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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hong" data-source="post: 1477352" data-attributes="member: 537">Buckler. In any case, the problem with the monk is not, as had been said already, defense/survivability. The problem is spotlight time. And here, the problem relates to how many players _desire_ to gain spotlight time. In terms of what sticks in the mind or captures the imagination, offense -- the ability to kick butt and take names -- generally takes primacy over defense -- the ability to absorb punishment and keep going. People remember the time that they did 100 points of damage with a critical hit to a BBEG. They don't remember the Fort save they made the round beforehand, to survive the finger of death that the BBEG threw at them. Now, it's true that there's no law stating people must get their jollies out of the game in this manner. You could certainly set out to create a character that could survive any threat, but also be relatively unable to harm the opposition. If that was what you truly desired for that character, you would probably derive a lot of satisfaction from all the instakill spells and effects you survived, while the tanks and other PCs kept going down. However, this tends to be the exception to the rule. Generally speaking, what correlates most to spotlight time, as individual gamers interpret it, is the ability to kick butt. Therefore, beyond a certain point, the ability to absorb punishment usually brings less and less satisfaction to a player, if it also means a commensurate reduction in the ability to damage the opposition. For many (if not most) people, the monk has gone beyond that point, especially if you approach it as a class meant to emulate kung-fu martial artists in pop fiction. That's not to say that you _have_ to approach it as a class meant to emulate anything, of course. If you view the monk purely in abstract terms as a collection of abilities optimised for scouting/mage killing/flexibility/etc, then all of this is irrelevant: you just create a character designed around those schticks. You'll probably not be too fussed about lack of usefulness in combat, because you get your jollies elsewhere. However, that assumes familiarity with the class mechanics and the way D&D plays out in the first place, and requires you to set aside all the background material relating to kung-fu martial artists. I don't think it's reasonable to say that everyone should have to do this, just to derive enjoyment out of playing a base class.   Heh.</blockquote>

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