Talk:Monk, Retooled (3.5 Class)

In your opinion, is it needlessly complex or just has a harsh learning curve?

Alright, so before you guys mention that this class is just far too complicated and start with the dislikes, bear with me with this one.

A big peeve of mine with most Monk fixes is that they ALL feel like if you were building a class. Aside from adding Psionics (which could make for a nice class, and I do heartily endorse Psionic Monk fixes) or maneuvers (which just hammers the idea that Swordsage is better), most fixes I see just timidly add to the class without really focusing on its main problems. I attempted that early on, and I did a few things to minimize that (Touching the Ripples, Walk the River and the Clouds, Art of Deadly Wind and Deadly Weapons were good examples), but I still felt that it was more of a build than a class, and I began to loathe my own creation. Thus, after watching (and playing) a bit of DDO, I decided to incorporate some of its principles (the Elemental ways, the Way Between the Ways being a rehash of their enhancements, and the Philosophies) and retool them a bit to have their own flavor. I am completely satisfied with the result, but even I found it's a HUGE piece of work and potentially, brutally complex to work with.

On one hand, the idea was to allow several mechanical builds to exist, and I believe I've overshot that goal a hundred times. The breadth of abilities is astonishing, particularly after 10th level where you can unlock a second Elemental way and choose another martial style if you want. Fluff-wise, it's hard to justify various visions of what a Monk should be (in comparison to a Fighter), but the divide between the Strength-focused way of Fire (Might makes Right!), the Dexterity-based way of Air (the Wind cannot be stopped!), the Constitution focus of Earth (unyielding like the Stone!) and the Wisdom basis of Water (gentle as a drop, fierce as the ocean enraged!), the peaceful ways of Harmonious Balance, the war-like discipline of Ineffable Dominion (yield and be spared; defy us and die!) or the balanced goal of the Riddle of Equilibrium should make for a variety of monasteries with wildly differing tendencies, not to mention how the Ways of the Beasts allow for a scout, a scholar or even a master diplomatt.

On the other hand, as MisterSinister pointed out on the Project Heretica Paladin talk discussion, the idea is that someone can see the class, make a nice build, and kick ass (not exactly in that way, but the message is similar). This class has the possibilities to do so, but it's not easy to understand in the first place, and might cause people to repel its use on boards everywhere.

IMO, I can't sacrifice much of the complexity of the class for a simplified version that won't do justice to the Monk problem. However, if there's a way to simplify things, I will be grateful for it. Ideally, the Wiki format should make everything simple to understand, but if you feel it IS still quite complex, don't hesitate to tell (of course, after reading this and hearing my point of view).

On another topic: while I gauged it somewhere around Rogue level, the set of abilities it has make it borderline Wizard level (borderline as you can't do Wishes, Miracles, Gates for free, and change your composition every single day to face every challenge with little effort; still, it can solve a lot of obstacles). You're free to tell me if you agree with the idea or not. Certainly it's NOT Fighter-level, at least how I see it. T.G. Oskar 06:07, 12 June 2012 (UTC)

Well, it's too much of a wall of text for me to read it right now, but I can tell you that bullet points help a bit sometimes, as could spoilers, possibly.

I'm also a little confused about the focus of this class. Are Monks supposed to be characters who combine the powers of the elements, alignments, animals, and wuxia into one overloaded mass? SRD Monks seemed to be going for just subtle wuxia and a touch of alignment; psionic and martial monks go for wuxia through the use of established power sources.

When you say "a monk that follows the Path of the Riddle of Equilibrium follows an inevitable axiom of the universe; good and evil cannot exist within each other" do you mean "must" instead of "cannot"? --Foxwarrior 06:49, 12 June 2012 (UTC)