Monk Variants and Control Undead

[Rockman4140]

After looking at some interesting variants from old Dragon issues, I happened to stumble upon a monk that does not need to be lawful. It seems the Flurry of Blows works off of a strange mechanic, and I'm not quite sure if it would be balanced to use in game. Their FoB is roll 1d4 -1, that is how many extra attacks you get for taking a -2 on every attack roll made. It progresses as you gain levels of course, but since Pathfinder ruled that FoB now acts as a free Two Weapon Fighting for monks, I was wondering how to go about using this mechanic; my embodiment of chaos would love this.

Battledancer/Chaos Monk/Barbarian/Tempest

I figure TWF wouldn't stack with the new FoB. But I was also wondering, would a sane DM allow a monk to take Two Weapon Defense without monk weapons? While not quite realistic, I could see a monk slapping a greatsword away.

My second question was regarding the removal of turning/rebuking/destroying/controlling undead. I was hoping to see if someone has thought about adding it back into the system to see if it would throw off balance, a character I've used has had implications of being controlled by an evil cleric to do really bad things.

[Xpltvdeleted]

Rockman4140 wrote:

After looking at some interesting variants from old Dragon issues, I happened to stumble upon a monk that does not need to be lawful. It seems the Flurry of Blows works off of a strange mechanic, and I'm not quite sure if it would be balanced to use in game. Their FoB is roll 1d4 -1, that is how many extra attacks you get for taking a -2 on every attack roll made. It progresses as you gain levels of course, but since Pathfinder ruled that FoB now acts as a free Two Weapon Fighting for monks, I was wondering how to go about using this mechanic; my embodiment of chaos would love this.

Battledancer/Chaos Monk/Barbarian/Tempest

I figure TWF wouldn't stack with the new FoB. But I was also wondering, would a sane DM allow a monk to take Two Weapon Defense without monk weapons? While not quite realistic, I could see a monk slapping a greatsword away.

My second question was regarding the removal of turning/rebuking/destroying/controlling undead. I was hoping to see if someone has thought about adding it back into the system to see if it would throw off balance, a character I've used has had implications of being controlled by an evil cleric to do really bad things.

I would just rename the monk (pugilist, martial artist, etc.), rename fury of blows, give their ki abilities a new name, and remove the alignment restriction.

[Santiago Mendez]

Rockman4140 wrote:

After looking at some interesting variants from old Dragon issues, I happened to stumble upon a monk that does not need to be lawful. It seems the Flurry of Blows works off of a strange mechanic, and I'm not quite sure if it would be balanced to use in game. Their FoB is roll 1d4 -1, that is how many extra attacks you get for taking a -2 on every attack roll made. It progresses as you gain levels of course, but since Pathfinder ruled that FoB now acts as a free Two Weapon Fighting for monks, I was wondering how to go about using this mechanic; my embodiment of chaos would love this.

Battledancer/Chaos Monk/Barbarian/Tempest

I figure TWF wouldn't stack with the new FoB. But I was also wondering, would a sane DM allow a monk to take Two Weapon Defense without monk weapons? While not quite realistic, I could see a monk slapping a greatsword away.

My second question was regarding the removal of turning/rebuking/destroying/controlling undead. I was hoping to see if someone has thought about adding it back into the system to see if it would throw off balance, a character I've used has had implications of being controlled by an evil cleric to do really bad things.

1: I would have it work the same as the monk works now. Change the Flailing Strike (FoB) to allow for the 1d4-1 (improvements at later level) like normal. Change the alignment to any Chaotic. Change the abilities accordingly (not much really changed). And call it a Chaos Monk (or something else to that effect).

2: Turning/Rebuking was not removed from the game. They are now feats that improve the channel ability. So all you have to do is spend a feat to gain the ability to use it again.

[Rockman4140]

Ah yes, I apologize for the failure on my part to RTFM, I read that a few days after I posted; I felt very dumb coming back here because of it. Command Undead works for my purposes, thanks!

I was going to look into a more heavy adaption later on, but I guess I can skip it for now; I think the "extra 1d4-1" attacks seems a bit too broken for actual use. story-wise though it's freaking awesome. I'll need to see if I can playtest it with one of my DMs.

Edit: I fail hard, and so does my memory.

[Rockman4140]

Alright, now that I am moving a character concept to 3.5, I've found a few more snags along the way. It seems the multiple read-throughs of the "Rules of the Game" article on Unarmed Attacks no longer applies 100% to the Pathfinder system.

The character I'm creating would end up having 2 natural attacks, the vampire's slam, and a bite attack. The character would be the Battledancer who lacks FoB, but retains the unique offhand property of Monks (Full STR, no "off hand" penalty).

24 STR, ECL 8, TWF

BAB 6/1
TWF 4/4/-2
TWF&Nat 4/4/-2/1/1

Would that be correct?

[valdrick]

Greetings all,

I was hoping for some input on how the chaos monk's Flailing Strikes would work in Pathfinder, being a variation of Flurry of Blows, which has changed since 3.5...

The PF monk's BAB is equal to his level when using FoB, but the chaos monk's FS ability simply lists attack penalties and states that it replaces FoB. Should the chaos monk inherit this benefit in the jump from 3.5 or not?

Clarifications/interpretations welcome and appreciated.