Why the nerf to Flurry of Blows?

[Mirror, Mirror]

I did not play a lot of monks, but the FoB ability always seemed to be rather cool. Now, it's just TWF. This seems to be a big nerf at higher levels, when the monk used to get another attack at full BAB, but now gets a less useful secondary attack.

Was the monk really so overpowered that they needed a nerf?

[TriOmegaZero]

I think it was to eliminate questions of 'How does a flurry work with two weapon fighting?'. I don't know that I care for the change, but that is the reason I can come up with.

[hogarth]

I don't think it is a nerf, particularly. I wish I could find the previous thread where I did a comparison, though...

[Chris Parker]

They get seven attacks as opposed to five, and the first two are at a higher attack bonus. I'd say it's just as good as it was before, if not a little bit better (18/18/13/13/8/8/3 averages out considerably better than 15/15/15/10/5), especially considering you can spend a ki point to add another +18 attack onto your flurry for a total of 8 attacks.

[hogarth]

Chris Parker wrote:

They get seven attacks as opposed to five, and the first two are at a higher attack bonus. I'd say it's just as good as it was before, if not a little bit better (18/18/13/13/8/8/3 averages out considerably better than 15/15/15/10/5), especially considering you can spend a ki point to add another +18 attack onto your flurry for a total of 8 attacks.

Indeed. The Pathfinder monk is strictly better from levels 1-10 (either attack bonus or number of attacks is better), and is arguably better from level 17-20 (where the Pathfinder monk's attacks at -5 are only slightly worse than the 3.5 monk's attacks at -0). From level 11-16, it's maybe a toss-up.

[Dragonborn3]

20th level 3.5 Monk's Flurry
+15/+15/+15/+10/+5

20th level PFRPG Monk's Flurry
+18/+18/+13/+13/+8/+8/+3

And don't forget that you can spend a ki point to add an extra attack to your FoB at you full bonus.

[Mirror, Mirror]

Ah, I did miss the extra attacks from a higher BAB due to the new flurry description. Thanks, my question is answered!