Monk Basics is up!

[cignus_pfaccari]

Hrm. I kinda like the Master of the Fist feat. Never being without a weapon is pretty handy.

I do think that Piercing Palm should allow the rogue to treat their Unarmed Strike as a Light Blade; that would synergize better with both ORogue and Thief and existing Light Blade feats, though that might get kinda rude later on.

Brad

 

[Stalker0]

Personally I think the monk is one of the better designed classes in 4e. I think its does its job very well, and feels both powerful and mobile.

Use the unarmed strike should use dex, but I'm using my at wills most of the time anyway, and I don't see OA that's much.

 

[WalterKovacs]

Focuses way too much on what is a terrible mechanic (the Unarmed Combatant) in an attempt to make it not suck when the simpler fix would've been to simply go the Essentials route and make it a Dex-based attack in the first place. Taking a feat to give the class something it should have from the outset isn't a fix, it's a feat-tax.

The article doesn't 'rewrite' the monk class, it adds to it. As such, a feat to modify things is the way it goes about dealing with that particular problem (and adds some extra stuff, like the expertise feats do, to make it less of a feat tax).

In terms of the sneak attack feat ... a rapier also costs the rogue a feat. The big problem is that, for a hybrid rogue/monk, you need to eat up a hybrid talent just to get the unarmed attack in the first place, and you are otherwise taking a feat to m/c into rogue (or monk) in the first place.

Personally, the article made me interested (again) in trying to build a monk. I rarely get to play a striker, so I haven't had a chance to play a monk yet, but they always intrigued me with the unique mechanics and the 'melee ranged aoe damage' concept that makes it unique (the unarmed thing seemed to have been a weird artifact left over from when it was a mix of weapon and implement attacks, like the swordmage, so outside of the strength secondary build, or people using the old melee training, it might have come in handy for some hybrids or a monk multiclassing out ...at least making it something you get for multiclassing in means a weapon class can make use of it).

 

[Magil]

Internalize The Basic Kata is great for Slayers that multiclass into monks, allowing full Dex for basic attacks using the monk unarmed strike.

Eh, I'm not sold on the idea. Since the Internalize the Basic Kata requires the Flurry of Blows feature, you need to take two other monk MC feats (one for Unarmed Combatant, and then one for Flurry of Blows) to qualify, and your reward is a weapon that's not even as good as a Gouge and the ability to use pure DEX. I think if you want to be a pure DEX-based slayer, just pick up a longbow. Not like you can use Martial Cross-Training to grab Rain of Blows anyway.

On the other hand, Master of the Fist is a great MC feat for brawlers, and makes it possible to get 1d12 fists with Shock Trooper.

 

[RangerWickett]

In terms of the sneak attack feat ... a rapier also costs the rogue a feat.

Rogues are proficient in rapiers now.

 

[Vael]

Rogues are proficient in rapiers now.

No, they're not. Rapiers are military weapons now, but neither the Essentials Thief or PH1 Scoundrel have proficiency in military weapons, they have a separate weapon list.

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

In any case, it's easy to grab Rapier proficiency with a number of backgrounds that also grant +1 to initiative, diplomacy, or something else (depending on which one you take).

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Hrm, looking again at Piercing Palm, it's really only useful for a monk who's eschewing light blades, or a thief, because most rogue powers specify that they need to be used with a light blade, hand crossbow, or a sling.

Very, VERY useful for a thief. Original rogue? Not so much.

Brad

 

[Gortle]

Against a typical foe, ongoing damage translates to about 1.8 times the base damage, I believe. So ongoing 5 damage will, on average, do about 9 damage to a foe.

You are being much too generous. When you are attacking you want to take down the enemy now, not in 3 rounds. If you are regularly taking 3 rounds to down normal opponents then your party is doing something wrong.

On going damage of the same type doesn't stack either. So if you hit the same target a second time often you won't be getting full value.

I'd use 1.5 times with ongoing damage unless your party has specific tactics\builds for it.

 

[Incenjucar]

Ongoing damage is particularly effective against enemies that can evade you in some way. There's a reason assassins use poison. Not to mention that it circumvents the weakened condition.