| TheMaster42 |
If Monks were originally designed for Pathfinder as a defensive class, then:
- Why is their most recognizable move (Flurry of Blows) an offensive ability?
- Why does their class description say nothing about their defensive nature? You can see why "lots of folks think" that Monks are an offensive class reading over the tone and flavor of the description in the core rulebook.
- Why is it easy to get a fighter with high AC at low levels, but impossible for a monk?
- Why are most of a monk's ki-pool abilities geared toward offensive maneuvers?
- Why does their defensive ki-pool ability not scale with level or their current AC or something?
- Why do they have no active abilities geared towards protecting their allies or getting creatures to attack them instead of their allies? Monks even have a great mobility and powers for zipping around the battlefield, but they don't have a way to utilize this in a greatly defensive manner. (Stunning fist, maybe?)
- Why do monks have a d8 hit die?
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Looking at it in hindsight, I can see how there are hints of this intent in the Monk class' abilities. (At long last, I understand now why only Monks get full saving throws!) But reading the core rulebook and looking at their theme and myriad offensive powers, I hope you can understand why it's quite a shock to myself and others that you say "Monks are...a defensive class."
I would probably have been happier hearing something like it was just a holdover from 3.5. I only started with Pathfinder (and even 3.X) rather recently, and I don't really know from reading the rulebook how I'd go about making an effective "defensive" monk.