Balancing monks.

[Aquillion]

I am tired of overpowered monks running through my game, slaughtering everything with Divine Power and Polymorph. My mage, cleric, and druid are threatening to quit in disgust over constantly being overshadowed by the monk's abilities.

Therefore, I need some suggestions on ways to nerf monks. Not too much, I understand that having them being so powerful is part of what makes them like a monk, but still, they can't win every time.

So far, I've considered the following possibilities:

Dropping their BAB to 1/2. This might work, but wouldn't keep them from using Divine Power. Plus, monks probably have str as their highest stat, so this won't hurt so much.

Make Flurry require two full-round actions (you have to remain in one spot for two turns in a row, although you can take a 5-foot step on each. You flurry at the end of the second turn.) This would require more planning, but I sort of like this option.

Make their ref save a weak save. They're going to have dex as their highest stat for the AC, so why do they need a good ref save?

Make Tongue of the Sun and Moon a 1/day ability that lasts for rounds/level and only allows you to talk to a single creature each time it is used. This ability is completely overpowered; I can't even begin to count the number of times murder-mystery adventures I was running were ruined by the monk announcing "I'll ask the squirrel who did it!"

Change skill points per level to 2. Chances are the monk has int as their highest stat anyway, why do they need skill points on top of that?

Remove Polymorph, Divine Power, and Anti-Magic Field from their list of class abilities. Why on earth were those there in the first place?

Change HD to 1d4. Every monk has con as their highest stat anyway for the HP, they don't need a good HD size on top of it. Change fort save to weak for the same reason.

Change Abundent Step to 1/week. Sooo broken.

Weak will save. Monks are going to have wisdom as their highest stat in any case, for the AC bonus and stunning fist.

Make Quivering Palm 1/year. Even then, it's probably overpowered.

Remove Diplomacy from list of class skills. Why do they need that when they're going to have Charisma as their highest stat so they can UMD?

Perfect Self should make them immune to being brought back from the dead, like most outsiders. That would make it at least a little balanced.

Their Slow Fall ability should require a Ring of Slow Falling to operate. I think that that's only fair, since it puts them in line with the less powerful classes.

I'm not sure this is enough, though. Does anyone have any other suggestions to keep monks from dominating my games?

[SamTheCleric]

To quote JD from scrubs...

"Sarcasm should be shorter."

..

But still, I laughed.

[Indon]

I don't think you need to do all that. Just talk to your Monk player about contributing proportionally to the group (for instance, an archer Monk is perfectly balanced, so long as they don't take Zen Archery).

You might also want to cater to the spellcasters a bit more with encounters. Rather than having a single, fast, large enemy who the Monk can keep up with and fight against, you could have groups of smaller enemies who stand tightly-packed together like goblins who can be killed with a Fireball. And your cleric can heal damage caused by traps.

As a DM, it's well within your power to make sessions fun for everyone by giving them all something to do.

[Solo]

The solution is simple. Have your sorcerer take levels in Dragon Disciple, your cleric take levels in Mystic Theurge, and your Druid take levels in Horizon Walker.

Soon, your party will become just as powerful as the monk is.

[FinalJustice]

Better, the sorcerer upgrades to warmage (no need to PrC this, too much cheese for a sane DM to handle), cleric upgrades to Paladin/Shining Blade of Heironeous (Nerf remove disease) and druid upgrades into a fighter who bought a dog (Apply the weapon and armor restriction for the druid here, for balance purpose too). This way your party can keep up with the versatility of the monk, although they won't be able to match his sheer power.

[TRM]

Remove Polymorph, Divine Power, and Anti-Magic Field from their list of class abilities. Why on earth were those there in the first place?

Maybe remove UMD from their list of class skills?

((I hate to be the one to say this, but didn't Roland say not to start another monk balance thread when he locked the last one?))
I know your post was sarcasm

[Chosen_of_Vecna]

Maybe remove UMD from their list of class skills?

((I hate to be the one to say this, but didn't Roland say not to start another monk balance thread when he locked the last one?))
I know your post was sarcasm

I don't think April Fools jokes count. As long as we don't actually turn it into one. Though I won't be overly surprised, given the pretty clear target of this thread.

[Kurald Galain]

Well done. That was a lot funnier than the committee-designer april fools "joke" that WOTC made this year

[Ossian]

Give all the other players a Browning .30 or a Barrett rifle with x20 scope. This should partially bridge the power gap...

[Solo]

Give all the other players a Browning .30 or a Barrett rifle with x20 scope. This should partially bridge the power gap...

A Browning .30? I assume you mean a BAR, right? Or maybe a Browning M1919 machine gun?

Browning is a sporting arms company (now, at least) that produces many rifles in .30 caliber, such as a semiautomatic rifle also called the Browning Automatic Rifle, and bolt action hunting rifles.

I'm also going to assume by a Barrett rifle, you mean one of Barret's many .50 caliber rifles, used for long distance shooting, as opposed to one of their M-4 type rifles (which they do make now.)

Although giving the party M-4 carbines isn't too bad an idea either. Barrett makes some very good customized M-4 carbines.