The Flow Monk :

8 thoughts on “The Flow Monk :”

1. Feedback!

   Tapped In – what’s with the 8+? It looks like these moves should be written as 10+ or 6-, based on whether the player wants to emphasize Win-More or Lose-Less. Neat dichotomy though.

   I don’t know that “The Flow” section needs to be there; it feels like you’ve done a decent job of communicating the gist of it through the class abilities.

   Lover of Life – pretty sure you can do this by the rules already. If you don’t want to kill the guy, just describe a nonlethal blow

   Martial Artist – Ahhh, it’s written in D&D speak! Just give him DEX as armor if you want him to have it; you don’t need the carrying capacity junk. I’d probably do the non-Piercing thing as a 6-10 move though, and I don’t like ignoring “Ignores Armor.”  Dodging stuff like “Heat from a volcano” feels weird. Though again I’d buy it more as a 6-10 move.

   Leaper – When referring to the raw score rather than the modifier, write it as Dexterity rather than DEX. Clarity thing. Again along the lines of un-D&Ding it, I’d lean away from defined distances and use descriptive terminology instead

   Drinking Straight from the Flow – Nothing wrong with this, but I’m realizing that the class has very few ways to spend Flow. Ordinarily I’d expect to see new ways to spend it in the advanced moves.

   Gotta duck out here, but it’s an interesting idea!

2. Thanks for the feedback!  A lot of good points here.

   Peter Johansen noted on my first posting of this class (which did not have The Flow described) that the moves seemed kind of hodge-podged together without a unifying theme.  (My interpretation of his words)  He was right.  Writing it out like I did for the description under the Bonds section helped me reword some moves more towards the idea I was trying to nail.  There was enough space I felt okay leaving it.  Hopefully as it works towards a finalized version the things in the description will become more obvious through the moves, but I’m not convinced that it’s ‘there’ yet.

   I updated the link to reflect some changes (based largely on your observations)

3. No feedback just yet, I’ll take a closer look tomorrow, but a this is already at least a B for the flow reference alone.

4. I didn’t see a starting HP value.  Also, Crippler seems to have no actual effect since foes (other than PCs) don’t make rolls.

5. I love the Good Alignment constrain.

   I love the description of the Flow. Too many Monk classes try to be all the classical elements in one.

   Like the gear, particularly the writ of authority.

   Perfect Landings is a nice Move, I them when they’re as useful and powerful as you can work them into being.

   Lover of Life is good too, giving a mechanical benefit to a fiction.

   I’m sure there is plenty of work to do, but I’d use it.

6. Starting HP is just to the right of the HP Heart and under the charisma stat block.  Is it not showing up for you Robert Finamore ?

   I rewrote Crippler.  A debility for a PC gives a -1 to associated rolls.  A crippled NPC is half collapsed with his lungs filling with blood, or prone on the ground with his femure protruding from his leg, or all the fingers of his sword hand bending the wrong direction, or his eye sockets gushing blood, or….

7. Ok, I was looking at the online preview.  It doesn’t appear there, but it is in the PDF.

   Maybe Crippler should simply make your unarmed attacks messy and forceful.

   Not sure what Cold-Iron fisted does in the context of the game.  Maybe it should make unarmed attacks piercing (+Flow spent) or even ignore armor all together.

   I don’t think Leaper needs the (DEX) reference.

8. You’re right about the (DEX) marker, that’s from an earlier draft that evaded deletion.

   I added some examples slash flavor text to Crippler that ought to clarify it a bit. 

   Cold-Irong Fisted lets you punch ghosts, deities, wizards in bubbles…  I put a bit in about exploiting material or elemental vulnerabilities, which ties with the motif and spells out the intent a bit more.

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