are the special abilities of the Monk class substantially better than the Paladin or Ranger? Really?
Good question. Let's go over the abilities by level, then.
1) Bonus Feat, Flurry of Blows, Unarmed Strike.
Well, these are all required for the class, basically. The Bonus feat is a nice touch, letting you decide if you want to grapple people better (and lose your AC), or try to hit them better (and watch them make their fortitude save).
2) Bonus Feat, Evasion
Evasion is a good trait for a Monk - it fits the theme of being a light, mobile fighter well, and helps protect the Monk's light, mobile hit dice. The Bonus feat between Combat Reflexes and Deflect Arrows seems an odd choice - given that people tend to inflict attacks of opportunity on you more often than you might be shot at, Combat Reflexes seems to be the default choice. (Mobility might have been a good option at this level too, as a bonus feat.) Still, good abilities.
3) Still Mind, +10' movement
This is where we start scratching our heads, folks. +2 to saves against the enchantment school... but this is going to be mostly Will saves, and we've already got a great will save - +3 for the level, and +2-4 for Wisdom, because Wisdom is a core ability for Monks. It's really gilding the lilly. I play a monk, and I can't remember ever using this.
The movement is good. Being able to move around the combat to where you're needed is helpful.
4) Ki Strike (magic), Slow fall 20 ft, 1d8 unarmed
Ki Strike is a great addition at this level - allowing a monk to fight bare-handed against monsters he might not be able to affect. Slow Fall, on the other hand, is almost useless. It only takes effect if you're within arm's reach of a wall, and falling. Climb is a monk skill to begin with, so this suggests that you've rarely failed your Climb check by 5 or more points, or else rarely failed a reflex save. And even then it's effectively a specific bonus to your climb skill when you're attempting the
Catching Yourself When Falling action. Not too useful.
1d8 unarmed is nice - about the same damage as what the Ranger and Fighter are putting out.
5) Purity of Body, +1 AC
You're immune to all diseases. Yeah. But not the useful, funky magic diseases - you just stop getting a cold. There's not that many non-magical disease effects that come up that often to begin with, and that kinda assumes that you failed your fort save to begin with - a save that's already at +4 and climbing. Not too useful, and may never come up if your GM doesn't pick a disease-based threat.
+1 to AC is always nice.
6) Bonus Feat, Slow Fall 30', +20 movement
The bonus feat is Improved Disarm and Improved Trip. Improved Disarm is the problem here - it *sounds* useful, but since it's an opposed attack roll to disarm, even with the +4 bonus the Monk's ability is going to flag behind those of full BAB fighters. Improved Trip, on the other hand, is an oppossed attribute check, and the +4 bonus from the feat helps with the Monk's lower strength.
Slow fall, as we pointed out before, isn't much good.
This is also the level where the Monk stops having a penalty for flurry of blows, which is useful, and the +20 movement is even better for moving around a large 10x10 critter and establishing a flank.
7) Wholeness of Body
A little useful - but this is the Paladin's ability, fixed to 2 x level, and you can't use it on anyone else. Effectively, this is a +2 hp/level increase, except if you get knocked out you don't get the reserve hit points. So, not as good as a paladin, here, but not a loss.
8) Slow fall, 40', 1d10 unarmed damage
Still a yawner for Slow Fall. The unarmed damage keeps pace here with bonuses that fighters and rangers are getting from their higher strengths and magic weapons.
9) Improved Evasion, +30 movement
As with Evasion, this is thematic for a martial artist, and useful. The movement bonuses start to get really awesome, where the monk is effectively moving twice as fast as the unencumbered folk, and three times as fast as the fighters.
10) Ki Strike (lawful), Slow Fall 50', +2 AC bonus
I'm not sure how useful the Ki Strike here is. Unlike the magic Ki ability, which is generally useful, it depends a little on your GM if you're going up against enough opponents with DR Lawful. And in my (admittedly incomplete) searching of SRD files, I'm not finding any monsters with DR lawful. I'm sure there's some, but at this level and higher the Monk's damage output actually gets high enough to get past the DR anyway. (And they have to, for things that have DR good or cold iron or such.)
And I've already talked about Slow fall.
The AC bonus is still useful, helping to keep up with the fighters and rangers and barbarians and their magically enhanced AC.
11) Diamond Body, Greater Flurry
Diamond body gives you immunity to poisons. The same poisons you already have a +7 Fort save against anyway. I don't see this as being too useful - the Monk's likely to have a good Con on top of that fort save.
Greater Flurry gives you a new attack at your full BAB, which is only +8 at this level.
12) Abundant Step, Slow fall 60 ft., 2d6 unarmed damage, +40 movement
Abundant Step is basically Dimension Door 1/day. Useful for really fast movement... but then by this level you're already moving 70' as a move action, or 280' as a run. (edit) And you can use it to bypass a wall of force, or a crevace, or lord knows what. You can even bring along someone if you can carry them. (end edit)
2d6 unarmed damage starts to strike into the realm of the rediculous - until you remember that a Fighter could well have a +1 longsword, flaming, which would be 1d8+1d6+1. The movement gets even faster, although I'm not sure how much useful it can get here.
And Slow fall again.
13) Diamond Soul
Ah, Spell resistance of 10 + level. This isn't too bad - except now you can't be healed or helped magically in combat without taking a standard action to lower your SR, get the bonus, and then hope nothing gets cast on you. But if you don't get buffed too much during combat, it's effectively a 50% miss chance for casters of your same level effecting you. Good for WotC to make it scale with level, and useful against a lot of save-or-die effects that start coming along.
14) Slow Fall, 70'
Ugh. Like I'm going to miss a climb check with 17 ranks in it, or a Reflex save of about +14 to not fall in a pit? And who uses 70' pits, I ask you?
15) Quivering Palm, +3 AC, +50 movement
Who uses this? It's got a lot of wordage, but it's basically a Death Save attack that only works if you hit someone, and then only can be used once a week. So, if my +11 attack misses the 30 AC critter... um... well, there we go. Better luck next week.
The bonus to AC is good, but could be better - the Fighter probably has +4 mitheral full plate or something like that by now. The movement is getting really odd - The monk could almost take a break from the fight, check out the next room, and come back and still hit something.
16) Ki Strike (Adaminatine), Slow fall 80', 2d8 unarmed damage
This Ki strike is more obviously useful. Adamantine is usually a pretty heavy DR to try to get through, and the ability to ignore hardness when striking objects strikes me as useful as well.
The damage gets higher again, probably intending to keep pace with the Fighter's +2 flaming demon bane sword, and the Fighter's 22 or 24 strength bonus on top of that.
And Slow fall again.
17) Timeless Body, Tongue of Sun and Moon
Okay... I don't age. Or rather I do age, but I don't take damage from it until I die? Who does this ever effect? There's hardly no aging effects in the rules, and most characters start out in their 20's. Who ever ends up playing a monk in their 60s?
Tongue of Sun and Moon is cute, but how useful is it? You can speak to animals like a druid does... or you can speak to humans like anyone with a spell can. It's not like magic items of translation are going to be that hard to get. It's cute, and it could be neat in some cases, but by 17th level you've got other ways of talking to people.
In short, the level's a wash.
18) Slow Fall (sigh) 90 feet, +60' movement
I'm the Flash now.
19) Empty Body
Going Ethereal is nice, and being able to bring other people with you is cool too, although that's a tricky thing. It says 'as though using the spell etherealness', but doesn't give an effective caster level for how many folks you can bring along. If you were just supposed to make yourself Ethereal, then why didn't they say 'as though using the spell Ethereal Jaunt'? And this is 19th level - aren't we well and truely used to hopping into the Ethereal plane? And can't our 19th level friend the wizard cast etherealness and bring the monk along as well? A lot of 19th level adversaries aren't going to be put off by going Ethereal, and may follow you there. I'm really not sure how useful this is, unless you're supposed to bring your friends with you, in which case that's kinda nice.
20) Perfect Self, Slow fall any distance, +4 AC, 2d10 damage
Perfect Self: You're now an outsider, and you get DR 10/magic... although at 20th level, what tries to hit you that doesn't count as magic to some degree? You can't be held person or charm personed... but your will save is already at something like +18 for Enchantments anyway, and +16 or so for anything else that targets humanoids. Kinda useful, but not terribly useful.
The AC progression hits its limit, and the +4 AC is good to have, replacing the +4 mithral chainmail the ranger would use, including the wisdom bonus to AC.
The damage hits 2d10, which does seem a little excessive, given the five attacks you have. On the other hand, it's less likely to hit. Still, what weapon is the figher weilding at 20th?
Slow Fall any distance: Great. I can fall 200' without damage (if I'm close enough to the wall), or I could make my +23 climb check to start with.
So, to summarize (too late!)
Good abilities:
Some bonus feats (Improved Grapple, Stunning Fist, Combat Reflexes, Improved Trip)
Flurry of Blows/Greater Flurry
Evasion/Improved Evasion
Faster Movement (although it does get a little silly at higher levels)
Ki Strike (Magic and adamaintine)
AC and damage progression
All good save progressions
Abundant Step
Medium Abilities (Alright, but could be made better or replaced):
Wholeness of body
Ki Strike (Lawful)
Diamond Body
Tongue of Sun and Moon
Empty Body
Perfect Body
Medium BAB progression
Poor Abilities (Might as well not have them):
Bonus Feats (Deflect Arrows, Improved Disarm)
Still Mind
Slow Fall
Quivering Palm
Timeless Body
In my opinion, most of the Monk abilities aren't as good as people think they are, given their restrictions (limited equipment), and non-combat focus of many of these abilities. I don't think giving them a full BAB would be unabalancing, although Flurry of Blows could be knocked back if needed. The 2d6-2d10 damage levels seem extensive, until you think of the fighter wielding a Flaming Greatsword (2d6+1d6+1+(1.5 x Strength)). You could easily drop all of the Poor abilities without changing most monks' effectiveness at all, I suspect.
). It just seems that way to some players because they expect it to be more effective - maybe not as effective as a single-classed fighter or barbarian, but at about the same level as a paladin or ranger.
