The Monk preview is available: Link
Linked Sajan, the kung-fu fighter!.
Stunning fist is now cool. It's free, and it has upgrades. Very nice.
More AC!
More feats!
I like that the monk will attack more often and with greater accuracy. Nice gamist crunch. Now I'm looking for someone to help me wrap some simulationist fluff around the notion that somehow monks are more accurate when they flurry than they are when they don't. Everyone else, with a certain BAB, gets a certain number of attacks. It's the same for everyone. But monks, they have a special class feature to attack so fast that they get extra attacks. Great! Seems to me that attacking that fast might mean more hits, but it also might mean more misses. But the new monk ability only uses the better BAB when they flurry, not when they make normal attacks.
Help me with the fluff please!
At least my players won't call it "flurry of suck" anymore...
Quivering Palm, same as before, but now it's useable once per day (it's always seemed surprisingly weak though, I hope "much the same as before" includes upping the DC just a little, or preferably not basing it on FORT, which makes this ability a near-guaranteed mage-slayer ability, but never a giant-slayer ability).
I like that they have become the masters of combat maneuvers, both using and avoiding. This is how it should be. Although I do see some room for lots of encounter balance issues - gone is the day of the solo NPC mage challenging the party. Monk dimension doors, grapples, and waits for his slow buddies to bop up there and administer the coup de grace - if they didn't just break out the mess kits and the portable campfire to roast up some weenies while they let the monk choke out that arch-mage villain.
(yes, hyperbole, and no, it's not an attack - I like this monk feature, but I do fear that there may be some balance issues that come out of it).
The Ki pool, magic items, and feats sound familiar from the Beta rules.
So, to sum up, changes from beta:
1. Stunning fist is cool.
2. Better AC.
3. More feats.
4. Better BAB but only when flurrying.
5. Daily Quivering Palm.
6. Combat Maneuver masters.
Yeah, I think this might give the monk a chance to be a full-fledged party member who pulls his own weight.
Now, about that fluff...
Pulls up a chair, butters his popcorn and waits
Pulls up a chair, butters his popcorn and waits
Ah, yes, thanks for contributing meaningful commentary.
How's that popcorn?
Pulls up a chair, butters his popcorn and waitsAh, yes, thanks for contributing meaningful commentary.
How's that popcorn?
Not bad really I did bring you a bag..or would you like some deep fried kittens?...We also have grilled tribble on a stick
Monk is awesome, though I think flurry of blows is my favourite change!
I'm kind of digging this dimension door technique. Think of it as "sidestepping the physical world".
"Don't go there. Be there."
You silly sillies still don't get that space is irrelevant, anyway. :P
Not bad really I did bring you a bag..or would you like some deep fried kittens?...We also have grilled tribble on a stickPulls up a chair, butters his popcorn and waitsAh, yes, thanks for contributing meaningful commentary.
How's that popcorn?
Popcorn?
Kittens?
Tribbles?
Bring me some deep fried elephants, please. A baker's dozen should hit the spot...
Monk is awesome, though I think flurry of blows is my favourite change!
What?
Your favorite change and still you offer me no fluffy help?
Monk is awesome, though I think flurry of blows is my favourite change!
I'll have to see how exactly it works (do you get extra attacks for improved TWF and so on? Is the -2 still there? Will it go away?), but it sounds nice enough.
I can't get the math with the Flurry of blows to work...
+8 level, +2 STR, +1 weapon focus, -1 flurry penalty = 10. But the monk has Flurry listed with +9/+9/+4/+4...
Bring me some deep fried elephants, please. A baker's dozen should hit the spot...
Not bad really I did bring you a bag..or would you like some deep fried kittens?...We also have grilled tribble on a stickPulls up a chair, butters his popcorn and waitsAh, yes, thanks for contributing meaningful commentary.
How's that popcorn?
Popcorn?
Kittens?
Tribbles?
Bring me some deep fried elephants, please. A baker's dozen should hit the spot...
DUDE I got ya covered. I mean tribbles breed like..well tribbles I brought a few million to grill.
And we used dire tiger kittens if that helps
Bring me some deep fried elephants, please. A baker's dozen should hit the spot...
Hey!
One at a dang time!
Awww, crud, now I gotta catch em.
There's one!
It seems that the penalty to Flurry of Blows (-2 to hit when flurrying) is not mitigated when the Monk gains levels, but this is compensated by the higher BaB when he actually uses Flurry.
BaB +8, Str +2, Weapon Focus +1, Flurry -2 = +9 primary
The only thing I do not understand is the final, additional attack at -4; normally, with Flurry, Sajan should have three attacks only at +9/+9/+4, while using the Ki point for an additional attack, he should have four attacks at +9/+9/+9/+4. Is there perhaps a typo on Sajan's statistics?
EDIT: wow, I was reading only 2 posts when I started writing this, and now I'm already near the end of the page !!!
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Monk is awesome, though I think flurry of blows is my favourite change!What?
Your favorite change and still you offer me no fluffy help?
Think of it as a kind of Tranquil Fury, maybe. When a monk uses a flurry of blows, he's in the mode. He's focused. He's connected. He's completely in the game, focusing entirely on his strikes.
When he's using a plain old attack(and thus able to do something else like move), he's not concentrating as hard. He's not as fully aware of himself as he would be if were focusing entirely on the attack.
I can't get the math with the Flurry of blows to work...
+8 level, +2 STR, +1 weapon focus, -1 flurry penalty = 10. But the monk has Flurry listed with +9/+9/+4/+4...
well if it starts at -2/-2 and you gain twf for free....its -0-0. By 8th level it would be 7/7/2/2
add in the +2 str ya get 9/9/4/4
just a thought I may be wrong
New Monk looks great, but what does this mean?
- "This system is revised from the 3.5 version to work using mechanics similar to the Two-Weapon Fighting feats, but the new monk goes one step further and uses its monk level as its base attack bonus whenever it uses flurry of blows"
Has the monk now full BAB when he use flurry of blows?
In the Beta the flurry attack at level 12 and 13 were the same.
And the flurry at level 16 and 17 were the same.
So at level 18 it is now?:
I like the new and cheaper magic items :-)
New AC bonus is great!
Two!
The description implies it works like TWF, so it should be +8 level, +2 Str, +1 Weapon Focus, -2 flurry = +9
Is that the new part? In 3.5 it was -1 from 5th to 8th, 0 from 9th up.
Is that fixed now at -2 to work like TWF?Will we see it only in the final book=?
Hmmm, Sajan has 10 feats. That's more than a spider...
1 Human
1 Free Stunning Fist
4 Leveling feats (1, 3, 5, and 7)
4 Bonus Monk feats (I am guessing 2, 4, 6, and 8, like a fighter)
Though evidently, unlike a fighter, there is no level 1 bonus feat.
Three!
God Knows why he have a mwk shortsword?
And DM_Blake. Please stop taking space.
Awww, crud, now I gotta catch em.
Gotta catch'em all!
I can't get the math with the Flurry of blows to work...
+8 level, +2 STR, +1 weapon focus, -1 flurry penalty = 10. But the monk has Flurry listed with +9/+9/+4/+4...
-2 twf penalty instead of flurry penalty?
wasgreg
( Edit: was too busy raving about Talisanta elsewhere and posted late oops :P )
A chewy one.
That makes nine.
Pardon me...
Well, I have to say, I can't think of anything I *don't* like about this one. All the changes seem to be improvements rather than not. I guess sometimes prayers are answered *shakes hands with Azmodeus and hands over a bag of dire tiger kittens*. With the proper encouragement of course. Glad magic items got a boost. I was afraid they'd go the way of the overly nerfed spells, guess Nethys decided not to slack on those :P
Because Wayne Reynolds said..drew so :)God Knows why he have a mwk shortsword?
And DM_Blake. Please stop taking space.
Doesn't look like a short sword.
DM_Blake. Please stop taking space.
As you wish.
Although, I'm not taking space, I'm filling space!
(filling my belly space with elephants)
Besides, that's the last one. Number thirteen. A named boss elephant called Aloysius Snuffleupagus. Very hairy.
Doesn't look like a short sword.Because Wayne Reynolds said..drew so :)God Knows why he have a mwk shortsword?
And DM_Blake. Please stop taking space.
You're right, it looks a bit more like a khopesh. A bit.
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Temple Sword. I believe it's on the equipment list now.
It looks like monks will be my go-to guys if I need non-casters to try and subdue the party without killing them. Hit and run tactics with stunning fist could jack a group up.
I wonder: By the rules, a monk with a fiery amulet of mighty fists should be able to start campfires by punching the woodpile, eh?
Oh man, I just imagined the most awesome barbeque ever! You know how Rocky would train with those slabs of beef? Tender!
I especially like the fact that with the new changes dumping wisdom to the monk is much more useful than before.
I remember in 3,5 you had to have high strength else you were useless. Now with wisdom bonus to CDM, a ki pool and more powerful stunning fist effects wisdom might reach strength in usefullness...
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Being a khopesh fanboy, I have to point this out:
HIJACK SPOILERED:
In the Campaign Setting, they function more or less like two-handed swords, but in reality they were used more like axes, albiet axes with a tricky hook that could be used to disarm opponents or pull their sheilds away.
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I especially like the fact that with the new changes dumping wisdom to the monk is much more useful than before.
I remember in 3,5 you had to have high strength else you were useless. Now with wisdom bonus to CDM, a ki pool and more powerful stunning fist effects wisdom might reach strength in usefullness...
The faster monk AC progression helps ease the need for more CON too.
