Dotted across the landscape are monasteries -- small, walled cloisters inhabited by monks who pursue personal perfection through action as well as contemplation. They train themselves to be versatile warriors skilled at fighting without weapons or armor. The inhabitants of monasteries headed by good masters serve as protectors of the people. In contrast, the residents of monasteries headed by evil masters rule the surrounding lands through fear, as an evil warlord and his entourage might.

Characteristics: The key feature of the monk is her ability to fight unarmed and unarmored. Though a monk casts no spells, she has a magic of her own, called ki, which allows her to perform amazing feats. The monk's best-known feat is her ability to stun an opponent with an unarmed blow.

Alignment: Any lawful. A monk's training requires strict discipline. Only those who are lawful at heart are capable of undertaking it.

Other Classes: Monks do not have much in common with others, as their skills and motivation differ from most adventurers. However, monks realize that they work well with the support of others and they usually prove themselves reliable companions.

Role: The monk functions best as an opportunistic combatant, using her speed to get into and out of combat quickly, rather than engaging in prolonged melees. Abilities: Wisdom powers the monk's special offensive and defensive capabilities. Dexterity provides an unarmored monk with a better defense and with bonuses to some class skills. Strength helps a monk's unarmed combat ability.

Hit Die: d8

Class Skills

• Concentration, Diplomacy, Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Perform, Sense Motive, Spot and Tumble.

• Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Int modifier) x 4.

• Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 4 + Int modifier.

The Monk
Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Refx Save	Will Save	Special
1st	0	+2	+2	+2	Bonus feat, Flurry of Blows, Unarmed Strike
2nd	+1	+3	+3	+3	Bonus feat, Evasion
3rd	+2	+3	+3	+3	Still Mind
4th	+3	+4	+4	+4	Ki Strike (magic), Slow Fall 20 ft.
5th	+3	+4	+4	+4	Purity of Body
6th	+4	+5	+5	+5	Bonus feat, Slow Fall 30 ft.
7th	+5	+5	+5	+5	Wholeness of Body
8th	+6/+1	+6	+6	+6	Slow Fall 40 ft.
9th	+6/+1	+6	+6	+6	Improved Evasion
10th	+7/+2	+7	+7	+7	Ki Strike, (lawful), Slow Fall 50 ft.

The Monk
Level	Flurry of Blows Attack Bonus	Unarmed Damage	AC Bonus	Unarmed Speed Bonus
1st	–2/–2	1d6	+0	+0 ft
2nd	–1/–1	1d6	+0	+0 ft.
3rd	+0/+0	1d6	+0	+10 ft.
4th	+1/+1	1d8	+0	+10 ft.
5th	+2/+2	1d8	+1	+10 ft.
6th	+3/+3	1d8	+1	+20 ft.
7th	+4/+4	1d8	+1	+20 ft.
8th	+5/+5/+0	1d10	+1	+20 ft.
9th	+6/+6/+1	1d10	+1	+30 ft.
10th	+7/+7/+2	1d10	+2	+30 ft.

Class Features

• Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Monks are proficient with certain basic peasant weapons and some special weapons that are part of monk training, including club, crossbow (light or heavy), dagger, hand axe, javelin, kama, quarterstaff, sai, shuriken, siangham and sling. Monks are not proficient with any armor or shields -- in fact, many of the monk's special powers require unfettered movement.

When wearing armor, using a shield, or carrying a medium or heavy load, a monk loses her AC bonus, as well as her Fast Movement and Flurry of Blows abilities.

• Flurry of Blows: When unarmored, a monk may strike with a flurry of blows at the expense of accuracy. When doing so, she may make one extra attack in a round at her highest base attack bonus, but this attack takes a –2 penalty to hit, as does each other attack made that round. This penalty applies for one round, so it also affects attacks of opportunity the monk might make before her next action. When a monk reaches 5th level, the penalty lessens to –1 and at 9th level it disappears entirely. A monk must use a full attack action to strike with a flurry of blows.

When using flurry of blows, a monk may attack only with unarmed strikes or with special monk weapons (kama, quarterstaff, sai, shuriken and siangham). She may attack with unarmed strikes and special monk weapons interchangeably as desired.

When using weapons as part of a flurry of blows, a monk applies her Strength bonus to her damage rolls for all successful attacks, whether she wields a weapon in one or both hands. The monk can't use any weapon other than a special monk weapon as part of a flurry of blows.

In the case of the quarterstaff, each end counts as a separate weapon for the purpose of using the flurry of blows ability. Even though the quarterstaff requires two hands to use, a monk may still intersperse unarmed strikes with quarterstaff strikes, assuming that she has enough attacks in her flurry of blows routine to do so.

• Unarmed Strike: Monks are highly trained in fighting unarmed, giving them considerable advantages when doing so. At 1st level, a monk gains Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat. A monk's attacks may be with either fist interchangeably or even from elbows, knees and feet. This means that a monk may even make unarmed strikes with her hands full. There is no such thing as an offhand attack for a monk striking unarmed. A monk may thus apply her full Strength bonus on damage rolls for all unarmed strikes.

Usually a monk's unarmed strikes deal lethal damage, but she can choose to deal nonlethal damage instead with no penalty on her attack roll.

A monk's unarmed strike is treated both as a manufactured weapon and a natural weapon for the purpose of spells and effects that enhance or improve either manufactured weapons or natural weapons (such as the Magic Fang and Magic Weapon spells).

• Bonus Feat: A monk gets the following bonus feats and need not have any of the prerequisites normally required for these feats to select them:

• 1st level: may select Stunning Fist
  
  
• 2nd level: may select either Combat Reflexes or Deflect Arrows
  
  
• 6th level: may select Improved Trip

• Evasion: A monk of 2nd level and higher can avoid even magical and unusual attacks with great agility. If she makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save (such as a red dragon's fiery breath or a Fireball), she instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if a monk is wearing light armor or no armor. A helpless monk (such as the one who is unconscious or paralyzed) does not gain the benefit of evasion.

• Fast Movement: At 3rd level and higher, a monk gains an enhancement bonus to her speed. A monk in armor (even light armor) or carrying a medium or heavy load loses this extra speed.

• Still Mind: A monk at 3rd level and higher gains a +2 bonus on saving throws against spells and effects from the Enchantment school, since her meditation and training improve her resistance to mind-affecting attacks.

• Ki Strike: At 4th level, a monk's unarmed attacks are empowered with ki. Her unarmed attacks are treated as magic weapons for the purpose of dealing damage to creatures with damage reduction. Ki strike improves with the character's monk level.

At 10th level, her unarmed attacks are also treated as lawful weapons for the purpose of dealing damage to creatures with damage reduction and bypassing hardness. Purity of Body: At 5th level, a monk gains control over her body's immune system. She gains immunity to all diseases except for supernatural and magical diseases.

Wholeness of Body: At 7th level or higher, a monk can heal her own wounds. She can heal a number of hit points of damage equal to twice her current monk level each day and she can spread this healing out among several uses.

• Improved Evasion: At 9th level, a monk's evasion ability improves. She still takes no damage on a successful Reflex saving throw against attacks such as a dragon's breath weapon or a Fireball, but henceforth she takes only half damage on a failed save. A helpless monk (such as one who is unconscious or paralyzed) does not gain the benefit of improved evasion.

Multiclassing Monk

Like a member of any other class, a monk may be a multiclass character. However, a monk who gains a new class or, if already multiclass, raises the level of another class, can never again raise her monk level, although she retains her monk abilities.