Monk = __________ Striker

[Elphilm]

Anything to do with psionics will be cut right out of my campaigns.

Are enchantment effects and mind control really so foreign to your campaign setting?

 

[Aria Silverhands]

Are enchantment effects and mind control really so foreign to your campaign setting?

I don't like psionics period. They have no place in D&D, imo, and definitely have no place in any of my games. It belongs in sci-fi novels and games like Alternity. I'd say the same thing about FX crap in Alternity. It doesn't belong in sci-fi and should stay in fantasy.

When someone asks me to describe D&D... psionics never enter the picture. It's always described as swords and sorcery. It's the mental images evoked by the words that are important. If you're going to refute it by saying re-do the fluff on psionics... it's pointless. At that point, just play a wizard or something because it's no long psionics.

 

[Arivendel]

Hey everyone, well i know im new and all but i felt it was time to register and join the community, anyways, why has no one proposed Incarnum as a power source? they always jump at the mention of psionics but i have found incarnum to work so much better as a basis for how a monk would work... after all incarnum is based around soul power and the vital point (chakras).

I just though i should put the word out there that Incarnum is a viable power source

 

[Kunimatyu]

I thought we'd been over this -- the Monk will be power source Asian, just like Samurai and Ninja.

 

[Aristotle]

I don't like psionics period. They have no place in D&D...

When someone asks me to describe D&D... psionics never enter the picture.

You are obviously entitled to your opinion and your individual campaign should definately incorporate only the elements that you feel fit. Psionics have been a part of D&D for a long, long time and I've always been fond of them to some degree. Dark Sun drove it home for me, as it was an example of wide spread psionic use in a campaign that didn't feel overly sci-fi otherwise.

I think the power source concept is a perfect way to give them some added difference from other sources (especially if they follow through and strip a lot of the psychic and mind altering type powers out of arcane).

 

[Destil]

I'll be quite disappointed if you can't effectively stat samurai as fighters and ninja as rogues.

'Asian' doesn't need to be a power source.

Monks could be martial, psi or divine and fill any of the four class roles fairly well...

 

[Exen Trik]

If the monk is anything but martial, an unarmed martial class would still be needed. For that reason alone, I expect monks to be martial.

Besides, they got very little that was supernatural, and most of that at higher levels... paragon paths, anyone? The divine/arcane/psionic/ki/whatever theme of the monk can be added as a path option, much like the Stormwarden makes a ranger become something more than mundane.

Likewise different basic themes of the monk can be expressed through multiclassing. Religious monk? Multiclass cleric. In the same way rogue, warrior, and the future psionic classes are all good fits for the different styles.

As far as roles are concerned, I fully expect the monk to be a hybrid striker/defender. It has the movement of a striker, but martial arts lend themselves to the toe to toe target control that is a hallmark of a defender. You just know there's going to be chops and throws and spin kicks and all kinds of crazy awesome goodness.

 

[Aria Silverhands]

You are obviously entitled to your opinion and your individual campaign should definitely incorporate only the elements that you feel fit. Psionics have been a part of D&D for a long, long time and I've always been fond of them to some degree. Dark Sun drove it home for me, as it was an example of wide spread psionic use in a campaign that didn't feel overly sci-fi otherwise.

I think the power source concept is a perfect way to give them some added difference from other sources (especially if they follow through and strip a lot of the psychic and mind altering type powers out of arcane).

The game doesn't need a psionic power source. Psionics is oft described using pseudo-science explanations behind the powers. That's what makes psionics what it is. Magic seldom falls back on that crap and if it does, it should be re-written to be more in line with fantasy. Not all the psi powers are like this, but enough of them are it severely colors the way the entire pool of psionics is viewed:

"You interrupt the subject’s autonomic heart rhythm..."
"You can excite the structure of a nonpsionic, nonmagical object, heating it to the point of combustion over time." - Matter Agitation

It's very clear to me they're putting science in psionics. In a game where science of that sort just doesn't belong. If you re-write the psionics version to be just like heat metal from the PHB, it's not really psionics anymore, is it?

 

[Rechan]

Putting aside the "This belongs in D&D/no it doesn't" because of course telling people how the stuff they like isn't D&D is always fun...

At this point, I honestly do not care what the monk is. I hope wizards announce it soon so the issue can be put to rest. I doubt it will (because people are still arguing whether the monk is a controller, a striker or a defender, even if WotC has said it will be a striker).

 

[Aria Silverhands]

This is why I really dislike the roles they've put into 4e. There's so much clamoring about what role this class is or should be or should have been or shouldn't be. It's as ridiculous as arguing about group roles in an mmo.