Yokozuna - A Monk Archetype


Homebrew and House Rules


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Yokozuna (Japanese for Sumo Wrestler)

Although considered members of the Samurai caste, these warrior-athletes follow an honored tradition of unarmed combat and physical discipline. Often identified by their heavy, blubberous builds and distinct ceremonial loincloths, many scoff at these seemingly out of shape men and women. But one quickly learns that these stern-faced behemoths are every bit as dangerous and devastating as their monastic counterparts. Employing a barrage of palm strikes, harsh body throws, swift grapples, and brutal bullrushes, the yokozuna is a force not easily avoided.

Blubberous Body: Through a special diet and exercise routine, the yokozuna creates a layer of conditioned fat all over his body, granting him a natural armor bonus of +1 for every 4th levels the yokozuna possesses. This replaces and alters the dodge bonus to AC that a monk usually gets.

Ominous Presence: At 3rd level, a yokozuna is treated as one size category larger for purposes of bonuses to CMD and CMB when it comes to bullrush, trips, grapples, and overrun checks. At 6th, 9th, 12th, 15th, and 18th level this bonus increases by +1. This replaces fast movement.

Ki Pool: At 4th level, a yokozuna can spend a ki point as a swift action to gain a +2 bonus to charge attacks OR gain a DR bonus equal to his Wisdom Modifier for 1 round. This replaces the monks ability to gain a ki bonus to movement and AC for one round.

Fast Fall: At 4th level, whenever a yokozuna takes falling damage he is dealt d8s instead of d6s due to his heavy frame. All creatures within a 10 foot radius of the yokozuna take half the damage he takes and are knocked prone. A reflex save DC 10 + the yokosuna's Con modifier keeps the target from falling prone. This replaces Slow Fall.

Geomorphic Blubber: At 12th level, a yokozuna can cause his fat to harden and make him nearly invunerable, as if using the spell stoneskin. Using this ability consumes 2 points from his ki pool. His caster level is equal to his yokozuna level.

Stomach of the Lung and Boar: At 17th level, a yokozuna can eat or drink anything for nourishment, even non-organic material. He becomes immune to all ingested poisons and ingested diseases. He can drink lava, acid, and even unholy water without negative effect. This replaces Tongue of the Sun and Moon.

Starstone Drop: At 20th level, whenever a yokozuna uses his fast fall ability, all targets within a 30ft radius take the same amount damage as the yokozuna and fall prone. They may make a Reflex save DC 10 + 1/2 the level of yokozuna + the yokozuna's Con modifier for half damage and to keep from falling prone. This replaces Slow Fall Any Distance.


human cannon ball sounds like a fun idea, but my nit pick would be how very situational it could end up being. other features seem balanced and thematic with just the right amount of ridiculous (im starving where's the razorblades, lava, and acid?)


I would recommend putting in some specific mechanic for Stomach that allows a Yokozuna to ingest, and therefore destroy, a certain quantity of otherwise dangerous material as a standard action (or full-round action or whatnot).

You should also consider the interaction of the Stomach ability with other things that are hard to destroy, like magic items. Can a Yokozuna swallow an unholy sword and just automatically destroy it, for instance? Does it take a certain amount of damage every round instead?


AvalonXQ wrote:

I would recommend putting in some specific mechanic for Stomach that allows a Yokozuna to ingest, and therefore destroy, a certain quantity of otherwise dangerous material as a standard action (or full-round action or whatnot).

You should also consider the interaction of the Stomach ability with other things that are hard to destroy, like magic items. Can a Yokozuna swallow an unholy sword and just automatically destroy it, for instance? Does it take a certain amount of damage every round instead?

I would say that it must be a material that he can actually chew and swallow, so probably no harder than wood or glass.

Silver Crusade

I love this.

The Wisdom bonus to DR looks a bit too high. Should be DR 4, like the original Dodge bonus, with mention that it stacks with other sources of DR. You may want to add a limitation to the character's max dexterity (as if wearing a heavy armor ?) to keep the concept in line with the mechanics.

I don't like the ability to ingest lava. I would remove this part (the simple fact to be close to lava should be enough to badly damage you) ; but keep the ability to gain nourishment from anything ; and say that you may damage items by chewing on them (with a 1d4 + Str natural bite attack ignoring DR ?) only as part of a Sunder attack roll.

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