Prestige Class Initiation tests??? ideas???

[T-Bone]

If you game in Southern California with a DM who's first name starts with the letter "T", please stay out of this thread.





Hi,

One of my players is trying to qualify for a prestige class soon. He is a Monk/Cleric going for Tatooed Monk (from OA & Complete Warrior).

I need to come up with some initiation tests for him. I though I might base some of thme on the class prereq's: Knowledge (Religion) 8 ranks, Lawful, +3 BaB, Imp Grapple, Imp Unarmed Strike.

So, what would be good tests of:

Lawful: I was thinking some kind of puzzle where the answer relies on order or balance.

Knowledge Religion 8 ranks: ???

Imp Grapple: ???

Imp Unarmed Strike: ???

He will be taught by an ancient monk in an abandoned town.

 

[Piratecat]

For those who don't have the book, what's the tatooed monk's schtick? Knowing it will let us get the flavor right.

 

[Skarnkai]

Well in rokugan IIRC, the initiate must drink a little of Togashi's blood (Dragon/Kami), surving this final test would be painful, probably would cause halucinations or the like etc.

 

[Stormborn]

Probablly the simplest test of Unarmed Strike and Improved Grapple is to have him fight a student of the monk. He may not have to win, meerly demonstrate "worthiness."

Lawfulness: give the Character three rules (or so) that he must abide by for one week, and then give him every reason to break those rules. If he doesn't he must hold the law above all else.

Knowledge Religion: Admitiance into the arena where he will battle the student can be a puzzle based on some story of the Faith. He must sit and contemplate it, make a knowledge check against a DC of 18, if he is succesful he knows the answer and can solve the puzzle.
The other option is to have him answer questions about the religion as an entrance test to the Dojo.


Hmmm...the test of 3s:

3 Laws for 3 Days
3 Questions/Puzzles of Religion
3 Fights: one with another initiate, one with a student, one with the master. He only really has to win the first one.

That help?

 

[JimAde]

This is a bit cheesy, but very "martial artsy": For the Improved Unarmed Strike, you could give him a breaking test. That is, he has to break boards or bricks or something else with a hardness value. This proves he's doing a certain amount of lethal damage and, thus, has IUS. (I know you can do lethal damage without IUS, but presumably those giving the test can tell the difference).

The monk's Lawful requirement, I think, is meant to reflect their discipline. Maybe you could have him engage someone in a debate on religion/philosophy while being attacked or otherwise horribly distracted (i.e. he'll have to make concentration checks to order his thoughts).

 

[T-Bone]

thanks for those, any more?

To answer PC's question, The Tatooed Monk gets a new Tatoo each level that he can use once per day per tatoo. He can choose from Tatoos that boost a stat for a few minutes, boost AC, heal self, heal others, etc.

Each tatoo has usually an animal or plant name, and I would assume that is what the tatoo lookslike.

I was thinking about having the monk have to find and collect the blood (or sap, or whatever) of the appropriate animal (or whatever), mix it into a potion, drink half, and use the other half as the ink for the tatoo. The ingested potion could do anything from a simple saving throw to avoid some nasty side affects that would recover from in about a week. Or they could be halucinagenic (spelling?) and it could be here that he must answer a riddle, or pass a puzzle test, etc.

I'd like the test to be something that the player would not be sure of, but by following the LAWFUL path leads to the right answer. This could be anywhere from organizing a group of pebble into equal piles (order) or following a path that splits into a fork multiple times, and as long as he always chooses left, or always right, he succeeds (order).

This is his second attempt to enter the Tatooed Monks ranks. His first attempt was an invide to a "kumite" type martial arts tournament. It was an 8 man single elimination tournament (kinda like the old Ultimate Fighting Championships). I had each other player secretly make a martial arts NPG fighter to enter into the tournament with, I made characters to fill in the rest to make 8 total fighters. I then randomly paired up fighters. The PC monk, unfortunately ended up against one of the NPC's I made. It was a monk/fighter spiked chain wielder with anti-grappling feat (from Sword & Fist, provides AoO against grapplers, even ones with Imp Grapple, damage dealt adds to defending Grapple check).
I knew that IF the player met up with this NPC, it would be hard to beat. I figured this NPC would fight someone else first, and if she advanced, she would at least be hurt and easier to defeat. Nope. He got her in the first round. She won initiative and hit him with the spiked chain for decent damage. He charges her, passing thru her threat range, taking an AoO. He didn't think she's hit cuz he has Mobility. But she did. Then he attempts to grapple, drawing another AoO (she had combat reflexes) and got hit a third time. Her turn, she takes a 5 foot step and attacks with the chain and hits for the 4th time. PC monk is down to single digit Hp's and TAPS OUT! Just for fun, we played the rest of the tournament and she ended up winning the whole thing (very close in the end though).