Roderick_BR
2007-06-01, 07:16 AM
Based on some ideas in the forum (I'm looking for the original threads so I can credit them)
Okay, what's the monk purpose? To play DragonBall Z in D&D. Pretty much that.
While the fighter is an armored combat expert (or was supposed to), the monk is a unarmed combat expert.
But while a fighter, at least at lower levels, can be usesul. a monk can survive, and nothing else.
Advanges:
1) Flurry of blows
2) No need for weapon or armor
3) High movement
4) High savings
5) Special resistances
6) Special powers.
Flaws:
1) Flurry and high movement can't be used together
2) Due to MAD, it's hard to keep a good defense and a good offense. A fighter just need a high strenght, and get magical weapon and armor
3) Most abilities are just for fluffy. They are not useful and suck terribly. Talk any language? Slow fall (and only nearby walls)? Etheral Jaunt once a day? You can do a death effect!... once a WEEK! XD
Here is the basic table I cooked up:
Revised Monk
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Flurry of Blows|Unarmed Damage|Ki Strike|Unarmed adaptability
1|+1|Basic Flurry|1d6||1 handed weapon
2|+2||1d6||
3|+3||1d6|Magic|2 handed weapon
4|+4|Precise Flurry|1d6||
5|+5||1d6||
6|+6/+1||1d8||Tripping
7|+7/+2||1d8|Silver|
8|+8/+3|Improved Flurry|1d8||
9|+9/+4||1d8||Grappling
10|+10/+5||1d8||
11|+11/+6/+1||1d10|Cold Iron|
12|+12/+7/+2|Accurate Flurry|1d10||Disarming
13|+13/+8/+3||1d10||
14|+14/+9/+4||1d10||
15|+15/+10/+5||1d10|Lawful|Counter Charge
16|+16/+11/+6/+1|Greater Flurry|1d12||
17|+17/+12/+7/+2||1d12||
18|+18/+13/+8/+3||1d12||Reach
19|+19/+14/+9/+4||1d12|Adamantine|
20|+20/+15/+10/+5||1d12||
[/table]
And this is how the Flurry would look for a full monk.
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Flurry of Blows|Modified Attack
1|+1|Basic Flurry|-1/-1
2|+2||+0/+0
3|+3||+1/+1
4|+4|Precise Flurry|+3/+3
5|+5||+4/+4
6|+6/+1||+5/+5/+0
7|+7/+2||+6/+6/+1
8|+8/+3|Improved Flurry|+7/+7/+2/+2
9|+9/+4||+8/+8/+3/+3
10|+10/+5||+9/+9/+4/+4
11|+11/+6/+1||+10/+10/+5/+5/+0/
12|+12/+7/+2|Accurate Flurry|+12/+12/+7/+7/+2
13|+13/+8/+3||+13/+13/+8/+8/+3
14|+14/+9/+4||+14/+14/+9/+9/+4
15|+15/+10/+5||+15/+15/+10/+10/+5
16|+16/+11/+6/+1|Greater Flurry|+16/+16/+11/+11/+6/+6/+1
17|+17/+12/+7/+2||+17/+17/+12/+12/+7/+7/+2
18|+18/+13/+8/+3||+18/+18/+13/+13/+8/+8/+3
19|+19/+14/+9/+4||+19/+19/+14/+14/+9/+9/+4
20|+20/+15/+10/+5||+20/+20/+15/+15/+10/+10/+5
[/table]
If you multiclass, you get the normal multiclass BAB, and applies the Flurries you got. For example, if you are a monk 10/cleric 10, your BAB will be +15/+10/+5, and will have Basic Flurry, Precise Flurry, and Improved Flurry, being able to flurry with 2 extra attacks, with a -1 penalty to your attacks.
Changes:
Base Attack Bonus: First thing you'll notice: A higher BAB. WIth a full progression, monks can actually hit monsters in meelee. They got one more attack/round, and won't need an amulet to get that +5 they needed before to get near a +20
Flurry: The monk's key ability: Basically, they work like TWF, with a basic, improved, and greater version. I made it because with a greater BAB, and adding a 3rd extra attack (Flurry usually adds only 2 attacks), it would be umbalanced if combined with actual TWF, so they won't stack. Flurry is a unarmed/monk weapon only TWF. There's also the abilities that reduces the attack penalties. At 20th level, they'll be hitting with +20/+20/+15/+15/+10/+10/+5. Better than +15/+15/+15/+10/+5.
Special: When you are fully unarmed, you flurry as normal. When you use two monk weapons, or a dual monk weapon, you TWFights as normal. If you attack with only one monk weapon, half your attacks will be unarmed, and half will be with the weapon. You decide which one will be the "main" and which one will be the "secondary".
Damage: Since monks can flurry better than TWF fighters and rangers, I nerfed the damage. It means that a monk is a machine gun of punches, while fighters and barbarians deals the heavy damage, and rangers are skill-monkey warriors. Remember that at level 20, monks have practically a greataxe in each hand. They still have low critical hits (only 20/x2), so they won't over shadow the others meelers.
Ki Strike: Monks have problems to overcome some DR, and since I nerfed his damage, I updated the Ki Strike. At higher levels, the monk's hands counts as special materials, alongside adamantine, for damage reduction purposes.
Unarmed adaptability: The final change, and this one may get confusing: Since monks won't be damage dealers, it makes sense that they get better combat options. These are the changes:
* 1 handed weapon: Monk's unarmed strikes counts as 1 handed weapons when it benefits them, instead of unarmed/light weapons, like determining strenght bonus to damage (full strenght bonus, instead of 1/2), or using power attack. They still count as unarmed/light for others benefits (like using Weapon Finesse). This is the original rule. This applies normally during the use of others abilities (except 2HW) and flurries.
* 2 handed weapon: At level 3, Monk's unarmed strikes counts as 2 handed weapons when it benefits them, instead of unarmed/light weapons, like determining strenght bonus to damage (x1.5 times the strenght bonus), using power attack (getting +2 to damage for each -1 to roll), or sundering/disarming others weapons. They still count as unarmed/light or 1-handed weapons for others benefits (like using Weapon Finesse). They can't use this ability when flurring or using others abilities (they use the 1HW ability when not using the 2HW ability)
* Tripping: Monk's unarmed attacks gives him a +2 bonus to tripping checks as a tripping weapon.
* Grappling: Monk's unarmed attacks gives him a +2 bonus to grapple checks as a grappling weapon.
* Disarming: Monk's unarmed attacks gives him a +2 bonus to disarm checks as a disarming weapon.
* Counter Charge: Monk's unarmed attacks gives deals twice the damage when he's ready to counter a charge, like lances do, with tripple damage on critical hits.
* Reach: Monk's unarmed attacks can reach one square (5 feet) beyond his normal reach.
A monk can't combine these abilities. He can't combine 2HW with Tripping, for example. 1HW ability is always active with the others abilities, except 2HW.
Other than 1HW, you can't use these abilities in a flurry, as well.
You can activate a ability once each round as a free action, and it affects all your attacks that round, including your attacks of oportunities. If you have only 1HW ability active, you can change it to other ability as a free action when you get an attack of oportunity. The change will affect your attacks of oportunities untill your next turn. Reverting back to 1HW can be used only in your turn and doesn't "spend" your ability change for that round.
And as an extra, I'd make bow and long bow (but not composite versions) be available for monks (but not as monk weapons). Quarterstaff can count as monk weapons too, so he can flurry with it.
I didn't work on the rest of the abilities, but I'm likely to keep the AC bonus and Saves as it is.
With these changes, monks will be dealing less damage, but will hit more times, will be able to overcome DR easier, and will have weapon abilities they lacked.
For feats, I have the following:
Two Weapon Fighting: As I said, it won't stack with Flurry, but flurry can be used only with unarmed attacks and monk weapons.
Two Weapon Defense, Two Weapon Rend, Two Weapon Pounce/Dual Strike: For purpose of qualifying for these feats, each version of flurry counts as the same version of TWF. A monk with Improved Flurry can buy TWD and Improved TWD, for example. He won't be able to use these feats with normal TWF unless he gets these feats though. For example, a monk with Flurry and Two Weapon Defense gains a +1 shield bonus when flurrying unarmed or using two kamas, but won't get these bonus if he replaces one of the kamas for a long sword (even if he's proficient with it). If he later gets TWF, he gets the TWD benefits as normal.
Perfect Two Weapon Fighting(Epic): Monks will have access to the Perfect Flurry feat at epic level. Do the same as Perfect TWF: Allows a 4th attack with his "off hand" attack.
Itens:
As I said, a monk won't need an amulet of mighty fists, although he could still get it. But he's better off picking an amulet of natural armor. As was suggested also, the pendant of wisdom will be turned into a headband, to free up space (this will also benefit divine spellcasters).
Weapons: At lower level, monks may need them to get special abilities (tripping, disarming). At higher levels, he can use them to get magic effects (enhancement bonus, special weapon effects). Since his unarmed damage was reduced, he won't lose much switching for these.
An interesting item (I don't remember the book. DMG2, Book of Miniatures, or BoED, or something) has a magic bracelet, that would give magic bonuses to unarmed strikes, and enable the striker with any magical effect he wants to add (flamming, impact, etc). These could be worked on those weird gloves Ryu uses in Street Fighter, as someone else here suggested, and freeing the arms to bracers of armor. They are costly, tough, as you need to always pay for a pair.
So, that's it for unarmed strikes. I tried to make it less sucky without making it more powerful than a fighter/ranger.
I'm aware it may be confusing, so I'll try to add some examples:
Round 1: A monk starts his turn with a charge, so he uses his 2HW ability and power attacks the enemy. Another enemy gives him an AoO, and he attacks with this ability still.
Round 2: He switches to disarming, adding a +2 to his disarm attempt to pull a weapon off an enemie's hands.
Round 3: He switches back to 1HW, and flurries, attacking 7 times. After that, someone tries to sneak by him. He gains an AoO, and swicthes his ability to tripping, and gains a +2 to trip the opponent.
Round 4: He picks up a +5 kama, and switchs his ability to counter charge, and prepares to receive a charge (readies). He gets his AoO, dealing twice his unarmed damage to the charger. If he have Dual Strike, he has one free attack with his kama.
Round 5: He switches his ability to 2HW again, and flurries, his 4 normal attacks unarmed, his 3 extra attacks with his kama.
As usual, your thoughts, suggestions, and criticisms are welcome.
Note, these changes doesn't take in account the others homebrewed feat changes, like the TWF changes.
Okay, what's the monk purpose? To play DragonBall Z in D&D. Pretty much that.
While the fighter is an armored combat expert (or was supposed to), the monk is a unarmed combat expert.
But while a fighter, at least at lower levels, can be usesul. a monk can survive, and nothing else.
Advanges:
1) Flurry of blows
2) No need for weapon or armor
3) High movement
4) High savings
5) Special resistances
6) Special powers.
Flaws:
1) Flurry and high movement can't be used together
2) Due to MAD, it's hard to keep a good defense and a good offense. A fighter just need a high strenght, and get magical weapon and armor
3) Most abilities are just for fluffy. They are not useful and suck terribly. Talk any language? Slow fall (and only nearby walls)? Etheral Jaunt once a day? You can do a death effect!... once a WEEK! XD
Here is the basic table I cooked up:
Revised Monk
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Flurry of Blows|Unarmed Damage|Ki Strike|Unarmed adaptability
1|+1|Basic Flurry|1d6||1 handed weapon
2|+2||1d6||
3|+3||1d6|Magic|2 handed weapon
4|+4|Precise Flurry|1d6||
5|+5||1d6||
6|+6/+1||1d8||Tripping
7|+7/+2||1d8|Silver|
8|+8/+3|Improved Flurry|1d8||
9|+9/+4||1d8||Grappling
10|+10/+5||1d8||
11|+11/+6/+1||1d10|Cold Iron|
12|+12/+7/+2|Accurate Flurry|1d10||Disarming
13|+13/+8/+3||1d10||
14|+14/+9/+4||1d10||
15|+15/+10/+5||1d10|Lawful|Counter Charge
16|+16/+11/+6/+1|Greater Flurry|1d12||
17|+17/+12/+7/+2||1d12||
18|+18/+13/+8/+3||1d12||Reach
19|+19/+14/+9/+4||1d12|Adamantine|
20|+20/+15/+10/+5||1d12||
[/table]
And this is how the Flurry would look for a full monk.
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Flurry of Blows|Modified Attack
1|+1|Basic Flurry|-1/-1
2|+2||+0/+0
3|+3||+1/+1
4|+4|Precise Flurry|+3/+3
5|+5||+4/+4
6|+6/+1||+5/+5/+0
7|+7/+2||+6/+6/+1
8|+8/+3|Improved Flurry|+7/+7/+2/+2
9|+9/+4||+8/+8/+3/+3
10|+10/+5||+9/+9/+4/+4
11|+11/+6/+1||+10/+10/+5/+5/+0/
12|+12/+7/+2|Accurate Flurry|+12/+12/+7/+7/+2
13|+13/+8/+3||+13/+13/+8/+8/+3
14|+14/+9/+4||+14/+14/+9/+9/+4
15|+15/+10/+5||+15/+15/+10/+10/+5
16|+16/+11/+6/+1|Greater Flurry|+16/+16/+11/+11/+6/+6/+1
17|+17/+12/+7/+2||+17/+17/+12/+12/+7/+7/+2
18|+18/+13/+8/+3||+18/+18/+13/+13/+8/+8/+3
19|+19/+14/+9/+4||+19/+19/+14/+14/+9/+9/+4
20|+20/+15/+10/+5||+20/+20/+15/+15/+10/+10/+5
[/table]
If you multiclass, you get the normal multiclass BAB, and applies the Flurries you got. For example, if you are a monk 10/cleric 10, your BAB will be +15/+10/+5, and will have Basic Flurry, Precise Flurry, and Improved Flurry, being able to flurry with 2 extra attacks, with a -1 penalty to your attacks.
Changes:
Base Attack Bonus: First thing you'll notice: A higher BAB. WIth a full progression, monks can actually hit monsters in meelee. They got one more attack/round, and won't need an amulet to get that +5 they needed before to get near a +20
Flurry: The monk's key ability: Basically, they work like TWF, with a basic, improved, and greater version. I made it because with a greater BAB, and adding a 3rd extra attack (Flurry usually adds only 2 attacks), it would be umbalanced if combined with actual TWF, so they won't stack. Flurry is a unarmed/monk weapon only TWF. There's also the abilities that reduces the attack penalties. At 20th level, they'll be hitting with +20/+20/+15/+15/+10/+10/+5. Better than +15/+15/+15/+10/+5.
Special: When you are fully unarmed, you flurry as normal. When you use two monk weapons, or a dual monk weapon, you TWFights as normal. If you attack with only one monk weapon, half your attacks will be unarmed, and half will be with the weapon. You decide which one will be the "main" and which one will be the "secondary".
Damage: Since monks can flurry better than TWF fighters and rangers, I nerfed the damage. It means that a monk is a machine gun of punches, while fighters and barbarians deals the heavy damage, and rangers are skill-monkey warriors. Remember that at level 20, monks have practically a greataxe in each hand. They still have low critical hits (only 20/x2), so they won't over shadow the others meelers.
Ki Strike: Monks have problems to overcome some DR, and since I nerfed his damage, I updated the Ki Strike. At higher levels, the monk's hands counts as special materials, alongside adamantine, for damage reduction purposes.
Unarmed adaptability: The final change, and this one may get confusing: Since monks won't be damage dealers, it makes sense that they get better combat options. These are the changes:
* 1 handed weapon: Monk's unarmed strikes counts as 1 handed weapons when it benefits them, instead of unarmed/light weapons, like determining strenght bonus to damage (full strenght bonus, instead of 1/2), or using power attack. They still count as unarmed/light for others benefits (like using Weapon Finesse). This is the original rule. This applies normally during the use of others abilities (except 2HW) and flurries.
* 2 handed weapon: At level 3, Monk's unarmed strikes counts as 2 handed weapons when it benefits them, instead of unarmed/light weapons, like determining strenght bonus to damage (x1.5 times the strenght bonus), using power attack (getting +2 to damage for each -1 to roll), or sundering/disarming others weapons. They still count as unarmed/light or 1-handed weapons for others benefits (like using Weapon Finesse). They can't use this ability when flurring or using others abilities (they use the 1HW ability when not using the 2HW ability)
* Tripping: Monk's unarmed attacks gives him a +2 bonus to tripping checks as a tripping weapon.
* Grappling: Monk's unarmed attacks gives him a +2 bonus to grapple checks as a grappling weapon.
* Disarming: Monk's unarmed attacks gives him a +2 bonus to disarm checks as a disarming weapon.
* Counter Charge: Monk's unarmed attacks gives deals twice the damage when he's ready to counter a charge, like lances do, with tripple damage on critical hits.
* Reach: Monk's unarmed attacks can reach one square (5 feet) beyond his normal reach.
A monk can't combine these abilities. He can't combine 2HW with Tripping, for example. 1HW ability is always active with the others abilities, except 2HW.
Other than 1HW, you can't use these abilities in a flurry, as well.
You can activate a ability once each round as a free action, and it affects all your attacks that round, including your attacks of oportunities. If you have only 1HW ability active, you can change it to other ability as a free action when you get an attack of oportunity. The change will affect your attacks of oportunities untill your next turn. Reverting back to 1HW can be used only in your turn and doesn't "spend" your ability change for that round.
And as an extra, I'd make bow and long bow (but not composite versions) be available for monks (but not as monk weapons). Quarterstaff can count as monk weapons too, so he can flurry with it.
I didn't work on the rest of the abilities, but I'm likely to keep the AC bonus and Saves as it is.
With these changes, monks will be dealing less damage, but will hit more times, will be able to overcome DR easier, and will have weapon abilities they lacked.
For feats, I have the following:
Two Weapon Fighting: As I said, it won't stack with Flurry, but flurry can be used only with unarmed attacks and monk weapons.
Two Weapon Defense, Two Weapon Rend, Two Weapon Pounce/Dual Strike: For purpose of qualifying for these feats, each version of flurry counts as the same version of TWF. A monk with Improved Flurry can buy TWD and Improved TWD, for example. He won't be able to use these feats with normal TWF unless he gets these feats though. For example, a monk with Flurry and Two Weapon Defense gains a +1 shield bonus when flurrying unarmed or using two kamas, but won't get these bonus if he replaces one of the kamas for a long sword (even if he's proficient with it). If he later gets TWF, he gets the TWD benefits as normal.
Perfect Two Weapon Fighting(Epic): Monks will have access to the Perfect Flurry feat at epic level. Do the same as Perfect TWF: Allows a 4th attack with his "off hand" attack.
Itens:
As I said, a monk won't need an amulet of mighty fists, although he could still get it. But he's better off picking an amulet of natural armor. As was suggested also, the pendant of wisdom will be turned into a headband, to free up space (this will also benefit divine spellcasters).
Weapons: At lower level, monks may need them to get special abilities (tripping, disarming). At higher levels, he can use them to get magic effects (enhancement bonus, special weapon effects). Since his unarmed damage was reduced, he won't lose much switching for these.
An interesting item (I don't remember the book. DMG2, Book of Miniatures, or BoED, or something) has a magic bracelet, that would give magic bonuses to unarmed strikes, and enable the striker with any magical effect he wants to add (flamming, impact, etc). These could be worked on those weird gloves Ryu uses in Street Fighter, as someone else here suggested, and freeing the arms to bracers of armor. They are costly, tough, as you need to always pay for a pair.
So, that's it for unarmed strikes. I tried to make it less sucky without making it more powerful than a fighter/ranger.
I'm aware it may be confusing, so I'll try to add some examples:
Round 1: A monk starts his turn with a charge, so he uses his 2HW ability and power attacks the enemy. Another enemy gives him an AoO, and he attacks with this ability still.
Round 2: He switches to disarming, adding a +2 to his disarm attempt to pull a weapon off an enemie's hands.
Round 3: He switches back to 1HW, and flurries, attacking 7 times. After that, someone tries to sneak by him. He gains an AoO, and swicthes his ability to tripping, and gains a +2 to trip the opponent.
Round 4: He picks up a +5 kama, and switchs his ability to counter charge, and prepares to receive a charge (readies). He gets his AoO, dealing twice his unarmed damage to the charger. If he have Dual Strike, he has one free attack with his kama.
Round 5: He switches his ability to 2HW again, and flurries, his 4 normal attacks unarmed, his 3 extra attacks with his kama.
As usual, your thoughts, suggestions, and criticisms are welcome.
Note, these changes doesn't take in account the others homebrewed feat changes, like the TWF changes.