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AaaronRZ
2011-05-17, 07:00 PM
Shaolin Monk
“To those who can be conveyed to deliverance by the body of the spirit who grasps the vajra preaches Dharma by displaying the body of the spirit who grasps the vajra.” --- Lotus Sutra

Alignment: Any Lawful.

Hit Die: d8

Class Skills (4+ Int modifier per level): Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (arcane/religion) (Int), Listen (Wis), Spot (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Swim (Str), and Tumble (Dex).

Entry Requirements:

Base Attack Bonus: +4

Skills: Knowledge Religion 4 Ranks, Sense Motive +4

Feats: Improved Unarmed Strike, Evasion, Flurry of Blows

{table=head] Level | Base Attack Bonus | Fort | Ref | Will | Special
1st | +0 | +2 | +2 | +2 | Tools of the Trade
2nd | +1 | +3 | +3 | +3 | Improved Wholeness of Body
3rd | +2 | +3 | +3 | +3 | Improved Evasion, Lightning Speed
4th | +3 | +4 | +4 | +4 | Fists of Fury
5th | +3 | +4 | +4 | +4 | Diamond Body, Ki Strike (lawful)
6th | +4 | +5 | +5 | +5 | No Thought, Lightning Speed
7th | +5 | +5 | +5 | +5 | Tools of the Trade
8th | +6 | +6 | +6 | +6 | Martial Law
9th | +6 | +6 | +6 | +6 | Timeless Body, Lightning Speed
10th | +7 | +7 | +7 | +7 | Fists of Fury, Ki Strike (adamantine)[/table]

Class Features:

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Shaolin Monks are proficient the same weapons as a Monk and are not proficient with any armor or shields. When wearing armor, using a shield, or carrying a medium or heavy load, a monk loses her AC bonus, as well as her fast movement and flurry of blows abilities.

Monastic Training: Levels taken in this class add its levels to Monk levels for the purpose of Monk AC, Flurry of Blows, and Unarmed Damage.

Tools of the Trade: You are focused at training a particular weapon type and that weapon type goes up one die size for example 1d6 weapons would now do 1d8 damage, these weapons may be different... for example you may choose bo staff at level 1 and sai at level 7. You may choose the same weapon type each time you gain this ability and you may choose the say weapon turning a 1d6 weapon into a 1d10 weapon. You may choose unarmed strike as your weapon; however you may not choose other natural attacks such as claw or bite. You gain this ability at level 1 and at level 7.

Improved Wholeness of Body: A Shaolin Monk can heal her own wounds. She can heal a number of hit points equal to her wisdom modifier multiplied by her combined Shaolin Monk and Monk levels. Healing may not exceed the maximum allowed. This ability may be spread out over several uses per day. This action requires one full minute of meditation.

Improved Evasion: A Shaolin Monk’s evasion ability improves. She still takes no damage on a successful reflex saving throw against attacks, but henceforth she takes only half damage on a failed save. She does not receive this benefit when helpless or prone.

Lightning Speed: You are able to react and move faster than normal. You gain fast movement of +10 to movement at levels 3, 6 and 9. You also gain +1 to initiative at levels 3, 6 and 9. These bonuses stack with other bonuses to initiative and movement including monk fast movement and feats such as improved initiative. At level 9 Shaolin Monk you would have +30 movement and +3 initiative added to your base and any other modifiers that apply.

Fists of Fury: Your unarmed strikes are a serious weapon of destruction. At level 4 and 10 your unarmed strike damage is increased by a die size each time. If you were to have max unarmed strike of 2d10 prior to getting this ability at level 4 you would be 4d8 and at level 10 it would be 6d8.

Diamond Body: A Shaolin Monk gains immunity to poisons of all kinds.

Ki Strike (lawful): Her unarmed attacks are treated as lawful for purposes of dealing damage to creatures with damage reduction.

No Thought: A Shaolin Monk has an adept sense of where to strike their opponents with any weapon including unarmed strikes and ranged weapons. She may add her wisdom bonus to attack and damage.

Martial Law: A Shaolin Monk and all her other martial levels change from ¾ BAB to Full BAB. Classes such as Monk or Fist of the Forest would receive this benefit where as a class like a cleric, druid, and rogue would not. A good guideline would be classes who tend to receive all good saves and fight unarmored are likely candidates for this bonus.

Timeless Body: A Shaolin Monk no longer takes penalties to her ability scores for aging and cannot be magically aged. Any such penalties that she has already taken, however, remain in place. Bonuses still accrue, and the monk still dies of old age when her time is up.

Ki Strike (adamantine): Her unarmed attacks are treated as adamantine weapons for the purpose of dealing damage to creatures with damage reduction and bypassing hardness.

Comments, suggestions and critisms are more then welcome. Thank you in advance. If I knew how to add a table I would have. :)

LOTRfan
2011-05-17, 07:13 PM
... I think I might love you. :smalltongue:

Seriously, though, I really like the idea of a Shaolin monk PrC, but I think you may get more responses if the formatting is a little better. I assume you do not know how to make a chart?

First, you type {table=head], and type in the categories (with a | between them). Each time you start a new line, just press the enter button. So the first line should look like:

{table=head] Level | Base Attack Bonus | Fort | Ref | Will | Special

To save you the effort, I already made the chart below.

{table=head]Level | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Special
1st | +0 | +2 | +2 | +2 | Tools of the Trade
2nd | +1 | +3 | +3 | +3 | Improved Wholeness of Body
3rd | +2 | +3 | +3 | +3 | Improved Evasion, Lightning Speed
4th | +3 | +4 | +4 | +4 | Fists of Fury
5th | +3 | +4 | +4 | +4 | Diamond Body, Ki Strike (lawful)
6th | +4 | +5 | +5 | +5 | No Thought, Lightning Speed
7th | +5 | +5 | +5 | +5 | Tools of the Trade
8th | +6 | +6 | +6 | +6 | Martial Law
9th | +6 | +6 | +6 | +6 | Timeless Body, Lightning Speed
10th | +7 | +7 | +7 | +7 | Fists of Fury, Ki Strike (adamantine)[/table]

AaaronRZ
2011-05-17, 07:26 PM
Not sure what I'm missing to make the table, I'm sure there are other commands that go on the other lines? :)

Do you have anything specific you like or dislike abotu the build?

LOTRfan
2011-05-17, 07:28 PM
I haven't read through it all yet. When I have, I'll be sure to post my thoughts. :smallsmile:

Also, have you thought about statting out the Shuang Gou?

AaaronRZ
2011-05-17, 07:37 PM
I'm not sure what the Shuang Gou is, I have been a lurker for quite a while with minimal posts.

I got the table figured out! I needed that last [/table] at the end.

I have a pretty crazy dm with liberal dice rolling rules and the running the human +2 stat variant from pathfinders. Running 20,18,17,16,14,14. I am more interested in just making sure the class is viable, fun and balanced before I try to get it into a game. Although I may have to just play test it 1st.

LOTRfan
2011-05-17, 07:46 PM
Monastic Training is an obvious feature, since it is important to have this stack with Monk levels.

Tools of the Trade seems okay, as well. Must you use the same weapon at both 1st and 7th level, or can you choose to separate ones?

I like Improved Wholeness of Body. It is basically the Paladin's Lay on Hands ability, but you can only do it to yourself. I think you should clarify the fact that you can heal a number of hit points per day. As written, it can be misinterpreted.

I especially like No Thought, as it gives you a combat bonus for having a high mental score. If you can pump the Wisdom high enough, you might not even need that good a Strength score. This can reduce the MADness the monk suffers. (not that this matters to you really, since you have pretty good scores for everything :smalltongue:)

I don't think I've ever seen an ability like Martial Law for a prestige class before. I like it, but its definitely different. Perhaps Flurry of Blows can actually be something other than Flurry of Misses now.

I think you should clarify more how the fast movement ability in Lightning Reflexes interacts with the Monk's ability.

Really, my one problem with it is, why do you have to be human to qualify?

EDIT: Shuang Gou (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hook_sword) are hooked swords commonly used by Shaolin Monks.

AaaronRZ
2011-05-17, 07:54 PM
Monastic Training is an obvious feature, since it is important to have this stack with Monk levels.

Tools of the Trade seems okay, as well. Must you use the same weapon at both 1st and 7th level, or can you choose to separate ones?

Seperate weapons may be chosen for example sai and unarmed strikes

I like Improved Wholeness of Body. It is basically the Paladin's Lay on Hands ability, but you can only do it to yourself. I think you should clarify the fact that you can heal a number of hit points per day. As written, it can be misinterpreted.

I will clarify, thanks

I especially like No Thought, as it gives you a combat bonus for having a high mental score. If you can pump the Wisdom high enough, you might not even need that good a Strength score. This can reduce the MADness the monk suffers.

I have loved this ability for a long time, I took it from Shiba Protector from 3.0 in Oriental Adventures as it was an awesome level 1 dip

I don't think I've ever seen an ability like Martial Law for a prestige class before. I like it, but its definitely different. Perhaps Flurry of Blows can actually be something other than Flurry of Misses now.

I have always felt a monk gets the combat shaft as far as BAB and I was hoping people who invested themselves int he class got that awesome benifit

I think you should clarify more how the fast movement ability in Lightning Reflexes interacts with the Monk's ability.

This just increases movement by 10 and initiative by 1 every 3 levels, ill reread it and try to make it clearer

Really, my one problem with it is, why do you have to be human to qualify?

It doesn't I suppose, I was trying to shoot for some uniqueness to it, do you think I should just drop the race rereq entirely or open it up to a few other races?

EDIT: Shuang Gou (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hook_sword) are hooked swords commonly used by Shaolin Monks.

I answered in bold and I will update ASAP. Thanks.

LOTRfan
2011-05-17, 07:59 PM
Alright. Overall, its a very cool class. Its definitely not Ur-Priest good, but it is flavorful and better than some PrCs out there. Personally, I'd get rid of the racial requirement entirely, but its up to you.

I think I'll have to introduce this into my campaign...

AaaronRZ
2011-05-17, 08:07 PM
Race requirement eliminated, any other possibly suggestions to qualify for it? I could leave it as is.

I have thought of various possiblities to get into it already. Just taking 1 level of monk and a full BAB class gets you in at 4 or even running 4 levels of monk and 1 full BAB class and you can hit all the requirements.

Lhurgyof
2011-05-17, 08:38 PM
How about giving them an exotic weapon proficiency/level?

Because, monks don't get very many of the "weird" shaolin weapons (mostly in the Oriental Adventures).

Also, I like the idea of wis to attack/damage. Maybe full BAB because of their decidedly martial training?

Edit: Read Martial Law.

Nevermind, wow, this is pretty bad ass.

AaaronRZ
2011-05-17, 08:53 PM
Thanks Lhurgyof for reading and appreciating my PrC. Many DM's already allow for many weapons from different sources. I don't want to lessen the idea that the Shaolin are focused on their weapons. In history they were great with a variety of weapons, but generally as with most specialized forces they each had their own niche. I personally am pretty liberal with weapon choices if it fits their character.

AaaronRZ
2011-05-18, 06:07 PM
Any other comments, criticism or critiques would be greatly appreciated. I believe two other people like this class as is and intend to try it out. I am definitely willing to adjust this class as nessasary.

Also any builds that you could see this being used in going to 20 would be appreciated as I would love to play test this and aside from Monk and Shaolin Monk I'm not sure where to go, maybe a Psion class to use Lion's Charge?

Blue Bandit
2011-05-18, 09:32 PM
Any other comments, criticism or critiques would be greatly appreciated. I believe two other people like this class as is and intend to try it out. I am definitely willing to adjust this class as nessasary.


I personally love this class concept because I'm currently taking classes in the martial art of Shaolin Kenpo, which can trace its heritage back to the Shaolin Monks.

While I think the mechanics are pretty solid, I especially like the tools of the trade ability, I would personally add (more for flavor than mechanics) some abilities that are tied to the animal forms. In Shaolin Kenpo, a lot of our techniques are represented by five main animals, the crane, snake, leopard, tiger, and dragon.

It's just a thought.
Again, great job!!:smallsmile:

AaaronRZ
2011-05-25, 02:25 AM
A statted out PC running 16 wis/16 dex/14 con/12 str/12 int/10 cha. (36 point buy) Playing with pathfinders variant +2 wisdom to start for 18. Stat increases at levels 4,8,12 and 16 are all into WIS bringing us to 22 WIS or +6.

(Human) 6 Monk/10 Shaolin Monk/4x

Monk 1 - Feat + Human Bonus Feat (both open)
Monk 2 -
Monk 3 - Feat (open)
Monk 4 -
Monk 5 -
Monk 6 - Feat, Superior Unarmed Strike (requires BAB 3)
Shaolin 1 - Tools of the Trade
Shaolin 2 -
Shaolin 3 - Feat, Improved Natural Attack (Requires BAB 4)
Shaolin 4 - Fists of Fury
Shaolin 5 -
Shaolin 6 - Feat (open), No Thought (+WIS to hit and damage)
Shaolin 7 - Tools of the Trade
Shaolin 8 - Martial Law (BAB for all classes in this build are at full BAB progression)
Shaolin 9 - Feat (open)
Shaolin 10 - Fists of Fury

Unarmed Strike level 16 = 2d8
Superior Unarmed Strike = 2d10
Tools of the Trade (1) = 4d8
Fists of Fury (1) = 6d8
Tools of the Trade (2) = 8d8
Fists of Fury (2) = 12d8
Imp. Natural Attack = 16d8

Flurry with full BAB progression gives us 16/16/16/11/6/1.
Even with the benifit of no gear yet we are recieving +1 STR modifier and +6 WIS modifier from No Thought making our full attack with flurry look like:
23/23/23/18/13/8 with 16d8+7 damage at level 16.

That leaves 5 open feat slots including 1 at level 18. Psi Warrior could be a possible class to go into to get Expansion and Lion's Charge, with the good WIS bonus or even just moving into a caster class like cleric or druid would work out nicely if you plan on advancing into epic levels. Expansion would bring damage to 24d8+7. This is about as spicy as it comes for unarmed fighting pre-epic levels.

Paladin with the Ascetic Knight Feat would also be a descent choice for smite damage, but not really helping out the divine grace and lay on hands abilities.

At level 16 the base saves come out to 12 to all + ability modifiers.
Movement at this point is also up to 80 movement... base 30 and +20 from monk and +30 from Shaolin as well as the +3 initiative +3 from dex for +6 initiative. Maybe the Spring Attack build would be one way to go to take advantage of moving and getting full attacks and retreating a bit.

Armor is a bit to be desired at this point, but can be raised quite a bit from gear. 10 +6 from WIS +3 from DEX and +3 from monk brings us to 22 not ideal, but Bracers of Armor +8 , Gloves of Dexterity +6 and Periphat of Wisdom +6 would give 14 more armor and get us up to 36, not too shabby at all.

Prime32
2011-05-25, 07:31 AM
Rather than damage increasing by "a die size", I'd suggest dealing damage as one size category larger. The unarmed damage increase already seems to follow this format (rather than 2d10 -> 4d6 -> 4d8).

You need to include a value on fast movement.

Also, random plug of some work I've done on "the other branch" (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=11718).

AaaronRZ
2011-05-25, 10:20 AM
Rather than damage increasing by "a die size", I'd suggest dealing damage as one size category larger. The unarmed damage increase already seems to follow this format (rather than 2d10 -> 4d6 -> 4d8).

You need to include a value on fast movement.

Also, random plug of some work I've done on "the other branch" (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=11718).

Monastic Training: Levels taken in this class add its levels to Monk levels for the purpose of Monk AC, Flurry of Blows, and Unarmed Damage.

This ability already progresses unarmed damage with a standard flow it would be a bit redundant to enhance the rate at which we make it to the 2d10 unarmed cap.

Updated Lightning Speed.

Prime32
2011-05-25, 12:53 PM
Monastic Training: Levels taken in this class add its levels to Monk levels for the purpose of Monk AC, Flurry of Blows, and Unarmed Damage.

This ability already progresses unarmed damage with a standard flow it would be a bit redundant to enhance the rate at which we make it to the 2d10 unarmed cap.

Updated Lightning Speed.What I mean is - your examples seem to be increasing damage by one size category, but that is not what the text tells you to do. Increasing by one size category = 2d6 -> 3d6, while increasing by one die size = 2d6 -> 2d8.

And Lightning Speed is ambiguous as to whether you gain fast movement once or multiple times. If the latter, say that the bonus increases rather than you get it again - otherwise you run into issues on abilities not stacking with themselves.

AaaronRZ
2011-05-25, 01:08 PM
As per SRD a monk of medium size does 2d10 damage and a monk of large size does 4d8 damage. I have seen various progressions on unarmed damage, maybe I should add a chart displaying them.

Updated Lightning Speed again, they bonuses are progressive. Thanks. :)