Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 mattmurdock Jun 05, 2008 9:46:53	Haven't got round to the powers yet, but seeing as the Ranger is basically a Monk in armour, I have 'borrowed' the Ranger class with a bunch of amendments to make a Monk: MONK CLASS TRAITS Role: Striker. You concentrate on empty handed melee fighting to deal a lot of damage to one enemy at a time or to multiple close enemies. Your attacks rely on speed and mobility, since you prefer to use hit-and-run tactics whenever possible. Power Source: Ki. Your talents depend on extensive training and practice, inner spirit, and natural proficiency. Key Abilities: Strength, Wisdom, Dexterity Armor Proficiencies: None Weapon Proficiencies: Simple melee Bonus to Defense: +1 Will, +1 Reflex Hit Points at 1st Level: 12 + Constitution score Hit Points per Level Gained: 5 Healing Surges per Day: 7 + Constitution modifier Trained Skills: Religion or Insight (your choice). From the class skills list below, choose four more trained skills at 1st level. Class Skills: Acrobatics (Dex), Athletics (Str), Religion (Wis), Endurance (Con), Heal (Wis), Insight (Wis), Perception (Wis), Stealth (Dex) Build Options: Water-style monk, Fire-style monk Class Features: Unarmed Style, Iron Fist, Monk’s Stride MONK CLASS FEATURES Your class features depend largely on the build and unarmed style you choose. UNARMED STYLE Choose one of the following unarmed styles and gain its benefit. Water Unarmed Style: Because of your focus on evading attacks, you gain Defensive Mobility as a bonus feat. You may also use your Wisdom modifier instead of Dexterity or Intelligence as an AC modifier. You lose all the benefits of this feature if you wear armor. Fire Unarmed Style: Because of your focus on offensive melee attacks, you gain Weapon Focus (Unarmed) as a bonus feat. You may also use your Wisdom modifier instead of your Dexterity modifier for Initiative rolls. You lose all the benefits of this feature if you wear armor. IRON FIST Through training and the projection of your inner spirit, your Unarmed attack becomes a deadly weapon. You gain proficiency with Unarmed attack, giving a +2 proficiency bonus, and your damage dice increases based on your level. In addition, at 6th level your Unarmed attacks gain a +1 enhancement bonus, rising to +2 at 11th level, +3 at 16th level, +4 at 21st level and +5 at 26th level. Level Damage Dice 1st to 10th: 1d8 11th to 20th: 1d12 21st to 30th: 2d10 MONK’S STRIDE You are used to travelling great distances on foot, and moving quickly to close with enemies. Increase your overland speed by 1 for the purpose of hourly or daily travel rates. In addition, gain +1 to speed when you charge or run. You lose all the benefits of this feature if you wear armour. Any comments or suggestions will be welcomed. I plan to have the powers focus around the styles, similar to the Ranger, with evasion and mobility being the Water focus, and damage and speed being the Fire focus. I will probably steal most of the Ranger powers wholesale and just give them Unarmed descriptors and some more monk flavour. I can see Cascade of Blades as a great way to pull some Fist of the North Star into 4e
#2 Alyri Jun 05, 2008 11:34:38	Well. You give no reason why wisdom is such a key stat. Damage for fists should start out at d6 and through a feat upgrade to d8. You also don't give a reason why Monks get a boost to their basic damage. Maybe have a feat that makes their fists high crit weapons?
#3 mattmurdock Jun 05, 2008 12:47:36	Aha, probably should have been clearer that my view of monk's is biased towards the whole inner peace and perception is stronger than physical prowess. As Wisdom covers willpower/inner strength and the ability to notice attacks before they happen, I based the class features around Wisdom. As for the unarmed damage progression, I presumed the average Striker role is going to be based around a 1d8 i.e Longsword damage (or 1d6+1d6 in the case of the Rogue) to begin with, and I liked the flavour of the 3.5 monk progression. So I based it at 1d8 and then jumped 2 'sizes' at Paragon and again at Epic. The enhancement bonus is to balance the monk as they are not intended to use weapons, and hence can't benefit from magic weapons. I guess an alternative would be to create a special implement for the monk that gives enhancement bonuses to unarmed, but that detracts from the idea of a monk as a living weapon. I like the idea of a feat for High Crit though.
#4 Alyri Jun 05, 2008 15:22:30	but noone else gets to have their basic weapon damage increase like that. Look at the lvl25 rogue ability Ghost on the Wind it's 6[w] being something like 6d4 or as high as 6d8? But as a monk that same power would be 12d10
#5 stvesa Jun 05, 2008 16:34:38	Suggestions... Based on the proficiency limitations... I would say that Wisdom has to be used for their AC bonus. I think you'll want to find a different Class Feature split... otherwise the monk will be getting danced on a lot. Maybe the following...? Offensive; +1 Speed on Charge & Run, Enhancement Critical die bonuses is 1D8 instead of 1D6 Defensive; +2 AC versus OA, may reduce forced movement by 1 Enhancement Progression 1 ~ 2 = +0 3 ~ 5 = +1 6 ~ 10 = +2 11 ~ 15 = +3 16 ~ 20 = +4 21 ~ 25 = +5 26+ = +6 Damage Progression 1 ~ 5 = 1D6 6 ~ 10 = 1D8 11 ~ 15 = 1D10 16 ~ 20 = 1D12 21+ = 3D4