Fixing the monk in 4 easy steps.

[boomwolf]

Step 1:
Give the monk full BAB.

Step 2:
Flurry of Blows works with Nat. weapons as well.

Step 3:
Make the AC bonus for every 4 levels instead of every 5.

Step 4:
Allow the monk to freely multiclass as long he has at least as much levels in monk as all other classes.


After these 4 easy steps, not only that your monk is quite good at combat, he becomes the best high-level pure melee out there. (but still outrun by casters)

[Stycotl]

maybe i'm missing something, but as far as i was aware, a monk's unarmed combat counted as natural weapons, and therefore, flurry would work with natural attacks.

i am not sure that a mere +1 difference to ac is *that* big a deal, but it certainly is debateable.

i agree with the multiclassing deal. but i do not really think that does anythign to balance, as the multiclassing limit is largely ignored anyway.

and full bab as been a priority of mine for monks for a while. i am still trying to fit full bab into my celox monk variant. as of yet though, i haven't enough time to play it to see how balanced it is or isn't, and no one has commented on whether the bab shoudl stick at 3/4 or go to full.

overall, some good ideas. i think there is more to fixing it than just a minor ac bonus and full bab though.

[boomwolf]

Actually unarmed attacks do not include Nat. weapons (like claws or tail) by definition, and as they are not included in the flurry ability they cannot gain the advantage.

The AC bonus matters when you are not going pure monk, and when going epic the difference grows.
And you also gain them at earlier levels, and that matters.

Multiclassing matters because even though you take no penalty to xp in may games-you still suffer the ill effects of multiclassing monks, this allows the ease making builds, and taking levels in "mixed" order when using half/half build.

The BSB improves flurry by much, and is highly important and strict melee, I mean, he can't even use bows for crying out loud.

[Stycotl]

from the srd:

A monk’s unarmed strike is treated both as a manufactured weapon and a natural weapon for the purpose of spells and effects that enhance or improve either manufactured weapons or natural weapons.

maybe i am just missing what kinds of effects you are talking about. do you mean so that you can use a nonstandard race, something with a cool natural attack? if so, eventually unarmed damage surpasses most natural attacks unless you are using huge-sized and larger creatures, and so i would allow a 20th level monk to use his unarmed damage with his claw or bite attack if he had one.

i certainly don't allow tail sweeps in a flurry with a monk that has natural attacks (thinking of a certain sapphire dragon i know...), but his claw and bite attacks work fine in a flurry, doing monk damage (be that higher or lower than his natural damage, dependent on level.

but if youa re talking about unarmed attacks so that you can take the improved damage feats, buy magic items that make natural attacks into magic/adamantine/etc effects, that is already legal.