Penchant's page

There's no reason for them not to have it. I understand the whole "HD tied to BAB" thing, but it's just ridiculous to have someone who is supposed to be a front-line combatant having difficulty in keeping up with attacks because he's got 3/4 BAB. It is so much simpler to give the monk full BAB and leave him at a d8 HD than to make class features that are work-arounds to this.

People have been asking for monks to have full BAB for years. Let's be nice and give it to them.

Considering the way monks fight in movies, I would give a monk the ability to deny an opponent their dex bonus or have a bonus to hit with a limited grapple. Basically the monk engages in a lock or a grab with a foe and it suddenly becomes easier to land hits. This also allows more of a kung fu feel without a complicated lock and block system.

Suggestion: Monk makes grapple check against an enemy. This allows the monk to lay a hand or foot on a limb of the opponent granting the monk a bonus to hit and to AC. This bonus does not apply to any other opponents. The monk maintains the hold as a swift action each round with an opposed check but can otherwise take actions normally. The opponent can make an opposed grapple check in the normal manner to shake the monk's hold and negate the effect.

Personally I have used the vitality system for a couple of years. It worked well for Star Wars and has worked well in my games. Simply abstracting the hit points differently allows it to work in players minds and the ability to rest one or two hours to get some VP back instead of healing or camping is really nice without being game breaking. I give the PC's starting HP equal to their Con score which represents real and serious damage (leaves scars) and all HP gained from class levels is called Vitality and represents superficial wounds and battle fatigue. Vitality is regained hourly (1 per hit die per hour) while wound points (the starting amount from Con) is regained daily at the usual rate.

Feral follow through:Activate this ability as a swift action. As a standard action make a melee attack against an adjacent opponent. If you hit, make a grapple check as a free action. This grapple attempt does not provoke attacks of opportunity. If the grapple check succeeds you enter the foe's square and can make a free bite attack against the opponent (1d4+Str for medium, 1d3+str for small if you do not possess a natural bite attack). You may continue the grapple as normal or release the opponent at then end of your turn moving into an open adjacent square.

This is a good ability for a variety of reasons. First it can add a few more points of damage, second it is a tactical maneuver since you can use it to move through squares without provoking Opportunity Attacks and third, it is just degrading to your opponent.