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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bryan898" data-source="post: 2671029" data-attributes="member: 9085">I fail to see why the classes have never been balanced fighting against each other, or could not be.  Is the idea of a monk opposing an evil wizard in the game that ludicrous?  Do the PCs not fight the evil fighter warlord, or the kobold theif?  They should be balanced for fighting each other because they DO fight each other and quite commonly at that.As for serving as the party's front liner, I don't think monks can do it very well.  Even if they can, the other classes like Paladin, Fighter, and Barbarian do it better.  They lack the ability to soak damage due to lower hit points.  They lack the ability to deal good amounts of damage.  They lack a good BAB.  They can't break the DR of most creatures.  If a 20th level monk were to go up against say a Balor (a CR 20 creature), the Balor would pound him into the ground.  He has no way of breaking the Balor's DR of 15/cold iron and good.  He can't afford to use Power Attack due to his low Bab, his MAD will cause him to generally have only a mediocre strength, and he can't take weapon specialization. With Improved Natural Attack and an Amulet of Mighty Fists +5 he deals 2d8+5+Str, to do five points of damage on average to the Balor he needs a +6 Str.  Sure he can withstand the Balor's spell-like abilities, but his physical attacks will tear the monk apart.  I admit, I did pick one of the bigger creatures, but the same 20th level monk would have the same problems with a CR 16 Horned Devil.  Heck, I'd say even a solitary Elder Earth Elemental (CR 11) could possibly whack the 20th level monk.  (Off topic, but when did the Horned Devil (Cornugon) pass up the Ice Devil (Gelugon)?  As far as I remember the Gelugon was the more powerful of the two, now its a CR 13 vrs CR 16.)My point is that a monk has very little to bring to the table except: Mobility, Spell Resistance, the highest saves, and a few Fort or stun/die abilities.  He makes a decent skirmisher, but the Scout works better IMO.  His abilities are exactly the abilities you need to have a chance of fighting off a spellcaster, but he's poor at even that.</blockquote>

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