Monk
I'm noticing a trend with the monk. They have a hell of a lot of passive abilities, and very few active ones.
Now, everyone likes passive abilities, especially defensive ones. By saving your life, you are able to keep participating in combat, and thus keep making choices--that's what players want.
But when you have so few choices, you have a problem.
A 1st-level human fighter can easily achieve more tactical options via feat selection than a monk will ever have. A monk's choice of offensive actions is basically full attack or full attack plus stunning fist (or even, gasp, quivering palm once per week!). A fighter might have a melee weapon *and* a ranged weapon, and also Improved Trip, Improved Disarm, and Improved Sunder (right at 1st level!). With his statistically-likely higher Strength, and probably larger weapon, a fighter will always be better at these, so it's not even a question of waiting to get the feats.
Monks have high survivability, even compared to fighters with excellent defensive gear. However, survivability itself does not provide fun--as previously stated, the only value in it is that it gives you more chances to take (usually offensive) actions. So clearly, monks aren't missing defense; they are missing offense.
Compare the D&D monk to any character in a fighting game and you'll see how much fun is missing for lack of a wide variety of offensive "moves". The classic fighter was the obvious metaphor for monk combat that Wizards missed. Whereas a Fighter or Barbarian focuses on pure strength and weapon quality, a monk must do everything himself, with just his bare hands (and feet, and forehead, etc) and perhaps a few tools that otherwise make poor weapons.
Just about every fighting game and kung fu movie ever made highlights that the cost of such moves is not how many times per day they can be used, but how difficult they are to execute. Some go so far as to say the martial artist takes great risk executing certain moves without mastery.
How exactly would a monk accomplish this? Well, first, she would have to know the moves. They can be self-taught, sometimes, or learned from a master. This suggests that, like a wizard's spells, monk maneuvers can be learned between levels, perhaps at some sort of nominal cost in gold and time.
How does a monk go about executing such maneuvers? First, she must be in the correct stance. A stance might have other benefits besides which maneuvers it allows; for example, a poised, tense stance like a snake might give the monk an advantage in contests of initiative.
I'm not quite sure exactly how to implement the maneuvers. A homebrew solution might miss many good points; however, the Tome of Battle is a little too much for just one class.
Possible array of schools:
- Crab
- Crane
- Dragon
- Lion
- Mantis
- Phoenix
- Scorpion
- Unicorn
In the "real world" of martial arts, it is widely accepted that the art is one of self-defense and self-discipline - whereas kung-fu is essentially the same, if a bit more flashy. Hence all of the "kung-fu" movies are modeled off of this idea - it translates much better to screen. D&D takes a hybrid approach, folding as much as it can into a single class focused on defense, and relying on stuff like fast movement and slow fall (and dimension door) for the flash. Realizing the limitations of this approach, they added supplemental material that very much fits the feel of the kung-fu movies; there is a feat that allows you to counterattack when you are missed, and feats that expand upon stunning fist to nauseate or paralyze an enemy.
The problem with all of this is that no one can possibly do all of that with the current monk - feats are very rare, and by the time you've taken weapon focus, dodge, mobility, and spring attack (as they clearly intend - and you'd be a fool to take all of these), there's very little left available. What makes matters worse is that some of these new feats have horrendous requirements (+10 BAB is excessively high), and then there's the little matter of equipment.
Any fighter (or ranger, or paladin) can increase his power dramatically with magic items. Say, a +5 sword drops into his lap at level 20. Say the monk has the same strength as the fighter. The fighter now has a +10 to hit over the monk, albeit at the cost of a one attack per round. Well, the fighter decides to spend a few feats on greater two-weapon fighting (there are only 3 steps in the SRD), and now has 6 attacks per round, or two more than the monk at the same level. If the fighter picks up another +5 sword, he will still be up +8 over the monk, and likely do similar damage per hit (assuming identical stats).
Where this gets even less funny is critical hits. As we know, keen and improved critical no longer stack. Well, the fighter can free up a feat by taking keen weapons. The monk can't. The monk cannot become keen even with a spell (because he is not slashing or piercing), and cannot take improved critical until 12th level. So the fighter not only hits 40% more often (an estimate), but also does more per hit (because of crits).
For the purposes of this argument, the ranger can be considered to be equal to the fighter. They get either bow specialization or 2-weapon specialization, which are equivalent to bonus feats. The monk also gets bonus feats, of a different bent but perhaps equal to the ranger - stunning fist, improved grapple, deflect arrows, combat reflexes, improved trip, and improved disarm are all pretty good. But rangers will hose monks because of the good BAB, and the equipment.
That's what this boils down to. Monks get special dispensation (in the form of immunities, good saves, spell resistance) because of a lack of equipment (namely a lack of armor), and get an improved damage die and flurry of blows to make up for the lack of weapons. However, their specials do not improve their ability to hit (favored enemy, anyone?), and they never use weapons - not *just* because they don't want to - when was the last time you saw a +5 kama? If a monk had a fighter BAB, he'd be able to take feats at their intended level, and maybe take improved critical before 12th level. Because of this disparity in attack bonus, a monk is required to rely on tricks - and they get two. Stun or grapple. Disarm or trip. Big monsters are pretty much immune to all of these tricks, leaving the monk as a secondary melee combatant, when melee is all they can do.
-Tallas 13:14, 25 July 2007 (EDT)
Another example of WotC's failure to understand the point of combat: to kill stuff. Survival is secondary. You need to survive to kill things, but survival itself isn't the goal. Therefore, offense is better than defense.
Now, a fighter base attack would help, and bonus feats would help even more. However, now it's just a variation on fighter...not unlike the ranger, of course, though the bonus feat list would probably be a tad less restrictive.
But the vast majority of the feats of which you speak are not in the SRD. The core monk has no option but to ineffectually flail at the enemy while the real fighters and spellcasters do all the work. His defenses are meaningless, since no smart enemy would waste his time attacking someone with little offensive power.
While I don't think monks necessarily need a whole new level of flash, they do need a solid list of feats, in a sensible tree designed for *them* to take it, not some mythical monk-like character taking nothing but fighter levels.
We should also ensure, as much as possible, that a fighter cannot outperform a monk by taking these feats; using certain skills as a prerequisite (like Tumble) would help there.
We should start by listing all applicable 3.5 monk feats in the expanded material here, with the description and the source.
-Kenjura 15:51, 25 July 2007 (EDT)
:Monk feats moved to Monk Feats.
While I'm being active in this discussion, I have to wonder what is up with certain abilities:
- Abundant Step: What is this supposed to represent? Being faster than the blink of an eye? If so, it probably shouldn't be based off of Dimension Door. It's neat and all, but I think ninja magic should be left to the ninjas. Besides, Monks are pretty darned fast.
- Quivering Palm: A waste of an ability. It's usable once per week, it might miss, and the target might make the save. I have never seen it used in a game, and we've had some monks who could conceivably use it. It would be much better to have a high-end feat here, like Feats#Freezing the Lifeblood|Freezing the Lifeblood] (requiring Stunning Fist) or something else neat (to choose between two).
- Empty Body: Another ninja-magic thing. Also, why is this Etherealness rather than Ethereal Jaunt? You're supposed to take your party with you? I think it's inappropriate.
Ideas:
- Air Walk: Yes it's silly, but it'd be badass at say, level 16 or 18. Makes Slow Fall obsolete.
- Clairvoyance: For the psychic monk in all of us. Is there even a psychic monk?
- Ki Strike (incorporeal): This is a no-brainer.
- Up the Walls: Maybe if Air Walk is inappropriate.
-Tallas 10:43, 27 July 2007 (EDT)
Being (apparently) the only DM in history to run or playtest 3rd edition D&D games higher than 15th level, I've noticed a few things about high-level play, which I will define as any level higher than 13-15 (including epic).
One, that there is a sudden and dramatic increase in the need for all PCs, fighters and casters alike, to be able to fly. It becomes necessary due to the increased number of flying monsters (dragons, balors, and NPC wizards all do it), and the increasing complexity of encounter areas. The PCs manage to gain this ability by means of an equally dramatic exponential increase in treasure (both received by the random rolls and expected by the character wealth chart), often using items that don't exist, but should (like an item of infinite fly).
Beyond the initial threshold, and depending on the game, other abilities will also become more and more expected of all PCs, including invisibility, mind blank, and teleportation. Without these and other blanket protections/buffs, PCs will get walked all over by enemy spellcasters.
Since the monk has no need of magic weapons or armor, it stands to reason that he'd have no need of a magic item to fly--it ought to be innate. Of course, since the monk has no need of magic weapons or armor, he might find himself with a surplus of money, with which he could purchase said item. However, that argument doesn't hold water, because he has to pay more for enhancement bonuses on his unarmed strike, and needs to buff more stats than a fighter.
I see only two possibilities. One is the "realistic" approach where monks of any level, unaided by magic items, can do nothing more than leap very high and take long falls. After all, flying is silly. Then again, flying is silly whether it's innate or caused by an item, or even when it's a spell. And yet...the items and the spells do exist. The only way to undo the damage is to remove all flight from the game, save that accomplished by natural wings (druid, monster PCs) or flying mounts (everyone else).
The other possibility is to acknowledge the preexisting silliness of flight in D&D, and just grant it to the monk. I'd say at around 7-9th level, they would gain limited flight--say, a short-term air walk for combat maneuvers. Around 13-15th level, they would gain actual flight, and would finally be able to participate in Dragonball-style aerial combat, as they were always meant to.
Though I must say, the previously-mentioned possibility is intriguing. Phantom Steed already exists; why should fly? Overland flight should be stricken anyway. Flying mounts of various shapes and colors should be available in a standard equipment list, priced appropriately for high-level adventurers (as everything else in the adventurer's economy is). They would be faster and more cost-effective than items of limitless fly (which are hideously pricey because of its rightly short duration).
In that case, I can still see a case for monks flying under their own power. They don't ride mounts, it's just not...monkish.
As for the ninja magic, I agree. I think ninja should be a variant class of monk, which replaces many of the monk's melee combat abilities with stealth and magical abilities--it is the rogue to the monk's fighter. There should also be a more divine monk, who has neither brute strength nor stealth, but rather many supernatural abilities--the jedi consular to the monk's jedi guardian.
All three would likely share the same base numbers. The primary monk would retain insight but the others would lose it. The ninja would have fewer (or no) bonus feats, but would make up for it with special powers.
The concept bears further thought.
-Kenjura 12:30, 27 July 2007 (EDT)
