What DO you DO for... Monks?

[Notmousse]

I just replaced the Amulet with a 'Gi'. Takes up space like a robe, but can be augmented as armor *and* weapon. Must be enchanted seperately for both, and each piece can take the standard '+10' in stuff (capped at +5 enhancement bonus).

Other than that I've done little else.

 

[Nifft]

ToB Baby!!!

Can I get an "oh yeah!"?

Cheers, -- N

 

[trav_laney]

So... What DO you DO for monks?

Pretty basic, really. (i) Full BAT, (ii) No Flurry of Blows, and (iii) add katana to list of monk weapons. Seems to be working pretty well.

I also created a feat that would let a monk multiclass with cleric and still be able to take levels of monk. After reading dante's post, I think I will make another feat for druids as well. (Don't know why I didn't think of that.)

 

[brehobit]

I like the idea of adding Wis bonus to resist any grapple, trip, bull rush, or the like. Fairly handy, but mostly flavor.

Other than that:
+1 AC levels 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18
Damage: gets bumped at 3, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19 (the last two being 2d12 and 3d10)

Oh, no monk's belt with this...

 

[Spatzimaus]

I've already mentioned our group's complete overhaul of the Monk earlier, but the simple multiclassing rule change we used even before that:

A Monk can multiclass with their race's Favored Class without forgoing their Monk advancement, as long as Monk remains their highest single class level. (Or, replace "Monk" with "Paladin". Same basic rule.)

It's a simple little change, but it makes a HUGE difference in practice.

 

[Storyteller01]

-Monks: Get to deflect Arrows using AoO's instead of once per round. During Total Defense they get a 30% miss chance vs all ranged attacks they can see coming.

The can later purchase a feat that doubles their number of Deflect Arrows and increases the miss chance to 50%.

NOTE: In our campaign, Delflect Arrows also works as a dodge ranges attacks for things like bullets, energy weapons, etc.

-Monks get the highest level based defense bonus in the game (we don't 'take 10' for AC). A monk at 20th level is looking at a +15 dodge bonus before stats and items. This replaces the monks usual AC bonus.

 

[Amitiel]

I lose the "no multiclassing" rule and allow the feats from Beyond Monks.

Nothing else is needed AFAIAC.

Always a good start, the multiclassing rules on monks and paladins are just far to straightjacketing.

Another thing to drop is the alignment restriction. I have never seen a viable explination for having Lawful only on monks. The WOTC reason is "only lawful characters can achieve the focus and dicipline needed for this class" but if you think about it that would apply to any class that required self dicipline to master the skills, there would be no chaotic wizards, bards, rogues, or certain types of fighter builds. They all take just as much focus to learn thier diciplines.

 

[Arkhandus]

Actually, I don't see why there would be any non-Lawful monks, or why they should be able to multiclass freely (same with paladins). The monk isn't a generic martial artist, after all.

Anyway, I figure monks ought to have some minor restrictions, just not quite such severe ones as in the core rules. Thus why I have Aurelian monks able to multiclass as long as they return to their monk training once every 3 levels, before they lose sight of the path they were following to self-perfection. And I keep the alignment restriction, but I don't see it as a problem. If you want generic martial artists, you can do that with a fighter; just give some decent unarmed combat feats for them to take. Oriental Adventures has a handful of them, but none that actually improve unarmed damage normally (that is, for every attack, not just for charging attacks or whatnot). Using Martial Arts Mastery abilities also helps (there's a few in Oriental Adventures, and many more have been printed in Dragon Magazine on occasion; I know of one or two issues that include some Martial Arts Masteries, one was from a 3.0 issue of Dragon and another was from a 3.5 issue I think).

 

[Raven Crowking]

Shadowfists.


RC

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

I am still working over the monk class in prep for my Burning Sky campaign..but I am using:

- No multi-class or alignment restrictions
- Flurry of Blows works with a Standard Action {See Firelance's thread}
- Unarmed damage is bonus damage {See Firelance's thread}
- Grappling for Begginners {Enworld Publishing.. awesome stuff...}
- Grappling for Advanced Students {with changes to some of the feats}
- 'monk weapon slots' instead of set asian weapons, you can select armor as a 'weapon'


I am considering trading the Monks wisdom bonus for the Skirmish ability, as suggested by Stalker0 upthread...

For my last Eberron campaign I had created a couple various styles in order to link the monk character to the world setting better. I haven't had the time or information to do that with the Burning Sky world...yet