Pennanngalan's page

For my money, Hartbaine has it right. I would look at it from a "flavor" viewpoint. Instead of a flaming sphere why not have a corrosive sphere (earth element) with acidic vapours instead of flames? Same damage, same knock down and roll-over, no forest fire to extinguish. We have done this in my own group on occasion and it works fine.

I've played 2 monks, both humans from the Realms. One was a devotee of the god Hoar (god of vengeance). He was a small dude with a big chip on his shoulder (picked on as a youth). He didn't look, dress, or act like a monk. He was more concerned with punishing lawbreakers than helping people. Pretty fun to play, he used the tiger claw type of martial arts before the style rules came out (stylistic flavor fluff).

The other was a poor boy who learned his trade while making deliveries to the monastary. He took a vow of poverty (3.5 version) and gave everything he made (his share of the loot) to those less fortunate than himself. Pretty much the typical monk stuff. Of the two characters, the first was more interesting, the DM liked him better too. Typical monk flavoring is as bland as the rice monks eat, I'll try to spice it up any way I can but the "crazy old man spouting nonsence and punching stuff"... meh... also boring.

My favorite characters was/are a Thenolite paladin 2e, an ascetic monk 3.5, and a dwarven fighter/cleric 3.5. Not for their abilities though... I like the style and personalities of these characters the best.

The story of the non-halfling above my post made me smile... my wife's favorite character was killed by a gnoll and got reincarnated as a (you guessed it) gnoll. She still cusses over that.