[Pathfinder] Monk Tweak: Bulking up the Bonus Feat entry

In this latest installment of my "Monk Tweak" threads, I'm looking at the Bonus Feat section of the Monk class in Pathfinder.

One of the clear improvements of Pathfinder over 3.5 was the Feats section. A lot of new feats were added that help diversify character abilities and also help shore up some gaps for particular builds and classes. Sure, there are changes to some feats that people can complain about, however a lot of new material was added which is a good thing.

The Monk class gets bonus feats, somewhat like fighters, however they get to ignore prerequisites, which is great since they don't have enough feats to go around to climb through all of the feat trees.

Several new feats were added to the Monk's bonus feat list, which was great to see as many of them add additional flavor to the class. However, when I started to pick apart the Pathfinder Core book I was surprised at how many feats were left of the Monk's bonus feat list that seemed like they ought to have been there.

So, after spending far too many hours mulling over the feats, I've put together a new suggested revision for the Bonus Feats section of the Monk class, allowing another easy tweak that can help smooth out some of the issues with the class:

Bonus Feat

At 1st level, 2nd level, and every 4 levels thereafter, a monk may select a bonus feat. These feats must be taken from the following list:

Agile Maneuvers
Blind Fight
Catch Off-Guard
Combat Reflexes
Defensive Combat Training
Deflect Arrows
Dodge
Extra Ki
Improved Bull Rush
Improved Disarm
Improved Feint
Improved Grapple
Improved Overrun
Improved Trip
Nimble Moves
Mobility
Scorpion Style
Step Up
Throw Anything

At 6th level, the following feats are added to the list:

Acrobatic Steps
Gorgon’s Fist
Greater Bull Rush
Greater Disarm
Greater Feint
Greater Grapple
Greater Overrun
Greater Trip
Improvised Weapon Mastery
Snatch Arrows
Spring Attack
Vital Strike
Wind Stance

At 10th level, the following feats are added to the list:

Improved Critical
Lightning Stance
Medusa’s Wrath
Improved Vital Strike

A monk need not have any of the prerequisites normally required for these feats to select them.

Further Deliberations...

There are two things that I kept going back and forth over with the above revision.

Vital Strike

One of the perks for the bonus feats for Monks is that you can ignore prerequisites, although for the most part I was letting things roll out at the BAB level equivalents. I couldn't decide on whether to essentially shift the Vital Strike tree of feats up a notch and let Vital Strike be taken at first level.

As has been pointed out in many other posts, Vital Strike really does fit the overall strategy of the Monk, being a kind of mobile striker/controller, so if you let him take it at level 1-5 I'm not seeing a great deal of game breaking combinations at work, but I know my math kung-fu isn't as awesome as others, so I'm tossing out there the question of whether accelerating the vital strike chain for Monks screws up the game or not?

Dazzling Display

I really wanted to get Dazzling Display on the list, but unfortunately how the feat is written you can't just skip over the prerequisite of Weapon Focus, as the feat is driven by your weapon focus selection.

Out of any class, Dazzling Display really ought to be tied to the Monk class. The classic trope of a guy whipping a weapon around in an impressive display is almost always found in connection to the martial arts, whether it is nunchuks, or Bruce Lee giving his "come here" hand wave, or even the horribly cliched dopey character who bluffs that he knows kung-fu.

It's easy enough for a player to just pick Weapon Focus and Dazzling Display with general feats, it is only two feats. However, part of the intent of bulking out the bonus feat list for the Monk is also to give a bit of a pointer to players to nudge them away from trying to be fighters, and instead be controllers. The monk should be a "condition wizard" and Dazzlingly Display is one of the most efficient ways of realizing that.

One solution would be to bake into either Unarmed Strike or perhaps Flurry of Blows the Weapon Focus feat. I don't see it as a big deal, it's just another little way of boosting the performance problems of the Monk. In a certain way it has more to do with how many people will scream "overpowered!" at seeing such an addition.

Frankly, I've always thought that the feat "tier" in pathfinder needed to continue upwards to 14 and maybe 18. Adding things like Frightful Presense and such would be AMAZING because the thought of a Monk charging into battle and an enemy army going "Oh...****runfaster!" just seems...epic.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rasman

Frankly, I've always thought that the feat "tier" in pathfinder needed to continue upwards to 14 and maybe 18. Adding things like Frightful Presense and such would be AMAZING because the thought of a Monk charging into battle and an enemy army going "Oh...****runfaster!" just seems...epic.

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You know I seem to recall a feat granting frightful presence that was basically just that. Perhaps it was in the players guide to faerun but I can not remember.

Edit: Dreadful wrath regional feat on page 38. The radius is rather small and it is not very powerful but there it is.