Two Monk Tweaks: Unarmed Damage Progression and Flurry of Blows

[FireLance]

Also, if you go a step beyond and HR, as I have, that this monk bonus damage can also be applied through monk weapons, you have monks willing to weild weapons after 4th level...something the mechanics discourage as written.

On the other hand, doing so will make the monk weapon almost always the superior choice, especially given the relatively lower cost and greater versatility of magic weapons compared to an amulet of mighty fists. One possibility might be to have a feat (which could be taken as a monk bonus feat at 1st, 2nd or 6th level) to allow the unarmed damage bonus to apply to a selected monk weapon as well.

I am also considering trading the Monks Wis to AC bonus for the Skirmish ability, making the mobile monk an even more attractive concept...

Actually, I would cut flurry instead of the Wisdom bonus to AC, to create a monk from a martial arts school that focuses on dealing one solid punch instead of a series of quick attacks. If you decide not to cut flurry, I would advise against using my tweak of allowing flurry to work with the attack action. A 20th-level monk attacking 3 times as a standard action and dealing 6d6+10+other bonuses per attack may be a little too good.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Have you read the "Grappling for Begginers" and its sequel, both Enworld Publishing PDFs? The sequel has three distint PrC's which I am considering using in place of the core monk.. using a skills-n-feats version as the lead in. One of them is the 'single solid punch' approach'.

The other thing to consider is that my current game is looking like only 3 players.. and we are starting the War of the Burning Sky next friday. Having a slightly more powerful Monk may help with not having a full complement of players

Most of my games don't go over 14th and tend to be low magic, so IME monk weapons do not get used at all past 4th level. The availablilty of 'Monk Wraps' (HR) that can add weapon enhancements to the unarmed strike relatively cheaply make the issue you raise less of an issue. My players tend to have enough things to contend for thier feats and would not even consider one that extends the extra damage to a specifc weapon.. perhaps all of the monk weapons...maybe.

Anyway, I think I have typed a bunch of words and not realy said anything
Good sign that I need to check back on this thread later!