Wow, today must be special. 2nd FAQ answer.
Does the amulet of mighty fists allow a creature's natural attacks to bypass damage reduction if the enhancement bonus is high enough (as noted on page 562)?Yes. If the amulet grants at least a +3 enhancement bonus it allows a creature's natural attacks to bypass cold iron and silver damage reduction. If it is +4, it allows them to bypass adamantine damage reduction (although not hardness), and if it is +5, it allows them to bypass alignment-based damage reduction.
—Jason Bulmahn, today
Another check off the list! Thank you Jason.
MA
And (not yet a FAQ) haste works with unarmed strikes!
Yup.. haste works with unarmed strikes.
Jason
Truly a great day, my friends.
MA
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Alright, they've changed flurry of blows so you can flurry with one weapon.
Thread over, time to start complaining about paladins again. :)
Actually...this kind of is meh to me. While it now creates one type of monk that is very competitive, it doesn't address the problems with unarmed monks not being able to hit.
I am not going to complain overly, as it was at least addressed and somewhat improved, but at the end of the day the AoMF still costs to much and takes a slot.
And now, it is completely outshined by the temple sword.
So meh...but no longer ignored...so golf clap I guess.
Alright, they've changed flurry of blows so you can flurry with one weapon.
Thread over, time to start complaining about paladins again. :)
Actually...this kind of is meh to me. While it now creates one type of monk that is very competitive, it doesn't address the problems with unarmed monks not being able to hit.
I am not going to complain overly, as it was at least addressed and somewhat improved, but at the end of the day the AoMF still costs to much and takes a slot.
And now, it is completely outshined by the temple sword.
So meh...but no longer ignored...so golf clap I guess.
Think of the big picture here... This ruling is all about monk/druids with Feral Combat training who wild shape into dinosaurs to use Strong Jaw + Flurry of Bites. So cool!
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Think of the big picture here... This ruling is all about monk/druids with Feral Combat training who wild shape into dinosaurs to use Strong Jaw + Flurry of Bites. So cool!Alright, they've changed flurry of blows so you can flurry with one weapon.
Thread over, time to start complaining about paladins again. :)
Actually...this kind of is meh to me. While it now creates one type of monk that is very competitive, it doesn't address the problems with unarmed monks not being able to hit.
I am not going to complain overly, as it was at least addressed and somewhat improved, but at the end of the day the AoMF still costs to much and takes a slot.
And now, it is completely outshined by the temple sword.
So meh...but no longer ignored...so golf clap I guess.
I was one of the people who agreed with Jason's original ruling. I think it is a bit much to give what is basically full BaB twf, using only one weapon. Particularly if it is also going to be allowed to be wielded as two-handed.
I think the single weapon change outshines the classic unarmed monk to the point where it is only played for flavor unless additional changes are coming.
I am very happy with the AoMF change and the haste clarification, but I think Jason had it right before with the single weapon issue.
But it is better, and better is better. Let the perfect not be the enemy of improvement and all that.
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Well, since a monk always does normal Strength damage (not times 1.5) whether he uses a light weapon, a one-handed weapon, or a two-handed weapon, wouldn't the only increase in damage from two-handing a temple sword come from Power Attack? At +3 for every -1 instead of +2?
In fact (and marked for FAQ), it might well be worthwhile for the designers to add that monks don't get the 3-1 PA bonus with a flurry of blows. I mean, they don't get an increased bonus from Strength for wielding a two-handed weapon, why then would they get the 3-1 bonus damage from PA for wielding a two-handed weapon?
MA
Well, since a monk always does normal Strength damage (not times 1.5) whether he uses a light weapon, a one-handed weapon, or a two-handed weapon, wouldn't the only increase in damage from two-handing a temple sword come from Power Attack? At +3 for every -1 instead of +2?
In fact (and marked for FAQ), it might well be worthwhile for the designers to add that monks don't get the 3-1 PA bonus with a flurry of blows. I mean, they don't get an increased bonus from Strength for wielding a two-handed weapon, why then would they get the 3-1 bonus damage from PA for wielding a two-handed weapon?
MA
That's a good point. I agree with ciretose that it would be a shame if the optimal core monk build ended up wielding a sword. I guess this would also take bit of fun out of a monkosaur's bite flurry but in that case it's more about damage die staking anyway.
This decision might help unarmed monks too. Now that a monk's unarmed strike is back to being an abstracted single weapon without the TWF baggage, maybe the bodywraps introduced in Ultimate Equipment could get a rework.
And the choir said AAAAAAAA-MEN. If the bodywraps of mighty striking took up the chest slot (instead of the body, which prohibits monk's robes, were restricted to just unarmed strikes instead of both UAS and natural weapon, retained the same cost, and applied to all attacks (like a regular weapon does) they would be absolutely perfect. I've said it before, the mechanic the BoMS uses (apples to x number of attacks based on BAB) just flat out sucks.
MA
Yar!
... it might well be worthwhile for the designers to add that monks don't get the 3-1 PA bonus with a flurry of blows. I mean, they don't get an increased bonus from Strength for wielding a two-handed weapon, why then would they get the 3-1 bonus damage from PA for wielding a two-handed weapon?
MA
I would argue (for keeping 3-1 PA on THFing with monks) that it would stay because PA in Pathfinder is tied to BAB, not strength. This association with strength that many seem to give to PA isn't actually there (other that the str13 pre-req and for single natural attacks that do 1.5x str (aka, an animal's bite)).
~P
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This decision might help unarmed monks too. Now that a monk's unarmed strike is back to being an abstracted single weapon without the TWF baggage, maybe the bodywraps introduced in Ultimate Equipment could get a rework.
Well I think the bodywraps as are are perfect for this type of build, although realistically why spend on two weapons when you only have to spend on one.
That is my only real gripe.
And again, I'm happy it is being addressed at all, this kind of customer interaction is what makes Paizo great and why I am on the boards.
So now that the monk fix is out, what do you guys think?
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So now that the monk fix is out, what do you guys think?
Part of the monk fix has been released; the remainder (as per Jason B.) is waiting on finding the proper means to release it.
That being said, I am very pleased to see single-weapon flurry restored, and with the clarificatons on AoMF bypassing DR and haste granting unarmed strike an additional attack. As for the rest, I cannot wait to see how the address the remaining issus.
MA
EDIT: Oh, my God! It is out! YES, YES, YES, YES!
Late last week, we posted up a few quick FAQ issues to resolve some problems involving the monk. There has been a lot of discussion on the monk on the boards, and while it has taken us a while to come up with some solutions, we have made a few simple changes to address these concerns. I wanted to take this blog post to review these changes and to announce a few more.
Flurry of Blows: We have decided to reverse a previous ruling (that came from this very blog) that stated you needed to use two weapons when using flurry of blows (or a combination of weapon attacks and unarmed strikes). You can now make all of your attacks with just one weapon, or substitute any number of these attacks with an unarmed strike. Of course, if you have a pair of weapons and want to keep using both of them, that still works as well.
Ki Pool: Monks typically have problems bypassing DR with their unarmed strikes, forcing them to rely on weapons to deal with many forms of DR. We have decided to add a new ability to the Ki Pool monk class feature. At 7th level, a monk's unarmed strikes count as cold iron and silver for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction, so long as he has at least 1 point remaining in his ki pool.
Amulet of Mighty Fists: On Friday, we posted up a FAQ that stated that the enhancement bonus from an amulet of mighty fists does allow natural attacks and unarmed strikes to bypass damage reduction if the enhancement bonus is at least +3 (as with other weapons, see page 562 of the Core Rulebook). In addition, we have decided to adjust the price of the amulet of mighty fists. The new prices are as follows: 4,000 gp (+1), 16,000 gp (+2), 36,000 gp (+3), 64,000 gp (+4), 100,000 gp (+5). Accordingly, the costs to create these amulets are also reduced to the following: 2,000 gp (+1), 8,000 gp (+2), 18,000 gp (+3), 32,000 gp (+4), 50,000 gp (+5). This makes this item priced a bit more competitively for monks and creatures that rely on natural attacks. I should note that this change will be reflected in future printings of the Core Rulebook, Ultimate Equipment, and the NPC Codex.
Well, that about wraps up our current thoughts on the monk. Thanks to all the folks on the boards that provided us with feedback on this class.
Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Monkeying Around is the Blog in question.
Oh my, yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! Thank you Paizo.
The rest was released.
Yes, I found it just after I replied to you, and have edited my post above accordingly. Thank you, Cheapy.
MA