OA - Tattoo Monk Question

[Junkheap]

I personally think that what he looses is nothing compared to what he gains. Plus how can you say that taking 8 damage less off of EVERY hit is not substantial. To be honest it is 9 less damge, he took a feat from MOTW that gave him the extra +1. SO pretty much the weapon being used against the monk is either useless, or half as effective. Most of the damage done will ONLY be done by strength and specialization. And he can hit anything cuz of his DR, so who needs a weapon.

Plus it is easier for him to boost up stats which will help him more than it would a fighter. Better saves. All his AC is touch. Plus he can haste himself 4 times a day for i think 14 rounds(His level). Now, you are not going to have 4 fights a day, nor are you ganna have a fight last more than 14 rounds. We are in lord of the iron fortress right now and the ONLY reason he died was that the DM rolled 2 20's in a row, then a hit. So instant death. Otherwise, it was very very hard for the DM to actually be able to do anything against him. Its good min/maxing i guess. Either way, thanks for all the inputs guys

 

[Ma'varkith]

I personally think that what he looses is nothing compared to what he gains.

I dunno - Wholeness of body, Leap of the clouds, Improved Evasion, Diamond Body, Abundant Step, and Diamond Soul are pretty good abilities. Add in the Slow Fall and two levels of Ki Strike and you're trading in 9 abilities for 4 tattoos. I think the problem is that the DM let him min-max on the tattoo selection, choosing those that provided the most combat bonuses.

If your DM cannot find a weakness for this character, and has to rely on rolling 20s to stop him, he's not trying hard enough.
Remember that activating a tattoo is a move-equivalent action and that they won't work in anti-magical areas. That means for the tattoos he needs to activate, it'll take a couple rounds.

Look at what the Monk had to give up for the Tattoos (Poison immunity, Spell Resistance, Imp. Evasion) and you have three routes to taking it out. Sure a Monk has fantastic saves, but to make this Uber-Monk, the player would have to spread those attributes pretty evenly across Wis, Dex, Con, and Str. Not to mention his obligation to his Order (or did the DM waive the "must be accepted into a Tattooed Monk Order"?) and his requirement to remail Lawful (correct me if I'm wrong, but if you no longer meet the requirements for a Prestige Class, don't you lose access to its abilities?)

Now, if the DM allowed for ungodly-high attributes at character generation, or has been freely passing out items to boost stats, you've got a whole other problem, but if everything was done "by the books" then this character really isn't any more powerful or broken than most others.

Observation: The SRD says "For purposes of harming other creatures with damage reduction, a creature’s natural weapons count as weapons of the type that can ignore its own innate damage reduction. The amount of damage reduction is irrelevant." It seems to me that the Damage Reduction given by the tattoos is not an innate ability, as it is gained as a class ability by way of a tattoo and is not something that is a "part of" the character by nature of his birth.

 

[Veldrane]

If your DM cannot find a weakness for this character, and has to rely on rolling 20s to stop him, he's not trying hard enough.

Actually, you anticipated me... ...I really can't imagine how a 13th lvl character can absorb most of the damage with a 9/+4 DR... ...sure, it's a great thing, but we're talking of a melee character, always in the middle of the fight, and by that level (and before) the minimum damage a moster deals per attack will be around the 20ies... ...dunno, maybe I'm just getting used to campaigns like RttToEE, but I really can't see how a 9/+4 can make you invulnerable... ...plus, a haste can be useful for a Monk just in the first round, since it will give him just one attack more in the others... ...and I can't see either how he can deal the same amount of melee damage a Fighter or Barb or Cleric (Spikes?) or Rogue do, or how he can have the best AC... ...imho the problem is that he is quite min/maxed, the others don't, full stop (maybe if you can provide more infos about this character, we could understand better...)

Observation: The SRD says "For purposes of harming other creatures with damage reduction, a creature’s natural weapons count as weapons of the type that can ignore its own innate damage reduction. The amount of damage reduction is irrelevant." It seems to me that the Damage Reduction given by the tattoos is not an innate ability, as it is gained as a class ability by way of a tattoo and is not something that is a "part of" the character by nature of his birth.

Well, I too use the SRD for quick referencing, but if the DMG specifies a rule, I prefer to follow the DMG instead of the SRD...

 

[Black Omega]

Originally posted by Ma'varkith
Observation: The SRD says "For purposes of harming other creatures with damage reduction, a creature’s natural weapons count as weapons of the type that can ignore its own innate damage reduction. The amount of damage reduction is irrelevant." It seems to me that the Damage Reduction given by the tattoos is not an innate ability, as it is gained as a class ability by way of a tattoo and is not something that is a "part of" the character by nature of his birth.

Well, I too use the SRD for quick referencing, but if the DMG specifies a rule, I prefer to follow the DMG instead of the SRD...

Hmm..what ed of the DMG do you have? I got the first ed DMG and word for word it's what Ma'varkith posted. The DMG also mentions that Damage reduction from spells, such as Stoneskin, do not confer this ability. By the OA, tattoos are magical and are nullified by an anti-magical field. They are magical Supernatural Abilites, not innate. By the rules it doesn't seem like it would count as innate DR for the purposes of countering someone elses DR. It's up to the GM, of course, he can choose to count the tattoos as innate rather tham magical..but it would change alot since they could not be nullified then. Frankly, he gets mega-monk into an anti-magic field and the monk's in serious trouble.

 

[Happiest_Sadist]

Well, the haste can't be for 14 rounds. It goes by class level, NOT charachter level. Unless it says that specifically.