Proposed Monk Rules Preview (not house rules)

[Artoomis]

Monks currently have little support of their iconic unarmed strike and also have a pretty poor basic attack.

I am starting work on a Class Acts article that I will submit to address this, and I wanted your comments. These are intended to become rules in the future, which is why I want your comments in case I overlooked some balancing factor and made something unbalanced by accident. Essentially, this is a play-test request for these rules prior to submitting an article to WotC.

My philosophy here is to fix unarmed strikes to make them a viable choice and give some reasonable choices for melee basic attacks. Also, I wish to do this without making any substantive changes to the class.

Skipping all the flavor text, I will be proposing the following:

New Power

Empty Palm [Attack Technique] Monk Attack 1

Focusing your Ki through your empty palm, you strike with unerring accuracy and hold the target in place while you position yourself for the next strike.

Standard Action, Melee touch
Target: 1 Creature
At Will, Full Discipline, Implement. Psionic
Attack: Dexterity, vs Reflex
Hit: 1d6 + Dex modifier damage, and the target is immobilized until the start of your next turn
Level 21 2d6 + Dex modifier damage.

Special: May be used in place of a melee basic attack. When doing so, it does not count as using a full discipline power.
Special: If attacking with an empty palm (one hand free and not using a weapon to make the attack), gain a +1 power bonus to the attack roll. This bonus increases to +2 at level 21.

Empty Palm [Movement Technique]
At-Will Full Discipline, Psionic
Move Action, Personal
Target: One creature adjacent to you

Effect: You shift 4 squares to any square adjacent to the target.

Updated Feat

Improved Monk Unarmed Strike
Heroic Tier
Prerequisite: Monk, Unarmed Combatant class feature
Benefit: The damage die of your monk unarmed strike becomes 1d10, instead of 1d8. If attacking without a weapon and with at least one hand free (unarmed), monk implement attacks gain a +2 bonus to damage. When using you monk's Flurry of Blows class feature, gain +2 bonus to damage if the triggering attack was made unarmed .

New Feat

Pugilist Flurry
Heroic Tier
Prerequisite: Monk, Flurry of Blows class feature
Benefit: When using your monk's Flurry of Blows class feature, if the triggering attack was made unarmed you can forego the normal damage from the Flurry for any target(s) and instead have the target(s) immobilized until the start of your next turn.


New Theme

The Empty Fist

A psionic who uses mental discipline to toughen the body and turn it into a highly mobile weapons system.

For the purposes of this theme, an unarmed attack means an attack made with one hand free and while not using any weapon other than one’s own body (hands, feat, elbows, knees, head etc.) or a weapon in the unarmed group

Starting Feature:
Pick one of your non-triggered melee at will attack powers. If made as an unarmed attack, you may use that attack in place of a basic attack. If this power is the attack part of a monk's full discipline power, it does not count as a use of a full discipline power when used as a melee basic attack.

You are proficient in unarmed weapons and can use an unarmed strike. This weapon is an unarmed weapon, has the off-hand weapon property, a +3 proficiency bonus, and it deals 1d8 damage. You must have a hand free to use your unarmed strike, even if you’re kicking, kneeing, elbowing, or head-butting a target. The unarmed strike gives you a +3 proficiency bonus, and has 1d8 weapon damage. To use an unarmed strike, you must have one hand free. If you are not wielding a weapon or carrying a shield, you gain +1 to attack rolls.

Gain Hold it Right There power

Hold it Right There, Empty Fist Attack 1

No Action
Target: 1 Creature
Encounter, Psionic
Trigger: A successful unarmed melee attack.
Effect: The target is grabbed.


Level 5 Feature:

Add +2 damage to all unarmed attacks. If you take the Improved Unarmed Strike feat, add an additional +2 damage to all unarmed attacks except weapon attacks.
Pick one of your non-triggered melee at will attack powers. If made as an unarmed attack, you may use that attack in place of a basic attack. If this power is the attack part of a monk's full discipline power, it does not count as a use of a full discipline power when used as a melee basic attack.

Level 10 Feature
+2 Will defense

Level 2 Utility
Defensive Move
Daily Psionic, Stance
Minor Action, Personal
Special: Must have one hand free to use this power.
Effect: Until the stance ends, whenever you move you gain a power bonus of +2 to all defenses until the start of your next turn (so long as one hand remains free).

Level 6 Utility
Faster Than Most
Encounter, Psionic
Minor Action, Personal
Effect: Move your speed.

Level 10 Utility
What, Me Slow Down?
Encounter, Psionic
Standard Minor Action, Personal
Effect: Until the end of your next turn, ignore difficult terrain.

COMMENTS:

As proposed. one could take the new At Will power and the Theme and end up with two At Will powers that could also be used for melee basic attacks.

As proposed, once could get a +4 benefit to Flurry of Blows by taking Improved Monk Unarmed Strike and the theme. One could add another +2 damage to the flurry by holding a club in one hand and taking the Crashing Tempest Style feat, but that comes at a cost of limiting other options of what one might wield with that hand.

Since the At Will attack can be used in place of a melee basic attack, any sort of enemy-affecting properly is perhaps too much since it can be used as an OA. (Thanks, bganon, I had totally missed the potentially unbalancing OA aspect of this)

Overall, I think this makes unarmed strikes appealing but not, by any means, the always-optimal choice to make for running a monk PC.

 

[mneme]

Not a deal breaker, by any means, but what's to stop someone from using your features while wielding a spear, club, dagger or shuriken in their off hand?

Also, you sure you want the self-bonus to be a power bonus? IMEX, small power bonuses become increasingly irrelevant over time, as leaders start giving out bigger and bigger power bonuses for more and more of the fight.

 

[Artoomis]

mneme: Thanks for your response.

Not a deal breaker, by any means, but what's to stop someone from using your features while wielding a spear, club, dagger or shuriken in their off hand?

Nothing, and I think that's okay. Of course, they can't be using that weapon in the attack.

Also, you sure you want the self-bonus to be a power bonus? IMEX, small power bonuses become increasingly irrelevant over time, as leaders start giving out bigger and bigger power bonuses for more and more of the fight.

Good point. I was concerned about stacking issues, but maybe it's fine if Empty Palm granted an unnamed bonus? Not too powerful? I think the Defensive Move utility is best left as a power bonus so it won't stack with such things as Centered Defense.

 

[bganon]

Empty Palm seems better than pretty much any other Monk at-will. In particular, it is superior to Dragon's Tail in pretty much every way. Even if a Monk is normally using an implement-weapon, it's pretty easy for them to have a hand free, so IMO every Monk would take this power.

The feat is like Crashing Tempest Style and an overall +2 to damage rolled into one. So unarmed style is now strictly superior to club style. And the change to d10 is made irrelevant by the at-will power anyway.

With the theme granting a damage bonus that stacks with the style feat, I don't see why anyone would play any other style monk anymore. The unarmed style is getting more damage than others, and you get to make good basic attacks. Maybe it's true that the other styles suck, but I'm not sure this power boost is gonna fly. The theme features in general seem rather powerful (I'm not very fond of theme defense bonuses, but it's too late to put that cat back in the bag).

The utility powers seem pretty good (the level 2 might be too good, but I'm not sure), except for the level 10. It's terrible. Monks at level 10 can jump and sometimes fly all over the place, nobody's gonna blow a standard action just to ignore difficult terrain.

 

[Njall]

Some random thoughts:
IMHO, the at-will is a bit too good. Immobilize at will, and do it on an OA to boot? This makes the Iron Soul monk stickier than the fighter; I'd change it to something else, frankly... maybe just slow the target?
Furthermore, for the most part you've increased the unarmed monk's damage, but it's not any different from, say, a monk with a club, except that now fighting with a club is the suboptimal choice.
How about adding something a bit different, instead? A damage bonus versus slowed targets, for example, or a different effect when you hit a specific defense ( for example, if you hit the target with a power that targets reflex, he's slowed; if you hit him with a power that targets fort, he takes a -2 to attack rolls and so forth ).

Good luck with your submission

 

[BobTheNob]

You might want to think about fluff a little. Mechanics are important, but more importantly is color and flavor. Whats the origin of this style? Where does it fit into society? Whats the background of the order that developed it?

If you are sending WOTC a "rules correction" article, I dont know how well that will be received. I get the impression that is not what they are looking for from fan submitted material.

 

[Shroomy]

You shouldn't be posting this on a public messageboard if you're intending for this to go to WotC, especially if they've asked you to write an article.

 

[Artoomis]

You might want to think about fluff a little. Mechanics are important, but more importantly is color and flavor. Whats the origin of this style? Where does it fit into society? Whats the background of the order that developed it?

If you are sending WOTC a "rules correction" article, I dont know how well that will be received. I get the impression that is not what they are looking for from fan submitted material.

Thanks.

I am intentionally leaving out the fluff for now so we can focus on the mechanics. The article submission will include a lot more text just as you suggest.

 

[Artoomis]

You shouldn't be posting this on a public messageboard if you're intending for this to go to WotC, especially if they've asked you to write an article.

They have not asked me, so until I submit it and they accept it this is just my own personal draft for article content. Posting like this is not an issue, but thanks for your concern.

 

[Artoomis]

Some random thoughts:
IMHO, the at-will is a bit too good. Immobilize at will, and do it on an OA to boot? This makes the Iron Soul monk stickier than the fighter; I'd change it to something else, frankly... maybe just slow the target?
Furthermore, for the most part you've increased the unarmed monk's damage, but it's not any different from, say, a monk with a club, except that now fighting with a club is the suboptimal choice.
How about adding something a bit different, instead? A damage bonus versus slowed targets, for example, or a different effect when you hit a specific defense ( for example, if you hit the target with a power that targets reflex, he's slowed; if you hit him with a power that targets fort, he takes a -2 to attack rolls and so forth ).

Good luck with your submission

Great input! Thanks. I did not think about the immobilization happening on an OA, that's a really good point. Hmmm... maybe prone (tripped with a leg sweep)? That way they can easily recover on their turn, so it's less powerful. I don't know, maybe there should be no extra effect at all since it can be used as a basic attack which includes OAs. I am leaning in that direction, and will edit it that way while I am think about it more.

You're right that if you take the theme, feat and power you get to be about as effective as if you had a club, but you don't get to ever have any weapon properties/powers to use, so I don't think that going unarmed will be that easy a choice. For example, you can have a Ki Club (another +2 to damage for a Flurry, but you can never have a Ki Fist.

And what you cannot do (what my character does now), is have a Ki Club AND a Parrying Dagger. That inability to use two weapons in that way is a significant balancing factor.