Designing from Flavour to Mechanics [3.X Monk Project]

This post continues my exploration of the monk class of Dungeons and Dragons 3.X. You can view the previous entries here:

• Design Goals
• Part 1 (Level 1)
• Part 2 (Expanded Design Goals)
• This post, first published: 28 May 2009; last edit: 08 June 2009 – latest updates in red.

Flavour First; Mechanics Later

I’ve received a little bit of positive feedback regarding this project, especially on combat stances and qi surges. However, trying to design mechanically sound stances and surges has proven to be difficult. Therefore, I’ve decided to tackle things differently. I am going to start with the flavour (you know, the role playing bit of the game) and work backwards from there to the mechanics.

For this project, I’ll be using the Chinese zodiac as the theme behind 12 different schools of martial arts (one school for each of the animals). Each school’s fighting style will be based on the connotations (probably incorporating both Occidental and Oriental viewpoints) surrounding each animal. The list is currently incomplete, but I shall be making repeated edits to this post (being sure to alert interested readers either via comments on this post or through other posts)

TC has also suggested that this monk revision not be restricted solely to what I write. Consider customizing the schools and stances to suit your own campaign world. Perhaps your styles are based on the teachings of your world’s  many deities, other fantasy creatures , dragon colours, as examples.

First, though, let’s get just a bit of the mechanics out of the way. The following table lists, by class level, the number of stances a monk knows and the number of stances she may have active simultaneously. A monk knows all qi surges, but each surge has certain prerequisites that need to be met before it can be used (previously, qi surges were tied directly to specific stances).

Level	Known	Active
1	2	1
2	3	2
3	3	2
4	3	2
5	4	2
6	4	2
7	4	2
8	5	3
9	5	3
10	5	3
11	6	3
12	6	3
13	6	3
14	7	4
15	7	4
16	7	4
17	8	4
18	8	4
19	8	4
20	8	5

Schools and Stances

EDIT (08 June 2009): I’ve added favoured skills to each of the classes, as suggested by TC. Bonuses/uses of favoured skills still to be determined.

Rat: According to legend, the Rat, being a small and weak creature, had to rely on his intellect, quick wit and cunning to overcome the many obstacles he faced. Monks that follow this school strive to emulate this quality and are often recognized as either wise diplomats and negotiators or cunning and crafty conmen. Favoured Skill: Bluff.

Stance of Cunning: The monk may add her Wisdom modifier to her Bluff, Diplomacy and Sense Motive checks as an Insight bonus (Effectively, she adds double her Wisdom modifier to Sense Motive checks).

Design note: I don’t see the stance of Cunning as a physical stance, but rather a state of mind, wherein the monk allows herself to better perceive (and thus manipulate) the thoughts and intent of others.

Ox: Work in Progress

Tiger: Work in Progress

Rabbit: Monks that follow this school are typically viewed as soft-spoken, friendly and amiable. They are generally cautious combatants.

Stance of Caerbannog: Attacks with your chosen weapons all deal slashing damage in addition to their normal damage types. Any chosen weapon you wield is considered to have the vorpal property.

Dragon: Work in Progress

Snake: Monks that follow the school of the snake move with  a sensual grace, making no unnecessary movements, preserving their energy, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Favoured Skill: Hide.

Stance of the Python: The monk may add her Wisdom modifier to any damage dealt through a successful grapple check.

Stance of the Viper: The monk may add her Wisdom modifier as an insight bonus to her Hide and Move Silently skill checks. She also adds her Wisdom modifier as an insight bonus to her initiative checks.

Horse: Work in Progress

Ram: Work in Progress

Monkey: Monks that follow the school of the monkey, quickly learn that mental strength and agility are as (if not more) important as physical strength and agility. Monks of this school tend to be quick thinkers and innovative combatants. Favoured Skill: Tumble.

Design note: I envision the melee monkey monk as a combatant that specialises in enfuriating other melee opponents, restricting their ability to strike back. I can’t decide if this should be portrayed mechanically as one stance that adds a bonus to disarm checks, or a stance that adds a bonus to grapple checks, or a stance that adds a bonus to both disarm and grapple checks. I’m favouring the third option.

Rooster: Work in Progress

Dog: Work in Progress

Boar: Work in Progress

I am also considering adding the 5 elements as seperate schools:

Wood: Work in Progress

Fire: Work in Progress

Earth: Work in Progress

Metal: Work in Progress

Water: Work in Progress

And, of course, we can’t forget:

Cat: Work in Progress

Surges

Finger Pointing A Way to the Moon: Requires: 1 rank in Bluff; Active Stance of Cunning; Improved Feint. Cost: 1 Qi Surge. You may feint in combat as a swift action.

Serpent’s Fangs: Requires: Active Stance of the Viper; (Other Dexterity or Speed-based requirement still to be determined. Suggestions?). Cost: 1 Qi Surge. As a standard action, the monk may make two attacks, using her full base attack bonus, against any flat-footed opponent or any opponent that she flanks.

Design note: I’ve always really liked the concept of Flurry of Blows, but never the implementation of it. Hopefully, Serpent’s Fangs can provide a less clunky alternative. Right now, I don’t want to enforce a penalty to the attack roll, as unlike Flurry of Blows, a monk only has a limited number of Qi Surges per day.

More to follow.

- jatori

[3.X Monk Project 2009] My monk is mad.

This post continues my exploration of the monk class of Dungeons and Dragons 3.X. You can view the previous entries here:

• Design Goals
• Part 1

Reducing Monk MADness

MAD or Multiple Attribute Dependence plagued several of the class designs of 3.X. But what exactly is MAD? Classes that suffer from MAD require three or more high attributes to function adequately. A wizard, arguably, requires only a high intelligence score, able to overcome any lower scores in her other attributes through the creative use of magic. In fact, lower scores in her other attributes may allow for more interesting roleplaying characters (overcoming physical disabilities or frailties [constution; strength]; combatting madness [wisdom]; clumsiness [dexterity]) A rogue could fulfill all of her prescribed duties with dexterity alone (opening locks, pick pockets, sneaking around, tumbling and landing sneak attacks). A monk however, however, requires both wisdom and dexterity to survive (due to the armour-wearing restriction); and strength to deal out damage. To illustrate further:

I’ve rolled the following scores for a new character’s attributes: 16, 14, 10, 10, 10, 10. Trying to decide between a rogue and a monk, I compare the two classes to each other. The rogue gets a 16 in dexterity and 14 in constitution; I give the monk 16 in dexterity and 14 in wisdom. At level 1:

Monk: 8 HP; 15 AC; +0 to melee attack; 1d6 damage (melee attack – kama)
Rogue: 8 HP; 15 AC (leather armour); +0 to melee attack; 1d6 (melee attack – short sword)

Level 2:

Monk: 12,5 HP; 15 AC; +2 to melee attack; 1d6 damage (melee attack – masterwork kama)
Rogue: 13,5 HP; 17 AC (chain shirt); +2 to melee attack; 1d6 (melee attack – masterwork short sword)

In the above, very simplified example, the monk quickly starts to lose out in terms of hit points and armour class.

So, how will I be addressing the monk’s MAD, yet still keep to the concept of unarmoured warrior (both design goals)? I believe the answer lies with the Martial Combat Stances I introduced in part 1. Though there are many good stance suggestions in the comments, I believe that there needs to be a select few that directly reduce MAD, yet still offer enough variety to allow for many different, but still efficient, builds. Furthermore, I don’t want to simply duplicate feats with these stances, because, if I did, I might as well just make an alternate bonus fighter feat list instead.

I think that my monk design needs access to at least the following base stance powers:

• A monk may add her Wisdom modifer to her Dexterity modifier for the purpose of calculating her Dexterity bonus to her Armour Class.
• A monk may add her Wisdom modifer to her Strength modifier for the purpose of determing her Strength bonus to her melee damage rolls.
• A monk may add her Wisdom modifer to her Strength modifier when making a grapple, trip, bull rush or overrun check.
• A monk may add her Wisdom modifer to the following skills as an insight bonus:
  • Stealth (Hide; Move Silently)
  • Perception (Spot; Listen)
  • Acrobatics (Balance; Tumble)
  • Athletics (Jump; Swim; Climb)
  • Charisma-based skills
• A monk may use the highest of either her Wisdom or Constitution modifier when determing hit points (Qi Surge to add them together for Wisdom modifier minutes)

- jatori

[3.X Monk Project 2009] Reset

If you’ve been following my 3.X monk redesign antics, you’ll remember me disliking how the last attempt went. So, I’m going back to the beginning, starting at level 1 once more. See here for the haphazardly strung together design goals.

Monk (Redesign Version 3-ish)

Hit Die: d8

Base Attack: 0.75 (progression as a cleric)

Saves: All good.

Armour Proficiencies: A monk is not proficient with any armour and wearing armour restricts or prevents the monk from using some of her class abilities.

Weapon Proficiencies: A monk is proficient with all simple weapons and all martial weapons.

Skills: A monk gets [(6 + intelligence modifier) * 4] skill points at level 1. A monk gets 6 + intelligence modifier skill points at each additional level. The following skills count as class skills for the monk:

Balance, Climb, Craft, Escape Artist, Heal, Hide, Jump, Knowledge (Arcana, History and Religion), Listen, Move Silently, Perform, Profession, Sense Motive, Spot, Swim, Tumble and Use Rope.

In addition a monk may choose one of the following to add to her skill list: Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidate.

Level 1:

Bonus Feat: At level 1, a monk gains Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat.

Chosen Weapons: At level 1, a monk chooses any three weapons from her list of weapon proficiencies. A monk specialises in the use of these weapons and, unless otherwise stated, all of the monk’s special attacks can only be performed when she uses one of her chosen weapons as part of the attack. A monk may change her list of chosen weapons (replacing one weapon with another, including weapon proficiencies gained by later taking the appropriate feat(s) whenever she has the time to refocus and retrain herself, but she may never have more than 3 chosen weapons. A monk may choose unarmed strike as one of her chosen weapons.

ChosenWeapon Damage (Ex): A monk does increased damage with her chosen weapons. Whenever a monk deals damage with her chosen weapons, she may choose to roll damage using either the  weapon’s standard damage die or the damage die from the following list:

• Monk level 1 – 3: d6
• Monk level 4 – 7: d8
• Monk level8 -11: d10
• Monk level12 – 15: 2d6
• Monk level16 – 19: 2d8
• Monk level20: 2d10

For example, a level 4 monk, using a short sword could choose to use the standard weapon die of a d6 or  rather the d8 granted from this ability, when determining damage.

Qi Surge (Ex): A monk is capable of performing incredible acts of strength and agility through the harnessing of her body’s own qi. A monk is able to perform a Qi Surge 1 + Wisdom modifier times per day. Qi Surges are spent as part of the cost of activating other monk class abilities. At levels 5, 10, 15 and 20, you gain an additional Qi Surge per day.

Martial Combat Stance (Ex): A monk begins her career knowing a few martial arts styles, learned in her formative years. These styles are represented as Stances and each represents a different fighting technique and philosophy. As a monk advances in skill, she learns how to combine the teachings of multiple styles and schools into her own unique combat stance. At level one, a monk knows two different stances and may have one stance active at a time. At later levels, a monk learns more stances and is able to have more than one active. As a swift action, a monk may activate a stance. If activating a stance would cause a monk to exceed the maximum number of active stance she may have at her current level, she may deactivate any of her other stances as part of the same action. Unless otherwise stated, a monk may not activate nor maintain a stance while wearing armour.

Example Stance (Stance of the Willow):

Base Power: While in this stance, a monk may add her Wisdom modifier to her Dexterity modifier when determining her Dexterity bonus to her Armour Class.

Qi Surge: When an enemy makes a melee attack against the monk, she may spend a Ki Surge as an immediate action, enabling her to make one melee attack against her attacker, before his attack is resolved. The attack granted by this ability counts as an Attack of Opportunity.

Class Options:

Feats:

Inner Reserves of Power: Gain +3 Qi Surges per day. This feat may be taken multiple times; its affects stack.

Comments? Thoughts? What if I name the sample stance: ‘Style of the Whomping Willow’?

- jatori

[3.5 Monk Project 2009] Levels 2 and 3

This post forms part of my redesign of the 3.5 monk project. Previous entries on this topic can be found here and here.

Today, I shall  continue the discussion on level 2 and introduce my ideas for level 3. Hopefully, after some discussion, I can develop this into a playtest 3-level class. More on that as things develop.

Additions to level 2:

Combat Style:

Swift: This style focuses on speed and agility. A monk that follows this path is infuriatingly difficult to hit in combat. A swift monk’s attacks do less damage than those of other styles, but she is able to attack far more often and far more accurately.

Favoured Qi Flows: Qi Defense

Bonus Feat List: Agile, Combat Reflexes, Deflect Arrows, Dodge, Improved Initiative, Mobility, Run, Quick Draw, Spring Attack, Snatch Arrows, Stealthy, Weapon Finesse.

Balanced: A monk that follows the balanced style combines both offense and defense into a highly adaptive fighting style.

Favoured Qi Flows: ???

Bonus Feat List (A balanced style monk may use her wisdom score, instead of her intelligence score, as the prerequisite for any of the feat): Blind-Fight, Dodge, Combat Expertise , Improved Disarm, Improved Feint, Improved Disarm, Power Attack.

Level 3:

Unarmoured Speed Bonus (Ex): At level 3, a monk gets a +10ft (enhancement?) bonus to her speed.

Enhanced Qi Strike (Ex): As she gains experience, a monk learns to better control her body and qi in order to deliver powerful attacks. The type of attack depends on the monk’s combat style.

Strong: After a successful Qi Strike, a monk may make expend 1 qi point as a free action to either make a grapple or bull rush attempt against the same foe. The bull rush or grapple attempt is resolved as normal (incurring attacks of opportunity if applicable).

If you succeed with a grapple attempt, you deal extra damage equal to your wisdom modifier.

If you succeed with a bull rush attempt, you may push your opponent back an additional distance equal to your wisdom modifier, rounded up to the nearest multiple of 5 feet. When moving your opponent this extra distance, you do not have to travel with him.

Swift: After a successful Qi Strike, a monk may make expend 1 qi point as a free action to make another Qi Strike  against the same foe without having to deactive an additional Qi Flow. At level 3, you are limited to making only two Qi Strikes per round. At level x, you are limited to making only y Qi Strikes per round.

Balanced: After a successful Qi Strike, a monk may make expend 1 qi point as a free action to make either a disarm or trip attempt against the same foe. The disarm or trip attempt is resolved as normal (incurring attacks of opportunity if applicable).

You may add your wisdom modifier to your disarm attempt roll.

If your trip attempt is successful and you have the Improved Trip feat, you may add your wisdom modifier to the damage dealt to your follow up attack.

Other Notes:

After thinking about it, I think Stunning Fist is a rather silly feat. TC  made some comments about it in part 2, providing an alternative. I still need to consider this.

- jatori

[3.5 Monk Project 2009] Level 2

I am once again attempting to redesign the Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 Monk class. This post continues the project. See here for the design goals.

~~~

Just to let you know, I shall be compiling everything I’ve written about the monk (and the various comments and inputs from others) into one central place. I shall let you know when that’s done. For now, though, let’s have a look at the class skill list and my ideas for level 2.

A monk gets [(6 + intelligence modifier) * 4] skill points at level 1. A monk gets 6 + intelligence modifier skill points at each additional level. The following skills count as class skills for the monk:

Balance, Climb, Craft, Escape Artist, Heal, Hide, Jump, Knowledge (Arcana, History and Religion), Listen, Move Silently, Perform, Profession, Sense Motive, Spot, Swim, Tumble and Use Rope.

In addition a monk may choose one of the following to add to her skill list: Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidate.

Now for level 2:

Evasion (Ex)

At 2nd level or higher if a monk makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, she instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if a monk is wearing light armor or no armor. A helpless monk does not gain the benefit of evasion.

Combat Style (Ex)

At 2nd level a monk chooses to follow a particular approach to her martial arts training and development. Each style has a list of preferred Qi Flows. A monk may add +1 to her wisdom modifier when calculating the benefit gained from a favoured Qi Flow. A monk’s combat style also determines the list of feats from which she can choose bonus feats. A monk can choose from the following styles:

Strong: This style focuses on delivering individually powerful and damaging attacks.

Favoured Qi Flows: Qi Body; Qi Offense.

Bonus Feat List: Athletic, Cleave, Diehard, Endurance, Great Cleave, Improved Bull Rush, Improved Critical, Improved Grapple, Improved Overrun, Improved Sunder, Power Attack, Stunning Fist, Toughness, and Weapon Focus.

Swift: (still under development)

Balanced: (still under development)

Bonus Feat: At 2nd level, a monk gains a bonus feat from the list provided by her combat style. She still needs to meet all the prerequisites for the feat.

~~~

OK, this was missing from part one, but unless otherwise specified all class abilities are to be considered extraordinary.

I’m still unsure of how to incorporate Stunning Fist.

Comments/suggestions?

- jatori

Awesome begins with ‘M’ and ends in ‘onk’.

It’s been almost a year since I last posted on my attempts at redesigning the 3.5 monk. Recently, I’ve been reinspired to once again tackle this task. If you’re interested in seeing what was discussed last year, you can review the following posts:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5
• Part 6

No need to read through all of the above though, because here’s a list of updated design goals:

• Reduce the MAD (multiple attribute dependancy)! A monk needs a good strength, dexterity, constitution and wisdom score to perform adequately. A fighter could get away with just a good strength and constituion; a rogue can fulfill  most of her expected duties with dexterity alone; and a wizard can get away with just a good intelligence score.
• Make the class unique! The 3.5  monk is a horrible mix of various effects that can be easily duplicated by other classes or magical items.
• Stick to the theme of unarmoured, martial artist.
• Wisdom still needs to be the defining attribute of the class.
• Rethink flurry of blows as it directly conflicts with the increased speed and mobility of the class.
• Keep the design simple, but allow for complex builds (not complicated) that can accurately portray a large variety of fighting styles.
• Remove the silly alignment and multiclassing restrictions.

I did have one problem with the direction that my design was heading towards last year: Many of the ideas I had started to show a strong resemblance to ideas found within Tome of Battle (DnD 3.75) and 4e. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but I’d rather see if there are other design options available within the 3.5 ruleset, if possible.

And now, here is the 1st level of my 2009 design:

Hit Die: d8

Base Attack: 0.75 (progression as a cleric)

Saves: All good.

Armour Proficiencies: A monk is not proficient with any armour and wearing armour restricts or prevents the monk from using some of her class abilities.

Weapon Proficiencies: A monk is proficient with all simple weapons and all martial weapons.

Bonus Feat: At level 1, a monk gains Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat.

Chosen Weapons: At level 1, a monk chooses any three weapons from her list of weapon proficiencies. A monk specialises in the use of these weapons and many of the monk’s special attacks can only be performed when she uses one of her chosen weapons as part of the attack. A monk may change her list of chosen weapons (replacing one weapon with another, including weapon proficiencies gained by later taking the appropriate feats) whenever she has the time to refocus and retrain herself, but she may never have more than 3 chosen weapons. A monk may choose unarmed strike as one of her chosen weapons.

ChosenWeapon Damage: A monk does increased damage with her chosen weapons. Whenever a monk deals damage with her chosen weapons, she may choose to roll damage using either the  weapon’s standard damage die or the damage die from the following list:

• Monk level 1 – 3: d6
• Monk level 4 – 7: d8
• Monk level8 -11: d10
• Monk level12 – 15: 2d6
• Monk level16 – 19: 2d8
• Monk level20: 2d10

For example, a level 4 monk, using a short sword could choose to use the standard weapon die of a d6 or  rather the d8 granted from this ability, when determining damage.

Qi Pool: A monk has the ability to channel her qi, which allows her to perform acts far beyond the abilities of the average human. A monk’s qi pool is equal to her class level + her wisdom modifier. A monk may only spend a number of qi points per round equal to her class level.

Qi Flow:At level 1, as long as a monk has 1 point remaining in her qi pool, she may have any one of the following qi flow abilities active. As long as a monk has 3 points remaining in her qi pool, she may have any two of the following abilities active. As long as a monk has x points remaining in her qi pool, she may have any y of the following abilities active. A monk uses a swift action to activate a qi flow. When activating a qi flow, if a monk does not have enough qi points remaining to maintain the additional qi flow, she can deactivate one of her other qi flows as part of the same action.

Qi Body: A monk may add her wisdom modifier to her constitution modifier when determining her hit point total.

Qi Defense: A monk may add her wisdom modifier to her dexterity modifier when determining her dexterity bonus to AC. A monk may not use this ability while wearing armour or wielding a shield. If a monk is denied her dexterity bonus to AC, she also loses the bonus granted by qi defense.

Qi Offense: A monk may add her wisdom modifier to her strength modifier when determining the strength bonus to any damage roll.

Qi Mage: A monk may add her wisdom modifier to the effective spellcasting level of one of her spellcasting classes. Her effective spellcasting level cannot exceed her character level.

Qi Soul: A monk may add her wisdom modifier to all of her saves.

Qi Skin: A monk of level x, or higher, gains damage reduction equal to her (wisdom modifier)/-. This ability counts as maintaining 2 qi flows.

Qi Strike: As a swift action, a monk may end any one qi flow she has active and spend 1 qi point to perform a basic attack, using her full base attack bonus, but with a -x penalty. A monk may not use this ability while wearing armour or wielding a shield.

Of course, not all the maths has been worked out yet (hence the x and y variables). I’m also considering applying only half the wisdom modifier bonus to certain qi flows (for example qi offense) until a higher level.

- jatori