Monk, the Martial Artist
Monks are martial artists who received training in a monastery or monk school. Their main concern
is the perfection of their art. They progress towards this goal by overcoming challenges. This is the main
reason for them to join a group of adventurers or to undertake missions. Monks are dispassionate
and usually do not care about riches.
The monk's fighting technique is based on self-discipline and it focuses on speed, coordination and
flexibility. It does not rely on weapons and armour at all.
Evil monks strive to climb the hierarchy within their monastery by completing missions that increase the
monastery's power or benefit an evil deity. They are ruthless and merciless.
Hit Dice, Proficiencies, Alignment
D8 Hit Die. No armour or shield proficiency. Starts with simple-weapons proficiency, light-blades proficiency and natural-weapons proficiency. Monks are often lawful, but any alignment is possible.
Special Abilities
Flurry of Blows: When unarmed or while wielding a light weapon, and not wearing armour or holding a shield, a monk can decide to do a flurry of blows as a full attack action. The monk can then make a number of attacks using the attack bonus indicated in the Flurry of Blows column. The strength modifier applies to each damage roll. If the character is wielding two weapons, then he can perform off-hand attacks after the flurry. The two-weapon-fighting penalty for the primary hand will apply to all attacks in the Flurry chain; and the Flurry penalty (-2 before level 5, -1 before level 9 and 0 afterwards) will apply to all off-hand attacks, as well as the normal two-weapon-fighting penalty for the off hand. If the character has additional natural weapons beyond the ones required to wield a weapon (for example the Mantis requires 2 claws to wield a one-handed weapon, and beyond this it has 2 claw attacks), then he can perform those natural-weapon attacks after the flurry. These attacks suffer from the flurry penalty as well as the normal penalty for secondary weapons.
AC Bonus: When unarmored and not holding a shield, a monk gains a dodge bonus to AC equal to his wisdom bonus (if positive) plus the AC bonus indicated in the chart. Dodge bonuses are lost whenever a character loses his dexterity bonus to AC.
Stunning Fist: As part of a full attack or standard attack, you can perform a special unarmed strike to stun the victim for one round. This ability does not work on creatures that are immune to critical hits. If the attack is successful you deal the normal damage and the victim gets a Fortitude saving throw of difficulty class 10 + half of the monk's level + monk's wisdom modifier. If the attack fails the ability is not used up.
Sleeper Hold: A grappling monk can use a special strike to put his opponent to sleep for 1d4+1 rounds. This is a standard action that requires a successful opposed grapple check. The opponent also gets a Fortitude saving throw of difficulty class 10 + half of the monk's level + monk's wisdom modifier.
Improved Sleeper Hold: When the monk uses Sleeper Hold and is successful in the opposed grapple check, he deals the normal grapple damage to the victim. The victim then gets a Fortitude saving throw to avoid falling asleep.
Tumble: A character with this ability does not trigger any AOO when moving out of a creature's threat area. The character must be wearing no armour or light armour.
Fast Movement: When unarmored and not holding a shield, the monk gains an enhancement bonus to speed as in the chart.
Tiger's Leap: The monk deals additional points of damage when charging.
Empty Body: When unarmored and not holding a shield, the monk gains permanent concealment equal to the indicated percentage.
Ki Strike: Whenever the monk succeeds on an unarmed strike, the damage inflicted bypasses a number of points of Damage Reduction equal to the monk's level. This ability works with all types of damage reduction including DR/-. Against an opponent with DR 10/adamantine, the damage inflicted by a monk of level 8 with unarmed strikes would be reduced by 2 only, and the damage inflicted by a monk of level 12 would not be reduced at all.
Evasion: Whenever the character suffers damage from an effect that required a reflex saving throw (for example, a fireball or a breath weapon), the damage inflicted to the character is reduced by 50%. The character must not be paralyzed or asleep and he must be wearing no armour or light armour to benefit from this.
Diamond Body: The monk gains a permanent immunity to Ability Damage and Ability Drain.
Diamond Soul: The monk gains Spell Resistance equal to 10 + monk's level.
Grapple Bonus: The monk gains a permanent bonus on all grapple checks.
Deflect Arrows: Once per round when the monk would normally be hit with a ranged weapon, the attack is automatically deflected. The monk must be bare-handed and he must not be flatfooted to benefit from this ability.
Monk Feats
Greater Dodge: A character with this feat benefits from another +1 dodge bonus to AC.
Requirements: Dodge; Dexterity 13; Intelligence 13; Level 4 Monk, Death Knight or Rogue.
Strength Focus: The character gains a bonus of +2 on all grapple checks and strength checks. The
following spells can trigger a strength check: Entangle, Web, Ranger Web, Forcecage, Energy Push, Ectoplasmic
Cocoon, Greater Ectoplasmic Cocoon, Mass Ectoplasmic Cocoon, Glue Arrow, Knockback Arrow. Req: Fighter, Psychic
Warrior, Monk or Barbarian.
Melee Focus: You gain a competence bonus of +1 to all melee attack rolls. Req: Level 10 Psychic Warrior, Rogue or Monk.
Improved Spell Resistance: The spell resistance increases by two points. Requires Level 13.
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