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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Incenjucar" data-source="post: 5495345" data-attributes="member: 6182">So I went through the Adventure Tools monster database, looked over monster abilities for humanoids (and a few non-humanoids), and came to some rough conclusions. I ignored undead and werecreatures, since these have pretty distinct abilities that can be easily made into classes. I also ignored broad classes of monsters, like angels, demons, and golems because they tend to have only minor features in common, which are overwhelmed by complex, specific abilities.I found that many humanoid monster races don't have enough going, as a race, to make them into a class. Monsters like kuo-toa, sahuagin, quagoths, and troglodytes are better left as races. Most I'm sure already came to this conclusion. Moreover, many of these could very easily just be alterations of existing races, perhaps as a "racial kit." The biggest thing that a lot of monstrous races really need is access to claw attacks, aquatic features, and sometimes climbing or flight. Making these available as a universal, permanent feature in some way, instead of forcing people into certain classes, would make for a lot less homebrew work.The monsters that I found were at all worth looking at were as follows:Gargoyle (Flight, Stone Form, Flyby Attack)Harpy (Flight, Pulling Attack, Dazing Arrack)Mind Flayer (Tentacle Grab, Mind Blast, Domination)Medusa (Poison Bite, Petrifying Gaze)Umber Hulk (Burrowing, Grab, Dazing Gaze)Yuan-Ti (Climb, Poison Bite, Grab)Dryad (Forest Walk, Tree Teleport, Disguise, Thorns/Hedges)Nymph (Forest Walk, Daze Attack, Charm Defense, Blinding Attack)It's interesting to note that these monsters use a relatively narrow range of abilities. Grab, daze, poison, dominate, nasty gazes, and a special movement type.Overall, I would love to see a hexblade-like monster class that combines melee at-wills using unarmed attacks, movement and defense utilities, and encounter and daily powers that focus on popular effects that monsters spit out. Basically a hexblade/monk hybrid.HOWEVER, all things considered, I think it would be very easy to just design some options that allow you to "monsterfy" a PC without getting into complex mechanical expansions. My ideal situation would be to have the generic "hexmonk" class with an MC feat that gives the character an unarmed attack and a ki focus (and at least one other MC feat for the monks and swordmages and such <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":P" title="Stick out tongue    :P"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":P" />). For those who don't want to waste their MC to become a monster (rarr), a feat that gives them unarmed attacks and the ability to empower their unarmed attacks with any item they can normally wield (A wizard's bite attack might utilize the bonuses of a Staff of Ruin).I'm all for giving players access to monstrous PCs, but I think it needs to be done in the cleanest, most self-contained, and broadly usable way available so that WotC doesn't have to expend vast amounts of support on what will always be a niche audience. It's also important for the option to be perfectly usable for non-monstrous PCs, because many people really get turned off by Freakshow parties.While I do still find the "Why isn't anyone writing articles on reskinning!?" thing funny, it may actually be worthwhile for someone to write an article going over ways that existing abilities can be used to simulate things that are in heavy demand, but which wouldn't add much to the game in and of themselves, especially with suggestions for homebrewing.</blockquote>

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