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Hey everyone, I have a monk in my gaming group and hearing about how monks are still underpowered, and also seeing the monk player doing generally less than most others (not quite significantly though I houseruled TWF to be a bit better, it only gets a -1 penalty if the off-hand weapon is not light, and no penalty at all with a light off-hand weapon, and affected that to flurry of blows too)
But I don't think this should be all. So i thought I would improve the magic item situation for monks. At the moment all they have to substitiute magic armour and weapons are the amulet of mighty fists, monk belts and bracers of armour. But these all take valuable slots for other items and/or are extremely expensive. On top of that they don't provide all the possibilities that magic armour and weapons have so I thought about possibilities and eventually was inspired by DDO:
Outfits and Handwraps
The idea is to substitute magic armour with magical monk outfits/robes and weapons with magic handwraps that can be worn under gloves and bracers and still work.
Handwraps have a cost of 1gp per handwrap and to make it magical you have to pay the cost for a masterwork weapon and then apply magic properties (and their costs) to them as you would for magic melee weapons.
A character can wear up to two handwraps and apply it's bonuses to her unarmed attacks, if she has Improved Unarmed Strike. If a character has only one magic Handwrap the bonus is only applied to her main hand attacks. If she has a second handwrap the bonus of the second handwrap is applied to the off-hand attacks. It doesn't matter if the attack is actually made with the hand in question (it can also be a kick or something else), but each handwrap can only affect either the main- or the off-hand attack (even in a flurry of blows).
[this is to balance the use of handwraps in a flurry of blows with the use of magic weapons for a TWF-ing character and at the same time a monk weapon keeps a use because if a monk weapon is magical, it can put its bonuses on all of the monk's attacks while being only one weapon at the cost of not getting the increased damage die of the unarmed strike]
Monk outfits cost 5gp (as the monk outfit in the equipment section) and to make it magical you have to pay the cost for a masterwork armor and then apply magic properties (and their costs) to them as you would for magic armor.
The magic monk outfit then bestows all it's bonuses on its wearer the same way magic armor does, but the character still counts as unarmored for her monk abilities.
Physically it is possible to wear armor over the monk outfit, but as long as a character is wearing armor (magic or not) or a magic robe none of the magic properties of the monk outfit have any effect.
These are my ideas, pretty simple, and I'm sure especially the outfit idea is nothing new.
I am thinking about the monk outfit to work only for characters with the flurry of blows and/or armour class bonus class features so it doesn't give wizards, sorcerers and similar classes the idea to run around in monk outfits for fortification and damage reduction.
Also an alternative I've been thinking about for handwraps is making the bonus apply to all unarmed attacks instead of just either main- or off-hand attacks and rule monk weapons to get the same damage increases as unarmed attacks do, but if the basic damage dice of the weapon are a different kind than the damage dice of the monk at level one then it becomes an accordingly higher or lower die at advanced level.
For example a Medium sized level 4 monk has 1d8 unarmed damage (at 1st level he had 1d6), if this monk used for example a dagger (base damage 1d4, which is one category below the damage die of a level 1 monk) then the dagger would now be 1 category below the damage die of the level 4 monk and deal 1d6 damage instead. This would give monk weapons a new purpose, namely to exchange damage for crit-range or -multiplier, or simply to change the kind of damage the monk deals. I think this might also encourage (or simply not-discourage monk players to go crazy on a mix of armed and unarmed attacks in ther flurries, just as you would see it in Kung Fu movies)
So what do you think of these? And should I add the rule that makes the outfits only usable for characters with monk levels or should i change the handwraps to affect all unarmed attacks as described (including ruling the monk weapons accordingly)
i was actually thinking of adding wraps myself. Mine are different in the fact they are a 'set of wraps' eg hands/feet/knees/elbows, and you wear one set and get the bonus for that set. I personally think its a good idea. haven thought about the armour.
The way I play, monks lose "unarmed damage" and gain "monk damage," which applies to all monk weapons.
Monks also get to choose a single weapon - almost any weapon, so long as they can explain it's use with monk training - and have it as both proficient and as a monk weapon.
Lastly, monks enchant themselves both for weapon and armor, and that enchantment applies both to unarmed attacks and their weapons.
Way I see it, monks aren't just 70's yellowfaced kung fu actors who scream really loud and punch someone once. They're martial artists. MARTIAL artists. I give'em the martial part back ;p
Fighters are also a little more than just dunces with pieces of sharp metal in their hands. They are well trained warriors and still make use of magic items, and I think so should monks. Enchanting themselves seems wrong to me, Monks are martial artists (as you said) not spellcasters.
Did you read about how the amulet of mighty fists can be enchanted with melee weapon abilities? A pleasant change from 3.5 - makes my monks very happy. :)
Did you read about how the amulet of mighty fists can be enchanted with melee weapon abilities? A pleasant change from 3.5 - makes my monks very happy. :)
Still it's very expensive and takes the neck slot, where you might want to have for example an amulet of natural armor.
Fighters are also a little more than just dunces with pieces of sharp metal in their hands. They are well trained warriors and still make use of magic items, and I think so should monks. Enchanting themselves seems wrong to me, Monks are martial artists (as you said) not spellcasters.
Yes, but fighters aren't martial artists, they're warriors and champions. They already get their stuff in their armor and weapon bonuses as well as their multiple feats for multiple styles and weapon focus for their main goal.
Monks aren't spellcasters, but they are vaguely supernatural. And besides, in my game, EVERYONE gets the enchanted thing ;p