13th Age's version of Monk was pretty cool
(originally posted January 14, 2024)
@talenlee's recent post on D&D 3e's Monk class made me remember how cool the 13th Age Monk class was.
Instead of using normal weapon damage dice or some kind of improvement to unarmed strikes, they have a whole different track: Jab (d6), Punch (d8), and Kick (d10), which represent a Monk fighting with their martial arts training regardless of specific weapon (your Monk practices Dual-Folding-Chair Style? Go for it chief). A basic attack would be a "Punch"... and you might then ask what the others are used for in such a case.
Well, the core Monk abilities in 13th Age are "Forms". Each form has an Opening, Flow, and Finisher attack, which must be used in sequence, but crucially you can swap between any your forms as long as you maintain your place in the progression of Opening->Flow->Finisher.
So maybe on the first turn, you use the Opening attack of Claws of the Panther, which does Jab+STR damage on a hit and allows you to disengage from the target. On the second turn, you can use either another Opening attack or move on to a Flow attack. Maybe you want to use Claws of the Panther's Flow attack, which deals Punch+STR damage and has a 50% chance to deal 1d6 damage to every enemy engaged with you; or maybe you want to use a different form like Dance of the Mantis, the Flow attack of which does Punch+STR damage against normal sized targets or Kick+STR damage against large or huge targets.
You're constantly weighing your collection of forms and deciding what to use based on the situation. Original Venom form can inflict ongoing damage, but only really shines when picking off already injured enemies. Metallic Dragon form hits harder than the others, but requires you to either be in the center of a crowd or punching above your weight class. If the fight looks like it's going to drag, you might want to gamble on Dance of the Mantis's Finisher giving you a crit range buff for the rest of the encounter.
It feels like being a rekka character in a fighting game. It creates a rhythm for your actions that feels more like martial arts than D&D's usual "you can attack more times per round" solution.
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