A homebrewed Monk

[13_CBS]

I'm working converting a fantasy setting that my friend made into D&D 3.5, and while I was doing so I was going through the Monk and tried to make it more streamlined.

Main goals are:

1) Make the Monk less MAD (Monk gets stuff that makes him much more dependent on WIS)

2) Give the Monk a use, mostly mobility and grappling (I'm also homebrewing a feat that adds a bonus based on WIS to grappling).

3) Try to make him a bit less reliant on items (especially ones that boost his AC).

So, the change log:

# of attacks as a fighter, with a few tweaks to BAB

Flurry of Blows = Standard action

Remove Still Mind, Ki Strike, wholeness of body, Abundant Step, Diamond Soul, Tongue of the sun and Moon, Empty Body, Perfect Self

Note changes to unarmed attack damage, AC bonuses

Bonus Feats: at Level 10, gets Grapple the Giant and Intuitive Leverage

At Level 14, gets Improved Grapple the Giant and Improved Intuitive Leverage

At Level 17, gets Limb Break

Quivering palm: 1/day rather than 1/week

New Monk Abilities:

Hardened Spirit (Ex): The Monk gets a bonus to his Natural Armor equal to his WIS bonus. At Level 4, he gets DR/- equal to his WIS bonus. At level 10, the Monk gets a bonus to his Natural Armor twice that of his WIS bonus. (Purpose: wean the Monk off of Magic Items)

Strength of Will (Ex): At level two, the Monk may add his WIS bonus to his attack roll instead of his STR bonus. At level 8, if the Monk must ever use its Strength bonus (to attack, to make a skill check, etc.), the Monk may instead use his Wisdom bonus. The latter bonus does not stack with the former bonus. (Purpose: make the Monk less MAD)

Mind over Body (Ex): At level three, the Monk may use his WIS bonus instead of his CON bonus to roll for HP. At level 13, if a Monk ever has to use its CON bonus (rolling HP, making Fort saves, Concentration checks, etc.), the Monk may instead use his WIS bonus. The latter bonus does not stack with the former bonus. (Purpose: make the Monk less MAD--too powerful?)

Precision Strikes (Ex): As a swift action 2/day, the Monk may cause all of his attacks to be touch attacks for one round. At level 8, this is increased to 3/day. At level 12, this is increased to 4/day. At Level 16, this is increased to 5/day. At level 20, all Monk attacks count as touch attacks. (Purpose: try to make up for the Monk's lack of BAB without totally replacing Fighters and such)

Burst of Speed (Ex): Activated as a swift action. 3/day, a Monk can take an extra Move action for round. A Monk can use this ability only once each encounter. (Purpose: increase the Monk's mobility)

Disruptive Shout (IGNORE THIS FOR NOW) (Ex): 2/day, A loud shout that disrupts. As a Swift action, the Monk may let out a great shout that does several things:

Brittle objects (glass, thin crystal, thin clay) in a 10 ft. radius are automatically shattered.

Any runes in the area stop working for 1 round. Runes made from brittle objects, as described above, are destroyed.

Anyone caught in the area of effect must make a DC (Monk class levels + Monk’s WIS bonus) Fort save or be stunned for 1 round. Those who make the save are dazed for 1 round instead.

Leaping Spirit (Ex): Add 3 times the Monk’s WIS bonus to his Jump checks. He can also leap 3 times his WIS bonus times 5 feet straight into the air without a Jump check if he runs at least 1⁄2 his full racial movement in a straight line. (Purpose: give the Monk a better chance at catching low-flying enemies)

Body of Denial (Ex): Monk can go for a month without food, a week without water, an hour without air without any will effects. Becomes immune to fatigue, exhaustion, ability damage/drain, gains DR/- 3 times his WIS bonus. (Purpose: capstone ability)



At the end, the Monk class looks like this:

13_CBS's Homebrewed Monk
{table=head]Level|Base Attack<br>Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special|Unarmed Damage|+0|Unarmored Speed Bonus

1st|
+0|
+2|
+2|
+2|Bonus feat, flurry of blows, unarmed strike, Hardened Spirit|
1d6|
+0|
+0 ft

2nd|
+1|
+3|
+3|
+2|Bonus Feat, evasion, Strength of Will|
1d6|
+0|
+0 ft

3rd|
+2|
+3|
+3|
+3|Still Mind, Mind over Body|
1d6|
+0|
+10 ft

4th|
+3|
+4|
+4|
+4|Precision Strike 2/day, Slow Fall|
1d8|
+1|
+10 ft

5th|
+3|
+4|
+4|
+4|Purity of Body|
1d8|
+1|
+10 ft

6th|
+4/-1|
+5|
+5|
+5|Bonus Feat, Slow Fall 30 ft.|
1d8|
+1|
+20 ft

7th|
+5/+0|
+5|
+5|
+5|Bonus Feat|
1d10|
+2|
+20 ft

8th|
+6/+1|
+6|
+6|
+6|Slow Fall 40ft., Precision Strike 3/day, Strength of Will|
1d10|
+2|
+20 ft

9th|
+6/+2|
+6|
+6|
+6|Improved Evasion|
1d10|
+2|
+30 ft

10th|
+7/+3|
+7|
+7|
+7|Slow Fall, 50ft., Bonus Feat, Hardened Spirit|
1d10|
+1|
+30 ft

11th|
+8/+4/-1|
+7|
+7|
+7|Diamond Body, Greater Flurry of Blows|
2d6|
+3|
+30 ft

12th|
+9/+4/+0|
+8|
+8|
+8|Burst of Speed, Precision Strike 4/day|
2d6|
+3|
+40 ft

13th|
+9/+5/+1|
+8|
+8|
+x|Disruptive Shout|
2d6|
+3|
+40 ft

14th|
+10/+6/+1|
+9|
+9|
+9|Slow Fall 70ft., Bonus Feat|
2d8|
+4|
+40 ft

15th|
+10/+6/+2|
+9|
+9|
+9|Quivering Palm 1/day|
2d8|
+4|
+50 ft

16th|
+12/+7/+3/-1|
+10|
+10|
+10|Precision Strike 5/day, Slow Fall 80ft. |
2d8|
+4|
+50 ft

17th|
+12/+8/+4/+0|
+10|
+10|
+10|Timeless Body, Bonus Feat|
2d10|
+4|
+50 ft

18th|
+13/+9/+5/+1|
+11|
+11|
+11|Slow Fall 90ft.|
2d10|
+5|
+60 ft

19th|
+14/+10/+6/+2|
+11|
+11|
+11|Leaping Spirit|
2d10|
+5|
+60 ft

20th|
+15/+11/+7/+3|
+12|
+12|
+12|Body of Denial, Slow Fall any distance, All Attacks are Precision Attacks|
3d10|
+5|
+60 ft[/table]


So, grossly overpowered? Good? Bad? Useful? Useless?

Please cut me some slack, this is my first time tweaking a base class like this and I have little experience with D&D.

[13_CBS]

And along with those, the new Feats:

Grapple the Giant [General]

Prerequisites: Improved Grapple,
Benefits: When grappling a foe larger than yourself, that opponent is considered to be one size category smaller for the purpose of grappling (it cannot be considered smaller than yourself).

Thus, a Medium creature with Grapple the Giant grappling a Huge creature will grapple that creature as though the Huge creature were Large. The Huge creature loses its normal bonuses due to its Huge size and gains the size bonuses of a Large creature instead.

Normal: The target of your grapple attempt grapples as a creature its size.

Intuitive Leverage [General]
Prerequisites: Improved Grapple, WIS 16
Benefits: Instead of your Strength bonus, you may add your WIS bonus to your grapple checks. If you already add your Wis bonus to grapple checks instead of your Str bonus, you gain an additional +4 to grapple checks.
Normal: You add your STR bonus to your grapple checks.
Special: A monk may select this feat as his 2nd-level bonus feat.

Improved Intuitive Leverage [General]
Prerequisites: Improved Grapple, Intuitive Leverage, Wis 16, BAB +5.
Benefits: As Intuitive Leverage, except that you may add your WIS bonus to your grapple checks in addition to your Strength bonus.
Special: A monk may select this feat as his 6th-level bonus feat.
Improved Intuitive Leverage [General]

Limb Break [General]
Prerequisites: Improved Grapple, BAB +12
Benefits: After successfully pinning an opponent, you may make an opposed grapple check. If you succeed, your opponent becomes sickened, and suffers one of the following additional effects:
Leg/Wing/Fin: The opponent moves at half its normal land/fly/swim movement speed, as appropriate for the affected limb.
Arm: The opponent cannot wield two-handed weapons, or fight with two weapons, or with one weapon and a shield. The opponent's climb speed, if any, is halved.
Not all opponents will be vulnerable to the effects of this feat, as decided by the DM. Some creatures, such as those with multiple limbs, may need more limbs broken than usual to suffer the effects of this feat.


Thanks to the following for their modifications:
Lord Iames Osari

[Rodgin]

Seems highly unbalanced. Even if you give a fighter or barbarian some of those feats, they would still get crushed.

The reason monks need better stats across the board is because they have good stuff all around. You've gotten rid of a few powerful special features (like Ki Strike) and given it the ability to run rampant.

Seems highly unbalanced and I'm not sure how to even start fixing it.

[13_CBS]

Seems highly unbalanced. Even if you give a fighter or barbarian some of those feats, they would still get crushed.


Who's they?



The reason monks need better stats across the board is because they have good stuff all around. You've gotten rid of a few powerful special features (like Ki Strike) and given it the ability to run rampant.


Rampant how? Again, keep in mind of my newbie status.

Also, many MANY people here would disagree with your statement, "They have good stuff all around".

[Rodgin]

Great base saves, good BAB, immunity to disease, immunity to poison, feather fall, ethereal step, I would say that list would count as good stuff.

They would be the Barbarians and Fighters I just mentioned, the other front line guys who would loose out on this.

What you've made is a character that picks up DR at level 1, for starters. No other class is getting this till at least level 5, and that would be by gear.

The only combat skill you really dumped is Ki Strike (and maybe the spell resistance, but you buffed the saves with it) and gave them back an armor class that will likely exceed anyone on the board, with DR at level 1!

Couple that with flurry of blows as a standard action(which a slightly reduced BAB doesn't compensate for), you've got an front end loaded character that MIGHT even out and balance by level 20.

[13_CBS]

Great base saves,

Fair enough.


good BAB

Not good enough for someone who's supposed to be a melee/grappling combatant.


immunity to disease, immunity to poison

Granted, but being immune to diseases and poisons isn't THAT great of a boon, AFAIK.


feather fall

Only near walls. And AFAIK, people don't die that often from falling...


ethereal step

...at level 19? That's a bit late. And I'm sure others have more criticisms for this.



They would be the Barbarians and Fighters I just mentioned, the other front line guys who would loose out on this.


Perhaps, but smacking people isn't supposed to be this monk's purpose. Grappling and mobility is. This monk shouldn't be able to totally overtake the jobs of barbs and rogues.

And don't worry, Barbarians and Rogues get some really cool stuff in my homebrew :smallbiggrin:



What you've made is a character that picks up DR at level 1, for starters. No other class is getting this till at least level 5, and that would be by gear.


Yes, but Monks don't get a whole ton of AC at...well, anywhere. But I'll think about this one.



Couple that with flurry of blows as a standard action(which a slightly reduced BAB doesn't compensate for), you've got an front end loaded character that MIGHT even out and balance by level 20.

Apparently, even this flurry of blows improvement won't be enough according to many people on this board. Too inaccurate, they'll say.

[Baron Corm]

Your ability which gives 3x Wisdom modifier as DR/- is too good. A level 20 character can expect to have a +13 modifier for his 18 score, which would give him DR 39/-. The monk will certainly pump Wisdom as it gives him AC, attack, damage, health, Fortitude, and Will saves; something else you might want to tone down. And the making all attacks as touch attacks; this is essentially saying, "you will hit every monster you come across, unless they are one of the few with amazingly high Dexterity".

You said you changed barbarian and rogue too, so I don't really have anything to balance it against. The things above could be very well balanced, if you made those classes similarly uber. This is, certainly, better than the normal barbarian and rogue.

[Dryad]

A monk's job isn't to be a front line that can't be hit, and when eventually being hit, can't take damage.
A monk isn't just a slap-stick, either.
Yes; a monk should be about mobility. And should be able to grapple. But is also there for hitting things. A monk's job is to be versatile.
A monk's combat sequence runs different from that of other classes. Due to their high movement rate, and extremely high acrobatic skills, monks dance from foe to foe, stunning, grabbing, tripping.. Perhaps not dealing much damage by themselves, which they are, by the way, more than capable of, if you specialize a monk on that, but allowing other characters freedom of movement, higher hit ratings, better damage output. A monk is a front-line tactical unit. Not a powerhouse.

And yes, you need a lot of stats, so it pays off to have a lot of mediocre stats with one, or maybe two, high ones. And yes; you'll need magic items. But so does everyone else.
A paladin needs a str, con, wis, cha. A monk just needs dex, wis. Really; the rest is just for fun. Just look after your str, if you want to be a better grappler. That's just 2,5 stat, you need to look after.

[13_CBS]

Thanks for the replies, folks!


Your ability which gives 3x Wisdom modifier as DR/- is too good. A level 20 character can expect to have a +13 modifier for his 18 score, which would give him DR 39/-.

Gotcha. This is what I mean by inexperience: I had positively no idea what stat modifiers to expect by level 20. I'll change the 3x WIS DR thing to...maybe 2x? At those high levels, AFAIK, any DR below 20ish is pretty weak...



The monk will certainly pump Wisdom as it gives him AC, attack, damage, health, Fortitude, and Will saves; something else you might want to tone down.

Hmm...ok. Perhaps eliminating the "Wis bonus replaces CON bonus" thing will help fix things?



And the making all attacks as touch attacks; this is essentially saying, "you will hit every monster you come across, unless they are one of the few with amazingly high Dexterity".


Ok, but AFAIK, monks don't do a whole ton of damage anyway. Plus, at level 20, Monks REALLY need to be able to hit things, no? Especially since their BAB is still about 3/4 HD.



You said you changed barbarian and rogue too, so I don't really have anything to balance it against. The things above could be very well balanced, if you made those classes similarly uber. This is, certainly, better than the normal barbarian and rogue.

Ok. Would this monk have a chance against, say, a full caster? Or at least be useful to a party with full casters and a full BAB melee class?





A monk's job isn't to be a front line that can't be hit, and when eventually being hit, can't take damage.
A monk isn't just a slap-stick, either.


Agreed.



A monk is a front-line tactical unit. Not a powerhouse.


Also agreed. That was the main goal for this Monk design; the tweaks to STR, BAB, etc. were there to give the Monk a fighting change (ha! get it! I made a funny!) if he actually does need to smack things.



And yes, you need a lot of stats, so it pays off to have a lot of mediocre stats with one, or maybe two, high ones. And yes; you'll need magic items. But so does everyone else.


Of course. Part of the design was to implement bonuses to wean the monk off of items, not make them completely independent of them.



A monk just needs dex, wis.


Eh...not a regular one. For a Monk to be a good frontline fighter (as the designers originally seemed to have wanted it), he'll need good STR (to hit and compensate for mediocre BAB), DEX (to avoid getting smacked), CON (to have the health to stay up and fight), WIS (obviously), and INT (for skills, if you do that sort of thing). This homebrewed Monk is designed to rely on DEX and WIS (and with the above suggestions, possibly CON).



Just look after your str, if you want to be a better grappler. That's just 2,5 stat, you need to look after.

Strength isn't enough to effectively grapple, AFAIK, hence the feats included below.



Speaking of feats, what do you guys think of them?

[Lord Iames Osari]

Here (http://faxcelestis.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=87#p726) is Victorious Press's monk fix, which you might want to take a look at.

As for the feats you proposed, I like the Grapple the Giant tree. The Intuitive Leverage tree is a bit overpowered. I'll post a fix in a second.

[13_CBS]

Thanks, but alas, my homebrew has no magic (or, not the kind of magic you would recognize), so pretty much any and all abilities having to do with magic are removed (and replaced by some of my stuff).

[Lord Iames Osari]

My changes apart from formatting in blue. Ive also adapted them slightly to be less specific to your fix.

Intuitive Leverage [General]
Prerequisites: Improved Grapple, WIS 16
Benefits: Instead of your Strength bonus, you may add your WIS bonus to your grapple checks. If you already add your Wis bonus to grapple checks instead of your Str bonus, you gain an additional +4 to grapple checks.
Normal: You add your STR bonus to your grapple checks.
Special: A monk may select this feat as his 2nd-level bonus feat.

Improved Intuitive Leverage [General]
Prerequisites: Improved Grapple, Intuitive Leverage, Wis 16, BAB +5.
Benefits: As Intuitive Leverage, except that you may add your WIS bonus to your grapple checks in addition to your Strength bonus.
Special: A monk may select this feat as his 6th-level bonus feat.

I'm taking on Limb Breaker as well; breaking someone's arm or leg should do more than just ability damage.


Limb Break [General]
Prerequisites: Improved Grapple
Benefits: After successfully pinning an opponent, you may make an opposed grapple check. If you succeed, your opponent becomes sickened (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/conditionSummary.htm#sickened), and suffers one of the following additional effects:
Leg/Wing/Fin: The opponent moves at half its normal land/fly/swim movement speed, as appropriate for the affected limb.
Arm: The opponent cannot wield two-handed weapons, or fight with two weapons, or with one weapon and a shield. The opponent's climb speed, if any, is halved.
Not all opponents will be vulnerable to the effects of this feat, as decided by the DM.

[13_CBS]

Hmm...that's pretty cool! Thanks!

[Lord Iames Osari]

Actually, taking a second look, Limb Break is too powerful for something a human, or a fighter could take at level 1. There needs to be another prerequisite.

[13_CBS]

Urgh...it'd be so much simpler if we put a level prerequisite on it, but then that's not D&D kosher :smallannoyed:

Edit: Wait! A BAB bonus requirement? Would that work?

[Stycotl]

any DR below 20ish is pretty weak...

dr #/(material,magic, etc) below 20 would be weak by level 20. but dr #/- is a lot better in some ways. no weapon negates this kind of dr, and for that reason it is normally a lower number.

dr 5/- is pretty handy. dr 10/- is very good. and any of my characters (yes, probably even the saintly ones) would kill for dr 15/-. 20 and higher would be no-questions-asked epic.

[Stycotl]

incidentally, you have a lot of really good ideas here. format it, make it look good, easy on the eyes, rehash and rejuggle some of the abilities, and it will make it very player-friendly and dm-friendly. good job.

[13_CBS]

Then do you think DR/- = WIS bonus would scale better? Especialy now since Monks are able to pump mostly WIS and CON...

[Stycotl]

i think that even dr wis*2/- or dr wis*1.5 would be fine at higher levels. you are essentially talking about (lvl 20 character w/ enhancements) wis +5 low end, +8 high end, so somewhere arounf dr 10 to 15/- or so.

i do agree that the earlier dr should be given later though, maybe level 4 or something.

[Level20Commoner]

My changes apart from formatting in blue. Ive also adapted them slightly to be less specific to your fix.

I'm taking on Limb Breaker as well; breaking someone's arm or leg should do more than just ability damage.

If you succeed, your opponent becomes sickened, and suffers one of the following additional effects: [/QUOTE]

Just curious, what is your reasoning behind making your opponent sickened when you break his limb? Stunning sounds more reasonable; extreme pain rather than nausea. Or do you just want the effects of being sickened to apply to the opponent?

[13_CBS]

incidentally, you have a lot of really good ideas here. format it, make it look good, easy on the eyes, rehash and rejuggle some of the abilities, and it will make it very player-friendly and dm-friendly. good job.

Thanks very much! :smallbiggrin: Not sure what you mean by "easy on the eyes", though.

@Level20: Actually, bone breaking tends to cause extreme nausea, epilepsy, vomiting, and seizures. :smallamused:

[Lord Iames Osari]

Urgh...it'd be so much simpler if we put a level prerequisite on it, but then that's not D&D kosher :smallannoyed:

Edit: Wait! A BAB bonus requirement? Would that work?

A BAB requirement was what I was thinking.


Just curious, what is your reasoning behind making your opponent sickened when you break his limb? Stunning sounds more reasonable; extreme pain rather than nausea. Or do you just want the effects of being sickened to apply to the opponent?

What CBS said, and also, the effects of being sickened seem to model the gingerness - you wouldn't want to move your broken limb, and you wouldn't want to move too much in case you accidentally shifted the limb, and if you did, the pain would be distracting and hurt your ability to perform well.

[13_CBS]

Strength of Will and Mind over Body have been spread out over several levels. A BAB requirement has been put on Limb Break.

[Stycotl]

Thanks very much! :smallbiggrin: Not sure what you mean by "easy on the eyes", though.

@Level20: Actually, bone breaking tends to cause extreme nausea, epilepsy, vomiting, and seizures. :smallamused:

basically i meant that it would be helpful to use bold for the headers and stuff. but along the lines of easy on the eyes would be to keep things fluid. make sure that the 'feel' good in the order that they are in. make them flow, seem like a natural progression.

[MeklorIlavator]

Three things:

Burst of Speed (Ex): 3/day, once every 1d4 hours, a Monk can take two Move actions per round. (Purpose: increase the Monk's mobility)
This confuses me. Is it 3/day or every 1d4 hours? Choose one. Also, I would make it clear that this is in addition to his standard actions, otherwise its pointless.



Mind over Body (Ex): At level three, the Monk may use his WIS bonus instead of his CON bonus to roll for HP. At level 13, if a Monk ever has to use its CON bonus (rolling HP, making Fort saves, Concentration checks, etc.), the Monk may instead use his WIS bonus. The latter bonus does not stack with the former bonus. (Purpose: make the Monk less MAD--too powerful?)

This is also confusing. Is it retroactive? And I think that it gets a bit powerful, though I don't know if I would take away the first or last section.



Precision Strikes (Ex): As a swift action 2/day, the Monk may cause all of his attacks to be touch attacks for one round. At level 8, this is increased to 4/day. At level 12, this is increased to 6/day. At Level 16, this is increased to 8/day. At level 20, all Monk attacks count as touch attacks. (Purpose: try to make up for the Monk's lack of BAB without totally replacing Fighters and such)

As someone has already said, this seems too good, though its really only the level 20 ability that makes it so. Still, I'd cut the number back a bit, as it effectively means that they hit.

[13_CBS]

Three things:

This confuses me. Is it 3/day or every 1d4 hours? Choose one. Also, I would make it clear that this is in addition to his standard actions, otherwise its pointless.


This is also confusing. Is it retroactive? And I think that it gets a bit powerful, though I don't know if I would take away the first or last section.


Thanks for catching those slip ups, though I'm not entirely sure about what you mean by retroactive.



As someone has already said, this seems too good, though its really only the level 20 ability that makes it so. Still, I'd cut the number back a bit, as it effectively means that they hit.


Will do.

[Dryad]

Personally, the ability to use WIS as Con in order to roll HP is more suited for a character that uses her mental power in combat, to withstand greater blows. For instance: A barbarian.

Wisdom to melee attack rolls is a tad iffy. There's already Zen Archery, which requires the point blank shot feat. Also, note that wisdom to all strength-related rolls also affect the damage. And as the monk has the highest weapon damage roll availiable to any class, and most attacks in a round..
You could implement it as a feat, seperately, though, leaving out wis to dmg rolls. Like Zen archery, you need a prereq that at least needs B.A.B +1. (I case of Zen Archery: Point blank shot.) However; Zen Archery implies that you have the time to focus. You're a ranged unit, shooting with icy calm. Well; to do that in a melee, you'd need at least a concentration check. See; that's what the wisdom score is all about. It's about mental strength, focus...

But the good news: Here's a feat.
Berserker's Sacrifice.
During battle, a berserker can control her emotions and pain so well that she can actually choose not to die for a short period of time.
Prerequisites:Monk's Armor Class, Rage Ability.
Benefit: While raging, a character may choose not to be disabled by damage she recieved. She may activate the ability whenever she would have zero hit points of more, and is currently under the effect of a rage ability, but not the spell.
While active, this ability refreshes the duration of the Rage ability, and grants the character the option to function normally, as enraged, until her hit points drop to -(Wis2)+con. She doesn't automatically stabilize, and as soon as her hit points drop to less than the allowable negative, the character is dead. When her hit points drop to -10, but the character hasn't reached her maximum negative, she may still act as normal, until the duration of her Rage Ability is expired.
A character who dies from using this ability may only be resurrected with a resurrection spell, or a True Resurrection spell.
Normal: You're dead, and helpless.

[MeklorIlavator]

Wisdom to melee attack rolls is a tad iffy. There's already Zen Archery, which requires the point blank shot feat. Also, note that wisdom to all strength-related rolls also affect the damage. And as the monk has the highest weapon damage roll availiable to any class, and most attacks in a round..
You could implement it as a feat, seperately, though, leaving out wis to dmg rolls. Like Zen archery, you need a prereq that at least needs B.A.B +1. (I case of Zen Archery: Point blank shot.) However; Zen Archery implies that you have the time to focus. You're a ranged unit, shooting with icy calm. Well; to do that in a melee, you'd need at least a concentration check. See; that's what the wisdom score is all about. It's about mental strength, focus...

The last time I checked Zen Archery only required Wis 13 and BAB +1.
Also, the dice type rolled doesn't matter nearly as much as the straight added damage, and the monk isn't so great in this department. His main weapon doesn't qualify for Power attack, and he lacks the BAB to use the weapons that do effectively. Plus, there is already is a feat that allows the swap, but with few(if any) of the downsides you suggest. Thus this isn't a great departure from the established way of doing thing, instead an application of several beneficial abilities to a class that is lacking in order to improve its power and usefulness.

[Dryad]

D20 SRD says:

Prerequisite

Str 13.
Benefit

On your action, before making attack rolls for a round, you may choose to subtract a number from all melee attack rolls and add the same number to all melee damage rolls. This number may not exceed your base attack bonus. The penalty on attacks and bonus on damage apply until your next turn.
Special

If you attack with a two-handed weapon, or with a one-handed weapon wielded in two hands, instead add twice the number subtracted from your attack rolls. You can’t add the bonus from Power Attack to the damage dealt with a light weapon (except with unarmed strikes or natural weapon attacks), even though the penalty on attack rolls still applies. (Normally, you treat a double weapon as a one-handed weapon and a light weapon. If you choose to use a double weapon like a two-handed weapon, attacking with only one end of it in a round, you treat it as a two-handed weapon.)

A fighter may select Power Attack as one of his fighter bonus feats.

Thus; power attack still works on an unarmed strike. I really don't know where anyone got the notion of this feat not working natural attacks, like a human slam attack. Just because you have the drawback of provoking an attack of opportunity if you don't have 'improved unarmed strike,' doesn't mean a fist isn't a natural weapon.