Core Monk Hotfix (Not Damaged Focused)

[SoulGambit0]

"Hot-Fixed" Pathfinder Monk

The goal of this fix is not to make the Monk a fighter. It is to make the core Monk more intuitive, level of efficiency have a greater central tendency, and to make it effective at what the book says the Monk should be effective at: targeting weaknesses and rushing in to support allies. I also want to narrow the gap between a fully buffed monk and an unbuffed monk.

This fix is -not- designed to work with the Monk Archetypes beyond the most passing fancy.

This is also not a class rewrite. While I would positively love the Monk to be based on Ki Powers instead of bonus feats (for consistency if nothing else), doing so is beyond the scope of this fix.

EDIT: And now other people can actually view the document. Whoops. :x

[Da'ath]

SoulGambit0 wrote:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HpB8rwHxIVYKnxfDDoRby_QWzRjwQJ_bwJ1xSpu UBss/edit

The goal of this fix is not to make the Monk a fighter. It is to make the core Monk more intuitive, level of efficiency have a greater central tendency, and to make it effective at what the book says the Monk should be effective at: targeting weaknesses and rushing in to support allies. I also want to narrow the gap between a fully buffed monk and an unbuffed monk.

This fix is -not- designed to work with the Monk Archetypes beyond the most passing fancy.

This is also not a class rewrite. While I would positively love the Monk to be based on Ki Powers instead of bonus feats (for consistency if nothing else), doing so is beyond the scope of this fix.

Your link is non-functional.

[Kryzbyn]

SoulGambit0 wrote:

Linky

The goal of this fix is not to make the Monk a fighter. It is to make the core Monk more intuitive, level of efficiency have a greater central tendency, and to make it effective at what the book says the Monk should be effective at: targeting weaknesses and rushing in to support allies. I also want to narrow the gap between a fully buffed monk and an unbuffed monk.

This fix is -not- designed to work with the Monk Archetypes beyond the most passing fancy.

This is also not a class rewrite. While I would positively love the Monk to be based on Ki Powers instead of bonus feats (for consistency if nothing else), doing so is beyond the scope of this fix.

Link fixed, but the OP needs to allow access to the file.

[SoulGambit0]

Aha. allowed access. My bad. :x

[Dabbler]

Not bad, making the monk's unarmed strike masterwork is a nice idea, but it's not one I think the devs will go for.

[SoulGambit0]

Being Masterwork is entirely pandering to Monk players, letting them put "Masterwork" on their own body. It's not in any way important.

My reasons for changing stuff...

Monk AC Bonus -- The Monk's unique method of adding AC added a lot of flavor, letting the Monk be the only unarmed front-line combatant. However, its implementation opened up a few problems. First, the Monk wasn't just resistant to touch attacks, he was completely immune to basically all Touch Attacks since they always come at a much lower to-hit. Additionally, since the AC bonus was untyped, it allowed unintended stacking with effects like Mage Armor. The end result was binary--either the Monk's AC was untouchable or the debuffed monk could be hit by a blind child. This doesn't make for good play.

By changing the per-level bonus to a Shield Bonus and preventing the +Wisdom Modifier bonus from stacking with armor, it allowed me to increase the Monk's AC by 2. This gives the Monk a significant advantage in Touch AC and allows him to stay on the front line with comparable characters without allow buffs or an unhitable touch AC to make for a boring game.

Unarmed Strike -- Most Monks play with the intention of hitting things with their fists. The Unarmed damage shows a nice progression, where the Monk's bare hands can hit with the strength of a battleaxe. The issue is that the Monk's only real ability that directly impacts the effectiveness of a Monk's unarmed strike talks only about scaling damage. This starts getting players, especially new players, thinking that mastery of unarmed strike is about more damage, which is not what the monk is about.

By front-loading the unarmed strike with combat maneuver-related special qualities, my hope is that it'll get the player to start thinking about how they can use options other than just dealing damage. The nominal boost in the effectiveness of certain maneuvers helps to keep the Monk's unarmed strike competitive in relation to those maneuvers when place side by side with a weapon-user. Adding the monk quality allowed me to cut down on the words needed to describe Monk class abilities. The Masterwork quality is there to help Monks really feel like they're whipping their body into shape.

Stunning Fist -- Stunning Fist is probably the biggest indicator of the Monk's "role" in combat. Unfortunately, because it's 1/day at level 1 and scales slowly, it rarely sees use outside of boss-fights. Even into levels 6 or 8, Stunning Fist tends to be a very "nova" ability more than a defining characteristic. This change is to force a gameplay change in the Monk--they no long have to think about who to target to Stunning Fist, but instead have to think about prioritizing and when to use Stunning Fist (as opposed to continuously beating on the same person). This is to let the Monk have their moments of glory more often without letting them either Stunlock someone or feel like they're wasting resources. Inspiration for this limit comes from the Witch.

Monk Bonus Feats -- Part of the issue with Monks being focused on status effects and combat maneuvers, is that they require so much feat investment that the Monk can't possibly be good at them without sacrificing everything else and taking the Maneuver Master archetype. This change is to give Monks easier access to the type of stuff they're supposed to do, rather than blockade their combat role behind a wall of prerequisites.

Flurry of Blows -- The wording was changed to be more simple. Further, this wording closes up a lot of the loopholes and problems that arises from Flurry of Blows as-is. It also brings back one-weapon flurrying, but prevents the Monk from utilizing a more beneficial Power Attack by using both hands.

Maneuver Training -- At this level in particular, the Monk player should start thinking about what maneuvers they want their character to focus on. Removing the Attack of Opportunity allows them shop around, so to speak, and gives a sense of having the right tool for the job (which the Monks are supposed to be all about). While the effective Improved [Maneuver] feats are great for lowering the Feat requirements to be good at a Maneuver and allow the Monk to significantly broaden his horizons, that is a +2 CMB the Monk won't have access to. This means that while the Monk will be able to pull just the right maneuver for the job, they will be less likely to have a CMB equivalent to someone who focuses in that maneuver.

Ki Pool -- One of the core decision-making processes for a Monk, I feel, is when to spend Ki and which of their many excellent Swift Actions should be used. Unfortunately, because all Monks tried to deal damage and relied on Ki to do anything, this wasn't much of a choice and tended to leave Monk players feeling insufficient. These changes force some harder decisions on the Monk, forcing them to choose which rounds are most important and in what area they want to excel.

Altering the free Flurry of Blows Attack to +Damage actually lowers the maximum DPR of the most tricked out Monks, while raising the DPR of less optimal Monks. The new reliance on Wisdom for bonus damage also opens up the possibility of a Monk that doesn't rely as much on Strength to inflict damage.

The other options focus a lot on the question, "What does the Monk want to be good at this turn?" Is it surviving an onslaught? Is it landing that crucial combat maneuver? Is it making sure their Stunning Fist attack sticks on the BBEG? Or, is it falling back and supporting allies by deflecting harmful blows from them? This set-up makes sure the Monk always has a crucial choice, while the over-all changes prevent them from being too ineffective when not spending Ki.

Diamond Soul -- This change patches up the glitch where the Monk spontaneously becomes weaker at level 13, while still ensuring that lowering one's SR is still a big deal.

[Dabbler]

SoulGambit0 wrote:

Being Masterwork is entirely pandering to Monk players, letting them put "Masterwork" on their own body. It's not in any way important.

Quite the opposite, actually. The monk's major problem as a combat class is scoring hits - MAD reduces their hitting stat, FoB and 3/4 BAB restrict the base attack bonus, and lack of enhancement caps it off. Masterwork allows the monk to enchant their body and improve their chances to hit at a reasonable price.

That said, I don't really like it because the monk is still dependent on somebody to do the enchanting. He is supposed to be this mystic martial artist whose body is his weapon, and he can't hit dick unless he gets a wizard to enchant him?

My answer here is to grant the monk's ki-strike a scaling enhancement bonus to hit that can stack with properties from the amulet of mighty fists. They already have scaling damage, they don't need a damage bonus, but they do need a bonus to hit and a means of really getting through DR - for which I propose a ki-power that bypasses all DR for one minute against one target.

SoulGambit0 wrote:

My reasons for changing stuff...

Monk AC Bonus --

There was never anything broken about the monk's AC. If a monk was daft enough to rely on mage armour and risk getting debuffed, that was his own lookout. Smart monks used bracers of armour for a lower but more reliable AC at lower level and a better AC at higher level.

SoulGambit0 wrote:

Unarmed Strike --

Unarmed strike's problem is not the damage. It's hitting.

SoulGambit0 wrote:

By front-loading the unarmed strike with combat maneuver-related special qualities, my hope is that it'll get the player to start thinking about how they can use options other than just dealing damage. The nominal boost in the effectiveness of certain maneuvers helps to keep the Monk's unarmed strike competitive in relation to those maneuvers when place side by side with a...

The problem with maneuvers is that there are way to many creatures at high level that they just don't work on due to size, anatomy, and the rest. I agree maneuvers need a boost to stay relevant longer, but they are situational at best and not to be relied on. Most of all, fighters do it better.

SoulGambit0 wrote:

Stunning Fist --

I agree stunning fist needs to be more effective. What cripple's it's effectiveness, though, is the inability to hit reliably. The ability is a 1/round ability that can't effect everything, it's hard to nova it, but I agree it does get spammed - because it rarely works.

These are the monk's major problems: Hitting, getting through DR, getting maneuvers to work at all levels and stunning fist to work at all.