Fixing the Monk

[Moff Chumley]

I know: this has been done before. But, this is my first time homebrewing, so it seemed a good place to start.
I might do a table later, but for now I'll just list the changes I would make.

BAB: as Fighter
Skills: 6+Int per level
Decisive Strike as an attack option
Ki Strike: At fourth level, the monks fists become the equivelant of +1 weapons and are treated as such. This increases to +3 at tenth level and +5 at sixteenth.
Quivering Palm: Usable once per day.
Flurry of blows, Abundant Step, and Tongue of the Sun and Moon are out.

New Abilities: At fith level and every five levels thereafter, the monk can restore two uses of Stunning Fist. Finaly, as the expence of one Stunning fist use, the monk can cause one of the following effects:
-Blindness for 1d3 rounds
-Nasua for 1d6 rounds
-Fatigue (If used on a fatigued character, causes exaustion)
-Reduces speed by ten feet for 1d10 rounds
-Reduces a physical ability score by two for two rounds

Overpowered? Underpowered? Genericaly Lousy? Any critisms are welcomed.

[Skjaldbakka]

The most important thing to change with monks is skill points. They really need 6+int skill points to be able to do everything a monk should be able to do (crazy jumping, tumbling, running across rooftops, enlightenment, etc.).

[Moff Chumley]

I agree! I'll edit the opening post...
And btw, who exactly do you make tables?

[mabriss lethe]

<table>I|want|to|be|a
table|when|I |grow|up</table>

replace these "<" ">"
with these "[" "]"
and you get this:

{table]I|want|to|be|a
table|when|I |grow|up[/table]

[Hectonkhyres]

I would nix certain special abilities like quivering palm, dimension door, and whatnot alltogether... and fill any resulting weakness with a serious boost in fighting ability. A monk is supposed to hit things, dodge god himself, and play roadrunner up the goddamn walls.

He shouldn't be David Blaine.

[Arbitrarity]

I'll have my version posted in a bit. I think it's rather interesting.

:smallbiggrin:

[Xuincherguixe]

Well, I think the Monk really needs some more options. But for what it's supposed to be...

BAB/Flurry. I think the reason the Monk has a BAB of 3/4 rather then 4/4, is that wizards felt that many attacks, and at full BAB would be too much. But, in a game where you don't encounter many situations where enemies have low armor class the Monk isn't going to fare well. Possible options? Drop Flurry altogether, or when using flurry, drop BAB by 5 (or something to that affect). Later option is pretty cruel to the Fighter, but hey he's used to it by now.

Skill Points: Really doesn't get enough of them.

Monk Weapons: Martial Arts are full of weapons. Which is kind of why I think that Fighters and Monks could probably be one class. Apparently that's Sword Sage though (I think I may have to give that book a look). I also think that certain weapons should be able to be used to greater affects, but it may be this is better served with prestige classes. That being said, it's probably reasonable to keep things as is.

Alignment: There are already many threads on this

Hit Dice: d8s are probably fine.

Multiclassing: Shouldn't be restricted. Maybe your temple/school doesn't appreciate you going back on hundreds of years of history and refuse to teach you any more techniques but that's a specific RP thing.

edit(David Blaine): These are reasonable powers for a Monk. But it shouldn't have been at the expense of fighting abilities. The same goes for the abilities of questionable worth. Variants and Prestige Classes should cover 'weird powers'.

[eilandesq]

My God, aren't monks weak enough without keeping them from reproducing? :eek:

Sorry--after Roy's indignity in #477 that had to be said.

[Chronos]

One thing that would help would be to let monks use Dex instead of Strength for unarmed attack and damage rolls. The whole point of trained martial arts as opposed to untrained brawling is that you don't have to be strong to use them well, just quick. And it would reduce the number of high ability scores that a monk needs.

[Damionte]

Some of your changes don't make sense. do you mind working the fix with the 3.5 version of the monk, rather than the 3.0 version.

[Xuincherguixe]

Also, I just noticed the Ki Blast.

I know the address of a Dragon Ball Z MUSH, It's one of the few things DBZ that I'm not completely ashamed to be associated with in any way shape or form.

But let's not start blasting dragons with Kamehameha waves in D&D :P

[Moff Chumley]

Also, I just noticed the Ki Blast.

I know the address of a Dragon Ball Z MUSH, It's one of the few things DBZ that I'm not completely ashamed to be associated with in any way shape or form.

But let's not start blasting dragons with Kamehameha waves in D&D :P

Agghh!:smallfurious: Computer Crashed! All I have to say is this: Flurry of Blows out, Abundant Step out, Ki Blast out, Tongue of the Sun and Moon out, Decisive Strike in, Quivering Palm in, Martial Weapon Proficiencey in. Add Wis to attack bonus and dammage. Any comments on the stunning fist stuff?

[Hectonkhyres]

1) I personally dislike how stunning fist is something of a one shot deal. Even though you can use it a couple of times a day, you can only use it once per round. I would rather exchange this feat for a slightly weaker one that can be used again and again.

2) The whole shebang for grapple needs to be reworked. It just does. If someone truely fixed that, monks could do some truely glorious things. Like the Drunken Master using a live dwarf as an improvised weapon. Or throwing goblins at each other. And now I am trying to figure out how you would handle punting goblins...

[TempusCCK]

I believe that stunning fist, flavor wise anyway, should be more like a called shot, because you are hitting them physically in a way that disorients them. So maybe, you'd have to increase the AC on a stunning fist somehow, to reflect the difficulty in hitting that one particular spot.

Or perhaps, you can only use a stunning fist strike when certain other requirements are met, such as when you've just successfully won a grapple, you can take an attack of opportunity to strike them in a disorienting way with an increase to the AC.

[Xuincherguixe]

Agghh!:smallfurious: Computer Crashed! All I have to say is this: Flurry of Blows out, Abundant Step out, Ki Blast out, Tongue of the Sun and Moon out, Decisive Strike in, Quivering Palm in, Martial Weapon Proficiencey in. Add Wis to attack bonus and dammage. Any comments on the stunning fist stuff?


Well, as is it makes the Monk a little boring. But I don't have a terrible amount of a problem with it. I also don't really like the idea of anything adding damage that isn't strength. Maybe if it was a number of times per day, add wisdom to damage (stacking with strength may not be bad either actually).

No problems with Quivering Palm, Martial Weapons, or Decisive Strike.

[PirateMonk]

<table>I|want|to|be|a
table|when|I |grow|up</table>

replace these "<" ">"
with these "[" "]"
and you get this:

{table]I|want|to|be|a
table|when|I |grow|up[/table]

Use noparse tags.

{table]I|want|to|be|a
table|when|I |grow|up[/table]

=

{table]I|want|to|be|a
table|when|I |grow|up[/table]

[Zeful]

I believe that stunning fist, flavor wise anyway, should be more like a called shot, because you are hitting them physically in a way that disorients them. So maybe, you'd have to increase the AC on a stunning fist somehow, to reflect the difficulty in hitting that one particular spot.

Or perhaps, you can only use a stunning fist strike when certain other requirements are met, such as when you've just successfully won a grapple, you can take an attack of opportunity to strike them in a disorienting way with an increase to the AC.

Except for the fact that fighting styles in real life, I think the shaolin monks maybe(?) are an example, are capable of hitting you without grappling in ways that stun, not long, but enough.

Maybe a weaker version of stuning fist that only allows a move-eqivilent action if it succeeds?

[Lord Iames Osari]

Here's my take on a Monk Fix (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35152&page=2#33). Enjoy.

[Hectonkhyres]

Meh. A lot of this is just oversimplification of game mechanics. In reality, damn near any damage you take makes you fight worse. Even a rather light strike to the stomach, head, or genitals will cripple you for the rest of the fight. And a minor flesh wound will at least distract most opponents, making them easier to hit and making it harder for them to hit you.

But that is real life and that sort of detail just would be to hard to keep track of in d&d format... just too tedious. On top of that, who wants to see the BBEG lose the fight because the party dwarf scored a lucky headbutt to his groin? Ok... bad example. Who wants to see their party meatsheild go down due to a goblin getting him in the groin with a pointy stick for 1 hp damage? It would suck beyond measure.


It would be nice, however, for a monk to get some additional help at hitting delicate parts. Making him the god of the called shot sounds like a good deal to me.