D&D 4E 4e Monk

[Michael Morris]

In order to convert my 3e game I have to convert the monk class. I'm taking a cue from Street Fighter since that seems to fit in with 4e better than any realistic martial artist.

Monk
“To master the world, first master your self.”

CLASS TRAITS
Role: Striker. You can deal a great deal of damage to a single opponent and possess excellent maneuverability in order to get in, strike, and escape before the enemy can react.

Power Source: Ki. Your power comes from meditation honing the mind, spirit and body to become one.

Key Abilities: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma
Armor Proficiencies: Cloth

Weapon Proficiencies: Simple melee, unarmed strike

Implements: None

Bonus to Defense: +2 Fortitude, +2 Reflex, +2 Will, +2 AC

Hit Points at 1st Level: 12 + Constitution score

Hit Points per Level Gained: 5

Healing Surges per Day: 7 + Constitution modifier

Trained Skills: Acrobatics. From the class skills list below,
choose three more trained skills at 1st level.
Class Skills: Athletics (Str), Endurance (Con), Heal
(Wis), History (Int), Insight (Wis), Stealth (Dex),
Perception (Wis)

Build Options: ??

Class Features: Unarmed Strike, Bonus Speed, Intuitive Defense

Monks are aestetic warriors who have chosen to look inward for the keys to enlightenment. Monks call upon the harmony of mind, body and soul, called ki, to perform feats and attacks which can level an unprepared foe in moments, and even a prepared one in very little time.

Monks do not battle for glory, treasure or most any of the other concerns which drive other adventurers. Instead they seek to challenge themselves so they might unlock their inner potential and hone it to perfection, or die trying.

Unlike all of the other character classes monks as a group do not favor any ability score over the others, though individuals sometimes do and certain fighting styles certainly do.

Implement
Monks not only do not make use of an implement, they actively disdain them and tend to look down their noses at other characters which depend on tools to accomplish their ends.

MONK OVERVIEW
Characteristics: Like the warlock, rogue and ranger the monk is a striker. Of the four the monk is by far the most maneuverable and while not as sturdy as a fighter or paladin the difficulty in actually hitting a monk allows him to hang with these more defensive classes. The trade off is a monk does not hit as hard as any of the other three strikers.

Religion: In the world of Carthasana monks are autotheists. They recognize that deities exist, but do not recognize them as anything more than ascended mortals who have let their ego's get the better of themselves.

Races: Just as monks do not favor any ability score neither does the class favor any particular race though races that favor rigid order find the life of a monk more appealing than the more chaotic races.

Paladin Class Features
You shun armor, shields, and all but the simplest peasant weapons (and even then you prefer the use of open hand combat). The most well known feature of the class is it's penchant for unarmed combat.

Unarmed Attack
At Will
Standard Action
Target: One Creature
Attack: Strength v. AC or Dexterity v. AC
Hit: 1[W] + Strength Modifier Damage

Special: Your damage is determined by your size and level. If you are medium sized you deal d8 damage at 1st level, d10 at 6th level, d12 at 11th level, 2d8 at 16th level, 2d10 at 21st level and 2d12 at 26th level. Small creatures deal d6 at 1st level, d8 at 6th level, d10 at 11th level, d12 at 16th level, 2d8 at 21st level and 2d10 at 26th level. The damage of large monks is covered in the DM's section

Bonus Speed
At Will + Ki
Continuous

At 2 squares to the base speed for your race.

Intuitive Defense

You sense attacks before they come. So long as you are unarmored and unencumbered you may add your wisdom modifier as a dodge bonus to your AC. This is in addition to your dexterity modifier.


Level 1 At Will Ki Powers
Soul Wave Punch (aka Kouken, Hadoken)
At Will + Ki
Standard Action
Target One Creature
Attack: Dexterity vs. AC
Hit: 1[W] + Constitution Modifier damage.
Special. The range of this attack is your constitution score in squares. The ki-ball dissipates at the end of the range.

Flurry of Blows ( aka Tenshin Amaguriken )
At Will + Ki
Standard Action
Target One Creature
Attack: Dexterity vs. AC
Hit: 1[W] + Strength Modifier damage. On hit roll another attack roll which deals 1 damage if it hits. Continue to roll attacks until you miss
At 11th level increase subsequent hit damage to 2 points per hit. At 21st level increase subsequent hit damage to 3 points per hit.

Slow Fall
At Will + Ki
Free Action + Personal
If you are within reach of a wall you can fall 10' per level without harm. At 11th level you can fall any distance without harm as long as you are within reach of a wall. At 21st level you can fall any distance regardless of the presence of a wall.


Ok, I'll come back to this later. Help requested, and PEACH.

 

[TimeOut]

Class Features: Channel Divinity, Divine Challenge, lay
on hands

Why?

You should include that you can use Unarmed Attack as a Basic Melee Attack.

 

[Michael Morris]

Why?

You should include that you can use Unarmed Attack as a Basic Melee Attack.

Remnant from copying the Paladin class from a PDF as a template.

 

[Kaodi]

Hey, MLM. I have been doing some thinking about a Monk class too, though my specifics are a somewhat different.

Same name, role and power source of course, and same HP and even the additional healing surge compared to other strikers, but I was thinking more along the lines (bare bones) of...

Key Abilities: Wisdom, Dexterity, Strength, Constitution

Defenses: +1 Fort, +1 Ref, +1 Will and +1 AC (+2 AC at 11th, +3 AC at 21st, to bring it more into line with a rogue in leather. You could perhaps make a Paragon feat that augments this by a further +1.)

Weapon Proficiencies: Club, Dagger, Spear, Quarterstaff, Longbow, Shortbow, Unarmed Mastery

Unarmed Mastery: Your unarmed attack gives you a +3 proficiency bonus, does 1d6 damage and is a versatile weapon (because have both hands free allows you to better use your body movements to direct force, at least per my reasoning).

(Also, perhaps a monk might treat their unarmed attacks as magical weapons, with bonuses accruing at the same levels that they would for a vanilla magic weapon.)

Trained Skills: Choose four of Acrobatics, Athletics, Endurance, Heal, History, Insight, Perception, Religion. (Some strong archetypes of monks would not be as big on acrobatics. And, while my first thought was to add Stealth like you did, what I understand to be the archetypical monk is not actually someone who spends their time skulking around.)

I have not thought much in the way of actual powers though. They are pretty much what kept me from writing up a monk already myself, hehehe. Not that I am afraid of doing a ton, just that I have been too lazy too.

So, I guess perhaps we can discuss, eh?