Genericizing The Monk

[snarfoogle]

I'm sure I can't be the only one who doesn't like the Oriental Adventures theme of the monk. I haven't yet but I will be making a medieval Europe unarmed fighter. Who here has tried making a monk that would fit more in Grayhawk or other such settings? How did it go?

Post your different unarmed fighter classes here!

 

[Terath Ninir]

Mine is still in scattered handwritten notes. In general, though, I'd knock out most of the mystic elements and concentrate on butt-kicking, which I find *much* more interesting.

I'd give "average" saves instead of good. (Start at +1 and go to +9 at 20th level) Why? Since the class doesn't have the roleplaying handicaps, it needs to be toned down a bit.

I'd up the base attack to Good and remove flurry of blows. Not that flurry of blows is *bad*, but I want a pure fightin' machine. I'd probably keep the AC bonus as-is; that fits in with more aggressive martial arts movies, too.

I'd drop most of the mystic powers, and I'd have bonus feats available at higher levels in place of some of the lost abilities. I might steal some abilities from the thief-acrobat in Complete Adventurer; I'm not sure.

One thing I might do is have "hard" and "soft" styles: hard with more aggressive abilities, and soft with more mystic abilities. Probably best as seperate classes, though. And with the 12 new base classes of the Complete series, it's not like adding more base classes is unusual any more.

 

[snarfoogle]

Why remove Flurry Of Blows? I think it's a very fitting ass-kicking move.

 

[Darkness]

Why remove Flurry Of Blows? I think it's a very fitting ass-kicking move.

That's how I see it as well. As for saves, I'd leave Fort and Refl at good and knock down Will to poor. (But I don't use average saves in D&D, so that's not really surprising. )

 

[jaker2003]

How about using the Wis bonus as an Insight bonus on attacks?
you know, intuitive fighting

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Similar to Cyberzombie, but I would add an actual enhancement bonus to attack and damage, reduce the base damage dice, and move flurry of blows to later in the progression, eg 6th-level.

... and find some other way of raising AC, without using Wisdom.

 

[Terath Ninir]

Why remove Flurry Of Blows? I think it's a very fitting ass-kicking move.

Because you can kick more ass with a good BAB. I'd rather have a higher attack bonus than the extra attacks. Also, while it's better than 3.0, I don't like the extra bookkeeping, either.

 

[Terath Ninir]

Similar to Cyberzombie, but I would add an actual enhancement bonus to attack and damage, reduce the base damage dice, and move flurry of blows to later in the progression, eg 6th-level.

... and find some other way of raising AC, without using Wisdom.

Missed that when I read through. Actually, I like that idea. I find the high damage dice kind of troubling, even though they don't *actually* do that much more damage than a munched out fighter. I don't mind the Wis for AC; I can handle a *bit* of mysticism, just not the whole spiritual baggage they include with the class.

 

[beholdsa]

I have recently actually designed a more western unarmed-fighter, based after the Monk, which I call the Thug.

Basically, I dropped the Monk's will save to bad, gave him a d12 hit die, dropped the supernatural abilities (especially at higher levels) and replaced the lack of higher-level abilities with sneak attack starting at 11th level and increasing every 2 levels thereafter.

 

[Mercule]

How about using the Wis bonus as an Insight bonus on attacks?
you know, intuitive fighting

My main problem with all the Wisdom-based neo-monks is that I'd like to see the class be able to support any light/skilled fighter. Swashbuckler is a concept that is woefully hard to build by core. Sure, you can use the Swashbuckler class from CW, but then you've got two classes (swashbuckler & neomonk) for what should really be able to be rolled into one archetype.

Anyway, the point is that swashbucklers need an armor boost, too, but aren't exactly noted for their wisdom.