Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Stalker0" data-source="post: 2844543" data-attributes="member: 5889">I think Jcfiala did a good job on the monk abilities, I'll just highlight them a little more. I think the key thing about monk abilities is...how well do they help the monk do his job?1) Speed and mobility. There's nothing bad about moving faster. I did a poll a while back and most people agree that in general while moving fast is good, in general its not that great. Moving slower is much more of a detriment than moving fast is a bonus. The other thing is that his enhanced speed clashes with some of his other monk abilities. Flurry of blows doesn't work if you have to move. Monks have lower hitpoints than fighters (d8 hitdice) and often have weaker ACs. That means you might be the first one into combat, but do you really want to be there?2) Evasion and Improved Evasion. Great abilities for the monk, and underappreciated I think. These combine with the monks great reflex save to allow him to completely avoid fireballs. Let's keep in mind that the monk is one of only 2 classes that can do this.3) Still Mind. Any +2 is nice, but this doesn't really help the monk fight.4) Slow Fall. This one just isn't that great, especially considering a ring of feather fall is dirt cheap and much better.5) Purity of Body. Immunity to diseases isn't that great of a benefit in general. By the time you get it, any disease you pick up can be healed with remove disease. The only really nasty diseases that actually matter for combat purposes your not immune to.6) Ki Strike (Magic). This is compensation for not having magic fists, and normally comes 2 levels after the rest of your party has magic weapons. Ki Strike (lawful) is pretty weak in general. Ki Strike (adamantine) is very nice for penetrating DR, and its a lot of fun to be able to tear down walls with your bare hands. 7) Wholeness of Body. Never underestimate the ability to heal yourself, especially in combat. I had a characters whose personal healing saved his life. This one helps the monk fight better and last longer, its a good ability.8) Awesome Touch AC. This isn't a class ability but can't be ignored. Your touch AC is often the best in the party, and that gets better and better as you get higher in levels. There are a lot of touch attacks out there.9) Diamond Body. Never underestimate the benefits of an immunity. There are CR 10 creatures out there with DC 23 poisons, so don't think you can just walz past poisons. Monks will get hit with poisons a lot when they fight in melee, so this is a great ability for them. The other power of this is that this is an "active immunity." Just like the old gain fire immunity and light yourself on fire, the monk can actually deliver poisons with his hands with no worry of it bothering him.10) Quivering Palm. This is a fun ability and a nice plot ability, but not really a strong combat ability.11) Abundant Step and Empty Body. These again are not to be underestimated. The big thing is you can get places other party members can't, and you can escape things they can't. If you ever been forcecaged before or grappled by a garguantuan creature...you know the benefit of being able to d door out. These are great abilities.12) SR...you can never scoff over SR.13) Perfect Self: In 3.5, DR 10/magic is still very good. There are lots of monsters that don't penetrate magic DR. This hleps the front line monk.14) Ranged attack weakness. I thought I'd mention this one. The only ranged weapon of worth a monk gets is the crossbow. So that means anytime a ranged fight comes up, the monk is reduced to a single attack at a medium BAB. Fighters are often not the best archers, but hey they can pull out a bow and throw out 3 or 4 attacks, so they're doing alright. Monks are really, really, really bad at ranged combat.So looking at the list you notice, monks are really good against spellcasters and against weird situations. That's a niche, and a good one. But in a straight up fight going into melee against the big bad (ie the typical dnd fight) there abilities help them very little.</blockquote>

Verification