Why does nobody complain about the monk?

[renau1g]

All you needed to do was give a monk a simple item to enhance his unarmed strike like any other person can enhance their weapon at the regular costs, and the problem is "solved." Since the monk's entire body is a weapon and part of his singular "unarmed strike," I was always the most partial to making it a robe slot item.

Robe is a good idea, my player came up with the brass knuckles idea so we ran with it.

 

[Gorbacz]

Perhaps, but game-mechanically isnt "slapping a spell" onto an existing masterwork sword what gives it the +2 flaming wounding properties? .

It is something different. Enchanting a weapon via creation feats =/= making it a subject of an effect from a spell/ability.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Robe is a good idea, my player came up with the brass knuckles idea so we ran with it.

My problem with that is, unarmed strike is supposed to be the same, whether you punch, kick, elbow, knee, head-butt, butt-butt, etc... It's all the same "weapon" with the same damage die, bonus to hit, etc... With your flaming brass knuckle thing, did you let him get the benefit of flaming on a kick? Or was he basically restricted to flavor how he attacks based on which appendages he had magic item enhancements on? I guess it works both ways, as it's cheaper to have say... one +1 flaming dragon bane knuckle and another +1 frost evil outsider bane knuckle than to have a singular item with all of those properties...but I don't like the implications of that, and I think it's overall a worse deal for the monk than just having an option to enhance his entire body as a single weapon, like the fighter can his greatsword. And not at Amulet of Mighty Fist's obscene prices. That item should be renamed "Amulet of Hydra striking," cause that's the kind of creature that actually benefits from it for the cost...

 

[renau1g]

Well the benefit of a specific weapon was that he could have a flaming one, a frost one, he eventually also got an acidic one. Kind of like how many fighters have a "golf bag" of weapons (one of the problems I had with 3e), the monk had his adamantite one, and a cold iron one, etc.

We had the knuckles spread the effect to his body so he could describe it however he wished. Again for us it was a way to help out the poor monk relative to the other classes. So if he Snap kicked someone in the head, the flames (or frost) flared along his arms down to his foot and helped his attacks. It was a bit silly, but we didn't care, we had fun.

This player 95% of the time just described his attacks as a punch, he wasn't great for the different descriptions during a fight.

 

[zen_hydra]

I think some sort of enchanted tattoos, or ritual scars, might be a good way to go. I don't think that it would be that unbalancing for them to not take up a typical magic item slot either. Thematically speaking, enchanted tattoos work better for having the monks entire body manifest the weapon enhancements, IMO.

 

[gamerprinter]

I agree that tattoos fit better, but I never like the fact that you had to take a class in 3.5 Tattoo Monk to get those benefits, it would seem you could pay an arcane tattooist (with the Create Tattoo, item creation feat) to apply a specific tattoo on you. Having to take a prestige class seems 'expensive' to gain a magic item benefit.

In my Japan analog setting, Kaidan, the only problem here is that tattoos at least to the Japanese was a very low class thing to do - so monks would never put tattoos on their body. In Japan, tattoos are a yakuza thing, therefore rogues guild, which is from the lowest caste of society. It causes a problem for my flavor.

GP

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Perhaps, but game-mechanically isnt "slapping a spell" onto an existing masterwork sword what gives it the +2 flaming wounding properties? .

It is something different. Enchanting a weapon via creation feats =/= making it a subject of an effect from a spell/ability.

OTOH, the Kensai PrCl clearly considered it to be equivalent to a manufactured weapon for its Weapon of Choice enhancement ability, so I don't really see this as an unreasonable reading of the language in the Monk class description. "Spirit of the rules" and all that.

And if you still have a problem with that, you can always import the Hands as Weapons Feat from Monte Cook's AU/AE game.

 

[NotZenon]

Monk - the class for people who watched to much "kung fu" and "kung fu the legend continues" on late night tv.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

*raises hand*

And I love to play that class, baby!

 

[Shazman]

With a fighter's CMB and BAB (while flurrying) plus ki points and brass knuckles, I think the monk should be able to hold his own. All those attacks should let him do some decent damage.