For the time in a while, I’ve finished a new Spes Magna product, this time for 5E D&D. The Ways Of… presents seven new monastic traditions, each one available to a different core rules race. The elven monks of the way of the Blade and Bow practice a different art than do the halfling monks of the Way of the Hearth. A dwarven Cave monk fighting back-to-back with a gnomish Prank monk use their ki in very different ways. Other monastic traditions include tieflings, dragonborn, and drow. This is the playtest version of The Ways Of…. Get it today by paying what you want, and create a monk for your favorite non-human race.
I’ve also completed about two-thirds of The Ninth Face of Cro, my fourth Dangerous Place and the first one written for 5E D&D. (The other three Dangerous Places are for Swords & Wizardry.) The Ninth Face introduces beginning characters to the Mortuary Moot, a frontier region recovering from a natural disaster. As part of the recovery efforts, the barons have put out the call for adventurers to seek fame and fortune in the Moot (and thus help drive out the hordes of evil humanoids and other monsters who threaten settlers and merchants). I hope to have The Ninth Face available as early as this Friday (although next week is probably more realistic).
And now for more thoughts about investigative 5E D&D.
I’ve written three blogposts about The GUMSHOE System’s applicability to a more traditional fantasy game, wherein I’ve mused about clue hunting, gothic Victorian D&D, and what an Adventuress background might look like. The focus on these musings has been TSR’s wonderful Masque of the Red Death campaign expansion with a dash of Chaosium’s excellent Cthulhu by Gaslight. In recent days, I’ve started down a different rabbit trail. Two of my other favorite TSR products are Oriental Adventures and the Birthright campaign setting. Both of these products encourage and reward things like courtly intrigue, spying, et cetera. They’re ideal for investigative roleplaying.
Nota Bene: All of the links in that last paragraph are affiliate links. If you click and buy, I get a pittance.
5E D&D already includes a few nods to what was the Oriental Adventures milieu: monks, assassins (read: ninjas), and samurai. Working up a few new races (spirit folk) or subraces (korobokuru) shouldn’t be too hard. Classes such as the yakuza could become subclasses. Thrown out the PH weapons and armor tables and pull in OA weapons and armor, change a few names, and a lot of the work would be done. Also, I’ve printed for closer reading the 5E conversion of Birthright by Marsupialmancer. The conversion looks promising.
Little by little, after our current d20 Modern science-fantasy-horror campaign draws to a close, I’m leaning heavily toward a less gonzo game of political intrigue with a decidedly OA feel. Time will tell whether my ADHD drags me in a different direction before we’re ready for a new campaign in the fall.
If I were handing out trophies to character classes, the prize for Most Liked But Least Played would go the monk. As a player, I like monks. They look like a lot of fun. Since I started RPGing in the late 70s, I’ve seldom played a monk. (The most I’ve played a monk was in the Neverwinter Nights computer game.) The same situation applies to other games. For example, in super hero games, I dig the martial artist, but when I (rarely) get to play in a super hero game I’m most drawn to the brick archetype.
In earlier editions of D&D, monks tended to all be pretty much the same. The introduction of prestige classes brought with it some variety, to be sure, but we old-timers had to wait until the 3E DMG for those. Before that? Well, there was September 1981’s articles about the monk published in Dragon, and our AD&D campaign quickly switched over to the rewrite of the monk class presented in that issue. That really didn’t introduce variety. I suppose a gaming group could have used both the AD&D PH monk and the Dragon magazine monk, but the former’s clear inferiority would make that an odd choice.
Nowadays, in 5E D&D, the rules rewrite the prestige class concept into various subclasses, with each character choosing a subclass at 3rd level. For monks, this means a choice between various monastic traditions. In the 5E PH, we have the Ways of the Open Hand, Shadow, and Four Elements. Xanathar’s Guide expands choices with Ways for the Drunken Master, Kensei, and Sun Soul. (I’m sure there are others examples out there, but I don’t own those books.) Based on the idea that options are good, this is a good thing, but my grognard sensibilities still pop up once and a while.
Back in the day, all monks were human. Period. That was it, no other choices were officially available, et cetera. What’s more, every monk of X level had the same abilities as every other monk of X level. This wasn’t a bad thing. It wasn’t a bug; it was a feature derived from a specific vision of what a certain fantasy campaign world looked like. Newer editions of the game have gone different ways. Today, any race can be a monk, and (after 3rd level) monks vary quite a bit in terms of class features.
A while ago, I published The Dwarf. I wrote The Dwarf because part of me still loves the idea that a dwarf character’s class is Dwarf. Such a Dwarf was my very first character (although he soon morphed into an AD&D fighter/thief while our young selves gradually figured out that B/X D&D and AD&D weren’t quite the same game). To quote me: “Old School meets New School in The Dwarf, a new combination character class/race. Now you can relive the glory days of the World’s Greatest Roleplaying Game, back when a dwarf was a dwarf instead of a dwarf fighter or rogue or whatever. The Dwarf presents a complete race-as-class, including two new subraces, three new archetypes, and three new backgrounds.”
So, with all of this in mind, I thought, “What if some monk subclasses were race specific?”
In 5E D&D, anyone who wants to can play a dwarf monk, for example. When that dwarf monk reaches 3rd level, the player gets to choose whatever monk subclass seems most fun. The player can have a dwarf Drunken Master or a dwarf Shadow monk. Any other race can also follow any of the monastic traditions available. So, if we compare a dwarf Drunken Master and a human Drunken Master, the thing that distinguishes them is race. The class features are identical.
But ought dwarven monks not have a specifically dwarven monastic tradition? And if the dwarves do, wouldn’t the other races as well?
And so I’ve been working on monastic traditions that are race-specific. I’ve left out humans, half-elves, and half-orcs. They can remain content with the plethora of other options. Dwarves, elves, halflings, gnomes, and dragonborn, however, have their own unique monastic traditions that reflect a particular way of viewing the world and using ki. As of the typing of these words, I’ve completed rough drafts for every monastic tradition except the one for the gnomes. I’ll almost certainly have the playtest PDF available via DriveThruRPG by the end of this week.
When I’m done, seven (maybe eight) new monastic traditions become possible. So far, I’ve written the Ways of the Blade and Bow (high and wood elves), Brimstone (tieflings), the Cave (dwarves), the Dragon (dragonborn), the Hearth (halflings), and the Spider (drow). The gnomish Way of the Prank remains undone, and may turn into two monastic traditions: the Way of the Prank for forest gnomes and the Way of the Clank for rock gnomes.
To end this post, a sample of a few racial monastic tradition features for tieflings, dwarves, and drow, respectively.
Hellish Castigation: Starting when you choose this tradition at 3rd level, your furious indigation at being injured causes your ki to boil. If you spend 2 ki points, you have advantage when attacking with a monk weapon or unarmed strike any creature that has damaged you since the end of your last turn.
Deep Earth Way: At 6th level, you learn to speak, read, and write Terran. Also, you can expand your senses by spending 3 ki points. For 1 minute, you gain tremorsense with a range equal to your bonus unarmored movement. While your tremorsense is functioning, you also have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing.
Greater Spider’s Transformations: At 11th level, your ability to channel your ki along eight-fold pathways improves. As an action, you can spend 4 ki points to transform and gain one of the following benefits:
You can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check. You ignore movement restrictions caused by webbing.
Gain blindsight with a range of 20 ft.
You gain a bite attack that is treated as a monk weapon. Your bite inflicts damage as a monk weapon plus 2d6 poison damage.
This ability has a duration of 1 hour. While this ability lasts, you can end one option as an action to gain the benefits of a different one.
The telekinetic monk combines martial arts with psychokinetic power. He can launch flurries of telekinetic blows at range and develops an array of psionic and psi-like abilities as he gains experience.
Psionic: At 1st level, a telekinetic monk gains the Wild Talent feat as a bonus feat. If monk already has levels in a psionic class, he instead gains the Psionic Talent feat.
This ability replaces the monk’s 1st-level bonus feat choice. Bonus Feats: At 2nd level, and every 4 levels thereafter, a telekinetic monk may select a bonus feat. These feats must be taken from the following lists. A telekinetic monk replaces the normal monk bonus feats with the following: Autonomous*, Deflect Arrows, Mental Leap*, Psionic Body*, Psionic Fist*, Psionic Meditation*, and Up the Walls*
At 6th level, the following feats are added to the list: Aligned Attack*, Focused Sunder*, Ghost Attack*, Improved Disarm, Improved Trip, Return Shot*, and Unavoidable Strike*
A monk need not have any of the prerequisites normally required for these feats to select them. Feats marked with an asterisk are found among these psionic feats.
Telekinetic Flurry (Su): Starting at 1st level, a monk can make a telekinetic flurry as a full-attack action. A telekinetic flurry does not use weapons. Instead, the telekinetic monk punishes his foes with mental force. When doing so he may make one additional ranged attack out to a maximum range of 25 feet plus 5 feet per 2 telekinetic monk levels (with no range increment).
These attacks inflict lethal or nonlethal damage, as the telekinetic monk wishes. All attacks suffer a -2 penalty on attack rolls. For the purpose of these attacks, the monk’s base attack bonus from his monk class levels is equal to his monk level. For all other purposes, such as qualifying for a feat or a prestige class, the monk uses his normal base attack bonus.
Telekinetic flurry attacks inflict the monk’s normal unarmed strike damage, but damage is not modified by Strength.
At 8th level, the telekinetic monk may substitute disarm, sunder, and trip combat maneuvers for ranged attacks as part of a telekinetic flurry. The telekinetic monk’s Combat Maneuver Bonus for purposes of these attacks is adjusted by Charisma modifier instead of Strength. Since these combat maneuvers occur at range, the telekinetic monk does not provoke attacks of opportunity for using the maneuver. The penalty to the monk’s telekinetic flurry attack rolls decreases to -1.
At 15th level, the penalty to the monk’s telekinetic flurry attack rolls decreases to -0.
This ability replaces flurry of blows.
Psychokinesis (Psi): As a telekinetic monk gains levels, his psychokinetic powers improve. He can manifest the following powers as psi-like abilities at the indicated levels.
1st Level: far hand. This ability replaces stunning fist.
3rd level: concussion blast. This ability replaces maneuver training.
5th Level: telekinetic force. This ability replaces high jump.
7th Level: telekinetic maneuver. This ability replaces wholeness of body.
A telekinetic monk uses a psi-like ability as a standard action. The psi-like ability manifests at the telekinetic monk’s class level as if he had spent a number of power points equal to his class level. The DC of a saving throw (if applicable) against a creature’s psi-like ability is 10 + the level of the power + the telekinetic monk’s Charisma modifier. Each manifestation of one of these psi-like abilities costs the telekinetic monk 1 ki point.
I’ve always liked monks. All the way back to 1E, I’ve liked monks. I liked the 1E Player’s Handbook, and I really liked the 1E monk presented in an issue of Dragon that I still have buried away somewhere in my library (but that I’m too lazy right now to look for). 1E’s Oriental Adventures also had a great monk, especially considering the DIY martial arts rules contained in that book.
Sure, there are so-called purists who object to having Asian-style mystic martial artists muddying up the pristine waters of their medieval Europe simulationist campaigns. They can leave the monk out easier than most gamers could make up a monk class to include in their games had the various designers down through the years not already done so. So, while I can appreciate the devotion to genre that would exclude monks from a campaign, I don’t think that monks should be excluded from the game per se. (I’m of the same opinion about psionics; if you don’t like them, don’t use them, but don’t expect my gaming choices to be constrained by your preferences, and vice versa, but I digress.)
A quick search of threads over at the Paizo Pathfinder boards reveals what appears to be widespread dissatisfaction with monks as they’re currently designed. I think this dissatisfaction isn’t really that widespread, but instead is driven by a rather small number of people whose complaints about the monk range from astute to zany. As for me, I think the monk is generally a fine class, but I would make a few small tweaks.
Let’s start with some boilerplate fluff text:
For the truly exemplary, martial skill transcends the battlefield—it is a lifestyle, a doctrine, a state of mind. These warrior-artists search out methods of battle beyond swords and shields, finding weapons within themselves just as capable of crippling or killing as any blade. These monks (so called since they adhere to ancient philosophies and strict martial disciplines) elevate their bodies to become weapons of war, from battle-minded ascetics to self-taught brawlers. Monks tread the path of discipline, and those with the will to endure that path discover within themselves not what they are, but what they are meant to be.
Role: Monks excel at overcoming even the most daunting perils, striking where it’s least expected, and taking advantage of enemy vulnerabilities. Fleet of foot and skilled in combat, monks can navigate any battlefield with ease, aiding allies wherever they are needed most.
Just as I think that a character’s background fluff should drive that character’s crunchy game mechanic choices, so too do I think that a class’s features should dovetail nicely with that class’s descriptive text. The PF monk fits his described role well. He is mobile and able to utilize combat maneuvers to put enemies at a disadvantage. In these respects, the monk does seem to be an artist of things martial. Where I see the monk falling down a bit is in some klunky rules text, specifically flurry of blows, which should be the monk’s signature attack ability.
Flurry of Blows (Ex): Starting at 1st level, a monk can make a flurry of blows as a full-attack action. When doing so he may make one additional attack using any combination of unarmed strikes or attacks with a special monk weapon (kama, nunchaku, quarterstaff, sai, shuriken, and siangham) as if using the Two-Weapon Fighting feat (even if the monk does not meet the prerequisites for the feat). For the purpose of these attacks, the monk’s base attack bonus from his monk class levels is equal to his monk level. For all other purposes, such as qualifying for a feat or a prestige class, the monk uses his normal base attack bonus.
At 8th level, the monk can make two additional attacks when he uses flurry of blows, as if using Improved Two-Weapon Fighting (even if the monk does not meet the prerequisites for the feat).
At 15th level, the monk can make three additional attacks using flurry of blows, as if using Greater Two-Weapon Fighting (even if the monk does not meet the prerequisites for the feat).
A monk applies his full Strength bonus to his damage rolls for all successful attacks made with flurry of blows, whether the attacks are made with an off-hand or with a weapon wielded in both hands. A monk may substitute disarm, sunder, and trip combat maneuvers for unarmed attacks as part of a flurry of blows. A monk cannot use any weapon other than an unarmed strike or a special monk weapon as part of a flurry of blows. A monk with natural weapons cannot use such weapons as part of a flurry of blows, nor can he make natural attacks in addition to his flurry of blows attacks.
I don’t like these rules. They’re unnecessarily complicated simply by virtue of making flurry of blows work like the Two-Weapon Fighting feat chain, which itself is unnecessarily complicated. I would prefer something a bit easier to figure out, such as, from 1st-7th levels, a monk can make one additional attack using any combination of unarmed strikes or attacks with a special monk weapon, and all such attacks suffer a -2 penalty. At 8th level, the monk gets two additional attacks, all with a -2 penalty. At 15th level, he gets three additional attacks, all at a -2 penalty. Now remove the line about the monk’s BAB from his monk class being equal to his monk level with these attacks. Thus, a 6th-level monk can make one attack with a +4 BAB or two attacks with a +2 BAB each (instead of flurrying for +4/+4/-1).
Next, take an idea from Trailblazer by Bad Axe Games, and give the monk a “centered bonus” that applies when a monk is not wearing armor, not using a shield, not carrying more than light load, and not using a weapon other than those listed above. This centered bonus applies to attack rolls as a competence bonus. From 1st through 4th level, the bonus is +1; 5th through 8th, +2; 9th through 12th, +3; 13th through 16th, +4; and 17th or higher, +5.
Back to that 6th-level monk: Without a STR bonus or any other adjustments, his flurry of blows attack bonuses are +4/+4 (including the centered bonus) for two attacks using his unarmed strikes, monk weapons, and/or designated combat maneuvers. At 12th level, he’d be flurrying for +10/+10/+10/+10 (including the +3 centered bonus).
