Monk's Lawful Ki Strike

[Klaus]

Show the player the "Axiomatic Strike" feat.
Requirement: Ki Strike (lawful), Stunning Fist, + some other I can't remember...
Benefit: Spend 1 Stunning Fist daily use to add +2d6 damage vs. chaotic foes (usable vs. orcs, vampires, demons, most undead, slaadi, lillend, titan, red and white dragons, etc, etc, etc)

Source: Complete Warrior

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

Create some monsters that have DR/Lawful.

 

[Nyarlathotep]

Show the player the "Axiomatic Strike" feat.
Requirement: Ki Strike (lawful), Stunning Fist, + some other I can't remember...
Benefit: Spend 1 Stunning Fist daily use to add +2d6 damage vs. chaotic foes (usable vs. orcs, vampires, demons, most undead, slaadi, lillend, titan, red and white dragons, etc, etc, etc)

Source: Complete Warrior

That's cool! I'll look at that tonight, thanks .

 

[Jarrod]

I've decided to houserule the chaotic evil/good monsters to have DR/lawful as well as DR/(good/evil). I don't see why a chaotic evil demon can be affected by a good weapon, but not a lawful one.

YMMV, etc. etc. etc. D&D is about good vs. evil, so I consider this an oversight.

 

[Droid101]

On the one hand, I can understand where your player is coming from. I feel the same way about the paladin's Remove Disease ability, and have asked my DM if I could exchange it for something that will actually see some use.

Make up some new monsters. Modify current monsters. It doesn't take much to make someone useful.

On the other hand, what's wrong with them? If any of my PCs complained about an ability they got, then I would respond with "Why did you take the class?" But, none of my players have ever whined like that, so I have never needed to say that.

It's not the end of the freaking world.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Make up some new monsters. Modify current monsters. It doesn't take much to make someone useful.

On the other hand, what's wrong with them? If any of my PCs complained about an ability they got, then I would respond with "Why did you take the class?" But, none of my players have ever whined like that, so I have never needed to say that.

It's not the end of the freaking world.

Are you asking me what's wrong with Remove Disease? If that's the case, to slightly digress:

The Remove Disease charges a paladin gets are far too few (1/week, gained every 3 levels) and are gained far too late (starts at 6th, finally gain enough for a standard party at 15th) to ever be useful. Now, if it were Neutralize Poison, it might be moreso, since poisons are immediately detrimental and thus being able to cure even one person in the midst of combat could be a useful ability. But diseases usually take at least a day to incubate, meaning that the cleric or druid has plenty of time to prepare Remove Disease before the disease ever actually does damage. And he'll have to do so anyway in most cases, since the paladin has so few charges of Remove Disease that he'll hardly ever be able to cure everyone who's diseased.

By mid to high levels, disease isn't even a factor thanks to the cleric's Heroes' Feast. Yet the paladin keeps on getting those charges. In fact, they're the only thing he gets besides more smite attempts.

Heck, those charges of Remove Disease feel like an insult. Not only are they useless, but they're one of the only two things I get as I advance in level, where they get weaker and less useful with each passing level. Another charge of Remove Disease at 18th-level?! I should be happy with that while clerics are getting Miracle? Or did they already get that at 17th...?

As for why I took the class, it's for the flavor. And I do like nearly all of the paladin's abilities. But not Remove Disease. The paladins as-is lack a few good high-level abilities. Putting charges of Remove Disease in those barren high-levels is just irritating.

[/rant]

 

[jarlaxlecq]

Show the player the "Axiomatic Strike" feat.
Requirement: Ki Strike (lawful), Stunning Fist, + some other I can't remember...
Benefit: Spend 1 Stunning Fist daily use to add +2d6 damage vs. chaotic foes (usable vs. orcs, vampires, demons, most undead, slaadi, lillend, titan, red and white dragons, etc, etc, etc)

Source: Complete Warrior

If thats not a good idea i don't know what is

 

[Hawken]

In regards to the Ki Strike (Lawful) and your player's complaints, why not just change it to Ki Strike (Good) or Ki Strike (Evil)? Perhaps depending on the alignment or choice of the Monk. Law vs. Chaos never seemed that important a factor in combat until Planescape came along. If the Law vs. Chaos thing is not that important in your campaign, just go with Good vs. Evil. That doesn't overbalance Monks or force you to rework any monsters you plan on throwing at the Monk. The player should be happy with that and will be able to use it more often than a Ki Strike (Lawful) unless you just plan on throwing a bunch of Chaotic creatures with DR at them just to make him happy.

Regarding the usefulness/uselessness of the Paladin's Cure Disease ability, I reworked it a little for my own games. It is now called Purge Impurity. The uses are per day instead of per week. The paladin can use it to Neutralize Poison or Remove Disease.

 

[LoneWolf23]

As Klaus pointed out, Demons, being Chaotic Evil, are quite vulnerable to a Lawful Ki strike.

Otherwise, I have to ask others who might have read more books: Is there a book with a feat that allows for an additional alignment modification to Ki strike? I'm thinking two possible options: Ki Strike (Good) for a "Holy Fist" kind of attack, and a Ki Strike (Evil) for "Dark Chi Attacks"...

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

As Klaus pointed out, Demons, being Chaotic Evil, are quite vulnerable to a Lawful Ki strike.

Not especially...they should, yes, but most of them aren't. They're more vulnerable to, say, Cold Iron than to the Steely Fist of Law.

Hrm...I just realized there's actually a reason now to use one of the monk's planar substitution levels, to get Ki Strike (Cold Iron).

Otherwise, I have to ask others who might have read more books: Is there a book with a feat that allows for an additional alignment modification to Ki strike? I'm thinking two possible options: Ki Strike (Good) for a "Holy Fist" kind of attack, and a Ki Strike (Evil) for "Dark Chi Attacks"...

Two options:

1) Sanctify Ki Strike, from Book of Exalted Deeds. Not that many monks can take this, as they would need a Charisma of 15. Plus, you need Ki Strike (Lawful) to get it.

2) Take four levels of Henshin Mystic after Monk-10, and you get Ki Strike (Holy) or (Unholy), depending on alignment (choice if you're LN). This is from the 3.5 revisions to OA found in Dragon #...um...318. However, if you don't already have Ki Strike (Lawful), you'll get that.

Brad