The Martial Artist Class

[Captain_K]

I've got a group of newer PCs, all are good players, one or two are "power gamers" trying to tweak every oz out of some rule or sub-option... normally that annoys the crap out of me, but these guys are also excellent players, very enthusiastic, and great roll players with involvement and thought.... so I'm being very patient with them hoping they will grow out of this tendency and just play... so griping aside, here's my question this "new class" Martial Artist (NOT in the PH) seems to be (no insult to Mr Mishler) a minor modification to the Monk.. they get a few thief abilities, shift around the monk powers, loose a few monk powers and only use one weapon... at first read... I see no reason to allow such a class.. use the Monk with class and a half fighter.. intent met, done.

Thoughts on the Martial Artist fitting into the game???

The new weapons descriptions say lots of flowery words, but in the end, the PC just get about the same to hit in combat as specialized fighter for less experience and I do not like that (granted they don't get any armor). Plus without specific rules, it asked the CK to consider not applying typical game rules (attack and disarm in one round, or two attacks in one round, etc etc). Just seems like a bunch of thoughts laid out and left all the trivial details like game play rules to the Player to fantasize about and the CK to have to squash or regulate.

Grounding point: The fighter with his specialized weapon I think is intended to be THE ORIGINAL MARTIAL ARTIST with that weapon... so this just seems like a hassle and a challenge to the game pinnacle.

Right now, I do not see it being too unbalancing, just unneeded and unwieldy.. once I allow one "not in the book" class, open come the flood gates.. can be OK, but one must be ready to swim... right now I like all my PC in the shallow end of the pool thank you very much.

Any advice welcome..

[Fizz]

I agree that a lot of martial-artists classes i've seen seem to follow the monk. But a lot of what a monk does isn't related to fighting and seems out of place in those conversions. And i've never understood why thief abilities get added. Sneakiness makes sense for a ninja, but a pure martial artist doesn't have to be sneaky.

Whether you think this particular Martial Artist fits in the campaign is entirely dependent on the game you're running. Mechanically, i don't think it would break anything. But does it fit thematically?

Another class you might want to check out is the Pankratiast, by Eric Piper. Very smartly done class, and does not feel monk-like (at least not to me). Do a search on these boards and you should be able to find the link to it (and it may have made it into Crusader too).

As for allowing new classes, if you don't feel comfortable with allowing a non-standard class, don't. If you do allow the martial artist (or pankratiast), that doesn't mean you have to allow any other class your players may present. You are the CK, and if the class doesn't fit or is broken or for any other reason is not desired, just say no. After all, you want to run an adventure, not build a new ruleset.


-Fizz

[Captain_K]

Thanks, great advice. I pride myself on letting just about anything go.. telling the PCs play what you want, I'll make it work.. so I've kind of laid my own bed out to lie in on this one.. so we'll see.

I'll try to find that class, thanks, Kirk

[Lurker]

...
Another class you might want to check out is the Pankratiast, by Eric Piper. Very smartly done class, and does not feel monk-like (at least not to me). Do a search on these boards and you should be able to find the link to it (and it may have made it into Crusader too).

...
-Fizz

I hadn't thought of that in years ... I made a Pankratiast years ago, but didn't like the mechanics of it. Piper's was a good solid class, but if I remember right there needed to be a little tuning of the class (should it be a Str or a dex fighter etc).

That said, I do think a Pankratiast makes a better 'martial artist' in a Euro centric based game.

[serleran]

Whenever I want to allow a martial artist, I use Ninjas and Superspies as a baseline and convert from it.