Monk Builds
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I believe we focus on Orders over Styles on this
Such as
Hin fist-faster attacks or better at dodging.
Broken one-Healing bonus or power
Long death-Negative energy bonustrying to think of others
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1). Style Name
Raging Claw2). Origin (be it a specific order or a homeland ie. Shou or Waterdeep)
Mimicked by men across faerun this style of fighting descended from the harsh jungles of Chult.3). Any minimum stats?
Str 14, Con 144). Any required skills?
Intim, disc5). Any required feats? (Point 3, 4, or 5 must have at least one requirement between them!)
Power attack6). Any hints on how to roleplay or show your style in game?
An odd and strange form of fist fighting the men of this order have given up the grace and tranquillity many monks seek and instead focus their fury upon their enemies. Like great dinosaurs they attack head on clawing at their foe until they stand triumphant. The purpose of this form of training is the hope to become more akin to dinosaurs and so their god and prepare themselves for the apocalyptic battle that awaits. -
1. Style Name: Demeaning Bitchslaps (Women only, with some exceptions…)
2. Origins: Indignated Women the civilized world.
3. Minimum Stats: Cha 14 and Str 12
4. Required Skills: Taunt and Intimidate
5. Required Feats: Stunning Fist
6. How to Show in RP: Instead of a simple retort to insult, bitchslap them instead.
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1). Style Name
At'airmukae'ph (Sandstorm Style)2). Origin (be it a specific order or a homeland ie. Shou or Waterdeep)
Created by skilled Bedine hand to hand warriors, the At'airmukae'ph, or Sandstorm well reflects the personalities of these harsh desert people.3). Any minimum stats?
Con: 12, Dex: 124). Any required skills?
Tumble: 55). Any required feats? (Point 3, 4, or 5 must have at least one requirement between them!)
Toughness6). Any hints on how to roleplay or show your style in game?
The desert lies still, baking in the harsh sun until suddenly, great winds rise up that transform the land into a roiling mass of sand and stone. So it is with those who practice the At'airmukae'ph, calm, languid, even lazy until the need arises and they unleash their fury with swift, violent and unending strikes until their foes have capitulated or died. Once the storm has passed, all is calm, as the fighters reserve their strength for when they must utilize their martial arts once again. -
Here's the link to my old suggestions.
Putting a couple into the format suggested.
Style name - Iron Fist
Origin - Oghman monks from a reclusive monastary/library in Amn developed their bodies and minds through intensive physical and mental conditioning to deliver massive damage to their opponents. Only the very physically fit may attempt the training - (Str 14) After determining a juniors worthiness the Masters begin training the individual with varying degrees of toughening exercises including -
Driving the hands into sand heated in iron pots.
Driving the hands into heated gravel in iron pots.
Meditative training focusing on sending the ki energy to the natural weapons fo the monk for attack.
Punching, kicking, knife hand, spear hand thrusts and other strikes into timbers wrapped with coarse rope.(Similar to the makiwara training in karate, or the iron hand kung fu training from some chinese styles)
Graduating eventually to striking iron plates with the bodies weapons.
Pressure point and medicine training to heal the damage done to the body while using the destructive training methods.Min stats
Strength 14Skills
Heal 5
Discipline 5Feats
I'd like there to be a bonus feat of Ki Strike upon completing the training even if the lvl req. is not met. A scaling effect for +2 at higher lvls might be fun too, but keeping it at CoA character levels.
Extra stunning attack to reflect the pressure point and medicine training.This would be a strongly offensive style
These would be perishable skills to some degree. A practitioner of Iron Fist would have to be continuously conditioning his body. There would be calluses and deformed and gnarly hands and feet. (Look up some pics of people who have trained extensively in RL like Masutatsu Oyama). Emotes for the player could include striking nerve or blood vessles to immobilize the opponent(stunning attack). Breaking bones with severe strikes with various colorfull descriptions. CoAers are a creative bunch so you get the idea. This fighting style would emphasize powerfull crushing blows to the enemy and should be played with that in mind. Judo style throwing could be emoted with the knockdown feats. Monk skills are special and unique! Show them off while maintaining your humble manner. If you use Wholeness of body to heal yourself then huff and puff and grunt or whatever will draw attention to the fact that it's not just another healing potion.(I do a lot of this stuff with my current character Bannon so if you know me in game you've seen it already)
Another style
Style name - Iron Shirt, or Iron body
Origins - The zealots of the written word have advanced their knowlege of their bodies and spiritual energy to such levels that they can send their ki to any portion of their bodies to help it withstand a physical attack. The manipulation of their ki allows them to endure heavy physical conditioning that includes -
The dropping of heavy sand bags onto their torso to enhance their internal defense.
Breaking wood, stone and other materials to enhance physical resistance to blows.
Medicinal training and pressure points to enhance injury recovery.
Meditative training and ibuki style breathing focused on sending ki energy to the bodys vulnerable areas for defense.Min stats -
Constitution 14Skills -
Heal 5
Discipline 5Feats -
Something for damage reduction to reflect the results of the training. Like /5. This would be great if the monk recieved it at the completion of the training. Maybe scaling it higher with lvl would be fun too.
Extra stunning attack to reflect the pressure point and medicine training.
Expertise (edited in. I forgot to add it.)This would be a strongly defensive style
Showing this style in game would be similar to the above, just keeping the style in mind. Take a blow and emote something like swords bouncing off your ki enhanced noggin or have that goblins arrows break when they tink into your hard as heck body.
Anyways, signing off! Hope this helps. If you want more I have more. Over twenty years of real world MA exp.
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An old fighting style from my halfling monk from a ways back.
Chicken fist style
The halflings of Lurien, tiring of constant goblin attacks, developed this style after continual raids on their farms. Having no skills to match the goblins, they turned to the most fearsome creatures that roamed their farmlands for aid, the mighty chicken! Mimikcing the movements of the noble birds, the hin train with their fingers pointed together into tiny beak-like shapes. The style focuses on precision strikes and the ability to hit preasure points on the opponents body, along with quick offsetting footwork to avoid incoming enemy attacks. No one knows for sure if it was the unorthodox style, or the high pitched chicken-like screams of the halfling fighters, but after a few confrontations, the raids ceased.
Stats
Min dex 16Skills
Tumble 10
bluff 5Feats
Dodge
Extra stunning attacks
Weapon finessRole play -
Pure comic relief. I played a halfling monk using this style a while back and I laughed all the way to the fugue… repeatedly. There's a multitude of ways to play this one if you have a sense of humor. I liked to focus on physical movement emotes and loud crazy screams like Bruce Lee in the movies. -
1). Style Name Flowing River
2). Origin Maskaraan temples, soon spread to various cities.
3). Any minimum stats? 12 int, 12 Cha
4). Any required skills? Hide, Move Silently, Bluff + Taunt. Maybe parry?
5). Any required feats? Blind Fight
6). Any hints on how to roleplay or show your style in game? The Style follows the dogma of Mask. "Honesty is for fools, apparent honesty is valuable., subtly is everything, Manipulation is better than force, Never do the obvious except to conceal something else, trust in the shadows."
Their fighting style is ever shifting, particularly favouring a defensive style, that can change at the drop of a hat to highly aggressive when an opponent falls for a feint. (Due to the lack of a feint ability in NwN I subbed in Taunt.) Proponents of this style are fond of using the shadows to avoid unnecessary fights that might draw unwanted attention. They also often learn other styles so that they can fool a foe into thinking they are fighting a different style altogether. -
1). Mountain Style
2). Originating in the Grumbarryn holds throughout Faerun, where the seven monks of each are taught to be as solid as stone in their work.
3). Required stats - Con 14, Str 14, Wis 15
4). Any required skills - Discipline, Concentration
5). Any required feats - Toughness, Luck of Heroes
6). Any hints on how to roleplay or show your style in game - Emoting a slow, steady approach to combat, favoring a sure strike over others' flurry of blows. Hitting hard, and solidly in a slow, constant stream of strikes, with very little acrobatics or fluff in the movements. -
1). Style Name:
The Glowing Palm.2). Origin:
This obscure style is of unknown origins and is only practiced by a few traveling sages and their select disciples.3). Any minimum stats?
Wisdom: 15 (at creation)
Constitution: 12 (at creation)4). Any required skills?
Concentration: 4 (at creation)
Discipline: 4 (at creation)5). Any required feats?
Strong Soul/Iron Will6). Any hints on how to roleplay or show your style in game?
The style practises slow and deliberate motions where minimal effort is made for the greatest effect. Disabling attacks and deflective moves dominate this style more than anything. If possible, the opponents own attacks is to be used against him rather than making an attack of your own. Many of the practitioners of this art are of high age as the style takes long to master and few young people are patient enough to understand the effort and philosophy. -
1). The Roaring Drunkard
2). This particular fighting style originated from the dwarvens of Thunderholme. The dwarven monks and scholars would sit and watch the drunken brawls within the taverns, and through such studies became aware that alchohol has a unique way of temporarily hardening the mind.
3). Any minimum stats? Minimum of 14 con, 14 wisdom4). Any required skills? Taunt, Heal and Lore 4 points each.
5). Any required feats? Dirty fighting, Toughness
6). Any hints on how to roleplay or show your style in game?
You have studied the effects of alchohol, and how it affects the mind. By using alchohol as a tool, you can effectively switch of the control of your intellect, acting on instinct and ignoring pain.You drink IG until you almost pass out, (lowering your INT score sufficiently), and then go into a drunken rage. Throwing perverse, and heavily slurred taunts all around you, fighting with broken bottles (daggers), table legs (clubs), and throwing glasses and mugs (various forms of throwing items), ignoring the pain incoming (reluctant to heal).
In short, a very chaotic fighting style.
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Drunken Master PrC
Requirements
To qualify to become a drunken master, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.
- Base Attack Bonus: +4.
- Base Unarmed Attack Bonus: +4.
- Feats: Great Fortitude, Dodge.
- Tumble: 6 ranks.
- Other: Evasion ability, must be chosen by existing drunken masters and survive night of revelry among them without being incarcerated, poisoned, or extraordinarily embarrassed.
Base Attack Bonus: Note that, like a monk, a drunken master makes unarmed iterative attacks at a –3 penalty, not the usual –5 penalty.
Class Features
Drink Like a Demon: Your body handles alcohol differently from other people's. You can drink a large tankard of ale, a bottle of wine, or a corresponding amount of stronger alcohol as a move-equivalent action. Every bottle or tankard of alcohol you consume during combat reduces your Dexterity, Wisdom, and Intelligence by 1 point each, but increases your Strength or Constitution (your choice) by 1 point. However, your Reflex save bonus, Dexterity bonus to Tumble, and AC bonus remain at their original levels regardless of your new Dexterity modifier. Your body metabolizes one drink per hour, reducing both the penalties and the bonus accordingly. You only gain the Strength and Constitution bonuses for alcohol drunk during a fight, and the bonuses only last until the end of the combat. (The penalties disappear more gradually.) What quantity of alcohol constitutes a "drink" is deliberately left undefined.
Bottle Proficiency: You can use bottles and large tankards as weapons using your unarmed base attack bonus, including your more favorable number of attacks per round. Bottles do 1d6 points of bludgeoning damage with their first blow, then 1d4 points of slashing damage thereafter. Tankards do 1d6 points of bludgeoning damage. Furthermore, you can make these attacks without spilling most of the liquid inside.
Stagger: By tripping, stumbling, and staggering, you can make a charge attack that surprises your opponents. This has two beneficial aspects: First, your charges need not be in straight lines, and you still move up to twice your speed. Second, make a Tumble check (DC 15) when you begin your charge. If you succeed, your movement through threatened squares provokes no attacks of opportunity.
Swaying Waist: You weave and bob about as you attack. You gain a +2 dodge bonus to AC against any one opponent you choose during your turn. This supersedes the Dodge feat, but functions like it in all other ways.
Improvised Weapons: You can use furniture, farm implements, or nearly anything else at hand to attack your foes. Anything from a ladder to a haunch of meat to a barstool is a weapon once you imbue it with your ki using this ability. Regardless of the exact item, the weapon does 1d6 points of damage at your more advantageous number of attacks per round. Most items do bludgeoning damage, although shish-kabob skewers, for example, would do piercing damage. Long items (such as ladders) have reach according to their length, and items with many protrusions (such as chairs) give you a +2 bonus on Disarm attempts. Finally, large items with broad, flat surfaces (such as tables) can be upended to become improvised tower shields.
Drunken Rage: You can rage just as a barbarian does, with a duration equal to your (new) Constitution modifier plus the number of drinks you have consumed. You gain +4 to Strength, +4 to Constitution, a +2 morale bonus on Will saves, and a –2 penalty to AC. This ability supersedes the Strength and Constitution bonuses from drink like a demon.
Lurch: Your lurching movements let you make one feinting in combat Bluff check (opposed by Sense Motive) per round as a move-equivalent action. You gain a +4 competence bonus to Bluff checks made for this purpose.
Drunken Embrace: You can grapple an opponent without provoking an attack of opportunity, and you gain a +4 competence bonus on all opposed grapple checks.
For Medicinal Purposes: By combining your ki power with alcohol, you can convert an alcoholic drink to a potion of cure moderate wounds up to three times per day. The alcohol activates the ki in your body, so the cure only works on you. Alcohol drunk in this way neither impairs nor improves your ability scores.
Corkscrew Rush: You leap forward, twisting your body in midair as you head-butt an opponent. This is a charge attack that, in addition to dealing normal damage, automatically initiates a bull rush attack (without provoking an attack of opportunity). Furthermore, you are considered to have the Power Attack feat for the purposes of a corkscrew rush, and if you hit your opponent, you stun your foe unless she makes a Will save (DC 17 + the drunken master's Wisdom modifier). However, if your attack misses, you land prone in front of your opponent.
Breath of Flame: You can use your ki to ignite the alcohol within you and spew it forth from your mouth in a breath of flame. Breath of flame deals 3d12 points of fire damage to all within the 20-foot cone (Reflex save DC 18 for half). Each time you use breath of flame, it consumes one drink's worth of alcohol within you, reducing both penalties and bonuses to your ability scores.
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1). Red Locus
- This origin of this style is in part from the distant east. However in the distant east this style is know as the Royal Locus and it has subtle but notable differences.
The Red Locus itself was crafted by a follower of The Red Knight who is know in her text as Lady De Montfort.
One of the things that is known about Lady De Montfort is that her teacher was apparently originally just her bodyguard and that for many years she learned the art of the Royal Locus from him in secret.
Eventually her secret came to light when she single handedly took out several unexpected demons at noble garden party, who got a lot more than they expected from the young woman in the red dress.
In the following decades this style spread amongst the nobility who wished a less obvious way to defend themselves than with sword and armor.
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int 13 wis 14 cha 12
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Persuade and lore
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Expertise
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Followers of the way of the Red Locus rarely rush into anything and tend to avoid violent actions when they can. When they do fight, they do with a fighting style that can be sometimes be described as waiting for the right moment. It’s also not uncommon to see them watching battlefields from a vantage point, only to take action at some critical moment and completely change the flow of battle.
Unlike some monk orders, they actively seek out company, seeing the understanding other people as part of the path to enlightment. They seem to be especially drawn towards people with unorthodox fighting methods or interesting conversations and viewpoints.
Most of this order is from the upper classes and they tend towards leadership roles when they can.
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Order of the Clear Mind
1). Style Name: Fluid Form
2). Origin (be it a specific order or a homeland ie. Shou or Waterdeep): Kara-Tur
3). Any minimum stats?: 16 Wisdom
4). Any required skills?: At least 4 points put into Concentration.
5). Any required feats? (point 3, 4, or 5 must have at least one requirement between them!): Skill Focus: Concentration, Iron Will.
6). Any hints on how to roleplay or show your style in game?: Monks of this order believe that the path to enlightment is to keep a mind clear of any thoughts, absent of anguish, anger or despair, so that their whole focus is based upon vigilance and self control over body and spirit. Because of the of the void left by lack of thought, most monks of the Order tend to seem absent of emotion, but this is only because of the deep concentration such people require to maintain this state of mind. The name of their style comes from their fighting manner, where the monks are taught to imagine themselves as flowing water, both flexible and fluid. Being that many members are elderly men, it is astounishing can they can still be formidable despite having aged bodies, predicting and dodging blows not with speed but with technique, like as if they could actually read the minds of their opponents._Benefit received:
Monks of the Order are capable of adding their Wisdom modifier to their Unarmed Attack Bonus in place of Strength, whichever is highest, interpreted as their ability to foresee more openings in their enemy's defense._
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I'd recommend to look at the Jade Empire styles of fighting.
Paralyzing Palm: A long forgotten form to most of the world, its palm attacks are made of everything that stuns a body when contact is made. After a strike, it is fabled to make receivers of the following techniques to explode. Fortunately, it is the less violent of martial masters that have this technique.
PC Requirements: Extra Stun Attacks, Character must not have excessive Intimidate, Lawful Good only.
Character Development Requirements: Must have avenged a master monk's death against a villain.Benefits: You gain +4 to the DC save of your stun attacks and do not suffer the attack penalty when making one. You are immune to being turned to stone. When doing lethal damage and the opponent has less than 1+(Monk Level) hp left they must succeed a fortitude check of DC 20+(Monk Level) or become petrified stone and explode in the following round.
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1). Style Name: The Way of the Book
2). Origin: Librarian or temples of knowledge everywhere.
3). Any minimum stats?: 14 Int
4). Any required skills?: 5+ lore
5). Any required feats? SF Lore
6). Any hints on how to roleplay or show your style in game? Any concept devoted to learning and searching out lore, such as a smart pent up but inwardly frisky librarian who you know could just be really good looking but never has quite the confidence to pull it off. Devoted to buffering AC by using that superior intellect to anticipate the actions of the enemy (and not be there) -
1). Style Name
"Element of the inner self"This monk order utilizes one's inner powers to harness energies unique to each individual. Energies that have to do with specific element, those being Fire, water (cold), earth, air (lightning). Each monk initially trains in connecting with an element, and as he trains even better, he can gain a second connection to a second element. Fire monks are known to be able to create a fireball effect once a day. Lighting monks can do the same with a bolt like effect, but not with use of the weave. Earth monks can self defend with a barkskin effect (maybe even stronger than the normal barkskin) or stoneskin at higher level of training. Other ideas on elements and "once a day" abilities might be nice too.
Because harnessing the inner energies of the individual takes effort, those monks require to keep their concetration ability in top condition, and they usually are the more wise men and women who have the proper understanding of the world and the elements around them so that they can manipulate them from within.
(The idea is to give those monks the choice of two abilities according to the elements they "choose" at appropriate levels, like 2nd and 7th. Fireball, mage armor (air armor sort of?), lightning bolt, stoneskin and barkskin are spells that come to mind as abilities once or twice per day depending on strength of spell and duration.)
2). Origin (be it a specific order or a homeland ie. Shou or Waterdeep)
The order of the element of the inner self is not a well known one, but rumour has it starting out more than 1000 years ago in a monastery north, close to the peaks in the mountains around Icewind Dale. The harsh conditions of the mountains pushed the monks there to create techniques beyond the norm, harnessing elements in a unique way, unknown to even the most studious mages.
3). Any minimum stats?
15 wisdom
4). Any required skills?
Concentration 5 so you can select the appropriate ability and keeping it maxed would be essential
5). Any required feats? (point 3, 4, or 5 must have at least one requirement between them!).
skill focus: concentration
6). Any hints on how to roleplay or show your style in game?
The power comes from within so these monks do not bother much with their physical traits but rather focus on training their elemental aptitude they were born with, believing each person has an aptitude to one or two specific elements. They favor the traits of the elements chosen during their career as monks, so earth monks for instance favor taking their time, keeping things steady, predictable and unchanged.
(To those wondering, yes, its obviously an anime inspired idea >_>)
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Well, Moloch? Where's our promised MONK STYLES? :D
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Order of The Avalanche
1). Style Name: Torrent of Pain
2). Origin:
A small order formed from the ruins of their town, inspired by monks who performed relentless assaults. Their teachings is that multiple strikes of power will cripple all who stand in their way.
3). Any minimum stats?: 14 Strength, 12 Dexterity, 12 Constitution
4). Any required skills?: At least 4 points put into Concentration.
5). Any required feats? (point 3, 4, or 5 must have at least one requirement between them!): Power Attack
6). Any hints on how to roleplay or show your style in game?: TBC!!!