (Su): Starting at 12th level, a monk can set up vibrations within the body of another creature that can thereafter be fatal if the monk so desires. She can use this quivering palm attack a number of times per day equal to her Wisdom bonus (minimum 1), and she must announce her intent before making her attack roll. Creatures immune to critical hits cannot be affected unless the monk has some means of bypassing the creature's immunity to critical hits. Otherwise, if the monk strikes successfully and the target takes damage from the blow, the quivering palm attack succeeds. Thereafter the monk can try to slay the victim at any later time, as long as the attempt is made within 30 days. To make such an attempt, the monk merely wills the target to die (a free action), and unless the target makes a Fortitude saving throw (DC 10 + ½ the monk’s level + the monk’s Wis modifier), it dies. If the saving throw is successful, the target is no longer in danger from that particular quivering palm attack, but it may still be affected by another one at a later time.

*Empty Body (Su): At 15th level, a monk gains the ability to assume an ethereal state for a number of rounds per day equal to her monk level times her Wisdom bonus (minimum +1), as though using the spell etherealness. She may go ethereal on a number of different occasions during any single day, as long as the total number of rounds spent in an ethereal state does not exceed her daily limit. Her caster level for this effect is equal to her character level.

Breath of the Dragon (Su): Once per day, a Sage may release the elements in a breath weapon, similar to a dragon. The breath weapon may be a 80 ft. line of Fire, Acid, or Lightning, or a 40 ft. cone of Fire, Cold, or Acid. The attack does 10d6 damage.Targets get a Reflex save for half damage.

Awaken the Soul (Su): Once every 30 days, for up to 8 consecutive rounds, a Sage can transcend her mortal being, and enter a state of pure enlightenment. She gains a +10 to all rolls, and her Unarmed Strikes can be used as ranged attacks with a range equal to her Zone of Awareness. All activated Sage abilities can be used an indefinite number of times while in this state.

Design Notes:
The Idea behind this ability is that, for a short time, the Sage can become the equivalent of a god. Sort of a combo Super Sayan-Avatar State deal, ya know?




Description: Sages who follow this Discipline learn to have absolute control over their own minds, unlocking power that most could only dream of. This allows the use of Psionic Powers, much like a Psion or Psychic Warrior. Focus points will be used instead of Power Points, with the cost listed here being the only cost to pay. Focus Points cannot be used to augment powers. Power costs go by level as follows. 1st level Powers are 1 FP, 2nd & 3rd level are 2 FP, 4th & 5th level are 3 FP, 6th & 7th level are 4 FP, and 8th and 9th level are 5 FP.

Passive: Augmentation: When a Sage manifests a psionic power, if it can be augmented, it is manifested as though extra power points equal to the Sages Wisdom modifier were spent in the manifestation.



Level
Special Ablities
Focus Points


1st
Psionic Discipline
4


3rd
Psionic Power, Tenacity



6th
Bonus Feat



9th
Improved Tenacity



12th

17


15th
Bonus Feat
20


18th

22


20th

24




Psionic Discipline: A Sage may choose a Psion Discipline. At 1st level, the Sage gains access to up to a 1st and a 2nd level Power. At 3rd level, and every three levels thereafter, the Sage gains access to up to 1 Powers of the next level of Power. (3rd at 3rd, 4th at 6th, 5th at 9th, etc., to 9th at 20th level.)

Psionic Power: A Sage may take up to 2 1st level Psionic Powers from any list except the Discipline lists. At 6th level, and every third Sage level after, the Sage may take up to two powers from the next power level, up to 2 6th level powers at 18th level.

Tenacity (Ex): Whenever a Sage makes a successful Will saving throw against an attack that normally deals partial effect or half damage on a successful save, he instead does not suffer from the effect or takes no damage. A helpless Sage does not gain the benefit of tenacity.

Bonus Feat (Ex): At 6th and 15th level, a Spirit Sage may choose a psionics related bonus feat. (metapsionic, power focus, etc.). She must still meet the prerequisites for the chosen feat.

Improved Tenacity (Ex): At 9th level, a Sage’s tenacity ability improves. She still takes no damage or suffers from no effect on a successful Will saving throw against attacks, but henceforth she takes only half damage or partial effect on a failed save.



Enlightenment:





Description: Some Sages

Passive:



Level
Abilities


1st



3rd



6th



9th



12th



15th



18th



20th
l




1st Level Abilities:

3rd Level Abilities:

6th Level Abilities:

9th Level Abilities:

12th Level Abilities:

15th Level Abilities:

18th Level Abilities:

Enlightenment:





Description:

Passive:

1st Level Abilities:

3rd Level Abilities:

6th Level Abilities:

9th Level Abilities:

12th Level Abilities:

15th Level Abilities:

18th Level Abilities:

Enlightenment:









NOTES



So I had a slight dilemma regarding Flurry of Blows. of the only two people who gave me any opinion on this class, one of them said FoB should be a class feature, and one said it should not. The one who wanted as a class feature was my player, who is part of the reason I’m designing the class. The one who didn’t was Almarck, from these very forums, who’s opinion as a homebrewer I value.

Because I want this class to be usable by anyone who wants to, with as little effort on their part in regards to changing things, I am going to include two versions of the class. The default version will have FoB as a class feature. The revised version, below, will have a table without FoB, and FoB in a Path ability format.



Level
Base Attack
Fort
Ref
Will
Special
Unarmed Strike Dmg
AC Bonus
Movement Bonus
Focus


1st
+1
+2
+2
+2
Unarmed Strike, AC Bonus, Path
1d6
+0
+0 ft.
4


2nd
+2
+3
+3
+3
Combat Focus, Evasion, Combat Reflexes
1d6
+0
+0 ft.
4


3rd
+3
+3
+3
+3
Path Ability, Still Mind
1d6
+0
+10 ft.
6


4th
+4
+4
+4
+4
Bonus Feat
1d8
+1
+10 ft.
6


5th
+5
+4
+4
+4
Wholeness of Body
1d8
+1
+10 ft.
6


6th
+6/+1
+5
+5
+5
Path Ability
1d8
+1
+20 ft.
8


7th
+7/+2
+5
+5
+5
Bonus Feat
1d8
+1
+20 ft.
8


8th
+8/+3
+6
+6
+6
Improved Evasion
1d10
+2
+20 ft.
8


9th
+9/+4
+6
+6
+6
Path Ability
1d10
+2
+30 ft.
11


10th
+10/+5
+7
+7
+7
Diamond Body
1d10
+2
+30 ft.
11


11th
+11/+6/+1
+7
+7
+7
Diamond Soul
1d10
+2
+30 ft.
11


12th
+12/+7/+2
+8
+8
+8
Path Ability
2d6
+3
+40 ft.
14


13th
+13/+8/+3
+8
+8
+8

2d6
+3
+40 ft.
14


14th
+14/+9/+4
+9
+9
+9
Bonus Feat
2d6
+3
+40 ft.
14


15th
+15/+10/+5
+9
+9
+9
Path Ability
2d6
+3
+50 ft.
18


16th
+16/+11/+6/+1
+10
+10
+10

2d8
+4
+50 ft.
18


17th
+17/+12/+7/+2
+10
+10
+10
Bonus Feat
2d8
+4
+50 ft.
18


18th
+18/+13/+8/+3
+11
+11
+11
Path Ability
2d8
+4
+60 ft.
22


19th
+19/+14/+9/+4
+11
+11
+11

2d8
+4
+60 ft.
22


20th
+20/+15/+10/+5
+12
+12
+12
Enlightenment
2d10
+5
+60 ft.
24




Discipline Ability: 1st Level

*Flurry of Blows (Ex): When unarmored, a monk may strike with a flurry of blows at the expense of accuracy when performing an attack or a full attack action, or as part of a charge. The Sage’s revised attack bonus for Flurry of Blows is listed on the table below.


When using flurry of blows, a monk may attack only with unarmed strikes or with special monk weapons, although she may use them interchangeably as desired. When flurrying with a weapon, a monk applies her Strength bonus (not Str bonus × 1½ or ×½) to her damage rolls, whether she wields a weapon in one or both hands.

A monk with the Combat Reflexes feat can declare a flurry of blows when taking an attack of opportunity.

A monk with Flyby Attack, Ride-By Attack, Shot on the Run, Spring attack, or Swim-By Attack can combine flurry of blows with these feats to flurry on the move. If the monk obtains additional attacks via Bounding Assault or Rapid Blitz, she gains the extra flurry attacks only once.

Greater Flurry: When a monk reaches 12th level, her flurry of blows ability improves. In addition to the standard single extra attack she gets from flurry of blows, she gets a second extra attack at her full base attack bonus.
Cost: 1 FP



Level
Flurry (std)
Flurry (full)


1st
-1/-1
-1/-1


2nd
+0/+0
+0/+0


3rd
+1/+1
+1/+1


4th
+2/+2
+2/+2


5th
+4/+4
+4/+4


6th
+5/+5
+5/+5/+0


7th
+6/+6
+6/+6/+1


8th
+7/+7
+7/+7/+2


9th
+9/+9
+9/+9/+4


10th
+10/+10
+10/+10/+5


11th
+11/+11/+11
+11/+11/+11/+6/+1


12th
+12/+12/+12
+12/+12/+12/+7/+2


13th
+13/+13/+13
+13/+13/+13/+8/+3


14th
+14/+14/+14
+14/+14/+14/+9/+4


15th
+15/+15/+15
+15/+15/+15/+10/+5


16th
+16/+16/+16
+16/+16/+16/+11/+6/+1


17th
+17/+17/+17
+17/+17/+17/+12/+7/+2


18th
+18/+18/+18
+18/+18/+18/+13/+8/+3


19th
+19/+19/+19
+19/+19/+19/+14/+9/+4


20th
+20/+20/+20
+20/+20/+20/+15/+10/+5






So, Opinions? Suggesstions? Questions? Hate Mail? Random Fart Noises?

Thanks, m19

* All or part of the following text was taken directly from Jiriku’s Monk Remix, and all credit therefore goes to him.

** All or part of the following text was taken directly from Tempestfury’s Zen Blade, and all credit therefore goes to him.

Almarck
2015-01-20, 07:54 PM
Well, the first things we need to decide on are the progression mechanics. For the starters, perhaps what we should focus on is the stuff every "Monk" gets.


As for resources, I think we should fold PP and Ki together into a single base via some exchange rate or something. Have Psilike abilities or Powers and spend Ki and

To make Wis the most important stat and to cover our lack of armor, the choice is simple. Dodge Bonus to AC when with no armor as well as increasing Ki/PP pool.

Unarmed Strike, I can get behind. As long as you got PP or Ki, they get stronger and are treated as weapons, nothing wrong with that.



What I do not agree with is folding Flurry of Blows into the Mix. I dunno, I feel a little unsettled by allowing the "monk" to have it as a default thing. Maybe because I feel it's a little unoriginal. Consider perhaps a "precision" variant of Zen, rather than a flurry.

I'm thinking as for progression, some sort of "talents" or "choices" are overed every 3rd or 4th level and are choices for things such as "more powers" or "more moves"

mercury19
2015-01-20, 09:46 PM
Well, the first things we need to decide on are the progression mechanics. For the starters, perhaps what we should focus on is the stuff every "Monk" gets.


As for resources, I think we should fold PP and Ki together into a single base via some exchange rate or something. Have Psilike abilities or Powers and spend Ki and

To make Wis the most important stat and to cover our lack of armor, the choice is simple. Dodge Bonus to AC when with no armor as well as increasing Ki/PP pool.

Unarmed Strike, I can get behind. As long as you got PP or Ki, they get stronger and are treated as weapons, nothing wrong with that.



What I do not agree with is folding Flurry of Blows into the Mix. I dunno, I feel a little unsettled by allowing the "monk" to have it as a default thing. Maybe because I feel it's a little unoriginal. Consider perhaps a "precision" variant of Zen, rather than a flurry.

I'm thinking as for progression, some sort of "talents" or "choices" are overed every 3rd or 4th level and are choices for things such as "more powers" or "more moves"

I'm not sure I understand what you mean about Ki and PP. I, personally, would rather keep them separate, because the represent different aspects of training. Ki is being able to finely control your own body, while Psionics is pure mental power. So the idea is that they would not have very many similar abilities. However, for simplicity's sake, I think they should be gained at the same rate, as in number of points per level, bonus points, etc. I should also specify that the concept is that not all monks get Ki or Psionics, only those who choose those variants.

I agree with the idea for Wis, and maybe add something for attack as well.



For Flurry, I guess I can see where you're coming from. Maybe make it a Ki power, or optional Feature for the martial variant? I always thought it was iconic part of the monk class, but I have seen complaints about it.

For progression, that sounds good. "things" are offered based on the variant chosen at first level. The variant, however, must be the same every time due to the incredible discipline required to master it.

I'll edit the OP.


Also, the variants should be called Disciplines.

Almarck
2015-01-20, 10:01 PM
The reason I think of pooling ki and pp together into the same resource is for simplicity. Both are measures of focus and energy. It feels inconsistent to keep them separate.

mercury19
2015-01-20, 10:13 PM
The reason I think of pooling ki and pp together into the same resource is for simplicity. Both are measures of focus and energy. It feels inconsistent to keep them separate.

That definitely makes sense. I think the difference in flavor is important though. Maybe would could give all monks Focus points, to make it simple and fit nicely with all flavors.

Almarck
2015-01-20, 10:24 PM
Well a simple matter might be a psionic powers and spells are abilities that cost focus and come fully augmented when we need them.

mercury19
2015-01-20, 10:31 PM
Well a simple matter might be a psionic powers and spells are abilities that cost focus and come fully augmented when we need them.

What do you mean fully augmented?

Almarck
2015-01-20, 11:02 PM
Sorry, that's a PF term. Augmenting is basically the fact psionics can spend more PP to achieve more results. For the purposes of zen monks, consider powers as having spend the maximum number PP available, rather than spending Focus as if it were PP.

mercury19
2015-01-20, 11:20 PM
Sorry, that's a PF term. Augmenting is basically the fact psionics can spend more PP to achieve more results. For the purposes of zen monks, consider powers as having spend the maximum number PP available, rather than spending Focus as if it were PP.

I...... Yes. I like this idea. That would also lower the amount points to keep track of.

mercury19
2015-01-22, 10:39 PM
I have updated the OP in hopes of perhaps getting more opinions! I will post an example discipline when I have time. In the mean time, ideas are needed for all of the dead levels. Maybe slow fall, some bonus feats, a feature for Wis to attack and or damage?

Almarck
2015-01-23, 11:32 AM
Go ahead. Plug up those empty levels.

mercury19
2015-01-24, 01:30 AM
More progress! I'm looking to get at least one Discipline up by Monday. In the mean time, are there any opinions? I'm not familiar enough with feats to realy decide on the bonus feats thing. I guess more will have to wait until I get a Discipline up, because I'm not sure how that will affect the power of the class.

mercury19
2015-01-24, 01:06 PM
I've started the first Discipline, and added a section on Flurry of Blows.

mercury19
2015-02-02, 05:47 PM
I've done more work. I intend to change the way disciplines work. Rather than choosing an ability at each level, a "monk" will simply gain all abilities for that level, and some abilities will scale. This is mostly because I am running low on ideas for the later levels, especially for the Psionics Path at the moment.

Again, any opinions would be appreciated.

Thanks, m19

EDIT: I am double posting here because I don't think this is old enough to warrant a a new thread.

qazzquimby
2015-02-02, 08:47 PM
A small comment, restrictions are a strange thing to have for a base class, particularly the flavour and "wis as highest stat" parts.

mercury19
2015-02-03, 01:19 AM
They aren't restrictions to play the class, they are/were restrictions for the creation of the class. I wanted wis to be the most important stat, and the general flavor to fit whatever it was that I wrote down. A player could play this class eithe who's as their lowest stat, but it would be far from optimal. Or useful, depending on how low the score is.

Baphomet
2015-02-03, 06:04 AM
Dang! I just made a base class with a monk flavor involving choosing different paths, and then I saw that you posted this thread 11 days earlier. That's the second time that's happened to me!

So when I was making the stormfist (my monk-ish remake class) I was paying a lot of attention to what was bad about the core monk. I'll try to convey that stuff here.

One thing that bugs a lot of people is that the monk is supposed to be a melee class but they don't get full BAB. It doesn't make sense, why is this dude who devotes himself entirely to attacking with his fists WORSE at actually hitting stuff with them than the fighter who picked up the improved unarmed strike feat? That's really something any monk fix should probably address; it's kind of lame to have to sit there while the monk rolls a bucket of dice for all his different attacks but doesn't hit with any of them. You could make it gain full BAB, or you could give it some kind of to-hit bonus as it levels up to make up the difference. Or, since you seem to be giving it some sort of resource pool to limit its use of certain abilities, you could give it some way to use that resource to get a bonus to attack rolls at certain times.

I notice you've changed the text about when unarmed strikes work.

At 1st level, a "monk" gains Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat. A "monk"’s attacks may be with either fist interchangeably or even from elbows, knees, and feet. This means that a "monk" may even make unarmed strikes with her hands full. A "monk" can make off-hand attacks with unarmed strikes, and suffers no special penalty or hindrance for doing so. A "monk" may thus apply her full Strength bonus on damage rolls for all her unarmed strikes, or declare an unarmed strike as an off-hand weapon when fighting with two weapons (and would not take the additional -6 penalty for an off-hand attack when doing so).
This is kind of unclear. So unarmed attacks don't have to be hands, but they can be off-hand attacks? So, with one level in monk, could you wield a two-handed bastard sword with both hands and two weapon fight with that and your kicks? Can you three-weapon fight with a weapon in each hand and vigorous pelvic thrusting? Even if you're just wielding a light weapon, say a shortsword, in one hand and have your other fist ready for punchapuncha time extravaganza, what would your full attack sequence look like, assuming you don't have the TWF feat? It's normally primary attack form (the sword) + iteratives at -6, then your off-hand(the unarmed strike) at -10 (no iteratives). Does the "no additional -6 penalty" clause mean you get:
-full iterative attacks with the sword at full attack bonus, then one unarmed strike at full bonus (none of the penalty applies)
-full iterative attacks at full bonus, then one unarmed strike at -4 (negate six points of the penalty from all attacks)
-full iteratives with the sword at full bonus (negate the -6 penalty), then one unarmed strike at -10 (this isn't a -6 penalty)
-full iteratives with the sword at -6, then one unarmed strike at -4 (negate six points of the penalty for the off-hand weapon)

One thing I didn't wind up doing but I did think about quite a bit was to make the unarmed strike explicitly a natural weapon attack that he gains (probably a slam) and then rather than relying on iteratives to give flurries and extra attacks and such, just actually give him more slam attacks when he gets entitled to new iterative attacks or new attacks from flurry. Also, some kind of clause about how he loses the natural weapon attacks when wielding another weapon, or loses all but one of them. That's nice because, in case you didn't know, the usual rule for natural weapons is
-one of your attack types is your primary attack, the rest are secondary
-if you're holding a manufactured weapon, it is your primary
-holding a manufactured weapon prevents you from using natural weapons from the hands that are holding it (like claw attacks)
-if you make a standard attack, you attack once with your primary weapon at your highest bonus and do not attack with your secondaries
-if you make a full attack, you attack with your primary, getting iteratives if your primary is a manufactured weapon, attacking once if it's a natural weapon, each with your full bonus, then attack once with each secondary at a flat -5 no matter how many there are.
Which sort of ties up neatly what a lot of people want to do with the monk and his flurry.

Oh and speaking of natural weapons, there's a little bit of rules stupidity involved there. Technically by RAW, humanoid monks aren't proficient in their own unarmed strikes. Unarmed strikes count as both natural weapons and simple weapons, and proficiency with either of those would qualify. Unfortunately, humanoid monks have neither. Monks don't have blanket simple weapon proficiency, nor are unarmed strikes on the list of weapon types with which they are proficient (in either the core class or your remake). The humanoid type is "Proficient with all simple weapons, or by character class." Unfortunately the latter takes precedence over the former, so the monk actually loses proficiencies by becoming a monk (as do humanoids of all classes that don't grant simple weapon proficiency, like wizards and sorcerers). Many creature types have "proficient with its natural weapons" in the listed traits for that type, but humanoid is not one of them. So...yeah. I've heard it argued that humanoid monks striking unarmed should get -4 penalties for not being proficient with their own hands. Kind of an easy thing to houserule away, but I'd rather nip that problem in the backside and explicitly grant proficiency with either unarmed strikes or natural weapons.

I like what you've done with the flurry, letting it apply on standard action attacks too. Here I was, thinking I was original by doing that with the stormfist. the "attack penalty from flurry carries over to attacks of opportunity for the whole round" thing never made much sense to me, but I know it comes with the core monk's flurry, too. What, because you punched a guy really fast, you're winded the next time you attack? I just made these things apply to the individual rolls so it's one less thing to keep track of, I don't consider it a major balance concern.

Combat focus - One thing to think about is that you shouldn't be putting math in there where it doesn't need to be. The ability to take 1-3 extra attacks of opportunity is a huge boost. But, I really doubt anyone who doesn't use reach weapons is ever going to find themselves going "man, if only I got to make a seventh attack of opportunity this round..." So after a while, the scaling kind of stops mattering. Why even bother making them divide their monk level to get it? I know, dividing a number by 3 is not exactly rocket science, but bear with me. You might be better off tying it to a stat modifier, like combat reflexes does (that's written on their sheet! handy). Or...just give them combat reflexes as a bonus feat. It seems monk-y and I can almost guarantee they'd be taking it anyway if you didn't give it to them. And when they do take it it will pretty much completely negate the need to have the "extra AoO" part of this ability, because they'll have all of the attacks of opportunity they want except in extremely rare circumstances anyway. Also, this ability costs them nothing to activate, not even a very meaningful action, and combat tends to last about 3 or 4 rounds. 10 rounds + monk level is way, way longer than any combat will ever be, so why not just have it be active all the time? One less effect whose duration you need to keep track of, and they can just write that +2 saves bonus on their sheet permanently and not forget about it every time they need to make a save. If your intent was to make it not apply when they're not expecting it, and thus not vigilantly refreshing their combat focus every couple minutes, just have it not apply when they're flat-footed.

zone of awareness: Monks being able to sense their surroundings without actually looking at them is flavorful and definitely seems monk-y. I like it. Again, here I was thinking I was being original. But note that +20 feet every 4 levels is the same as +5 feet every level, which feels less clunky (to me). Also, what is Touchsight? As in, the psion power? The psion power that grants exactly the same things that blindsight grants? So at level 10, they get two different kinds of blindsight at different radii?
Also, a threatened range increase without some means to attack at that range does nothing. Taking an attack of opportunity against a creature that you can't actually attack is a waste of an attack of opportunity. Unless you meant for this monk to also be carrying around a bow or something, which I doubt was your intent. But if you DID intend them to actually be able to carry out their attack somehow, a 20 foot threatened range at all times at level 6 is ridiculously powerful, to say nothing of the 50 foot threatened range they'd have by carrying this to level 20. I also have an ability on the stormfist to grant them a boost to threatened range (once again, here I go thinking I was being original) but it was an increase of 20 feet, each foot they moved to make an attack of opportunity subtracted from it, they get it once per day for a limited number of rounds, and it was a capstone ability they could get no earlier than level 19.
Why can she AoO attacks made when she's distracted or flanked but not attacks made when she's at full attention? I've seen some things that let you AoO all attacks against you (now there's a possible use for more than 7 AoOs in a round) which you might want to consider instead of AoOs against sneak attacks. Why attacks of opportunity against sneak attacks, specifically? Does an assassin's death attack count? How about a ninja's sudden strike? While rogues are better than core monks by a fair bit, they have a hard enough time as it is finding an opportunity for their class features to work. Being able to sense them with zone of awareness prevents flat-footedness, denying rogues sneak attacks for that, and denying it for flanking doesn't make much sense as the side effect of an ability that grants heightened awareness.

Still mind, ok. It's not like you needed it, but it's core monk stuff.

Speed boost, yeah. One of the few good monk class features.

Bonus feats: Cool, sure. There's combat reflexes on that list, that's a must. Spring attack with no prerequisites? Yes plz. Those things should be default. If you offer them the choice of those or another feat, they'll always pick those. Or at least, they SHOULD. And both of them feel so monk-y that they would be monk class features if they weren't feats, anyway.
As for any other bonus feats you might want to give besides that, stunning fist is a staple, but only really worth it if you start investing in stuff like pain touch. And the way you calculate your uses per day and your save DC always felt weird to me. Might be worth making it a class feature instead. Then you can set those values within the class itself, and have it automatically upgrade the save DC and add pain touch and fist of the pharaoh with levels. It feels silly when you have a class feature that forces you to dig through splatbooks to make it useful.
Dodge and mobility are only useful because they're prerequisites for spring attack. Giving them three feats just to give them one feature is dumb, just give them spring attack.
Improved grapple is always attractive at early levels. Then you start getting into the levels where everyone is either huge size or has constant effect freedom of movement or can just teleport out of your grip, at which point it has no use whatsoever and you feel bad for wasting a feat on it. Some way to negate at least some of that stuff would be cool.
Improved trip is nice. It's not fantastic, but it's nice. If you can swing some way to make the unarmed strikes have reach, it starts getting fantastic. same for improved disarm.
I'm always torn about Deflect Arrows. On the one hand, it just feels so right for a monk, conceptually. On the other hand, it's really not that useful. And for some reason, the game developers have already established that the things that make it useful should qualify as epic feats. If you don't care about that, let them upgrade it to exceptional and/or infinite deflection later. Maybe make them class features that grant the same bonuses as exceptional and infinite deflection so nobody calls you out on giving an epic feat as a bonus feat pre-epic.
Improved feint doesn't work of you don't add bluff to their skill list.
Nobody I've played with ever seems to bull rush, so I don't have much to say about that.

Wholeness of body, you made class x wis, just like I did. Great. It's still a standard action, though, which is usually what makes in-battle healing kind of a waste (your standard actions are better used making people die and thus stop hurting you than healing damage that they're just going to deal to you again this round, anyway)

Purity of body counts against magical diseases too, which are the only ones that matter in the rare case that diseases matter. I did this too. Great.

You made her spell resistance suppressible, just like I did. great. Yours covers more cases, though. Did you get that wording from somewhere else? I like it.

Enlightenment/perfect self. It's like, it gives you a class feature that tells you how to roleplay being level 20. I like that your version lets you pick the type, so at least it doesn't actually make it harder to give you the bonuses that you want, like enlarge person. But it's like, I could have roleplayed this without the mechanical implications, and mechanically it doesn't do much. But it's a staple. eh.

It's hard to say anything about the paths until they're finished.

I noticed you took out slow fall. If you wanted to put it back in, I wouldn't bother giving it specific distance limits or requiring a nearby wall. Just "the monk no longer takes falling damage from any height" at like, level 2 or 3. It's mimicking a level 1 spell, so I wouldn't consider it a balance concern in the slightest.

mercury19
2015-02-03, 12:02 PM
Thanks for taking a look! I did see your Stormfist class, and I can safely say that we are on different Paths. (Heh heh, see what I did there? That was really bad.)

-Full BAB: I definitely see where your coming from here, but I'm still not quite sure. Meh. I Once saw something somewhere that gave a good reason, but since I can't find it anymore, I'll probably change it. Maybe.

-Unarmed Strike: I didn't catch that before, thanks for pointing that out. I borrowed the text from jiriku, and didn't realize there was a difference. I have changed it back to the original. The idea behind having other body parts is so that you can fight with your hands full, like when your hands are bound, or carrying the fragile magic vase, etc. Using unarmed strike should be treated as using any other weapon, except you can use your feet, elbows, head, etc, rather than just your hands, and you apply full strength to attack and damage. I'll reword it in a bit.
I never realized the proficiency problem. That's ridiculous. Consider the bud nipped.

-FoB: Again thank you for pointing this out. I didn't notice it, again because I borrowed the text. I'll change that.

-Combat Focus: I agree with you on that one, after reviewing what I did. I'll remove the time limit and activation, and add combat reflexes as a bonus feat.

-Zone of Awareness: I borrowed this from Tempestfury's Zen Blade, and watered it down a bunch. But then again, it was a main class feature for that class, so I probably didn't water it down enough. I added the AoO against sneak attacks because it sounded cool flavor-wise, but I think it might be better to make it imposseble for them to be caught flat-footed, flanked, etc, by creatures they can sense with their blindsight/blindsense. Also thanks for pointing out that Touchsight = Blindsight. I've removed the touchsight portion. As for the threatened area, it was inteded to give the class a little bit of battlefield control, but now I'm thinking otherwise. The intent was that the monk would be able to either move super fast to make the AoO, or use a sort of "force push" style attack thing, but I think I'l cut that all together in favor of making other abilities, namely the path ones, more powerful/available.

-Bonus Feats: Ok. I'll look into it, make some changes, scaling, etc. On stunning fist: I think I might stick that in one of the paths as a feature, and leave it as a bonus feat for those who chose a different path. I'll make some changes to make it more useful to a monk, maybe with FoB or longer stun duration or something. As for the two associated abilities, I am hesitant as I don't know where they come from and I want to stick to PHB, DMG, and monster manual stuff.

-On wording, and unoriginal ideas: Pretty much all of this was taken from another source, so I didn't "already do it", they did. Just for clarification. Pretty much same thing for wording.

mercury19
2015-02-06, 01:47 AM
I have a first draft of the default "monk" abilities, as well as a complete rough draft for the Way of the Soul! Whoo!