Monk
Ability Requirements:Strength 13, Wisdom 15, Dexterity 14, Constitution 11
Prime Requisites: None
Races Allowed: Human, Elf, Half-elf
Alignments Allowed: Any Lawful
Automatic Proficiencies: Endurance, Religion
Monks are monastic aesthetics who practice rigorous mental and physical training and discipline in order to become superior. Therefore they must always be lawful in alignment, although they can be evil, good, or neutral with respect to their approach to lawfulness. A monk who for any reason loses this lawful alignment loses all monk abilities and must begin again as a first level character. Exception: If a monk who lost his lawful alignment chose to become a 1st level thief, he would retain those thief-like skills at one level below which he was as a monk. His proficiency in those skills would not increase until his thief level "caught up" with them. Other thief skills would progress normally, though the DM may insist that some skill points be assigned (lost) to those skills just to "maintain" them.
Monks gain the same combat benefits for strength, dexterity and constitution as other non-warriors.
Special Abilities
Open Hand Combat
Open hand combat damage is shown on Monk's Ability Table below. In addition, the monk has a chance to stun, or even kill, an opponent. An opponent is stunned by a monk for 1-6 (d6) melee rounds if the score of the monk's "to hit" die score exceeds the minimum number required for a hit by 5 or more, i.e. if 15 is required, a score of 20 would indicate a stun.
The chance to kill is a percentage which equals
[the Level of the monk] + 13 - [the Armor Class of the opponent].
Note that:
- the monk must score a hit, and
- the hit must stun the opponent, and
- the percentile dice score must be equal to or less than % chance calculated above.
Saving Throws
Monks make saving throws on the table used by priests, but they gain certain advantages:Non-magical missiles (arrows, bolts, bullets, thrown daggers, thrown javelins, thrown spears, etc.) which would normally hit can be dodged or knocked aside if the monk is able to make his or her saving throw against petrification for each such potential hit.
In other respects, if a monk makes his or her saving throw against an attack form, the monk will sustain no damage from the attack, even if the attack form was a fireball, for instance.
At 9th level (Master of the North Wind) or higher, a monk who fails to make his or her saving throw will still sustain but one-half the total potential damage which the attack form could deliver, if possible. That is, a fireball would do 50% of total damage, but the gaze of a basilisk would still petrify the monk.
Thief Abilities
Monks have the following thief abilities:
- Open Locks
- Find/Remove Traps
- Move Silently
- Hide in Shadows
- HearNoise
- Climb Walls
For each level that a monk goes up, the DM will distribute 12 percentage points based on skills actually used on the adventures that the thief has been on during his time at the previous level, and the player will have 16 points to distribute based on his training between adventures (IOW, where he wants them). The player cannot add more than 10% at a time to any one skill.
Furthermore, a monk with a 16 dexterity may decide at the fifth level to forego further progress in opening locks and finding/removing traps in order to learn the acrobatic skills of tightrope walking, pole vaulting, jumping, and tumbling, in which they will progress as does a Thief-Acrobat. See section on Thief Acrobats for details.
Monk Abilities
| Level | Effective Armor Class (1) | Open Hand Att / Rd (2) | Open Hand Damage (3) | Bonus Weapon Damage | Movement Rate | Chance of being Surprised | Safe Falling Distance / Distance from Wall (4) | Special Abilities (5) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10 | 1 | d3 | 1 | 15" | 33.3% | B, C, G, J | |
| 2 | 11 | 1 | d4 | 1 | 16" | 32% | I | |
| 3 | 12 | 1 | d6 | 2 | 17" | 30% | A, E | |
| 4 | 13 | 5/4 | d6 | 2 | 18" | 28% | 20' / 1' | B |
| 5 | 14 | 5/4 | d6+1 | 3 | 19" | 26% | 25' / 2' | C |
| 6 | 15 | 3/2 | 2d4 | 3 | 20" | 24% | 30' / 3' | D |
| 7 | 16 | 3/2 | 2d4+1 | 4 | 21" | 22% | 35' / 4' | E |
| 8 | 17 | 3/2 | 2d6 | 4 | 22" | 20% | 40' / 5' | F |
| 9 | 18 | 2 | 3d4 | 5 | 23" | 18% | 50' / 5' | G |
| 10 | 19 | 2 | 2d6+1 | 5 | 24" | 16% | 60' / 6' | H |
| 11 | 20 | 5/2 | 3d4+1 | 6 | 25" | 14% | 80' / 6' | I |
| 12 | 21 | 5/2 | 4d4 | 6 | 26" | 12% | 100 / 7' | J |
| 13 | 22 | 5/2 | 4d4+1 | 7 | 27" | 10% | Any / 8' | K |
| 14 | 23 | 3 | 5d4 | 7 | 28" | 8% | ||
| 15 | 24 | 3 | 6d4 | 8 | 29" | 6% | ||
| 16 | 25 | 4 | 5d6 | 8 | 30" | 4% | ||
| 17 | 26 | 4 | 8d4 | 9 | 32" | 2% |
1) This AC is adjusted by the dexterity of the Monk, as with any other non-warrior class.
2) Listings with a slash indicate extra attacks after the appropriate number of rounds, i.e. 5/4 means 5 attacks per 4 rounds, with the additional attack coming at the end of the round sequence.
3) The monk enjoys the same strength bonuses to attack and damage as other non-warriors.
4) The monk must have an opportunity to periodically make contact with the wall during the descent. The wall is used by the monk to slow the fall so that no hit points of damage are sustained from the fall. Note that when reference to a wall is made, any similar surface, such as a tree trunk, cliff face, and the like, are equally useful to the monk.
5) Notes Regarding Special Abilities:
Each special ability is designated by a capital letter.
A. Starting at 3rd level, monks gain the ability to learn the language of any creatures that the monk has come in contact with and with whom he has had the opportunity to speak. This does not use a proficiency slot. In practice, this means that once per level starting with the 3rd, when a monk encounters a creature of low or better intelligence, they can learn to communicate with it "on the fly".
B. The ability to mask the mind so that ESP has only a 30% 36% chance of success. This power begins at 4th 1st level, and with each level of experience which the monk gains thereafter, the chance for success of ESPing the monk's thoughts drops by 2%, i.e. 28% chance of success on a 5th level monk, 26% on a 6th level, etc.
C. Monks have a bonus to saving throws against haste or slow spells. Starting at first level, the bonus is +1, and it increases by 3 for every level attained beyond that. Thus, by 5th level of experience monks are not affected by haste or slow spells (unless he chooses to accept a friendly haste spell). They are 20% resistant (which works just like elven magic resistance) to disease of any sort, and this resistance increases by 20% for each level he achieves. At 5th experience level a monk is not subject to diseases of any sort, nor is he ever affected by haste or slow spells.
D. The ability to use self-induced catalepsy to appear dead. This can be done perfectly, as the 6th (or higher) level monk is able to lower his or her body temperature and heart rate. The monk is able to maintain this state for twice the number of turns (10 minute periods) which equal his level, i.e. 12 turns at 6th level, 14 at 7th, etc. Note that this state in and of itself offers no protection from the character being killed as any unconscious person might.
E. At 7th 3rd level, the monk gains the ability to heal damage on his or her body. The amount of damage which can be healed is 2-5 hit points (d4+l) 0-1 hit points (d4-3), and this amount increases by 1 hit point with each experience level gained thereafter, i.e. d4-1 at 5th level, d4+2 HP at 8th level, d4+3 at 9th, etc. This may be done once per day, and can be used to heal physical damage (when the monk's HP are below the Physical Hit Point Threshold ) and is in addition to the normal natural healing.
F. The ability to speak with plants as per the 4th level druid spell. This power is attained at 8th level, and can be done once per day.
G. Beguiling, charms, hypnosis, and suggestion spells have only a 50% 90% chance of affecting a monk. of the 9th level of experience. That is, the monk is 50% 10% resistant to such magic. This resistance increases 5% per level thereafter, so that at 10th level such spells have but a 45% chance of affecting the monk, 40% at 11th level, and so on. Saving throws apply if resistance fails.
H. Telepathic and mind blast attacks (see Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Monster Manual: Mind Flayer) upon a monk of 10th or higher level are made as if the character had an 18 intelligence, due to the monk's mental discipline.
I. Monks have a bonus to saving throws against poison of any type. Starting at first level, the bonus is +1, and it increases by 1 for every 2 levels attained beyond that (3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th). Thus, at 11th and higher levels of experience monks are not affected by poison of any type.
J. Monks have a bonus to saving throws against Geas and quest spells. Starting at second level, the bonus is +1, and it increases by 1 for every level attained beyond that. Thus, at 12th and higher levels of experience, Geas and quest spells have no effect upon monks of 12th or higher level.
K. The last ability gained, and perhaps the most terrible power, is that fabled attack which enables the monk to set up vibrations in the body of the victim, and the monk can then control such vibrations so as to cause death to occur when the monk stops them. Known as the "quivering palm", the monk merely touches his victim to set up the deadly vibrations. (The 'touch' requires a successful attack roll.) The victim can be virtually any creature. This power is limited as follows:
- It can be attempted but once per week, and the monk must touch the intended victim within 3 melee rounds or the power is drained for one week.
- It has no affect on the undead or creatures which can be hit only by magical weaponry.
- The victim cannot have more hit dice than the monk using the power, and in any event, the total hit points of the victim cannot exceed those of the monk by more than 200%, or the power has no effect.
- The victim is allowed a saving throw vs. Death Magic at a -7 on the die roll, with normal wisdom modifier. If the saving throw is passed, there is no effect.
- The command to die (the control of the vibrations) must be given by the monk within a set time limit, or else the vibrations simply cease of their own accord and do no damage whatsoever. The time limit of death command is one day per level of experience the monk has gained at the time the power is used.
Restrictions
There are a number of strictures which monk characters must abide by.
Armor and weapons
Armor cannot be worn (with the exception of bracers). Only the following weapons can be used: bo sticks, club, crossbow, dagger, hand axe, javelin, jo stick, kama, katana, pole arm, sling, spear, staff.
Treasure
Monks, much like paladins (q.v.), may not retain more than a small fraction of whatever treasure they gain. A monk may possess no more than two magic weapons and three other magic items at any time. While monks may retain money sufficient for their modest needs, and to support their henchmen, all other treasure and excess magic items must be bestowed upon (non player) religious institutions. (See also Followers hereafter.)
Magic items usable
Magic items usable by monks include all magical varieties of weapons listed (unless proscribed), rings, and those miscellaneous magic items which are usable by priests. No other magic items of any sort may be employed by monks.
Henchmen
Until attaining the rank of Master (Level 6), monks may not have any hirelings or henchmen at all. At 6th level of experience, monks may hire persons on a short-duration basis - for the duration of a single adventure only. At this level, they may also acquire up to two henchmen. Henchmen may be fighters (but not cavaliers, paladins, nor rangers), or thieves. With each level of experience above the 6th which the monk attains, he or she may add one additional henchman, until the maximum number established by the monk's charisma score is reached. Monks will gain followers upon attaining 8th level; this is discussed hereafter.
Advancement in level
Unlike all other classes, there is a relatively low limit to level advancement for monks. The highest level achievable for monks is 17: Grandmaster of Flowers. By the time one achieves this level, it's probably time to retire to a monastery and pass on your wisdom to future generations.
Monk Experience Levels
| Level | XP | Hit Dice (d8) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 2 | 2,250 | 3 |
| 3 | 4,750 | 4 |
| 4 | 10,000 | 5 |
| 5 | 22,500 | 6 |
| 6 | 47,500 | 7 |
| 7 | 98,000 | 8 |
| 8 | 200,000 | 9 |
| 9 | 350,000 | 10 |
| 10 | 500,000 | 11 |
| 11 | 700,000 | 12 |
| 12 | 950,000 | 13 |
| 13 | 1,250,000 | 14 |
| 14 | 1,750,000 | 15 |
| 15 | 2,250,000 | 16 |
| 16 | 2,750,000 | 17 |
| 17 | 3,250,000 | 18 |
Followers
When a monk player character attains the 8th level of experience, he or she will gain a number of monks as followers. He or she will attract from 2-5 1st level monks if the player character has a monastery or monastery-like building to use as a headquarters. These followers may be worked upwards in levels of experience. The player character will attract 1 or 2 additional monks of 1st level for each additional level of experience the player gains. While followers of a monk are as loyal as his or her other henchmen, they automatically leave service when they attain the level of Superior Master (7th).
All followers will be of the exact same alignment as the monk player character. If he or she changes alignment, the current followers will desert, but new ones can still be gained by advancement in level. The monastery or monastery-like headquarters of the monk can be that of the character he or she defeated to attain 8th or higher level, or it --> will be a building specially constructed by the monk player character after attaining 8th or higher level. In the latter case, the monk may retain up to 250,000 gold pieces value in treasure in order to finance construction of the place. He or she may also retain sufficient funds thereafter to maintain such a place.
Note that monk followers require no support, upkeep, or pay of any sort (other than room and board).