Monk enhancements

[Redicular]

Over in the focused discussion forums, madfloyd mentioned the devs were looking at reworking both the enhancement UI and quite a few enhancements in general. he also specifically asked for player information on which enhancements most needed work.

this got the wheels in motion in my head as to what I'd like to see changed in my particular class of choice.

This will not be short.

--------------------------

First and foremost, something has to be done about the first 4 AP in a monk's life, particularly light monks. due to the change a while back to have tier I stances grated as feats on monk level 1, monks are extremely limited in their options for low progression enhancements. racial 0 progression enhancements or skill enhancement are the ONLY option for the first 2 AP spent.

human:
human versatility(great), iron companion(horrid), a bunch of skills
elf:
arenal/valenar melee damage(useless to a monk without wss), elven ranged damage(useless to a monk without zen archery), +1 enchantment save(decent, weak on high will save monk), iron companion, a bunch of skills
halfling:
thrown weapon damage(shuriken, need i say more), +1 to a chosen save(decent, again monks are naturally high save), +1 to save vs fear(surprisingly good at low levels, again high save monks), iron companion, a bunch of skills
dwarf:
dwarf armor mastery/agility(if i have to explain why this is useless, i give up), dwarf axe damage(another boost to an item a monk will NEVER equip), dwarf shield mastery(ok, this is just getting sad), goblinoid hatred(some use at low levels due to low to-hit and frequency of goblinoids), poison resistance(pots are cheap and not only cure poison but prevent it for 6 minutes), iron companion, a bunch of skills
warforged:
+1 to enhcantment save(decent, weak on high will save monk), dr 1/adamantine(all dr enhancements are overpriced and weak given ddo damage amounts), +1 fort save(high save monks), healer's friend(great), iron companion, a bunch of skills
drow:
drow weapon damage(at least it includes a ki weapon...shuriken), +1 enchantment save(wow, everyone gets this... see above), iron companion, a bunch of skills
half-elf:
human versatility(great), iron companion, a bunch of skills
half-orc:
orcish fury(very very good), orcish melee damage(well it affects q-staves), iron companion, a bunch of skills

I just listed all the level 1 0-progression enhancements available to a monk. every monk has to spend 2-3 ap on whichever of those apply to his/her race no matter what to actually start his/her build. there is no way around it, 2 ap on those enhancements and monk wisdom I, or 3 on those enhancements to skip wisdom I(saving 1 ap, but wisdom I probably should be taken by all monks anyway)

as a minor note, those enhancements that would have use given certain feats(WSS, zen archery) please remember that neither of those feats are available to a level 1 pure monk due to BAB rules. both require a BAB of 1 which monk doesn't attain until level 2

----
now that that's over with, lets get into the other weak monk enhancements

all consuming flame, pourous soul, static charge, winter's touch
these should all be 1 AP.
why is all consuming flame, a possible pre-req for ninja spy, not available until AFTER the first shot at the prestige(6 for the PRE, 7 for flame)?
why do these have different levels at all?
10% is a very low boost but i'm afraid of what a higher number will do to casters

Lifting the veil, the receptive earth, restoring the balance, difficulty at the beginning
these should all be 1 AP, even more so then the dark versions since they can all be duplicated by potions
why do these have different levels?
difficulty at the beginning, particulary when factoring in its late level, should be restoration not lesser

fists of iron
yay an ability that has an, at best, 85% chance of doing absolutely nothing.
This needs to be a passive(bump pre-req to earth III, increase cost) or go away entirely(i prefer the latter, see fire stances for why).

eagle claw
this should have gotten sunder's anti-fortification effect as well.

ninja spy II - dance of the water strider
cool ability, serves no point

Fire stances
fire stance has taken over for earth as the weakest of a monks possible stances. without jidz tet'ka backing it up, fire is either the worst or 2nd worst stance to be in at any given time.
tanking: earth(threat, minor dps, damage reduction, some AC) water(ac, saves, some ki) wind(major dps, minor AC, minor save), fire(ki, minor dps)
dps: wind(attack speed, double attack), earth(+1 crit multiplier, damage resistance for aoe attacks), fire(+2 damage/attack, ki), water(+2 to monk DCs, +2 attack if using zen archery, ki)
walking around: water(ki regen, trap[reflex] save), wind(trap save), fire(nothing), earth(penalty to trap save, -10% movement speed, damage resistance for the traps you couldn't save and couldn't get through fast enough)

so I suggest... fire stance III and IV give +1 to crit range and really compete for the crown as a DPS stance-where it loses out so much to wind at the moment.

All stances
every stance, at every tier should be a straight 2 AP purchase. particularly once T3 ninja and henshin come out, monks just can't spare AP at the current price of 9 AP for one GM

[Azonalanthious]

All stances
every stance, at every tier should be a straight 2 AP purchase. particularly once T3 ninja and henshin come out, monks just can't spare AP at the current price of 9 AP for one GM

Generally with you until here. 9 AP is fine for a Grand Master. It provides benefits that I would class as on par with 1-2 tiers of a prestige class (not quite up to a tier III class weight other then earth, which I would actually put at that level at the moment.), yet has effectively no prerequisites (just the stat requirements, all in stats that are useful to a monk to begin with!). A monk with a prestige line should be able to GM 1 or maybe 2 lines, which you can do with 9 AP just fine. But no more then that, any more then casters should get all the spell enhancement lines. Shinto III + a GM runs 37 if mental math is correct, 33 with your proposed changes to the light abilities cost, and a good chunk of that is the ever useful improved recovery that you would probably be taking anyways. That still leaves plenty of AP to play round with racial/toughness/second GM/void lines. As long as hensin and spy III run similar in terms of total AP costs, I think things are fine on this front. It should be a choice of prestige and 1 or 2 lines or no prestige and 3-4.

[Natean]

This is my impression of a monk tree as it stands now



Getting Void IV is a pain, using about half your AP for that line.

[Azonalanthious]

Yeah, Void is a bit overpriced in my opinion. The 9 for a grand mastery line is fine, and the 10 for void itself is fine considering what it can to, but the 15 for having to master all 3 other lines is pushing it.