The Chaos Monk PrC

[TheDarkFuzz]

Chaos Monk


The brothers looked on confusedly as another of their number fell to the dirt, his face bruised and his eyes closed before his head even hit the ground. The perpetrator dusted off his hands. “Is there another?” the rather elderly man asked of the gathered monks, holding his arms out in an inviting gesture. “I have studied Tae-Jin-Tao more than any other. I have become it- I am perfection embodied. There is no man my equal. Let this be a lesson to y-” But he never got the chance to finish his sentence, as a young man stumbled, breathless, into the dusty ring. The man shot a dirty look over his shoulder at the monks who were so adamant that he not come forward, and then he bowed to the old master. “Master, I would face you.” he stated simply. Mutters rose amongst the gathered monks…this old man had demonstrated that he knew their style more than any other. The monks had witnessed the flawless execution of every aspect of their school, from the simplest to the most complex. The man had demonstrated every throw, counter, punch, parry, kick, and combo in the book, and he had performed each like a machine, every part moving in a smooth path without the slightest hint of imperfection. The gathered monks fell silent once more as the old man responded to the youngster, “Very well then. You may face perfection, and learn the folly of your challenge.”

The two squared off, each at the opposite ends of the impromptu ring. A senior monk raised the stick and hit the gong, the loud sound of ringing metal breaking the silence. At the instant of the ring, both combatants began their charges. The sound was still ringing in the ears of the monastery when the two met in the middle of the circle. Move after move met with counter after counter, the young man moving as swiftly and precisely as the old. Truly the creator of Tae-Jin-Tao would have been proud this day, to see two such amazing students of the style battle one another. The battle seemed equal to all but the most senior of monks, who were able to see the smallest wobble in the young man’s kicks, the slight tremble of his parries, the minute break in his calm expression as a block got in place half a second from being too late. The senior monks knew who would win this bout, and were justified when the younger fighter’s block failed to appear and the old man sent him sprawling into the outside of the ring with a stunning kick to the chest. The monks rushed to the young man’s aid, certain that he was unconscious, but his eyelids fluttered open and he pushed himself to his feet. The nearest monks heard him mutter something about chaos, but then he was back in the ring, charging wildly at his opponent.

His charge started out following the rules of the style, straight forward with arms tense, but as the older man quickly shifted to the classic counter-stance the young man’s charge changed as he leaped into the air and over his adversary, his back foot catching the elderly man off balance with a glancing blow. The young monk landed and immediately reversed direction, coming straight back at the man. Now aware of the young man’s tactics, the old monk readied a stance that would turn his opponent’s leap into a flight that led straight to the wall. This time, however, there was no jump...instead, the young monk ducked low and landed a devastating two-handed haymaker to the old man’s chin. As the old man spun around to throw a punch where he knew the Tae-Jin-Tao style dictated the boy should be next, there was no one there. He had only a moment to realize his folly before he felt the first blow land on his back. Rapidly he spun once more, attempting to counter the flurry, but he could see no pattern, no way of predicting where a blow would land next. Seeing an opening, he whirled his foot around for a blow of his own, but the foot met only empty air. Who was this monk, he wondered, and what style did he practice?

There exist some who follow the path of the martial artist that find the order required by their fighting style to be suppressive and stifling. Rather than perfecting a style, placing blow after blow in a predetermined pattern, chaos monks endeavor to throw off order and strike erratically, the unpredictability of their movements serving to confuse and baffle opponents. Very few monks follow this path, it being in complete contradiction with their lawful teachings, but those that do are feared and respected as deadly opponents.

Prerequisites:
Alignment: Any chaotic
Skills: Tumble 13 ranks, Balance 13 ranks, Jump 13 ranks
Feats: Improved Unarmed Strike, Stunning Fist, Fleet of Foot
Special: Flurry of Blows ability, must be able to move at least 50 feet in a single move action

The chaos monk’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (arcana/religion) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Cha), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), and Tumble (Dex).

Skill points per level: 4+Int

Hit Die: d8

   BAB  Fort    Ref    Will  Special
1. +0    +0     +2     +2    Monk Abilities, Path of Chaos, Embrace Chaos 1/day
2. +1    +0     +3     +3    Ki Strike (chaotic)
3. +2    +1     +3     +3    Embrace Chaos 2/day, Chaotic Body
4. +3    +1     +4     +4    Time Unbound
5. +3    +1     +4     +4    Embrace Chaos 3/day
6. +4    +2     +5     +5    Erratic Step
7. +5    +2     +5     +5    Embrace Chaos 4/day, Greater Time Unbound
8. +6    +2     +6     +6    Ki Strike (anarchic)
9. +6    +3     +6     +6    Embrace Chaos 5/day
10. +7   +3     +7     +7    Chaos Incarnate

Monk Abilities: At every level the chaos monk gains unarmed damage, AC bonus, flurry of blows and speed enhancement just as if she had gained a level in the monk class. She gains no other benefits that a monk of her level would gain, such as slow fall or ki strike.

Path of Chaos: The chaos monk forswears any style she has, preferring instead to fight in such an erratic way that no one can predict her movements. If she ever loses her chaotic alignment, she loses all chaos monk abilities.

Embrace Chaos (ex): Once per day for every two levels the chaos monk possesses she may enter a frenzied state, becoming chaos embodied. Her body moves erratically, and her attacks are placed with no conceivable pattern- even her movement is unpredictable. She gains 50% displacement and an extra attack each round, although all her attacks in this period take a -2 penalty due to lack of aim. In addition, at the start of each turn that the chaos monk is still in this state she moves 5 feet in a random direction, as per the dimension door spell. Any opponent witnessing a chaos monk embracing chaos must make a spot check each round (DC 10 + chaos monk levels + wis modifier) or be flat-footed against the chaos monk’s first attack in the round. Embrace Chaos lasts for 3 + the chaos monk’s wisdom modifier rounds. She may prematurely end this state. When this state ends, the chaos monk loses the effects of Embrace Chaos and becomes fatigued (–2 penalty to Strength, –2 penalty to Dexterity, can’t charge or run) for the duration of the current encounter. She may only Embrace Chaos once per encounter.

Ki Strike (su): At 2nd level, the chaos monk’s natural weapons are treated as chaotic for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction. If she already had Ki Strike (lawful), she loses it. At 8th level, the chaos monk’s natural weapons are considered to have the anarchic enhancement.

Chaotic Body (su): The body of the chaos monk begins to shift, embracing entropy as much as the monk herself. Hits that seem to strike vital organs become merely flesh wounds, and pressure points no longer exist. At 3rd level, the chaos monk is treated as though she had fortification- any attack that deals precision based damage (such as sneak attacks, critical hits, precise strikes) has a 50% chance of not dealing that damage on a successful hit. This increases by 25% every three levels beyond level 3, to a maximum of 100% at level 9.

Time Unbound (su): At 4th level, the chaos monk is able to ignore a small aspect of time. She no longer ages, although once she has lived to her maximum age she still passes away. At 7th level, the chaos monk gains the ability to step outside of time for a short period. For 6 seconds (1 round) per day, time no longer applies to her. Treat her as though under the effect of a Time Stop spell cast by a caster of her character level, with the following exception: characters attacked by the chaos monk during this period take damage normally as soon as the duration of the ability ends. She may declare the use of this ability as an immediate action.

Erratic Step (ex): The chaos monk is so unpredictable that her movements may land her anywhere. She may make a turn or turns of up to 180 degrees while charging, and no longer suffers penalties for charging over difficult terrain. In addition, the distance she is teleported when using the Embrace Chaos ability is increased to 15 feet. Once the chaos monk knows which direction she will be going, she may decrease this distance, to a minimum of 5 feet.

Chaos Incarnate: At 10th level, the chaos monk is truly the embodiment of chaos on earth. She is forevermore treated as an outsider (chaotic) rather than as a humanoid (or whatever the monk’s creature type was) for the purpose of spells and magical effects. Additionally, the monk gains damage reduction 10/lawful, which allows her to ignore the first 10 points of damage from any attack made by a nonlawful weapon. Unlike other outsiders, the monk can still be brought back from the dead as if she were a member of her previous creature type. In addition, she is no longer fatigued at the end of a use of Embrace Chaos.

[Lanthar Mandragoran]

hmmm... interesting...

[KithKunabi]

I like it, but I have some questions/ comments
1. is it possible to have flurry of blows without beign a monk?
2. while 50 feet speed is good for mediums, it's far too fast for a small, small's should aim for 35-40 feet

[Malancthon]

Cool idea! Nice flavour!

I'm not very good at balancing Monk PrCs, however you might want to make the CW feat Fleet of Foot a pre-req, as it gets an improved version with Erratic Step. I've recently become convinced that having effectivally a feat that gets rewritten as a more powerful class ability should be a pre-req.

The only other thing I can think of is lowering one of the saves to low. Even though Monks are strong in all 3 saves, with this PrC, they gain +14 to all 3 saves, instead of +12. Fort seems the least influental in the class, so I suggest that it's the save that gets lowered.

[TheDarkFuzz]

Kith:
1. No, I don't know of any other class or prestige class that grants the flurry of blows ability, although if one exists, I would add in higher level monk abilities as pre-reqs.
2. The class is made to be entered at 10th level, and a 10th level monk gets a +30' bonus to his/her speed. Thus, even the halflings are moving 50' in a round.

Mal:
Good ideas both. If this forum had an emoticon that looked like a small cookie, I would give it to you.

[vampirehunter42]

Pssst, TDF this months Dragon has the stats for a Chaos monk, as a class. With a more chaotic planning behind it. I can PM it to you if you want.

[TheDarkFuzz]

Wow...I am greatly saddened by this news, but heartened that I created the same kinda class as Dragon without knowing they were doing it beforehand.

[Malancthon]

I'll take that psuedo-cookie! :biggrin:

[Frats]

I likes it

I want to play one
Although the Timestop may be grossly overpowered (3 rounds of flurrying without worrying about counter attacks, and against a helpless opponent? Sounds like overkill...)

[PandaCommanda]

There's some sort of monk handbook that has a chaotic monk in it.

"Crooked Monk", I believe it is called. They have all sorts of crazy powers- stuff like stretching all your limbs out and being like a giant rubber band. Pretty awesome class.

But this also looks really sweet. Quite balanced (with the exception of the time stop); good job! Most people around here are like

OMGZORZZ LOOK AT MY DRAGON WARRIOR/ELEMENTAL MAGE/OTHER CLICHE! ISNT IT SO AW3SOM3???Q?Q!

And it'll be the most hideously overpowered thing on earth.

So the only suggestion I have is to drop time stop. Perhaps replace it with ki strike (adamantine)?

[TheDarkFuzz]

How about reducing the amount of time stop time?

Would 1 round/day be ok?

[Malancthon]

Originally Posted by PandaCommanda

Most people around here are like

OMGZORZZ LOOK AT MY DRAGON WARRIOR/ELEMENTAL MAGE/OTHER CLICHE! ISNT IT SO AW3SOM3???Q?Q!

And it'll be the most hideously overpowered thing on earth.

...Enh? Is that a shot towards My Dragon Rager PrC? If so, please comment on what you'd think it would take to balance it in the applicable thread instead of poking shots in other threads. That's only common courtesy. After all, that is often the reason someone posts their homemade classes/items/whatever on a board, to get feedback and balance it.

If it's not a shot at My Dragon Rager, then I apologize.

[Gengy]

Yay for chaos! Woot!

I likes it, DFuzz, and Embrace Chaos turned out pretty well. Glad to see it completed! I may just try it, if my table top DM will let me.

[PandaCommanda]

If it's not a shot at My Dragon Rager, then I apologize.

Then ye best be apologizin!

That is actually a cool one, because its a class-specific prestige class of which I have never seen the likes.

I just meant in general, the two most common and overposted custom classes are dragon-type warriors who happen to have high hit die, skill points, spell casting abilities, attack bonuses, and insane special abilities, along with elemental prestige classes which also tend to be outrageously clichŽ and overpowered.

Nothing personal.

[loki_ragnarock]

Time Unbound (su): At 4th level, the chaos monk is able to ignore a small aspect of time. She no longer ages, although once she has lived to her maximum age she still passes away. At 7th level, the chaos monk gains the ability to step outside of time for a short period. For 18 seconds (3 rounds) per day, time no longer applies to her. She may split the time offered by this ability up into increments of 6 seconds. Treat her as though under the effect of a Time Stop spell cast by a caster of her character level, with the following exception: characters attacked by the chaos monk during this period take damage normally as soon as the duration of the ability ends. She may declare the use of this ability as an immediate action.

...
So they get the ability to cast a 9th level spell at level 14? A version that allows for physical attacks?

Wanna rethink that one real quick?

EDIT
That being said, this is otherwise a nice class.