Human Monk
Class: Monk
Starting abilities: Distribute 8 points between Will and Health; neither stat may have a rating lower than 2 or higher than 6.
Skills: Fighter 3, Healer 2, Lore Master 2, Ritualist 2, Scholar 2, Theologian 2
Special monk skills: (Choose one) Survivalist, Peasant, Alchemist or Pathfinder
Trait: Ascetic—The monk’s acclimation to a life of hardship and poverty gives him strength of body, mind and spirit. This freedom from desire also makes him seem aloof and inscrutable to the average layman and his passive nature may prevent him from leaping into action required.
Monks may use the following weapons in combat:
Unarmed: Monks do not suffer the customary penalty for fighting unarmed.
Bo Staff: -1s Attack, +1D Defend. +1D Maneuver in open spaces. Spear-length weapon.
Peasant’s tools: Peasant monks have the equivalent of a dagger or a flail. Note that tools can be lost because of a Twist.
Armor: None
Alignment: Temple monks align themselves with Law. Hermits are Unaffiliated. Only fallen monks that turn to evil may align themselves with Chaos.
Raiment: Monks wear the vestments dictated by their order—woven cloth robes or loose-fitting garments. They carry prayer beads (holy symbols), wear sandals and sport a shaved head, tonsure or queue. Some orders are forbidden to cut their hair, while others use tattooing, branding or scarification to mark themselves.
Gear: Monks may only possess the following gear: their order’s raiment, a satchel or pack, tools for their skills, a mirror, a lantern and flasks of oil, a water container (jug or bottle), drinking water, flasks of holy water (for purification rituals), sacks/pouches and a staff (for use as a walking stick and for protection), meatless rations (preserved or fresh). Other items, if acquired, should be given away to those in need.
Forbidden gear: Monks may never carry or use these items: Meat, wine, garlic, animal skins (scrolls or waterskins), torches (open flames might harm insects!). Note that Drunken Monkey-style monks may drink wine when they learn this fighting form (more on that later!).
Circles: Many monks are orphans, either left at the monastery by poor parents that cannot afford to care for them or by survivors of some terrible fate that claimed the child’s parents’ lives. Others left good families behind when they took their vows. Still, there is a family of sorts to be found amongst the monk’s brothers and sisters. All monks of the same level or lower may call each other friend. Those older and wiser are treated as parents. Every monk has a mentor they trained with—those that do not now possess an enemy instead, either the killer of their mentor or the mentor himself, a fallen monk turned traitor and allied with Chaos!
Resources: Monks live as mendicants and rely on the charity of others for food, shelter and other essentials. Any unspent resources remaining after the town phase must be given away to the poor. Note: this does not include the party members, no matter the state of their resources!
Enlightened Nature
The monk’s normal human nature is an obstacle in his path to enlightenment; humility, charity and meditation are the most important aspects of a monk’s life. Speaking must become to listening, taking or sating must become giving or abstaining, constant agitation must become quiet stillness. Whenever the Monk taxes his nature to 0, he may replace one of his descriptors with an enlightened descriptor. Only when the three descriptors have changed can the monk turn away from desire and self-obsession and become one with the Universe.
Enlightened Nature: Listening, Fasting, Meditating
