The Quintessential Monk

[Messageboard Golem]

The square jawed, half-orc boxer, yearning to be a legitimate champion but beholden to the whims of a gangster cartel. The halfling acrobat, running up walls and tumbling from rooftop to rooftop as easily as he cartwheels across the stage. The serene elf bodyguard, slender and graceful but able to crush a giants skull with a single kick. The wandering philosopher, slow to anger but an implacable defender of the poor. All are monks and all can be created using the rules and guidelines presented here, in The Quintessential Monk.

 

[Rhyyss]

The Monk is my favorite D&D class. Always has been since. One of my complaints with the 3rd edition version of the monk, is that, while it does a good job of creating a template for a classical philosophical martial artist, the ability to create more exotic fighters is very limited. The Quintessential Monk from Mongoose Publishing offers a well-balanced range of customization options for your D20 monk character, and is highly recommended for anyone who wants to take their character beyond the standard monk character offered in the D&D Player’s Guide.

The Quintessential Monk is book seven in Mongoose’s “Collector Series” of books, each detailing a different race or class for D20 fantasy games. I am generally hesitant to buy a class specific supplement, and this is the first one of this series I have read. I must say I was pleasantly surprised, and found it far more useful and interesting than the comparable Wizard’s of the Coast publication.

The nine chapters of the book cover character concepts including new prestige classes, new skills feats and weapons, and rules to cover tournaments, founding a monastery, and fame. Not all of these are intended for player characters, but taken together, they provide tools for creating a much broader range of martial artist than the standard D20 monk.

Character concepts are tweaks available at character creation, and allow minor changes in the monk template to account for different backgrounds. For example, a monk could be a Wanderer, trading Diplomacy for Wilderness Lore as a class skill.

More substantial changes come through the chapter on Alternative Fighting Schools. These schools are major departures from the standard monk class, and reflect some of the diversity of martial arts traditions. Basically these offer a different series of class skills as the monk progresses in rank. The Double Hammer, for examples, sacrifices some of the subtler monk abilities for more powerful attacks. There are also alternative schools for grapplers, and softer, internal martial arts. As a nice touch, each of these alternative schools provides a short background, explaining the history of the school.

At the upper end of the spectrum are new prestige classes. Some of these offer intriguing ideas for higher level monks, and some, like the Enlightened Scholar and Blind Master let the DM create NPCs to fill the some classic roles in martial arts lore. The prestige classes were interesting, and mostly designed as minor departures from the monk’s training. Few of the prestige classes had more than five levels, and all were designed to stack with the monk’s existing levels.

No book on martial arts would be complete without a raft of new skills, feats and exotic weapons, and here the Quintessential Monk delivers nicely. The range of weapons includes historical favorites and some new fantasy based oddities. New skills and feats are well thought out and fairly well balanced. Throughout the chapter the author avoids the pitfall of attempting to catalog hundreds of possible weapons and maneuvers, instead listing a broad enough sample to provide variety and new combat options without overwhelming the reader.

The Quintessential Monk also has detailed rules for tournaments and school building, which will be of interest if the monk is a primary focus of the campaign. Otherwise it seems unlikely that the rules for push-hands or sumo wrestling will come into play in most games. The rules for lion-dancing in particular, are beautifully designed, and include their own prestige class and special equipment, but might take some work to fit into most standard adventuring scenarios.

The concept of Renown, introduced in this book, has value beyond the monk character. Basically, Renown is a measure of how famous a character is, and effects NPC reactions, ability to attract followers, and other interesting events like people challenging the PC to duels. Although designed with the monk in mind, the idea of character renown could easily be applied to any other class to add some wrinkles to a character’s day in town and provide lots of opportunities to role-play.

One of my favorite parts of the Quintessential Monk was the section on Lost Forms. These are essentially new feats to add variety to your monks abilities. Instead of a simple list of new gee-whiz feats, each lost form has a unique history. The chapter has ideas about how these lost arts may be rediscovered, providing adventure hooks for several mini-quests. Although these lost forms are not necessarily more powerful than standard feats, the experience point cost, training time and other requirements will keep these arts rare and impressive.

Physically the Quintessential Monk is very well done. The layout of the document is clear, and easy to read. The index is comprehensive. The only complaint is that art is a little uneven. Most of the illustrations are very good, and some of the illustrations are superb, really capturing the feel of unorthodox fighters (the halfling monk in action, and the young mounted archer truly stand out). A couple of the pieces fell short of the standards of the rest of the book and brought back (with a shudder) memories of the very first Greyhawk supplement. But this is a minor complaint in an otherwise excellent publication.

Armed with the Quintessential Monk, I’m looking forward to training my character, Kesh, with a wide range of new techniques, and putting the smack-down on the minions of evil with style, grace, and devastating speed. Orcus-worshipers beware.

The Quintessential Monk by Patrick Younts is available from Mongoose Publishing for $ 19.05 (US). Softbound, 128 pages.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Review of The Quintessential Monk by Mongoose Publishing

The Quintessential Monk is the seventh book in Mongoose’s Collector Series. Each book in the series takes a single class and goes into great detail with it. The Quintessential Monk is a book that no monk player can be without. It gives options to play many different types of martial artist from the pugilist to the spiritual. The many options, feat, and prestige classes make it so that no two monks will look the same and many will be hard to pigeonhole as the classical Monk.

First, I should cover the art. I’ve never been happy with Mongoose’s art. I’d like to say this book is different, but it really is not. Most of the pictures do illustrate certain style on the page or are of something relating to the topic being discussed. The art doesn’t take away from the book or distract one from the text. However, at the same time I don’t think it really added much.

The book opens up with a great introduction telling one what can be done with this book. I highly suggest reading it as it will be the easiest way to decide if this book is useful. Next, the book goes into character concepts. These are archetypes that help define the monk. Each gives a minor bonus along with a minor penalty. Reading through this section should give one many ideas for the countless variety of monks there can be. One use that I’ve found for this section is to help determine what concepts would fit into my campaign world. I think that is the biggest problem people have with monks, and using this section that way should greatly help out. As much as I enjoyed this section, I have to say that the non-human concept part left me wanting more. Instead of providing additional concepts that would be unique to a race, it just suggests which of the other concepts would fit.

Prestige Classes are a staple in d20 books, and Quintessential Monk has many to offer. Any monk character should be able to find at least one of these that fits him. Overall they are well balanced, although some might be a little on the weak side. My favorite is the Enlightened Scholar. This prestige class one needs to be at least 15th level to qualify, and the abilities are deal with being extremely self-aware. The Street Acrobat is another great one, and it would be a lot easier then most of the others to fit into any campaign world.

Next we get to alternate fighting styles. This section gives ways to trade out a few of the core Monk’s abilities for other things like specific feats to define a different type of martial artists. Again, this section is well balanced and shows that by trading out just a few abilities one can really alter the look and the feel of a Monk.

Tricks of the Trade deals with new options presented for the Monk character. It goes into good detail on using pressure points, new grapple options, push hand competitions, the Lion Dance, and dirty tricks. These new rules might be a little on the complicated side, but should provide another level of enjoyment allowing a Monk to expand upon whatever it is he does best. Next this section deals with new uses for old skills. The concentration skill has been greatly expanded upon allowing monks to use it to break objects.

Feats are another section most books seems to have, but unlike many these feats are rather specific and should help define the Monk even farther. There are some simple yet ingenious ones like Elusive Grapplier and Finesse Trip. Both of these allow a monk to use his dexterity in place of his strength for these types of maneuvers. Many of the feats really fit a certain style be that intellectual, hand to hand, or weapon. Then it covers new weapons and armor many of which have a very martial art feel. It even has a few new magical items that should help any monk character out and provide something more useful then the run of the meal magical items.

Now that a monk is created and has all these options, one needs a place to use them. Thus we get to the tournaments section. It has some interesting ideas for different types of tournaments from Boxing to Sumo Wrestling. Then after one has won a few of these the Renown option should be used. Renown is a set of rules to determine how famous your character is and what chances of other people hearing of you are.

My favorite section is Martial Arts Traditions. This section discusses what a student needs to do to be accepted by a teacher and even gives a few examples of test the student may have to undertake. Once in a school the different ranks and hierarchy becomes important. The section is a little on the small side but I think it can be used to base a few encounters or even an encounter featuring monks in a training environment.

Then there are the Legendary Forms. These are ancient style that are not taught or learned in any easy manner. They must be sought out and found on an ancient scroll, or locate a teacher that is in some impossible place to get to. These forms offer an extra physical ability like a new attack option, or something more spiritual like a divination. Each style has specific requirements, and then to learn one a character must spend experience as well as spend time learning it.

Now, that the monk has great Renown, won dozens of tournaments, acquired a legendary form or two, and taking advantage the other options it is time to settle down and build a monastery and become a teacher himself. All the options for that are included here as well.

The Quintessential Monk is a great addition to anyone planning on playing or using the Monk character class. My biggest concern is that is too many of the options are used for one character; it might be really easy to min max a powerful monk. So, a DM should be aware of that and watch out for it. I have a feeling the Patrick Younts, the author, is going to be a name we will be seeing great things from in the future. This is an excellent book and a great addition to any Role Playing Library.

 

[John Cooper]

The Quintessential Monk
By Patrick Younts
Mongoose Publishing product number MGP 4007
128 pages, $19.95

The Quintessential Monk was the seventh of the "Collector Series," published back in 2002 under the 3.0 rules. I decided to check out this book not because I'm a monk fan (personally, I'm of the mind that the monk belongs more in an Oriental Adventures game than a standard medieval fantasy game; my favorite monk is Adrian Monk, the TV detective), but because I'm a Patrick Younts fan. The good news: Patrick delivers again (actually, he delivered this "before," but I read his later works before I read this one so to me it's "again").

In any case, The Quintessential Monk is laid out as follows:

• Introduction: An explanation of the "Collector Series" and what to expect from this book
• Character Concepts: 11 starting backgrounds for your monk PC, plus concepts for nonhuman monk PCs
• The Prestige Monk: 12 monk-based Prestige Classes
• Alternative Fighting Schools: 6 new fighting schools, swapping out some of the monk's feats gained as he progresses through the levels
• Tricks of the Trade: Pressure point attacks, new grappling options, push hands competition, lion dance, dirty tricks, and new uses for existing skills
• Monk Feats: 29 new feats geared toward the monk
• Tools of the Trade: New weapons, armor and shields, equipment, and magic items
• Tournaments: Rules for different martial arts tournaments
• Renown: How well-known (for good or bad) your PC is (not just your monk PC, either!)
• Martial Arts Traditions: Accepting students for training, rank and school hierarchy, lineage, chi energy, and martial arts forms
• Legendary Forms: 16 forgotten martial arts moves your monk PC can rediscover, if he pays the price in training practice and xp
• Building Monasteries and Schools: Construction locations and costs, weapons, defenses, staff, and attracting students
• Designer's Notes: How Patrick's childhood shaped this book
• Index: A 2-page index of subjects in the book
• Rules Summary: A 3-page recap of the new feats, weapons, shields, equipment, and renown rules
• Monk Character Sheet: A 4-page character sheet for your monk PC

The front and back covers (including the insides) are in the standard fake-leather of the "Collector Series." The interior artwork consists of 76 different black-and-white illustrations by 15 different artists. With this much variety, you get some really nice works and some not quite as good; overall, there seems to be much more of the simple line drawings than the detailed, shaded works. There are no nude figures in The Quintessential Monk.

The proofreading and editing aren't too bad this time around; about Mongoose standard, I'd say, making Patrick's later book, The Quintessential Sorcerer, even more surprising to me. There were the usual typos, missing spaces between words, and incorrect punctuation usage, but nothing too bad, too frequent, or too confusing to figure out. (As an aside, I was pleasantly surprised to note only two "who's/whose" violations, as that was a much more common error in The Quintessential Sorcerer.) Patrick's excellent writing skills are evident here, and his love for what I have called "flowery language" fits in perfectly in The Quintessential Monk, where feats like "Monkey Taunts the Emperor," "Tiger Treads on Eggshells," "Twin Snakes Share the Fang," and "Clever Monkey Spins the Branch" all seem perfectly reasonable titles.

The Character Concepts are always entertaining for me to read, and the 11 Patrick developed for The Quintessential Monk all seem reasonable and of a wide enough variety to provide starting backgrounds for all sorts of monk PCs. I did note that in the Eunuch write-up extreme care was given to never specify that the Eunuch was of any particular gender; this struck me as a bit over the top as far as the "politically correct gender equality" that has been a hallmark of the 3E (and 3.5) game, but hey, if somebody wants to play a female Eunuch, who am I to say no? (I just know I'd never trade in my reproductive organs for a +2 to Sense Motive and Bluff skills when used against the opposite gender and a free Iron Will feat at 1st level, but the tradeoff makes sense from a game aspect.) Other than that, I only had one other problem with any of the Character Concepts: I found it odd that the Pirate of the Eastern Sea's "bonus" is that he's neutral or evil, and that he's required to take maximum ranks in Swim. Historically, weren't many pirates unable to swim?

Most of the Prestige Classes are pretty good - I especially liked the Mage Slayer and the Five Animals Fist Fighter. However, some of them seemed like decent ideas but not really worthy of being a prestige class. For example, there's the Street Acrobat, who's forced to perform on street corners to gain enough money to buy food. Sure, he gets some nice acrobatic abilities, but I don't know that any monk PC I'd ever run would be hoping to be a fancy street beggar some day. Another Prestige Class, the Iron Legs Kickboxer, seems pretty underpowered: his 1st-level ability is the Toughness feat (oh boy, three extra hit points), his 2nd-, 4th-, and 5th-level abilities add to his critical hit potential, and there is no 4th-level special ability. Given that the standard monk gets all sorts of handy abilities at just about every level, I don't know that taking any levels in Iron Legs Kickboxer would be worth it. Compare this to the Iron Body Master, who gains seven different abilities over the course of the 5 levels in the prestige class. This is much more like it - trading off the abilities gained in the standard monk class with other abilities gained by the prestige class.

The Quintessential Monk is filled with all kinds of great martial arts options, allowing for the creation of monks of all different abilities. The Alternate Fighting Schools is just one of the ways Patrick's come up with for this, and it is an excellent idea: trading out some of the feats a monk gains as he gains levels, allowing him to specialize in one aspect of monk training and ignore other aspects that don't fit his field of focus. In effect, this creates 6 different "standard monk classes," specializing in such diverse areas as wrestling, sumo wrestling, and boxing. The "Tricks of the Trade" chapter adds to the monk's martial abilities, allowing him to make attacks against an opponent's pressure points (taking a circumstance penalty to the attack but causing additional adverse effects to the enemy if he fails his Fortitude save). The new grappling and dirty tricks ideas are also great, some of them so obvious (like throwing an attacking opponent into an adjacent square) it's a wonder they weren't part of the monk's combat repertoire before this. Other concepts, like the push hands contest and the lion dance, seem pretty strange to me (granted, I'm not much of a martial arts expert), but they are historically linked to many martial arts traditions and it's probably a good idea that such rules were created. I may never have any use for a lion dance contest in my campaign, but I'm sure many DMs run worlds where lion dance rules will play an important part. (Incidentally, for those as clueless as I am about the lion dance, that's the foo lion costume worn by two people - kind of like a pantomime horse costume - where the lion's mouth and eyelids open and close. They're traditional in Chinese parades, and I think there are also similar dragon costumes where many more people make up the sinuous dragon's body.)

I was pleased to see how extensive the "New Uses for Existing Skills" section was - it's always a good idea to expand upon what already exists rather than creating something entirely new. Patrick did a great job on this section, filling up 9 pages and cranking out rules on such diverse topics are walking on coals, tea ceremonies, breaking boards, bonsai, fighting in cramped quarters, acupuncture, and feng shui out of existing skills such as Concentration, Balance, Perform, and Craft. The monk feats are also suitably impressive, their biggest problem being too many good ones! (I envision players with leveling-up monk PCs being rather like kids in a candy store with only a quarter to spend: so much that looks good, but I can only choose one!)

The new weapons and equipment are all appropriate to the monk class, some of them very interesting indeed. I was particularly intrigued by the flying guillotine: basically, it looks like a birdcage on a long chain, with telescoping blades in place of a cage floor, and the monk hides in a tree and "captures" his victim's head in the "birdcage." (I wonder if there's a real-life version of this weapon, or if it's a product of Patrick's fevered imagination?)

Overall, The Quintessential Monk is a fantastic resource for those playing monk PCs, and even those who aren't can find items of use, particularly some of the new weapons and magic items, and the Renown mechanism which can apply to PCs of any class. While the monk plays a very small role in my own campaign, that has no bearing on my rating of the book: I put it at a solid 4 stars (Good).

 

[Krug]

The flying guillontine is actually quite popular in Chinese kung-fu movies.

 

[John Cooper]

Really? Well, I'll be. Still, it shouldn't surprise me either way; Patrick Younts has long since proven both that he does his research and that he's got an excellent imagination.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

This book, probably more so than many of the Collector's series, has some serious potential for memorable NPC's.