Monk Mysteries - how do u use Monk Special Attacks

Hello, everyone,

I'm trying to nurture a monk to full Kung-fu expert status and need some help:

1) To use flurry of blows, the user manual says that I have to initiate a full attack action. I'm not sure if I am using full attack or not - the damage rolls seem to include my Strength modifier and would appear to indicate that I am using full attack and, therefore, I am using flurry of blows. However, if I target an enemy then select full attack action from the radial menu, it seems like nothing happens except that my turn is expended.

Do I have to move my monk into range of the enemy, right click the enemy, select full attack, and then attack with a flurry of blows? Similarly, does Stunning Fist work the same way: get into range, right-click on the enemy, and then select dtunning fist? Any advice? Do I need to select full attack action or is this automatically enabled when I click on an enemy in range to attack?

2) If I give my monk one of the Armor Proficiency feats, for instance, the Heavy Armor Proficiency, does this mean my monk can wear full plate and still have the Fast Movement, flurry of blows, and Evasion feats? The user manual says I would lose these feats if I wore heavy armor, but then the Armor Proficiency feat would indicate that the only penalty I would get is to Hide and Move Silently checks.

An similar question applies to the Weapon Proficiency feats: if I give my monk a Weapon Proficiency in a non-monk weapon, for instance, a bastard sword, can he still use flurry of blows using the bastard sword?

3) This is probably an error in the user manual, but I can't seem to use Improved unarmed strike when also wielding my quarterstaff. Now, wait, I know what you're going to say: You can't use unarmed strike if you're not unarmed! But the user manual says that feet, knees, elbows are also considered monk weapons, and so monk is considered armed even when his hands are full. Anybody know if this is just fluff peddled by an overworked, underpaid documentation specialist?

 

I love monks, although the problem with ToEE is that right about the time when monks start getting really good - the early teens - is when you cap out here. My favorite is a little dwarven monk; tons of resistances on top of the monk ones, extra con points, and it's just cool looking a little bearded guy do a Neo when standing around....

Allyx's answers were dead on. The only comments I would add is that shields also turn off monk special abilities (so no, don't try that instead), and at lower levels the to-hit penalty for flurry of blows is significant enough so that I'd suggest avoiding it unless you have substantial other bonuses for all but the lowest level creatures. One attack that hits is better than 2 (flurry of blows) that don't.

 

I think the answers others gave weren't clear enough, so let me help.
1. The default action (click on enemy) is either a "walk to and do a single attack" if you are far from it, or "full attack" if you are near it. Flurry of blows will automatically be used if you are close enough for a full attack, otherwise you are better off charging (walk to enemy and attack combined into one move that takes your whole turn and gives you +2 to attack).

2. Dont give your monk any armor or shields! monks are lawful, and they take strict vows against wearing and using such equipment. When using shields or armor they loose practically all their monks powers. It doesn't make sense, but its how Clerics of the coast designed them.

3. Its not an error, this game is based on a table top game, and the manual follows alot of the rules from the table top game rules. However, the game ENGINE cannot handle certain things. Improve unarmed strike only means that you are considered armed at all times. So you dont provoke attacks of opportunity when attacking armed opponents, AND unarmed opponents attacking you DO provoke an AoO. You should know that the rules for Improved unarmed strike are implemented correctly! However, as I said before, there are engine limitations that do not allow you to interspace unarmed strikes between your attacks with a monk weapon.

 

hemm... WIZARDS of the coast.
And anyway, why is it so weird that a monk (image a sort of Bruce Lee) looses many bonuses if wearing an encumbering full armor? Then somebody may argue that a a leather armor isn't the same thing and that a monk should preserve some abilities, but then there should be a rule for every kind of armor, game rebalance should screw up and everything would be even more complicate than present.
D&D IS a game and there are rules that sometimes goes against good sense but that helps to keep classes balanced.

 

even padded armour effects dex, to have complete freedom of movement you be wearing no armour, well thats what i think from playing "wacking each other with sticks" a game me and my friends played after deciding we wanted to take up kendo again but didn't want to buy new gear that fitted so we made our own. Leather armour is stiff and harder to move in than cloth armour, which still makes it harder to do some moves. Try swinging your arms around in a heavy, tight leather jacket.

 

One other tidbit about monks in ToEE, which I'd forgotten until I got my wizards and cleric leveled up to make wonderous items.

Strongly recommend that you figure out a way to include a wonderous-item crafting druid in your party if you're raising a pure monk. Why? Two potential important items - amulets of either mighty fists or natural armor - really will help out monks. (6k exp for a +5 amulet is a wee bit steep but who's counting!) And the spells required are out of the druid list. Hence, either make goo-goo eyes at Meleny or make your own...

 

lol it would be damn cute if a monk could perform a nice flying kick into the target as a charge attack or a special attack that needs minimum range (like 10 or 15 ft)... it should do lots of extra damage on criticals(like x3 or even more :evilgrin: if it was from a nice distance).
seriously though, the monk isn't really an adequatly designed class in ToEE... there should be many things that enhance gameplay with a monk, such as the ability to choose kung fu styles, just like a ranger can chooses 2weapon/archery styles, or like a cleric selects his domains.
for example, there must be Tiger style, which focuses for instance on melee and physical damage stuff(increased unarmed damage... maybe at a certain level id12 or so) and gives you a few related feats... crippling strike or something should be an option for that, esspecially if it can be used the way stunning fist is... a Crane style wich focuses on dexterity related stuff (ac, reflexes...). it should also give you some related feats, and something like opportunitist, except that it should give you an attack of opportunity a few times per round (maybe depending on dexterity modifier or monk level or something) when you dodge an attack, not when someone hits an enemy close to you, and maybe a +6 rather than +4 to ac when you use total defence, since monks' use for good armors and shields is limited... a Dragon style wich focuses on wisdom related stuff,
like using to ki for bonuses on attack rolls, increased self healing abilities, reducing negative effects from spells, the ability to use the concentration skill(since it is on the monk skill list, but doesn't give him any benifits), for instance, you get a +1 on attack rolls for each 2 concentration ranks, +1 on ac for every 4 concentration ranks, various pluses on saves and stuff for concentration ranks(and it should be cool if you can empower your self with effects of spells, like for 10 ranks of concentration, you can get the effects of the spell 'haste' for x rounds + your wisdom modifier... certain special dragon style strikes that cause things such ability loss, the effects of the spell slow for a given number of rounds, even certain poison effects, and ultimately the ability to paralyse a target a few times per day(DC based on maybe 10 +monk level + wisdom modifier, and times per day on wisdom modifier)
Such changes would make having a monk in your party or soloing with a monk a lot more fun with cool styles and all that, and would balance the monk class with other melee non-spellcasting classes such as fighter and barbarian, wouldn't you say so?

 

I've never really agreed with D&D monks.

Being a martial artist myself I see quite a bit not to agree with mostly in the weapon department. If you base the monk on Kung Fu or Shaolin Monks which many assume the D&D monk is (it could encompass any martial art being it's a fantasy setting.)
As for weapons the chinese dao (a broadsword that looks like a scimitar), the wu-jian (could follow either the rapier or a longsword) are commonly used, as are butterfly swords (single edged shortswords). Many types of polearms are also used such as the Kwon Dow (it would be considered an exotic weapon because of its glaive like head at one end and spear point on the other. The chinese Halberd (looks and works much more like a glaive than a halberd.) and the great fork (use as trident.) I personally in my humble opinion think should be included in the monk weapon list.
As for armor I would agree that no armor (what however would you call that padded crap that most martial artists practice full contact in these days?!) should be worn but if choosing weapons over fists they could (and do) concievably practice with a shield (granted it is made out of either wood or wicker). Sure one could just take proficiencies to use such weapons but the list of monk or martial arts related weapons is just too shallow to work for me.
Sorry if it seems like a rant but I figured I would throw a bit of personal knowledge in. Have fun with your monk for those who use them.
As far as the P-n-P monk goes it has been my experience that monks have almost more fatalaties in their lower levels than low-level wizards. Perhaps it has been different elsewhere.

 

btw, the whole armor system in toee seems illogical of some sorts... i mean that monk or not, if you wear a big plate mail armor that clearly reduces speed, you shouldn't have a higher chance to dodge the blows, but depending on the type of armor you are wearing, you should get a percentage of damage reduction for each damage type, sort of like this:
leather armor:
15% vs slashing
10% vs piercing
15% vs bludgeoning
5% vs fire
15% vs cold
0% vs holy/unholy
No speed penalty
etc....

Full plate mail:
55% vs slashing
45% vs piercing
40% vs bludgeoning
10% vs fire (it's metallic)
5% vs cold
0% vs holy/unholy
Speed penalty
dodge penalty
etc...

but lol to make such a change, you'll need to change almost the way the whole game works... i don't think that's easly possible:anger: .

 

Necromancer...

 

Meh...have your Kung Fu...I favor the art of "Ching-ching" Myself.

:wyatt:

 

In the D&D world... it has been done this way for many many years.... it is considered either dodging, or deflection. As for plate mail if you do not hit the say 21 AC the blow is not dodged exactly it is just deflected off the armor without affecting the player. Now on the other hand the monk wearing no armor simply dodges it per his/her 6th sense from amazing fighting skill and training! At least this is how my friends and myself have interpreted it.

 

Dragon: the dnd game is not reflective of true anything, when it comes to weapons and spells. Each character has balance strengths and weakness. That simply doesn't exist in life. The game characters are supposed to nurture a team environment so that people can roll play and rely on each other. With different characters, different roll players can pick the sort of things they’d like a character to be like. When a player picks a character, that character will have rule of thumb weaknesses that can be protected by other character’s strengths.

So as far as Kung fu masters go: one chop or stab from a sword would end a kung fu masters life. Chain mail will stop sword slashing but would be almost useless vs a mace clobbering your shoulder.