Mikiko - custom monk


Homebrew and House Rules


I've gotten hold of the Pathfinder Adventures digital game by Obsidian, which introduced me to the awesome world of the Pathfinder Card Game. Naturally the designer in me itched to create something; and since "monks" are my thing, I'd like you all to meet Mikiko.

Mikiko - Character
Mikiko - Role (Ki Mystic)
Mikiko - Token

Unfortunately I do not know how to make drivethrucards show a sensibly rotated version (or both sides of the card); so I'll take any advice in that regard. Her two roles are Ki Mystic and Sensei. The art comes from my monk PDF Monk Unfettered and was commissioned by me, so there should not be any rights violations. Let me know what you think :)

Mikiko, Monk:

Str 1d8 [+1/+2/+3]
Dex 1d8 [+1/+2/+3] acrobatics +2
Con 1d8 [+1/+2/+3]
Int 1d6 [+1/+2]
Wis 1d8 [+1/+2/+3] perception +2
Cha 1d6 [+1]

Hand size 4 [5]
Proficient with [weapons]

At any time you may reveal any number of blessings. Until the end of your turn, on each check, each currently revealed blessing applies to the check (as if it was played for the check). At the end of your turn discard all revealed blessings. ([ ] Additionally you may add the Magic trait to any check you make.)
[ ] You may bury a card to shuffle one random blessing ([ ] or bury a blessing to shuffle 1d4 random blessings) from your discard pile into your deck.

Card list:
Weapon 1 [2] [3]
Spell 1 [2]
Armor -
Item 3 [4] [5]
Ally 3 [4] [5]
Blessing 7 [8] [9] [10]

Mikiko, Ki Mystic:

Reduce all damage you take by [1] ([ ] or the number of currently revealed blessings).
[ ] Once a turn you may recharge a card from your hand and draw a card
Each revealed blessing adds [+1] [+2] to your checks

Mikiko, Sensei:

[ ] You may add your Wisdom to your combat checks
[ ] When you succeed at a combat check against a bane you gain +1d4 on additional checks against that bane until the end of your turn
Each revealed blessing adds [+1] [+2] [+3] to any check


I'm not good at judging balance, but the blessing power seems very strong to me.

In a 6 player game, you will get 5 turns. The way you worded the power, you can reveal all of your current blessings directly after you end your turn and keep the bonus up for one turn of each other party member.
With the bury power, it shouldn't be too hard to constantly have 2-3 blessings in effect, which probably trivializes a lot (especially when other characters have ways to let you encounter their explorations).

A first change might be to display the blessings instead of revealing (since the way you worded it, you may reveal the same blessing over and over again for a cumulative bonus) and let the blessing bonus expire at the end of the turn the blessing was displayed, instead of the end of your turn. This effect is still very strong since you both play more than one blessing on a check and have it apply to multiple checks at the same time.

Apart from that, I think the sensei should be focused on buffing other characters, as in the pathfinder archtype.
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ultimateCombat/classArchetypes/monk.html #sensei-%28archetype%29
You might change the third power to something like this:

[] At any time, display a number of blessings and choose another character at your location. While the blessings are displayed, add one additional die per blessing displayed [+1][+2] to all the checks of the chosen character. At the end of each turn, discard all blessings displayed this way.

Apart from that, very original. I like monks, so I appreciate the effort you put into that. I think with some more feedback, you can get the class balanced just right, although I guess playing multiple blessings and having them persistent for one round is still too strong.


Thanks Doppelschwert :)

The Sensei already buffs other characters, his third ability applies "to any check" (staying true to the original Sensei was a conscious design decision).

I agree with your assessment about the power-level of the main ability (I've been in discussion with somebody who is more knowledgeable than I on the subject matter) - the text has changed to "display" on the graphic links and the ability to bury cards to recover blessings has been downsized a lot. It should be fairly hard to get multiple blessings of each turn without repercussions now.

The intention is where (original) Sajan gets great dice to *one* combat check *each* turn; Mikiko should get good dice to *all* checks in *some* turns.

Unfortunately I cannot update the original text in the opening post, but you can see the updates in the links.


I saw your other thread at obsidians forum and have to agree with the posters there. For starters, look at this thread
http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2r6ax?Choose-Your-Own-Adventure-How-to-Make-PAC G-Cards
for some overview over the number of check boxes you should include.

While your intention is a good idea, it is potentially much stronger compared to other classes with similiar feats. The feat of displaying blessings is quadratic in a sense - you can stack any number of blessings and also apply them to multiple checks, which improves is an improvement in two directions at once. If you leave it as it is, that you can play them on any turn, you also get persistent blessings through one turn of each player, which is much stronger still.

While sajan (and sentiyel) can be incredible effective in combat by using their powers, they are somewhat balanced around being more or less one-trick ponies, that is, they lack diversity in other situations and have other trade-offs. Since your power does not have any restrictions, this is somehow mitigated.

Regarding the sensei, if you want the second power to apply to checks from anyone, I think you have to state that explicitly in terms of wording. Regardless, if it is meant that way, the sensei is much much stronger than the Ki Mystic, since his third power is just strictly better than the one from the ki mystic.

If you want, I can sketch up a variant of your design which would feel more balanced to me, but it might feel very weak to you.
As another point of reference, consider the freely available class sheets from official paizo products on this link
http://paizo.com/products/btpy914x
to get a feeling for the power levels of the game. Since the sensei is basically a monk/bard hybrid class, you could for example look at the way different bards have access to buffing other characters. Also, the monk class deck might give you some ideas what the other monks are balanced around.

And it bears repeating: I quite like your ideas, so don't treat this post as a bashing of your work, but rather as constructive criticism. For not having played the game a lot, these ideas are quite a good starting point, and once you get a better feeling for the game, the balance will come as well, so keep working on it.


Thanks Doppelschwert :) - I've recently realized my scaling for the game was off by a long shot. Since I am quite new to the card game I figured I'd have a look at what the "high end" looks like that a character would face. Not knowing the differences in the various games I found and used Pazuzu as my end-game villain around which I designed. I realize now that there is a lot more power in the Wrath of the Rigtheous card adventure; but at the time I assumed that "this" is what a character should be able to face in the end.

Don't worry I don't take it as negative criticism at all. I'll let you know via private message when I have my second character ready - I think I've learnt a lot already and I'm pretty excited for designing more.


@Doppelschwet:

It seems it isn't possible to send you private messages; so instead you are invited to take a look at Mikail over at the Obsidian forums.

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