Monk's Mantle
Aura faint evocation
CL 5th
Slot: chest
Price: 3000 gp (+1), 12000 gp (+2), 27000 gp (+3), 48000 gp (+4), 75000 gp (+5), 108000 gp (+6*), 147000 gp (+7*), 192000 (+8*), 243000 gp (+9*), 300000 gp (+10*)
Weight —
Description: This mantle grants an enhancement bonus of +1 to +5 on attack and damage rolls with unarmed attacks.
Some of these mantles grant special abilities. Special abilities count as additional bonuses for determining the market value of the item, but do not modify attack or damage bonuses (except where specifically noted). A mantle cannot have a modified bonus (enhancement bonus plus special ability bonus equivalents, including those from character abilities and spells) higher than +10. A mantle with a special ability must also have at least a +1 enhancement bonus. It cannot possess the same special ability more than once. A mantle can't grant an enhancement bonus higher than +5.
Crafting requirements: cl 5 (or 3 x the enhancement bonus, whichever is higher). Magic weapon. Craft magic arms and armor, craft wonderous item.
Note: weapon special abilities have their own requirements, these must also be met to apply them to a monk's mantle.
Thoughts? Comments? Criticisms?
Anyone? Guess its pretty decent since no one has an opinion.
One last bump, anyone have an opinion on this custom item?
One last bump, anyone have an opinion on this custom item?
I am not sure I get it...
It is a cheaper version of Amulet of Mighty Fists, but restricted to unarmed attacks, right?
So the following question I would get is: Does it stack with AoMF, since the latter can grant special abilities without spending points on the enhancement bonus?
The item might be a help to the monks in your game, and as such it isn't problematic to allow.
Personally I would prefer to try and mitigate the problems through other solution. For a similar approach, I like the flavour of magical tattoos granting the equivalent of magic weapon bonusses.
I do not understand the reason for this houserule item. It doesn't help the monk at all.
It provides a cheaper way of enhancing the unarmed strike, which is good, and arguably it's what the monk's body wrap in Ultimate Equipment should have been. However it replaces the Amulet of Mighty Fists which Paizo do not want to do, so it has no hope of ever being official.
Further, while it allows the monk enhancement earlier on their unarmed strikes than the AoMF it doesn't fix any of the monk's other problems.
The reason that the AoMF is so expensive is that it is usable by Natural Attackers and Unarmed Attackers alike.
This has been critized by the Monk community because, in their eyes, puts the Monk at another disadvantage.
However, for a houserule, this is not a solution at all because I can simply houserule that the AoMF is cheaper for Monks, period.
For an official rule it is explicitely NOT what paizo wants or else they would have done it in UE. Jason Bulmahn has stated that they see Unarmed Attacks as something that has it's merits (such as being unable to be disarmed or sundered) and that these merits justify a higher price tag.
They also see that there are disadvantages to the unarmed strikes that mainly stem from it's poorly defined role and place in the overall system which, in turn, stems from 3.5 backwards compatibility.
Last but not least, having a hard time hitting anything is only one part of the monks problems.
So, no, in the light of the recent discussion, I do not see the reason for this houseruleitem. It doesn't help the Monk at all.
The Aomf is silly because it railroads monks to go for natural attacks in addition to unarmed strikes because that way they get the full benefit for their gold.
And that is something this HR item fixes.
No, the AoMF is silly because it is the only option for enhancing unarmed strikes. For what it is it is not overpriced. Perhaps the biggest problem is that while the monk is meant to be equipment-independent the nature of the game just makes them dependent on fewer and more expensive items of equipment.
That said, Paizo assure us that they are working on some fixes for the poor monk. If they came up with natural and automatic enhancement for the unarmed strike, that would be awesome. If they do not, they may come up with something just as good. We just have to wait and see.
Yes, my own suggestion was costed as this item, but took a ring slot instead. It only provided a bonus to hit, not damage, capped at +5 but could combine with the AoMF's properties. A +5 ring and a +5-equivelant properties amulet combined to cost the same as a +10-equivelant weapon.
The item is >too< good for unarmed strikes. By current ruling, a flurry of blows is equivalent to two-weapon fighting - that means that you should at least pay the cost of two weapons with the item. The amulet of mighty fists is actually relatively well priced, 5000gp instead of the 4000gp it would cost to enhance two weapons to +1. Essentially the amulet is a 25% mark-up on standard two-weapon fighting costs.
Another problem: items should not exceed the 200 000gp mark; beyond that the item is essentially an artifact.
A different take on solving the same problem: ki resonating
Not every monk has flurry.
Unarmed fighters don't have flurry.
Yet they all have to pay as if they had flurry.
That's why I don't think the new body wraps are too bad.
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Not every monk has flurry.
Unarmed fighters don't have flurry.
Yet they all have to pay as if they had flurry.That's why I don't think the new body wraps are too bad.
Unarmed fighters can use brass knuckles, or a pair of cestus, and lose nothing for doing so, getting a full +10-worth of enhancement at standard prices into the bargain. They can take the Two Weapon Fighting feat tree for all the attacks the monk gets too.
First of all, thanks for the input.
This is obviously a band-aid for the amulet of mighty fist problem, and not a solution for every issue the monk has.
To be honest, no single magic item can re-balance a class.
As for the slot, it actually takes the shirt slot, not the robe slot. That's one of the things I wished to address. Monks want amulets of natural armor, ring of protection, monks robe, and various other things. So I placed this in a rarely used slot.
I never thought this would become official.
Finally, charging a monk double for magic fists on account of flurry is a mistake. Flurry is not equal to two weapon fighting. So I multiplied the cost by 1.5 to make up the difference.
I have a house ruled handwraps "weapon" inspired by DDO's method of giving monks magic weapons. They are priced like a club and you can use magic brass knuckles and such over them, you use what ever is on top.
This wouldn't be so bad... but a weapon should seem like a weapon... if that makes sense...
Some say it is, some say it isn't. Flurry is, however, the monk's 'thing' and so why shouldn't he be good at it and get more out of it? Not sure all the devs agree though.
I have a house ruled handwraps "weapon" inspired by DDO's method of giving monks magic weapons. They are priced like a club and you can use magic brass knuckles and such over them, you use what ever is on top.
This wouldn't be so bad... but a weapon should seem like a weapon... if that makes sense...
I did something similar a while back, except it was based off the old NWN games. Gloves that used the monk's unarmed damage, while granting the same magical enchantment benefits of weapons, i.e. you could have Gloves of the Holy Iron (or Silver or Adamantite, etc) Fist +3 that treated the attacks as cold iron (or silver or adamantite, etc) and had the "holy" property. My player seemed happy with it, but for me it seemed liked a bandaid to a more severe problem.
Right now, I'm experimenting with converting the SoulKnife's ability to enchant their mindblade & blade skill talents over to talents for the Monk to allow them to "enchant" their hands & use their Ki pool to activate talents with the idea that instead of a mindblade, they wrap their hands in Ki energy, and so on.
That was my suggested 'fix' for the monk - not full enhancement, but enhancement to hit based on ki-strike, so they get the bonus up to +5 naturally, and the properties of the AoMF stack with this so it is still relevant, just not as essential.
Mine is meant to be an extension of the Monk weapon concept. They ended up being abused and so now it takes one minute to put on and remove. Though the glove concept seems interesting.