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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kerrick" data-source="post: 4293387" data-attributes="member: 4722">Wow.... you've been busy.Those are pretty much dead-on - Mountain style is a heavy hitter who can soak up damage (a power style); Ocean is all about flowing movements and using the enemy's strength against him (Tai Chi is a perfect example, combined with aikido/judo); Sun is an aggressive style (I like the suggestion to make it less about bursts of energy); Wind is, of course, based around speed (kung fu). Heavens were kind of an add-on; we (my friend and I) wanted to do Sun and Moon, and that was what I came up with after a little work. I know it's not in keeping with the monkish archetype, but there is precedent in D&D - the Monk of the Long Death, for instance. I think a cult of monk who worship a death god is just too cool to pass up.What I think I'll do, since I'm drawing a blank on Dawn abilities, is just combine them into one style with two aspects - kind of like the Chin-Na style you mention, with pressure points, joint locks, and such, but the PC can choose how to apply them - if he wants to be evil, he can go around using his scorpion strike to inflict pain and suffering; if he's good, he can use it to disable opponents without inflicting pain (I have to add something for that...). Same with blinding strike and such - any condition he inflicts, he can reverse. If you've ever read the Destroyer novels, it's a lot like Sinanju - they can manipulate nerve clusters and pressure points to inflict incredible pain, paralyze some or all of the body, inflict blindness, etc. Kind of a "hit 'em the firstest with the mostest" style? You know, nail the opponent with overwhelming force and drop him fast? That's kind of what it's about, really - short-term bursts that deal a lot of damage. You say "aggressive and powerful", but wouldn't that step on the Mountain Style a bit? Is the aggressiveness at the cost of defense?Yeah, I thought that was a bit much myself - I can change it to temporary... maybe 1 round/level or something. I was leaning toward making the Twilight style about striking pressure points, too - disabling the opponent, inflicting crippling blows and such, without necessarily killing him.Yeah... the elemental channeling thing just kind of popped up on its own, and I thought it was kinda cool, so I kept it, despite the fact that it is a bit wuxia (which I'm trying my best to avoid). I do want to have SOME mystical ability, though... I think a Master or Grandmaster-level monk should be able to do things that normal humans can't, like the burst of wind thing. I could ditch the Aspect of xxx cause it is a bit over the top, but then I'd need a new Grandmaster ability.Con damage would work, too... maybe drop the target's Con by half? I like the idea of being able to negate it - a Heal check could work, or a Dawn monk could do it.That could work.. I'll see what I can do.Now this I like - it makes the styles different, which is what I want. Don't forget, too, that you choose only ONE compass point - it's a style focus. I can change North and South to give a variable bonus based on the style, which would be noted in each style. I'd like to keep it so that there isn't a combination of style and focus that's significantly better than any other, though - I mean, a Wind Style monk who focuses on dealing damage, should be just as viable as the same monk with a defensive focus.Hmm... I read somewhere, in one of the many discussions about 4E encounter powers, someone used the analogy of a martial artist - you wouldn't use all your flashy moves over and over; you'd try it once or twice, then fall back on tried and true methods that are sure to work. I played judo in college, and I can agree with this - the big, flashy moves generally don't get used unless an opportunity presents itself. Most matches are won with a handful of throws, which are among the more basic ones, because they're the easiest to perform and have the widest utility. I was just kinda coming up with things off the top of my head, actually. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />  I'll check out Avatar, though. In the meantime, I'll go over the monk, tweak some things, and update the first post later. Thanks for all the input.</blockquote>

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