Every time I start rolling a monk, I circle back to the idea of making a Benedictine sort of fellow who fights using a short plank of wood while chanting. Pies Iesu Domine *whack! Dona Eis Requiem *whack!
It's amusing to me that D&D, an American game, usually assumes an east Asian flavor for it's "punching things" class while Sword World, a Japanese game, uses terms like "Grappler" and "Boxer" (at least in the fan made English translation I've read) for it's "punching things" class.
The thing you have the least direct experience with is the one that you can attach the most magical properties to. Or, the foreign culture is always the magical one.
And yet with dozens, perhaps more, western martial arts going back hundreds to thousands of years, we have a lot of magic. Cossack wrestling, Savate, Glima, Basque Kick Fighting, Cornish Wrestling, Boxing, Pancratium, Highland Wrestling, and a great deal more. A Slavic Druid/Monk would’ve been just as magical as a practitioner of Asatrur, or some Celtic Druid…
Predates they as well. It officially premiered in the Blackmoor Supplement II booklet in 1975. And giving Gary credit for inventing any classes other than Fighting Man or Magic-User is probably erroneous.
The Monk first appears in 0e, in Blackmoor. Hence, when I ran Temple of the Frog, I turned the lower level Clerics into Mystics and kept the Druids and high level Clerics.
Hey Mr. Welch, great video as always. I have deep love for monk class. Always been one of my favorite classes. Favorite D&D book is Oriental Adventures. I agree they should get more ability score increases, even if it was only a +1 at higher levels. Thanks for the video you have a wonderful day!
I admire your dedication, even if your efforts are wasted on schlock like D&D 5E. Even old school monks are curious for fixing. But yeah, you still impress us either way.
Barbarian in 1E felt more like scout than “angry berserker”. Later on, Ranger gets to be tracker (Barbarians can do it, but their main focus is raging). Unfortunately, TSR should have taken cues from Warhammer Fantasy on Wardancer or at least dex-based fighter. Maybe should have make monks as them rather than “novelty based on Kung Fu movie but sometimes forgot to scale them with power level of DND games”.
I remember playing a high-level 3.5 campaign where the Monk was able to dodge all my newbie 20th lvl Cleric shenanigans (and everything else) while Flurry of Blows'ing everything in a few turns. Plus, "Fell the Greatest Foe" on E. Honda vs giant monsters? And we had a bard? Yeah, monk was best boy. Also, while I'm thinking about it, let's not Wish/ Miracle a million GP to an NPC... in copper pieces... in a closed room.
Giving the monk level-appropriate abilities scaled to casters solves so many problems with the class. L1, you can stun, trip, w/e with a punch, or kick a chair across the room for ranged fistination damage. L5, you can knock down a bunch of people in an area with one punch. L10, you can punch for save-or-die, or laugh off sword blows due to daily vinegar baths. L18, "Cloud Leaping Meteor Punchuuuuu!" The cost? Actions. You forego the ability to inflict machine gun punches that round to do some flashy thing instead.
5:25- Yeah, while I do know monk weapons (plus it was a shame that rogue didn’t get whip and chain flail didn’t appear as well), there is one gripe: lack of polearms proficiencies. Like I am pretty sure that Guan Dao (Chinese glaive) are like staples on martial arts movie, yet for some reason that omission persisted for a long time (though some art did have them but not sure if it was treated as glaive or any short hand words). Not sure about spears in 1E but they kinda need reach property (at least for two handed). Another rant would be Chinese swords, like I am pretty sure that Jian is like main staple of Chinese martial arts culture…even in movies. Or whoever “researched” that might have been missed it SOMEHOW (of course, then again, I am speaking from SE Asian country in 90’s that had better Wu Xia exposure when they were just novels). That or pigeonholing swords to Japan to the point that Kara-Tur Eastern Realms (separate fluff book, but related to OA) had Shou Lung/Fantasy China having no thousandfold techniques that didn’t get swordplay appear on their warriors…and then have an art of two Chinese using swords (a hook sword and JIAN straight sword), so both bad formatting and little to no coordination with artists. This is not getting into writers having consistency issues regarding that (either have it be katana, like Japanese katana, or misspelled or outdated romanization on Chinese weapons like “tao” in Hordaland campaign setting or novels sounding more like Jian).
I feel like there should be a dedicated boxer class for the monk Imagine a dempsey roll ability, for as long as the monk keeps landing an attack they can keep rolling for another one indefinitely until they miss
Tex is a pretty chill dude and a good use of him to get your hands on the original copy. Though I think both types of editors are important and you are applying broad strokes on what one or the other will do.
Pathfinder 2e did seem to fix a good chunk of the monk, but several changes were just to make it fit more in the system than anything else. Flurry of Blows became a resource-less, "one action point for two hits" ability because they removed class-specific resources and this was the easiest way to make it fit into the new three-action economy. They no longer get wisdom to AC because there's now an Unarmoured Defence Proficiency that adds their proficiency bonus (which includes their character level) to their AC. This also doesn't feel supernatural because this is basically how all of the armour proficiencies now work and everybody gets Unarmoured Defence Proficiency, even wizards. Their speed boost... that actually didn't change but it doesn't feel as supernatural anymore because other classes get similar increases (like the Swashbuckler whenever they do something to gain Panache). I think all of the class' supernatural abilities got shifted into the Class Feat system, and there's enough variety there that you can avoid all of the supernatural stuff entirely and just make a mundane martial artist. If you want to do a character that's just Punch Real Good - a Fighter with a cestus does the job just as well. Probably better than the monk in some respects too because they have a higher weapon proficiency bonus than anyone else so they're a bit more accurate than the monk. Not as many fancy stances and other tricks as the monk, though.
Monk has always been a personal favorite class of mine, warts and all. 'Ooops, all DEX' was always a fun gimmick to me, along with asking myself the question 'how high can I get my AC?' before engaging in a modest amount of trolling. Granted, Pathfinder Monks only get to do a Modest amount of trolling. Another fun class from Pathfinder is Ninja, from Blood and Steel 2. Its just a Rogue alternate class, which trades certain Rogue skills for Ninja Tricks and a Monk style KI Pool. >When the level 2 Ninja can go invisible for 2 rounds because Ninja Tricks are a little silly
I really dig the martial arts in Exalted that start as different cool ways of making your fighting style cooler and end up being cheat codes for one type of Exalt that has a very restrictive power set to let them punch you so hard you re-live your life backward in real time until you become unborn and then snap back to reality in a split second. Exalted Demake is gearing up to have the most interesting version of those that let you do cool stuff like fighting someone with a ladder, Bruce Lee style... But yeah, the name of the game there is having versatility and self-contained game loops. Being able to shout-sing your enemy to death with Silver-Voiced Nightinggale style is different from doing one sword strike kills with Single Point Shining Into The Void style, but they both fall under MA.
my favorite german word is Backpfeifengesicht Which is basically, a face badly in of a fist. You know you pictured someone immediately when you read that.
As someone who had a monk player, god did I feel bad for not being able to design a good dungeon for them. I like the AC increase. I would have just given the monk an equivalent of the shield spell (spend one ki point to get proficiency bonus to your ac), but having it be passive is honestly more interesting and keeps its identity unique.
Another way to do it is just give it what Warlocks get Armor of Shadows which lasts all day/permanently (of course instead of a Mage Armor spell call it Ki Shielding or something).
I have issues with the monk personally. I like the concept, but I don’t particularly like the East Asian aesthetic in a settings that mostly pull from Western Europe. Even in cosmopolitan setting like Pathfinder, it often feels off. Besides, why restrict it to a single culture? Why not say anyone can unlock Ki abilities through sheer force of will and dedication? Yeah, it makes no sense why they’d call it Ki, since that’s an East Asian concept, but you can lean into that. I personally prefer to make Ki Psionic in nature rather than magical, and then have the average person mistake this power for magic since to some random farmer or artisan it’s the same thing. Then laugh at the Wizard who wonders why he can’t detect magic on the guy who can punch ghosts with his bare hands. Also change the name back to Mystic so it fits the setting better and we can have more character options than just a wandering monk (also to junk the overpowered 5e Mystic class). Alternatively, just make Ki-users be subclasses or a more limited feat for the Fighter, Rogue, etc. Pathfinder already has a Brawler class for those who want to punch things without keeping track of Ki points or who want a truly mundane martial artist Again, I don’t hate the Monk/Mystic, but it definitely needed an overhaul.
- Give each monk ASI one extra stat point (even if you choose to take a feat) - Let them use dex for jumping and grappling - Give them +Wis mod Ki - Give them a fighting style, especially if you can swap it around each day - Make flurry of blows add one attack to the attack action rather than making two as a bonus action (you can still use this with the martial arts bonus action attack) - At level 10 or 11 give them the ability to regain 1 Ki every round they start their turn with less Ki than their Proficiency bonus
I remember after the Unarmed Combat style came out in Tasha's I took the feat for it as a barbarian. With my barbarian I proceeded to out damage the Monk with my fists, and at one point literally punched the Monk into the ground without going below half hp. It is actually kinda sad that a Barbarian with 1 feat was stronger at punching people then a class based around punching people.
"Bruce Lee would have trouble punching through plate mail." Sir, I think you underestimate Lee. Him, Ali, and more than a bit of Batman are my preferred examples for a monk. Personally, my favorite monk was from Pathfinder 1e. Sure, wasn't doing as much damage as the barbarian, but I was bouncing around so much that, when I spent a Ki Point to jump REALLY high, the Witch player said "Right, I roll perception to spot the coin he dropped." (Mistborn reference... seriously, I bounced off the ceiling.) Also was a decent backup skill monkey. Wasn't the bookworm that the wizard was, wasn't the rogue's physical skill monkey, but was a decent backup for both. Being second best is okay, because the person you're second to in one area is at least #3 or #4 in another area you're #2 in. Being the backup in a lot of areas is fine, which is something Pathfinder 2e forgot when they did the Paladin... or the Ranger... or the Bard. Also, best fix that I thought for the 5e Monk was to just make some of the powers be passive or at-will without costing Ki (at least Patient Defense and Step of the Wind, rest depends on subclass).
Monks have always been a mess in pretty much every edition (except for maybe 4e? haven't looked at that version yet). Lots of class abilities that just make up for stuff they _lose_ compared to everyone else, plus a seemingly random assortment of class abilities that don't synergize with each other in any ways (most notorious being the 3.X version which has both increased speed and a heavy reliance on Full Attacks). And a little nitpick: Kirins are also a thing in Japan, China and Vietnam. For extra confusion "kirin" is also the Japanese name for "giraffe" (much like how they named tapirs after the dream-eating baku, to the point that every baku portrayed in modern media is just a tapir)
While I don't agree with your take on what a sensitivity reader is or does at ALL, I think this video was amazing. And its always interesting to read the history of where the various classes and aspects of the game came from. Not to mention that these videos about fixing various classes are always great.
As a fan of Sasaki Kojiro, Musashi did not think he wasn't worthy of killing him with a sword. Musashi had stopped using real swords by that point in his career. He made the Bokuto out of the oar on the way to Ganryu and killed Kojiro by accident, the prevailing theory being that Kojiro had an aneurysm and burst from the blow to the head he received during the first exchange.
Black Pants Legion is a kick all the ass channel, I didn't know Battle Tech was so awesome until they explained it. I'd write more but I'm late to a meeting with my Recruitment Officer, Mr. Soul-Shitter.
Dude, no. Monk is in the 1978 AD&D Player's Handbook on pg30. Oriental Adventures didn't come out until the mid-80s. The Slave Lords series had evil monks from the Scarlet Brotherhood as named antagonists, also before Oriental Adventures came out. Yes, they were Shaw Brothers Shaolin wannabes and they were structurally untenable. Thanks for making them better. Almost anything would be better than the rules-as-written in any edition.
Also not sure, but Scarlet Brotherhood...I think I remember that they learned it from Kara-Tur due to their mutual xenophobia, so either tone-deaf nod to WW2 (like making the entire Fantasy Asia as Japanese-expy,) or seems to want to justify Scarlet Brotherhood's martial arts but also operating on insular Asian narrative. Not sure if it was in original, retcon, or both (like generic Fantasy Asia being coined as such later on).
@@powerist209 Scarlet Brotherhood were from Greyhawk several years before OA defined Kara-Tur, which was retconned onto the far side of Faerun in the Forgotten Realms. Even though the evil monks from the Slave Lords modules were clearly escaped from a 70s kung fu theater flick, the official story was that the Brotherhood were a Suel offshoot group, thematically like the escaped Nazis in Argentina. Greyhawk prehistory has the Suel (think Nazis) and the Baklunis (generic East Asians) at each other's thoats until they went magically nuclear on each other. The Rain of Colorless Fire took down one empire and the Invoked Devastation against the other. Its' a whole thing from Gygax's home campaign. Nothing to do with Kara-Tur. It predates TSR's involvement with Ed Greenwood.
"Ask Tex when he's gonna' get the Hunchback video finished." Oh that's evil. You're evil. I can't imagine anything more annoying to Tex than sending thousands of people to bug him about his latest project who don't know any better about his deadlines policy. I love it.
Ive actually been thinking about this for a while. I think the big problem with Monk is needing like 4 attribute points where most pther classes can specialize in 2. like what about instead of focusing on the mystysism you instead focus on which style of martial arts your character uses with sub classes specializing in different attribute score. For example you could have a subclass Dex Monk. They are all about speed and flexibility. They fight hard, fast, and most importantly dirty. Flying knee strikes to the head, elbow strikes to the kidney or groin, constantly weaving in and out of melee range. This Monk would gain bonuses to from flanking and blinksiding their foes. These monks would be perfect dashing into the back row on the enemy group and delivering a fist fight into the throat to that pesky wizard in to back. Another would be a strength based Monk far more focused on the raw power of kicks. From roundhouses to the stomach to crane kicks strait to the dome. Just my two cents, id love to see this idea expanded on.
This is like the video about the Fighter. My answer to everything is just make Spellcasters and stop making non-spellcasters. The fundamental problem with Dungeons and Dragons is that it was, until multiclassing was introduced, about filling dungeon crawls roles. Every class since has been some variation of the Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, or later Thief classes. I dont think they need more classes, but to just make Feats or spells to make a Custom Character feature. Barring that I would suggest looking into the Unchained Monk and Brawler classes from Pathfinder. The Unchained Monk is a mostly improved Monk that also uses Ki Powers, and has special attacks. The Brawler is a Monk/Fighter hybrid, which fits any setting.
Nothing like a good fisting .I told one of my favorite streamers about your players hand book d&d came up in the course of the stream and he seemed interested I asked if he wanted the info on how to get the pdf he said yes so I gave him the web address you have set up so people can find it I hope he likes it and tells his friends you do good work Sir .and just to be clear I was not spamming him d&d just kinda came up has a topic in the stream so you know i did anyone would done if they liked your work.
Kung-fu only develops in areas where weapons are not allowed to the peasants/serfs. That describes fuedal China and Japan. Not so in the West. To add insult to injury, Mixed Martial Arts (boxing/kick boxing/wrestling) consistently beats the crap out of pure martial artists in real life.
One of my favorite PCs was a feline beastfolk monk who was raised in a Dwarven monastery. I had her up to 20 DEX. We started at Lv1, but she rapidly earned the nickname of "the blender kitty." Monks work just fine in 5E if you spec and play them right. 😹 (Edit: They're good in combat. 5E isn't good at anything *but* combat, so it works out fine if you want to dungeon crawl.)
Whilst I c onsider the 4e monk to be the best iteration to come out in any official D&D edition... this sounds like a damn fine start to fixing the epic mess of 5e's version.
Every time I start rolling a monk, I circle back to the idea of making a Benedictine sort of fellow who fights using a short plank of wood while chanting.
Pies Iesu Domine
*whack!
Dona Eis Requiem
*whack!
I always use pugilism as my style. Friar Tuck was throwing fist while drunk on Wine. Basically Said no to Ki and went Cleric of fist.
It's amusing to me that D&D, an American game, usually assumes an east Asian flavor for it's "punching things" class while Sword World, a Japanese game, uses terms like "Grappler" and "Boxer" (at least in the fan made English translation I've read) for it's "punching things" class.
The thing you have the least direct experience with is the one that you can attach the most magical properties to. Or, the foreign culture is always the magical one.
And yet with dozens, perhaps more, western martial arts going back hundreds to thousands of years, we have a lot of magic. Cossack wrestling, Savate, Glima, Basque Kick Fighting, Cornish Wrestling, Boxing, Pancratium, Highland Wrestling, and a great deal more. A Slavic Druid/Monk would’ve been just as magical as a practitioner of Asatrur, or some Celtic Druid…
The popularity of Grappler Baki and Ashita No Joe
The Monk class predates Oriental Adventures. It was a class in the original AD&D PHB (1978 edition, the one with the idol on the cover).
Predates they as well. It officially premiered in the Blackmoor Supplement II booklet in 1975. And giving Gary credit for inventing any classes other than Fighting Man or Magic-User is probably erroneous.
Fair point. I wasn't sure, as pre-AD&D 1e is before my time.
@@russellharrell2747cavalier was definitely a Gary creation through and through.
"my monk is an expert at punching, not fisting."
"My martial artist is going to kick the bad guy, not give him a foot job."
The Monk first appears in 0e, in Blackmoor. Hence, when I ran Temple of the Frog, I turned the lower level Clerics into Mystics and kept the Druids and high level Clerics.
Hey Mr. Welch, great video as always. I have deep love for monk class. Always been one of my favorite classes. Favorite D&D book is Oriental Adventures. I agree they should get more ability score increases, even if it was only a +1 at higher levels.
Thanks for the video you have a wonderful day!
Kung Fu Hustle was a FUN watch. :)
Ninjas and Superspies was a gem of a book
I admire your dedication, even if your efforts are wasted on schlock like D&D 5E. Even old school monks are curious for fixing. But yeah, you still impress us either way.
I always thought it was weird that the barbarian and monk wasn't a subclass of fighter, the go to 'hit it until it dies!' class.
Monks and fighters need to be separate, lest the spellcaster elitists start ranting about Weeabo Fightan Magic again
@@EvilDoresh to Caesar what is Caesar's, the idea to regulate maneuvers and quantify their effect to that scale is simply ridiculous.
Barbarian in 1E felt more like scout than “angry berserker”.
Later on, Ranger gets to be tracker (Barbarians can do it, but their main focus is raging).
Unfortunately, TSR should have taken cues from Warhammer Fantasy on Wardancer or at least dex-based fighter. Maybe should have make monks as them rather than “novelty based on Kung Fu movie but sometimes forgot to scale them with power level of DND games”.
Palladiums Ninja and Superspies did martial arts so cinematically well!
This is why I use pugilist instead of monk. Hits harder and can wade into the front line just as well as the barbarian.
I remember playing a high-level 3.5 campaign where the Monk was able to dodge all my newbie 20th lvl Cleric shenanigans (and everything else) while Flurry of Blows'ing everything in a few turns. Plus, "Fell the Greatest Foe" on E. Honda vs giant monsters? And we had a bard? Yeah, monk was best boy.
Also, while I'm thinking about it, let's not Wish/ Miracle a million GP to an NPC... in copper pieces... in a closed room.
Giving the monk level-appropriate abilities scaled to casters solves so many problems with the class. L1, you can stun, trip, w/e with a punch, or kick a chair across the room for ranged fistination damage. L5, you can knock down a bunch of people in an area with one punch. L10, you can punch for save-or-die, or laugh off sword blows due to daily vinegar baths. L18, "Cloud Leaping Meteor Punchuuuuu!"
The cost? Actions. You forego the ability to inflict machine gun punches that round to do some flashy thing instead.
I wanna ask Tex when a Kodiak video is.
Still waiting for the Wasp. Want to see if Harmony Gold's lawyer was serious
So grand! Grand Mastery of the hands! I'm looking into becoming a Monk player on main,for BG3. Here's hoping that Larian crafted as well...
I was wondering how you were gonna squeeze your crush into this video, but then 4:27 answered that question. LMAO Bravo.
5:25- Yeah, while I do know monk weapons (plus it was a shame that rogue didn’t get whip and chain flail didn’t appear as well), there is one gripe: lack of polearms proficiencies.
Like I am pretty sure that Guan Dao (Chinese glaive) are like staples on martial arts movie, yet for some reason that omission persisted for a long time (though some art did have them but not sure if it was treated as glaive or any short hand words). Not sure about spears in 1E but they kinda need reach property (at least for two handed).
Another rant would be Chinese swords, like I am pretty sure that Jian is like main staple of Chinese martial arts culture…even in movies. Or whoever “researched” that might have been missed it SOMEHOW (of course, then again, I am speaking from SE Asian country in 90’s that had better Wu Xia exposure when they were just novels). That or pigeonholing swords to Japan to the point that Kara-Tur Eastern Realms (separate fluff book, but related to OA) had Shou Lung/Fantasy China having no thousandfold techniques that didn’t get swordplay appear on their warriors…and then have an art of two Chinese using swords (a hook sword and JIAN straight sword), so both bad formatting and little to no coordination with artists. This is not getting into writers having consistency issues regarding that (either have it be katana, like Japanese katana, or misspelled or outdated romanization on Chinese weapons like “tao” in Hordaland campaign setting or novels sounding more like Jian).
I feel like there should be a dedicated boxer class for the monk
Imagine a dempsey roll ability, for as long as the monk keeps landing an attack they can keep rolling for another one indefinitely until they miss
Tex is a pretty chill dude and a good use of him to get your hands on the original copy.
Though I think both types of editors are important and you are applying broad strokes on what one or the other will do.
I like how the .gif style is a reminder of the sameness of many rounds.
So, the fistinator specializes in fisting? Get ready for players to brag about how they fisted half the dungeon.
LOL, Gross 🤨
@@mattnerdy7236 Shit is gross but not blood? You guys are funny.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@bonbondurjdr6553 Shit is more gross than blood. Carries way more and worse infectious microbes, and smells worse.
@@bonbondurjdr6553blood doesn’t stink nor is it a waste product
This video is remarkable. Bravo, sir.
Tex said, "WHEN IT'S DONE."
Pathfinder 2e did seem to fix a good chunk of the monk, but several changes were just to make it fit more in the system than anything else.
Flurry of Blows became a resource-less, "one action point for two hits" ability because they removed class-specific resources and this was the easiest way to make it fit into the new three-action economy.
They no longer get wisdom to AC because there's now an Unarmoured Defence Proficiency that adds their proficiency bonus (which includes their character level) to their AC. This also doesn't feel supernatural because this is basically how all of the armour proficiencies now work and everybody gets Unarmoured Defence Proficiency, even wizards.
Their speed boost... that actually didn't change but it doesn't feel as supernatural anymore because other classes get similar increases (like the Swashbuckler whenever they do something to gain Panache).
I think all of the class' supernatural abilities got shifted into the Class Feat system, and there's enough variety there that you can avoid all of the supernatural stuff entirely and just make a mundane martial artist. If you want to do a character that's just Punch Real Good - a Fighter with a cestus does the job just as well. Probably better than the monk in some respects too because they have a higher weapon proficiency bonus than anyone else so they're a bit more accurate than the monk. Not as many fancy stances and other tricks as the monk, though.
Monk has always been a personal favorite class of mine, warts and all. 'Ooops, all DEX' was always a fun gimmick to me, along with asking myself the question 'how high can I get my AC?' before engaging in a modest amount of trolling. Granted, Pathfinder Monks only get to do a Modest amount of trolling.
Another fun class from Pathfinder is Ninja, from Blood and Steel 2. Its just a Rogue alternate class, which trades certain Rogue skills for Ninja Tricks and a Monk style KI Pool. >When the level 2 Ninja can go invisible for 2 rounds because Ninja Tricks are a little silly
Thank you for this video.
what subclasses should be the most awesome for a Savate Master/naval commando, be they French, Cajun, Quebecois, Haitian etcetera.
Instead of a monk I'm playing a barbarian with unarmed fighting style that uses pankration
I really dig the martial arts in Exalted that start as different cool ways of making your fighting style cooler and end up being cheat codes for one type of Exalt that has a very restrictive power set to let them punch you so hard you re-live your life backward in real time until you become unborn and then snap back to reality in a split second. Exalted Demake is gearing up to have the most interesting version of those that let you do cool stuff like fighting someone with a ladder, Bruce Lee style...
But yeah, the name of the game there is having versatility and self-contained game loops. Being able to shout-sing your enemy to death with Silver-Voiced Nightinggale style is different from doing one sword strike kills with Single Point Shining Into The Void style, but they both fall under MA.
My first character was a monk in 3.5. Good times.
my favorite german word is
Backpfeifengesicht
Which is basically, a face badly in of a fist.
You know you pictured someone immediately when you read that.
As someone who had a monk player, god did I feel bad for not being able to design a good dungeon for them. I like the AC increase. I would have just given the monk an equivalent of the shield spell (spend one ki point to get proficiency bonus to your ac), but having it be passive is honestly more interesting and keeps its identity unique.
Another way to do it is just give it what Warlocks get Armor of Shadows which lasts all day/permanently (of course instead of a Mage Armor spell call it Ki Shielding or something).
Monk with the way of the drunken master, and tavern brawler. I AM THE LIQUOR RICKY!
I have issues with the monk personally. I like the concept, but I don’t particularly like the East Asian aesthetic in a settings that mostly pull from Western Europe. Even in cosmopolitan setting like Pathfinder, it often feels off.
Besides, why restrict it to a single culture? Why not say anyone can unlock Ki abilities through sheer force of will and dedication? Yeah, it makes no sense why they’d call it Ki, since that’s an East Asian concept, but you can lean into that. I personally prefer to make Ki Psionic in nature rather than magical, and then have the average person mistake this power for magic since to some random farmer or artisan it’s the same thing. Then laugh at the Wizard who wonders why he can’t detect magic on the guy who can punch ghosts with his bare hands. Also change the name back to Mystic so it fits the setting better and we can have more character options than just a wandering monk (also to junk the overpowered 5e Mystic class).
Alternatively, just make Ki-users be subclasses or a more limited feat for the Fighter, Rogue, etc. Pathfinder already has a Brawler class for those who want to punch things without keeping track of Ki points or who want a truly mundane martial artist
Again, I don’t hate the Monk/Mystic, but it definitely needed an overhaul.
- Give each monk ASI one extra stat point (even if you choose to take a feat)
- Let them use dex for jumping and grappling
- Give them +Wis mod Ki
- Give them a fighting style, especially if you can swap it around each day
- Make flurry of blows add one attack to the attack action rather than making two as a bonus action (you can still use this with the martial arts bonus action attack)
- At level 10 or 11 give them the ability to regain 1 Ki every round they start their turn with less Ki than their Proficiency bonus
Make them a barfighter, and instead of chi, they use alcohol. Their high alcohol tolerance also gives them resistance to poisons.
I remember after the Unarmed Combat style came out in Tasha's I took the feat for it as a barbarian. With my barbarian I proceeded to out damage the Monk with my fists, and at one point literally punched the Monk into the ground without going below half hp. It is actually kinda sad that a Barbarian with 1 feat was stronger at punching people then a class based around punching people.
Pretty sure it was Sunday afternoon. We also had those old Thyat I mean Roman set movies.
"Bruce Lee would have trouble punching through plate mail."
Sir, I think you underestimate Lee. Him, Ali, and more than a bit of Batman are my preferred examples for a monk.
Personally, my favorite monk was from Pathfinder 1e. Sure, wasn't doing as much damage as the barbarian, but I was bouncing around so much that, when I spent a Ki Point to jump REALLY high, the Witch player said "Right, I roll perception to spot the coin he dropped." (Mistborn reference... seriously, I bounced off the ceiling.) Also was a decent backup skill monkey. Wasn't the bookworm that the wizard was, wasn't the rogue's physical skill monkey, but was a decent backup for both. Being second best is okay, because the person you're second to in one area is at least #3 or #4 in another area you're #2 in. Being the backup in a lot of areas is fine, which is something Pathfinder 2e forgot when they did the Paladin... or the Ranger... or the Bard.
Also, best fix that I thought for the 5e Monk was to just make some of the powers be passive or at-will without costing Ki (at least Patient Defense and Step of the Wind, rest depends on subclass).
Hell ya, Fistinator!
I'd love to hear how you'd redo psionics
Monks have always been a mess in pretty much every edition (except for maybe 4e? haven't looked at that version yet). Lots of class abilities that just make up for stuff they _lose_ compared to everyone else, plus a seemingly random assortment of class abilities that don't synergize with each other in any ways (most notorious being the 3.X version which has both increased speed and a heavy reliance on Full Attacks).
And a little nitpick: Kirins are also a thing in Japan, China and Vietnam. For extra confusion "kirin" is also the Japanese name for "giraffe" (much like how they named tapirs after the dream-eating baku, to the point that every baku portrayed in modern media is just a tapir)
_last I checked_ "Monks" no longer use a D20, instead (d12 + d8) with no fumbles.
While I don't agree with your take on what a sensitivity reader is or does at ALL, I think this video was amazing. And its always interesting to read the history of where the various classes and aspects of the game came from. Not to mention that these videos about fixing various classes are always great.
As a fan of Sasaki Kojiro, Musashi did not think he wasn't worthy of killing him with a sword. Musashi had stopped using real swords by that point in his career. He made the Bokuto out of the oar on the way to Ganryu and killed Kojiro by accident, the prevailing theory being that Kojiro had an aneurysm and burst from the blow to the head he received during the first exchange.
Black Pants Legion is a kick all the ass channel, I didn't know Battle Tech was so awesome until they explained it. I'd write more but I'm late to a meeting with my Recruitment Officer, Mr. Soul-Shitter.
There is a reason I like pathfinders brawler more than monk even though one is made from the other
Thumbs up just for the shout out to Mr. Tex!
Fighters probably up at daybreak training.
Dude, no. Monk is in the 1978 AD&D Player's Handbook on pg30. Oriental Adventures didn't come out until the mid-80s. The Slave Lords series had evil monks from the Scarlet Brotherhood as named antagonists, also before Oriental Adventures came out. Yes, they were Shaw Brothers Shaolin wannabes and they were structurally untenable. Thanks for making them better. Almost anything would be better than the rules-as-written in any edition.
Also not sure, but Scarlet Brotherhood...I think I remember that they learned it from Kara-Tur due to their mutual xenophobia, so either tone-deaf nod to WW2 (like making the entire Fantasy Asia as Japanese-expy,) or seems to want to justify Scarlet Brotherhood's martial arts but also operating on insular Asian narrative.
Not sure if it was in original, retcon, or both (like generic Fantasy Asia being coined as such later on).
@@powerist209 Scarlet Brotherhood were from Greyhawk several years before OA defined Kara-Tur, which was retconned onto the far side of Faerun in the Forgotten Realms.
Even though the evil monks from the Slave Lords modules were clearly escaped from a 70s kung fu theater flick, the official story was that the Brotherhood were a Suel offshoot group, thematically like the escaped Nazis in Argentina. Greyhawk prehistory has the Suel (think Nazis) and the Baklunis (generic East Asians) at each other's thoats until they went magically nuclear on each other. The Rain of Colorless Fire took down one empire and the Invoked Devastation against the other. Its' a whole thing from Gygax's home campaign. Nothing to do with Kara-Tur. It predates TSR's involvement with Ed Greenwood.
'boot to the head'
Fix the rogue next please? :D
"Ask Tex when he's gonna' get the Hunchback video finished." Oh that's evil. You're evil. I can't imagine anything more annoying to Tex than sending thousands of people to bug him about his latest project who don't know any better about his deadlines policy. I love it.
I want to be an Awesome Editor when I grow up.
I still miss Kung Fu Theater. :(
I find the thumbnail strangely arousing...🤣🤣🤣
DOA Dead or Alive. The Springtime for Hitler of video game movies. Cheesy as hell but try not to be entertained. It has magical Kung fu sunglasses
Ive actually been thinking about this for a while. I think the big problem with Monk is needing like 4 attribute points where most pther classes can specialize in 2. like what about instead of focusing on the mystysism you instead focus on which style of martial arts your character uses with sub classes specializing in different attribute score.
For example you could have a subclass Dex Monk. They are all about speed and flexibility. They fight hard, fast, and most importantly dirty. Flying knee strikes to the head, elbow strikes to the kidney or groin, constantly weaving in and out of melee range. This Monk would gain bonuses to from flanking and blinksiding their foes. These monks would be perfect dashing into the back row on the enemy group and delivering a fist fight into the throat to that pesky wizard in to back.
Another would be a strength based Monk far more focused on the raw power of kicks. From roundhouses to the stomach to crane kicks strait to the dome.
Just my two cents, id love to see this idea expanded on.
The thumbnail and title bro haha
Fistinator, so a Pugilist?
This is like the video about the Fighter. My answer to everything is just make Spellcasters and stop making non-spellcasters.
The fundamental problem with Dungeons and Dragons is that it was, until multiclassing was introduced, about filling dungeon crawls roles. Every class since has been some variation of the Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, or later Thief classes.
I dont think they need more classes, but to just make Feats or spells to make a Custom Character feature.
Barring that I would suggest looking into the Unchained Monk and Brawler classes from Pathfinder. The Unchained Monk is a mostly improved Monk that also uses Ki Powers, and has special attacks. The Brawler is a Monk/Fighter hybrid, which fits any setting.
We who play The Fantasy Trip welcome you. Everyone should be able to learn a spell.
The monk is sad compared to the budoka from bushido
heh, BOOT TO THE HEAD.
Boot to the head.
Nothing like a good fisting .I told one of my favorite streamers about your players hand book d&d came up in the course of the stream and he seemed interested I asked if he wanted the info on how to get the pdf he said yes so I gave him the web address you have set up so people can find it I hope he likes it and tells his friends you do good work Sir .and just to be clear I was not spamming him d&d just kinda came up has a topic in the stream so you know i did anyone would done if they liked your work.
sho'nuf!
Kung-fu only develops in areas where weapons are not allowed to the peasants/serfs. That describes fuedal China and Japan. Not so in the West.
To add insult to injury, Mixed Martial Arts (boxing/kick boxing/wrestling) consistently beats the crap out of pure martial artists in real life.
A off topic question. I tried to send you the tabletop rpg Delta Green with puppet land tacked on. Where you able to receive it?
Yes I did should have shown downloaded. They are in the queue
@@Mr_Welch Sweet just making shore. Thank you
Ki lo ni
One of my favorite PCs was a feline beastfolk monk who was raised in a Dwarven monastery. I had her up to 20 DEX. We started at Lv1, but she rapidly earned the nickname of "the blender kitty." Monks work just fine in 5E if you spec and play them right. 😹
(Edit: They're good in combat. 5E isn't good at anything *but* combat, so it works out fine if you want to dungeon crawl.)
Whilst I c onsider the 4e monk to be the best iteration to come out in any official D&D edition... this sounds like a damn fine start to fixing the epic mess of 5e's version.
First. But, no sound.
TH-cam loads the sound a minute or two after the visual. Known issue all on them
@Mr_Welch My apologies, but this is one of your "fixing a 5E class" videos, right?
@@johnbalk6091 yes it is
Definitely better, but still lame AF. This class should not exist.
On a side note, you can find all the Oriental Adventures with one search.