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So, Chakras as-printed in the Occult Adventures are... not... very... goo- okay, they're godawful.
They require way too much effort to get anything out of them and they come online too slowly in a fight to ever be worth it.
So, here's an alternate system:
CHAKRAS
Chakras are floodgates through an intelligent creature's body, through which Ki flows.
These Chakras are usually kept closed, and the Ki contained, but through meditation and willpower, they may be opened, allowing those mystics who use Ki to gain new effects and abilities with their Ki.
Ki in this state is known as Dragonfire, and is more wild and potent than typical Ki.
Opening Chakras
To open up a Chakra, you must have successfully taken the Dragonfire Ascetic Feat a number of times equal to the level of the Chakra you wish you open, a Wisdom score equal to 10 + the level of that Chakra, an amount of HD greater than or equal to twice the level of that Chakra, and you must have opened all previous Chakras in order (i.e. you must have opened the Root and Sacral Chakras to open the Navel Chakra). Opening a Chakra requires a Chakra-Opening Ritual
Chakra-Opening Ritual
Conducting a Chakra-opening ritual requires a number of consecutive days of constant fasting and Meditation equal to the level of the Chakra (i.e., you must fast and meditate for 5 days to open the Throat Chakra). It is highly suggested that this Ritual be performed during Donwtime.
You must receive at least 8 hours of rest at night before beginning Meditation each day. At the beginning of each day, you must take a meditative position anywhere you so choose. For the next 16 hours, you must meditate constantly, and may do nothing during this time (not even eat or drink). At the end of the 16 hours, you may eat and drink, and if you have not completed the Ritual entirely, you must immediately begin resting again.
While meditating, if you are disturbed in any way, you must make a Concentration Check as though you were casting a Spell (your Concentration modifier is equal to 1/2 your HD + your Wisdom Modifier, and the Check uses the Level of the Chakra as the Level of the Spell when calculating).
If you fail any check this way, or if you do not receive 8 hours of Rest, your Meditation for the day is ruined, and you must begin the Ritual again the next day.
If you fail to successfully Meditate for two days in a row, the Ritual Fails entirely, you fail to gain the Dragonfire Ascetic Feat, and instead gain Extra Ki.
You must thereafter spend time Retraining to gain access to the Dragonfire Ascetic Feat once again and begin a new Ritual.
If you successfully complete the Ritual, you gain the Dragonfire Ascetic Feat and unlock the next level of Chakra.
Chakras By Level
1st - Root Chakra: While you have at least 1 Ki in your Ki Pool, you have DR/- equal to your 1/2 your HD. This stacks with all other sources that provide DR (including DR/-)
2nd - Sacral Chakra: While you have at least 2 Ki in your Ki Pool, you may spend 1 Ki as Free Action to gain a Fly Speed equal to your Base Speed with Average Maneuverability for a number of Rounds equal to your HD.
3rd - Navel Chakra: While you have at least 3 Ki in your Ki Pool, you gain a Breath Weapon special attack. As a Standard Action, you may spend 2 Ki Point to create a 30ft. Cone of Fire that deals 2d8 Fire damage +1d8 for every 3 HD you have beyond 6 (Reflex Save for half). The Save DC for this Breath Weapon is equal to 10 + 1/2 your HD + your Wisdom Modifier.
4th - Heart Chakra: While you have at least 4 Ki in your Ki Pool, you gain the Lay on Hands Paladin Class Feature, treating your total HD as your Paladin level for the purposes of this ability (this does not stack with the Paladin Class Feature). You must spend 3 Ki to activate this ability.
5th - Throat Chakra: While you have at last 5 Ki in your Ki Pool, you gain the ability to babble a mantra incessantly. Beginning and maintaining a babble is a Free Action, and requires 4 Ki to activate and 1 Ki every round to maintain. While babbling, you may choose any enemy within 30ft. of you who can hear you. If that enemy fails a Will Save (DC 10 + 1/2 your Hit Dice + your Charisma modifier), they become Staggered for a number of rounds equal to the amount of Ki in your Ki Pool when they became affected.
6th - Brow Chakra: While you have at least 6 Ki in your Ki Pool, you may spend 5 Ki as a Swift Action to cast True Seeing as a Spell-Like Ability.
7th - Crown Chakra: While you have at least 7 Ki in your Ki Pool, whenever you roll a d20, you may spend 6 Ki to roll 2 d20s instead and take whichever result you choose.
In addition, while you have at least 10 Ki in your Ki Pool, you may spend 30 minutes of continuous meditation and at least 10 Ki Points to cast Astral Projection as a Spell-Like Ability, but targeting only yourself. The Duration of this Spell-Like Ability is 30 minutes, plus 10 minutes for every Ki you spent when activating this ability.
Finally, reduce the cost to activate and maintain each other Chakra's abilities by 1.
NEW FEAT
DRAGONFIRE ASCETIC
Prerequisites: Ki Pool, Psychic Sensitivity, 2 or more Hit Dice
Special Prerequisite: As soon as you gain this Feat, you must conduct a Chakra Opening Ritual. If you fail this Ritual or choose not to take it, you lose this Feat and instead gain the Extra Ki Feat.
Benefit: Your Ki Pool increases by 1, and you gain access to another Chakra level.
Special: This Feat counts as Extra Ki for the purposes of effects and prerequisites. You may gain this Feat Multiple Times
Special: Whenever you Retrain to gain this Feat, you may attempt a Chakra Opening Ritual.
It's an... interesting take on the Chakra abilities (Which, by the way, I agree were underwhelming and horribly overcosted for what they did), but you're requiring a Monk/Ninja/Rogue to dedicate 14 levels worth of Feats to gain these benefits.
Is a total of 7 more Ki and the various benefits really worth 14 levels? I mean, at the earliest, if you dedicate every single Feat to it, the fastest you could get to these things is... 13th level, as a Human. That's more than 50% of your career, and ALL of your Feats, outside of your bonus Feats.
Honestly, for that much investment, I still don't feel like you'd be getting a decent return.
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Yeah I agree the Chakra rules are basically unusable.
I would break it down that you can open a chakra as a move action, or three chakras as a full round. I'd also greatly reduce the number of Ki it costs to keep them open. Probably to 1 Ki per Chakra. You still gotta make the checks to open up.
It's an... interesting take on the Chakra abilities (Which, by the way, I agree were underwhelming and horribly overcosted for what they did), but you're requiring a Monk/Ninja/Rogue to dedicate 14 levels worth of Feats to gain these benefits.
Is a total of 7 more Ki and the various benefits really worth 14 levels? I mean, at the earliest, if you dedicate every single Feat to it, the fastest you could get to these things is... 13th level, as a Human. That's more than 50% of your career, and ALL of your Feats, outside of your bonus Feats.
Honestly, for that much investment, I still don't feel like you'd be getting a decent return.
Well, with even 1 you get always-on DR equal to an Invulnerable Rager so long as you have 1 Ki in your pool.
With 2 you have a good Fly speed for several rounds for 1 Ki point.
Navel Chakra is potentially the "worst" of the Chakras here, but at least you get it at-will so long as you can pay for it.
I doubt even with this system too many people would get to 7th level, but at least this would be significantly more-manageable and worthwhile than the current Chakras.
Though anyone who uses this in place of Style Feats would definitely be playing a much-radically-different Monk than normal.
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I might write up an Archetype for the Monk to trade out some powers for giving you Dragonfire Ascetic as Bonus Feats every even level without having to perform the Ritual.
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I would have the Chakras available at 1/3/5/7/9/11/13. Because that is when characters get feats.
Also, as ki is an extremely limited resource, being careful in selecting how much is required to power this set of abilities is important.
May I suggest: "As a standard action, the monk may expend an amount of ki up to the highest chakra he has learned how to open. Starting with the first round, each round he may open a single chakra as a free action, gaining it's benefits immediately. On the second round and each round thereafter, he must expand one point of ki to keep previously opened chakras open as well as to open a new one. Chakras may only be opened in ascending order. The highest chakra he can open is equal to the ki he initially expended in activating this ability. His chakras close when he ceases expending ki to keep them open."
I would have the Chakras available at 1/3/5/7/9/11/13. Because that is when characters get feats.
Also, as ki is an extremely limited resource, being careful in selecting how much is required to power this set of abilities is important.
May I suggest: "As a standard action, the monk may expend an amount of ki up to the highest chakra he has learned how to open. Starting with the first round, each round he may open a single chakra as a free action, gaining it's benefits immediately. On the second round and each round thereafter, he must expand one point of ki to keep previously opened chakras open as well as to open a new one. Chakras may only be opened in ascending order. The highest chakra he can open is equal to the ki he initially expended in activating this ability. His chakras close when he ceases expending ki to keep them open."
Ki IS expensive, but at the same time it's really easy to get quite a bit from just leveling and Wisdom alone. A lv4 Monk with an 16 Wisdom has 5 Ki (and with this Feat, 6), for example. That means he can Fly with a speed of 40 ft and average maneuverability for 4 rounds, or up to 24 rounds a day. It's not FANTASTIC, but you're flying faster than the Fly spell, and you can parse it out as you wish.
Most people would probably only grab the Root or Sacral Chakras, and that's fine - having free DR/- equal to 1/2 your Character Level for the cost of a Feat (well, 2, but Psychic Sensitivity gives you nice stuff, too) is pretty sick.
But the idea is that someone who is going to be aiming for all 7 Chakras is going to have a pretty substantial Wisdom to begin with; you can't even GAIN the 7th Chakra if you don't have a 17 Wisdom score or higher; so the builds focusing on attaining Chakra would probably have Wisdom as a primary ability score, and Strength as a secondary (which is somewhat reverse of the norm).
I'm also trying to avoid the "pay to keep a Chakra Open" thing as much as possible. The Crown Chakra's third ability is in many ways its primary - with it, the Sacral Chakra lets you Fly indefinitely; you activate the Throat Chakra for 3 Ki and its effects last as long as you wish (or at least until you rest, obviously...), using a Breath Weapon costs only 1 Ki, etc. The point is to always have ACCESS to every Chakra, and to only PAY for that Chakra's ability when you need it.
The result is that some of the higher-level Chakras cost a hefty amount, but their effects are worth it (Astral Projection, for instance, even IF only for 30+ Minutes, is more than what most Full Casters are getting at lv14).
The other point as to why I followed an "Every Chakra Always Available" method is so you're be able to use several Chakra a round. For instance, you ALWAYS have DR/- on; that's not even a "may", really - if you have 1 Ki or greater, you have DR. On top of that, you can start to Fly, use a Breath Weapon/Lay on Hands, True See, and start to or continue Babbling. You spend a fair chunk of Ki doing all that, but that's all in just one ROUND. You can basically go Super Saiyan on turn 1 and keep on being a monster for several rounds thereafter with minimal upkeep.The name of the game for Chakras is to be very Action-Economy friendly.
With a "you have to turn Chakras 'On' as X Action" it starts eating into Action Economy but HARD, and so you can't pile on effects in a heartbeat, which is what you'll want to do.
Add the following to Dragonfire Ascetic:
Special: Whenever a Qinggong Monk or Unchained Monk would Select a Ki Power, he may select this Feat as a Bonus Feat instead.
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Maybe make this three separate feats, each of which gets better up to a point? For example, Dragonfire Ascetic would offer the first few at level specific times, and then Improved would further that along, finally with Greater offering the last bit and capping it there?
Maybe make this three separate feats, each of which gets better up to a point? For example, Dragonfire Ascetic would offer the first few at level specific times, and then Improved would further that along, finally with Greater offering the last bit and capping it there?
I did think of that, plus other ways to make them "not-feats."
Sadly, Feats seemed to be the easiest and most straight-forward method of balancing them, along with keeping the idea of having to open them incrementally.
The issue is, if they're JUST something you get for free, they get pretty radically overpowered.
So I looked to things like Skill Tricks from 3.5, to Magic Tattoos, etc.
Skill Tricks seemed both a bit steep and too undercost - sacrificing 2 Skill Points means having to balance Chakras to the point that they may not be worth gaining.
Magic Tattoos cost money to gain, but the idea of paying money for something like opening Chakras seemed silly - the idea is that you can FAIL at it, but try again; if you have to pay GP each time and fail, that just starting being a money-sink trap, and, again, people wouldn't waste time.
Feats, as I said, seemed the easiest way to go:
You take the Feat and immediately can choose to go through a Ritual or not - if you choose not to/can't perform the Ritual, you instead gain Extra Ki, and later have the option to Retrain.
If you FAIL the Ritual, the same thing happens - you at least gain Extra Ki as a condolence, and can thereafter Retrain to try once again.
You can do this pretty much infinitely, at a GP costs radically lower than Magic Tattoos. Plus, Feats help regulate when you can access them, and opening a Chakra itself felt like a Feat - like a major accomplishment unto itself.
So, maybe the Feats thing is still okay if the costs of activating the abilities of a Chakra were reduced pretty significantly?
That would be a good idea. I'd say a reduction in cost, something like the Navel Chakra reduces the requirement on how much Ki is in your pool by 1, to a minimum of 1, and the Crown reduces the costs to use by (x), where (x) is the amount of Ki you're willing to invest, to a minimum, again, of 1. If your Monk (and let's face it, only a Monk would really have the Ki to pull most of this off) is willing to invest 8 Ki to be able to Astral Project for the cost of 1 Ki, then let him.
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1st - Root Chakra: While you have at least 1 Ki in your Ki Pool, you have DR/- equal to your 1/2 your HD. This stacks with all other sources that provide DR (including DR/-)
2nd - Sacral Chakra: While you have at least 2 Ki in your Ki Pool, you may spend 1 Ki as Free Action to gain a Fly Speed equal to your Base Speed with Average Maneuverability for a number of Rounds equal to your HD.
3rd - Navel Chakra: While you have at least 3 Ki in your Ki Pool, you gain a Breath Weapon special attack. As a Standard Action, you may spend 2 Ki Point to create a 30ft. Cone of Fire that deals 2d8 Fire damage +1d8 for every 3 HD you have beyond 6 (Reflex Save for half). The Save DC for this Breath Weapon is equal to 10 + 1/2 your HD + your Wisdom Modifier.
4th - Heart Chakra: While you have at least 4 Ki in your Ki Pool, you gain the Lay on Hands Paladin Class Feature, treating your total HD as your Paladin level for the purposes of this ability (this does not stack with the Paladin Class Feature). You must spend 2 Ki to activate this ability.
5th - Throat Chakra: While you have at last 5 Ki in your Ki Pool, you gain the ability to babble a mantra incessantly. Beginning and maintaining a babble is a Free Action, and requires 2 Ki to activate and 1 Ki every round to maintain. While babbling, you may choose any enemy within 30ft. of you who can hear you. If that enemy fails a Will Save (DC 10 + 1/2 your Hit Dice + your Charisma modifier), they become Staggered for a number of rounds equal to the amount of Ki in your Ki Pool when they became affected.
6th - Brow Chakra: While you have at least 6 Ki in your Ki Pool, you may spend 2 Ki as a Swift Action to cast True Seeing as a Spell-Like Ability.
In addition, reduce the cost to activate and maintain each other Chakra's abilities by 1.
7th - Crown Chakra: While you have at least 7 Ki in your Ki Pool, whenever you roll a d20, you may spend 3 Ki to roll 2 d20s instead and take whichever result you choose.
In addition, while you have at least 10 Ki in your Ki Pool, you may spend 30 minutes of continuous meditation and at least 6 Ki Points to cast Astral Projection as a Spell-Like Ability, but targeting only yourself. The Duration of this Spell-Like Ability is 30 minutes, plus 10 minutes for every Ki you spent when activating this ability.
Finally, reduce the amount of Ki you must have in your Ki Pool required to activate each other Chakra's ability by an amount equal to 1/2 the level of that Chakra, to a minimum of 1.
NEW FEAT
DRAGONFIRE ASCETIC
Prerequisites: Ki Pool, Psychic Sensitivity, 2 or more Hit Dice
Special Prerequisite: As soon as you gain this Feat, you must conduct a Chakra Opening Ritual. If you fail this Ritual or choose not to take it, you lose this Feat and instead gain the Extra Ki Feat.
Benefit: Your Ki Pool increases by 2, and you gain access to another Chakra level.
Special: This Feat counts as Extra Ki for the purposes of effects and prerequisites. You may gain this Feat Multiple Times
Special: Whenever you Retrain to gain this Feat, you may attempt a Chakra Opening Ritual.
Special: Whenever a Qinggong Monk or Unchained Monk would Select a Ki Power, he may select this Feat as a Bonus Feat instead.
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I'm also trying to avoid the "pay to keep a Chakra Open" thing as much as possible.
Why not simply change that portion of the ability rather than the entire one? Something straightforward like a concentration check every round to open or maintain the chakras? That way the path is open for Ki to do more with those chakras or with that concentration check.
I did notice that chakras are really only usable for a very small number of players, which sucks. Also sucks that other "forms" or systems of chakras are not available [yet].
I did notice that chakras are really only usable for a very small number of players
Right, but... that's kinda the POINT. Chakras, especially in esotericism and modern fiction, are a invariably tied to Qi/Chi/Ki.
Rock Lee makes use of Chakras in Naruto with his Ki ("Chakra" is the generic ninja-energy, but the "Gates" he uses to open his Ki are identical to the traditional Chakras).
All benders and even several nonbenders in the world of Avatar use Chi fairly extensively. Opening one's Chakras allows a Bender to access even greater levels of power with their Bending, because their Chi flows more readily then (it's speculated that the Light Chakra, which is analogous to the Brow Chakra in Pathfinder, is what allowed Combustian Man and P'Li to perform Combustion - since Firebenders turn their Chi into fire or Lightning directly, it's not a stretch to believe that those firebenders who have opened their Light Chakras have weaponized their Chi DIRECTLY, leading to "Combustion")
So it goes without saying, then, that Ki is an absolute REQIUREMENT to make use of Chakras.
Why not simply change that portion of the ability rather than the entire one? Something straightforward like a concentration check every round to open or maintain the chakras? That way the path is open for Ki to do more with those chakras or with that concentration check.
For the simple reason that it's already nigh-impossible to keep high-level Chakras open with the printed system itself, let alone Concentration Checks.
It's nigh-impossible to even get them ONLINE, due to the asburdly-high Saves that have to be made, PLUS the amount of time they need to be in-battle to keep them online. And even THEN, you only get the effect of 1 Chakra each round that you open/maintain it for that turn.
You have to hit your Crown Chakra to use any TWO Chakra in the same ROUND, which means the Combat has to last for 7 Rounds, you have to have made and keep making your Saves, you have to have enough Ki to continuously PAY for to keep your Chakras open, just to have the PLEASURE of having DR AND Flying online at the same time.
The 7th Chakra requires a DC38 Will and Fort save to keep open every single round. That's already extremely difficult as-is, even for a 14th-level Monk.
A Concentration Check is even harder.
Now, you're probably asking "how?" since a Monk's Level is higher than their Saves. Which is true; but that's not the issue here, not in the long run at least.
A lv14 Monk with a 26 Wis would have, assuming HD = CL for the purposes of determining this Concentration, would have a +22, so a Monk would have only a 25% chance of success.
That same Monk gets a +9 to their Will saves natively, and a +8 on top of that. So that's a +17 in total. Except it doesn't quite end there. The Monk ALSO has a Cloak of Resistance +5 (because he's focusing on Chakras, after all, and a COR +5 is a good buy, anyway). So with that ALONE he's got a +22 to Will Saves. Taking Iron Will or Great Fortitude will up that to a +24. There are further spells and abilities which can pump these Saves up even higher.
Nothing the Monk can buy will assuredly help him with his Concentration Checks (Spellguard Bracers only add to Concentration; A Tunic of Careful Casting, depending on DM interpretation, may only work with Concentration Checks made to cast spells), and very, very few spells or abilities pump Concentration checks to any substantial degree.
Then, of course, you have to deal with the gigantic Elephant in the room:
If a character has to make a Concentration Check to keep his Chakras open, what about when he gets hit? If just keeping them OPEN is strenuous enough to cause him to need to make a Concentration Check, wouldn't receiving Damage, being Grappled, etc. be substantially WORSE? Especially since every round you're probably being hit at least.
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So, no; replacing the Saves with Concentration Checks is not a good idea, and doesn't make the system usable.
Chakras needed to be gutted and redesigned basically from the ground up.
What I have presented here is something much more like Aang opening all 7 of his Chakras: once he has attained the feat of opening a Chakra, it's permanently open. Any character who Opens their Chakra with this system has access to its abilities any time, so long as he has enough Ki in his Ki Pool and can pay for the Ability.
Under the normal system, a lv10 character would have to wait 6 rounds to get DR5/- for ONE ROUND, and spend 6 Ki doing so (he has to open the Throat Chakra on Round 5, and then on Round 6 he can gain DR5/- for a round... whoop-de-freakin'-doo...). He would also have to make a DC 25 Fort AND Will Save every round from Round 5 onward to not have his Chakra shut off, to say nothing of paying the 1 Chakra.
Under the "replace Saves with Concentration Checks" system that lv10 character would STILL have to spend 5 Rounds waiting to FINALLY get DR5/- AND make a DC25 Concentration Check every round.
Under this system, a lv10 character can walk around all day with 1 Ki in his Ki Pool, and have DR5/- always on. No upkeep, no checks, nothing.
Just enough Ki to radiate a permanent DR5/- aura around himself.
Even flying is extremely cheap - 1 Ki every 10 rounds (as a lv10 Character) to fly at your base Speed is pretty sassy. When you hit lv12, if you've gained the Brow Chakra, that becomes a free ability - no Ki required at all; you just fly permanently so long as you have enough 2 Ki in your Ki Pool.
And, again - you can use/do several Chakra abilities at once with this system. DR is always on AND you can Fly for rounds at a time at lv4 onward. At later levels you can do even more nonsense simultaneously with these effects.
Under the original or even the "concentration" system, you need to be lv14 to do that, and have been in Combat for 7 Rounds, making your Saves/Checks all the way.
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I designed this setup this way specifically to mimic Wuxia and related works.
In those works, practitioners of Qi-manipulation expend Ki when they are using their abilities, but ONLY when they are. They can turn them on practically whenever, assuming they have enough Ki to do so, and when they are not using any abilities at all they need not expend Ki at all.
This system does pretty much that: you can Fly whenever, use your Breath Weapon whenever, etc., and you can do all this at the same time (of course expending a lot of Ki to do so, but that's the price). You have access to all these options without having to pay for the access to them, or wait a number of rounds until you do - on Round 1, you want to use True Sight? You are good to go as long as you have 6 Ki in you pool when you go to pay to turn True Seeing on.
Instead of spending ki to activate, could "investing" ki work? So it's still gated by action economy (though the ability to spend a full round opening up three or four would be cool) and ties up ki, but doesn't eliminate it for other uses throughout the day.
Say, you have all of your chakras open and realize you can't spend a point for an extra attack that you need; you could then relinquish the Brow Chakra or whatever and get back the ki you invested. It'd need to be rebalanced so that it isn't a trivial amount of ki to activate and invest.
Ones like fly could have a static effect (like a bonus to Acrobatics) and then need additional ki expenditure to keep them from being always-on. Though, an Air Kineticist can fly permanently, so...
Edit: Also, I feel like going the Qinggong route with these and allowing a Monk to choose a chakra instead of a class ability could work, in addition to having them be a part of the Monk bonus feat pool and feats that you could take with normal advancement. Swap out slow fall for the Heart Chakra, for instance.
1st - Root Chakra: While you have at least 1 Ki in your Ki Pool, you have DR/- equal to your 1/2 your HD. This stacks with all other sources that provide DR (including DR/-)
2nd - Sacral Chakra: While you have at least 2 Ki in your Ki Pool, you may spend 1 Ki as Free Action to gain a Fly Speed equal to your Base Speed with Average Maneuverability for a number of Rounds equal to your HD.
3rd - Navel Chakra: While you have at least 3 Ki in your Ki Pool, you gain a Breath Weapon special attack. As a Standard Action, you may spend 2 Ki Point to create a 30ft. Cone of Fire that deals 2d8 Fire damage +1d8 for every 3 HD you have beyond 6 (Reflex Save for half). The Save DC for this Breath Weapon is equal to 10 + 1/2 your HD + your Wisdom Modifier.
4th - Heart Chakra: While you have at least 4 Ki in your Ki Pool, you gain the Lay on Hands Paladin Class Feature, treating your total HD as your Paladin level for the purposes of this ability (this does not stack with the Paladin Class Feature). You must spend 2 Ki to activate this ability.
5th - Throat Chakra: While you have at last 5 Ki in your Ki Pool, you gain the ability to babble a mantra incessantly. Beginning and maintaining a babble is a Free Action, and requires 2 Ki to activate and 1 Ki every round to maintain. While babbling, you may choose any enemy within 30ft. of you who can hear you. If that enemy fails a Will Save (DC 10 + 1/2 your Hit Dice + your Charisma modifier), they become Staggered for a number of rounds equal to the amount of Ki in your Ki Pool when they became affected.
6th - Brow Chakra: While you have at least 6 Ki in your Ki Pool, you may spend 2 Ki as a Swift Action to cast True Seeing as a Spell-Like Ability.
In addition, reduce the cost to activate and maintain each other Chakra's abilities by 1.
7th - Crown Chakra: While you have at least 7 Ki in your Ki Pool, whenever you roll a d20, you may spend 3 Ki to roll 2 d20s instead and take whichever result you choose.
In...
I really like this. I am a bit concerned about the required 7 feat investment though. I don't have the time to post it all now, but I would be okay with this being a three or four feat chain, most of which would be scaling feats. Sorry I can't be more clear right now.
The concept was well done, an escalation of power and investment, and indeed it falls short of viability.
Firstly, I think Chakras should not be tied to a particular score outside the Ki points. In fact, I would suggest that upon taking Chakras you can decide which mental stat to use for Ki, just to open options. Ninjas using Wisdom, for example. (And yes, I would make it for monks to use Cha for all their class abilities if they so desired after investing in Chakras, but that may be out of the liking for many people). With an extra feat I would allow to use Constitution for Ki (this is a trope alright, no reason Mind takes the prize, Body is important too).
I would also scale their opening speed with level and investment. I would also give the option to front load paying to open things faster, at a great cost but more reliable than a DC 38 will save.
I would also lower the level in which Chakras gates are opened and decrease the investment needed (those things are not worth all your career's feats)
Lets give this a whirl...
- Opening Chakra gates:
The Root Chakra can be opened as a swift action for 1 ki. Mantaining or opening a chakra costs 1 ki and a swift action. Alternatively the user can pay Ki up to number of Chakras she wants to open upfront and is instead able to open Chakras as a free action and for no additional costs.
- Opening several Chakra gates:
At levels 5/7/9/11/13/15(?) she adds an extra Chakra gate that can be opened per round. This is a swift action that costs an extra ki + Chakra gate ki (So at level 9 you may open 4 Chakras in one round).
- Maintaining Chakra Gates:
Maintaining Chakra gates costs 1 ki point per round or 2 x HD hit points. Regardless maintaining Chakra forces a will save (LOW) and a Fortitude save (MEDIUM). Failing the Will save renders the user Dazed for one round and with no effect, nothing is otherwise lost. She can instead close all gates to act normally. Failing the Fortitude save she takes 1d6 damage/Chakra opened/attempting to open.
- Examples:
Opening 6 Chakras at level 11
The long way: Spend 1 ki per round, comes online at round 6. 12 easy saves.
The faster way: 7 ki upfront (6thgate + 1ki fast opening), be activated at round 2 (11th level lets you open 5 gates/round). 2 medium saves.
Later, I want to mantain these open but I dont have much ki so I use hp to fuel the mantaining costing me 22 hp/round, plus whatever the activated ability costs (i.e. 1 ki for dragon roar)
- Conclusion
All in all we are spending ki/opening of chakra gate and ki or hp/round maintaining it open. We have the option to open them gradually at the cost of ki+swift actions or to frontload the cost and pay a bit more for a faster opening and free actions after the Root chakra. This serves flavour as it does usability.
The changes to the chakras in posts above are great suggestions, so something like that's fine. We're deep in House Rule territory so it is easy to change things (for example Dragon's roar costing 1 ki not 2, or increasing the damage done).
Much is to be said about being able to keep the Chakras open permanently. I think that this is in the realm of Feats. Remove the need to invest into Chakras as feats so heavily and instead allow for some customisation (such as CON for Ki, having Chakras permanently all day for double the Ki cost, more focus on one of the Gates, etc).
Great thread, I will be encouraging the use of Chakra but with house rules!
After considering the chakra rules as presented in Occult Adventures, I'd say the two main issues are the slowness of opening (one chakra per round) and the hideous progression on the saving throws required. A couple of the chakra powers are somewhat underwhelming, but not tremendously so for when they are supposed to be available (although scaling isn't very good). The ki requirement to open and maintain (1 ki per round) is manageable and in line with the actual traditions: opening chakra is not and should not be considered as the equivalent of casting spells; it's much more personal and draining/dangerous. If you want a "spellcasting monk," then the qinggong monk, sacred fist warpriest, esoteric magus, etc. will be a better fit.
My proposed modifications to the chakra system presented in Occult Adventures are as follows:
Instead of DC 10 + the sum of the ranks, make the DC equal to 10 + twice the rank of the chakra being opened. Once a chakra has been opened, it can be maintained without requiring additional saving throws. This makes the first couple chakra slightly harder to open, but the higher ranked ones actually useable at the level they are supposed to be available; also, maintaining already open chakra is a lot easier.
Root Chakra (DC 12): Gain DR /- equal to 1/2 character level for each round this chakra is open.
Sacral Chakra (DC 14): Same powers as in Occult Adventures, except the character can does not have to end the round on a solid surface (can maintain the flight by maintaining the open chakra). If the character is not on a solid surface when the chakra closes, they fall.
Navel Chakra (DC 16): Each round this chakra is open, the character can spit a gout of energy as a standard action, either as a ranged touch attack against a single target within 60 feet or as a 30 ft cone (Reflex half), that does 1d8 for every two levels the character has (maximum of 10d8 at 20th level). The save DC for the cone is 10 + 1/2 character level + Cha mod.
Heart Chakra (DC 18): Each round this chakra is open, the character can touch a target as a standard action to heal 1d8 points of damage for every two levels the character has. In addition, the character can remove one condition as if using a paladin Mercy; the character treats his overall character level as paladin levels to determine which conditions can be removed.
Throat Chakra (DC 20): Same powers as in Occult Adventures, except the staggered condition lasts 1d4 + Cha mod rounds on a failed save.
Brow Chakra (DC 22): Same powers as in Occult Adventures, except the character can also analyze aura at will while the open chakra is maintained.
Crown Chakra (DC 24): Same powers as in Occult Adventures.
Fast Opening (Feat)
You can open chakra more quickly than normal.
Prerequisites: Chakra Initiate, ability to awaken the navel chakra.
Benefit: You can expend an extra point of ki to open two chakra with a single swift action. You must still make the required saving throws for each chakra separately.
Master Opener (Feat)
You can open all your chakra at once.
Prerequisites: Chakra Adept, Chakra Initiate, Chakra Master, Fast Opening.
Benefit: When opening chakra, you can spend a number of ki points equal to the number of chakra being opened to open them in a single swift action. You must make all of the required saving throws for each chakra separately.
After considering the chakra rules as presented in Occult Adventures, I'd say the two main issues are the slowness of opening (one chakra per round) and the hideous progression on the saving throws required. A couple of the chakra powers are somewhat underwhelming, but not tremendously so for when they are supposed to be available (although scaling isn't very good). The ki requirement to open and maintain (1 ki per round) is manageable and in line with the actual traditions: opening chakra is not and should not be considered as the equivalent of casting spells; it's much more personal and draining/dangerous.
The Scaling is deplorable as printed. You're right to base the effects on HD rather than on the number of Chakra opened.
However, what you have listed, while significantly better than what was printed, is still cripplingly underpowered and rendered nigh-useless in most circumstances.
It still takes 7 rounds to open all 7 Chakra, and is pretty awful for Action Economy.
The main reason why it rubs Action Economy the wrong way is that Opening a Chakra, or even Maintaing it, under the printed system and the modifications you've made based on it costs a Swift Action to activate Chakras.
This means that the Monk cannot make an additional Attack in his Flurry, which is a big loss for them.
And, of course, there's the fact that it takes 7 Rounds in Combat to get all 7 open; you have included a Feat to Open 2 Chakras at once, which brings it down to 7, but then you require both Checks to still be made, which doesn't solve that issue - when you require each check to be made, you increase the chances that either one fails, and thus shuts off all Chakras.
The second Feat, which sorta remedies the whole matter somewhat by allowing you to open all Chakra simultaneously, isn't obtainable until 14th level at the earliest, which is very-high-level for a lot of games. And you STILL have the problem that you have to make 7 checks, which DRASTICALLY increases the probability that any one of them can fail.
I like the idea, but in the end you still expend way more Ki over time just getting the 7 Chakras open than with my system, still spend 6 whole Feats to make the entire option viable in Combat (which usually only lasts 3-4 Rounds at the most anyway), and it STILL cockblocks the Monk from actuallly being a Monk by leeching away Ki constantly (even when you're not using their effects) & preventing him from increasing his Flurry count (which is absolutely necessary for a Monk to be useful in Combat).
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If you want a "spellcasting monk," then the qinggong monk, sacred fist warpriest, esoteric magus, etc. will be a better fit.
I wouldn't really call the Qinggong Monk a "spellcasting Monk". That may have been the intent, but it's far less a spellcaster and more just a "playable Monk" since it gives the class some horrendously-needed options.
The point of Chakras isn't really to make the Monk a "spellcaster," considering that the Root, Sacral, Navel, Heart, and Throat Chakras are far less spell-like effects and much more just general supernatural effects that'd seem fairly normal on other Classes.
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I wasn't saying to replace the saves (Fort and Will) with concentration , but use concentration as the way to open the progressively more difficult chakra stages instead of Ki. If they want to try and open more than one, you could simply have them make a larger, more difficult concentration to open multiple. Just seemed like a better alternative than the current system that requires the Ki usage every round.
Having something other than strictly Ki usage could potentially open up the system to non-monks.
I'm not a big fan of the actual dual saves or you take damage that's in the chakra section of the book. Just seemed far too limiting for one specific class.
The chakra system right now is simply designed as an alternative to the standard Ki usage of a monk, which is why it uses the Ki and a swift action every round.
Alternatively, instead of feats an unchained monk could just spend a Ki power slot?
I wasn't saying to replace the saves (Fort and Will) with concentration , but use concentration as the way to open the progressively more difficult chakra stages instead of Ki. If they want to try and open more than one, you could simply have them make a larger, more difficult concentration to open multiple. Just seemed like a better alternative than the current system that requires the Ki usage every round.
Oh, okay. That wasn't very clear in the previous post. Yes, that's better than having to make Saves and spend Ki, but ultimately is still not very great because of the amount of time spent.
Having something other than strictly Ki usage could potentially open up the system to non-monks.
Which, again, doesn't make a whole lot of sense from a thematic standpoint. Chakras affect Ki and Ki affects Chakras - they're intimately linked, so separating the one from the other is nigh-impossible.
It's like wanting to gain spells without having to take a spellcasting class - it doesn't really work that way.
Plus, there are lots of ways to gain Ki pools: Monks get them, but so can Sacred Fists, Ninja, Magi, Shigenjo Oracles, Enlightened Paladins, Champions of Irori...
I do believe that other classes though have access to it, of course, which is why I didn't go with the whole "based on the number of Chakra you have open" deal, nor a "based on your Monk Level" thing. But I do think that Ki is so integral to the idea and lore that taking a 2-3-level dip into a Ki-granting Class isn't asking much, especially since doing so will grant you a passive DR(1/2HD)/-, and the ability to fly for HD number of rounds per day for 1 Ki.
It's just assumed that opening Chakras 3-7 are going to require much more devotion to a Ki-granting Class or else a massive Wis score to pull off, which is fitting, honestly.
The chakra system right now is simply designed as an alternative to the standard Ki usage of a monk, which is why it uses the Ki and a swift action every round.
Also because the lore of Chakras is that they are nothing but gateways for Kundalini, also called Qi in China, Gi in Korea, Ki in Japan, and Khi in Vietnam, to flow through.
It's the same reason why Witches have Familiars in this game - that's what the lore says, so that's how it works in the game.
Alternatively, instead of feats an unchained monk could just spend a Ki power slot?
Right, which is exactly what I said before, and made an edit about: Qinggong Monks and Unchained Monks can take Dragonfire Ascetic as a Bonus Feat in place of any Ki Power.
Since someone mentioned that the feat investment made it hard on a class that already had to spend several feats, & whose bonus feats may not be very useful, it seemed like a good idea to make them Bonus Feats that can be taken in place of Ki Powers to lighten the blow.
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I wasn't saying to replace the saves (Fort and Will) with concentration , but use concentration as the way to open the progressively more difficult chakra stages instead of Ki. If they want to try and open more than one, you could simply have them make a larger, more difficult concentration to open multiple. Just seemed like a better alternative than the current system that requires the Ki usage every round.Oh, okay. That wasn't very clear in the previous post. Yes, that's better than having to make Saves and spend Ki, but ultimately is still not very great because of the amount of time spent.
That's why the potential to 'skip' some levels by a dramatically increased DC or similar mechanic. Full round action maybe?
Having something other than strictly Ki usage could potentially open up the system to non-monks.
Which, again, doesn't make a whole lot of sense from a thematic standpoint. Chakras affect Ki and Ki affects Chakras - they're intimately linked, so separating the one from the other is nigh-impossible.
It's like wanting to gain spells without having to take a spellcasting class - it doesn't really work that way.
OR just change how concentration works for chakras? Stuff like instead of a caster level, they use HD plus Wisdom? Simple modifiers could replace the current 'spell casting' ones. You could just really use three: simple distraction, moderate distraction, and severe distraction.
Plus, there are lots of ways to gain Ki pools: Monks get them, but so can Sacred Fists, Ninja, Magi, Shigenjo Oracles, Enlightened Paladins, Champions of Irori...I do believe that other classes though have access to it, of course, which is why I didn't go with the whole "based on the number of Chakra you have open" deal, nor a "based on your Monk Level" thing. But I do think that Ki is so integral to the idea and lore that taking a 2-3-level dip into a Ki-granting Class isn't asking much, especially since doing so will grant you a passive DR(1/2HD)/-, and the ability to fly for HD number of rounds per day for 1 Ki.
It's just assumed that opening Chakras 3-7 are going to require much more devotion to a Ki-granting Class or else a massive Wis score to pull off, which is fitting, honestly.
There's a rather large difference between Ki and Wisdom in terms of the number of classes and archetypes. Ki users are a pretty narrow percentage of character compared to Wis users. Relying on Wisdom instead of Ki dramatically increases the number of characters that could have access to chakras.
The chakra system right now is simply designed as an alternative to the standard Ki usage of a monk, which is why it uses the...
A balance between the two is something I'd rather support than simply going one way. Lore itself can simply be adjusted to maximize the mechanics or even "removed" in certain situations (i.e. archetypes) In the current book we even have a feat that gives extra "ki" for chakras but known as a different name and not really ki. After all, the current chakra backstory are partially Golgarianized to fit within Paizo's universe.
If someone really wanted to, they could simply say that the Chakras use Chi or an alternative that's just generic life force to disassociate from Ki (the more focused usage of life force).
There's also the idea of having a weaker effect for the different levels and then a single sentence that allows the use of 1 Ki for the regular effect. It would reflect the idea that Monks or other Ki users can truly maximize the energy from chakras without fully eliminating it from other classes.
I really love the idea of chakras. I have a champion of Irori that it fits so well with, but the saves, even for him, are high, and 7 rounds to open up all 7, combat would be long over.I like the idea of not tethering it to a feat tree.
Why not put a burden on opening multiple chakra at once, such as Burn from the kineticist, or drawbacks from rage
Maybe make it some amount of damage x the number of chakras opened?I'm looking at occult rituals, seeing if that could help.
The idea of a mechanic like burn might be an interesting, alternative usage as I'm not a big fan of taking damage failing chakra saves.
Rituals could also work but I haven't went through them just yet.
After considering the chakra rules as presented in Occult Adventures, I'd say the two main issues are the slowness of opening (one chakra per round) and the hideous progression on the saving throws required. A couple of the chakra powers are somewhat underwhelming, but not tremendously so for when they are supposed to be available (although scaling isn't very good). The ki requirement to open and maintain (1 ki per round) is manageable and in line with the actual traditions: opening chakra is not and should not be considered as the equivalent of casting spells; it's much more personal and draining/dangerous.The Scaling is deplorable as printed. You're right to base the effects on HD rather than on the number of Chakra opened.
However, what you have listed, while significantly better than what was printed, is still cripplingly underpowered and rendered nigh-useless in most circumstances.
It still takes 7 rounds to open all 7 Chakra, and is pretty awful for Action Economy.
As a compromise, how about:
You can open chakra more quickly than normal.
Prerequisites: Chakra Initiate, ability to awaken the navel chakra.
Benefit: You can expend an extra point of ki to open two chakra with a single swift action. You must make saves with a DC equal to the highest chakra being opened + 2. At 12th level, you can expend three total points of ki to open three chakra with a single swift action; DC for saves is equal to the highest chakra being opened + 3.
You can open all your chakra at once.
Prerequisites: Chakra Adept, Chakra Initiate, Chakra Master, Fast Opening.
Benefit: When opening chakra, you can spend a number of ki points equal to the number of chakra being opened to open them in a single swift action. You must make saves with a DC equal to the highest chakra being opened + the number of chakra being opened simultaneously.
The main reason why it rubs Action Economy the wrong way is that Opening a Chakra, or even Maintaing it, under the printed system and the modifications you've made based on it costs a Swift Action to activate Chakras.
This means that the Monk cannot make an additional Attack in his Flurry, which is a big loss for them.
Untrue.
In a normal round, you can perform a standard action and a move action, or you can perform a full-round action. You can also perform one swift action and one or more free actions. You can always take a move action in place of a standard action.
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A full-round action consumes all your effort during a round. The only movement you can take during a full-round action is a 5-foot step before, during, or after the action. You can also perform free actions and swift actions (see below).
(emphasis mine)
You can perform a swift action with a flurry: "Starting at 1st level, a monk can make a flurry of blows as a full-attack action." (emphasis mine)
The main reason why it rubs Action Economy the wrong way is that Opening a Chakra, or even Maintaing it, under the printed system and the modifications you've made based on it costs a Swift Action to activate Chakras.This means that the Monk cannot make an additional Attack in his Flurry, which is a big loss for them.
Untrue.
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You can perform a swift action with a flurry: "Starting at 1st level, a monk can make a flurry of blows as a full-attack action."
You COMPLETELY missed my point.
Opening & Maintaining a Chakra is a Swift Action. Spending 1 Ki to gain an additional Attack during a Flurry is a Swift Action.
Awakening Chakras or maintaining open Chakras is a Swift Action that costs 1 Ki Point.
By spending 1 point from his ki pool, a monk can do one of the following:
• Make one additional attack at his highest attack bonus when making a flurry of blows attack, or
...
Each of these powers is activated as a Swift Action.
As-written, you cannot both Open/Maintain a Chakra and get an additional attack off with a Flurry using Ki, because you can only use 1 Swift Action per turn.
Gaining that extra attack is integral to the Monk being useful; making a Monk choose between keeping a Chakra open and being a Monk is utter garbage.
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The point is that the Ki used in the chakra is an alternative to the other, various ki powers a monk can get. I know that you cannot maintain/open chakra and do an extra attack. Not every situation is solved with the attack. It's part of the reason for many of the Ki powers that monks can get.
The argument that a monk is only a monk for spending ki on the extra attacks detracts from the other uses. We are talking about a type of class, Ki users that includes largely monks, that get a growing set of versatility for a basic feat with no real requirements. Yes, the extra attack is important for dealing damage in combat (and a few other uses depending on the type of monk) but the only thing in the game. Don't confuse the extra attack as the end all, be all of the class.
Remember too, that a few of the other ki users (only a few like the Tengu one) use Ki differently than simply getting the extra attack.
Remember too, that a few of the other ki users (only a few like the Tengu one) use Ki differently than simply getting the extra attack.
This is true, but what they're getting by spending that Ki and Swift Action makes up for the loss of that extra attack.
No single Chakra makes up for the loss of that Swift Action, especially if you're not going to even be access that Chakra without having to jump through hoops to get it.
The Chakra system as it stands is just awful to the point of being honestly broken.
Replacing the Saves with Concentration checks and adding in new Feats that let you open multiple or all Chakra at once only go so far, and as they stand they don't even do that much.
You can open chakra more quickly than normal.
Prerequisites: Chakra Initiate, ability to awaken the navel chakra.
Benefit: You can expend an extra point of ki to open two chakra with a single swift action. You must make saves with a DC equal to the highest chakra being opened + 2. At 12th level, you can expend three total points of ki to open three chakra with a single swift action; DC for saves is equal to the highest chakra being opened + 3.
You can open all your chakra at once.
Prerequisites: Chakra Adept, Chakra Initiate, Chakra Master, Fast Opening.
Benefit: When opening chakra, you can spend a number of ki points equal to the number of chakra being opened to open them in a single swift action. You must make saves with a DC equal to the highest chakra being opened + the number of chakra...
These don't actually solve any problems at all, really.
You're still spending Swift Actions to open or Maintain Chakra, meaning you're cutting into your Action Economy pretty badly.
On top of this, the Saves/Checks are still there, which means that there's STILL a chance the user can expend this effort and not only not get anything but LOSE all the Chakras he's open until this point.
And Master Opener requires the character to be at lv14 to even work. AND requires several Feats before it as a Prerequisite, meaning it's going to be lv15 or lv17 before you can actually TAKE Master Opener...
So, under this proposal - basically the proposal you're both making as to how you can stick with the as-written system, a system that requires MULTIPLE rounds and Swift Actions PLUS burns up Ki CONSTANTLY in order to gain a miniscule effects - you're looking into burning:
6 Feats
In order to gain
1) The ability to have POSSIBLY all Chakra open at once (not guaranteed), have to spend 1 Ki EVERY ROUND that any Chakra are Opened, even if they're not being "used"
2) 5 extra Ki
AND, the earliest you can even gain the "Open All Chakras at once" Feat is lv14, presupposing you have all previous Feats, with lvs 15-17 being a more realistic placement of when you'll gain these Feats.
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Meanwhile, what I've proposed is:
UP TO 7 Feats
In order to:
1) Have all 7 Chakra opened permanently, for use at any time of day, without using up a Swift Action, without the need to spend Ki to keep these Chakra open, and only the need to spend Ki when you choose to activate a Chakra's abilities.
2) Gain up to 14 more Ki, meaning the costs of the Chakra will be negligeable at best
3) The ability to use AS MANY Chakra abilities in a single round as you wish or are able to use, without having to "open" them first or "maintain" them
ALSO bearing in mind that you DO NOT have to actually take all 7 Feats to gain these benefits.
Taking 2 Feats nets you 2 Chakra and 4 Ki, granting the user a permanent DR(1/2HD)/-, and the ability to spend 1 Ki to Fly at base speed for (HD) rounds at a time.
And even MORE, you do not HAVE to burn up normal Feat slots in order to take these Feats - you may choose to forego taking a Ki Power in order to gain take these Feats as Bonus Feats, thus freeing up substantial amounts of space.
YES, there is a Wisdom requirement to take the Feat, but said Wisdom requirement just means you're going to have even MORE Ki to work with, and isn't dissimilar in the slightest.
And YES, there is 1 more Feat than the plan you two are proposing, but what you get in return is SUBSTANTIALLY more useful than the current Chakra rules which you are trying your damndest to stick to for god-knows-what reason.
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I cannot for the life of me understand why you would want to try and keep the Chakra rules (in regards to opening/maintaining them) AT ALL
If you think the rules make them somewhat "balanced," then all I can say is that you are SEVERELY underestimating how pathetically neutered the Monk class is currently.
It is ALREADY Starved for Ki worse than an Ethopian child. Making a Monk PAY to simply OPEN or MAINTAIN a Chakra means that the Monk will HEMORRHAGE Ki like there's no tomorrow, and very rarely get anything substantial out of it.
Eating into its Action Economy by requiring a Swift Action to Open or Maintain a Chakra just means that the Monk will not be able to make an additional Attack, Sacred Fists will not be able to Fervor-Cast spells, as well any any other Feats or Abilities which work on Immediate or Swift Actions which are significantly MORE useful.
You're also failing to realize that the whole "2 Chakra at a Time" thing doesn't solve one of the most awful, glaring issues of the system:
HAVING TO JUGGLE CHAKRA.
Say you're fighting in mid-air. Maybe you need to use your Breath Weapon because it's the only thing that'll eat through this monster's DR, but you can't give up Fly because you'll fall, and you REALLY need that DR or else you're going to die.
Well, great - now you're playing a "Choose Your Poison" game with yourself and an awful option system you wish you hadn't chosen.
Boy, howdy - wouldn't it be nice to have DR PERMANENTLY ON? And wouldn't it be nice to maintain your Flying as a Free Action (and you won't even have to spend Ki on it for a few rounds yet because you paid your Ki last turn)? Oh, and wouldn't it be JUST LOVELY to spend 1 Ki to roast this sucker with your Breath Weapon while doing the other two things without effort? Boy - that'd be SOMETHING, now wouldn't it?
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Look, I'm all for coming up with alternate systems to the one I presented, and I generally don't like to deviate TOO substantially from what Paizo has put out myself, but this...
This gigantic steaming pile of S+*~ needs to be torn out, shredded, burned, and the ashes dumped in a vat of acid.
You need to realize that the Chakra rules, as-written for how they're obtained and kept-up are among the worst - if not THE worst - options ever created by Paizo.
I would LOVE to meet whomever wrote these and smack them with a copy of Occult Adventures for wasting both paper and ink - this is just an OFFENSIVELY bad design and whomever is responsible should honestly feel ashamed as a game developer.
I would honestly have rather seen those pages be devoted to a crude, elementary-school-level sketch of the author in question masturbating to Naruto - THAT at least would have given me a laugh and made me stare at it for the bile curiosity of what must have gone through this madman's head to make him do something like that. The Chakra rules? I don't WANT to know what went through their head, because whatever it was would cause my IQ to drop by double-digits from the shear inanity of it all.
Sticking to the system's sensibility of "Chakras need to be opened, they need to be kept up, and they need Checks to do so" is just plain idiotic.
The system's whole setup is objectively, categorically, ANALYTICALLY god-awful and not worth being printed in a book under the "Pathfinder" name, let alone ANY book utilizing the d20 system at all.
Trying to work with s+%~ will only get you Hep-C, kids - so come up with systems that DON'T try to emulate it or else don't post things, period.
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This is true, but what they're getting by spending that Ki and Swift Action makes up for the loss of that extra attack.No single Chakra makes up for the loss of that Swift Action, especially if you're not going to even be access that Chakra without having to jump through hoops to get it.
The Chakra system as it stands is just awful to the point of being honestly broken.
Replacing the Saves with Concentration checks and adding in new Feats that let you open multiple or all Chakra at once only go so far, and as they stand they don't even do that much.
I thought it was a concentration check instead of spending a Ki to open the chakras and not the saves at the end?
Remember that you need a full-round action with that swift action to get that extra attack. Remember that several Ki users (mainly monk archetypes but a few other non-monk ones too) don't even get a flurry of blows so there's no extra attack there. Maybe it was designed more for these guys than the monk who's only interested in
Granted that every ki ability is situational.
How exactly are the chakras broken? Yes, they are essentially weak from a strictly dpr (damage per round) perspective of a basic full-round attack plus an extra attack swift action. That's also from one perspective that doesn't really take into consideration other classes/archetypes.
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They take an OBSCENE amount of Ki to get going, (Seriously, seven Ki is a TON. ) the DC to keep them up quickly scales up to "Okay, I am level 20, have a +5 Resistance item, and my Constitution and Wisdom are both in the mid-30's. I still fail on an 8 or lower. Unless I am a Monk, in which case it's a four or lower. Let's hope the TWO SEPARATE SAVING THROWS I have to make don't roll low on either one."
That failure, by the way, is a nice way of saying "Hey guys, I just took an assload of damage, and can do exactly NOTHING to defend myself this round, frag me over." Seriously, DC38 Fort and Will saves, every round, blowing through your Ki like a drunken sailor through his paycheck in Thailand, and your Swift action every round is.... madness.
How exactly are the chakras broken? Yes, they are essentially weak from a strictly dpr (damage per round) perspective of a basic full-round attack plus an extra attack swift action. That's also from one perspective that doesn't really take into consideration other classes/archetypes.
They take an OBSCENE amount of Ki to get going, (Seriously, seven Ki is a TON. ) the DC to keep them up quickly scales up to "Okay, I am level 20, have a +5 Resistance item, and my Constitution and Wisdom are both in the mid-30's. I still fail on an 8 or lower. Unless I am a Monk, in which case it's a four or lower. Let's hope the TWO SEPARATE SAVING THROWS I have to make don't roll low on either one."
That failure, by the way, is a nice way of saying "Hey guys, I just took an assload of damage, and can do exactly NOTHING to defend myself this round, frag me over." Seriously, DC38 Fort and Will saves, every round, blowing through your Ki like a drunken sailor through his paycheck in Thailand, and your Swift action every round is.... madness.
THIS.
The fact that they require so much effort and so many resources to even OPEN in the first place, and every time you want to use them you have to go through the SAME BS just to do it.
Under the as-written system and even with your "fix", the issues of not working literally about half the time and expending an absurd amount of time and energy JUST to get them open in a fight is terrible.
Let's put it this way:
The system you and Dragonchess are advocating requires you make Saves, spend Swift Actions, AND eat up 6 Feats total to have the CHANCE of MAYBE having all 7 Chakras open at once, and using 2 abilities at a time at most.
BOTH the original and that modified system waste so much time and effort just getting going that the Monk will very likely have little to no effect on the battle at all.
By the 3rd combat of the day, you'll have likely burned through 9-21 Ki, and very well have lost use of the Chakra during that time due to a bad roll.
MEANWHILE
Under a system wherein all the Chakra are open 24/7 and you simply need to PAY for their abilities, you end up using much, much less Ki and gotten FAR more out of it.