Martial Artist

[trentonjoe]

You need an armor penalty of some kind. There's nothing stopping this guy from taking a level of Fighter and dong martial arts in full plate armor. Along those lines, I wonder if this guy would be better served with Uncanny Dodge than Evasion.

I would impose the armor check penalty to attack rolls.

Why are the bonus feats gained in a non-standard pattern (2-4-6-10-13-16-18)?

I don't think the BAB of a fighter and all good saves is a real problem. You're swapping out a ton of stuff (fast movement being the main one).

With that being said,I like it alot.

 

[Chun-tzu]

I don't think the BAB of a fighter and all good saves is a real problem. You're swapping out a ton of stuff (fast movement being the main one).

Sure, this Martial Artist is losing a lot, but consider what he's gaining. Monk's unarmed damage + Fighter's BAB means the Martial Artist is now dealing out more damage (at higher levels) than the Fighter or Barbarian! Fighters and Barbarians can get magic weapons, but with Bracers of Striking, Monks have the same access to magic weapons. That doesn't sound right. If you improve the BAB, you have to lower the damage.

Also, the all-good-saves makes the Monk an incredible survivor. Combine this with the improved damage capacity, and you've got something definitely in need of balancing.

 

[trentonjoe]

Sure, this Martial Artist is losing a lot, but consider what he's gaining. Monk's unarmed damage + Fighter's BAB means the Martial Artist is now dealing out more damage (at higher levels) than the Fighter or Barbarian! Fighters and Barbarians can get magic weapons, but with Bracers of Striking, Monks have the same access to magic weapons. That doesn't sound right. If you improve the BAB, you have to lower the damage.

Also, the all-good-saves makes the Monk an incredible survivor. Combine this with the improved damage capacity, and you've got something definitely in need of balancing.

I don't know. I think the monk will be on even par with the fighter damage wise.

I don't know what is more common in your game but +3 weapons show up alot more often than Bracers of striking in my game

Assuming the same amounts of magic the monks fists dont do more damage than a fighter specialized in longsword until 16th level whent he monk gets to 1d20. That still is less than the fighter specialized in longsword with an element enhancement.

And that is just damage. The fighter will have a much better AC, more feats, and more hit points. I don't think you have to worry about the monk becoming better than a fighter of equal level. They still will be worse.

 

[ConcreteBuddha]

*Hong's head explodiates*

Curse you, ConcreteBuddha! You KNOW I hate it when it does that.

*Casts Remove Curse*

You try to give somebody a compliment, and look what happens!

*Mops up hong's brains*

 

[thegreatbuddha]

I did a nonstandard feat pattern mostly because I didn't want to give the MA the combat-related bits of a monk plus ALL of the bonus feats a fighter gets.

As for the all-good saves being broken, I lifted that directly from the core class....

As to the MA being stronger than a fighter of equal level, it'll never happen. A 20th level half-orc Martial Artist who has maxed out his strength will do 1d20+13 damage. a 20th level half-orc fighter with the proper feat allocation can easily pop out 2d6+91 per attack, with a crit range of 15-20/x2. He'll also average 20 more hps than the MA. If the Martial Artist doesn't have a Con bonus to hp, one hit from the maxed fighter would kill him, on a minimum damage roll.

I didn't feel that the MA needed fast movement, as there are several different feats that can be taken to increase one's speed.

I originally did have an armor restriction in the class, but I failed to post it for whatever reason.

Martial Artists are not proficient in any armor or shields, nor may they ever gain any armor proficiencies. This overrides the proficiencies bestowed by any other class, be it core or PrC. A Martial Artist who chooses to wear armor suffers double the standard armor check penalty, with a minimum penalty of 4, to all attack rolls, skill checks, and saving throws. A Martial Artist who chooses to wear armor also loses access to his Armor Class bonus gained from levels in Martial Artist, as well as the Evasion ability.



I was toying with the idea of allowing the MA to add their Wis or Int mod to AC, but I can't really justify it. I personally think that they need it, because their AC is going to be worse than that of a wizard otherwise.