Question about Monk's wearing armor...

[RigaMortus]

If a monk wears armor, their "special abilities all face the arcane spell failure that the armor type normally imposes".

For a monk, what are these "special abilities"? I assume they mean anything listed under "Special" in their class description (Table 3-10 in the PHB). If this is correct, that means they would have to make an arcane spell failure check everytime they try to:

a) Make an Unarmed Strike
b) Use a Stunning Attack
c) Use Evasion
d) Deflect Arrows
e) Gain the benefits from Still Mind
f) Try and use Slow Fall

and so on...

Am I reading this correct?

If I use the OA rules and say swap out Deflect Arrows for Improved Grapple, would I need to make an arcane spell check when I try to initiate an Improved Grapple as well?

If I am wrong in these assumptions, please clarify as to which "special abilities" a Monk needs to make an arcane spell check when wearing armor.

 

[CRGreathouse]

There don't seem to be any hard & fast rules. I'd say arcane failure applies to stunning atacks, slow fall (?), leap of the clouds, abundant step, quivering palm, and empty body.

They already lose their AC bonus, speed increase, and UBAB.

 

[RigaMortus]

What if you substitute one of those feats for another, as per the OA Monks? For example, if I substitute "Deflect Arrows" with "Improved Grapple" would I need to make the arcane check for that?

 

[Ranger REG]

If you replace one of the monk's class feature for a martial arts feat (IMHO, a downgrade) using the OA rules, then armor will not affect said feat, unless otherwise noted in the feat description.

One good example is the Freezing the Lifeblood feat, which is dependant on the monk's stunning attack. If you miss the failure check to use your monk's stunning attack, then you cannot execute Freezing the Lifeblood.

 

[RigaMortus]

Why would I make an arcane check for stunning fist if I am going to attack someone with Freeze the Life Blood?

The only thing Freeze the Life Blood is dependant is that you have stunning fist as per one of the prereq's. In other words, if I was out of stunning fist attacks for the day, I can still use Freeze the Life Blood. So I fail to see why I would have to make arcane checks for one feat/ability when I am using a different one. Besides the fact that I don't think there is anything written that backs your "rules" up there.

 

[Plane Sailing]

What if you substitute one of those feats for another, as per the OA Monks? For example, if I substitute "Deflect Arrows" with "Improved Grapple" would I need to make the arcane check for that?

Yes, I think you would need to make the check. You are customising the class abilities, and the class abilities have this limitation.

If you were to take Improved Grapple as one of your normal (1/3 levels) feats, then it would not be restricted.

It is a similar question to asking whether a ranger who swapped TWF and Ambidexterity for point blank shot and far shot (for example) should lose the use of those if he wore heavy armour.

This is the way I read the situation.