Can someone please explain to me how the Flurry of Blows maneuver is in any way different from Deadly Strike except it makes you roll an extra d20 for every expertise die you spend?
Seriously. Replace your strike damage with expertise die. Remove any bonuses to damage. This is just adding all of your expertise dice to damage, but with more rolling and thus a lower average damage.
Alignment restrictions are bad, but I've already played 4 editions of the game completely ignoring alignment for everything, so whatever.
Crit's, you can get more of them. Cleave is basicly build in. Some monsters may have reactions to block 1 attack, devualing them.
F-111 Interdictor Long (200+ squares) distance ally teleporter. With some warlord stuff. Broken in a plot way, not a power way. Thought Switch Higher level build that grants upto 14 attacks on turn 1. If your allies play along, it's broken. Elven Critters Crit op with crit generation. 5 of these will end anything. Broken. King Fisher Does an excellent job at keeping an enemy disabled in a few ways. Strong. Boominator Fun catch-22 booming blade build with either strong or completely broken damage depending on your reading. Very Distracting Warlock Lot's of dazing and major penalties to hit. Overpowered. Pocket Protector Pixie Stealth Knight. Maximizing the defender's aura by being in an ally's/enemy's square. Yakuza NinjIntimiAdin: Perma-stealth Striker that offers a little protection for ally's, and can intimidate bloodied enemies. Very Strong. Chargeburgler with cheese Ranged attacks at the end of a charge along with perma-stealth. Solid, could be overpowered if tweaked. Void Defender Defends giving a penalty to hit anyone but him, then removing himself from play. Can get somewhat broken in epic. Scry and Die Attacking from around corners, while staying hidden. Moderate to broken, depending on the situation. Skimisher Fly in, attack, and fly away. Also prevents enemies from coming close. Moderate to Broken depending on the enemy, but shouldn't make the game un-fun, as the rest of your team is at risk, and you have enough weaknesses. Indestructible Simply won't die, even if you sleep though combat. Sir Robin (Bravely Charge Away) He automatically slows and pushes an enemy (5 squares), while charging away. Hard to rate it's power level, since it's terrain dependent. Death's Gatekeeper A fun twist on a healic, making your party "unkillable". Overpowered to Broken, but shouldn't actually make the game un-fun, just TPK proof. Death's Gatekeeper mk2, (Stealth Edition) Make your party "unkillable", and you hidden, while doing solid damage. Stronger then the above, but also easier for a DM to shut down. Broken, until your DM get's enough of it. Domination and Death Dominate everything then kill them quickly. Only works @ 30, but is broken multiple ways. Battlemind Mc Prone-Daze Protecting your allies by keeping enemies away. Quite powerful. The Retaliator Getting hit deals more damage to the enemy then you receive yourself, and you can take plenty of hits. Heavy item dependency, Broken. Dead Kobold Transit Teleports 98 squares a turn, and can bring someone along for the ride. Not fully built, so i can't judge the power Psilent Guardian Protect your allies, while being invisible. Overpowered, possibly broken Unnamed Avenger|Runepriest/Hammer of Vengance Do lot's of damage while boosting your teams. Strong to slightly overpowered. Charedent BarrageA charging ardent. Fine in a normal team, overpowered if there are 2 together, and easily broken in teams of 5. Super Knight A tough, sticky, high damage knight. Strong. Super Duper Knight Basically the same as super knight, only far more broken. Mora, the unkillable avenger Solid damage, while being neigh indestuctable. Overpowered, but not broken. Swordburst Maximus At-Will Close Burst 3 that slide and prones. Protects allies with off actions. Strong, possibly over powered with the right party.
Except that I am fine with the alignment restriction...They have to follow the rules of their monastic tradition. They must follow them as laws. Little transgressions are fine (if you want I'll explain the bucket theory for alignment later), but for the most part it is their monastic traditions, and their lawful adherence to them, that define the monk.
Except you could have a caotic monk as a street brawler.
Also, a class should be a set of abilities, not identity, a class shouldn't dictate what your character is...that's backward. We are starting to go back to players not calling the other player's characters by their name, but their class...
You could rip up twenty random sourcebooks and dump the shreds onto a piece of flypaper and end up with a design that is more coherant and less ignorant of the consequences of its own mechanics than the 3.5 monk, so the bar is pretty low.
That said, excepting the silly alignment restriction, I like the look of this design. I obviously haven't played with it, but it looks really neat. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the idea that really going all out with expertise dice allows you to upgrade maneuvers from preternatural to supernatural. That is an awesome execution of what the monk is to me - someone whose physical perfection is such that it reaches just a little bit into the realm of magic. The one tiny quibble I might have is that the monk doesn't make any character choices related to the class until level 4, but that's not the end of the world. Seriously, I am just incredibly excited by this design overall.
But let's talk about alignment restrictions. If you really feel that there has to be restrictions on what kind of person a monk can be personality- or outlook-wise, just put that in there as a restriction. Don't try to shoehorn the restrictions you want into an alignment system that's an awful fit for it. Yes, there's a very vague and hazy slight overlap between "lawful" and "stereotypcially monklike", but "lawful" is neither necessary nor sufficient as a behavior restriction. There are plenty of things that are lawful that are unmonklike, and there are plenty of things that are monklike that don't have much to do with being lawful. If you think it's important that monks are all a certain way, then at least pick something that actually makes even a lick of sense, even if it's not some random subsection of the alignment crid.
Dwarves invented beer so they could toast to their axes. Dwarves invented axes to kill people and take their beer.
"Feel free to claim I said anything you like. How's someone going to call you out on it? Are they going to be all like, 'I know all of the things that Gary said, and that's not one of them?'" - Gary Gygax
The rigid adherence to the monastic tradition is what gives the monk his abilities with ki. It is what gives him the inner strength to find enlightenment.
Are you saying that it is impossible for a person to find inner strength or enlightenment without being part of a monastic tradition? That's silly. Monastic tradition isn't the only way to harness Ki, just as going to Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry isn't the only way to learn magic.
Speaking of things that were badly designed, please check out this thread for my Minotaur fix. What have the critics said, you ask? "If any of my players ask to play a Minotaur, I'm definitely offering this as an alternative to the official version." - EmpactWB "If I ever feel like playing a Minotaur I'll know where to look!" - Undrave "WoTC if you are reading this - please take this guy's advice." - Ferol_Debtor_of_Torm "Really full of win. A minotaur that is actually attractive for more than just melee classes." - Cpt_Micha
Also, check out my recent GENASI variant! If you've ever wished that your Fire Genasi could actually set stuff on fire, your Water Genasi could actually swim, or your Wind Genasi could at least glide, then look no further.
Finally, check out my OPTIONS FOR EVERYONE article, an effort to give unique support to the races that WotC keeps forgetting about. Includes new racial feature options for the Changeling, Deva, Githzerai, Gnoll, Gnome, Goliath, Half-Orc, Kalashtar, Minotaur, Shadar-Kai, Thri-Kreen, Warforged and more!
The ability to command ones own mind to be vacant is not a mark of chaos it is the mark of true law and mastery of self. The brawler in the street could still be a monk if youd like. Apparently his monastic tradition has no problem with street fighting. The lawful nature has nothing to do with laws in the land all it is there to signify is an adherence to their monastic traditions.
Or, you make your mind so chaotic that it can't be charmed or feared. You've lived so long in the sewers that you've already beaten every desease.
F-111 Interdictor Long (200+ squares) distance ally teleporter. With some warlord stuff. Broken in a plot way, not a power way. Thought Switch Higher level build that grants upto 14 attacks on turn 1. If your allies play along, it's broken. Elven Critters Crit op with crit generation. 5 of these will end anything. Broken. King Fisher Does an excellent job at keeping an enemy disabled in a few ways. Strong. Boominator Fun catch-22 booming blade build with either strong or completely broken damage depending on your reading. Very Distracting Warlock Lot's of dazing and major penalties to hit. Overpowered. Pocket Protector Pixie Stealth Knight. Maximizing the defender's aura by being in an ally's/enemy's square. Yakuza NinjIntimiAdin: Perma-stealth Striker that offers a little protection for ally's, and can intimidate bloodied enemies. Very Strong. Chargeburgler with cheese Ranged attacks at the end of a charge along with perma-stealth. Solid, could be overpowered if tweaked. Void Defender Defends giving a penalty to hit anyone but him, then removing himself from play. Can get somewhat broken in epic. Scry and Die Attacking from around corners, while staying hidden. Moderate to broken, depending on the situation. Skimisher Fly in, attack, and fly away. Also prevents enemies from coming close. Moderate to Broken depending on the enemy, but shouldn't make the game un-fun, as the rest of your team is at risk, and you have enough weaknesses. Indestructible Simply won't die, even if you sleep though combat. Sir Robin (Bravely Charge Away) He automatically slows and pushes an enemy (5 squares), while charging away. Hard to rate it's power level, since it's terrain dependent. Death's Gatekeeper A fun twist on a healic, making your party "unkillable". Overpowered to Broken, but shouldn't actually make the game un-fun, just TPK proof. Death's Gatekeeper mk2, (Stealth Edition) Make your party "unkillable", and you hidden, while doing solid damage. Stronger then the above, but also easier for a DM to shut down. Broken, until your DM get's enough of it. Domination and Death Dominate everything then kill them quickly. Only works @ 30, but is broken multiple ways. Battlemind Mc Prone-Daze Protecting your allies by keeping enemies away. Quite powerful. The Retaliator Getting hit deals more damage to the enemy then you receive yourself, and you can take plenty of hits. Heavy item dependency, Broken. Dead Kobold Transit Teleports 98 squares a turn, and can bring someone along for the ride. Not fully built, so i can't judge the power Psilent Guardian Protect your allies, while being invisible. Overpowered, possibly broken Unnamed Avenger|Runepriest/Hammer of Vengance Do lot's of damage while boosting your teams. Strong to slightly overpowered. Charedent BarrageA charging ardent. Fine in a normal team, overpowered if there are 2 together, and easily broken in teams of 5. Super Knight A tough, sticky, high damage knight. Strong. Super Duper Knight Basically the same as super knight, only far more broken. Mora, the unkillable avenger Solid damage, while being neigh indestuctable. Overpowered, but not broken. Swordburst Maximus At-Will Close Burst 3 that slide and prones. Protects allies with off actions. Strong, possibly over powered with the right party.
As I'm on my phone at work I can't look at the monk yet. But I will say right now I'll be argueing against alignment restrictions in the next survey. (Just have a side bar that says in some games a DM may restrict monks to a lawful alignment to represent a forced monastic order)
Can someone please explain to me how the Flurry of Blows maneuver is in any way different from Deadly Strike except it makes you roll an extra d20 for every expertise die you spend?
FoB can attack different targets than the initial attack.
It will be superior for minion low-level monster clearing, as you can't attack multiple things with DS, but for punching single targets DS will be better absent any other on-hit effects. Probably a good idea if you really really want to make sure you land a Stunning Fist attempt. Which is good.
So basically you get to pick up Whirlwind Attack + Deadly Strike in one maneuver, but in exchange you have to roll a ton of attacks each round. I dunno, I just wish we'd get something actually different. Their determination to keep all of the numbers low makes things end up feeling very samey.
Crit's, you can get more of them. Cleave is basicly build in. Some monsters may have reactions to block 1 attack, devualing them.
So it's all aournd better.
I did forget about crits giving +xd6 damage, which makes multiple chances at getting that better. However, it is balanced out by the fact that you miss more often. Quick eyeballing level 10 monk is going to deal an average of 23.75 per round. If I remember the numbers ran previously correctly, that's roughly on par with where the rogue is. At least the Monk has more options going for him I guess.
Everybody please go to the comment section of that article and express their distaste for the alignment restriction. Please.
Nope. They're easy enough to completely ignore for everyone who doesn't like them. Considering none of the monk's abilities rely on the alignment, you can simply ignore that paragraph and be done with it. Folks who do want it just don't ignore the paragraph. It's as simple as that.
On-topic: I like this first pass at the monk quite a lot, but I'll have to see how it works in play.
For those confused on how DDN's modular rules might work, this may provide some insight: http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/11/the-world-of-darkness-shines-when-it-abandons-canon
@mikemearls: Uhhh... do you really not see all the 3e/4e that's basically the entire core system?
