PDA

View Full Version : [3.5e] Monk Rewrite



Eldariel
2008-07-25, 09:13 PM
Now, I know it's been done before and I know Swordsage pretty much obsoletes the class, but a lot of people still seem to regularly want a simple rewrite of the Monk that can be used to fix the broken core-version. I decided to give it a shot myself, with the brief list of what's changed:
-Full BAB and Int+6 skills, Search, Heal and Use Rope added to list.
-Flurry of blows can be used whenever Monk makes an attack.
-Diamond soul from level 1. Also, diamond soul gives SR the controller can drop to recieve buffs.
-Added abilities that give Air Walk and Haste. Also derived them all off the number of Monk-levels, as well as the old similar abilities. Moved all the previous movement abilities to an earlier point. (Feather step, mongoose step)
-Rebuilt Ki Strike-system, allowing enhancing a Monk's fists.
-Speed bonus is unnamed and thus stacks with everything.
-Wholeness of Body adds Wisdom-modifier as a multiplier
-Gain ability to teleport as a Swift Action and heal if you would die on later levels (Wholeness of Essence, Swift Steps)
-Quivering Palm usable often enough to matter.
-Abundant steps usable additional times per day
-Bonus feats spread around the build and initial unarmed damage dropped to discourage dipping.
-Perfect self grants DR/Chaos and Adamantine and Magic immunity.
-Additional bonus feats.
-Slow fall requires no walls.
-New ability: Agile Warrior; you may use Dex for all melee maneuvers instead of Str
-New ability: Charge of Death; effectively Pounce
-New ability: Mighty Blows; gives primary unarmed strikes +1½xStr to damage and two-handed Power Attack-returns, secondary +1xStr to damage.
-New ability: Steel mind; reroll saving throw/day


Monk

Requirements

Alignment: Lawful

Class Features

HD: d8
Skills Per Level: 6+Int
Skill List: Balance, Climb, Concentration, Craft, Diplomacy, Escape Artist, Heal, Hide, Jump, Knowledge (Arcana), Knowledge (Religion), Listen, Move Silently, Perform, Profession, Search, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, Spot, Swim, Tumble, Use Rope

{table=head]Level | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Special Abilities | Flurry | Damage | AC | Speed
1st | +1 | +2 | +2 | +2 | Diamond soul, flurry of blows, unarmed strike | -1/-1 | 1d4 | +0 | +0 ft.
2nd | +2 | +3 | +3 | +3 | Bonus feat I, evasion | +0/+0 | 1d4 | +0 | +0 ft.
3rd | +3 | +3 | +3 | +3 | Steel mind | +1/+1 | 1d6 | +0 | +10 ft.
4th | +4 | +4 | +4 | +4 | Ki strike (magic), slow fall 20 ft. | +2/+2 | 1d6 | +0 | +10 ft.
5th | +5 | +4 | +4 | +4 | Bonus feat II, purity of body | +4/+4 | 1d6 | +1 | +10 ft.
6th | +6/+1 | +5 | +5 | +5 | Agile warrior, slow fall 30 ft. | +5/+5 | 1d8 | +1 | +20 ft.
7th | +7/+2 | +5 | +5 | +5 | Wholeness of body, ki strike (lawful) | +6/+6/+1 | 1d8 | +1 | +20 ft.
8th | +8/+3 | +6 | +6 | +6 | Feather step, slow fall 40 ft. | +7/+7/+2 | 1d8 | +1 | +20 ft.
9th | +9/+5 | +6 |+6 | +6 | Diamond body, improved evasion | +9/+9/+4 |1d10 | +1 | +30 ft.
10th | +10/+5 | +7 | +7 | +7 | Charge of death, bonus feat III, slow fall 50 ft. | +10/+10/+5 | 1d10 | +2 | +30 ft.
11th | +11/+6/+1 | +7 | +7 | +7 | Mighty blows, timeless body, tongues | +11/+11/+6/+1 | 1d10 | +2 | +30 ft.
12th | +12/+7/+2 | +8 | +8 | +8 | Abundant step, slow fall 60 ft. | +12/+12/+7/+2 | 2d6 | +2 | +40 ft.
13th | +13/+8/+3 | +8 | +8 | +8 | Mongoose step, greater flurry | +13/+13/+13/+8/+3 | 2d6 | +2 | +40 ft.
14th | +14/+9/+4 | +9 | +9 | +9 | Bonus feat IV, slow fall 70 ft. | +14/+14/+14/+9/+4 | 2d6 |+2 | +40 ft.
15th | +15/+10/+5 | +9 | +9 | +9 | Quivering palm | +15/+15/+15/+10/+5 | 2d6 | +3 | +50 ft.
16th | +16/+11/+6/+1 | +10 | +10 | +10 | Ki strike (adamantine), slow fall 80 ft. | +16/+16/+16/+11/+6/+1 | 2d8 | +3 | +50 ft.
17th | +17/+12/+7/+2 | +10 | +10 | +10 | Empty body | +17/+17/+17/+12/+7/+2 | 2d8 | +3 | +50 ft.
18th | +18/+13/+8/+3 | +11 | +11 | +11 | Wholeness of essence, slow fall any distance | +18/+18/+18/+13/+8/+3 | 2d8 | +3 | +60 ft.
19th | +19/+14/+9/+4 | +11 | +11 | +11 | Swift steps, bonus feat V | +19/+19/+19/+14/+9/+4 | 2d8 |+3 | +60 ft.
20th | +20/+15/+10/+5 | +12 | +12 | +12 | Perfect self | +20/+20/+20/+15/+10/+5 | 2d10 | +4 | +60 ft.[/table]


Weapon and Armor Proficiency

Monks are proficient with club, crossbow (light or heavy), dagger, handaxe, javelin, kama, nunchaku, quarterstaff, sai, shuriken, siangham, and sling.

Monks are not proficient with any armor or shields.

When wearing armor, using a shield, or carrying a medium or heavy load, a monk loses her AC bonus, as well as her fast movement and flurry of blows abilities.

AC Bonus (Ex)

When unarmored and unencumbered, the monk adds her Wisdom bonus (if any) to her AC. In addition, a monk gains a +1 bonus to AC at 5th level. This bonus increases by 1 for every five monk levels thereafter (+2 at 10th, +3 at 15th, and +4 at 20th level).

These bonuses to AC apply even against touch attacks or when the monk is flat-footed. She loses these bonuses when she is immobilized or helpless, when she wears any armor, when she carries a shield, or when she carries a medium or heavy load.

Flurry of Blows (Ex)

When unarmored, a monk may strike with a flurry of blows at the expense of accuracy. When doing so, she may make one extra attack in a round at her highest base attack bonus, but this attack takes a -2 penalty, as does each other attack made that round. The resulting modified base attack bonuses are shown in the Flurry of Blows Attack Bonus column on Table: The Monk. This penalty applies for 1 round, so it also affects attacks of opportunity the monk might make before her next action. When a monk reaches 5th level, the penalty lessens to -1, and at 9th level it disappears. A monk may use Flurry of Blows whenever making an attack.

When using flurry of blows, a monk may attack only with unarmed strikes or with special monk weapons (kama, nunchaku, quarterstaff, sai, shuriken, and siangham). She may attack with unarmed strikes and special monk weapons interchangeably as desired. When using weapons as part of a flurry of blows, a monk applies her Strength bonus (not Str bonus × 1½ or ×½) to her damage rolls for all successful attacks, whether she wields a weapon in one or both hands. The monk can’t use any weapon other than a special monk weapon as part of a flurry of blows.

In the case of the quarterstaff, each end counts as a separate weapon for the purpose of using the flurry of blows ability. Even though the quarterstaff requires two hands to use, a monk may still intersperse unarmed strikes with quarterstaff strikes, assuming that she has enough attacks in her flurry of blows routine to do so.
Greater Flurry

When a monk reaches 13th level, her flurry of blows ability improves. In addition to the standard single extra attack she gets from flurry of blows, she gets a second extra attack at her full base attack bonus.

Unarmed Strike

At 1st level, a monk gains Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat. A monk’s attacks may be with either fist interchangeably or even from elbows, knees, and feet. This means that a monk may even make unarmed strikes with her hands full. Monk may two-weapon fight with unarmed strikes only even if her hands are full; this just means she'll be using more appendages than normal, at expense of accuracy. Primary unarmed attacks have full Str added to damage and secondary (when e.g. two-weapon fighting) unarmed attacks add ½ Str to damage. A monk may also use Power Attack with her unarmed strikes as if they were one-handed weapons. Mighty Blows improves upon this.

Usually a monk’s unarmed strikes deal lethal damage, but she can choose to deal nonlethal damage instead with no penalty on her attack roll. She has the same choice to deal lethal or nonlethal damage while grappling.

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.

A medium monk deals damage according to the Damage-table given above. Larger and smaller monks apply size modifications as per normal.

Diamond Soul (Ex)

At 1st level, a monk gains spell resistance equal to her current monk level + 10. In order to affect the monk with a spell, a spellcaster must get a result on a caster level check (1d20 + caster level) that equals or exceeds the monk’s spell resistance.

As a standard action, a monk may reduce this resistance all the way down to 0. This can be useful especially to recieve beneficial spells or healing from friendly casters. Restoring Spell Resistance is likewise a standard action.

Bonus Feats

At 2nd level, a monk gains a bonus feat from the list below. She gains additional bonus feats on levels 5, 10, 14 and 19.

Evasion (Ex)

At 2nd level or higher if a monk makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, she instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if a monk is wearing light armor or no armor. A helpless monk does not gain the benefit of evasion.

Fast Movement (Ex)

At 3rd level, a monk gains a bonus to her speed, as shown on Table: The Monk. A monk in armor or carrying a medium or heavy load loses this extra speed.

Steel mind (Ex)

A monk of 3rd level or higher may reroll one saving throw she's made per day after the throw is done, but before DM announces the result. She must take the new result even if it is worse than the old one.

A monk gains an additional use of this ability every four levels after third (7th, 11th, 15th, 19th). A monk may not reroll the same saving throw twice with this ability even if she had additional uses remaining.

Ki Strike (Su)

At 4th level, a monk’s unarmed attacks are empowered with ki. Her unarmed attacks are treated as magic weapons. Ki strike improves with the character’s monk level. At 7th level, her unarmed attacks have the alignment components equal to Monk's alignment. At 16th level, her unarmed attacks are treated as weapons of cold iron, silver or adamantine as applicable in order to bypass damage reduction, and as adamantine to penetrate hardness.

Beginning from 4th level, a monk may also have her unarmed strikes enhanced, to the maximum effective bonus of half her class level and to the maximum bonus of a quarter her class level. A monk's unarmed strikes are considered enhancable and a monk is considered to have Craft Magic Arms and Armor-feat for the purposes of enhancing her unarmed strikes. A monk's caster level is considered equal to her class level for purposes of this ability. A monk still needs either to cast the required spells himself, or have a friendly spellcaster to cast them for her when imbuing her fists with special abilities. A monk pays the price equal to buying a weapon of equal bonus in gold during the enhancement process as opposed to paying half of it as XP.

Slow Fall (Ex)

At 4th level or higher, a monk can take impacts far worse than what normal members of her race could. When first using this ability, she takes damage as if the fall were 20 feet shorter than it actually is. The monk’s ability to slow her fall (that is, to reduce the effective distance of the fall anywhere) improves with her monk level until at 18th level she can fall any distance without harm.

Purity of Body (Ex)

At 5th level, a monk gains immunity to all diseases except for supernatural and magical diseases.

Agile Warrior (Ex)

At 6th level, a monk may use Dex instead of Str when Grappling, Tripping or Disarming opponents.

Wholeness of Body (Su)

At 7th level or higher, a monk with Wisdom 10 or higher can heal her own wounds. She can heal a number of hit points of damage equal to her current monk level x 1+her Wisdom modifier (minimum of 1) each day, and she can spread this healing out among several uses.

Feather step (Su)

At 8th level or higher, a monk can walk the air like under the spell Air Walk. A monk may use this ability for a number of rounds equal to her monk-level per day. These rounds need not be consecutive.

Improved Evasion (Ex)

At 9th level, a monk’s evasion ability improves. She still takes no damage on a successful Reflex saving throw against attacks, but henceforth she takes only half damage on a failed save. A helpless monk does not gain the benefit of improved evasion.

Diamond Body (Su)

At 9th level, a monk gains immunity to poisons of all kinds and to supernatural and magical diseases.

Charge of Death (Ex)

At 10th level, a monk gains the benefits of the Pounce-ability. Whenever a monk Charges an opponent, she may make a full attack at the end of the charge.

Mighty Blows (Ex)

At 11th level, a monk's unarmed strikes grow more brutal. Whenever a monk uses her unarmed strike as a primary attack, she may add 1½ Str to damage with that attack and treat the attack as two-handed in regards to Power Attack. Further, a monk may add her full Str-bonus to her secondary unarmed strikes. She still treats her secondary unarmed strikes as one-handed for Power Attack though.

Timeless Body (Ex)

Upon attaining 11th level, a monk no longer takes penalties to her ability scores for aging and cannot be magically aged. Any such penalties that she has already taken, however, remain in place. Bonuses still accrue, and the monk still dies of old age when her time is up.

Tongue of the Sun and Moon (Ex)

A monk of 11th level or higher can speak with any creature.

Abundant Step (Su)

At 12th level or higher, a monk can slip magically between spaces, as if using the spell dimension door, once per day. Her caster level for this effect is her monk level. She gains one additional use per day of this ability for every two monk levels she gains after 12th (14th, 16th, 18th, 20th).

Mongoose step (Su)

At 13th level or higher, a monk may act as if under the effects of the Haste-spell for a number of rounds equal to her monk-level per day. These rounds need not be consecutive.

Quivering Palm (Su)

Starting at 15th level, a monk can set up vibrations within the body of another creature that can thereafter be fatal if the monk so desires. She can use this quivering palm attack once a day, and one more time for every 5 monk levels beyond 15th she gains. She must announce her intent before making her attack roll. Constructs, oozes, plants, undead, incorporeal creatures, and creatures immune to critical hits cannot be affected. Otherwise, if the monk strikes successfully and the target takes damage from the blow, the quivering palm attack succeeds. Thereafter the monk can try to slay the victim at any later time, as long as the attempt is made within a number of days equal to her monk level. To make such an attempt, the monk merely wills the target to die (a free action), and unless the target makes a Fortitude saving throw (DC 10 + ½ the monk’s level + the monk’s Wis modifier), it dies. If the saving throw is successful, the target is no longer in danger from that particular quivering palm attack, but it may still be affected by another one at a later time.

Empty Body (Su)

At 17th level, a monk gains the ability to assume an ethereal state for 1 round per monk level per day, as though using the spell etherealness. She may go ethereal on a number of different occasions during any single day, as long as the total number of rounds spent in an ethereal state does not exceed her monk level.

Wholeness of Essence (Su)

At 18th level, if a monk were to be reduced to negative hitpoints, she can activate Wholeness of Body as an immediate action. If she has enough healing left to bring herself to positive hitpoints, she stays conscious and does not die. This ability cannot be used if the monk has no HP left in her Wholeness of Body pool.

Swift Steps (Su)

At 19th level, a monk may use her Abundant Steps-ability as a swift action instead of a standard action.

Perfect Self

At 20th level, a monk becomes a magical creature. She is forevermore treated as an outsider rather than as a humanoid (or whatever the monk’s creature type was) for the purpose of spells and magical effects. Additionally, the monk gains damage reduction 15/Adamantine and Chaos, which allows her to ignore the first 15 points of damage from any attack made by a nonadamantine, nonchaotic weapon or by any natural attack made by a creature that doesn’t have similar damage reduction. A monk also gains immunity to magic, although she may lower her wards to recieve beneficial effects like with her Spell Resistance. This ability means no spell with the description "SR: Yes" is able to affect the monk unless she so wills. Unlike other outsiders, the monk can still be brought back from the dead as if she were a member of her previous creature type.



Bonus Feat Paths

Coming in distant future - check Oriental Adventures Combat Styles.

weishan
2008-07-26, 12:47 PM
It's much better, and more balanced. Slow fall is a stupid ability at 20th level, however. Constant feather fall by tenth is okay. By 20th though, flight is reasonable, and feather fall iss useless.

Siosilvar
2008-07-26, 01:58 PM
Greater Flurry

When a monk reaches 13th level, her flurry of blows ability improves. In addition to the standard single extra attack she gets from flurry of blows, she gets a second extra attack at her full base attack bonus.

Should probably move this to 13th level in the list.


Diamond Soul (Ex)
...
As a standard action, a monk may reduce this resistance all the way down to 0. This can be useful especially to recieve beneficial spells or healing from friendly casters. Restoring Spell Resistance is likewise a standard action.

From the SRD, on spell resistance:

A creature can voluntarily lower its spell resistance. Doing so is a standard action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity. Once a creature lowers its resistance, it remains down until the creature’s next turn. At the beginning of the creature’s next turn, the creature’s spell resistance automatically returns unless the creature intentionally keeps it down (also a standard action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity).


Bonus Feats

At 2nd level, a monk gains a bonus feat from the list below. She gains additional bonus feats on levels 5, 10, 14 and 19.

I assume you'll add the list later?


Ki Strike (Su)

At 4th level, a monk’s unarmed attacks are empowered with ki. Her unarmed attacks are treated as magic weapons. Ki strike improves with the character’s monk level. At 7th level, her unarmed attacks have the alignment components equal to Monk's alignment. At 16th level, her unarmed attacks are treated as weapons of cold iron, silver or adamantine as applicable in order to bypass damage reduction, and as adamantine to penetrate hardness.

Beginning from 4th level, a monk may also have her unarmed strikes enhanced, to the maximum effective bonus of half her class level and to the maximum bonus of a quarter her class level. A monk's unarmed strikes are considered enhanceable and a monk is considered to have Craft Magic Arms and Armor-feat for the purposes of enhancing her unarmed strikes. A monk's caster level is considered equal to her class level for purposes of this ability. A monk still needs either to cast the required spells himself, or have a friendly spellcaster to cast them for her when imbuing her fists with special abilities. A monk pays the price equal to buying a weapon of equal bonus in gold during the enhancement process as opposed to paying half of it as XP.
Small spelling error fixed and bolded above. Also, does cold iron bypassing really fit the monk's Lawful attitude?



Feather step (Su)

At 8th level or higher, a monk can walk the air like under the spell Air Walk. A monk may use this ability for a number of rounds equal to her monk-level per day. These rounds need not be consecutive.
I suggest making this ability minutes; the actual spell is 10 min/level. As is, this is 1/100th of a casting of a 4th level spell per day.


Charge of Death (Ex)

At 10th level, a monk gains the benefits of the Pounce ability. Whenever a monk charges an opponent, she may make a full attack at the end of the charge. Minor fixes; removed hyphen between Pounce and ability, and de-capitalized charges.


Mighty Blows (Ex)

At 11th level, a monk's unarmed strikes grow more brutal. Whenever a monk uses her unarmed strike as a primary attack, she may add 1½ Str to damage with that attack and treat the attack as two-handed in regards to Power Attack. Further, a monk may add her full Str-bonus to her secondary unarmed strikes. She still treats her secondary unarmed strikes as one-handed for Power Attack though.They're not actually treated as one-handed, they're still light, but you are allowed to Power Attack with them. Also, what qualifies as a primary or secondary attack?


Mongoose step (Su)

At 13th level or higher, a monk may act as if under the effects of the Haste-spell for a number of rounds equal to her monk-level per day. These rounds need not be consecutive.
Basically, 1 casting of a 3rd level spell per day.


Empty Body (Su)

At 17th level, a monk gains the ability to assume an ethereal state for 1 round per monk level per day, as though using the spell etherealness. She may go ethereal on a number of different occasions during any single day, as long as the total number of rounds spent in an ethereal state does not exceed her monk level.Surely a 17th level monk can have a full casting of a 9th-level spell?


Other than what I've mentioned above, it seems pretty good.

Eldariel
2008-07-27, 08:15 AM
Flurry is in 13th as far as I know. My bad about Spell Resistance though; I was thinking of Immediate Action.

Bonus feats I intend to add when I have time (I'll be a week in Rome from now so not before then in any case). I will add a list though.


I made the Unarmed Strikes treated as one-handed in the "Unarmed Strikes"-section. That's where the Mighty Blows-thing comes in.


As for all the spell-likes, being able to spread them around is quite helpful in being able to use them over multiple encounters. Also, it takes no actions to initiate the abilities. Minutes/level would mean they'd never run out - rounds/level gives the Monk some resource management. I may consider 2xlevel though to make the numbers sufficient.