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Message: <blockquote data-quote="goldenskull" data-source="post: 9382211" data-attributes="member: 7045950">I’ve been frustrated with the Monk… basically forever. So I decided to make a monk that is SAD rather than MAD.The flavor is very cool and I understand that a lot of people have had a lot of fun playing Monks… some have even claimed that Monks are OP. With respect, that’s factually untrue. They were underpowered in AD&D, D&D 3.5, OG Pathfinder and they’re underpowered in 5e. As a matter of pure indisputable math, monks in D&D have always been underpowered in almost every way. There is not a single thing that the monk is better at than anyone else, except for (in some cases) movement speed, so – as the old joke goes – they can be useless all over the battlefield.If you feel differently, that’s cool. I’ll just point you to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aaqq7iZUmMk" target="_blank">this video</a> instead of arguing with you.I ran the math, and the current UA playtest Monk is somewhat DPR balanced, but still suffers from MAD and still shoehorns players into the same DEX/WIS/CON twink build if they want to be halfway viable. It also is a complete dud when you run out of ki. If anyone wants, I can share the DPR math. There were a few good ideas in there that I stole to make my SAD monk.The Pathfinder Unchained Monk is also actually pretty cool and I took some inspiration from there too. I can’t say much about DPR etc., but it offers a lot of really cool options.So here’s what I wanted to achieve:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Fix the MADness. That means you can make a functional build with one primary attribute – probably Wisdom – and one secondary attribute that you can wait until higher levels to boost. With my SAD monk, there are 7 optimal combinations.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Allow diversity of builds. Fantasy storytelling of Eastern mysticism, wuxia, and kenjutsu/ninjitsu have an incredible diversity in the way they portray martial arts practitioners. I wanted a way to play Monks that are beefy, devious, intimidating or strong in addition to the standard DEX/WIS twink we usually have in D&D.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Make it rewarding to multiclass, but not TOO rewarding too early. I tried to make the Monk workable from the get-go, but not so front-loaded in power that everyone would be tempted to take a 2-level dip.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Bring the DPR up in line with other classes. I succeeded in making the baseline Monk – with no ki expenditure – slightly above Treantmonk’s baseline and roughly on par with a PAM halberd Fighter. I built a lot of flexibility in so, for instance, an optimized high-level Monk can be just slightly less than DPR-competitive with an optimized Fighter if you sacrifice defense.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Keep it balanced overall. Meaning that, when possible, I gave the Monk abilities that match word-for word those given to other classes at the same level and otherwise tried to keep class features in line with them.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A capstone that fits with the theme. I might have overturned this one a tad, but does it really matter at 20th level? I think it’s reasonably balanced given what we have to work with. It's tied to concentration, so one good bump in combat and it goes bye-bye.</li> </ul>Anyway, I’d love to have some feedback, especially playtesting. What do y’all think? Did I nail it or miss the mark? Thanks! Shout-out to [USER=7015698]@Undrave[/USER] [USER=6801209]@mellored[/USER] [USER=52734]@Stormonu[/USER]<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Iz06cK-RVtXfO-TofvKlzlxtcV_Mdtyt4SQLKokO_I4/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Link to Google Doc with latest edits</a>.</blockquote>

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