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actually,
either a mild buff to the existing ki pool,
or an alternate to it that provides utility casting.
mostly interested in feedback that balances the two 'paths' against eachother. (for example, ought a mystic path monk 'give up' flurry of blows?...)
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Upon reaching 4th level, a monk must choose his path towards enlightenment. He must choose between The Warrior Path and The Mystic Path. Once his decision is made, the choice is permanent.
The Warrior Path:
The warrior monk gains a ki pool with a number of points equal to half his monk level plus his Wisdom bonus (if any). So long as he retains one point, his unarmed strikes are imbued with a +1 enhancement bonus to attack and damage, +1 every three additional monk levels (max +5). Further, The monk may make one additional attack as part of a flurry of blows, increase his fast movement bonus by +20 for 1 round, or grant himself a +4 dodge bonus to AC for 1 minute. Each of these abilities consumes 1 point from his ki pool and is activated as a swift action. His ki pool also powers monk abilities gained through additional advancement.
Whenever the warrior monk drops a foe at the end of a flurry of blows routine, rolls a natural 20 on a saving throw, or sustains a critical hit that drops him to fewer hit points than he has hit dice, he may regain 1 point of ki. Otherwise, 6 hours of sleep or meditation replenishes his ki pool completely.
At 10th level, when the monk replenishes his ki pool, he may modify his passive enhancement bonus by exchanging for an equivalent bonus any magic weapon quality or qualities he likes. This special enhancement lasts until he rests and replenishes again.
The Mystic Path:
The mystic monk gains a ki pool with a number of points equal to his full monk level plus his Wisdom bonus. He may use this pool of points to prepare and cast spells from the cleric spell list (see below) as spell-like abilities - except that doing so provokes attacks of opportunity from threatening enemies.
The mystic monk may prepare a number of spells per day equal to his Wisdom modifier. In order to prepare a spell, his Wisdom must equal or exceed 10 + the spell's level. Initially, he may only select spells from the 1st-level list - he gains access to 2nd, 3rd, and 4th level spells at respective monk levels 7th, 10th, and 13th. Each spell consumes a number of ki points equal to the spell's level, and the monk may cast any spell he has prepared any number of times so long as he has the ki points to support it. His caster level is equal to his monk level.
The spell list is changed in the following ways: Atonement is considered a 4th level spell, the Summon Monster series is replaced with the Summon Nature's Ally series, and any spell with the good or evil descriptor is removed. Otherwise, the lists are identical.
The mystic monk's ki pool is replenished after 6 hours of sleep or meditation. At this time, the monk must select which spells to prepare from those he has access to - he may not leave any open slots. Once decided, he may not change them until rests and replenishes again.
It looks pretty good. The only thing I'm unsure about about is the warrior path recharge ability. Why did you choose to write a spell-point system instead of slapping on a standard 4-level casting progression?
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seized by a fit of musing, i just kind of let the idea run. and the 'spec' seemed right.
take a monk with 20 WIS at 8th level. He will have access to all first and second level cleric spells, but prepared into just 5 daily slots (!), powered spontaneously by ki for that day. next day, another 5, etc.
so, he is Prepared-Spontaneous, not unlike the new Arcanist class i believe, but with much greater checks on his power. Wisdom should stay down because the class is inherently MAD, and because a 4-level caster will never be a true dedicated spell-user - the DCs just won't add up.
it was an attempt to balance the two paths - ki pool grants about four abilities, and a typical 4-level casting progression goes way above and beyond that, so I wanted to not only reel it in, but also do away with cross-referencing additional tables (spells/day vs spells known).
i gave the warrior path the recharge ability because did you look at Divine Might!
Is that an ACG thing?
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i'm thinking of tweaking the warrior path a bit.
the monk's "AC Bonus", which grants +1/+2/+3/+4/+5 to AC at 4/8/12/16/20, i am thinking of granting to the warrior monk also as an enhancement bonus to attack and damage as a passive ki ability (instead of 4/7/10/13/16). just so that bonus is simplified.
then, the 10th level 'special quality' ability i am thinking of making distinct from this. like, bumping it down to a lower level and allowing it to grant the special quality for 1 minute for 1 ki per +1 - stacking on top of the 'regular' enhancement bonus above.
what would be a good progression? +1/+2/+3/+4 at 4/7/10/13? (those are the same levels the mystic monk gets new spell levels). remember it has to compensate somewhat for the retarding of the 'regular' enhancement bonus.
(also bear in mind the ki strike ability will take care of DR)
Rainzax has once again made something that I like the idea of. I think I'll go look at your other threads to see what is there too.
I think the 4/7/10/13 progression for attack bonus works. Question, how will this effect archetypes though?
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this ability modifies Ki Pool - the main divergence of the Mystic path from the Warrior path is trading out the extra attack/speed/dodge ki boosts for the casting system introduced above. it is therefore fully compatible with archetypes whether or not they too modify or build upon Ki Pool.
btw, i'm working on another draft of this ability. both paths will get WIS+1/2 ki, and the Warrior will get the additional ability to imbue his unarmed strikes with special weapon qualities. plus i'm working on differentiated interactivity with Ki Strike and the scaling unarmed damage bonus...