Monk Across the Table top
By Nick - November 3, 2009
This is one of the most beloved D&D classes, because no matter how stingy your DM was when it came to giving away treasure, your Monk was set. They didn’t need to deal with the complexities of equipment and got a lot of cool abilities that helped keep combat fresh without getting as complicated as a spellcaster. One of my friends seemed to play a Monk in almost every single campaign we would ever start.
3rd Edition’s Version: Newbie players always picked this class because they lacked the complexities of needing equipment. They got tons of cool abilities, too. Min/Maxers loved them because of Flurry of Blows, which when used with certain Prestige Class features or feats would allow the Monk to attack anywhere from eight to eleven times a round. Min/Maxers also loved the special AC bonuses these guys would get.
Pathfinder’s Version: The Ki Pool is a revision that you would see a lot of home-brewed versions of the Monk on the D&D forums. It’s an obvious change, considering the weirdness of having all of these different feats consume Stunning Fist uses. Their AC bonus is a little higher here, just by a point. Everything else is almost identical to their original 3rd Edition awesomeness.
4th Edition’s Version: I’m only judging this based on the playtest that I’ve gotten from D&D Insider. They still deal greater unarmed damage than everyone else and get bonuses to their AC for wearing very little armor. Flurry of Blows is a bit weird here but still very handy, just not “attack eleven times per round” handy. Instead of the Monk getting a passive movement bonus, almost every single power they learn includes a special movement action that can be taken in addition the standard action attack. I hope some of the more flavorful non-combat features from 3rd Edition eventually get included as feats, like Tongue of Sun and Moon or Timeless Body.
If you missed the exact premise for this series of articles, you can find the original article here.
Here are also the previous entries in this series…
The Fighter Across the Tabletop
The Paladin Across the Tabletop
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