The Resolute/Mythweaver Monk

I wasn’t able to work this out to my satisfaction before publishing Mythweaver: Legacy, I’ve come up with some playtest ideas for a monk character. I don’t feel that the monk fits into ‘classic fantasy’ anyway, although I could always have put this in as an appendix. Ah, well. This will make it into a supplement someday, and I expect that this will also make it into the update for Resolute: Legacy. This means that I have to clean up rules for unarmed combat (which defaults to D6, which could be a problem for the big bruisers). Here’s a trait that solves the whole problem, and which your unarmed brick characters are all going to need:

Unarmed (trait). Even when unarmed, you roll D12 for damage rather than the D6 other unarmed characters must use.

The Monk

As a monk, you are a martial artist, relying on your innate attributes rather than physical armor and weapons. You are adept at channeling Ki, a mystical energy source. You may not purchase the Armor ability, but you instead purchase Invulnerability +1. You may not improve Invulnerability beyond +1, although you may wear or use items that boost or shift your invulnerability. You may never wear armor of any sort.

Archetype Ability: Evade. Roll D6 for initial CP investment.
Archetype Trait: Unarmed (+2)
Monk Starting Abilities: Invulnerability +1; Ki +1; Prowess +1
During level 1, you may purchase Intuition; Might; Resolve

Ki (ability). You are able to channel a mystical energy source, increasing your physical and mental attributes. Add your Ki rating to any action, resist, or result roll every round. For example, in round 1, you may elect to add your Ki to an Evade roll, in the second round add your Ki to an attack roll; in the third round, you suffer a substantial hit, adding your Ki to your soak roll. You may NOT stack Ki with Resolve, although you may still use Resolve to bolster other rolls. Your Ki rating may never exceed your level; at level 5, you may have no better than Ki +5.

In Play: As a monk, I roll D6 for my initial CP investment in Evade and get 3; I have Evade +1, and 2 CPs remaining. I put one of these into Evade (to use that dangling extra CP), bringing Evade to +3. I would love to use my final point in Ki or Invulnerability, but both of those are capped at +1 (Ki because I’m only level 1, Invulnerability because that’s fixed where it is). Therefore, I put this point in Prowess, bringing this to +2. I could have elected to purchase Intuition, Might or Resolve, but I’ll wait on those until I get more experience; that Prowess is going to help me most right now.

Sample Starting Monk:
Evade +3; Invulnerability +1; Ki +1; Prowess +2; Unarmed (+2)

Advanced Monks:
After you attain level 2, you may purchase the following talents, linking these to your Ki.

- Crippling Fist. Once per scene, on a successful unarmed strike, you force a living target to take a penalty to Evade rolls (for the rest of the scene) equal to the successes you deal in damage.
- Life Tapping Fist. Once per scene, on a successful unarmed strike, you may recover as many wounds as you deal to a living target.
- Stunning Fist. Once per scene, on a successful unarmed strike, you may stun a living target for a number of rounds equal to the successes you rolled on damage. If the target suffers 10 wounds, that target is also stunned for 2 turns. You cannot stun a target for more than 3 turns in this way.

The Steel Sensei (70 CPs)
Fist (hit +8/ dmg +3); Evade +5; Soak D12+1
Intuition +5; Invulnerability +1; Ki +7; Might +3; Prowess +8; Resolve +5; Unarmed (+2)

In a typical round, Steel Sensei attacks at +8 and deals +2 damage; however, he could elect to channel his Ki into his attack (rolling +15 to hit) or his damage (dealing +10); he could add this to soak (for a D12+8 soak roll) or to Evade an attack (rolling at +12!). In theory, in one round, he could attack at +15, then use a Resolve point to increase his damage output to +10 (adding Prowess to the damage), then use a Resolve point to increase his Evade to +13 (again using Prowess), then use a Resolve point to increase his soak to D12+9 (using Prowess). This character could easily make himself nigh invulnerable for a few rounds, dealing incredible damage quickly. However, when he cannot add his Ki to an attack, result or soak roll, he is relatively weak; against multiple foes or when he spends his Ki and has none left, he can be quite vulnerable.