WHat about monks?

[konca]

Are there any plans to add monks?
I really enjoyed this class in many variants of tome.
I suspect that with combat system from tome 4 this class could be really interesting.
You could have many difrent "kungfu punches" with diffrent effects.
Subclasses could be - pure monk , mindcrafter, some mix.

[Vanguard]

I usually like barehanded fighters in games like this, but what would make the monk unique and fun? What types of special effects would one have? What talents would they learn to make up for the lack of equipment?

[Baker]

Problem with games like ToME is that they're so much about getting better equipment for resists, higher damage, more HP and so on. A class that's centered around not using equipment would need some retardedly powerful abilities to compensate. I can't really imagine how this could work.

[Shoob]

well, consider mages, they dont really get good equipment, but they can get 18 armor and over 20 defense without using more than a robe.

it really depends on what talents they get to make them even.

[Baker]

Yes, that's kind of the issue. There's probably going to be an entire class of artifacts that are mostly useful for Mages eventually, but that's something different anyway. Spellcasters are supposed to be an entire playstyle of their own, but Monks as konca probably meant them would basically be Fighters that don't need to look for weapons or armor. Might just be me, but why would you play a melee class that needs to spend time collecting equipment when you can have a different class that gets all the benefits without the work?

Monks as a mystical priest-like deal could work, but I think trying to make them into naked fighters would just cause a balancing shitstorm.

[konca]

I imagine that thez yould be able to use robes along with diffrent "kungfu" disciplines. Like one for example concetrated on stuning , confusing and genererall negative effects, other for example for maximizing damage , critical hits other maybe for fighting with many enemies. There are really many interesting possibillities IMO. Along with some poyerfull passive or sustainables like evasion , resistance ( stun resistance for example ).

[Taxorgian]

To me the wyrmic class is a monk that is neither severely over or underpowered.

[atan59]

To me the wyrmic class is a monk that is neither severely over or underpowered.

How so? Wyrmics are encouraged to use axes rather than bare hands, and their abilities are not hindered by heavy armor as far as I can tell.


(edited to correct typo)

[Taxorgian]

They channel mystic powers associated with the elements (but not like a mage); they have to try to maintain "balance" through meditation like all wilders. They are primarily otherwise a melee class (unlike summoners). It would be very hard to make a balanced NetHack-type monk character as others have mentioned above. Maybe they cannot wear footwear (which doesn't matter much now) and rings (which WOULD matter as they are now)? What we don't need is

Monkchkin Bruce Chan
-Flying double-kick
-Stunning flurry
-Flaming roundhouse kick and punch combo
-Qi Movement (Speed +50%*level)

[Canderel]

Dragonball T had a whole bunch of different fighting styles. Adding ki flow, for stuff like levitation, a distance attack. Extra defense / armor. "way of the turtle", "way of the eagle" etc.

Obviously increased attackspeed. High crit chance, not very high damage, special attacks that gives 3 or 4 attacks.

I enjoyed DBT especially because it was so rich in terms of martial arts.

Judo, Karate, Ninjitsu, Sumo, and others. Can't recall all, but it was fascinating.

[Antagonist]

I see Dragonball inspired classes maybe being awesome in a TE4 module, but less sure if it is suitable for ToME.

[Baker]

They channel mystic powers associated with the elements (but not like a mage); they have to try to maintain "balance" through meditation like all wilders. They are primarily otherwise a melee class (unlike summoners). It would be very hard to make a balanced NetHack-type monk character as others have mentioned above. Maybe they cannot wear footwear (which doesn't matter much now) and rings (which WOULD matter as they are now)?

That does sound kind of monk-ish, actually. Maybe you really could build something interesting around the Wilder framework. A monk not in the Jackie Chan Shaolin kind of sense, but maybe in the Franciscan kind of sense (adjusted for a fantasy setting, of course), crossbred with some kind of Druid dealie. That would actually be a kind of unique take on the concept, which is kind of ironic when you think about it.

What we don't need is Monkchkin Bruce Chan
-Flying double-kick
-Stunning flurry
-Flaming roundhouse kick and punch combo
-Qi Movement (Speed +50%*level)

Yeah, that's exactly what I think a vanilla Monk class will end up as. All the power of a fully buffed-out fighter, but none of the effort of actually getting to that point, plus lots of lame Wuxia/Anime nonsense.

[Canderel]

They weren't classes... they were all "schools"... so each char started out almost exactly the same (or maybe exactly the same)... And then you decided where to spend you money to go to class with... Also search for tutors in difficult to find places. It also boasted a "wraparound" world map. Which was pretty cool.

Fencing was another...

[Baker]

They weren't classes... they were all "schools"... so each char started out almost exactly the same (or maybe exactly the same)... And then you decided where to spend you money to go to class with... Also search for tutors in difficult to find places. It also boasted a "wraparound" world map. Which was pretty cool.

Fencing was another...

Problem is, that was a game centered around this kind of stuff, so you can do that, because it's balanced for that and it fits the concept (also a JRPG, which is a completely different kind of animal anyway). ToME isn't, like most RPGs, which is the problem. Monk type classes are notoriously difficult to balance because pretty much all western RPGs are equipment-centric. Even D&D hasn't yet managed to produce a Monk class that isn't either completely worthless or totally overpowered.

I mean, you COULD do something like that in ToME. I'm just not sure it's worth the bother.

[registeringislame]

How so? Wyrmics are encouraged to use axes rather than bare hands, and their abilities are not hinered by heavy armor as far as I can tell.

Not sure what you mean by hinered, but even at 20%ish fatigue I barely notice the cost, and have something like 20 armour 13 defence.

Wyrmics, at least how I play them end up being the most heavily armour characters in game. Thinking about going shield even. (All the best one-handed axes I've found do more damage than the two-handed ones!)