If you could have one Monk ability what would it be? [Archive]

NeoPhoenix0

2015-09-23, 02:47 AM

If you could have one Monk class feature in real life, what would it be?

Monks are an interesting class when you look at them. They have a very diverse set of skills, the main thing throwing them off in D&D is that almost none of their class features work together. They are just all over the place and the ones that do work together often don't amount to as much as other classes are capable of.

Putting that aside what do you think would be the best monk class feature to have in real life and why?

This is supposed to be a fun little thread so a class feature should be any feature from 3.x including pathfinder and acfs/archetypes or even a monk bonus feat.

Edit: for pathfinder ki powers, let's assume you have 10 ki points in your daily ki pool, but you don't any other benefits of ki pool unless the class feature you chose is ki pool. Also, you may only chose one ki power if you want to look at qinggong monk since they swap out for various class abilities.

Edit2: no bashing other people's ideas. This reduces creativity and makes people less likely to put their ideas out there. Constructive criticism is good and can increase creativity but just saying that can't work is stupid, especially when applying a wonky game like d&d to reality.

To start things off, my favorite ability to have would be Abundant Step. It would be very useful for getting around and i just love the idea of teleportation.

ranagrande

2015-09-23, 03:36 AM

Tongue of the Sun and Moon.

So many applications...

Sir Chuckles

2015-09-23, 03:38 AM

As much as I'd normally be a sucker for a teleportation ability, the severe limitation of 1/day pushes me away. Even in Pathfinder, I cannot guarantee that I'd have a respectable amount of Ki, being as I'm a lv0 Monk.

Purity of Body and Tongue of Sun and Moon would be my contenders. I'd lean toward Purity, because being immune to diseases is far more likely to come up than a 1/day teleport, or the various feats.

Tongue would just be plain useful, regardless of whether or not the other party can understand you.

Vhaidara

2015-09-23, 05:36 AM

Depends on the scaling. If I get the max value, and get to ignore the consequences of physics, fast movement. Goodbye driving to work, hello jogging easily to work.

Immunity to disease would also be nice.

Tongue of sun and moon would be great for me. I love languages, but have absolutely zero talent for them.

zergling.exe

2015-09-23, 05:36 AM

I would have to settle on Perfect Self. Outsider type?! Yes please!

DR 10/Magic: You don't have to worry about all sorts of minor injuries. Someone shoots you? Bleeding out at worst, and many people nowadays are trained for first aid. You are fairly like to be able to take at least one bullet without a problem.
60 foot Darkvision: You don't really have to worry about lights in your house, though they are helpful to be able to see color.
Proficient with all simple and martial weapons: So I can pick up that longsword I've never held before and use it just fine? Awesome! Not to mention modern firearms are either simple or martial weapons, so one could also just use things like assault rifles and sniper rifles as easy as any other weapon. (I swear there was something in the DMG about if firearms were commonplace they were treated as one of these two categories. Any ideas where that line is?)
Not needing to eat or sleep: This is just awesome. Stop gaming to ingest calories?! Madness! Sleep? Bah, sleep is for the weak.

Honorable mention to Timeless Body. Not aging would be helpful for living well into your 90s and potentially even well beyond that.

Hamste

2015-09-23, 06:31 AM

Perfect self doesn't actually change your type to outsider in either d&d 3.5 or pathfinder.

Fast movement, tongue of sun and moon or purity of body seem like the best choices. Though I do have to say being able to punch hard enough to put a greatsword to shame or strike with great speed and accuracy both seem pretty cool if useless (it is even cooler if we use pathfinder flurry of blows which does even more attacks than 3.5). Assuming we count as level 20 for all this.

ben-zayb

2015-09-23, 06:43 AM

This is easily Diamond Body, assuming the usage of RAW that effects of alcohol are poison.:smallamused:

(Actually, with abilities such as Tongue of Sun and Moon, Diamond Body, Purity of Body, and Perfect Self, now I just realized that Monks should hang out more often in taverns...Put those class features to use, son!)

Otherwise, Shadow Blend* for that sweet Total Concealment in less than full daylight.

* Champion of Valor's Dark Moon Disciple Substitution Level

A.A.King

2015-09-23, 06:48 AM

Aren't all D&D players basically level 20 monks (for each one of us is treated as an outsider)?

As somebody who lives in a high rise building with not perfect elevators, I believe that "Slow Fall Any Distance" is quite an useful little ability to have. Might also help me get rid of my fear of flying...
"Wholeness of Body" and "Abundant Step" are also two abilities I'd find quite useful, but are rather limited in their number of uses. Especially "Abundant Step", what's the point of being able to teleport into the bank vault if you can't teleport out again?

zergling.exe

2015-09-23, 06:48 AM

Perfect self doesn't actually change your type to outsider in either d&d 3.5 or pathfinder.

Even without the other things, DR 10/Magic makes you nearly invincible in day to day life. You can try and ram a knife into your chest with no repercussions for crying out loud! Well, the knife would probably break, but still. If you could get your hands on a greatsword you might even be able to knock yourself out. And since its magic nothing will be able to get ignore it!

TheTeaMustFlow

2015-09-23, 07:01 AM

Timeless body, methinks. In an RPG it's a flavour ability. Outside of it, it's the next best thing to immortality.

Darrin

2015-09-23, 07:29 AM

No matter how bad I am at my job, regardless of the mountains of evidence to the contrary, an endless number of people are so impenetrable to logic and reason that they still insist I am useful and worthwhile.

Elkad

2015-09-23, 07:32 AM

Given a choice, it's always the one about lifespan.

So Timeless Body. Heres hoping for some Methuselah action instead of a mere 115 years.

Telonius

2015-09-23, 07:36 AM

Timeless Body for me. Purity of Body is a very close second.

Rubik

2015-09-23, 07:39 AM

Lvl 20 wealth, since it's dependent on level.

And since you can use it to purchase magic items...

Hamste

2015-09-23, 07:54 AM

Even without the other things, DR 10/Magic makes you nearly invincible in day to day life. You can try and ram a knife into your chest with no repercussions for crying out loud! Well, the knife would probably break, but still. If you could get your hands on a greatsword you might even be able to knock yourself out. And since its magic nothing will be able to get ignore it!

...how often do you plan to be stabbed and shot? It is a cool ability and it will save some pain but immunity to disease will probably be more likely to save you at least if you live someplace mildly safe. By Canada's statistics (the place where I live so I will use that for comparison) The top 4 deaths are all diseases. Accidents is 5th and not all accidents can be affected by dr (for example accidental smoke inhalation or being in a fire). 8/10 are protected by immunity to disease, 1/10 of them may sometimes be protected by dr (well suicides might as well but that is easy to bypass if you know about it). Statistics obtained from 2011 and are not be representative of other countries.

zergling.exe

2015-09-23, 08:11 AM

...how often do you plan to be stabbed and shot? It is a cool ability and it will save some pain but immunity to disease will probably be more likely to save you at least if you live someplace mildly safe. By Canada's statistics (the place where I live so I will use that for comparison) The top 4 deaths are all diseases. Accidents is 5th and not all accidents can be affected by dr (for example accidental smoke inhalation or being in a fire). 8/10 are protected by immunity to disease, 1/10 of them may sometimes be protected by dr (well suicides might as well but that is easy to bypass if you know about it). Statistics obtained from 2011 and are not be representative of other countries.

The important thing is on a day-to-day basis, how often do you nick yourself on random items? You cannot injure your hands while cutting food to cook, it would merely delay you and perhaps require fixing of the knife. Broken glass is similarly not a problem. Pointy bits in your clothes? Not a problem. Fell off your bike at high speed? Reduced or even no scrapes. Slammed your hand/finger in a door? Just fine, though the door may need some repairs.

DR 10/Magic won't necessarily save your life, but it makes living more comfortable as you aren't injured by minor things. And I would rather not have to worry about all these little things and worry about disease that is much easier to avoid in comparison.

Vhaidara

2015-09-23, 08:16 AM

Doesn't timeless body just remove the effects of aging? And still have you die when you hit max age? I know that's how the druid one works. So people claiming immortality, its more like you get to be 22 for 90 years, then die randomly.

Rubik

2015-09-23, 08:18 AM

zergling.exe

2015-09-23, 08:22 AM

The important thing is on a day-to-day basis, how often do you nick yourself on random items? You cannot injure your hands while cutting food to cook, it would merely delay you and perhaps require fixing of the knife. Broken glass is similarly not a problem. Pointy bits in your clothes? Not a problem. Fell off your bike at high speed? Reduced or even no scrapes. Slammed your hand/finger in a door? Just fine, though the door may need some repairs.

DR 10/Magic won't necessarily save your life, but it makes living more comfortable as you aren't injured by minor things. And I would rather not have to worry about all these little things and worry about disease that is much easier to avoid in comparison.

I just realized a huge drawback to damage reduction of any kind: many medical procedures; surgeries, IVs, injections, infusions, etc.; become incredibly difficult if not impossible to do because they can't get through your skin.

Strigon

2015-09-23, 08:34 AM

DR 10/Magic won't necessarily save your life, but it makes living more comfortable as you aren't injured by minor things. And I would rather not have to worry about all these little things and worry about disease that is much easier to avoid in comparison.

DR 10 benefits:

Make a fortune as a boxer that can never go down.
Make bets; people have 10 seconds to knock you unconscious. If they win, the get 5 times their bet. But nobody can deal that much damage that regularly.
If you're of the mindset, rob stuff; you basically become a GTA character at that point. (Well, without the ability to come back to life if you die), but given the stats for modern guns in the DMG, the smallest gun that can reliably harm you is the hunting rifle; even a shotgun has a < 50% chance to damage you.
Be a lion tamer; watch as the lion struggles to do any damage to you without a crit!
Become a vigilante! Revolvers? Practically harmless. Same deal with semi-automatics. You're laughing at knives.
Feeling patriotic? Join your country's military! Granted, this one might bypass your DR, but the odds are in your favour.
Wear a respirator; you're now immune to fire! Go save that poor baby you hear crying in that burning building! (Apparently not.)

Edit: By RAW, I don't think DR affects Heal checks of any kind. The answer then is potentially that, while they can perform surgery and the like, no harm is done to you. Spinal fusion? Up and at 'em the moment you awake :smallbiggrin:

Hamste

2015-09-23, 08:38 AM

I almost never cut myself compared to disease. A paper cut or a banged knee is the closest I get to being hurt in my day to day life and those tend to be very temporary pains every so often. Disease for me tends to happen at least once a year and the effects of the disease like sniffly nose and coughs can last weeks.

I was thinking of surgeries a bit. I figured they would use laser surgery though not sure which surgeries can work solely with lasers.
I did miss the problems with IV and injections though. Even with the thing counting as a critical hit I doubt they could get through the skin.

zergling.exe

2015-09-23, 08:43 AM

Edit: By RAW, I don't think DR affects Heal checks of any kind. The answer then is potentially that, while they can perform surgery and the like, no harm is done to you. Spinal fusion? Up and at 'em the moment you awake :smallbiggrin:

Doc 1: We must perform open heart surgery!
Doc 2: This guy was brought in after taking a chainsaw to the face. How are we going to open up his chest?
Doc 1: Well, you see our instruments allow us to bypass his incredibly tough/regenerative skin to perform the surgery with it still intact!
Doc 2: This is madness!
Doc 1: Madness? THIS. IS. SURGERY! *punts Doc 2 into the pit where all the patients that die on the operating table are dumped*

Rubik

2015-09-23, 08:51 AM

How about level 20 monk hp, rather than DR? You could be damaged, which is both a benefit and a drawback, but you'd have to take a TON of damage to be seriously injured, and you'd heal up really fast and look like you'd never been hurt to begin with.

Jormengand

2015-09-23, 08:52 AM

I'd be tempted by SFAD purely for coolness factor, but Perfect Self is probably for me.

Telonius

2015-09-23, 09:14 AM

Flickerdart

2015-09-23, 09:38 AM

Wear a respirator; you're now immune to fire! Go save that poor baby you hear crying in that burning building!
Nope! Fire is fire damage, which isn't affected by DR.

In terms of DR, it would be cooler to take Deflect Arrows instead and block bullets with your fists. Sure it's only 1/round, but you don't have to deal with the question of DR/sufficiently-advanced-technology.

If you're of a sportsy mind, Fast Movement is vastly superior to any of the individual martial arts abilities. Usain Bolt's top speed is 240ft per round; you can run at 360ft/round or even faster with the Run feat.

Ethereal Body seems more useful than Dimension Door, since you get 20 rounds of it per day and can split it up. Phase through walls! Hide from your boss!

In terms of substitution levels...

Broken One's Lay on Hands is tremendously useful for any first-aid responders or dealing with surgery, but not really when dealing with any kind of regular medicine (which is mostly curing disease).

Dark Moon Disciple's Walk the Shadows is IIRC usable multiple times per day, which is better than Abundant Step.

Planar Monk's Resistant Body: Acid resistance would be invaluable for anyone working with chemicals, fire for firefighters, cold for people who work in the Arctic, and electricity for DIY home repairs and avoiding tasers.

Eldan

2015-09-23, 10:02 AM

For surgery, tell them to use a plasma scalpel, that's probably fire damage.

Nifft

2015-09-23, 10:13 AM

Sense Motive and Diplomacy as class skills. Those would be super handy in real life. But class skills might not count.

The one that grants eternal youth would be my 2nd choice.

TheIronGolem

2015-09-23, 10:33 AM

Timeless Body would be pretty awesome, but I think even that has to take second place to Purity of Body. Immunity to disease means eating whatever you want without worrying about diabetes, heart disease, or cancer.

Sure, you'll age, but you'll be secure in the knowledge that aging won't include arthritis, osteoporosis, or any kind of dementia. And your life expectancy would probably increase dramatically.

Vhaidara

2015-09-23, 11:19 AM

Yep. For those of us on the verge of our first aging penalties, that's not too bad of a deal.

Again, not saying its fundamentally a bad call. Just saying no, it doesn't make you immortal. Not at all.

NeoPhoenix0

2015-09-23, 11:58 AM

k, for pathfinder ki powers, let's assume you have 10 ki points in your daily ki pool, but you don't any other benefits of ki pool unless the class feature you chose is ki pool. Also, you may only chose one ki power if you want to look at qinggong monk since they swap out for various class abilities.

Troacctid

2015-09-23, 12:36 PM

I think it has to be disease immunity for me. Not only is it a big increase to life expectancy, it also means no more cold or flu. The common cold is something I'd be quite happy never to have to deal with again.

SangoProduction

2015-09-23, 01:04 PM

It would really depend on the definition of "disease". If this includes age-related diseases (which aren't represented in D&D, instead they have age-penalties) or mental diseases, or cancer, or heart disease, or autoimmune diseases, and so on then the disease immunity is easily the best option. If it's only virus/bacteria-induced diseases, then it becomes significantly less good, but still quite convenient.

From here downward: you get to benefit from some good deal of fame/infamy. So, I won't mention it again.

The eternal youth ability is probably just plain stupid. It asks "How long would you live, if you aged?" Then you die at that point for no apparent reason, even though you were just living a perfect little life. So, this makes it so you can't prevent your death, so you'd have a shorter life because medicine is not taken in to account. However, you probably get to ignore any and all age-related illnesses, and so though your life will be shorter, you'd be able to enjoy more of your life.

The DR...well, it will remove a good deal of fear to your personal well-being, but that's both good and bad, as fear keeps you from doing stupid stuff. Also, we'd have to know if the DR scales up to gun-level. Because, if this is "claws and swords" DR, and we determine the relative strength of that stuff to guns, it's not really going to help in a gun fight. If, however, guns deal damage as presented in D20 Modern, where pistols inexplicably deal less damage than swords, then yeah, it's great.
The DR would make fairly minor conveniences, and allow you to work riskier jobs, but that's about it. The disease protection probably surpasses this in terms of convenience, and doesn't have the risk of preventing you from getting surgery.

Dimension Door: Instant teleporation up to 400 feet (assuming level 0), or 1200 feet (assuming level 20), that only takes 3-4 seconds to cast? And assuming 10 ki points, that's usable 5 times per day. I'm down for that. Screw cars or bikes, or even walking. Just teleport to work and school and back. You can even teleport to and from lunch, if you feel like it. Alternatively, you can be the most illusive burglar in the world. Nothing can keep you out, and nothing can keep you in.

Improved Movement: I'd say it's pretty nice. You can use it an infinite amount of times, and it increases your basic walking speed, which means when you walk some place, you are less likely to be sweaty when you show up (I'm assuming walking 160 ft with that speed is equivalent to the effort and time the average person takes to walk 30 ft). It still takes a bit more effort than teleportation, but there's less of a risk that you...well, teleport into a wall, and crush your ribs or whatever as you are shunted out.

For me, it would be a toss up between dimension door and improved movement, based on just how much effort you have to put into walking at high speeds.

Draconium

2015-09-23, 01:05 PM

Gotta agree that the disease immunity would be my first choice, though Timeless Body and Perfect Self come close. An inability to become sick it just too good to pass up.

Amphetryon

2015-09-23, 01:05 PM

Strigon

2015-09-23, 01:35 PM

...So, this makes it so you can't prevent your death, so you'd have a shorter life because medicine is not taken in to account. However, you probably get to ignore any and all age-related illnesses, and so though your life will be shorter, you'd be able to enjoy more of your life...

...If, however, guns deal damage as presented in D20 Modern, where pistols inexplicably deal less damage than swords, then yeah, it's great...

1) I'm not sure what you're trying to imply here in saying that not aging will make you die of old age faster.

2) Inexplicably?
I'm going to link two images here; why don't you tell me which one you'd rather have in your body?

This (http://www.sportsmanswarehouse.com/img/products/original/speer_bullet_9mm_115_tmj_303322_1_og.jpg), or this (http://thesteelsource.com/images/detailed/1/SH2000a.jpg)?

The advantage of pistols is portability, armour penetration and range, not sheer damage.

Vhaidara

2015-09-23, 01:49 PM

1) I'm not sure what you're trying to imply here in saying that not aging will make you die of old age faster

Because you die based on the table in the rule book. So at some point between 72 and 110, you will simply fall over dead.

It's the lower range that gets you. I have several family members who are well past 72. Hell, that's the age my grandfather started building his back deck by himself, and that thing is the size of a floor from my college residence hall.

With modern medicine, we resist age a lot more effectively until we hit a certain point where several things start breaking down all at once (or in quick succession). We already have extremely good odds of making it to 90, but that's only about a 50/50 shot if you die at 70+2d20.

SangoProduction

2015-09-23, 01:51 PM

1) I'm not sure what you're trying to imply here in saying that not aging will make you die of old age faster.

2) Inexplicably?
I'm going to link two images here; why don't you tell me which one you'd rather have in your body?

This (http://www.sportsmanswarehouse.com/img/products/original/speer_bullet_9mm_115_tmj_303322_1_og.jpg), or this (http://thesteelsource.com/images/detailed/1/SH2000a.jpg)?

The advantage of pistols is portability, armour penetration and range, not sheer damage.

1) In D&D, max age is preset. In the real world, no one actually dies of old age. They die of things brought on by old age, such as weakening immune system, mineral build up in the brain, so on. That stuff you can fight with medicine. Some inexplicable death is not something you can fight with medicine.

2) I don't know, have you see hollow points? Even from a pistol, those things can blow massive wholes in an unarmored body, and just keeps going. Force = mass * acceleration. And penetration = force/(area of impact). Penetration is a function of the damage it does. When you've got a super sonic, tiny bullet, it's going to have an absolute metric ton more force than any sword. In fact, the point of sword fighting is to just get in small cuts, not massive blows, because that's all you need to disable someone, and massive attacks just leave you open to counters, and make your attack much easier to block/dodge.

dascarletm

2015-09-23, 02:35 PM

Let's end the whole sword or gun dealing more damage thing once and for all...

Being hurt by something involves a lot of factors, not just Force or size of object. In a game, this is simplified to HP damage. In real life it depends on how much the object disrupts your bodily workings. Even a box-cutter moving at very low speeds can inflict a fatal wound. It is going to depend more on what part of you gets injured, but this doesn't work well for a TTRPG. Thus HP damage is used and balanced against other factors.

In short they both can be just as deadly.

I personally would stay away from timeless body. It would be weird when I'm 80 having my wife look way older than me, and also looking older than my kids... and possibly grand-kids!

Disease immunity would be neat, but that's the mini-van of choices. Sure it is probably the most useful, but where is the STYLE?

Therefore I suggest Quivering Palm. I know - I know - It only can only be used like once a week in 3.5, but let's use the pathfinder version shall we?

You could be a renowned hit-man. Anyone you "accidentally" bump into will mysteriously die.. Whenever you want. Almost impossible to trace.
Or something I don't know.

Segev

2015-09-23, 03:18 PM

I'm going with Tongue of Sun and Moon, myself. The ability to understand and be understood in any language is not as glamorous as some of the other powers, but is something that actually would see more use in my day-to-day life. I deal just often enough with people who speak English as a broken second language that the ability to converse in their native tongue would be great. I also watch a fair bit of anime, so that would also be a boon.

Other abilities are nice, but incidental or are too limited by their daily uses. I'd almost never use them because there might be a situation where I "really" needed them later.

Mystia

2015-09-23, 03:43 PM

Quivering Palm. Imagine it, being able to truly simply touch my foe then back away, point at him and say "You are already dead".

On a more serious note, Empty Body, assuming 20th level. That, or... does having 20d8 HD count?

Strigon

2015-09-23, 03:59 PM

1) In D&D, max age is preset. In the real world, no one actually dies of old age. They die of things brought on by old age, such as weakening immune system, mineral build up in the brain, so on. That stuff you can fight with medicine. Some inexplicable death is not something you can fight with medicine.

2) I don't know, have you see hollow points? Even from a pistol, those things can blow massive wholes in an unarmored body, and just keeps going. Force = mass * acceleration. And penetration = force/(area of impact). Penetration is a function of the damage it does. When you've got a super sonic, tiny bullet, it's going to have an absolute metric ton more force than any sword. In fact, the point of sword fighting is to just get in small cuts, not massive blows, because that's all you need to disable someone, and massive attacks just leave you open to counters, and make your attack much easier to block/dodge.

But the writing on timeless body doesn't specify "When the monk has reached the maximum age listed for their species", it says "when her time is up". Which implies to me her maximum age doesn't change; meaning your maximum age wouldn't change either. You'd be able to live however long humans can live at a maximum; not in D&D, but in real life.

And, unless I'm mistaken, the stats in D20 modern aren't for hollow points, and hollow points most certainly do not "just keep going" (unless we're talking about ridiculously large rounds); that's why they're so effective. I'm not sure what the equations you've got there are for, since the formula for force only applies to the bullet as it's leaving the gun; I believe you wanted the equation for kinetic energy, or possibly momentum. The penetration formula I can guarantee is entirely wrong, or a gross oversimplification.

The bullet also will not have any more force than a sword because it doesn't have any force at all. Force is a measure of how much an object is being pushed or pulled, not how fast it's going, or the energy it carries.

And, whilesword fighting may have been about small cuts (I can't say for certain, so I'll give you this one), that's clearly not what is happening here, because the damage dealt is enough to critically injure somebody in one hit. Even if swordfighting is best done delivering small cuts, that is most certainly not all one can do with a sword, and it's not what's happening here. A sword that is swung properly can deal far more damage to an unarmoured opponent than a standard 9mm pistol could.

TheIronGolem

2015-09-23, 04:03 PM

Disease immunity would be neat, but that's the mini-van of choices. Sure it is probably the most useful, but where is the STYLE?

I'm sorry, I couldn't hear your question over the roar of the wind, having jumped out of a plane in my perfectly healthy 95-year-old body for some sweet skyboarding action. Something about style, was it?

zergling.exe

2015-09-23, 04:47 PM

Segev

2015-09-23, 04:48 PM

Unfortunately ToSM would not work through electronics. You can only speak with living creatures, so no prerecorded messages.

Hm. That does make it far less interesting.

SangoProduction

2015-09-23, 04:57 PM

But the writing on timeless body doesn't specify "When the monk has reached the maximum age listed for their species", it says "when her time is up". Which implies to me her maximum age doesn't change; meaning your maximum age wouldn't change either. You'd be able to live however long humans can live at a maximum; not in D&D, but in real life.

And, unless I'm mistaken, the stats in D20 modern aren't for hollow points, and hollow points most certainly do not "just keep going" (unless we're talking about ridiculously large rounds); that's why they're so effective. I'm not sure what the equations you've got there are for, since the formula for force only applies to the bullet as it's leaving the gun; I believe you wanted the equation for kinetic energy, or possibly momentum. The penetration formula I can guarantee is entirely wrong, or a gross oversimplification.

The bullet also will not have any more force than a sword because it doesn't have any force at all. Force is a measure of how much an object is being pushed or pulled, not how fast it's going, or the energy it carries.

And, while sword fighting may have been about small cuts (I can't say for certain, so I'll give you this one), that's clearly not what is happening here, because the damage dealt is enough to critically injure somebody in one hit. Even if swordfighting is best done delivering small cuts, that is most certainly not all one can do with a sword, and it's not what's happening here. A sword that is swung properly can deal far more damage to an unarmoured opponent than a standard 9mm pistol could.

"When her time is up." That means there's a determined time, or it's as though something is doing a simulation of what would happen if you were such and such age, and if that would cause you to be dead, but not showing it on the output, until you were dead in the simulation.
Perhaps it uses medicine in the simulation, perhaps not, it does not say. If lucky, it does. If not, well, let's hope "your time" is well off, as there are no given ways to influence your time within the ability.
Perhaps it even might ignore wealth, so it assumes you got the best medicine possible.
Simply put: There's not enough information, but taking a gamble like this does seem kinda silly.

Force imparted on the thing that's trying to stop it, I perhaps should have made clear. If you hit something, you are transferring the momentum you had into the thing that is being hit. Guess what? When something impacts with something else, it's going to try and pull that something else with it, this is acceleration caused by the impact. How long does it take for the bullet to transfer its energy? How long does it take the sword to transfer its energy? [I'll let you come to your own conclusions.]
And yes, it's a simplification, but it is 100% correct. The smaller you make the surface area, the less force you need to punch through something. This is why knives need to be sharpened, because the edge of the knife bends in different directions, (not the correct terminology, not the point) increasing the area of the blade - increasing the amount of "stuff" it has to displace to have cut through something. Sharpening realigns the edge so that it's (mostly) pointing in just one direction)

"sword that is swung properly can deal far more damage to an unarmoured opponent than a standard 9mm pistol could."
No. It simply wouldn't. At best (if they were helpless, and you put your entire body in to it, you avoided the skeletal structure, and for kicks, let's say they are standing up, and giving you the perfect position to cut their stomach), you'd make a deep gash, maybe even cutting into vital organs. But a pistol can shatter bone. No swordsman outside of the movies will be able to do that. A pistol's shot will go right through a person. Armor was invented to prevent injuries on the battlefield, and it was pretty damn good at it. Guess what made armor obsolete? (Hint: it was the primitive versions of modern firearms.)

NeoPhoenix0

2015-09-23, 05:12 PM

Unfortunately ToSM would not work through electronics. You can only speak with living creatures, so no prerecorded messages nor synthesized ones.

1st stop trying to apply RAW to RL especially when there are no written mechanics for something, at least in 3.5 there aren't any for this.

2nd this is not necessarily true, they are speaking to a living creature only with the aid of a device. It doesn't put any hard limits on this. You voice is after all just synthesised by use of vocal cords and dedicated my your brain after the sound waves travel through the air.

3rd new rule, no bashing other people's ideas. This merely reduces people's creativity and is the worst side of humanity.

SangoProduction

2015-09-23, 05:17 PM

3rd new rule, no bashing other people's ideas. This merely reduces people's creativity and is the worst side of humanity.

No one's bashing anything. Merely looking for a discussion, far as I can tell. Now, if people just said "Yeah, you just suck", or "Your idea's bad and you should feel bad" then yeah.

NeoPhoenix0

2015-09-23, 05:20 PM

No one's bashing anything. Merely looking for a discussion, far as I can tell. Now, if people just said "Yeah, you just suck", or "Your idea's bad and you should feel bad" then yeah.

That last bit is mainly there to deter things from deteriorating. I have seen how these threads can go south fast so that is their to make people think, is there comment critical or just negative.

SangoProduction

2015-09-23, 05:23 PM

That last bit is mainly there to deter things from deteriorating. I have seen how these threads can go south fast so that is their to make people think, is there comment critical or just negative.

Ah yeah. I guess.

MorgromTheOrc

2015-09-23, 05:32 PM

"When her time is up." That means there's a determined time, or it's as though something is doing a simulation of what would happen if you were such and such age, and if that would cause you to be dead, but not showing it on the output, until you were dead in the simulation.
Perhaps it uses medicine in the simulation, perhaps not, it does not say. If lucky, it does. If not, well, let's hope "your time" is well off, as there are no given ways to influence your time within the ability.
Perhaps it even might ignore wealth, so it assumes you got the best medicine possible.
Simply put: There's not enough information, but taking a gamble like this does seem kinda silly.

Force imparted on the thing that's trying to stop it, I perhaps should have made clear. If you hit something, you are transferring the momentum you had into the thing that is being hit. Guess what? When something impacts with something else, it's going to try and pull that something else with it, this is acceleration caused by the impact. How long does it take for the bullet to transfer its energy? How long does it take the sword to transfer its energy? [I'll let you come to your own conclusions.]
And yes, it's a simplification, but it is 100% correct. The smaller you make the surface area, the less force you need to punch through something. This is why knives need to be sharpened, because the edge of the knife bends in different directions, (not the correct terminology, not the point) increasing the area of the blade - increasing the amount of "stuff" it has to displace to have cut through something. Sharpening realigns the edge so that it's (mostly) pointing in just one direction)

"sword that is swung properly can deal far more damage to an unarmoured opponent than a standard 9mm pistol could."
No. It simply wouldn't. At best (if they were helpless, and you put your entire body in to it, you avoided the skeletal structure, and for kicks, let's say they are standing up, and giving you the perfect position to cut their stomach), you'd make a deep gash, maybe even cutting into vital organs. But a pistol can shatter bone. No swordsman outside of the movies will be able to do that. A pistol's shot will go right through a person. Armor was invented to prevent injuries on the battlefield, and it was pretty damn good at it. Guess what made armor obsolete? (Hint: it was the primitive versions of modern firearms.)

Well given that you die from diseases that your body is too weak to defend against when you die of old age, I'd say it reasonable to say that immunity to disease would give you immortality. Especially since you could make a case for aging being a disease(the weakening of the body over time due to slowed replication of cells) and then it's as good as both of them.

As far as swords versus guns... Well I don't think force really factors into this, the problem is that because bullets are so small their overall damage done to the body is lower in absence of hits to organs or large bones(a crit) but I don't like guns being compared to normal weapons anyways. I'd stat them better as a ranged touch attack that inflicts some kind of bleeding damage and has weapon-like properties of 16-20 critx4. The damage dice would depend on the bullet. But for sake of the argument it'd be better to assume d&d rules when the ability interacts with them, like trust d&d on the damage of things when you get the DR, and then use real life physics when the rules don't directly interact with the ability you choose, such as max age not mattering with disease immunity since it doesn't directly deal with it.

Curmudgeon

2015-09-23, 05:41 PM

"Slow fall any distance" would make me eager to climb some serious mountains. North face of the Eiger, without ropes! Plus BASE jumping, with no parachute needed!

SangoProduction

2015-09-23, 05:42 PM

Well given that you die from diseases that your body is too weak to defend against when you die of old age, I'd say it reasonable to say that immunity to disease would give you immortality. Especially since you could make a case for aging being a disease(the weakening of the body over time due to slowed replication of cells) and then it's as good as both of them.

As far as swords versus guns... Well I don't think force really factors into this, the problem is that because bullets are so small their overall damage done to the body is lower in absence of hits to organs or large bones(a crit) but I don't like guns being compared to normal weapons anyways. I'd stat them better as a ranged touch attack that inflicts some kind of bleeding damage and has weapon-like properties of 16-20 critx4. The damage dice would depend on the bullet. But for sake of the argument it'd be better to assume d&d rules when the ability interacts with them, like trust d&d on the damage of things when you get the DR, and then use real life physics when the rules don't directly interact with the ability you choose, such as max age not mattering with disease immunity since it doesn't directly deal with it.

Yeah. Basically. That's why I said depending on the definition of "disease", it's the clear winner, or just a pretty good life improver. Since the only times the D&D refers to a disease is when it involves magic, or some nasty bug, I would say that it probably doesn't expand to all of the myriad of "diseases" that we have. Especially as, excluding all other factors, it doesn't change your weight, or remove age penalties. (So, age, and it's abstractions are not a disease, and being overweight is not a disease.)

Shoat

2015-09-23, 05:45 PM

Probably timeless body or perfect self due to their obvious real-life advantages. I am already in bad enough health due to genetics and low-wealth lifestyle and I can't imagine how **** it'd be to fall apart from old age on top of it (also, while timeless body obviously does not grant immortality, not being negatively affected by old age probably noticeably increases life expectancy aswell).

Abundant step (or any d&d ability that grants teleportation) would be both useful and a lot of fun aswell (though 1/day is a harsh limit), I guess, but in the non-combat non-action non-adventure real-life scenario, agelessnes (or whatever being a magical non-human outsider creature would do in the real world, which I'm honestly very curious about) is probably just better. Especially if we consider the "as soon as someone notices you're supernatural, prepare to be hunted, imprisoned and tortured by the U.S. army" deal we know from fictional works.

Rubik

2015-09-23, 05:50 PM

SangoProduction

2015-09-23, 05:54 PM

Strigon

2015-09-23, 06:22 PM

Force imparted on the thing that's trying to stop it, I perhaps should have made clear. If you hit something, you are transferring the momentum you had into the thing that is being hit. Guess what? When something impacts with something else, it's going to try and pull that something else with it, this is acceleration caused by the impact. How long does it take for the bullet to transfer its energy? How long does it take the sword to transfer its energy? [I'll let you come to your own conclusions.]
And yes, it's a simplification, but it is 100% correct. The smaller you make the surface area, the less force you need to punch through something. This is why knives need to be sharpened, because the edge of the knife bends in different directions, (not the correct terminology, not the point) increasing the area of the blade - increasing the amount of "stuff" it has to displace to have cut through something. Sharpening realigns the edge so that it's (mostly) pointing in just one direction)

"sword that is swung properly can deal far more damage to an unarmoured opponent than a standard 9mm pistol could."
No. It simply wouldn't. At best (if they were helpless, and you put your entire body in to it, you avoided the skeletal structure, and for kicks, let's say they are standing up, and giving you the perfect position to cut their stomach), you'd make a deep gash, maybe even cutting into vital organs. But a pistol can shatter bone. No swordsman outside of the movies will be able to do that. A pistol's shot will go right through a person. Armor was invented to prevent injuries on the battlefield, and it was pretty damn good at it. Guess what made armor obsolete? (Hint: it was the primitive versions of modern firearms.)

Point one: Momentum transfer != damage. Punching a hole in someone is only as effective as the area you're trying to hit. Yes, firearms made armour obsolete; that was part of my first comment on why pistols are better, but armour penetration also != damage. Damage is difficult to abstract, but if we're simply going by tissue trauma, swords cause it on a much larger scale. Since the only way to determine damage is what used to be where your weapon is now, swords are, by default, much more damaging.

Point two: Swords, when swung with great force, will have more momentum and energy than a bullet, so they will do more damage by your logic, too.

A 9mm bullet has a mass of 7.5 grams, and travels at ~365 m/s.
Energy = 1/2 mv2, or almost exactly half of a kiloJoule.
Momentum is just mass * velocity. It would thus have 27.4 kg m/s of momentum.

A standard medieval sword would have a mass of ~1 kg, and a baseball bat would as well. A baseball bat can be swung at 80 MPH, or 35.7 m/s, so I'm going to assume a strong blow from a sword would be moving at the same speed.
This gives us 1/2 * 1 * 35.72, or 0.637 kilojoules.
It also gives us 35.7 km m/s of momentum, which is quite easy to calculate, given the sword has a mass of 1 kg.

All of these facts can be found quite readily, if you don't believe me.

SangoProduction

2015-09-23, 06:36 PM

Instead of debating that, here's a thread that talked about sword speeds. http://hemaalliance.com/discussion/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=2967&sid=d8c358485749b703022cfe86b420c5a7 [and people also brought up the subject of baseball bats at 80 mph as well. Meanwhile the video only showed no more than 40 mph, and was fairly optimal, in that they got to put their entire body in to it, caring nothing for defense or form. So, you can halve the estimate right there.]

As damage is little more than an abstraction, and we clearly see different things, there is little point to continuing this talk.

PaucaTerrorem

2015-09-23, 08:45 PM

Rubik

2015-09-23, 08:49 PM

I can pull trays straight out of the oven.And take fire damage. DR does nothing for burns.

Remember my suggestion on taking a level 20 monk's hp? That would help with the burns. What would have been 2nd or even 3rd degree burns might make your skin a bit red. Maybe.

zergling.exe

2015-09-23, 08:59 PM

And take fire damage. DR does nothing for burns.

Remember my suggestion on taking a level 20 monk's hp? That would help with the burns. What would have been 2nd or even 3rd degree burns might make your skin a bit red. Maybe.

But that would not protect your hands from the knife cuts. And getting blood in the food is a terrible idea. Even in the name of expedience or that it will be "sterilized" by the temperature.

Troacctid

2015-09-23, 09:49 PM

Dimension Door: Instant teleporation up to 400 feet (assuming level 0), or 1200 feet (assuming level 20), that only takes 3-4 seconds to cast? And assuming 10 ki points, that's usable 5 times per day. I'm down for that. Screw cars or bikes, or even walking. Just teleport to work and school and back. You can even teleport to and from lunch, if you feel like it.
That'll work as long as your commute is no farther than about half a mile away (about 10 minutes at a leisurely walk, or 3 minutes by bike). I'm not impressed.

Improved Movement: I'd say it's pretty nice. You can use it an infinite amount of times, and it increases your basic walking speed, which means when you walk some place, you are less likely to be sweaty when you show up (I'm assuming walking 160 ft with that speed is equivalent to the effort and time the average person takes to walk 30 ft). It still takes a bit more effort than teleportation, but there's less of a risk that you...well, teleport into a wall, and crush your ribs or whatever as you are shunted out.
Your walking speed is half your base speed, so with +60 feet of fast movement, you'd walk at 45 feet per round, triple the speed of a normal unencumbered human, roughly as fast as a bicycle. Your top speed at a full sprint would be about 56 mph (90 km/hr), enough to earn you a speeding ticket on most city streets.

You could be a renowned hit-man. Anyone you "accidentally" bump into will mysteriously die.. Whenever you want. Almost impossible to trace.
Or something I don't know.
How are you advertising your services and collecting your money? That seems traceable. Especially since you don't have any way to apply the initial punch undetected--you might not be on the hook for murder, but if you're facing an assault and battery charge, you're not exactly scot-free. Also, you'd still need to get close to your target and successfully hit them with an unarmed strike. Even if it's a sucker-punch, it's far from foolproof--try getting within 5 feet of a major political figure and see how well that works out. And there's a saving throw, too, so it's not exactly foolproof.

Flickerdart

2015-09-23, 11:05 PM

Your walking speed is half your base speed
No it isn't. A walk is moving up to your speed in a single round (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/movement.htm#tableMovementAndDistance) (as opposed to a hustle, which is using both a move and standard action every round). This matches with the average walking speed of a human (5 feet per second, roughly).

SangoProduction

2015-09-23, 11:20 PM

No it isn't. A walk is moving up to your speed in a single round (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/movement.htm#tableMovementAndDistance) (as opposed to a hustle, which is using both a move and standard action every round). This matches with the average walking speed of a human (5 feet per second, roughly).

Ah, really? Well, then for an average human it would only take 4 minutes to walk 1200 feet (would take me 10, but that's a different point entirely). Hmm, I have no sense of scale for distance. Yeah, in that case, improving my horrific ground speed to something remarkable would be quite a bit more useful, most of the time.

Still...my life of crime...hmmm..... ;) Also, 8 minutes worth of walking in just 6-8 seconds is pretty decent. Meanwhile, it would take a someone who took the speed 3-4 minutes to complete the same thing, with the same effort of walking, but they don't have the versatility of ignoring elevators or stairs, or buildings.

So, if I had to pick right now, without knowing what the rest of my life would look like...yeah, I'd probably take the ground speed. It would be more reliable, even if it's not as versatile, or even as fast.

Hamste

2015-09-24, 06:34 AM

And take fire damage. DR does nothing for burns.

Remember my suggestion on taking a level 20 monk's hp? That would help with the burns. What would have been 2nd or even 3rd degree burns might make your skin a bit red. Maybe.

Do you get the increased healing as well for 20 hp a day or are we stuck at our normal hp regeneration rate?

Rubik

2015-09-24, 10:15 AM

Do you get the increased healing as well for 20 hp a day or are we stuck at our normal hp regeneration rate?Depends.

What level are you?

Hamste

2015-09-24, 10:39 AM

Depends.

What level are you?

Not sure, that is the problem of abstraction compared to real life. I guess statistically I'm probably the equivalent of a level 1 expert or commoner with some feats that help with knowledge ranks. Level 1 characters make up the majority of people according to the DMG right? Of course that also means there are a ton of people who would be level 20 so that seems unlikely.

Rubik

2015-09-24, 10:59 AM

Not sure, that is the problem of abstraction compared to real life. I guess statistically I'm probably the equivalent of a level 1 expert or commoner with some feats that help with knowledge ranks. Level 1 characters make up the majority of people according to the DMG right? Of course that also means there are a ton of people who would be level 20 so that seems unlikely.Time to ask for the monk's 20 HD, then. That would take care of the problem altogether.

level 1 commonerNot unless you're a starving, almost completely uneducated serf. The fact that you can read and write puts paid to that idea.

Almost nobody in a 1st world country is a commoner; the ones who are basically slipped through the cracks and never even went to kindergarten.

Segev

2015-09-24, 11:16 AM

For anyone thinking about using their teleportation for bank robbing or whatever, there's always: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Million_Dollar_Paranormal_Challenge

Of course, then you'd be stuck in a lab for the next [insert the rest of your lifetime here].

Having read the wikipedia article, I have one question for that test: what qualifies as "paranormal?"

200 years ago, "I have a magic box which will allow me to transmit my voice across a great distance from arbitrary location to arbitrary location," would have seemed paranormal. Now, we call that "ham radio."

Heck, even recording technology would have been "paranormal" if you go back far enough.

If I claim to have telemechanics that allow me to operate any remote-controllable device, does that count? What if it's because I have neural interface technology implanted in my brain? (Certainly a worthy technological advance in its own right!)

If the Star Trek transporter were invented, would that be paranormal? Or would it not count?

I'm not saying the people running the test are being disingenuous, mind. I'm just wondering what their qualification is. That "yellow bamboo" thing... what if it HAD worked, but the knock-down effect was then scientiffically explained as being due to the man's whipping technique launching naturally-occurring microscopic darts which had a fast-acting but low-duration paralytic neurotoxin in them? Would that have counted?

Vhaidara

2015-09-24, 12:17 PM

The fact that you can read and write puts paid to that idea

Excuse me, but commoners are fully literate. All of them. What do you think they are, barbarians?

Rubik

2015-09-24, 12:25 PM

Excuse me, but commoners are fully literate. All of them. What do you think they are, barbarians?Silly Keledrath. You act like they're actual characters, rather than self-contained XP and crafting components.

Vhaidara

2015-09-24, 12:29 PM

Silly Keledrath. You act like they're actual characters, rather than self-contained XP and crafting components.

Of course they're more than that. I like to think of them as "Believers in training"

Hamste

2015-09-24, 12:31 PM

Time to ask for the monk's 20 HD, then. That would take care of the problem altogether.

Not unless you're a starving, almost completely uneducated serf. The fact that you can read and write puts paid to that idea.

Almost nobody in a 1st world country is a commoner; the ones who are basically slipped through the cracks and never even went to kindergarten.

In d&d commoners are literate I believe, they only are illiterate if they have a trait. What is more ignoring the fluff of a commoner and just looking at skills it is completely possible for a commoner to be educated but not be an expert, it just means they had more difficulty acquiring skill points than others. For example someone who focused their life to profession:Mathematician might not have any ranks in anything else or minimal other skills. That does not mean they are uneducated they are just mediocre at everything else. Similarly someone who never had an education could easily be an expert but it would most likely be in other skills like hide, sense motive or maybe profession skills they learned from others. Education will help make more experts but it is quite plausible for someone to still end up as a commoner if despite a good education and decent intelligence they still hold no interest or comprehension of what they are taught or they over focus on a particular subject to the expense of all others.

dascarletm

2015-09-24, 12:32 PM

How are you advertising your services and collecting your money? That seems traceable.
Well as I'm not an actual hit-man I'm not particularly well-versed in how one would do that... But I'm sure there are ways. :smalltongue:

Especially since you don't have any way to apply the initial punch undetected--you might not be on the hook for murder, but if you're facing an assault and battery charge, you're not exactly scot-free.
True... I forgot you actually need to make an unarmed strike to use this. But since I don't have the unarmed strike feature I could just give them a little "there ya go buddy" punch to the shoulder. I don't really do much damage anyway.

Also, you'd still need to get close to your target and successfully hit them with an unarmed strike. Even if it's a sucker-punch, it's far from foolproof--try getting within 5 feet of a major political figure and see how well that works out.
Well I mean, I imagine there are ways to get around that. A meet and greet with said figure while they are campaigning...
"Give me a high-five Mr. X!"
"Ha Ha look how in touch X is with the people giving out high-fives and stuff."
One week later...

And there's a saving throw, too, so it's not exactly foolproof.
Apparently we are treated as lvl 20 for the ability so I imagine they would need to roll pretty high. There is the base 5% chance though.... not terrible, but you are right totally not foolproof.

Now excuse my while the NSA busts through my window and arrests me for conspiracy or something:smalleek: