Muay Thai Monk

[Imre]

I would say the archetype for the monk class and (most of) the feats for it is the "kung fu monk". I wanted to see what you all would do for a Muay Thai monk, particularly the more traditional, attrition style.

Thanks.

 

[Leiff]

You could easily build a muay thai monk with the current build, you just need to take the right feats.

With the lst bonus feat that monks get Improved grapple fits much better then stunning first. In Muay thai you don't really stun the opponent but the clinch is a major part of the art. I forget the name of the original martial art that muay thai stemmed from, but if I remember correctly the style favored dual wielding swords and using kicks in battle, therefore for the second feat combat reflexes fits a little better then deflect arrows since you wouldn't have a hand free. The 3rd bonus feat monks get Improved trip is the way to go. I think in original muay thai throws and takedowns were used, and I've seen many fights where just kicking the opponent in the legs causes them to fall over.

Other potential feats that would work could be: Toughness (Or Improved Toughness) since thai fighters really take a lot of abuse, Power attack. If you had rogue levels then arterial strike would be good (due to the nasty elbow cuts).

 

[Imre]

I think ultimately I'm looking for a set of (higher level) feats that replace the ki strike and kiai shout "mystical kung fu" motif with something more direct and "down and dirty".

 

[ThorneMD]

Here's what I'm using so far since most of my monk schools are based on real martial arts.

Temple of the Dragon
o School Specific Training
§ Weapon Focus: At 2nd level, in lieu of a bonus feat, a student of the Dragon receives the Weapon Focus (unarmed) feat for free.
§ Hammer Blow: At 6th level, in lieu of a bonus feat, a student of the Dragon receivers the Hammer Blow feat for free.
§ Weapon Specialization: At 8th level, in lieu of Slow Fall 40 ft., the Dragon pugilist gains the Weapon Specialization (Unarmed) feat for free. He gains Slow Fall 40 ft. at 10th level.
§ Rabbit Strike: At 12th level, when using the Flurry of Blows ability with a full attack action, the Dragon practitioner suffers only a –1 penalty to his extra attack and highest base attack. The remaining suffer the normal –2 Flurry of Blows penalty. Rabbit strike replaces the Abundant Step ability.
§ Lightning Strike: At 15th level the Dragon pugilist is so skilled at making rapid-fire blows that he can attempt a Flurry of Blows as a standard action. In other words, he can make two attacks at his highest base attack as a standard action, suffering the normal –2 Flurry of Blows penalty to both attacks when doing so. He gains the Lightning Strike ability in lieu of Quivering Palm.
§ Great Fortitude: At 17th level, in lieu of Tongue of the Sun and Moon, the Dragon master gains the Great Fortitude feat for free.
§ Raging Bull: At 19th level, in lieu of Empty Body, the Dragon master gains the ability to, 1/day, raise his strength as if by a bull’s strength spell cast by a sorcerer of his Wisdom bonus in levels.
o New Feats
§ Hammer Blow (Monk)
· You know that power makes up for subtlety. Where other monks strike like lightning, you prefer kicks and punches that hit like a bettering ram.
o Prerequisites: Flurry of Blows ability, Power Attack, BAB +6
o Benefits: In lieu of an extra attack when using Flurry of Blows, you add damage to your first attack equal to the base attack bonus of the sacrificed extra attack. For example, an 11th level monk with unarmed BAB of +8/+5/+2 and a +1 Str bonus to damage would, when using Hammer Blow, have an unarmed BAB of +6/+3/+0 with +7 to his first damage roll and +1 to the rest. Hammer Blow can be using in conjunction with Power Attack.
§ Iron Body (Monk)
· After years of diligent practice and great hardship, you have boosted your body’s pain tolerance to an incredible degree.
o Prerequisite: Great Fortitude
o Benefits: You reduce the damage from critical hits and sneak attacks by 1 point of per damage dice. Additionally, when reduced to 0 hit points or less, you have a 20% chance to stabilize each round, rather than 10%.

 

[Storyteller01]

Use the fighter. Get the Improved IMPROVED Unarmed Combat feat from Bo9S. Use the Iron Leg feat from Kingdom of Kalamar's Stealth and Style (among other goodies, it doubles your str damage to any attack delivered with the legs). Look into OA for the unarmed combat feats.

Use the verastile feat (rokugan) to make the spiritual skills class skills.

 

[llamatron2000]

I'd go barbarian/fighter, with grappling-oriented feats, PrC'ing into Reaping Mauler. Clinch 'em and don't let go. Improved grapple + kiss of the earth(or whatever its called), + sleeper lock + devastating grapple + rage + a countless number of unarmed attack/grapple feats to add to this = ouchies

 

[Aries_Omega]

Check out Dragon 330. If you are going to do Muay Thai then you should include Krabi Krabong. This style is thought to be more culturally pure then Muay Thai and on top of that the King's elite bodyguard are trained in Krabi Krabong. The article I think does a good treatment of variant monks. If you are looking for more "brutal monk" try this. In AD&D every class has access to some kind of weapons. This variation allows for a different set of monk weapons. Alternatively check out the variant martial art styles in Unearthed Arcana. You could use both rules, use the DR article and fighting styles. Here is a link to the fighting styles rules I am talking about here....http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#monkVariantFightingStyles