Making a Monk Pt.2
Posted on 21/06/08 10:17
Let’s Talk Features
While the base stat block really gives you some insight into what kind of car you can drive on a monk road but its doesn’t tell you must about where that road goes. This is where the class feature come into play. Features are what really give a class its shape. While Powers give you the tools that your class needs to survive and grow the features are really what tells you how your class fits into the groups. The Monk has two basic sets of class features, its passives and its stances. The passive feats are the easiest to develop as they are baseline and once established are easy to measure and compare against he others classes.
Currently these are the features that I’m looking at for my Monk class. Now not all of these will make it into my final design but I want to review and go over each of them in turn.
Focused Healing
When determining the number of Healing surges per Day you receive you may choose to use either you Wisdom Modifier or your Constitution modifier whichever is higher.
-Coming from the nearly nonexistent armor that the Monk is going to be toting around in while in the thick of combat having extra healing surges is something that is going to be needed. While a Monk will obviously have some weight to his constitution score for HP determination the Monk should have more in wisdom as it will be more of a determinant of many of his abilities. This allows the Monk to gain a few extra surges out of this.
Deft Reflexes
The Monk adds his Wisdom Modifier to his AC bonus. Anytime the Monk is denied his Dexterity Bonus to AC the Monk is denied this bonus.
-Again with the Monks focus on his wisdom. This one is intended to deal with the monk lack of AC and his general exposure to combat damage. This has a lot of similarity to its 3E cousin.
Focused Mind
The Monk gains an additional +2 to defenses against Fear, Psychic, Illusion and Charm abilities.
-The Monk is a focused character. Relying more on his inner power and knowledge of energy flows the Monk can see through things that either aren’t there or attempting to influence him. It’s not fool proof however as beings of power or just plain bad karma can work against your Monk.
While those are the front runners for possible passive class features we now get into the meat of the class when it comes to features. Stances are what is going to be the focus of the mechanic for my Monk. My monk is designed as a gap filler in a party situation. While unable to replace any member of any class they can pick up some slack in some situations. That is where a stance comes into play. Stances are these gap fillers. Here are some ideas I’ve been kicking around.
Tiger Stance
Offensive Attack stance.
DW Melee fist weapons. (Katar)
Powers drawn from Fighter and Ranger DW lists.
Tiger Focused Powers Deal extra damage or attack more then one opponent.
Viper Stance
Strike and Retreat stance.
DW Melee Weapons. (Nunchuku)
Powers Drawn from Rogue and Ranger DW Lists.
Viper Focused Powers involve movement during attacks and exploiting combat advantage.
Crane Stance
Debilitating Stance
Two Handed Weapon (Spear)
Powers Drawn from Warlord and Rogue lists.
Crane focused powers allow others to increase their damage against targets and create combat advantage.
Monkey Stance
Really Annoying Stance
Two Handed Weapon (Staff)
Powers Drawn from Fighter and Rogue lists.
Monkey powers confuse, daze and distract opponents while giving the Monkey evasion and dodge.
Dragon Stance
Chi powered Stance
Unarmed focus stance.
Powers drawn from Cleric, Warlord and Warlock lists.
Dragon powers focus on daily and encounter powers making large dramatic effects.
Now you might be wondering what I mean by drawing from another classes power lists. This only means that I am going to use powers from those lists as base line an example would be Deft strike from the Rogue list and its Monk equivalent Slip Strike.
Deft Strike Rogue Attack 1
At-Will*Martial, Weapon
Standard Action Melee or Ranged Weapon
Requirement: You must be wielding a crossbow, light blade or a sling.
Target: Once Creature
Special: You may move two squares before the attack.
Attack: Dexterity vs. AC
Hit: 1[W] + Dexterity modifier damage.
Increase damage to 2[W] +Dexterity modifier damage at 21st level.
And now its conversion:
Slip Strike Monk Attack 1
At-Will * Martial, Weapon
Standard Action Melee Weapon
Target: One Creature
Attack: Dexterity vs. AC
Special: You may move one square before the attack.
Hits: 1[W] + Dexterity Modifier damage.
Increase damage to 2[W] + Dexterity modifier at 21st level.
Special: While in Viper Stance or deviations you gain combat advantage against the target until the targets next turn.
A you can see the monk gets a slightly toned down version of the rogue ability though it gets a boost when in the correct stance. This way a stance becomes an empower effect instead of an enable effect. That ties up this entry, next time I’ll delve a little more in depth into the individual stances and how they are going to flesh out as well as how deviant stances will work.
-Geoff
Discuss this entry here.
While the base stat block really gives you some insight into what kind of car you can drive on a monk road but its doesn’t tell you must about where that road goes. This is where the class feature come into play. Features are what really give a class its shape. While Powers give you the tools that your class needs to survive and grow the features are really what tells you how your class fits into the groups. The Monk has two basic sets of class features, its passives and its stances. The passive feats are the easiest to develop as they are baseline and once established are easy to measure and compare against he others classes.
Currently these are the features that I’m looking at for my Monk class. Now not all of these will make it into my final design but I want to review and go over each of them in turn.
Focused Healing
When determining the number of Healing surges per Day you receive you may choose to use either you Wisdom Modifier or your Constitution modifier whichever is higher.
-Coming from the nearly nonexistent armor that the Monk is going to be toting around in while in the thick of combat having extra healing surges is something that is going to be needed. While a Monk will obviously have some weight to his constitution score for HP determination the Monk should have more in wisdom as it will be more of a determinant of many of his abilities. This allows the Monk to gain a few extra surges out of this.
Deft Reflexes
The Monk adds his Wisdom Modifier to his AC bonus. Anytime the Monk is denied his Dexterity Bonus to AC the Monk is denied this bonus.
-Again with the Monks focus on his wisdom. This one is intended to deal with the monk lack of AC and his general exposure to combat damage. This has a lot of similarity to its 3E cousin.
Focused Mind
The Monk gains an additional +2 to defenses against Fear, Psychic, Illusion and Charm abilities.
-The Monk is a focused character. Relying more on his inner power and knowledge of energy flows the Monk can see through things that either aren’t there or attempting to influence him. It’s not fool proof however as beings of power or just plain bad karma can work against your Monk.
While those are the front runners for possible passive class features we now get into the meat of the class when it comes to features. Stances are what is going to be the focus of the mechanic for my Monk. My monk is designed as a gap filler in a party situation. While unable to replace any member of any class they can pick up some slack in some situations. That is where a stance comes into play. Stances are these gap fillers. Here are some ideas I’ve been kicking around.
Tiger Stance
Offensive Attack stance.
DW Melee fist weapons. (Katar)
Powers drawn from Fighter and Ranger DW lists.
Tiger Focused Powers Deal extra damage or attack more then one opponent.
Viper Stance
Strike and Retreat stance.
DW Melee Weapons. (Nunchuku)
Powers Drawn from Rogue and Ranger DW Lists.
Viper Focused Powers involve movement during attacks and exploiting combat advantage.
Crane Stance
Debilitating Stance
Two Handed Weapon (Spear)
Powers Drawn from Warlord and Rogue lists.
Crane focused powers allow others to increase their damage against targets and create combat advantage.
Monkey Stance
Really Annoying Stance
Two Handed Weapon (Staff)
Powers Drawn from Fighter and Rogue lists.
Monkey powers confuse, daze and distract opponents while giving the Monkey evasion and dodge.
Dragon Stance
Chi powered Stance
Unarmed focus stance.
Powers drawn from Cleric, Warlord and Warlock lists.
Dragon powers focus on daily and encounter powers making large dramatic effects.
Now you might be wondering what I mean by drawing from another classes power lists. This only means that I am going to use powers from those lists as base line an example would be Deft strike from the Rogue list and its Monk equivalent Slip Strike.
Deft Strike Rogue Attack 1
At-Will*Martial, Weapon
Standard Action Melee or Ranged Weapon
Requirement: You must be wielding a crossbow, light blade or a sling.
Target: Once Creature
Special: You may move two squares before the attack.
Attack: Dexterity vs. AC
Hit: 1[W] + Dexterity modifier damage.
Increase damage to 2[W] +Dexterity modifier damage at 21st level.
And now its conversion:
Slip Strike Monk Attack 1
At-Will * Martial, Weapon
Standard Action Melee Weapon
Target: One Creature
Attack: Dexterity vs. AC
Special: You may move one square before the attack.
Hits: 1[W] + Dexterity Modifier damage.
Increase damage to 2[W] + Dexterity modifier at 21st level.
Special: While in Viper Stance or deviations you gain combat advantage against the target until the targets next turn.
A you can see the monk gets a slightly toned down version of the rogue ability though it gets a boost when in the correct stance. This way a stance becomes an empower effect instead of an enable effect. That ties up this entry, next time I’ll delve a little more in depth into the individual stances and how they are going to flesh out as well as how deviant stances will work.
-Geoff
Discuss this entry here.
