Please rate the Drunken Master

[smetzger]

Requirements: Bab +4, Base Unarmed Attack Bonus +4, Great Fortitude, Dodge, Tumble 6 ranks, Evasion, must be chosen after night of revelry

Class Features: Improved Speed, Drink like a Demon, Bottle proficiency, Stagger, Swaying Waist, Increased AC, Improvised Weapons, Drunken Rage, Lurch, Drunken Embrace, For medicinal purposes, Corkscrew rush, Breath of flame

So, rate it on:
1) How well it stacks up with core classes.
2) How often a PC or NPC will go with this class.
3) How 'fun' it is to play this class and how much this class adds to the game.
Each is worth 3 points, with an additional point that you could add for Misc. reasons.

 

[RigaMortus]

Question...

It has a Base Unarmed Attack Bonus +4 prereq. Is this something that is only calculated for Monks? AFAIK, everyone can attack unarmed if they want, so could you calculate this for other classes as well? I realize that not all classes get the improved iterative attacks that Monks get at a +4 BAB.

Also, do you continue to calculate UBAB if you were a Lvl 1 Monk / Lvl X Fighter (or any other class)?

 

[Bauglir]

AFAIK you don't.

A monk has 2 base attack bonuses - their normal BAB and their unarmed BAB. For a pure monk these will gain at the same rate, the only difference being that normal BAB doesn't include the fast iterative attacks.

However, were a monk to take a level of fighter, the resulting +1 BAB only applies to the normal BAB - the unarmed BAB stays as it was. (otherwise a monk1/fig19 could have unarmed attacks at +19/+16/+13/+10/+7/+4/+1, which is a bit silly)

And this is why multiclassing monks is a royal pain to maintain

 

[RigaMortus]

That's what I though =/

 

[Hawkeye]

Hmmmm. I had checked on these boards before on the UAB. It was my understanding, that if a Monk multiclasses, the BAB from his non monk classes is added to his UAB, but the number of his ierative attacks is solely determined by his monk level. The aforemention Monk1/Fighter 19, could only use his monk level for determining his UAB. Yes he would be +19 to hit, but could only have one attack at the more favorable Monk AUB progression. He could, if he wanted take the 5 step standard progression, I suppose.

Hawkeye

 

[smetzger]

My take on the Drunken Master.

The requirement for Unarmed Base Attack Bonus +4 and BAB +4 sure seems to weird. But on second look the Monk class has a specific entry for Unarmed Base Attack, while I can find no such other references to this. So, even though we know that Unarmed Base Attack is calculated from BAB and then just has a different value for the iterative attacks they are completly separate things. Lets hope they fix this Unarmed Base Attack Bonus junk in 3e.

The roleplaying requirements seem out of place. Seems like the least likely class to have some sort of 'secret' society that goes around chooseing new members and teaching them the secrets of consuming alcohol.

 

[Shard O'Glase]

I thought that's what all secret societies were based on.

 

[drnuncheon]

The roleplaying requirements seem out of place. Seems like the least likely class to have some sort of 'secret' society that goes around chooseing new members and teaching them the secrets of consuming alcohol.

I don't think it's so much a "secret society" as much as the fact that you need to be trained by a current drunken master, and they're not going to train you unless you can both fight & hold your liquor (at the same time).

J

 

[Kae'Yoss]

It's good power-wise, and it sure has style!

 

[thegreatbuddha]

My favorite character concept is a Barb/Monk/Drunken Master. Go apprentice-level Barb0/Monk0 and take straight monk into Drunken Master after that. Alignment restrictions disallow it though....