These are all the suggestions I can think of that maintain the goal of “backwards compatibility”. Honestly, I think this goal should be waived in the case of the Monk (possibly in favor of something like what Tim Martin made on Enworld, found here: Mantra Monk), but if that’s not possible, then please take these considerations into account.
Lawful Only:
I’ve already put up a thread discussing that (Riddick from Pitch Black is disciplined, reserved, etc., WotC referred to him as CE, so discipline = lawful only is a poor reason to make Monks lawful only), so I’ll only reference it here.
Weapon Proficiencies:
First off, please clarify that Monks are proficient with their unarmed strikes (that it’s one of the weapons they’re proficient with).
Second, does every Monk everywhere in every campaign and from every civilization need to be proficient with the same list of weapons? Especially when most of the special monk weapons are other weapons by another name (kama = sickle, nunchaku = flail). Even if it’s necessary to limit a Monk to a choice of weapons (possibly using some of the groups created for the Fighter), I think he should still have more of a choice.
Flurry of Blows/Fast Movement:
“I can make many multiple attacks in a round. I can also run really fast. I just can’t do both at the same time.”
These two abilities do not synergize. I raise this point because there is a very easy way to fix this, and it maintains “backwards compatibility”. The Snap Kick feat from the Tome of Battle is exactly what the Flurry of Blows should’ve been (possibly with special monk weapons, too, not just an extra unarmed strike), but replacing the Flurry with the Snap Kick allows you to move (or charge) and still get the multiple attacks the Monk is famous for.
The Unarmed Strike:
Recently, the Sage has said that anyone may use an unarmed strike as an off-hand attack in a two-weapon fighting routine, even if the primary weapon was also an unarmed strike. Unfortunately, the Sage has a reputation for having sometimes contradictory answers (this was not one of them, but it suffers the stigma all the same).
The phrase “There is no such thing as an off-hand attack for a monk striking unarmed. A monk may thus apply his full Strength bonus on damage rolls for all his unarmed strikes.” is a key offender here. I believe (and the Sage’s recent clarification supports this) that this means nothing more than “A monk’s unarmed attacks apply full Strength bonus to damage, whether they’re primary attacks or off-hand attacks.”
So, unless you intend for the Pathfinder Monk (and to a lesser extent, everyone) to not be able to TWF using just unarmed strikes (and I don’t advocate this in the slightest), please clarify the offending phrase. Maybe something along the lines of “A monk's unarmed strikes deal full Strength damage, even if you're using an unarmed strike as an off-hand attack. Thus, you are still perfectly able to Two-Weapon Fight with just your unarmed strikes.”
Maneuver Training:
This is practically giving the Monk a full Base Attack Bonus anyway, so I say, go ahead and give it to them.
If that third iterative attack and the increased rate of achieving a minimum Base Attack Bonus for the purpose of prerequisites is too much of a sticking point, then how about “+1 competence bonus to attack rolls (standard attacks and combat maneuvers) with special monk weapons and unarmed strikes at 1st level, increasing by 1 every four levels thereafter (+2 at 5th, +3 at 9th, +4 at 13th, +5 at 17th)”. Taking that and the medium Base Attack Bonus, you get accuracy equivalent to any full BAB class, your extra attacks are more derivative of your Flurry of Blows than your iterative attacks, you don’t add your BAB to Sense Motive, and you still qualify for feats and such with BAB prerequisites only as early as a medium BAB allows anyway. You could even make this number dependent on your Wisdom bonus, so that the competence bonus cannot exceed it.
Alternatively, Calronmooonflower of the Wizards forums came up with a smart idea. He called it the Flowing Fist and basically, you lower your unarmed attack damage to a smaller damage die (provided you have a smaller damage die) and increase your unarmed attack rolls by the same amount.
Kind of like this:
Medium Monk
Base damage 1d6 1d8 1d10 2d6 2d8 2d10
Lowered to 1d6 - +1 +2 +3 +4 +5
1d8 - - +1 +2 +3 +4
1d10 - - - +1 +2 +3
2d6 - - - - +1 +2
2d8 - - - - - +1
Leave the Maneuver Training where it is, let it cover the combat maneuvers, and the Flowing Fist fixes the unarmed attack accuracy. This wouldn’t fix the special monk weapons, or course, but I don’t really know how to address that.
Quivering Palm: Once per week? Really? Once per day, maybe. Once per day and it costs ki points. As many times per day as you have ki points to spend on it, but it just costs a buttload of them. But at once per week, and the initial attack to damage the target can fail and waste the attempt, and the target can succeed on his Fortitude save and the Monk still can’t try again any earlier, the Quivering Palm is so unreliable that it might as well not even be there. This needs to be able to be used more often. Take a look at the Paladin; he had abilities limited to per-weeks and they got increased, so why not the Monk’s Quivering Palm?
Perfect Self: So I become an Outsider. Do I get Darkvision? Do I suddenly become proficient with all simple and martial weapons? What subtype am I? As it stands, if a Ranger came at me with all of his Favored Enemies being Outsider, subtype this or that, and he had an armload of Outsiderbane weapons for all the subtypes left out by his Favored Enemies, he still wouldn’t ever be able to use them against me (not and gain any benefit from the Bane special weapon quality, anyway).
The subtype needs to be specified. Native or Lawful (and still able to be resurrected, of course), but it should be specified. Do I gain weapon proficiencies and darkvision? This needs to be specified.
Alternatively, it says “He is forevermore treated as an outsider rather than as a humanoid (or whatever the monk’s creature type was) for the purpose of spells and magical effects.” This, to me, implies that the Monk’s subtype doesn’t change for real, but just for the purposes of spells and magical effects. Basically saying, “I’m a Humanoid (Human), and that’s how I get treated, but if you come at me with a magical effect, call me Outsider.” This understanding fixes the Ranger, but still leaves the Bane weapons in limbo.
Next, DR 10/magic. At level 20? Exactly how many things is a 20th-level Monk going to face that won’t have a magic weapon (or some other way to negate this ability)? This is even more useless than the Quivering Palm. Make it something else. DR 10/chaos, DR 10/adamantine, DR 5/-, but this is not useful.
Special Abilities in General: Timeless Body, Tongue of the Sun and Moon, Abundant Step, Flurry of Blows as opposed to the Decisive Strike or the Flailing Strikes, Slow Fall. Pathfinder has added a bit of flexibility to the Monk class by allowing more feats and more choices, but I don’t think it’s enough. I didn’t read nearly so many complaints about the Monk’s feats as I did about the useless, tasteless, what’s-the-point-of-this-being-here class abilities.
This is why I advocate the Mantra Monk that Tim Martin created. If you want to, you can create a Monk with all the class abilities that the 3.5 Monk has. However, if you can’t see the situation arising when you need to be able to descend safely and have a convenient wall next to you, then you need not be stuck with Slow Fall. If you already know a lot of languages or are a member of a group where someone has already, many levels ago, learned all the languages that exist, then you need not be stuck with Tongue of the Sun and Moon. Heck, if you’d rather be able to move normally on difficult surfaces like walls and water than be able to move fast, then you need not be stuck with Fast Movement. The current Monk pigeonholes a lot of people who just want to play a mystical unarmed fighter into a class where the class abilities don’t synergize into anything recognizable or otherwise make sense as to why they’re there. Even if you don’t go the route of the Mantra Monk, please make more of his class abilities optional, interchangeable, and different. The abilities don't have to be psionic or invocations, but let there be choice.
The phrase “There is no such thing as an off-hand attack for a monk striking unarmed. A monk may thus apply his full Strength bonus on damage rolls for all his unarmed strikes.” is a key offender here.
I think what they meant was that monks didn't use the standard two-weapon fighting rules when using unarmed strikes or special monk weapons; they used Flurry of Blows instead. A monk shouldn't suffer a two-weapon penalty because he punches you with his left fist as well as his right.
You mean like, "Two-Weapon-Fighting takes a full round action. Flurrying takes a full round action. You're allowed to do both, they just have to be in separate full rounds"?
If so, they need to clarify that, but in any case, Pathfinder does need to establish whether TWF with just your unarmed strikes is allowed or not.