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Monk Archetypes (PFRPG) PDF

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How strong is your technique?

Not all monks are alike; they vary like the shades of leaves on an autumn tree. Which one will you play? Consider the sutras of the contemplative monk, or the graceful, flowing strikes of the huashan. Can you handle the ascetic kenza, with their elemental focus, or would you prefer the itinerant seng—warriors of last resort who roam the land seeking wisdom? You may be more suited to the serene sadhu or one of the more the martial orders, like the sohei, thaskalos, or yamabushi. How will you choose to walk the path to Enlightenment? No matter what you pick, you'll find these pages not only loaded with more than archetypes, but sixty-one feats and seven new chakras.

Go beyond temples and swords. Strike your opponent with more than a flurry of fists. Pick up Monk Archetypes and show your foes your technique isn't just strong, it's Rite!

Author: Frank Carr
Conversion: Timothy Wallace
Cover Artist: Jason Rainville
Pages 25

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Decent product that could be Great!

Lareg — Jan 16, 2013, 04:55 pm

Let me begin by saying I really like this book. However, it is full of issues that reveal little work was done to fully transition the content from 3.5 to Pathfinder. Many of these issues have been addressed by the author (see product discussion), but none of these corrections have made it into the pdf. Now on to a brief overview of the book's contents.

After a colorfully illustrated title page and a page with authors and patrons listed we get 9 new archetypes.

The archetypes (8 pages) include the following:

1. Contemplative Monk

Gains the ability to use Sutra Magic, which is covered in a separate pdf (not included in the book). Sutra magic is basically a system of magic that uses small bits of paper, which represent prayers prepared by the monk.

2. Huashan

This archetype gains defensive maneuvers, attacks of opportunity while using total defense, negating critical hits, moving with a designated opponent, blindsense, an attack that continues to do damage on subsequent turns, use combat maneuvers to negate incoming melee attacks and combat maneuvers, and blightsight.

3. Kenza

Has spell casting using the inquisitor's spell list and limited access to cleric elemental domain spells.

4. Seng

Does not provoke attacks of opportunity when moving 1/4 base speed, can spend ki to receive DR 2/-, his successful attacks on the same creature increase subsequent attack damage in the same round. can spend ki for additional actions during his turn, and gains insight bonus to armor.

5. Sadhu

Gains a ki pool @ 3rd lvl, access to Major Chakra, and gains an existed bonus feat list including all feats in the book. Major Chakra are based on investing ki as balanced, yin, or yang - described as aligning the ki. Though there are 7 chakra, according to the archetype description the monk only gains access to 6.

6. Sohei

Teamwork focused abilities for both offensive and defensive bonuses.

7. Thaskalos

Grappling focused abilities and grappling of multiple opponents.

8. Yamabushi

Spell casting from the paladin list along with limited additional spells focused on wind, stone, water, and fire. Elemental resistance and disease curing.

Next the Ki focus mechanic (similar to psionic focus) is described along with ki and chakra feats (2 pages).

These ki and chakra feats are described in 11 pages and include 21 ki feats, 38 chakra feats 38, and 4 general feats.

Ki feats are feats that require a ki pool and many also grant an additional point of ki along with the described ability.

Chakra feats operate by using ki that is either invested (put into the feat, but not spent) and/or expended (spent) while using ki focus to provide some benefit. Many of these feats also provide an additional point of ki.

The book closes with a six page description of the major chakra, for the sadhu archetype, and a 1 page licensing.

Overall, the mechanics are very interesting. These mechanics complicate the use of ki, but do offer very flavorful options in exchange for the extra book keeping. Though most of the archetypes are well thought out, the Contemplative Monk is only usable with an additional book and the Sadhu description seems unclear about what abilities the archetype has access to (all major chakra?, 6 or 7?, and in a specific order?).

With the inclusion of the corrections provided by the author, editing to correct table placement, and clarification for a few of the archetypes and this could easily be a 4 star book.

Product Discussion (40)

Search Thread

Rite Publishing

Mar 23, 2011, 01:55 pm

Thanks for getting this up, I appreciate it :)

joela

Mar 23, 2011, 02:03 pm

Chakras?

Endzeitgeist

Mar 25, 2011, 08:40 am

Yep, Chakras are in there. And I think you'd like them. This pdf has a lot of content.

Paul Watson

Mar 27, 2011, 11:09 am

Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

There are a couple of feats (Animus Shield and Dancing Prana Strik) that use concentration as a prerequisite. As that not a PRPG mechanic, I preusme these are holdovers from 3.5?

I also notice they've hcanged from the presentation in Kusa of the Jade Oath. While I prefer the merging of Ki and Chi, this causes a bit of confusion.

On the positive side, I really like the variety of archetypes (ecept for hte Contemplative Monk but that's due to not being bowled over by Sutra Magic).

Lareg

Mar 28, 2011, 07:32 am

Paul Watson wrote:

There are a couple of feats (Animus Shield and Dancing Prana Strik) that use concentration as a prerequisite. As that not a PRPG mechanic, I preusme these are holdovers from 3.5?

I'm very interested in this PDF, but would like to hear more concerning the role of concentration.

Rite Publishing

Mar 28, 2011, 08:07 pm

I have an email in to Tim and Thilo about the Concentration mechanic oversight. Normally the way we have handled this (as we did with the enlightened scholar) is that these archetypes can use concentration in the same manner a caster does even though they are not casters (the contemplative monk is). When those two get back to me I will update the file.

@Paul I am pretty sure the document states that Ch'i and Ki are interchangeable (as I wrote that part). I don't see another way to do this, because if we go on calling it Ch'i it causes us to be in violation of the PFRPG combatibility licence when it comes to mechanics.

Frank Carr was very vocal about it remaining Ch'i due to its Chinese origin and focus vs. the Japanese Ki, but the core book calls it Ki so we must call it Ki when referring to mechanics.

Paul Watson

Mar 28, 2011, 08:19 pm

Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Rite Publishing wrote:

I have an email in to Tim and Thilo about the Concentration mechanic oversight. Normally the way we have handled this (as we did with the enlightened scholar) is that these archetypes can use concentration in the same manner a caster does even though they are not casters (the contemplative monk is). When those two get back to me I will update the file.

@Paul I am pretty sure the document states that Ch'i and Ki are interchangeable (as I wrote that part). I don't see another way to do this, because if we go on calling it Ch'i it causes us to be in violation of the PFRPG combatibility licence when it comes to mechanics.

Frank Carr was very vocal about it remaining Ch'i due to its Chinese origin and focus vs. the Japanese Ki, but the core book calls it Ki so we must call it Ki when referring to mechanics.

Steven,

You're absolutely right. Sorry. On vacation in Vegas, so clearly brain not funtioning properly. I was referring to the need for the Ch'i Awakened feat as a prerequisite in Kusa, but that's taken care of by the need for a source of Ki points to take any Ki feat, which I hadn't fully appreciated. As I said, I like them being the same source as it smoothes the mechanics over.

Rite Publishing

Mar 29, 2011, 12:23 am

Such are the pitfalls of conversion Paul and thanks for catching the concentration problem.

Lareg

Mar 29, 2011, 05:42 pm

Went ahead and bought the pdf and I am happy I did. Although I was a bit surprised that Sutra Magic was needed for one of the archetypes, the quality of the feats easily made up for the added cost of the additional book.

As far as the use of concentration, the feats listed below include the skill as a prerequisite.

Animus Shield (p. 9)
Dancing Prana Strike (p. 10)
Resistance Chakra (p. 17)
Resolute Ki (p. 17)
Restorative Chakra (p. 17)

GeraintElberion

Apr 7, 2011, 04:43 am

Will there be an update?

Hawkins

Apr 7, 2011, 07:27 am

Sorry about that. I missed those in my conversion. @Lareg, thank you for pointing out which feats I missed it as a prerequisite on. I will get to updating it and send the revision to Steve. If anyone else has any other instances in which I forgot to take out the Concentration mechanic, please let me know.

--Tim

Lareg

Apr 7, 2011, 11:08 am

Hawkins wrote:

Sorry about that. I missed those in my conversion. @Lareg, thank you for pointing out which feats I missed it as a prerequisite on. I will get to updating it and send the revision to Steve. If anyone else has any other instances in which I forgot to take out the Concentration mechanic, please let me know.

--Tim

Not a problem. Looking forward to the update. Glad to see a good product get the minor changes to make it great.

Rite Publishing

Apr 8, 2011, 05:14 pm

The update will appear next week around wed. I have to finish the layout for the next Faces of the Tarnished Souk first.

Lareg

Apr 18, 2011, 11:44 am

Rite Publishing wrote:

The update will appear next week around wed. I have to finish the layout for the next Faces of the Tarnished Souk first.

Any word on how things are going on the update?

Rite Publishing

Apr 19, 2011, 10:55 am

I have the update, in my greedy little hands, now I just have to fit it into the layout schedule. (The curse of being successful is being busy).

Monkeygod

Apr 19, 2011, 06:31 pm

Giving buying this book some serious thought, as I really like monks, but my younger brother *LOVES* them, lol.

Just curious, is there any sort of sneaky-type Archtype? kinda bummed one doesn't exist as of yet.

Rite Publishing

Apr 19, 2011, 08:15 pm

You might check the Kusa :)

Monkeygod

Apr 20, 2011, 05:02 am

Rite Publishing wrote:

You might check the Kusa :)

Funny you should mention that, as I did that shortly after I posted my question and I think I'll be getting that too.

Thanx Rite Publishing!!

Hawkins

Apr 20, 2011, 07:37 am

Rite Publishing wrote:

I have the update, in my greedy little hands, now I just have to fit it into the layout schedule. (The curse of being successful is being busy).

He also has the Kensai archetype web enhancement. =)

Lareg

Apr 20, 2011, 01:42 pm

Rite Publishing wrote:

I have the update, in my greedy little hands, now I just have to fit it into the layout schedule. (The curse of being successful is being busy).

Awesome.

Arachne

Apr 29, 2011, 03:43 pm

Although I like the new archetypes (I'm ambivalent on the feats and especially the chakras), I have to say, this product could have done with some editing. It's quite simply packed with spelling errors, sentences changing structure halfway through, etc. Most of these are mere annoyances, but there are some that make the rules unnecessarily hard to understand.

Editing errors on page 1:
- Extra space inserted between sentences in page opening quote. Double spacing is otherwise not used in this product.
- 2nd paragraph of the Contemplative Monk's flavor text not indented.
- 2nd paragraph of the Cast Sutra ability not indented.
- 1st paragraph of the Quickened Sutra ability not indented.
- Under the Powerful Sutra ability, the word "level" is misspelled "levl".
- In the 8th line of the same paragraph, there are 2 spaces between sentences.
- In the next paragraph, "descendants" is misspelled "descendents".

As noted, these are errors from page 1 *only*. The rest of the product is similarly peppered with them.

This upcoming update - does it include corrections to stuff like the above?

Lareg

May 15, 2011, 09:03 am

Not to be a pest, but how's the update looking? I was really hoping to get to use the corrections in a current game.

Ashanderai

May 16, 2011, 07:55 am

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

Lareg wrote:

Not to be a pest, but how's the update looking? I was really hoping to get to use the corrections in a current game.

Some real life tragedy has caused some interference with Rite Publishing's schedule; however, things are already getting back on track.

Hawkins

May 17, 2011, 11:44 am

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Lareg wrote:

Not to be a pest, but how's the update looking? I was really hoping to get to use the corrections in a current game.

I know that it isn't as good as having the updated PDF, but here are the changes that I emailed to the publisher:

Pg 3: "To learn or cast a spell, a kenza must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a kenza's spell is 10 + the spell level + the inquisitor's Wisdom modifier."
Changed to: "To learn or cast a spell, a kenza must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a kenza's spell is 10 + the spell level + the kenza's Wisdom modifier."

Pg 8: "By expending his ki focus, the yamabushi gains the ability to cast remove break enchantment or restoration as a spell-like ability, while washing the target of the spell in a pool of clean water."
Changed to: "By expending his ki focus, the yamabushi gains the ability to cast break enchantment or restoration as a spell-like ability, while washing the target of the spell in a pool of clean water."

Pg 9: Prerequisites for Animus Shield changed to: Wis 13.

Pg 10: Prerequisites for Dancing Prana Strike changed to: Dex 13, Wis 13, and Skill Focus with at least one of the following skills: Acrobatics, Climb, Perform (Dance), Ride, or Swim.

Pg 17: Prerequisites for Resistance Chakra changed to: Con 13, Dex 13, Wis 13, and 3rd-level sadhu.

Pg 17: Under Resistance Chakra, "Every 2 points of balanced ki invested in this
chakra provides a cumulative resistance of 5 to either earth
elemental damage or sonic energy damage."
Changed to: "Every 2 points of balanced ki invested in this
chakra provides a cumulative resistance of 5 to either acid or sonic energy damage."

Pg 17: Prerequisites for Resolute Ki changed to: Con 13, Wis 13, and 3rd-level sadhu.

Pg 17: Prerequisites for Restorative Chakra changed to: Con 13, Wis 13.

Pg 17: Prerequisites for Speed of the Wind changed to: Dex 13, Wis 13.

Lareg

May 18, 2011, 04:27 pm

Hawkins wrote:

Lareg wrote:
Not to be a pest, but how's the update looking? I was really hoping to get to use the corrections in a current game.
I know that it isn't as good as having the updated PDF, but here are the changes that I emailed to the publisher...

Much appreciated. I hope things are ok. On a some what related note, any info on Archetypes of the Jade Oath?

Rite Publishing

May 19, 2011, 04:12 pm

Yes I am trying to get my act together right now, but this tragedy has made it difficult for me to get things done and only time can help.

Lareg

May 20, 2011, 06:12 am

Rite Publishing wrote:

Yes I am trying to get my act together right now, but this tragedy has made it difficult for me to get things done and only time can help.

Totally understandable. With Hawkins post I'm pretty set, but look forward to the update all the same.

Ashanderai

May 20, 2011, 08:52 am

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

BTW, since the Kensai archetype was mentioned up-thread, I should point out that it actually ended up in Archetypes of the Jade Oath.

Also, as the original author, I just wanted to chime in and say that I think that Timothy Wallace has been doing a great job with all the Jade Oath conversions so far.

Rite Publishing

May 20, 2011, 01:06 pm

Yeah one day we are going to let Tim do something original all on his own :)

Lareg

Jul 13, 2011, 07:45 pm

Did the plans for correcting the pdf get pushed back with all the other crazy fun stuff coming from Rite?

Rite Publishing

Jul 13, 2011, 10:18 pm

Its on my to do list, its just a priority issue vs. our print production schedule.

Lareg

Apr 4, 2012, 07:43 pm

So should I just give up on this thing ever being updated?

Rite Publishing

Apr 4, 2012, 08:36 pm

No, we have just been slammed with releasing new material which means sometimes the errata updates have been sacrificed.

I apologize for the delay and will address it this week.

Lareg

Dec 18, 2012, 10:21 am

I'd really like to offer a review of this product, but wanted to make sure the most up to date version is available. I think many might enjoy this one, but want prospective buyers to be aware of the formatting and other issues if they still haven't been addressed.

Pagan priest

Mar 27, 2014, 03:03 pm

Lareg wrote:

I'd really like to offer a review of this product, but wanted to make sure the most up to date version is available. I think many might enjoy this one, but want prospective buyers to be aware of the formatting and other issues if they still haven't been addressed.

After a year and several months, I am betting that this has been updated, even though no posting mentioning that has been made...

Liz Courts Webstore Gninja Minion

Mar 27, 2014, 03:22 pm

Pagan priest wrote:

Lareg wrote:
I'd really like to offer a review of this product, but wanted to make sure the most up to date version is available. I think many might enjoy this one, but want prospective buyers to be aware of the formatting and other issues if they still haven't been addressed.
After a year and several months, I am betting that this has been updated, even though no posting mentioning that has been made...

My information states that this PDF was last updated in March 2011 by the publisher.

Pagan priest

Apr 10, 2014, 02:27 pm

Liz Courts wrote:

Pagan priest wrote:

Lareg wrote:
I'd really like to offer a review of this product, but wanted to make sure the most up to date version is available. I think many might enjoy this one, but want prospective buyers to be aware of the formatting and other issues if they still haven't been addressed.
After a year and several months, I am betting that this has been updated, even though no posting mentioning that has been made...
My information states that this PDF was last updated in March 2011 by the publisher.

Bummer, looks like I lost that bet...

Pity, since I'd really like to get this. Currently, I am running a Chinese based campaign, this would have been very useful.

137ben

Apr 11, 2014, 10:47 pm

Usually when an update occurs you can download the updated version for free. Getting it now (and using the corrections posted above) would probably encourage an update to happen sooner.