FrankTrollman at [unixtime wrote:1152895211[/unixtime]]Within the standard gaming environment - where you have 1-6 encounters per day against opposition with an EL between +/-4 of your party's level - the Monk's ability to inflict a death effect with an ordinary attack at will is completely meaningless in the face of the Wizard's ability to throw more death effects than he needs to effect every opponent in a large area without rolling dice.
I guess, but seriously, any mage who stocks up on (and cast mosty) Save or Die spells usualy get killed by DM fiat before too long. At least, that's how I deal with game-breakers who deal with every character by uttering the words: "Make a Will save". Maybe it's just me.
Wail of the Banshee cast just one time is generally a bigger impact on any encounter than a Monk using his Dim Mak every round. The Monk is behind on death strikes, he only validates his existence with his other powers. His short range at-will teleporting, for example, can sometimes be quite useful.
Maybe it's my ability to stick by almost soley dungeon-based adventuring despite having the franchise move past it decades ago, but to me, teleporting at will is enough. Maybe I'm just a crazy old-schooler, but to me, 'bad old days' was the time when my father engaged me in the newly reseased 2nd Ed, playing modified 1st Ed. encounters. I'm probably the only person who actually, liked 2nd Ed. probably because it is what I grew up with, but I guess I need to drop some of my oldschool mentality. Also, I need to stop playing Stormbringer. Eh.
That being said, I'm sure that someday you'll encounter a dream challenge that will make the Monk's thing really shine. The challenge like "There are 120 gumbas loose in the castle and each one has a piece of the key!" or something that would make the fact that you have infinite SoDs that aren't good a real blessing. Good for you.
Once again, I guess. While I definately see the legitimacy of what you are saying, most of the time, stuff like that doesn't happen. As it stands, your Monk varient is a bit of a glass cannon anyways, so I guess it works.
We aren't doing that. Every base class in the Dungeonomicon was at one time a base class in D&D. We just gave them mechanics that work.
Yea, but thet shouldn't be, is my point. 2nd Ed was fine until the splatbooks ruined it by adding too many new rules, and the stupid kit sytem. Hell, the DMG had too many optional rules (that the players expected every DM to use) as it was, and I want to try to save 3.x from that problem, rather than fixing it by using 'patches' like a computer game.
As to making things prestige classes, a Prestige Class is generally available at level 6 or 7. And by that point you qualify for Mentorship and Leadership. Which means that anyone who could be in any Prestige Class could also run your town or retire. Seriously, what the fvck? Why do you need to be able to make a serious run for conquering the kingdom to be a Jester? That's retarded.
I see a huge difference, though, between being a
Jester as a Prestige Class, and being a bard who juggles and tells jokes as his main Perform skill.
Prestige Classes don't mean "like a normal class but different", they mean "like a normal class, but only available to mid or high level characters". Pretty much every member of every prestige class is interacting on some level with the Wish economy. They are only available to characters who have already proven themselves.
I'm fairly against a
Wish economy in general, on the principal that being a Wizard is difficult, and that being a high level mage is relegated to a few, elite people, and extra-planars who try not to have anything to do with 'Primes' in the first place. I like the AD&D system of thinking, that tere is a constant 'wartime' economy that screws up pricing on weapons and armor, due to whatever conflict the DM presents as central to his campaign. That way, thing work more-or-less like in real life, except that low-level creatures cancel eachother out, and high-level characters have better things to do than get involved with low-level characters, because they are busy killing high-level characters of different alignment.
PS - Forgive my spelling. It's happy hour.