Monk Preview

[RefinedBean]

There's no earlier level version. And there's no later level version. So if that's a cool thing you liked doing, you have to either accept having one of your encounter powers remain behind par as you level up, or you have to give it up and learn something else. I hate orphan powers like that.

That's how it is for every single class, though. Everyone makes tough choices as they level.

I think the main "cool things" are coming from the At-Wills. Maybe they need to be a bit more...cool, or something?

 

[Mad Mac]

This is only one Build so the Level 22 Utilities may be of the other Build?

The powers don't seem to be build dependent other than being Wisdom based. I suspect it's an oversight.

 

[MadLordOfMilk]

Comments after reading through the article beginning-to-end:

• They look like a TON of fun.
• They're Psionic Strikers. Interesting.
• DEX is their primary stat, with WIS or STR being secondary (this article covers the WIS half)
• They're stuck in cloth armor to get a +2 bonus to AC. So, yes, they can wear cloth just fine, but it's not easily "breakable" like the Avenger class feature (and there's no feat to enhance it, at least in this article). For monks, it's the same as wearing leather.
• The at-will powers are very cool, and seem pretty well-balanced.
• Monks are good against groups of enemies and are good at minion clearing, esp. with flurry of blows. They seem more like damaging controllers (IE damage-focused wizard) than strikers in this regard. Of course, they do also have some painful powers they can use on their targets
• Monks are VERY mobile.
• Basically every round, Monks get something special they can do with their move action rather than just a straight movement. It's tied into whatever power they use. Sweet!
• Humans and Elves seem like the best choices offhand... Elves have some more mobility, Humans a bit more flexibility. The at-wills are really cool (and somewhat situational), so having an extra one is a definite plus. Razorclaw Shifter would also be a solid choice. Haven't seen the DEX/STR build, of course, so it's hard to judge which races would mesh well for that.
• DEX seems way more important than WIS (with only the occasional bonus based on your WIS bonus).
• No "Off-stat" races (non-DEX races) seem to have racial features that make them stand out as a good option (optimization-wise) despite the lower DEX, but I'm not an expert at seeing those things.

No, Focused Expertise has no pre-reqs. The playtest article merely mentions that the Centered Breath monk makes use of the feat. Swordmages will be taking it too!

Interesting. Well, although it IS technically straight power creep, it really is how the expertise feats should have been anyway. I like it

 

[Cadfan]

That's how it is for every single class, though. Everyone makes tough choices as they level.

I think the main "cool things" are coming from the At-Wills. Maybe they need to be a bit more...cool, or something?

Not entirely. For example, if your thing is whirlwind attacks and you're playing a fighter, there are versions of this sort of power at multiple levels. Individual ones obviously get selected and then retrained when they become obsolete, but the overall power remains. Same with powers that create firey explosions or shoot lighting for the wizard- the individual power might fall by the wayside, but you learn new ways to create firey explosions or shoot lightning.

Most classes do have one or two orphan powers, but they're not actually that common. And yes, the other ones annoy me also. The way to avoid a "why did I forget how to do that" feel is to make sure that a class's powers are well integrated with one another and that themes continue across multiple levels instead of just occuring once and then being forgotten.

 

[mach1.9pants]

STOP THE PRESSES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!why don't they have 22nd level utlities? and Why don't the at wills scale???

Ooops, waiting for the updated PDF!

also I again point out the line form the artical
"but you can use the techniques of an encounter full discipline power once during a round. "
so no move and standard....one or the other...(I guss I will still add I think...then go to bed)

I dunno, it says the techniques rather than A technique
EDIT: and this

You can use the
techniques of a full discipline power in whatever
order you like, and you can choose to use one of
the techniques and not the other during a par-
ticular round.

 

[chaotix42]

It's just less tax for certain builds so I'm down with it.

 

[RefinedBean]

Not entirely. For example, if your thing is whirlwind attacks and you're playing a fighter, there are versions of this sort of power at multiple levels. Individual ones obviously get selected and then retrained when they become obsolete, but the overall power remains. Same with powers that create firey explosions or shoot lighting for the wizard- the individual power might fall by the wayside, but you learn new ways to create firey explosions or shoot lightning.

Most classes do have one or two orphan powers, but they're not actually that common. And yes, the other ones annoy me also. The way to avoid a "why did I forget how to do that" feel is to make sure that a class's powers are well integrated with one another and that themes continue across multiple levels instead of just occuring once and then being forgotten.

Good points. It seems like the movement techniques manage to stay quite similar (the Development article mentioned they're basically in 4 categories), at least, although that's small consolation since they're not as flashy as the attacks.

 

[RefinedBean]

Ooops, waiting for the updated PDF!I dunno, it says the techniques rather than A technique

Yeah, it specifically mentions that you can choose to use only one of the FD techniques in a round if you want, which presumes you can do both in the same round.

 

[LightPhoenix]

Right. Basically, each Monk Full Discipline (which really should be simplified to just Discipline) is essentially two powers in one - a Standard Action attack, and a Move Action. You can choose to use one or both when you use the power. The only caveat is that you can't use more than one Discipline per round - ie, no mixing the Move Action of one with the Standard Action of another. However, if you spend an AP you don't get screwed; you can use a second Full Discipline power.

The Full Discipline sidebar really needs clarification. I had to read it a couple of times to understand it.

I absolutely love the Monk, and I really want to try one.

 

[chaotix42]

Right. Basically, each Monk Full Discipline (which really should be simplified to just Discipline)

Well, psionic powers seem to be called Disciplines already! I dunno what problems it would cause changing it to just Discipline... probably nothing.

I absolutely love the Monk, and I really want to try one.

Agreed!

So, monks get +1 to Fort, Ref, and Will, and the Wis-based build gets an extra scaling bonus to Fort. Seems like monks are going to have some huge NADs, eh?