I've been thinking lately about monks, and specifically the alignment restrictions. While the lawful-only restriction makes sense if you think of monks as studying rigorously in a temple or dojo, I feel like that only captures one kind of monk, and you could easily have monks that follow non-lawful alignments. What's important is the philosophical/mystical aspect, the search for enlightenment, and that can take a lot of different forms. For instance, a chaotic monk might pursue enlightenment through an individualistic path of personal reflection and introspection rather than following strict guidelines passed down by a particular tradition.
Long story short, I think it makes sense to waive the alignment restriction on monks. Of course, if you do that, the lawful-aligned ki strike doesn't necessarily make sense. For most alignments it would be simple enough to replace it with whatever your alignment is, but that doesn't quite work for a true neutral monk. What sort of benefit might you give a true neutral monk in place of an aligned ki strike? There's not much else for bypassing DR that would make sense -- the only major DR types that aren't alignment-based and that monk doesn't already get ki strike options to bypass are silver and cold iron, neither of which particularly makes sense for TN. I imagine a TN monk would be more of a "middle way" type neutral than an apathetic neutral, and since silver and cold iron are generally associated with fighting either lawful or chaotic creatures (respectively) it seems that giving the TN monk one of those would "unbalance" things a bit, and giving both wouldn't be balanced well with other alignments. Ghost touch might be an option, but it strikes me as a bit less useful than gaining an alignment to bypass DR.
Thoughts?
Long story short, I think it makes sense to waive the alignment restriction on monks. Of course, if you do that, the lawful-aligned ki strike doesn't necessarily make sense. For most alignments it would be simple enough to replace it with whatever your alignment is, but that doesn't quite work for a true neutral monk. What sort of benefit might you give a true neutral monk in place of an aligned ki strike? There's not much else for bypassing DR that would make sense -- the only major DR types that aren't alignment-based and that monk doesn't already get ki strike options to bypass are silver and cold iron, neither of which particularly makes sense for TN. I imagine a TN monk would be more of a "middle way" type neutral than an apathetic neutral, and since silver and cold iron are generally associated with fighting either lawful or chaotic creatures (respectively) it seems that giving the TN monk one of those would "unbalance" things a bit, and giving both wouldn't be balanced well with other alignments. Ghost touch might be an option, but it strikes me as a bit less useful than gaining an alignment to bypass DR.
Thoughts?
