Actually TOZ's suggestion is a very good one.
It is far superior to the mat.
All that Ravingdork is saying is that a method for Ki replenishment is already built into the ruleset. He isn't advocating it as a good method, just that it is available. Inwas aware of the Ki mat prior to my post about replenishment. My Quinggong monk actually has one, though he seldom uses it (he lives in a 15minute day game).
You think spending an hour to get 1 ki point back is reasonable? At that rate, you may as well just take TriOmegaZero's advice and just take a full rest if you've got the kind of time to kill for a Ki Mat to matter. The ONLY other alternative is to make a Drunken Master and pick up a Flask of Endless Sake for 4k, which is probably the best alternative.There's also the option of playing a hungry ghost monk with a sack full of chickens. Granted, you'll be LN at best and smell like a barnyard, and your fellow party members will be making constant "choke the chicken" jokes, and you risk having your DM attack you with his dice bag as he suffers flashbacks to the RatCleave fighter...
Actually, I'm not sure why I thought this was a good idea.
Darn you!
Now I'm going to have to do this.Brother Bojangles.
Why couldn't the monk use the mat while the party is traveling? When he is on watch? When the spellcasters are crafting things. What's he going to be doing during those daily lulls anyways?
I estimate he'd get about 4 extra ki each day out of it (same amount of time that a spellcaster has to invest into crafting each day).
Why couldn't the monk use the mat while the party is traveling? When he is on watch? When the spellcasters are crafting things. What's he going to be doing during those daily lulls anyways?
I estimate he'd get about 4 extra ki each day out of it (same amount of time that a spellcaster has to invest into crafting each day).
If he is on watch, then he will already be well on his way to getting eight hours of rest and restore his entire ki pool instead of 1 point per hour. Your lulls last at least an hour apiece? In game? Travelling? Come on, the mat itself says the monk cannot do anything or undertake any activity. The exact phrase is 'each hour the monk spends sitting on the mat without taking any other action'. That does allow for taking 'reactive' Perception checks, but not actively listening or looking (which is a standard action). That seems to me to prohibit using it while travelling. Unless the monk is a passenger on a big flying carpet.
And even at the end of the hour, it is not assured that you will recover a ki point. You have to make a Wisdom check (DC 10 + your current number of ki points) to successfully retain one (1) point. At the levels where you can start to afford this item, it is by no means assured that you will make that check.
Master Arminas
Yeah the mat is good idea. Just not perfectly executed.
I find that there is very little "downtime" where I can just chill on a mat for an hour at a go in our games.
My monk with the mat is in a very caster friendly game where there are never any random encounters, and several days between real encounters. So I can unload my entire Ki pool in a fight. I almost immediately go to the mat afterward so that my Ki strike is functioning. But it is very rare that I need it.
This brings up an interesting point. In a 15 minute adventuring day, my monk is very effective. I burn a Ki point on every round, pretty much, and usually have enough points left that I can handle a mook fight if necessary. So for a certain style of game, the Ki pool is adequet. Where it becomes paltry is in a dungeon crawl type game where you have 4 or 5 reasonably challenging encounters a day. In those situations I'm almost always depleted before the 4th encounter. This is especially true of the Quinggong builds that use expensive Ki burns.
the monk totally without ki point abilties is better than the monk completly without performances or the barbarian completly without rage rounds
I disagree completely and utterly. And I assume you meant bard, there. Barb still has full BAB and decent proficiencies. Bard still has SPELLCASTING. Both without rage rounds/performance are better than a monk w/o ki. They're just also better than a monk when all 3 respective classes do have those resources, too.
the monk totally without ki point abilties is better than the monk completly without performances or the barbarian completly without rage roundsI disagree completely and utterly. And I assume you meant bard, there. Barb still has full BAB and decent proficiencies. Bard still has SPELLCASTING. Both without rage rounds/performance are better than a monk w/o ki. They're just also better than a monk when all 3 respective classes do have those resources, too.
Monk without ki points is at higher levels like a fighter without a magic weapon: up a certain smelly creek with no visible means of propulsion.
All this begs the question: If the ki pool is not the monk's primary feature, what, exactly IS their primary feature? Because it seems to me they have a lot of secondary abilities but no primary ones.
The problem with the Ki Mat is that it is yet another (very)expensive magic item.
10,000gp to maybe recover a single Ki point in an hour. That's steep.
No it's not. It is an acceptable price. At higher level it is cheap.
It's slotless, it can be used unlimited times per day, the DC is low, and if you fail you can try again. The way it is designed it is almost too good. Not at level 5, but at higher levels this is s must have item.It's almost like Paizo is saying: The monk should have got more Ki-pool points, but we can't rewrite it so let us create a wondrous item that can refill the pool.
Edit:
Almost too good? Nothing can be to good when it comes to monks. Especially since the last errata.
You guys have this all wrong, pick up ki leech and get your party to let you coup-de-grace all your foes after the battle. Full ki pool all day.
Ki leech says you have to score a critical or reduce them to 0 or fewer hit points. It doesn't give you anything for killing a downed enemy. It's still pretty good. You can take it on a Qinggong monk as a 10th level power. It also costs no ki to activate, so you could use it all the time if you wanted.
Also, if you play a human monk there's little reason to take the extra ki feat. If you take the 1/4 ki for your favored class bonus and take toughness instead of the extra ki feat, you eventually end up with 5 extra ki and just as much hp as the standard favored class bonus would have gotten you.
Also, Ki Mat? Really? It takes an hour to gain a point of ki. Who's got time for that? It's not really an issue of price. You could sell it for 1gp and it wouldn't be worth buying.
Ki leech says you have to score a critical or reduce them to 0 or fewer hit points.
Coup-de-grace is an automatic critical hit.
No I mean put them down into negatives. Of course you don't get a point for shooting helpless creatures.Well, let's not forget shoot someone unconscious: Point gained.No grit point for you. Rules explicitly state that shooting helpless creatures or those unaware of you do not restore grit. Unconscious creature is both.
Sorry, I misunderstood you.
I do not agree with your interpretation. For instance, a fighter can automatically confirm a critical hit, no roll. I believe that coup-de-grace is assumed to be an automatically confirmed crit.
