More Monky Business

As I mentioned in a recent post, I've been struggling, of late, with the Monk class.  I want to include the class and I want to capture its spirit as described in the Blackmoor supplement, but I want it to fit in with the other, fairly parsimonious, classes of Swords & Wizardry.  This is where the Blackmoor monk failed, in my opinion.  Reading it over, it feels shoe-horned into D&D in a 'one of these things is not like the others' sort of way.

I decided that what I needed to do was pare away all the extraneous abilities and focus on just a few fundamental abilities that capture the essence of the Monk without bogging it down in a morass of tacked-on rules and way too many class features.  The trick is deciding what, exactly those essential features are and how to achieve them.  While mulling it over, I've been playing Diablo for the first time in about ten years, with the Hellfire expansion installed, which allows one to play a Monk character.  So I've been happily working through the multi-level mega dungeon, whacking monsters with my staff and immersing myself in a Monkish mindset.  I've even gone so far as to listen to my favourite British punk band:

The Monks were a fairly obscure band that never really took off, except in Canada where, for some reason, they were fairly popular and when I was in high school I played this album so often, and loudly, that I'm surprised it didn't drive my parents insane.  It's the sort of music that I would find absolutely intolerable as a parent, today.  But, I digress.

The biggest issue I needed to tackle was to bring the Monk's open hand attacks more in line with other classes.  As originally presented in Blackmoor, by 16th level, the Monk was making 4 attacks per round dealing 4-40 points of damage each!  In S&W, only the Fighter gets more than one attack per round, and even then, only against creatures of 1 HD or less, and weapon damage is capped at 1d6.  Power levels are low and I'd like to keep it that way, but I still want open hand attacks to improve in effectiveness as the Monk levels.  I use a house rule for two-handed weapon damage that I stole from Philotomy's OD&D Musings; roll 2d6 and pick the highest die roll.  This might work well for increasing open hand damage at higher levels; simply increase the number of dice rolled, allowing the player to take the highest score.  Likewise, I allow any character to dual-wield weapons, allowing them to make a single melee attack at +1 to hit (another house rule shamelessly stolen from Philotomy), and since it can be assumed that the Monk will be making unarmed attacks with hands, feet, knees, elbows, etc. they would always be assumed to be dual-wielding and will, therefore, always receive the +1 bonus to hit with open hand attacks.

I've eliminated thief abilities (the Blackmoor Monk was a better thief than the Thief), and the ability to speak with plants and animals.  I've also rolled all the various immunities to mind-controlling effects, like Geas/Quest spells into a +2 bonus to save against all mind-control effects.

So, here is what I've come up with:

The Monk Class

Level	XP	HD	Title
1	0	1	Novice
2	2,250	2	Initiate
3	4,500	3	Brother
4	9,000	3+1	Disciple
5	18,000	4	Immaculate
6	36,000	5	Master
7	72,000	6	Master of Dragons
8	144,000	6+1	Master of North Wind
9	288,000	7	Master of West Wind
10	576,000	8	Master of South Wind
11	250,000 per level	+1 hp per level	Master of East Wind
12			Master of Winter
13			Master of Autumn
14			Master of Summer
15			Master of Spring
16			Grandmaster of Flowers

Table 9: Monk Ability Table

Level	Armour Class	Move	Open Hand Damage*	Special Abilities
1	9	12”	1d6	Deflect Missiles
2	8	13”	1d6
3	8	14”	1d6
4	7	15”	1d6
5	7	16”	2d6	Feign Death; Slow Fall I
6	6	17”	2d6
7	6	18”	2d6	Heal Self
8	5	19”	2d6	Slow Fall II
9	5	20”	2d6
10	4	22”	3d6
11	4	24”	3d6	Slow Fall III
12	3	26”	3d6
13	3	28”	3d6	Quivering Palm
14	2	30”	3d6
15	1	32”	3d6
16	0	34”	3D6

* When rolling two or three dice for damage only the highest single die roll is kept; the dice totals are not added together.

Monk Abilities

Weapon/Armour Restrictions: Monks may use any weapon, but may not wear armour or carry a shield.

Vow of Poverty: A Monk may never own more than 5 magic items, and may only keep enough treasure to support himself and his followers.  All excess treasure must be donated to a church, monastery, or charitable cause.  Other player characters are not charitable causes.

Saving Throw: Monks gain a +2 bonus to save against any effect that targets the mind.

Open Hand Attacks: When fighting unarmed, any ‘to hit’ roll that succeeds by 5 or more will stun the opponent for 1d6 rounds unless they make a successful Constitution save.  When fighting unarmed, the Monk may decide whether to deal normal or subdual damage.

Deflect Missiles: The Monk may deflect any non-magical thrown or missile attacks with a successful Dexterity save.

Feign Death: Beginning at 5^th level the Monk may slow his heart rate and breathing to such an extent that he appears to be dead.  He can maintain this state for a number of turns equal to 1d6 x level.

Slow Fall: Beginning at 5^th level, Monks may slow their fall if within a certain distance of a vertical surface.  Slow Fall I – Monks may fall 20’ if within 2’ of a vertical surface.  Slow Fall II – Monks may fall 40’ if within 4’ of a vertical surface.  Slow Fall III – Monks may fall any distance if within 6’ of a vertical surface.

Heal Self: Once per day beginning at 7^th level, a Monk may heal 1d6+1 points of damage he has sustained.  For each level above 7^th, the Monk adds +1 to the amount of damage healed.

Quivering Palm: Beginning at 13^th level, the Monk learns the terrible Quivering Palm technique, which can be used once per week.  If the Monk makes a successful unarmed attack upon an opponent with equal or fewer hit dice than the Monk, he may set up vibrations in the body of the victim, which he can stop at any time up to 1 day per level of the Monk, causing death.  If the time limit expires without the death command having been given, the effect wears off, causing no damage.  This technique has no effect on undead or creatures that can be hit only by magical weaponry.

Experience Bonus for Wisdom: Monks with an above average Wisdom score receive a 5% experience point bonus.