The Monk - Part 3: AD&D PHB Monk

 

Monks are monastic aesthetics who practice rigorous mental and physical training and discipline in order to become superior. 

 To qualify as an AD&D monk we need 15 in strength, dexterity and wisdom with an 11 in con on the side. You are restricted to lawful alignment (if you stray from lawfulness you become a level 1 scrub), gain no bonus XP benefits or dex boosts to your defences.

 Monks attack as a thief, getting an extra 1/2 a point of damage for armed strikes per level and a D4 hit dice (although you get an extra HD at first level). Thief saves are also used for a monk as are a number of thief skills such as open locks etc. Monks also get the extra save of being able to dodge non-magical missile attacks with a save vs petrification.

 Unarmed combat brings back some familiar elements from earlier versions such as the chance to stun or kill. If you hit roll is 5 higher than required you stun the target for D6 rounds. To kill we have the super clunky mechanic of you have to have already stunned a target with hit then roll a D100 and score less than the opponent's AC modified by how many levels over 7 the monk is. Truly the to kill option is a pain to work out and roll at the table in my opinion, the upside is you could theoretically one punch a dragon. The damage from and number of unarmed attacks you can make both increase by level until you can make 4 attacks around for 8-32 at 17th level.

After this comes a whole slew of special abilities I'll bullet point as there are so many of them.

* Speak with animals as druids do (3rd level)

* ESP only has a 30% chance of working on a monk, dropping by 2% per level (starting at 4th level)

* Immune to diseases and Haste/Slow (5th level)

* The ability to mimic death (6th level)

* Limited self heal (7th level)

* Speak with plans as a druids do (8th level)

* 50% chance to save against charm, suggestion etc which increases by 5% per level (starting at 9th level)

* Int set to 18 for purposes of defence against Mind Blast and Telepathy (10th level)

* Immune to poison (11th level)

* Immune to Geas and Quest spells (12th level)

* Once a week you can quivering palm, touch someone for three rounds and if they have less HD than you, they die. (13th level)

After this we get some familiar restrictions. No armour allowed, limited on what treasure they can keep (same as paladin), no to hit or damage bonuses from strength score, no hirelings or henchmen before 6th level, have to win in single combat to progress at higher levels and limits on what you can spend on your stronghold.

Another fiddly version of the class that is largely considered to be weak.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17003/Players-Handbook-1e

In 1985 AD&D gets a slightly revised version of the PHB monk in Oriental Adventures, it is not different enough that I'll be looking at it though.

Tomorrow we see what 2nd edition AD&D has to offer in part 4.