SRD talk:Monk

Thinka-dink

So a monk's AC can outscale a warrior's pretty badly, as such:

• Monk AC: 10 (Base) + 12 (Dex) + 10 (Natural Armor/Deflection) + 8 (Bracers of Armor) + 8 (Wisdom) + 4 (Innate Monk AC Bonus) = 52
• Fighter AC: 10 (Base) + 13 (Mithral Full Plate) + 3 (Dex) + 10 (Natural armor/deflection) = 36

Meanwhile the attack bonus for a warrior is going to be...

• 20 (BAB) + 12 (str) + 5 (weapon) = +37

This means that iterative attacks are going to miss often against the monk, and hit often against the warrior. This gets worse for characters without full BAB.
A potential solution to this is making the monk's Wisdom bonus to AC grant DR/-- rather than an actual bonus to AC. This would leave them 4 points above the warrior in the above example, but much closer on the RNG compared to earlier. It would also give monks the tankiness to survive in combat where they don't have as many HP, and would start them at first level with 2-3 DR/--, which is quite nice, and the amount goes up as they continue to level (DR 12/-- doesn't sound like much at higher levels, but it can be very strong when dealing with a half-dozen attacks that hit, adding up quite quickly to the difference in HP between the monk and a warrior, d8 vs. d10).
tl;dr: Make wis bonus and miscellaneous bonuses to AC grant DR instead of AC bonus.
Any thoughts on this potential solution? Good/bad? Reasons?
Thank you for your time. *bowbow* --Ghostwheel (talk) 01:49, 13 May 2014 (UTC)

Thems some crazy numbers you got there sir. 12 from dex, 8 from wisdom? This monk has rolled high on his stats indeed. Disregarding the fact that said fighter seems to be completely devoid of an animated tower shield (a keen +9 there), the real issue of monks is that their MAD is 9/10 times a detriment than a bonus. Only if you manage to get some serious stats can you start to have synergy.

tl;dr I don't think you're starting out with good numbers here. Show your work? -- Eiji-kun (talk) 02:21, 13 May 2014 (UTC)

Write more if you want to have a tl;dr :-P

I assumed (perhaps erroneously) that I'd be using this variant, but even without it, it's not too hard to get both of those.

* Dex: 16 (Base) + 2 (Racial) + 6 (Item) + 5 (Level bonus) + 5 (Wish/Tome) = 34 (+12)

* Wis: 16 (Base) + 6 (Item) + 4 (Wish/Tome) = 26 (+8)

But that's a non-issue. The difference between ACs is so high that even lowering both by 2 or so won't make a huge difference.

As to animated tower shields... *wrinkles nose* I strongly dislike those. They feel really freaking cheesy, as they give a huge boost to AC with no downsides. It makes them mandatory, which is a very bad thing IMO, and makes iterative attacks almost worthless. It's part of the reason I "fixed" shields (IMO) with this variant.

Finally, more upsides of making these things give DR instead of AC: the flavor. Monks are less prone to getting mobbed by a ton of people (Jackie Chan style) or dying to house cats, differentiating them from warriors who are able to stand up more to a single swing of a weapon. Gives things a more rock-paper-scissors feel. --Ghostwheel (talk) 10:20, 13 May 2014 (UTC)