Monk Tweak: Shifting the focus more towards combat maneuvers

[Mok]

I've spent too many hours reading and thinking about threads such as What would fix monks?, Do you hear the grasshopper that is at your feet? and Monks: A Treantmonk Guide (Optimization) and from all of those threads and posts the main point I'm finding is that the monk is an "advanced" class within the range of base classes. You could play them for flavor, but to play them effectively in combat you probably need to spend more time optimizing and gaining more system mastery if you want to remain standing at the end of each encounter.

After reading all that, plus years prior of posts on many forums I lean into the camp that monks still need a bit more work. Barring a complete overhaul I've been trying to pin down how best to elegantly tweak the monk so that it does its own thing really well and very clearly.

The biggest problem is that the flurry of blows is a bit of a distraction. They can't outperform other classes in sheer damage power and they can't remain standing as long as other martial classes, and yet their major feature is to stand still and do full attacks.

For years I've seen people start to play a monk and then be disappointed as they drop in almost every encounter. The response to that is "don't play them like a fighter" but the problem is that the flurry of blows mechanics scream at you to play as a fighter, at least until you've really sunk your teeth into the game system, become an advanced player and start massaging your tactics.

What really ought to be highlighted by the monk is being the masters of combat maneuvers. Reflexively people should be equating monks with the CMs.

To try and shift the spotlight, I'd suggest that the maneuver training monk class feature be shifted to first level and the wording change to:

Maneuver Training (Ex)

At 1st level, when a monk initiates a combat maneuver he does not provoke an attack of opportunity from the target. A monk uses his monk level in place of his base attack bonus when calculating his Combat Maneuver Bonus. Base attack bonuses granted from other classes are unaffected and are added normally.

Further, under the weapons and armor proficiency section:

When wearing armor, using a shield, or carrying a medium or heavy load, a monk loses his AC bonus, as well as his fast movement, flurry of blows, and Maneuver Training abilities.

Now, this does step on the toes off all of the "improved" combat maneuver feats, however it is just a small squish and doesn't negate the desire or need to take these feats if you really want to dominate in a particular combat maneuver.

What this tweak would do though is stress the versatility of the monk, which is ultimately what the monk is aimed at anyways, but it makes it more clear that if the party needs a certain kind of martial condition or effect done in the middle of a fight, the monk is the one that can most likely pull it off.

One thing I've seen consistently over the years has been that people have a near allergic reaction to provoking attacks of opportunity. They just don't want to take the risk, and so that essentially means that most of the combat maneuvers are written out of the game unless the player decides to make a particular maneuver their little trick. By waving away the provoking at level 1 with the monk it brings all of these moves right up front and encourages their use.

In that way the tweak isn't just a boring wisdom bonus to some core metric, but instead pulls out the more flavorful moves in the game and lets everyone see them in action far more often.

The issue of front loading and dipping is solved by the fact that the maneuver training is negated by armor, which greatly reduces the dipping factor, and honestly if someone who is playing a wizard or sorcerer wants to dip away from their full casting abilities, then by all means!

[Jess Door]

I would suggest it needs to go farther. Because as you noted, this change makes taking each Improved [Combat Maneuver X] payoff less for a monk - and to invest in all of them for true Combat Maneuver Mastery eats all the bonus feats.

At some later level I would go ahead and give them that +2 they're missing out on from the feats - probably no earlier than 5. Maybe give +1 bonuses over time (+1 / 4 lvls?). This will allow them to keep up with the ability to get through high strength and dex full base attack fighters if necessary, as monks have to invest in wisdom and dex as much as strength for their bonus (or a feat to use dex isntead). I'm up in the air over whether or not to allow that class bonus to stack with the feat. I would say not. Then have the bonus feats include Greater [Combat Maneuver X]. As monks' bonus feats don't require the normal prerequisites anyway, they can take these feats without taking the improved version.

(This is all brainstorming, I'm sure my suggestions can be improved!)

[Mok]

Yeah, I'd actually want to completely rework the monk, building it up like the rogue with alternating feats and talents, and then letting him have more of a Jackie Chan kind of versatility... but that's a whole other matter...

Knowing that overhauls aren't in order, it comes down to trying to figure out what little nudges and tweaks can be done and so using the "exception based rulings" that the whole system is built on, and making monks be the exceptions to standard rules would allow them to have a very distinct role in the game.

One of the other ways that you could implement tweaks would be:

at 8th level, the monk is considered one size larger for purposes of initiating and defending against combat maneuvers.

at 16th level, the monk is considered two sizes larger for purposes of initiating and defending against combat maneuvers.

This way you'd have the combat maneuvers scale up and keep up with the monsters that get encountered in the game. They'd gain extra bonuses to CMB and CMD, plus they'd be able to affect larger size creatures with particular maneuvers, and eventually at the highest levels be immune to certain maneuvers from medium size creatures, which at those levels would make sense.

[Jess Door]

Mok wrote:

One of the other ways that you could implement tweaks would be:

at 8th level, the monk is considered one size larger for purposes of initiating and defending against combat maneuvers.

at 16th level, the monk is considered two sizes larger for purposes of initiating and defending against combat maneuvers.

I really like this! This is when your size vs the enemies' size begins to make combat maneuvers useless against all but humanoid enemies. I want a monk to be able to "throw" (trip) a giant or jump up, grapple a flying dragon, climb on its neck and begin strangling it with his legs.

[Chewbacca]

Mok I really like your idea as it barely touches the monk but really helps.

An additional way to improve CM and to still push people towards Improved CM is to double all bonuses given by feats (+4 instead of +2) on CM. Therefore the improvement is following the "natural" curve.

Jess Door> The idea of size is a lot although that starts to make it very appealing.... Grapple a giant is amazing ;o)