Monkday Meditations I: Zen and the art of monastic weaponry

[mabriss lethe]

Monks. Monkmonkmonkmonkmonk. I admit it, I have a soft spot for them. I love the class despite its many numerous and glaring flaws. Don't judge me.

Assuming that I don't completely drop the ball, I thought I'd keep the Monday Monkday traditions alive by posting a monk centric thread on a weekly basis. Each one will have a general theme but I'll keep it short. I tend to ramble if left unattended.

Basic Assumptions:
- No Multiclassing: By now, we're all aware that a Monk's best option for furthering their success is to dip for a couple of levels and get out. That's not what this is about. These treatises operate under the assumption that the player is staying in the Monk class and has to gain access options in a manner available to the class. (eg, gaining proficiencies with other weapons, etc)
-A monk is proficient with his unarmed strike. That lack is an oversight, not a deliberate feature. If you really need a pedantic justification, remember that Monks treat their unarmed strikes as either natural or manufactured weapons and the rules state that a creature is proficient with its natural weaponry. There, problem solved. It's not terribly elegant, but I don't care.

Today's installment is all about monk weapons. We'll start with the common selection found in the PHB today. Later, after I've had a better chance to immerse myself back into 3.5 I'll revisit the subject with the nonstandard weapons found in other sources.

I'll use the following color guide to help classify options:
TEAL A top performer that brings solid options to the table that you should really consider
BLUE A very good choice and should be included as part of your regular weapon loadout.
BLACK Nothing special but nothing particularly bad. You'll probably have one in your kit and forget about it
PURPLE Situationally Useful. These options will probably collect some dust in your kit between uses but you'll be glad you had them
RED Hot garbage on stilts. You might still wind up with one in your kit, but there is usually some other option that can do the same thing better.

On to today's lesson.

As a Monk, you have a grab bag of... well... pretty terrible weapon proficiencies. You'll have to learn to make do with What you have (or acquire easily, but I'll get to that closer to the end.)

THE UNARMED STRIKE: Hurting things with your hands and feet is a monk's bread and butter. As a monk your unarmed damage will easily outstrip the base damage of any other weapon on your list even before mid level. You can even use your unarmed strike while carrying weapons in both hands. It may not be your first line of attack, but it will always be there as a fallback option. Enchanting your unarmed strike is a pain, but we'll get deeper into your options for that later on. Choose your other weaponry for secondary characteristics that it can bring to a conflict. It also means you don't have to be afraid to take risky combat maneuvers like trip or disarm, even without appropriate feats. You're still armed even if you have to drop another weapon in a failed attempt.

Now that we've got that out of the way, on to the non monk weapons the class is innately proficient with.

CLUBS: A club's base stats are identical to your level 1 unarmed strike in terms of damage dice and crits, but you can't use it to flurry. However, it costs nothing, you can throw it and as a one handed weapon, you can still two hand it for better damage. It will mostly be an early game option, but having one or two in your kit can be situationally useful, however it is fairly easily outmatched by the Quarterstaff in all respects aside from throwing.

CROSSBOW (light or heavy): It's your basic plinking option. Monk's really don't have much else to engage a creature at extreme range. It's really not worth a huge investment, but having at least a handful of various enchanted ammunition types is a cost effective way to contribute at a range that you would otherwise be useless at. Don't waste your time with a heavy crossbow. the reload time is a beast. Stick with a light one.

DAGGER: You probably won't use a dagger much, if at all, in combat. However, it's a useful tool for other applications and is cheap enough that there isn't a reason not to have one somewhere on your person.

HANDAXE: This is probably the most useless weapon in your kit. It doesn't really bring anything to the table except a X3 crit multiplier. I guess you could chop wood with it, but it's not really relevant to your monastic discipline.

JAVELIN: Thrown piercing damage with three times the range of the club. It's a good standby for mid ranged combat even though you can't flurry with it. It's definitely something you want in your toolkit and you may even want to have one or two with low level enchantments when it's viable.

SLING: Statwise, it's not a great weapon, but it's free and has OK range. While you won't use one often, it makes a suitable last ditch option for ranged combat.


Flurry of blows compatible weapons: Strict damage isn't your primary motivation for selecting among these weapons, even more than the others, It's all about the weapon's secondary characteristics. As a note, while the aesthetic of wielding a matching pair of flurry weapons looks cool, it's pointless to do so. It's better to use two different weapon types to reap two different bonuses if you plan on dual wielding.

KAMA: It's an exotic version of the standard sickle. However, that does make it one of your best choices to keep handy. It's your primary slashing option and your only standard trip option. Pairs best with the Sai. (see below)

NUNCHAKU: Just keep on scrolling past this turkey. It is the worst option on your list. It deals identical damage dice and type to your 1st level unarmed strike and grants a +2 bonus to disarm. That might be ok, if it wasn't a light weapon. the bonus doesn't even offset the -4 penalty all light weapons have. It brings nothing to the table that you can't get a better version of elsewhere.

QUARTERSTAFF: The humble quarterstaff is arguably the best monk weapon available. While its basic stats are fairly humdrum, It's your only two handed weapon. That makes it power attack friendly even with the odd way flurry interacts with it. As a two handed weapon, it's also your best option for Disarm attempts, due to nothing but its innate size bonus.

SAI: No, the blue isn't a mistake. Despite having the smallest damage die among your melee weapon options, and doing blunt damage, it is one of your most versatile weapons. Its bonus to disarm is twice that of the nunchaku, which allows it to function without size penalty as if it were a one handed weapon instead of a light weapon, which can make disarming an opportune target at least feasible. While the Quarterstaff is better for that, the Sai takes the number two spot and is also the thrown flurry weapon with the highest base damage and you can still hold a kama in your other hand for trip attempts AND retain access to your unarmed strike damage.

SHURIKEN: While the range and base damage are both pretty terrible, it's your only other ranged flurry option aside from the Sai. That said, you can pile on the damage with enhancements very readily. Shuriken are ammunition, so are dirt cheap individually. You can also flurry with them for as many attacks as you have per round without needing Quickdraw as long as you have a free hand. That makes them a wonderful followup if you throw a Sai with your first flurry attack. The base damage is so low that I wouldn't even bother with looking for special materials to overcome DR. Just go for damage enhancements and keep a good selection for different occasions.

SIANGHAM: It's better than the nunchaku, but still won't see a whole lot of use. However, it's your only melee piercing option, so on the rare chance that something's DR is overcome by piercing damage, this is your only flurry friendly option. If you're facing a group of enemies with different weapon damage DRs, it's good to pair it with the Kama, so that you have immediate access to Blugeoning, Piercing, and Slashing damage. It might also be a good candidate for special materials like silver or cold iron.

Heterodox weapon options: While these are your only proficiencies, there are still other weapons you can get some mileage out of, though you're going to need to blow a feat to get them (remember, we're operating under the assumption of not multiclassing to get what you need). There are very few weapons that really add much to your kit, but I'll break them down by proficiency feat. You'll probably only want one or the other if you go this route. taking both feats might strain your build.

Simple Weapon Proficiency: It is, in fact, a sad thing that such a normally underwhelming feat is actually useful for a single class monk. The feat opens up the whole simple list to you as early as level 1. However there are really only two options that you're likely to want.

GAUNTLETS: remember when I said that enchanting your unarmed strikes is a pain, this is why. Amulets of mighty fists don't offer special abilities, and the only other option is in Savage Species. This is the other other way. While it is a simple weapon, the gauntlet is called out in both the tables and text as being an unarmed strike. You still need the feat to get proficiency with them, but since they only modify your existing strike, you can flurry to your heart's content with enchanted gauntlets while keeping your monk unarmed damage and having hands free to use other weapons as you might need them. This is also an option that doesn't really come into its own until you are high enough level to afford enchanted gear. Remember that the same rules as before apply. you don't want a matching set. you can hit repeatedly with the same weapon in a flurry, so maximize your options by getting each gauntlet enchanted differently.

LONGSPEAR: This is your other solid option from the simple weapon list. Yay, two for the price of one. This one, however, is useful right from the start. If you didn't notice, Monks lack a reach weapon in their proficiency kit. Sure, you won't be able to flurry with it, but that's not really why you want it. A reach weapon allows you to make far more AoOs than you normally would and you probably will take combat reflexes as your second level bonus feat. Even armed with the spear, if they get inside your range you still retain your unarmed strikes and can still flurry that way. Just because you have it in hand doesn't mean you have to use it in every situation. For complete disclosure, it shares the same disarm bonus from size as the quarterstaff, is PA friendly, and can be readied for a charge. YMMV on the latter, though. being able to ready against a charge is a pretty uncommon event at most of the tables I've been at. When it comes to enchantment, it becomes a decent vector for Ki Focus, since there really isn't noticeable advantage in having ki focus melee weapons without reach. you can just save the money and punch the guy.

Martial Weapon Proficiency: Compared to SWP, the downside is that you can only pick one weapon for the feat instead of the entire class. Good news, though. There's really only one option on the board that adds something to your arsenal.

GUISARME: Take everything that makes the Longspear useful and add tripping to it. Since your level six feat is probably going to be improved trip, Being able to trip someone at Reach distances and then follow it up with a stun via Ki Focus on the guisarme is going to make somebody have a bad day.

That's all for now. Tune in next time for Monkday Meditations II: How I Learned to Stop Flurrying and Love the Bomb.

[Venger]

Making a key explaining your color rating might be helpful, as would changing yellow to something easier to read. Check out oriental adventures for extra monk weapons.

[mabriss lethe]

That's fair. I'm aware of most of the monk weapon sources. I just slapped this together at the end of the night as a fun project, so I wanted my first foray to stay limited in scope. I didn't want to be up half the night banging it out.

[Saintheart]

Shameless self-promotion: if you want to know more about quarterstaffs, try here!

[rrwoods]

I love threads like this, and I will be reading OP in full for sure, but I had to comment on something first:

I love the class despite its many numerous and glaring flaws. Don't judge me.

TBH, it would be incredibly hypocritical of anyone who loves 3.5 to judge you here, because ... we all love this game despite its many numerous and glaring flaws ;)