New Class: Monk

Torchbearer Hacks and Expansions
1

This is my personal try on my first extra character class for Torchbearer. A few other will follow soon and I hope you will have fun reading them.

http://fantasyandmore.wordpress.com/2014/04/09/hold-up-the-torch/

For my part I had a lot of fun creating them, so thanks a lot to Thor & Luke for inspiring my creative muscles. If I fumbled up with anything from the legal side, please let me know, and I will adjust that asap.

I am looking forward to feedback, but please keep in mind, that these classes still need play testing time (I have only experience with Mouseguard so far, so I tried to adapt, because I can’t wait to put some brain stuff into my ideas) and I am not a professional artist either. Just had fun drawing that stuff up, in the theme of the old AD&D setting.

2

I like it! Two questions/suggestions:

How come the Monk doesn’t have the Ritualist skill? I know it cannot cast spells, but the strict regimen of monastery life screams this skill.

I think Unarmed Combat should be accessible at level 1.

3

Yes I thought about both points too.

My goal was though to achieve a closer connection to the monk from the 1st edition AD&D set. There the monks were represented less religious and more eastern themed in structure. Actually they were closer to thieves than to clerics. That’s the reason for me to go for scouting instead of ritualist.

It takes a monk apprentice some time, till he is that proficient in unarmed fighting to gain the benefit. Doing that for 1st level seems a bit unbalancing to me.

4

This class looks very fun.

I will be playing a Monk character Thursday night.

Two questions:

  1. Why is the Survivalist skill not included among the special human skills (as per usual) ?

  2. How would you define Iron Discipline? Can you give an example or two of what it would affect in game play?

Thanks!

5

Good eye catch! Yes, the missing Survivalist skill is a typo of course. There is no reason why Monks should not have this option.

Point 2) The Iron Discipline Trait can assist in any hard labour test, where his diligence would assist the outcome. On the other hand, Monks have a hard time to let go and enjoy life. That could be scenes, where you could use the trait against yourself to break ties for example when his overzealous discipline could be seen as a disadvantage.

6

Thank you for the quick reply.

It would be good to add that description to the excellent PDF file you created. :slight_smile:

I don’t see any information for the staff weapon in the Torchbearer book.

Would it be the same as the staff in Mouse Guard?

7

I changed staff back to pole arms, since it obviously belongs there. No need to create a new weapon file (But there will be a Scimitar for my Druid and Bard writeup).

Thanks for the feedback

8

You’re very welcome.

Thanks for creating a cool class.

Looking forward to seeing the others :slight_smile:

9

P.S.

I forgot to mention: I’ve been using as Staff, as per the Mouse Guard stats.
It has worked very well.

Have really enjoyed playing this character.
With a bit of luck he will get to level 2 soon :slight_smile:

10

I really like the “every ration of food/water can be used twice” level benefit!

The other 2nd level benefit seems a little OP. Basically it’s Brawler + a better version of a sword at the same level as a Fighter’s Brawler benefit.

11

The Monk benefits on it’s own might seem overpowered, but overall play testing provided good results so far in total.

Keep in mind, that monks can’t wear armor for example or cannot keep wealth (we are still tinkering on that rule).

I personally follow the idea, that a class have to balanced in total and not just on it’s single points. But feel free to try out the basic brawler benefit when you are using the monk. In my opinion that would make the monk too weak though.

12

I think the pole arm and staff stats are very close :wink: But taking the staff from mouse guard is a good option too.

I am happy to hear that you are enjoying the monk so far :slight_smile: My play testers like it a lot too so far.

13

Yep. If I were to include this I would make the player permanently choose an action to receive the +1D to be representative of a more offensive, defensive, sneaky, or maneuverable fighting style.

14

Feel free :slight_smile:

For us in play test phase, this bit of versatility worked fine with the monk.