Monk = Swashbuckler?

[der_kluge]

It occurred to me that the fighter and barbarian classes are strong against a single opponent, and can deal a great deal of damage to a single large foe. On the other hand, the Monk seems to be better at dealing less damage to several creatures. That is, while the monk might get more attacks, the average damage is less when compared to the fighter.

Which got me to thinking, could the monk be revised such that it becomes not a monk (that is, a martial artists 5,000 miles from home) but rather, as a swashbuckler kind of thing. I mean, retaining the core of the monk, with slight revisions, and making it a kind of light fighter?

I'm intrigued enough about it, that I might try it...

 

[Skade]

I'd say the iterative attacks, and the idea of unusual fighting abilities match, but the lawful aspect, that weapon selection, and some of the monks specials are not quite appropriate. So you make them non lawful, change the weapons to rapier, and other light weapons, keep iterative attacks, movement, ac bonus (based on cha or int not wis) and retool the specials.

 

[hong]

It occurred to me that the fighter and barbarian classes are strong against a single opponent, and can deal a great deal of damage to a single large foe. On the other hand, the Monk seems to be better at dealing less damage to several creatures. That is, while the monk might get more attacks, the average damage is less when compared to the fighter.

With Cleave and Great Cleave (common feats for a tank), fighters and barbs can mow through hordes of mooks like nothing else short of a fireball-chucking wizard.

Which got me to thinking, could the monk be revised such that it becomes not a monk (that is, a martial artists 5,000 miles from home) but rather, as a swashbuckler kind of thing. I mean, retaining the core of the monk, with slight revisions, and making it a kind of light fighter?

I'm intrigued enough about it, that I might try it...

There are certainly valid similarities between monks with swashbucklers, but being able to kill lots of mooks isn't the most obvious one. The main point of similarity would be how both classes exemplify a sort of unarmoured or lightly armoured fighting style, so that instead of clanking around in full plate, you wear nothing more than robes or maybe leather at most. See my D&D page for the martial artist class, which is my way of representing this underlying archetype.

 

[DonAdam]

Here's how I would do it, since you ask:

1) Change Wisdom bonus to AC to Charisma bonus to AC (I know Canny Defense is the precedent, but I don't like it. AC is all about style).

2) I've actually been using this rule for monks: it doesn't matter what you pick up to fight with, it has the stats of your unarmed attack. You might let him do a fraction of his damage as elemental damage on a flaming or burst weapon. You also might let him take a feat to use special abilities of weapons (reach, bonus to disarm, etc) at the cost of a damage die (1d6 would be 1d4, 1d20 would be 1d12, etc).

3) Change stunning attack into unbalancing strike (Oriental Adventures)

4) Fandangle the class skills. That should be easy.

The problem is all the spiritual stuff. For that I can't help you. When I get my flexible martial artist class done, where you can choose whether or not to be spiritual, I'll post it.