Helping a player

[Jdvn1]

Are there at least buff spells in your game? They're almost as good as the items, so he could work it out with the Cleric of Wizard or something.

Is he not liking these ideas? You have to tell the player to suck it up sometimes--a lost of 5 points BAB isn't going to make him "miss constantly."

He's a mobilitiy character anyways. He's designed to be able to move and get flanking, or move and go after lower AC creatures behind the tank... and when he does hit, he gets to do stuff like Stunning Fist--sure, he may miss a little more often than a Fighter, but he gets to do way more stuff.

At the very least, tell him to try it out, and if he doesn't like it after a few sessions, then you guys can try to work it out (either tweak the class, come up with a different progression, or go for a different concept entirely).

 

[moritheil]

-winces- I might have to do that. I try to avoid house ruling a boost to anything. One of my players is a powergamer whom I have gotten into many fights with. Any leeway I give to him I end up regretting, and any leeway I give to another player results in him wanting something extra or a fight usually ensures. Though I might be able to keep it on my side of the GM screen and have no real problems with it.

If you live in fear, then the terrorists have won.

 

[Jack99]

House rule the monk to have full BAB. I don't think it will break the game, monks are underpowered.

We have been playing like that for a good while now, and in no way does it break the game. It does make the monk much more attractive as a dip class, but nothing really unbalancing.

Cheers

 

[Zelc]

He's a mobilitiy character anyways. He's designed to be able to move and get flanking, or move and go after lower AC creatures behind the tank... and when he does hit, he gets to do stuff like Stunning Fist--sure, he may miss a little more often than a Fighter, but he gets to do way more stuff.

Unfortunately, sometimes there's a huge discrepency between the flavor of a class and the mechanics. Being more mobile is great, except 1) the Monk doesn't deal nearly as much damage as a Fighter, especially without Flurry which they can't use when moving, and 2) Monks generally have a lower AC value and HP than Fighters, so when they tumble into the back ranks of the enemy, they're exposing themselves to getting ganked.

 

[Hyperfist]

I ran into the same problem. So I kept up the monk progression until 7th level. From there I took the Kensai PrC. From there...the enhancement bonus plus the Wounding capabilities of his fist. Enabled him to put down a lot of characters pretty quickly. Kind of scary when every hit is a Con loss.

Scared my GM so much he is looking at limiting my capabilities.

 

[irdeggman]

What is his ability score breakdown?

He could take Weapon Finesse (and use his Dex mod instead of his Str mod on attack rolls).

Weapon Focus feat also works on unarmed strike.

These can make up for the BAB issue in regard to attack rolls (not in relation to number of attacks) - this is important to keep account of. If you boost his BAB then he gets more attacks/round and combined with flurry of blows he gets even more.

 

[Goobermunch]

Do this. Honestly. I've only crunched the numbers for level 6 (actually E6, where Monks get no-penalty Flurry and Fighters get Greater Weapon Focus), but Monks without full BAB were doing like less than 50% of the damage of a Fighter. After full BAB, it was about 80%? This was without Power Attack, which would benefit the Fighter greatly.

QFT.

--G

 

[0bsolete]

This is your problem, right here. 3.X DnD basically requires players to own these, especially martial characters like monks and fighters if they want to be effective. There's an article about it by the game devs here.

Also, let him get some +X Gauntlets. This allows him to get the attack bonus benefit of a magic weapon with his unarmed strikes, provided he's using his hands to make them.

Actually, it works out fairly well, and I put emphasis that I don't allow the buying of them, not that they don't exist. I will usually put an +x stat item in addition to the normal loot after a boss or a heavy fight. Effectively, I consider them to be artifacts for the purposes of buying and selling.

 

[0bsolete]

Thank you guys for your help. I've decided to go ahead and houserule that monks get a full BAB progression. Afterall, they are a melee focused class in many ways.

And Moritheil, very good point, even if the context wasn't exactly the most serious. I took the other player aside and told him that his fighter could also get a little extra boost to power, but in exchange his character couldn't wear armor and could only have proficiency in simple weapons. He seems to have reconsidered.

 

[sukael]

Actually, it works out fairly well, and I put emphasis that I don't allow the buying of them, not that they don't exist. I will usually put an +x stat item in addition to the normal loot after a boss or a heavy fight. Effectively, I consider them to be artifacts for the purposes of buying and selling.

What's to keep the PCs from deciding they don't want one and arranging (say) an auction in the closest large city to sell it, though?