I'm playing a monk in a campaign right now so I'm sure as hell biased, but there's a couple of things I would love to do with my STR 10 monk that'd make him feel super cool.
Before we get into the nitty-gritty, why did you choose to make a monk who is a little less powerful and athletic than the average commoner off the streets?
Was it pure character optimisation through wanting to pump other stats?
Did you want to play someone who really wanted to fight, but was let down by their lack of physical power, so turned to magic to make up for it?
1) give monks at a certain level (maybe 2) the ability to use DEX acrobatics to grapple and push enemies. Maybe I've watched too many kung fu movies, but this is monk essence in my mind. Monks get a number of attacks and this would be a cool way for them to use one or two up. I envisage tripping two enemies followed up by a flurry when they're down. Cool.
The protagonists depicted in most kung-fu movies definitely have a strength higher then 10. Bruce Lee would probably be rocking a +2 or 3 STr modifier even before you get to what his films depict him as being able to do.
An Open Hand master can already knock someone across the room, which is pretty good control and nothing stops a Monk from picking up Athletics to represent physical prowess and grappling technique.
2) also be able to use dex acrobatics to climb and jump long distances. Again too many kung fu movies.
Monks can already run up walls, and jump way further than an equivalently athletic non-magic character could.
Yes there will be naysayers who claim that I should just pump my strength and choose athletics as a proficency, but it's very limiting and I can't choose other important proficiencies like nature and medicine. You wouldn't put your cat in a box would you? You wouldn't do the same to my poor monk, would you?
Not all characters get to be good in everything that the player wants them to do at character creation. If you decided that you didn't want to play an athletic or physically powerful character by putting a low score in Str rather than a more even distribution, I wouldn't take that choice away from you. You could have picked Athletics, Acrobatics, Nature and Medicine as your skills, but you chose not to.
No one put you in that box. You went in there of your own accord. Just like the cat.
No, I say freedom to monks! Make them the zany martial class for people who like fun!
Probably worth pointing out that Monks are the
magical, martial arts class. Fighters, probably Rogues are the martial, martial arts class. And everyone deserves fun.
Put it this way: how would you feel if you were playing a monk who invested in Strength and Athletics because they wanted to be good at climbing, wrestling, and have a build like Bruce, and the DM handwaved all Strength and Athletics-related stuff to Dex and acrobatics so that the min/maxed Str-dumped monk could be better than you at everything?
