| pontoark |
Hi everyone, this is my first post, I hope it will be of some help.
I'm playing a monk in my group, and from my experience: the monks lack of BAB, plus the fact he does not get bonus from magic weapons, his furry of blow penalty, and as sometimes he can't invest in STR because of MAD with WIS and DEX, results in a too small Attack bonus and really gets in the way during the fight, but that's is not that bad, the monk more than anyone looks a lot after flanking, charging, prone attack bonus and those moves really fits well with his flavor, I just think he needs some more mechanics to make such tactics fells more worth it.
Those would be my suggestions:
Maneuver Training: (EX) At 5th Level, on a charge with a jump attack, if the jump height is bigger than the attacked creature size, the monk gets +4 instead of +2 attack bonus, the AC penality remains the same.
or
Maneuver Training: (EX) At 5th Level, on a charge with a jump attack, if the jump height size is bigger than the attacked creature size, the monk uses his monk level in place of his base attack bonus for this attack.
Maneuver Training: (EX) At 7th Level, when a monk gains successfully hits an opportunity attack against a creature who is standing from phone, he can makes the creature keeps the -4 ac penality for one round.
I tried to come up with something for the flaking mechanic but I've got nothing so far ^_^'.
note: ever since I first started playing with monk: "purity of body", "still mind" and "Diamond body" fells more like fillers then class defining abilities but I don´t have any suggestions about that, I just wrote it here as a side note.
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Physical prowess: once per day as a immediate action, the monk can spend 1 ki point to move 20 feet.
Ok, I just thing this ability fits very nicely with the monk class, I don't know for sure if he needs a cookie but I would like to know what people think about it. Its very versatile, it allows you to stay in front of a friend and be the target instead of him, it allows you to hide from the evil mage sight before he finish his spell, helps you to not let the BBEG run thought the secret passage and its fun.
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The monk bonus feat option Caught Off-Guard is very inspiring, but it just doesn't have any synergy, except in flavor. I'm having a hard time describing an ability but what I was thinking is getting an improvised weapon as part of a move, and hitting with it for either a bonus damage or a one round stun (maybe even spending a stun attack or ki pool) and breaking the improvised weapon in the process. It would give an opening for a Caught Off-Guard --> throw anything --> Razor Sharp Chair Leg build and it would make the combat interact more with the scenery, it have a bit of a "breaking chairs in a bar fight" fell and would fit like a glove with a Drunken Master prestige class.
Last suggestion, please, change High Jump from a swift action to a free action, because sometimes we use it just to look cool and jump in the middle of the fight but most of the time we need those +4 dodge bonus to AC when we do so, so we end up just walking there to be safe... which is not as fun.