Tattooed Monk (CW) - Worth it?

[Klaus]

Title pretty much says it all.

I envisioned an Eberron character styled after Mani (Marc Dacascos) from Brotherhood of the Wolf. He'd be a drow monk from Xen'drik who would ritually use scorpion venom to etch white tattoos onto his black skin.

Here's the image (by Steve Prescott) that inspired me:

So is Tattooed Monk a worthy PrClass?

 

[Mad Mac]

I've always thought the Tattooed monk was on the weak side, myself. Anyway you look at it, he simply gets less out of his 10 levels than the 11-20 monk does, even if you're using the dragon update (which lets the Tattoe Monk pick up Greater Flurry) over the CW version. Without GF, well...sucktastic comes to mind.

That said, it is possible to cobble together a pretty decent, focused TM through careful tattoo selection, although you'll still come out generally weaker than the straight monk. Up to you. I think the class works better for multiclassers with a few monk levels better than straight monk, since the class looks a lot better when you're looking at loosing mid-level monk abilities rather than high.

 

[Klaus]

Where can I find this dragon update? What's the gist of it?

 

[Xombie Master]

In the dmg, it says it costs double to make a magic item not take up a slot. I'd say make him a normal munk, and spend your loot on "magic item tattoos." My barbarian does it because he started the game captured, so I used my starting gold to equip him using tattoos. Now he has tattooed Natural Armor, and boots of speed.

 

[Kunimatyu]

I think it'd be a cool character. Remember to take the feat White Scorpion Strike(from Races of Eberron) for your drow monk. Unfortunately, few of the tattoos are actually good, so I'd stick with the class long enough to pick up the few that are. Pheonix Tattoo (spell resistance) would be great, except not, since you're a drow. Crab Tattoo gives out somr DR/magic for each tattoo you have -- depending on what you're fighting, this can be amazing. In fact, I'd look up the Savage Progressions article on WotC to start with a non level-adjusted drow(obviously sans some of the racial stuff), then take Fenix Tattoo to gain that spell resist anyways, and then grab a few other tattoos. I think there's one that allows you to forgo food, drink, and sleep with no ill effects, and another that gives bonuses to Jump check(always good for a monk) I have no idea what it does, but Scorpion Tattoo would also be a good one to consider.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

Better yet, just make up replacement tattoos with your DM and make the prc worth taking.

 

[Xombie Master]

If you take white scorpion strike, then you should try and do something like Shou Disciple. Come up with a class that will let you flurry with a spiked chain. Otherwise it's a waste of a feat.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Or use Elements of Magic...one of the options are to tatoo permanent spells, essentially making your body the magic item... you are limited to 12 active effects at any given time, so it is not an overpowered option, and the variety of effects are very good.

Nice picture! It would be interesting to have that character floating around

 

[Klaus]

The tattoos that seem to matter most to this character are Crab (DR 2/magic for each tattoo you have, so it can scale up to DR 20/magic... really offsets the low HD), Spider (deliver poison with a stunning use... I'll rename it Scorpion, since the Scorpion tattoo is rather blah) and Wasp (haste self).

 

[Mad Mac]

Uh...you only get 5 tattoos. Crab gives you up to 10/magic, which is what the monk gets at 20th level...you get it earlier, at least. Phoenix gives you SR at about the same level as a straight monk, but it caps out at 25, rather than 30...poor tattoed monk... :\

The haste tatoo is a good one though, and the poison one is cool. Other personal favorites are Tiger, (+1 at/+1d6 dam for several rounds) the one that gives a dodge bonus to AC, and Monkey (gives up to +5 in 9 different skills) Most of the tatoos are hooey though. I remember someone on the wizards boards suggesting that it be redone as a 5 level class, which I thought was an interesting idea.

The dragon OA update version of the TM is exactly the same as the CW version, except that it gets to add TM levels to monk levels to determine flurry/greater flurry, which was apparently overlooked in the CW version.