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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elder-Basilisk" data-source="post: 1676966" data-attributes="member: 3146">The first step to challenging the monk would be to scale the damage properly with Enlarge Person.1d8 goes to 2d61d10 goest to 2d82d6 or 1d12 goes to 3d6.(see the DMG on weapon scaling for more details).The second method would be to think about your method of stat assignment and the treasure level in your campaign. On 28 points, a monk might start with a 14 dex and a 16 wisdom (if he was going for AC). At 9th level, he gets a +1 bonus from the monk class. If we assume that stat increases bump his wisdom to 18 at 9th level, he has a Monk's Belt (another +1 bonus), a periapt of wisdom +2, a +1 ring of protection, and gloves of dex +2, that's still only AC 21. +4 Bracers of Armor would bump that to AC 25 and dodge would push it up to AC 26 but much more than that and he either has godlike stats or a lot of loot--or both. AC 26 to 28 at 9th level is good but not exceptional. As noted, hill giants will still hit the monk half the time. That's true of any challenging melee or ranged attacker.Third, remember to enforce the prerequisites for feats. Dodge requires a dex of 13 so an Enlarged monk who originally had a 14 dex (and now has a 12 dex) loses access to it and to mobility and spring attack. A tanglefoot bag will knock four points off of the character's effective dexterity. Even if he makes the save, he's still considered entangled and now even with a 16 dex, he won't be able to spring attack. If he is enlarged too, he needs a 19 dex (original) to still have the 13 dex required for Spring Attack. Hit the monk with a ray of exhaustion and he'll lose either 2 or 6 points more dex. On a successful save, the enlarged monk needs to have originally had a 17 dex to still be able to spring attack. On a failed save, the enlarged monk would have to have had a 21 dex to still be able to spring attack. There's an awful lot of ways to penalize a character's dex and they don't all take magic or intelligence. Even monstrous spiders like to entangle their foes with webs.A typical (elite stat array/25 point buy) 8th level fighter will attack at +14/+9 (assuming a 15 strength +2 for levels, greater weapon focus, and a masterwork weapon). Said typical fighter will probably have +1 fullplate, a 12-13 dex, a +1 heavy shield, dodge, and maybe a ring of protection or amulet of natural amor for a 24-25 AC.  I imagine the monk has a little more difficulty hitting him that he has hitting the monk. (Which is to say they both need to roll decently to hit). Give that fighter an allied druid, cleric or wizard for haste (+1 AC), Prayer (-1 to hit for the PC-- and -1 to ability checks with +1 to the cleric's allies which really hurts a tripping character), Protection from good/law (as appropriate) or shield of faith +2-+3 AC, barkskin +3 AC or Bear's Heart, bless, rage, bardsong, etc and he'll eat the monk for lunch. Enlarge Person brings the monk's damage up a bit but it also drops his AC to where the fighter only has to avoid rolling poorly in order to hit him.Assuming the monk has a 14-16 strength too, his trip roll will be +11-+12 when enlarged. That's good but remember that a raging 8th level orc barbarian (25 strength when raging) will have +7 and not only will the monk lose the trip check a noticable number of times but he will get tripped in return something like 15% of the time.A few other things to remember: enlarge person has a one-round casting time (and wands take the same amount of time to use as the spell takes to cast). So the NPCs have a chance to disarm or sunder the wand. An enlarged character also is quite obviously magically enhanced. It doesn't take a lot of thought to hit him with a tanglefoot bag, dispel magic, ray of enfeeblement, enervation (not only will he not be able to hit, but the negative level penalty applies to ability checks like trip checks too), or ray of exhaustion, or even Waves of Fatigue.Lastly, remember that Enlarge Person isn't just the domain of PCs. At 9th level, you can expect plenty of NPCs to have access to Enlarge Person--even if they're not spellcasters, a potion only costs 250gp which is chump change, even to an NPC at 9th level. Let the PC have a taste of his own medicine. Toss him up against an enlarged raging 8th level orc barbarian with a greataxe. Or toss him up against a clever, enlarged human fighter with bull's strength and enlarge person active and who's using a spiked chain or a guisarme with Improved Trip. (modified strength 22, +14 to trip checks). Too be really nasty, have the fighter quickdraw a tanglefoot bag and smack the monk with it before making his trip attack. That way, he may drop the monk's dex to the point where the monk can't spring attack him after he gets up and has to provoke an AoO in order to attack the guisarme wielder--an AoO which can be used to trip the monk.</blockquote>

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