D&D 4E Draft for a 4E monk

[Giltonio_Santos]

I've beem working in a 4.0 monk for some time. I got no chance to test it yet, but would like to hear some opinions anyway. I've written some initial powers and a quick description of the Ki power source. Other classes I've been envisioning as Ki users:

- Samurai (Ki Leader, more like the warlord than the cleric)
- Wu-jen (Ki controller, I'd like to remake this one to be more than a eastern flavor wizard)
- Sohei (of course, this one would be the Ki defender )

Class Traits
Role: Striker. You are at your best while running through the battlefield to deliver the right punch and do enough damage to knockout the opponents.
Power Source: Ki. Your skill is based in a deep understanding of the mystical life force that lies on all things, which can be used to achieve physical and spiritual excellence.
Key Abilities: Dexterity, Wisdom

Armor Training: none
Weapon Proficiencies: dagger, kama, nunchaku, quarterstaff, shuriken
Bonus to Defense: +1 Fortitude, Reflexes and Will

Hit Points at 1st level: 12 + Constitution score
Hit Points per Level Gained: 5
Healing Surges: 6 + Constitution modifier

Trained Skills: Athletics and Endurance plus four others.
From the class skills list below, choose four more trained skills at 1st level.
Class Skills: Acrobatics (Dex), Arcana (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Insight (Wis), Heal (Wis), History (Int), Nature (Int), Religion (Int), Perception (Wis), Stealth (Dex)

Class features
All monks share these class features.

Defensive Insight
You gain a bonus to AC equal to your Wisdom modifier against all attacks.

Superior Speed
You can move 2 additional squares with a move action.

Martial Arts
You deal more damage to your opponents when fighting with your fists, elbows, knees and feet. This bonus damage increases as you advance in level.

Level​

Unarmed Damage​

​

1st-10th​

+1d8​

11th-20th​

+2d8​

21st-30th​

+3d8​

At-Will Powers

Flurry of Blows
Monk Attack 1
Outstanding agility allows a series of quick punches to break through standard defenses.
At-Will ◊ Ki
Standard Action
Unarmed Strike
Target: One creature
Attack: Dexterity vs. AC
Hit: 1[W] + Dexterity modifier damage.
Miss: Half damage.
Increase damage to 2[W] + Dexterity modifier at 21st level.

Flying Daggers Technique
Monk Attack 1
Makes dodging difficult to the enemy by sending various projectiles through the air at the same time.
At-Will ◊ Ki, Weapon
Standard Action
Ranged Weapon
Requirement: You must be wielding one dagger or shuriken in each hand.
Special: Roll the attack twice, you choose which result to keep.
Target: One creature
Attack: Dexterity vs. Reflexes
Hit: 1[W] + Dexterity modifier damage.
Roll three times and choose which result to keep at 11st level.
Increase damage to 2[W] + Dexterity modifier at 21st level.

Touch the Inner Void
Monk Attack 1
Manipulation of a target’s flow of ki lets a simple touch do great damage.
At-Will ◊ Ki
Standard Action
Unarmed Strike
Target: One creature
Attack: Wisdom vs. Fortitude
Hit: 1[W] + Wisdom modifier damage.
Increase damage to 2[W] + Wisdom modifier at 21st level.

Encounter Powers

Mantis Leap
Monk Attack 1
Charge to an enemy and strike with a powerful flying kick.
Encounter ◊ Ki
Standard Action
Unarmed Strike
Target: One creature
Special: You can move up to 4 squares in a straight line before using this attack; you push the target an equal amount of squares in the opposite direction.
Attack: Dexterity vs. AC
Hit: 2[W] + Strength modifier damage.

Serpent’s Sweep
Monk Attack 1
Use your quarterstaff to send the enemy to the ground with a sudden movement.
Encounter ◊ Ki, Weapon
Standard Action
Melee weapon
Requirement: You must me wielding a quarterstaff.
Target: One creature
Attack: Dexterity vs. Reflex
Hit: 1[W] + Dexterity modifier damage and the target becomes prone.
Miss: Half Damage.

Wholeness of Body
Monk Utility 2
A deep control of the flow of ki through your body can be used to heal wounds.
Encounter ◊ Ki, Healing
Minor Action Personal
Effect: You spend a healing surge. The number of hit points regained is increased by an amount equal to your Wisdom modifier. You may immediately make a saving throw against a single ongoing effect affecting you.

Daily Powers

A Thousand Stars
Monk Attack 1
Throw a fusillade of projectiles in the enemy’s direction to cause disorientation and great damage.
Daily ◊ Ki, Weapon
Standard Action
Ranged Weapon
Requirement: You must have at least four shurikens or daggers available to throw.
Target: One creature
Attack: Dexterity vs. Reflexes
Hit: 3[W] + Dexterity modifier damage and the target is pushed one square and takes -2 on all defenses and attack rolls (save ends).
Miss: Half damage.

Stunning Fist
Monk Attack 1
You strike the opponent in vulnerable points of ki, handicapping his combat ability.
Daily ◊ Ki, Reliable
Standard Action
Unarmed Strike
Target: One creature
Attack: Wisdom vs. Fortitude
Hit: 3[W] + Wisdom modifier damage and the target is stunned (save ends).

I must add that I had a lot of fun designing these powers. Even if some of the choices of 4E are definitely not for my own games, the way the powers work and are described allows a lot of freedom for creating different and interesting effects.

So, any thoughts?
Cheers,

Edit: Minor changes following some suggestions below. Still looking for the best wording on Serpent's Sweep and Mantis Leap.

 

[HeinorNY]

Bacana Giltonio.
The Powers from the Ki Power Source could be called Taos.
I like most of it, but I would change a couple of things:
-the bonus from +2 AC to +2 Reflex, because it would go to AC anyway,
-I would give Cloth armor proficiency,
-I would change the Defensive Insight so the monk instead could add his Wisdom modifier to reflexes instead of the higher modifier between Dexterity/Intelligence.
-I think the reroll/use higher roll would be a better mechanic to represent Flurry of Blows. The ranger's careful attack was initially a reroll/use better roll that later became +4 to attack and no bonus damage. So I would prefer the FoB as "Attack: Dexterity+4 vs. AC
Hit: 1[W]."

Allow to give some contribution too. I was thinking about a power to represent all the wuxia movements and flying around.

Feather Step
Monk Utility 2
At-Will <> Chi
Move Action
Requirement: You must be trained in Athletics.
Effect: You can fly up to your speed to any direction, horizontally, vertically, diagonally, upwards or downwards. The movement must be in a straight line and you must end it on a solid ground or fall down.

There are other elements I was trying to turn into Powers, like the Pressure Points thing (Dexterity vs Fortitude = enemy is immobilized) for example, or that killing strike at 10 paces(squares) from the Nameless guy from the Hero movie.

 

[Ebon Shar]

I would love to read a playtest report. Thanks!

 

[Cadfan]

Alright, I wrote up a review, but then I lost it all when the forum was weird. So I'm going to do a quick rewrite, which basically means I'm going to leave out all the stuff I liked, and just include the dislikes because those are more interesting to talk about.

1. +Wis to defense and +2 to ac seems like overkill. Pick one?
2. "Half damage on a miss" works well with powers where all the damage is typed and comes from a single source. But with weapon attacks it might not work so well. It might interact poorly with things like flaming weapons, items that boost damage, etc. Plus, it makes you roll damage even on a miss, which is kind of awkward in my view. Why not make it dexterity modifier in damage on a miss? That's close to the same amount anyways, and doesn't require a calculation. I'd suggest that for every power with half damage on a miss.
3. Flying Daggers Technique is too good. Its the rogue's precise strike, plus a REALLY good extra in that you can roll twice. Powers that are strictly superior to already existing powers usually aren't good ideas.
4. Mantis Leap has some wording issues. How do you calculate a straight line on a grid? Why not just let the monk move however he pleases, and let opportunity attacks sort out the details.
5. Does Wholeness of Body allow you to roll saves for every negative effect on you, or just one per use?
6. The damage on Thousand Stars is really low. Remember, 2[W] when you're using daggers or shuriken is very small. Rogues can get away with that sort of thing because they then add sneak attack, but monks don't. I'd go ahead and up it to 3[W]. It may look powerful on paper, but really its just like 3d4 damage. Compare to Stunning Fist, which will be doing 3d8+wis at level 1.

 

[malcolm_n]

I think it's a great and well thought out class. That said, I agree with the above posters on power level (pun intended) and terminology. Not many kinks, just one or two to work out.

 

[coriolis]

I have comments about 2 powers:

- Mantis Leap: I would add a restriction of 'target up to one size larger than you'; or maybe restrict to same size at Heroic, +1 size at Paragon and +2 size at Epic.

- Serpent's Sweep: We'll have to see if there are trip mechanics in the PHB. If not, you'll probably have to recreate them with modifiers for size, number of legs, and innate balance (like the 3.5 dwarf for example).

 

[morgul97]

I'd like to see a Forgotten Realms compatable Oriental Adventures book that deals with Monks (and other Asian inspired classes) in a very substantive way. The 3.0 / 3.5 book was pretty well done, but seemed like a big marketing ploy to get people to buy a million Legend of the Five Rings cards. I would like to see James Wyatt take the basic structure of that book and update it for 4E, with the default setting of Kara-Tur in the FR and in depth discussion of asian inspired D&D.

 

[Giltonio_Santos]

I'll answer some comments...

Bacana Giltonio.
The Powers from the Ki Power Source could be called Taos.
I like most of it, but I would change a couple of things:
-the bonus from +2 AC to +2 Reflex, because it would go to AC anyway,

I had no idea it worked like that. Anyway, I've decided to change the defense bonus to same as paladin (+1 Fort, Ref and Will).

-I would give Cloth armor proficiency,

Is that really necessary? The wizard has no proficiency, and cloth gives no armor bonus anyway...

-I would change the Defensive Insight so the monk instead could add his Wisdom modifier to reflexes instead of the higher modifier between Dexterity/Intelligence.

That's a fine option, but I'd like Dexterity to be a key monk ability as well as Wisdom, I don't know if I want the monk to use Wisdom for all things.

-I think the reroll/use higher roll would be a better mechanic to represent Flurry of Blows. The ranger's careful attack was initially a reroll/use better roll that later became +4 to attack and no bonus damage. So I would prefer the FoB as "Attack: Dexterity+4 vs. AC
Hit: 1[W]."

It's an interesting take. Both options allow flurry of blows to me more than a flurry of misses, like people used to call it on 3E.

Feather Step
Monk Utility 2
At-Will <> Chi
Move Action
Requirement: You must be trained in Athletics.
Effect: You can fly up to your speed to any direction, horizontally, vertically, diagonally, upwards or downwards. The movement must be in a straight line and you must end it on a solid ground or fall down.

Cool stuff here. In fact, I'm seeing 4E as much better system than 3E to recreate Dragon Fist (one of my favorite RPGs). The way powers are used (and the fact that all characters get to use them) remembers the system of maneuvers of DF, a good thing for me.

There are other elements I was trying to turn into Powers, like the Pressure Points thing (Dexterity vs Fortitude = enemy is immobilized) for example, or that killing strike at 10 paces(squares) from the Nameless guy from the Hero movie.

Touch the Inner Void and Stunning Fist are the ones I tried myself. I like the idea of monks with pressure-point based attacks as a possible wisdom-focused build.

1. +Wis to defense and +2 to ac seems like overkill. Pick one?

True. Even though we don't know exactly the weight of those numbers, I decided that +1 Fort, Ref and Will, like the paladin, is a better call.

2. "Half damage on a miss" works well with powers where all the damage is typed and comes from a single source. But with weapon attacks it might not work so well. It might interact poorly with things like flaming weapons, items that boost damage, etc. Plus, it makes you roll damage even on a miss, which is kind of awkward in my view. Why not make it dexterity modifier in damage on a miss? That's close to the same amount anyways, and doesn't require a calculation. I'd suggest that for every power with half damage on a miss.

I'm basing those of Rogue's Crimson Edge. Anything that works there will work for all powers that use weapons and do damage even on a miss.

3. Flying Daggers Technique is too good. Its the rogue's precise strike, plus a REALLY good extra in that you can roll twice. Powers that are strictly superior to already existing powers usually aren't good ideas.

Not so superior. I'd say the sneak attack is the thing that makes the rogue an striker, while the bonus on unarmed damage does the same for the monk. I see the rogue doing SA damage all the time with precise strike, but the monk who uses Flying Daggers forfeits his unarmed damage in exchange for the security of striking from a distance. I believe this factor balances the two powers.

4. Mantis Leap has some wording issues. How do you calculate a straight line on a grid? Why not just let the monk move however he pleases, and let opportunity attacks sort out the details.

We calculated straight lines all the time with 3E, just draw the line and count the squares, even easier if diagonals are 1-1-1-1.

5. Does Wholeness of Body allow you to roll saves for every negative effect on you, or just one per use?

Bad wording, I'd say once per use the balanced choice.

6. The damage on Thousand Stars is really low. Remember, 2[W] when you're using daggers or shuriken is very small. Rogues can get away with that sort of thing because they then add sneak attack, but monks don't. I'd go ahead and up it to 3[W]. It may look powerful on paper, but really its just like 3d4 damage. Compare to Stunning Fist, which will be doing 3d8+wis at level 1.

That's true. I believe it's the same reasoning as Flying Daggers above, but I forgot to apply it here...

 

[VBMEW-01]

I like this.

If you like, or are interested, please post in my OCC (Original Creations Compilations) thread. I'd like to put this in our class file so everyone can use it until another alternative presents itself.

A friend of mine is going to love you for this particular brew

 

[wherwrthal]

I have a question about the Serpent Sweep.
Why would you need to use a quarterstaff?
Wouldn't a leg sweep work just as well to trip?