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Dec 29, 2012 -- 5:58AM, wrecan wrote:

  So the original monk is, in fact, Remo Williams!

Yuckkkkkkkk........... zero dignity from day 1.

Qui Chiang was the monk of early 70s modern american culture. 

Interesting about some of the topics on the original monks. >.>

So how does the 5e monk feel like to you? 

Dec 29, 2012 -- 5:27PM, Chakravant wrote:

Dec 29, 2012 -- 5:19PM, TheOneWhoCallCrow wrote:

Interesting about some of the topics on the original monks. >.>

So how does the 5e monk feel like to you?

Honestly it feels like the same directionless miasma that was the 3.X Monk.  The class has some odd baggage from 1st and 2nd Edition that hasn't served it well in 3.X and DDN.  I'm not edition warring here, because I think that baggage should be a potential class.  But the ascetic/divine Mystic and the worldly/martial Monk desperately need to be separated for the good of both designs.

It's not that the monk is directionless, it's that the monk's direction makes no sense to anyone who hasn't read that one obscure pulp action series. Early D&D does that a lot. The monk wasn't designed to be a class of characters - it was designed to be a full level progression for one character that one person wanted to play. Early D&D does that a lot too.

The designers have said that they're struggling with ways to make the monk into a real class. I want to push the monk into the magic fighter role, because that's a huge gap to fill and the monk kind of falls into that gap already. The monk is closer to covering that small subset of magic fighters found in shonen manga and wuxia films. If the designers went with that, I could get behind that too. Just so long as it's a class of characters, rather than one character's class.

Dec 28, 2012 -- 8:30PM, Ravenmancer wrote:

Every class is a Ninja from Naruto. Naruto has a very loose definition of what a Ninja is.

No, it doesn't. It's actually a very accurate depiction of the traditional Japanese depictions of ninja; there are references to Japanese folklore like The Tale of Gallant Jiraiya and Sarutobi Sasuke. Fun fact: you know how Naruto ninja shoot fireballs out of their mouths, and cause great big clouds of smoke when they use their powers? Traditional ninja were also depicted as doing similar things, as they were some of the few people in historical Japan that actually used gunpowder. They're literally the only example of "blaster magicians" I can think of in historical folklore.

Dec 29, 2012 -- 5:19PM, TheOneWhoCallCrow wrote:

Interesting about some of the topics on the original monks. >.>

So how does the 5e monk feel like to you? 

It sucks but its not alone. I dont like any of the current classes. Im not trying to be funny. I could go into detail about why the Sorcerer and the Lock are better than any of the currents. Since you asked. My take on the Monk.

1. Bounded Accuracy
Nothing is wrong with Bounded Accuracy. I like it however its overly done and with nothing else is bounded every martial class hits often has ok AC, and a bunch of hp. You simply dont have multiple builds or fighting styles in the numbers. The Monk is samey. Character development ends after creation. Beyond ability score you cant make a monk that is exceptionally accurate, durable, fast or elusive. This is nothing new to D&D however in the past you could at least boost weapon proficiencies and take dodge bonuses.

2.   Maneuvers dont add style
You only get two that are unique in 20 levels. Even if they were ungodly stylistic thats not enough to add style. So while they are decent game mechanics the Monk is still samey.

3. The Ki abilities come from the outer instead of the Monk's inner.
 Im homebrewing all the classes. To not make Ki abilities feel like any other skill I am building them as an extension of the soul. This is pretty much impossible with the current Monk. After ability scores they are all the same so you cant build from their soul. Also I do not believe in giving a Ki ability at first level. The Monk is a bit cartoonish already. Giving them flame shields at 1^st level pushes it past my cheese limit. The least you could do is give the cheesy stuff some high level creed. 
 
Im bounding every stat like accuracy while allowing all classes to improve everything at the expense of something else sort of like White Wolf. A Monk with high accuracy would develop a Ki ability that slows time slightly and boost their attack score. A Monk with high hp gets a Ki ability that picks them up at 0 hp and gives them 10 or so hp. That is pretty high with bounded hp and damage. A Monk that is great with ranged attacks can enchant arrows or spears etc etc.