AlexanderRM
2008-08-13, 07:23 PM
I've been noticing that a lot of people seem to feel that monks are underpowered. Most notably, in On the Origin of PCs. I'd like to ask- do you think monks are underpowered enough to give them a good base attack bonus? A large part of this is because Monks attain the outsider type at 20th level and have the saves and HD of outsiders, so it would make sense to give them the BaB as well, if they're underpowered. There's also the fact that this is one of the simplest buffs you could make (especially good if it's something you recommend to most people over the internet), compare:
"Monks are generally considered to be underpowered, I'd personally suggest giving them a good BaB instead of average"
vs.
"Monks are generally considered to be underpowered, we suggest you give them the ability to cast divine spells, here's the tables and lists that five people drew up in the course of several days:
Insert spells chart, monk spell rules, and spell lists here"
Alternatively, on that note, Monks have some aspects of a jack of all trades, if not on the level of the bard: they have moderate mele abilities, things like hide and move silently on their class skill lists, and the ability to heal (even if it is self only). Maybe you could give them the choice between a good BaB, divine spellcasting ability, or one or more rogue abilities.
I suppose that buffing a jack-of-all-trades class by allowing it to specialize somewhat defeats the purpose, but there's one thing that they would be useful for, which would certainly explain why somewhat talked about an army of monks as an RFED moment... army slaughtering.
20th level Monks have damage reduction 10/magic and more attack than any other class. I suppose that not being able to wear armor might hamper that somewhat, but with the AC bonus, the high dexterity, a wondrous item or two, getting mage armor from the party wizard/sorcerer, and perhaps some way of getting inertial armor (psionic monk class, anyone?) would probably make up for that.
Come to think of it, maybe they could gain psionic abilities instead of having a good BaB... darn. If they were psionic, they might be able to get some far strike/reach thing so that they could actually USE all their attacks (epic monk with the great cleave feat and a good BaB in the middle of an army of 1st-level NPCs would probably take out everyone within one square, take a five foot step, do so again, and then be left with four attacks left and nobody close enough to use them on-optional range of 10 feat=solution) but they'd have to give one of their attack up to get it. *sigh*
So, anyway, the main point of this topic is whether or not you think giving monks a good BaB would make them overpowered, still underpowered, or about balanced, and if you have any better ideas.
"Monks are generally considered to be underpowered, I'd personally suggest giving them a good BaB instead of average"
vs.
"Monks are generally considered to be underpowered, we suggest you give them the ability to cast divine spells, here's the tables and lists that five people drew up in the course of several days:
Insert spells chart, monk spell rules, and spell lists here"
Alternatively, on that note, Monks have some aspects of a jack of all trades, if not on the level of the bard: they have moderate mele abilities, things like hide and move silently on their class skill lists, and the ability to heal (even if it is self only). Maybe you could give them the choice between a good BaB, divine spellcasting ability, or one or more rogue abilities.
I suppose that buffing a jack-of-all-trades class by allowing it to specialize somewhat defeats the purpose, but there's one thing that they would be useful for, which would certainly explain why somewhat talked about an army of monks as an RFED moment... army slaughtering.
20th level Monks have damage reduction 10/magic and more attack than any other class. I suppose that not being able to wear armor might hamper that somewhat, but with the AC bonus, the high dexterity, a wondrous item or two, getting mage armor from the party wizard/sorcerer, and perhaps some way of getting inertial armor (psionic monk class, anyone?) would probably make up for that.
Come to think of it, maybe they could gain psionic abilities instead of having a good BaB... darn. If they were psionic, they might be able to get some far strike/reach thing so that they could actually USE all their attacks (epic monk with the great cleave feat and a good BaB in the middle of an army of 1st-level NPCs would probably take out everyone within one square, take a five foot step, do so again, and then be left with four attacks left and nobody close enough to use them on-optional range of 10 feat=solution) but they'd have to give one of their attack up to get it. *sigh*
So, anyway, the main point of this topic is whether or not you think giving monks a good BaB would make them overpowered, still underpowered, or about balanced, and if you have any better ideas.