| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
This is a draft for an attempt at rewriting/fixing the Monk without changin too much to the class or the system itself, I put this together while at work, so the writing should probably be improved quite a bit, and the abilities haven't been properly balanced yet, I apologise for that, I would still like any feedback though.
You will notice the table goes up to level 8 (I ran out of free time, that is why) and that I am only writing the abilities that were changed or added (abilities that were changed ara marked with a "*"). You will also notice a slight influence from Rurouni Kenshin (Namely, Yūkyūzan Anji).
Lv ---- Special
1 ------ AC Bonus, Bonus Feat, Flurry of Blows, Physical Perfection, Stunning Fist, Unarmed Strike
2 ------ Bonus Feat, Evasion, Enlightenment
3 ------ Fast Movement, Iron Fist, Maneuver Training, Still Mind
4 ------ Iron Body, Ki Pool (Magic), Slow Fall 20ft.
5 ------ Abundant Step* 60ft., High Jump*, Inner Peace
6 ------ Bonus Feat, Slow Fall 30 ft., Double Layer Fist
7 ------ Ki Pool(Iron Cold/Silver), Wholeness of Body*, Abundant Step 120ft.
8 ------ Slow Fall 40ft., Diamond Body*
Physical Perfection (Ex): At 1st level, the monk gains Endurance as a bonus feat and a +1 bonus on all three physical ability scores (Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution). This bonus increases by 1 at 7th and 14th level.
Enlightenment (Ex): At 2nd level, a monk may use his bonus in Sense Motive in place of his bonus in Diplomacy and Intimidate. When substituting in this way, the monk uses his total Sense Motive skill bonus, including class skill bonus, in place of its associated skill's bonus, whether or not he has ranks in that skill or if it is a class skill.
Iron Fist (Ex): At 3rd level, the monk gains a +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls with unarmed strikes. Additionally, the monk adds 2 to the Difficulty Class of his Stunning Fist.
At 7th level and every 4 levels thereafter, the attack and damage bonuses increase by +1 (To a maximum of +5 at 18th level).
Iron Body (Ex): At 4th, a monk gains immunity to poisons of all kinds and to all diseases, including supernatural and magical diseases. Additionally, the monk gains a natural armor bonus equal to ¼ his monk level.
Abundant Step (Ex): At 5th level, the monk may move at an impossible for the eye to follow speed by using 1 point from his Ki Pool. When using this ability, a monk can, as a move action, transfer himself and any items he carries anywhere within the range of the ability.
High Jump (Ex): At 5th level, a monk adds his level and his Strength modifier to all acrobatic checks made to jump, both for vertical and horizontal jumps. In addition, he always counts as …
At 7th and 14th level, the monk doubles the distance crossed or height reached by any Acrobatic Checks made to jump. For example, a 14th level monk who rolls a 40 on his Acrobatic Check crosses a 160ft. distance with a long jump, or reaches a 40ft height with a vertical jump.
Inner Peace (Ex): At 5th level, the monk gains a +1 bonus on all three mental ability scores (Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma). Additionally, he gains Improved Iron Will as a bonus feat even if he does not meet the normal prerequisites.
At 9th and 15th level, the bonus to the mental ability scores increase by +1.
Double Layer Fist (Ex): At 6th level, when using the attack or charge action with an unarmed strike, a monk can make a single attack roll using his monk level in place of his Base Attack Bonus. If the attack hits, the monk strikes his enemy twice with the same unarmed strike. The first attack deals damage normally, the second strike ignores any type and amount of Damage Reduction and the monk may roll the damage dice twice and add the results together before adding bonuses from Strength, weapon abilities (such as flaming), precision-based damage, and other damage bonuses.
At 12th level, the monk may roll the damage dice for the second attack three times instead.
At 18th level, the monk may roll the damage dice for the second attack four times instead.
Double Layer Fist may be used in conjunction with feats like Vital Strike, but they stack additively. For example, an 18th level monk with Greater Vital Strike may roll the damage dice for the second attack 8 times.
Wholeness of Body (Su): At 7th level or higher, the monk can gain fast healing 3 for 1 minute as a standard action by using 1 point from his Ki pool.
At 14th level, wholeness of body grants fast healing 5 instead.
Diamond Body (Su): At 8th level, the monk gains Cold and Fire Resistance 5 as long as he has at least 1 point in his Ki pool.
At 14th level, the resistance to Cold and Fire increases to 10.
At 20th level, the monk becomes immune to Cold and Fire.
You've made the monk much more dip worthy, now~. Personally, I see that as a bad sign. By investing one single level into monk, one can get: Wis to AC, Weak Flirry of blows, +1 to all physical stats. That's by far too much, in my opinion.
Now, at level 4 you give the monk ANOTHER AC bonus. Wis to AC wasn't enough, now the monk gains more natural armor. I really dislike this~.
All in all, I'm just opposed to any sort of raw numerical bonuses given to classes in custom rewrites. If you think the monk is low on damage, build for STR and take Dragon Style.
If you think the monk is too squishy, take Crane Style.
So on and so forth. The monk has all the tools it needs to work in a variety of roleplay concepts. If you wish to address mechanical issues, do it some other way than flat numeric boosts such as +1 to his physical stats, or +1 to his hit and damage with fists.
-------------
What is it you are trying to fix here, exactly?
The Monk doesn't need this. The problem with the base Monk is that it is very very MAD and very very reliant on standing very still to Flurry.
Both are fixed with high point buy systems, SAD conversion mechanisms (like the Sensei WIS to attack or weapon finesse), and Pummeling Style.
A one step fix for the monk is giving them WIS to damage instead of STR. Then, you want to pump DEX and WIS equally high for attack and damage while getting a ton of dodge AC, with high Perception and Initiative to never be flat-footed.
Thanks for the feedback, really helpful! :)
@Gulian
You are right physical perfection is badly written for a Level 1 Ability, makes the Monk too much of a Dip Magnet, this was a badly excecuted attempt to aliviate the MAD issue without resorting to Wis to Atk Roll or Damage, a really bad attempt.
I know the Monk isn't low on damage or defenses, the Iron Fist bonus to damage is probably out of place, just a tack on.
What I was trying to fix the most here is the mobility issue by improving Abundant Step and adding a solid Standard Attack Option to go with it.
@Secret Wizard
The Doublelayer Fist ability and the changes made to the Abundant Step ability were made as an attempt to help with the "Standing very Still to Furry" problem.
The Ability Scores boosting abilities - though badly written - were an attempt to help with MADness in a way that does not involve adding Wis to Damage, clearly the attempt failed - badly.
Well, perhaps you should aim towards an archetype instead of a rewrite. Something akin to the Mobile Fighter, trading some of his defenses for added mobility and attack flexibility. Something like...
Inner Swiftness (Su): By expending x amount of ki points from his ki pool, the monk is able to move half his movement speed instantly. During this movement, the monk gains a +4 circumstance bonus to his AC against attacks of opportunity. The monk may additionally expend another x amount of ki points to increase the distance he can travel with this ability by half his movement speed, as well as the circumstance bonus by another +4, having unlimited uses as long as the monk is still able to use x points of ki.
This action counts as the monk's 5 foot step for the round.
Once the monk's turn has ended, he is fatigued for a number of rounds equal to the amount of half-movement-speed increments he has moved using Inner Swiftness.
This ability replaces Quivering Palm, Abundant Step and Wholeness of Body.
--------
Something like that? Giving the monk a limited pounce ability with a gimmick that could potentially allow the monk to move much, much further than his actual movement speed and still flurry-of-blows.
I like the idea of the stat boost. I dont like the implementation.
The main issue for the monk is using several stats, and not getting enough abilities to compensate that (unlike the bard or inquisitor, who are similarly MAD classes but not weak at all).
Theres two ways to solve that -reduce the MAD or make the class have a lower need ofeach ability score via bonuses.
Like you, i think the second approach is better, as it doesnt lose the flavor of the monk nor make it into very obvious cookie cutter ability scores priorities.
So i like the idea of ability score bonuses, and think they can "fix" a lot of the monk issues. But for your bonuses, they both didnt go far enough and made the class too temptibg to dip.
But instead, consider enhancement bonuses. These doesnt stack with belts and circlets so dipping wont make sense. Also, by giving a bonus that is slightly larger than what items usually give the character, youve reduced the gear reliance of the monk further, which i think is a good thing.
Consider instead something like this:
Mind over Matter (Ex) - At 2nd level, a monk gains a +2 enhancement bonus to Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. This bonus increases by +2 at levels 7, 12, and 17 to a maximum of +8.
Bodily Perfection (Ex) - At 4th level, a monk gains a +2 enhancement bonus to Strength, Dexterity and Constitution. This bonus increases by +2 at levels 9, 14 and 19, to a maximum of +8.
While this may seem like an enormous bonus, +8 to all ability scores, consider that the bonus to Intelligence and Charisma won't really make the monk more powerful, just give it a few more out of combat stuff to do, allowing it to be a secondary scout, face, or whatever. Also consider that most characters would at any given time have a bonus at least +2 lower than this in their relevant ability scores, so what it amounts up to is a +1 on a load of rolls, but more importantly, it allows monks to spend their money on other things as well as excel in anti-magic fields.
And dipping 2 levels to get +2 in all caster stats might seem good (when coupled by all the other boni of 2 monk levels, which are pretty huge), until you realize it'll be wasted as soon as you pick up your headband.
We've used this house rule for two PC monks, and a bunch of NPC's, and it has worked great. We only use one more monk-specific houserule, and that is this:
Monks may opt out of flurry of blows, and instead get spring attack (limited to monk weapons & no armor) at 1st level, and the vital strike line at 6th/11th/16th level as well as the ability to combine spring attack with vital strike.
Makes for a much more agile and swift monk. One of our PC monks did this, the other kept FoB (because she was a zen archer).