Biscuit's Straight-Forward Monk Fix

[Biscuit]

D&D 3.5 - Monk
(Player's Handbook, p. 39)

Dotted across the landscape are monasteries - small, walled cloisters inhabited by Monks who pursue personal perfection through action as well as contemplation. They train themselves to be versatile warriors skilled at fighting without weapons or armor. The inhabitants of monasteries headed by good masters serve as protectors of the people. Ready for battle even when barefoot and dressed in peasant clothes, Monks can travel unnoticed among the populace, catching bandits, warlords, and corrupt nobles unawares. In contrast, the residents of monasteries headed by evil masters rule the surrounding lands through fear, as an evil warlord and his entourage might. Evil Monks make ideal spies, infiltrators, and assassins.

The individual Monk is unlikely to care passionately about championing commoners or amassing wealth. She cares primarily for the perfection of her art and, thereby, her personal perfection. Her goal is to achieve a state that is beyond the mortal realm.

A Monk approaches an adventure as if it were a personal test. While not prone to showing off, Monks are willing to try their skills against whatever obstacles confront them. They are not greedy for material wealth, but they eagerly seek that which can help them perfect their art.

The key feature of the Monk is her ability to fight unarmed and unarmored. Thanks to her rigorous training, she can strike as hard as if she were armed and strike faster than a warrior with a sword.

Though a Monk casts no spells, she has a magic of her own. She channels a subtle energy, called ki, which allows her to perform amazing feats. The Monk's best-known feat is her ability to stun an opponent with an unarmed blow. A Monk also has a preternatural awareness that allows her to dodge an attack even if she is not consciously aware of it.

As the Monk gains experience and power, her mundane and kioriented abilities grow, giving her more and more power over herself and, sometimes, over others.

A Monk's training requires strict discipline. Only those who are lawful at heart are capable of undertaking it.

A Monk's training is her spiritual path. She is innerdirected and capable of a private, mystic connection to the spiritual world, so she needs neither clerics nor gods. Certain lawful gods, however, may appeal to Monks, who may meditate on the gods' likenesses and attempt to emulate their deeds. The three most likely candidates for a Monk's devotion are Heironeous (god of valor), St. Cuthbert (god of retribution), and Hextor (god of tyranny).

A Monk typically trains in a monastery. Most Monks were children when they joined the monastery, sent to live there when their parents died, when there wasn't enough food to support them, or in return for some kindness that the monastery had performed for the family. Life in the monastery is so focused that by the time a Monk sets off on her own, she feels little connection to her former family or village.

In larger cities, master Monks have set up Monk schools to teach their arts to those who are interested and worthy. The Monks who study at these academies often see their rural cousins from the monasteries as backward.

A Monk may feel a deep connection to her monastery or school, to the Monk who taught her, to the lineage into which she was trained, or to all of these. Some Monks, however, have no sense of connection other than to their own path of personal development. Monks recognize each other as a select group set apart from the rest of the populace. They may feel kinship, but they also love to compete with each other to see whose ki is strongest.

Monasteries are found primarily among humans, who have incorporated them into their ever-evolving culture. Thus, many Monks are humans, and many are half-orcs and half-elves who live among humans. Elves are capable of single-minded, long-term devotion to an interest, art, or discipline, and some of them leave the forests to become Monks. The Monk tradition is alien to dwarf and gnome culture, and halflings typically have too mobile a lifestyle to commit themselves to a monastery, so dwarves, gnomes, and halflings very rarely become Monks.

Hit Die: d8

Alignment: Any Lawful

Starting Gold: 1d6x10(35gp)

Skill Points: 4 + Int

Class Skills: Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge - Arcana (Int), Knowledge - Religion (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Cha), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), Tumble (Dex)

Level	BAB	Fort	Ref	Will	Class Features	Flurry BAB	Unarmed Damage	Dodge	Fast Movement
1	+1	+2	+2	+2	Bonus Feat, Flurry of Blows, Unarmed Strike	-1/-1	1d6	-	-
2	+2	+3	+3	+3	Bonus Feat, Evasion	+0/+0	1d6	-	-
3	+3	+3	+3	+3	Still Mind	+1/+1	1d6	-	+10 ft.
4	+4	+4	+4	+4	Ki Strike (Magic), Slow Fall (20 ft.)	+2/+2	1d8	-	+10 ft.
5	+5	+4	+4	+4	Purity of Body	+3/+3	1d8	+1	+10 ft.
6	+6/+1	+5	+5	+5	Bonus Feat, Slow Fall (30 ft.)	+4/+4/-1	1d8	+1	+20 ft.
7	+7/+2	+5	+5	+5	Wholeness of Body	+5/+5/+0	1d8	+1	+20 ft.
8	+8/+3	+6	+6	+6	Slow Fall (40 ft.)	+6/+6/+1	1d10	+1	+20 ft.
9	+9/+4	+6	+6	+6	Improved Evasion	+7/+7/+2	1d10	+1	+30 ft.
10	+10/+5	+7	+7	+7	Ki Strike (Lawful), Slow Fall (50 ft.)	+8/+8/+3	1d10	+2	+30 ft.
11	+11/+6/+1	+7	+7	+7	Diamond Body, Greater Flurry	+9/+9/+9/+4	1d10	+2	+30 ft.
12	+12/+7/+2	+8	+8	+8	Abundant Step, Slow Fall (60 ft.)	+10/+10/+10/+5	2d6	+2	+40 ft.
13	+13/+8/+3	+8	+8	+8	Diamond Soul	+11/+11/+11/+6/+1	2d6	+2	+40 ft.
14	+14/+9/+4	+9	+9	+9	Slow Fall (70 ft.)	+12/+12/+12/+7/+2	2d6	+2	+40 ft.
15	+15/+10/+5	+9	+9	+9	Quivering Palm	+13/+13/+13/+8/+3	2d6	+3	+50 ft.
16	+16/+11/+6/+1	+10	+10	+10	Ki Strike (Adamantine), Slow Fall (80 ft.)	+14/+14/+14/+9/+4	2d8	+3	+50 ft.
17	+17/+12/+7/+1	+10	+10	+10	Timeless Body, Tongue of the Sun and Moon	+15/+15/+15/+10/+5	2d8	+3	+50 ft.
18	+18/+13/+8/+3	+11	+11	+11	Slow Fall (90 ft.)	+16/+16/+16/+11/+6/+1	2d8	+3	+60 ft.
19	+19/+14/+9/+4	+11	+11	+11	Empty Body	+17/+17/+17/+12/+7/+2	2d8	+3	+60 ft.
20	+20/+15/+10/+5	+12	+12	+12	Perfect Self, Slow Fall (Any Distance)	+18/+18/+18/+13/+8/+3	2d10	+4	+60 ft.

Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Monks are proficient with certain basic peasant weapons and some special weapons that are part of Monk training. The weapons with which a Monk is proficient are claw bracers*, club, crossbow (hand, light, and heavy), dagger, gauntlets*, handaxe, javelin, kama*, nunchaku*, quarterstaff*, sai*, shuriken*, siangham*, sling, spiked gauntlets*. Monks are not proficient with any armor or shields—in fact, many of the Monk's special powers require unfettered movement. 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. (Weapons marked with an * here are considered 'Special Monk Weapons')

Dodge AC Bonus (Ex): A Monk is highly trained at dodging blows, and she has a sixth sense that lets her avoid even unanticipated attacks. 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 the table above. 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 must use a full attack action to strike with a flurry of blows.

When using flurry of blows, a Monk may attack only with unarmed strikes or with Special Monk Weapons (claw bracers, gauntlets, kama, nunchaku, quarterstaff, sai, shuriken, siangham, and spiked gauntlets). She may attack with unarmed strikes and special Monk weapons interchangeably as desired. For example, at 6th level, the Monk Ember could make one attack with her unarmed strike at an attack bonus of +3 and one attack with a special Monk weapon at an attack bonus of +3. When using weapons as part of a flurry of blows, a Monk applies her Strength bonus 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. For example, an 8th-level Monk could make two attacks with the quarterstaff (one with each end) at a +5 attack bonus and one with an unarmed strike at a +0 attack bonus, or she could attack with one end of the quarterstaff and one unarmed strike each at a +5 attack bonus, and with the other end of the quarterstaff at a +0 attack bonus, or she could attack with one end of the quarterstaff and one unarmed strike at a +5 attack bonus each, and with the other end of the quarterstaff at a +0 attack bonus. She cannot, however, wield any other weapon at the same time that she uses a quarterstaff.

When a Monk reaches 11th 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: Monks are highly trained in fighting unarmed, giving them considerable advantages when doing so. 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. There is no such thing as an off-hand attack for a Monk striking unarmed. A Monk may thus apply her full Strength bonus on damage rolls for all her unarmed strikes.

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 (such as the magic fang and magic weapon spells). A Monk also deals more damage with her unarmed strikes than a normal person would, as shown on the table above (numbers given are for a Monk of Medium size - adjust accordingly for differently sized monks according to the Table: Larger and Smaller Weapon Damage).

Bonus Feat: At 1st level, a Monk may select either Improved Grapple or Stunning Fist as a bonus feat. At 2nd level, she may select either Combat Reflexes or Deflect Arrows as a bonus feat. At 6th level, she may select either Improved Disarm or Improved Trip as a bonus feat. (See Chapter 5: Feats for descriptions.) A Monk need not have any of the prerequisites normally required for these feats to select them. These choices can be expanded further by using one of the Variant Monk Fighting Styles.

Evasion (Ex): A Monk of 2nd level or higher can avoid even magical and unusual attacks with great agility. If she makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save (such as a red dragon's fiery breath or a fireball), she instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if a Monk is wearing light armor or no armor. A helpless Monk (such as one who is unconscious or paralysed) does not gain the benefit of evasion.

Monk Movement (Ex): At 3rd level, a Monk gains an enhancement bonus to her speed, as shown on the table bove. A Monk in armor (even light armor) or carrying a medium or heavy load loses this extra speed.

Still Mind (Ex): A Monk of 3rd level or higher gains a +2 bonus on saving throws against spells and effects from the school of enchantment, since her meditation and training improve her resistance to mind-affecting attacks.

Ki Strike (Su): At 4th level, a Monk's unarmed attacks and attacks with Special Monk Weapons (claw bracers, gauntlets, kama, nunchaku, quarterstaff, sai, shuriken, siangham, and spiked gauntlets) are empowered with ki. Her unarmed attacks are treated as magic weapons for the purpose of dealing damage to creatures with damage reduction. Ki strike improves with the character's Monk level. At 10th level, her unarmed attacks are also treated as lawful weapons for the purpose of dealing damage to creatures with damage reduction. At 16th level, her unarmed attacks are treated as adamantine weapons for the purpose of dealing damage to creatures with damage reduction and bypassing hardness.

Slow Fall (Ex): At 4th level or higher, a Monk within arm's reach of a wall or other solid object can use it to slow her descent. 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 when next to a wall) improves with her Monk level until at 20th level she can use a nearby wall or other solid object to slow her descent and fall any distance without harm. See the Slow Fall column on the table above for details.

Purity of Body (Ex): At 5th level, a Monk gains control over her body's immune system. She gains immunity to all diseases except for supernatural and magical diseases (such as mummy rot and lycanthropy).

Wholeness of Body (Su): At 7th level or higher, a Monk can heal her own wounds. She can heal a number of hit points of damage equal to twice her current Monk level each day, and she can spread this healing out among several uses.

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 such as a dragon's breath weapon or a fireball, but henceforth she takes only half damage on a failed save. A helpless Monk (such as one who is unconscious or paralysed) does not gain the benefit of improved evasion.

Diamond Body (Su): At 11th level, a Monk is in such firm control of her own metabolism that she gains immunity to poisons of all kinds.

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 one-half her Monk level (rounded down).

Diamond Soul (Ex): At 13th 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; see Spell Resistance, page 177) that equals or exceeds the Monk's spell resistance.

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 week, and 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 + 1/2 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.

Timeless Body (Ex): Upon attaining 17th 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 17th level or higher can speak with any living creature.

Empty Body (Su): At 19th 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.

Perfect Self: At 20th level, a Monk has tuned her body with skill and quasi-magical abilities to the point that she becomes a magical creature. She is forevermore treated as an outsider (an extraplanar creature) rather than as a humanoid for the purpose of spells and magical effects. For instance, charm person does not affect her. Additionally, the Monk gains damage reduction 10/magic, which allows her to ignore the first 10 points of damage from any attack made by a nonmagical weapon or by any natural attack made by a creature that doesn't have similar damage reduction (see Damage Reduction, page 291 of the Dungeon Master's Guide). Unlike other outsiders, the Monk can still be brought back from the dead as if she were a member of her previous creature type.

Spoiler: Author Notes and Changelog

Show

[LIST][*]Breakdown of major changes in the post below.[*]Cleaned up language of Slow Fall to include large objects other than 'walls'. A colossal monster, for example, might as well be a wall for this ability the same way a stone pillar or the support beam of a bridge, etc, etc. Just more inclusive language.

[Biscuit]

This is a simple fix to make the the Monk class more viable with 3-4 easy additions to their mechanics. The first three additions have been incorporated into the post above for ease of reference and comprehension.


Step 1 Change from 'Average' BAB to the same 'Full' BAB that the Fighters, Barbarians, Paladins, and Rangers classes enjoy.
Reasoning: This is a melee fighting class that has a heavy focus on unarmed or unconventionally personal combat, which is already starting with weaker support than a base Fighter. Punishing the class further with 'Average' BAB is nonsensical.


Step 2 Add Gauntlets, Spiked Gauntlets and Claw Bracers to the Monk's weapon proficiencies, and also qualify them all as 'Monk Weapons' for the Monk's class abilities.
Reasoning: If any combat class is going to benefit from fist-based weapons, it should be the Monk.


Step 3 Have the scaling Ki Strike ability function with all 'Monk Weapons' as well as Unarmed Strike.
Reasoning: This is an easy one, since splitting a sub-par combatant's focus between class features or equipment is a losing game, as equipment wins out in the end. A combat class should enhance your combat abilities, not hobble or restrict them without giving anything to compensate. Ultimately, appropriate equipment for your class should enhance your class abilities, not make them worthless.


Step 4 (Optional) For purposes of any class features or feats that require you to hand their hand(s) to be free, the Monk is considered to be such even if wielding/wearing Gauntlets, Spiked Gauntlets, or Claw Bracers. This means they can pick up, hold, and manipulate other objects, opt to use Unarmed Strikes with their hands or fists, and perform actions that require the use of 'free hands' while retaining their worn hand-related weaponry.
Reasoning: This allows a monk to continue using their existing 'Unarmed' class features while benefitting from level-appropriate equipment instead of falling behind the curve due to minimal equipment-specific support like every other class, and help provide ancillary support to the class while keeping it thematically appropriate.



Variant (Optional) Fix

Allow class levels that provide progression of the Slow Fall class feature to instead provide a Bonus Feat from the Fighter Bonus Feat list. The Slow Fall class feature is pretty terrible as far as key scaling class features go, and is essentially worthless outside of very specific and wildly unrealistic scenarios and the class could benefit from greatly from enhanced combat through bonus feats.

[Morphic tide]

Step 1 is at odds with steps 2 and 4, while all four of them are just blunt +numbers rather than addressing underlying mechanics. This does nothing about their attribute dependencies, awkward feat requirements, tortured action economy, or nearly useless features, it just plugs them into the general mechanical soup by ripping out the "hard" conflict points.

For me, the "four steps" would be the following:

1. +2 AC at 1st level, so 14 Wis is sufficient to match AC with a Chain Shirt wearer of equal Dexterity, thus having approximate AC parity with tame ability investment
2. Flurry being full BAB -3 done by Enhancement bonus Ki Strike component, extended to Monk weapons and from 1st-20th, for eventual character-internal +5 to all attacks Monk
3. Replace bad features with good action economy quality such as Flurry on more attack modes, non-Move-action movement to full Flurry elsewhere, and actually useful verticality
4. "Unarmed Damage" tied to Ki Strike in full, worded so that Unarmed Strike qualities go to Monk weapons, making the current 50% markup on that into a 150% discount for "mirrored" TWF

Natural Weapons being Monk-compatible does make sense in a world-logic capacity, though I still feel like it should be variant material as it's still referencing class-external attack modes (such a variant invites shameless body-modding to acquire the attacks), but tying Gauntlets into it is insisting on the very thing the Monk is supposed to exist outside.

After that, I'd look at furnishing the Monk feat list with important things like Weapon Finesse, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, maybe Spring Attack depending on Flurry wording, basically letting them "skip" nominal taxes to reduce the "straightjacket". Not all dumped into the "main" list, partly because the UA Fighting Styles are a rather good mechanic to reuse since they let you put in ANOTHER little mechanical buff to help with normally-bad playstyles and partly to constrain value to the soup.

[Biscuit]

Step 1 is at odds with steps 2 and 4, while all four of them are just blunt +numbers rather than addressing underlying mechanics. This does nothing about their attribute dependencies, awkward feat requirements, tortured action economy, or nearly useless features, it just plugs them into the general mechanical soup by ripping out the "hard" conflict points.

For me, the "four steps" would be the following:

1. +2 AC at 1st level, so 14 Wis is sufficient to match AC with a Chain Shirt wearer of equal Dexterity, thus having approximate AC parity with tame ability investment
2. Flurry being full BAB -3 done by Enhancement bonus Ki Strike component, extended to Monk weapons and from 1st-20th, for eventual character-internal +5 to all attacks Monk
3. Replace bad features with good action economy quality such as Flurry on more attack modes, non-Move-action movement to full Flurry elsewhere, and actually useful verticality
4. "Unarmed Damage" tied to Ki Strike in full, worded so that Unarmed Strike qualities go to Monk weapons, making the current 50% markup on that into a 150% discount for "mirrored" TWF

Natural Weapons being Monk-compatible does make sense in a world-logic capacity, though I still feel like it should be variant material as it's still referencing class-external attack modes (such a variant invites shameless body-modding to acquire the attacks), but tying Gauntlets into it is insisting on the very thing the Monk is supposed to exist outside.

After that, I'd look at furnishing the Monk feat list with important things like Weapon Finesse, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, maybe Spring Attack depending on Flurry wording, basically letting them "skip" nominal taxes to reduce the "straightjacket". Not all dumped into the "main" list, partly because the UA Fighting Styles are a rather good mechanic to reuse since they let you put in ANOTHER little mechanical buff to help with normally-bad playstyles and partly to constrain value to the soup.

I've reworded the fix to be more inclusive and clear, as well as taken your suggestion on leaving out Natural Attacks from the fix and replacing it with the ability to use Ki Strike with Special Monk Weapons.

I've also added a full table and breakdown of the class for ease of use. I will consider replacing Slow Fall with something more appropriate in the future to make the class better (rather than just making it not suck as hard), but that will be for a possible future Rewrite variant rather than a simple Fix.

[rel]

Not seeing a huge difference between this version and regular monk.
Power level is about the same, looks like it will play in roughly the same way.

Would be helpful to know what you want the monk to feel like at the table and what power level or tier you're aiming for.